Speech [The importance of the teaching profession and the duties of the teachers in training students]

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

I thank all of you for taking the trouble of being present here in this tiny place and in this freezing weather. May Allah grant everyone with the success of serving Islam and his country!

I am sure you have all realized that these small children who are studying in the primary schools and who will later go onto other levels like secondary school and university are the capital of this country or in other words, they are our assets in the fields of knowledge and the future-building of this country. And as you all know, these children enter the world of learning with a pure, healthy, simple, and open mind that can absorb any kind of training that is offered to them. And right from the time they enter the kindergartens, they are" divine trusts" that have been put into the custody of those who teach them in the kindergartens. And these same" trusts" will go on to other levels of learning and into the hands of other teachers until they have attained growth and are capable of entering into higher levels of learning and the universities.

If from the very beginning, you train these children in a way that they are kept away from deviation and if they are given the training that is worthy of human beings and does justice to the pure primordial nature that lies within human beings, it is with this very training that these children will later enter into the higher levels or say the secondary schools after being trained initially at the hands of the primary school and kindergarten teachers. And at this level too, if they are trained according to the principles of that same Straight Path and if their teachers guide them as per the same system that their pure primordial nature demands- considering that they are young and were first children and have now grown into youth- if the method of training is the method that is worthy of human beings, bearing in mind that they are easily adaptable to any kind of training that is given to them at a tender age and in their youth, they will then enter into the next stage of growth. Whenever a training that is worthy of human beings and is conducive to the human disposition- which is the same disposition that is given as a trust to man and is" the nature made by Allah in which He has made men" «1»- is imparted also in the universities, then when those youth enter society and when the fate of the society is consequently given into their hands, they succeed in taking their country out of gloom into light and make it worthy enough for human beings to live in and mould it as per the primordial nature and cause it to progress.

If you simply want to impart education to children without bothering to give them ethical training besides their general education, they will pass all the stages of learning, gaining knowledge without any moral training. And knowledge devoid of moral and ethical training will drag most of them toward corruption. It is not as if man is born corrupt into this world. Man first enters into this world with a pure primordial nature;" all beings are born into this world with a pure nature" «2» which is the nature of a human being, the nature of the Straight Path, the disposition of Islam, and the disposition toward monotheism [tawhid]. It is ethical training that causes that disposition to bloom out or then it stands as an obstacle in the blooming of the primordial nature in man. It is this kind of training that can offer the society a desirable perfection, making it a" human" society in its truest sense, and can make it a country based upon Islamic principles. And it is this same learning or gaining knowledge devoid of ethical training that could drag the country to its doom when the fate and the reins of the affairs of the country fall into their hands.

You honorable teachers and the other teachers throughout the country as well as the university teachers are responsible for this trust that has been placed into your hands by Allah Almighty and the parents. Do not look at those five or ten or maybe fifty students who you are teaching and possibly imagine it to be an insignificant number and think that there are" others" who will do the job. It is possible that from among these very ten students who are before you or from among these fifty students whom you are teaching, someone will eventually reach to a very high position and maybe become the president of a country or a prime minister and it is possible that a high position in the country will fall into his hands. Or it could be that this very single student who was placed in your custody and who was later put into the hands of other teachers, finally gains a crooked training- that is he was given knowledge without bothering alongside to train him to become a worthy human being, or if, God forbid, the teacher is himself deviated and that child, from the beginning and then in the later stages, has been under a deviated training, it is possible that this same student may later on lead a country to its doom.

