In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
In the past regime - Training and education
I thank you for coming over here and sitting pressed in a narrow place. I have a few words to say: On many occasions, words serve an elegant umbrella and pose an attractive appearance while the gist therein might not be so. Training and coaching have good appearance. In the days of that tyrant rule, we had a ministry under this name. The Islamic Association now exists all over Iran and is also among the attractive words. We all know what these words express and represent. They mean we desire Islam to take action. But we were entangled in the words whether it were" Training and coaching" or" Islamic Associations", we are confined within words. In the past regime too," Training and Coaching" existed. But you know what it was and what its end was. One used to consider that the" Training" was the correct one. It was a thing the nation needs." Training" is a science which makes the nation self-sufficient." Coaching" strikes an ignorant man too. The first opinion that flows at the surface of these words brings us home to think that when the people left schools, colleges and institutions, they are useful to the country and the nation. They have attained magnanimous manners, high moral and conduct and correct beliefs and so on. But on the contrary, we have seen what the output of those schools, institutes and colleges was. What were the people trained therein? What the errand was? If the" Training" was in line with the requisite of Iran, we would have had schools at a very high level and standard after a period of fifty years. For instance, after fifty years, still we can't cure a patient if his sickness happens to be a little complicated. The physicians, the doctors quite easily say:" It can't be here. Here it is not possible. Why not possible? Why should a patient go abroad for treatment? All these schools, all these colleges, all these expenditure, all these fifty years' time, we still cannot treat our ailing and sick people in our country.
We have to take our patients to England or America. Then what have these colleagues done all these fifty years? Well, let them come and show what they have done. Let them show the people what they have trained. Let them show what coaching they performed. You say training is a subcategory of coaching. So, where is its product, its output? Those whom you have `trained' and `coached'- how is their spirit? On their beliefs, their character, their conduct, their manners, what its standard was? What is it and to what extent has it gone that now we clamor and cry to mend it, correct the things, and so forth. This is a cry from far away. The young fellows say that there are such and such women. I know such things are not confined there. Such a thing also exists in ministries too. I know some ministries are still worse. I don't want to name that ministry. If the minister concerned hears me, let him correct the things. A ministry is not a center of corruption and licentiousness. A college is not a place for debauchery. It should be the center of education.
Education and training from the Qur'an's view
God has described this in one line. There is nothing, not even one single item, among worldly things that God mentions it or stresses gratitude upon the people. But it is only in the dimension of education. He says:" Indeed, God has obliged the Believers by sending amidst them a Messenger from themselves who recites them the God's signs, and purifies them, and teaches them the Book and the Wisdom." «1»
In the dimension of `training', `coaching', education, purge and purification, God the blessed and exalted uses a metaphor of gratitude or obligation or indebtedness upon the people before He says that He has sent a Messenger to purify and educate the people. The purification precedes the education and training. Purification is first. Of course, this verse is liable to debate. It is a lengthy one. I will say only in one word. This holy verse displays to us the state of training and education. This needs full explanation. The God's words:" God has indebted the Believers ..." It seems that the very errand of the Prophets was to coach and teach the people. Upon the Prophet is the recitation of the signs. Science or knowledge is hidden the signs of God. One of the signs of God to be viewed is a thing that educates or teaches a man. The signs should be recited, that is, to be pointed out and then (the people) should be purged and purified. In other words, the self should be purged. When they are purified `he teaches them the Book and the Wisdom'. Bringing up or coaching is prior to training. If not in priority, it should be simultaneous, that is, side by side. It comes in first. If the Self is not purged or purified outcome of the corrupt qualities; the knowledge/ the science/ the lore will have a negative impact. All the wrong faiths and wrong religions are invented and introduced by scholars because knowledge existed in a place which had no coaching. So, scholars invented a religion their fancy framed. As such the presence of knowledge in the absence of purification, a scholar bearing that knowledge while he is not purified becomes dangerous. It makes no difference for the society whether the scholars are in colleges or in a religious institute. Such scholars are like a store. God says:" The example of those who got the Thora and did not act thereupon is like a donkey that carries a load of books." «2» A scholar might be having knowledge of monotheism, manners and religion but the Self in him is not purged, then he is a being, a creature, an entity perilous to the society. A college is a place where students (youths) go and learn. But if the training and coaching is not a correct one, it is of no use at all. Even if the most correct one occurs, but the students' heart is unpurified, then such youth or student who has gained knowledge with an impure heart shall create corruption in the society. God forbid that the corruption originates from a scholar with an impure heart. There are several narrations and sayings of the Prophet that in hell the dwellers are in a great torture by the putrid smell of an unpurified scholar. You have seen that the colleges were in the hands of the students when the college was Westernized and dependent upon the West. Such was the training. It was not a correct one. The imperialist colleges do not let the students get the correct training. There is always a limit. They educate the youths to the certain extent and not beyond. When our youths go abroad, they are not allowed to learn with English or American students. They are not coached by the same standard and at the same level as they coach their native students. They have different training and coaching for the countries under imperialism. Therefore, the output and outcome of this training comes out like Sharif Imami «3» and Nasiri's «4». They have worked abroad. They were educated abroad. They became doctors abroad. When knowledge enters into a sick heart, it is like the rain in a salty land. It will increase the filth. The rain created a good fragrance somewhere else. The scholar, who is not purified, is more dangerous than an ignorant man. An ignorant remains corrupt for himself. But a scholar not only is himself corrupt, he also corrupts the whole world. He drags a country to corruption. Purification is prior to education. The Prophet came to purify and then to educate. He came to prepare the self. Afterwards he teaches the Book and the Wisdom. If the Book and the Wisdom was not twin to training, the output will be the same as existed before the Revolution in the Senate and the Parliament. The parliament was very much ostentatious. The college was a great building too. The foreigners have no concern about the buildings. Whatever they be and whatever budgets might be spent in such things, they were not concerned. The ministries- the length, the width, the height and the depth did not concern them. Their concern was only the contents and the gist. The teachers were their concern. Some of the teachers were in their service. They used to prepare our youths to be available to them.
