Speech [Explaining the duties of the military in the Islamic system]

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

We saw together what befell on this nation on the 15 th of Khordad. Why was this nation crushed? Today is also 15 th of Khordad. You, the prospective hope of the nation, have gathered here. Let us have a talk for a while. The things passed and are in the process, but let us exchange our opinions.

The words this gentleman read are a Qur'anic verse of half a line regarding the believers. God has made a gauge, a standard, a meter by which one can know himself whether he is a Muslim or a believer." Hard towards pagans, merciful among themselves «1»" When you confront foreigners, you are hard towards them, but mild and merciful amidst yourselves.

I have witnessed to a certain extent the things since the coming of Rida Khan to Tehran and his coup d'etat till now. I have seen what happened in this country. In the days of Rida Khan hard and crushing behavior was the rule. In the days of his son too, it was the same. They treated the nation roughly with a satanic power. There was no university those days. So they used to crush the students. Contrary to God's saying, the treatment was rough with the clergies of Islam,. God says they are merciful among themselves. But they treated hard and rough. They crushed and pounded the nation.

The allies- England, America and the Soviet Union- crossed the borders of our country and entered. They assaulted Iran. One of the officers said that Rida Khan had asked him how long the defense was. He had answered: three hours. In fact he had lied to Rida Khan. Rida Khan asked why it happened so. He replied:" This was important". I have seen these things too. When a foreigner entered Tehran, these officers fled away. In other words, they deserted the camps, the fronts and the cantonments. I saw the soldiers roaming about in the streets. They had nothing to eat. A camel passed by. The caravan of camels was passing. I suppose their load was watermelon. Some of them were falling down. The soldiers were rushing towards them to pick up the fallen commodity and eat it. This was the condition we had. We cannot explain it well. This was about the army we had in those days briefly. The same was with our police force and the gendarme. They were quite against the saying of Qur'an. They were hard, harsh and horrible towards the people. God says believers are harsh against the pagans. They were harsh against their own nation- the Muslims.

There was an occurrence, which made me uneasy. It was the meeting between Muhammad-Rida and one of the presidents of the United States of America. I presume he was Johnson. The bitterness of the event is still in my mind. This man treats his own people in such a harsh and crushing manner. He was standing in the front of the table of the president. The president had lifted his glass and was not looking at Muhammad-Rida. He was looking the other side. He was standing like a schoolboy. I remember that he resembled a school-going boy. In the past, the pupils were very much afraid of their teacher. He was standing in the same manner. It was such a scene. I was very unhappy. I was annoyed to see that. Whenever I remember it, I get annoyed. What type of people ruled us! What type of people dominated us? These people, they were so humble towards foreigners and so cruel to their own people. They wanted to crush the nation.

You who are the hope, God willing, for the future of this country. You who should act according to the God's saying in His Book to be a believer. This should always be your motto. Be merciful with your action. Be mild and polite with them. On the other hand, against foreigners, be striking and heavy-handed- just contrary to what it was in the past regime, and like the early days of Islam. In those days when Muslims were confronting the pagans, the Muslims used to behave in such a way that it had become customary to say that the Arabs are man-eaters. There were Muslims among themselves who were kind and sympathetic. One day, the great chief, Malik Ashtar, was passing his way. One did not recognize him. He scolded and objurgated him. Malik did not say anything and passed by. Others told the man that he was Malik Ashtar whom he had scolded. The man ran after him. But Malik had already gone into a mosque. The man came to him and apologized. Malik said:" No, I have come here to pray for myself and also pray for you. Such was the Islamic training to the Muslims.

Our army is the hope of our nation. If the army gets trained in Islamic culture, it will never happen that one could attack it. Or the army might be shaken. Uncertainty is for those who have no faith. However, one who has faith cannot be uncertain. If all the classes of our nation are civilized in Islamic culture and become united, then no hurt, no injury and no harm will touch the nation. You try to invigorate faith in you when you are in the colleges and universities. Faith will make you honorable here and dear to God. You will arrive in the sacred court of God with reverence and respect.