The necessary changes in the universities, training and education
You are in the field of training and coaching. Are you aware of the training or the coaching as to what it should be? Let not the words cheat you. You don't cheat yourselves that you are training and coaching the students. Those who are in Islamic Association should not be fooled by the word of Islam. They should see themselves as to what they are doing or what their performance is. They should be mindful of the things that are in store, are they for the interest and to the advantage of the country and Islam? If all these things be in the interest of Islam and the country its repercussions will appear after a few years. If universities and the culture be set right and becomes Islamic, these people who are adversaries shall be the same because they have grown-up in the lap of foreigners. They fear that they would not be able to steal if the colleges become Islamic. They are afraid that the colleges become Islamic; they will miss and lose the center of corruption. It is shameful to say what the story was. In the ministries, in the departments, offices, everywhere was a center of lasciviousness and lewdness. Those whom I had sent to go and see inside the ministries told me some strange things in spite of the existence of Islamic Associations. How these Islamic Associations blind their eyes? How these Islamic Associations permit such worst things. If the training and education was correct, our country should have been self-sufficient. After so many years' experience and agony for this victimized nation, whose property has gone with the winds, still huge expenses should be charted out! And this nation should still remain hungry! The situation is like a machine. At its one end, Muslims are poured in and from its other end, communists come out. From one side believers go in and come out unbelievers. The good people mingle with them in the plants. In the end, they become corrupt, lewd and licentious too. If it is so, it shows what type of department it has been. We conclude about the nature of the organization from the result of its work. These people who were in the government and in parliament and senate for fifty years, we should see them as who they are. These are the same people who came out from these colleges. Had they had good training and good education, they would not have presented our country by their both hands to the foreigners. There are many difficulties. These difficulties should be lifted out and by your own hands. Don't wait for one to come from outside and lift the difficulties for you. If one comes from outside, he would not educate or train you. He wants you to be at the same place where you were in the past regime. You should mend and correct the contents although the training is the same one. You try this much that the education be the correct one. Education will only be useful when the person have been purified. Further, the manners and the spirit should have been rightly coached and directed. In the colleges and all the centers of education, where the clergies learn and where the students (not clergies) learn, should be people whose self, the inner being, must be purified. As they lean, so they should purify their spirit. If a clergy with a purified self happens to be in a society, he can change it from top to bottom. When I was young I used to visit towns. In some of the towns I used to see the people there quite decent and polished with manners and having religious trends and tendencies. I became enthusiastic to know how it is so while the other town is not like this. I found the clergy there was one who had purified the self. Since he himself was reformed, he had reformed the whole town. When a clergy visits a village or town or a district, he should be a purged man so that he can purify the people wherever he goes. Then later on he can educate them. Teachers that go to schools and institutes to teach the classes there should go with them. They cannot be deviated. So the colleges should be purified. Likewise, the organizations, the departments, etc should be purified with the corrupt person who drags the youths to corruption. If a teacher seduces the pupils, you should be watchful and arrest such a teacher. Such malefic people wherever they are, should be purged. They are Satan. They are corrupt classes among the masses. Wherever they are, they are our enemies because they drag our youths to deviation. They are enemies of Islam; even if such a person is a teacher or a minister. They don't do any work. They come to chew the gum. I have sent people and they have seen it. If these people are not checked, I deem it a necessity to introduce them myself. I was in prison. Mansour had become prime minister. He sent the home minister to me. I suppose Sadr was Home Minister. He was the son of al-Ashraf. He told me about the government. The previous one was so and so. We want to be so and so. I told him that I don't have any enmity with the previous government nor do I have any brotherhood with you. We must see your deeds. Now I am confined here. You'd better not release me. They had come to set me free. If you release me, the same story will be repeated. I have no relation or kinship with you. I say what I see. Now I announce to all those who are in charge of the affairs that I have not entered with any of you into a brotherhood contract. Had I entered into a brotherhood and had I seen anything wrong, I would have told and remarked it. So reform yourselves. Reform the ministries. Each minister occupies a ministry. He should purge there from those perverts and those who seduced our youths in their work and in their belief.