Try to rule your countrymen with justice. Be merciful towards them. If one committed a wrongdoing, do not behave harshly. Your actions should be according to law. The soldiers of Islam were in the same manner in the early stage of Islam. They achieved great victories with their little number. They conquered the Iranian empire with their little number. The secret of their victory was this: They had faith. They battled on the ground of faith. The faith gave them spirit, strength and vigor. Furthermore, their belief in martyrdom was another motor instigating them. If we are killed, we shall be with our God as martyrs. At such stand, they fought and with such spirit, they progressed. Their enemies did not have these standards, neither in their conjecture nor in their faith. The Muslims went to the fronts themselves whereas their enemies were taken to the front by force. Here was coercion and there willingness. The Iranians saw the army of Islam in quite a different situation. So the Iranians embraced them. A similar case was at the Roman fronts too. Our army hadn't been on Islamic standard, no force from outside could have been imposed. American advisors were imposed upon us. The high ranks of the army were among those who had no faith at all. They were after their own desires. They wanted to be harsh with the nation. The deputies were after their own gains through theft.

If today American or the Soviet Union wants to send an advisor for you, you will oppose it. Suppose an officer of a high rank wants to do something wrong; the lower ranks even the soldiers will not let him do it. The reason is that our youths are reformed. Our soldiers are changed to some other entity. It is different from the period of the past regime. They are now a different being.

Oh, My brothers! If you want an honorable life in this world as well as in the world hereafter, you should stand against others with force and firmness.

Among yourselves, be kind, sympathetic and friendly. If the military is without backing of the nation, it will be the same as it was in the past. Those holding high ranks in the army were aware of their fate if they were to stay in Tehran. People would have squared account with them. So they closed their suitcases and fled. Thanks God, you have the support of the nation. You may be a few thousands only but the support of thirty and odd million is behind you. This is a people's army. This is not a military of a tyrant. You and the people gather together under one roof. People demonstrated in their favor and they demonstrated for the sake of people too. You preserve this unity.

This is a bounty from God. Preserve this backing of each other. This backing gives you the strength- a strength that each one of you will be able to stand against a hundred and even several hundreds. When you see the enemy opposite you and at your hind is the nation unhappy then you have nowhere to go. You cannot save yourselves. The nation has turned its back to you. As such there remains no refuge to go. On one side is the enemy and on the other twenty or thirty million of your own friends but not friendly with you. On the contrary, if this twenty or thirty million be friendly with you, they- the young and old, women and men- will come to your aid.. If an army be in such a condition, it will be victorious. So, try to be so.

Which one is better? The 15 th of Khordad when the army scattered the people and massacred them or this 15 th of Khordad when the army is in the embrace of the nation? Each is dear to the other. Therefore, preserve this bounty God has bestowed on you. Army, police, guards, and the nation- all are friends to one another. All share one another's happiness. All are in each other's pain. All feel each other's good and bad. Army and guards and gendarme and other forces should coordinate and cooperate with each other. All are together. If each of them goes his own way without any coherence with the other, then there is no need for any foreign attack or assault. This country is ruined and split from within. This country will resemble to an island eaten by insects rendering it only a vacuum. You have experienced the secret of your victory. You have seen how you vanquished this satanic power while all the powers were at its back. You won because of your faith you had." Allahu Akbar" (God is the Greatest), this cry was with you. Unity shaded you. All were under one umbrella and one dimension of destiny. It was never in the manner of one going this and the other going that way. All treaded one path. All raced one run. Army- the faithful elements therein and the police likewise, all joined together. All were blessed with faith. In those days none claimed to gain a rank or get a position or an office. The foundation was faith in God, the demand was the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the cry was" God is the Greatest". This led you to victory. This was the secret of your victory. The nation does not know that view the nations abroad have towards us. In foreign countries, they have great respect for us. Our nation is most reverend and respectable in the eyes of the foreigners. Those who are still suffering under the yoke of tyranny understood what we have done and achieved. What our nation has performed.

In the same manner that God had taught them through inspiration and gathered all together since the beginning, all took one motion and shattered the whole setup; now we should preserve that secret. It will be a mistake if you think that we have triumphed and we should go after our own business. No. We have not triumphed. We are still subject to the threats of military intervention and economical blockade from the greatest power over the globe that is America. It is not a matter of the president of a republic but it is a question of the empire, imposition and obstinacy. Now we are confronting such a power.

We are surrounded by powers. This side is one power. That side is another. Each side a power shadows us. All these powers have one desire and that is to upset the present setup of Iran. So, presently we are not victorious. Our victory shall be on the day when in all the countries, the victims and the oppressed people get free from their fetters of poverty and dependence. The root of corruption is uprooted from the society. Those who want to disappoint the people form the Islamic Republic of Iran will get wiped out. We are victories on such a day. That day we shall not give up the unity among us.

Muslims are (one hand) united. This is based on the words of God:" One hand." So there is no two. They are ones who are against the other «2». Here God says one hand. He did not say two. Two hands might result in contradiction. One would move this side and the other another. If Muslims be like one hand, which means a fast unity they will not be harmed. Injury on them or a country means nothing. You have nothing to fear from outside. We fear from within ourselves. You can be put to disunity by means of plots.

A division between you and the guards, you and the police, or any other force can result in a peril for the nation. It will be the greatest injury, which will consume us gradually. This harm will be greater to us than a war if imposed upon us from outside. This is more harmful.

Satan started all those clamors abroad from here. You give to it a possibility of being from within. The clamors, the cries, the shouting that are outside Iran, could make us lose or miss our way and get occupied with the foreign matters, which would be at the cost of our negligence about inside matters in immediate concern to us. Therefore, don't be careless about the inside of the country. Inside the country, for example, the cantonments within the army and gendarmes, which hinder a correct system, take place. Such a thing is to be afraid of. Or, a different thing occurs within the army ranks. One says he is the superior and the other says the same. This will create chaos. This is to be feared. The whole structure of army will become instable. System and discipline will vanish.

If army happens to be deprived of discipline it is no more an army. Satan will crawl in. Satan will creep in all the security forces and the civil forces. They stick everywhere in some way or other. They want to remove the discipline in the army and the gendarme and all the security forces and create chaos inside the army itself. If an army is embraced by disturbance and chaos or relaxes in its lap, then it is not an army at all. It cannot confront the enemy even with the least power. If the army cannot reform itself or create discipline within its ranks it cannot stand against any force.

There are some who whisper in our youths ears by way of sympathy as to why you should obey. This seems like the past regime that you should be humble and obedient. No. This is like the days of Imam `Ali. Obedience to a tyrant is bad not the obedience of an Islamic army- an army which belongs to Islam. Obedience to a commander of Islam is incumbent. Disobedience is prohibited. The tyrant was bad because of his tyranny. But his discipline was good. If you want to exploit all the things the system will turn into a chaos, a huggermugger. If inexperienced young fellows, without no information or thought, come and run the affairs without a discipline or order, then all of you will have to suffer. If the lower ranks do not undergo the orders of the higher ranks, if there be no inferior or a superior, and if no one obey the commander-in-chief of the forces, then the army cannot be named as an army. It will be split. In the days of Imam `Ali too, obedience was incumbent upon the army. This is the order of Islam; of course, the commander too should not view his subordinates from a tyrannical angle. He should be sympathetic and kind towards them. You all should be one power, one hand against the enemy. You should preserve the discipline and order. All the forces should maintain order among themselves. If so, the army will be of standard. The same goes for the guards, the police gendarme.

If the units of guards started working in a hugger mugger, every four of them holding the people or taking away their belongings, God forbid, they are not the guards of Islam. They are tyrants in some other guise. What a tyrant is? The case is the same. The life and the property of the people are not safe, not protected. If in these days, the life and property of the people happens to be not safe, then it is the same as it was in the past regime. The only difference is it is in another guise. This is more dangerous. This is hypocrisy. Its chastisement is greater. The punishment for hypocrites is more severe than that for the pagans.

You all try to have coordination among your armed forces. Try to act thereupon the standards that exist in the army, guards and police. Do not think that to obey your superior is of the system of the past regime which was tyrannical. Obedience to a superior in the Islamic Republic and in the army of Islam is the commandment of God and an order of Islam. Obedience to the commanders who are so to say the controllers of affairs is considered in Qur'an as obligatory, an incumbency and a binding. These youths, who are in the pure and transparent bloom, may not be cheated by the Satan who approach them and talk to them. Whoever incited you towards non-obedience and chaos; leave him and don't be with him any more. Try to discover as to who he is and wherefrom and from where the data is being fed and catered to him. You do know he is a non-Muslim. They are those who do not want nor cannot they tolerate a country depending upon its own potentialities and possibilities. All the foreigners are envious of you. So they plot against you. They wanted and still want to plunder Iran. They will try to create division and separation between all the armed forces- one against the other, or distant from each other. If this happens, it will be too pernicious for you all.

I pray for the prosperity and safety of you all and the armed forces. All to be together and the ranks in between should be respected. Now you are students. You should prepare yourselves for the service of the country and Islam, which again is a service to the country. God willing, our nation will

advance with power and strength and shall not fear these words being said here and abroad.

May God's peace, mercy and blessings be upon you.