The functions of Islamic Associations in the center and the departments
I hope the Islamic Associations that exist across the country will be Islamic. They should bestow attention to this fact as to whether they themselves are Islamic or not. They are stationed everywhere in offices, ministries, plants and companies. A man cannot put others right if he himself happens to be pervert. There is no doubt at all that a drunkard cannot make others shun drinking. On the contrary, he would invite others to the thing favorite to him. If you don't reform yourself, if you are not Islamic as the name applies to you, you can never invite others to Islam. God has sent guides and Prophets for the people. He sends one who is infallible and has had no deviation throughout his life. Such a person has the competency to teach and educate the people and purify them. If one wants to be the trainer of a society or a place, he should be invited to Islam. In the first place he himself should make himself Islamic. He should invite his inner being to Islam. Then he can invite others to Islam. The teachers, if they have not undergone the teaching, cannot teach others. The origin of every affair starts from the person concerned with self. When the Prophet came, he started the invitation from his own house. He was a perfect person. He invited Khadijah- his wife. She accepted the invitation. Imam `Ali- accepted the invitation. He gathered all his kith and kin and relatives and told them the case and kept on his invitation while some didn't accept. When I tell you to do this and don't do that while I happen to be a corrupt man, my saying will not be efficacious. You have the Islamic Association, may God protect you. Those who have established these Islamic Associations should start from themselves. This association should be Islamic in its- moral, conduct, behavior, action, belief and so on- all must be Islamic. In other words, he should be purified. He must have learned the Book and the Wisdom- at least to the extent that the Book invites. Your interest and your loss are hidden there.
I hope all of you will reform yourselves in order to reform the society.
Commencing reforms with the atmosphere at universities
Inside the college there should be reformations because students come out of there. Inside the college the reformation should take place not the fortification or a front for fighting each other. The people who are committed should bring and create a college- a place of education, knowledge and learning. Such a college is the need of our country. A college, which is the source of corruption and deviation for our youths, is neither necessary nor a need. Many things under the head or title of education are most undesired ones because they seduce the youths and pave the way for their perversion. There must be people to chart out a program, which should contain the extent of catering the needs of the country. The students should be taught what they need. The program must cover the things that reform our country. The things existed previously, which were not to the advantage of the country, must be deleted and rescinded. God willing, the colleges become good. The staff will comprise people who are polite and polished. The youths are good in the beginning. The teachers spoil them by their coaching which is not to the advantage of the country. Each infant born is instinctively good, not perverted, bad or corrupt. Later on at the ladder of growth, it is the environment, if bad, that makes the young bad. The teacher, by his erroneous training drags the young to corruption. So the environment of college must be salubrious. If one enters it, he must enjoy the healthy and purified atmosphere there. All the people in that environment must be committed to manners and Islam and to the country. If a foreigner goes in, he will come out well trained and well taught. If a society turns good, the people too will become good. When all members of a family- are good, the children will be brought up good. Yes, they will become corrupt if they live in a corrupt environment. Infants are so plain like a mirror. They soon grasp whatever image falls on their mirror- whether a filthy one or a pure one. You, gentlemen, are in the field of education. You are in schools, institutes, colleges and other centers of education. The people who are there should be trained because the old fashion, and the old method that was a corrupt one, is still running there. The scholars for teaching manners and conduct are needed in colleges, schools and everywhere.
An active presence at mosques
The mosques should become centers of correct coaching. Thanks God, mosques are such places. People, who enter mosques, should be trained in the Islamic manners. Don't leave the mosques deserted or empty. They are enemies who try to keep you away from the mosques. The holy month of Ramadan is near «5». In the month of Ramadan, education should be increased several times more." The Exalted night is better than a thousand months. «6»
In the month of Ramadan, the coaching and learning should be in the mosques in all its dimensions and in its true and correct sense. If there be any other gatherings, this should not become a pretext to desert the mosque. It is a vain saying that many of these days: we should mind our own business. The Revolution is over. No. It is vain. It is the mosques from where the revolutions originate. You protect the colleges and protect the mosques too. There is no contradiction. You should be an academic and go to the mosque. See the mosques are duly repaired and reconstructed. You, the members of the Islamic Associations and you the academic ones, by going to the mosques keep the mosques inhabited and well occupied. Your job is great. I hope you and the nation will choose the way of prosperity. I hope the young will be rescued from those who seduce them.
May God's peace, mercy and blessings be upon you.