Rida Khan, too, was only one person. And even when he came down to Tehran, he was only a single individual who was part of an army and held an insignificant position in some section. However, those who wished to usurp this country with force had discovered that this was their man. This is why they had selected him and as per their own radio announcement, that is the British radio that announced when they had banished him from Iran, that" we had brought him to power". And that later on when he" spoilt matters for us and when he messed up and betrayed us, we eliminated him from the scenes". There is a chance that someone in your custody is not given a proper training and he emerges as a Rida Khan or maybe a Muhammad Rida. You do not know what this child who has been placed in your hands- even if he is say the child of a farmer or the child of a small-time trader- will eventually become. Rida Shah was also" just one child" who belonged to a lowly family. But simply because he was not given an Islamic upbringing and a training worthy of human beings, he emerged as a corrupt person and dragged an entire country into corruption for long years. And as you saw, because the father and the son lacked a worthy Islamic and human upbringing, in spite of being" just one person," they turned out to become pawns only to be empowered by foreign hands. Therefore, do not think that just because someone is the child of a small-time trader, he will not end up becoming anyone important and that he will eventually choose his father's profession; and similarly for a farmer's son who you are teaching. You should instead keep in mind that maybe some day this child may end up becoming the head of a country or perhaps the chief of an army. And maybe then he could end up dragging an entire country or a whole army to destruction.

There are always some rare people who come up and either lead a country to progress or to ruin. You should keep in mind that if your training was, God forbid, against an Islamic and human training, whatever evil that person ends up doing later on, you, too, are his partner in crime. And if your training was a worthy human training based upon the primordial nature in man, you will hold a share in whatever good that person ends up doing. A teacher is a trustee and unlike all other trustees, what he is entrusted with is a" human being." Any betrayal of trust even as far as general matters are concerned is sinful. For example, if someone is entrusted with a carpet that he does not take proper care of, he has not really harmed the entire society although he has inflicted loss upon a particular person, which he is duty-bound to compensate for. But if he were to be entrusted with a human being or a child who is capable of receiving human training, and if, God forbid, there is a betrayal of trust on his part, this betrayal will amount to the betrayal of an entire nation or the betrayal of a society or the betrayal of Islam. It is for this very reason that while teaching is a noble and worthy profession, since it is in the same lines as the mission of the divine prophets (`a) who had been sent for building the human character, it is therefore a great responsibility as well; just as the responsibility of the prophets (`a) was also great.

You should seriously bear in mind that you are not like other ordinary human beings. There is a great difference between the misconduct of an office employee or maybe a government employee and a violation committed in places where education and training are imparted. An offence committed by an individual in a ministerial office is not likely to cause an upheaval in a country unless of course it is a rare case. However, if a child turns out to be corrupt, or if a child is trained to hone out his evil and egotistical characteristics, this child with an evil and selfish character could ruin an entire country and ruin the lives of a large number of people. And throughout all of this, you people who are involved in this noble profession are partners in all the good and evil that is committed by them. At times you may be partners in their crimes and at others you could share in the goodness that you have brought about in them. You should always keep in mind that you cannot afford to be like other ordinary people. You are the teachers of a generation of children into whose hands the fate of the nation will eventually be entrusted. You are the trustees of such a generation. Your education should go hand in hand with ethical training. This responsibility is not exclusive to religious teachers. This is the duty of each and every school as well as university teacher, no matter what subjects they teach.

In the same way that if a religious teacher who only suffices with academic education without paying attention to ethical or religious training or without paying attention to the overall progress of his students could possibly cause mayhem and bring a country to its ruin, a general teacher could end up doing the same. If, God forbid, in any field of study a deviation occurs or if there happens to be some teachers who cause deviation, not only are they partners in the crimes that are committed at the hands of their students but their own country, too, could be led to destruction. As religious teachers your responsibility is not limited to imparting knowledge. Not only should you impart education to these children who are in your hands but you should pay even more attention to their ethical training than you pay to their education.

Train your students to develop human and Islamic characteristics and to remember God in all their activities; and train them to abstain from the corruption that takes place in decadent societies. Cause them to realize that if they were to imbibe an Islamic and human upbringing, it would end up being beneficial to them as well as their society. You should warn them against the decadent nature that leads man toward degeneration and should warn them against the love for position, post, and material possessions. Warn them against things that act as obstacles on the human path blocking their human progress. Explain to them that as long as man is caught up in the narrow trough of nature he has not attained the worthy status of a human being. Those who exert all their efforts in gaining material benefits in order to make a comfortable living for themselves are still caught up in the trough of nature. They will finally be treated as animals whose heads are caught up in their troughs. You should teach them the value of a noble life, worthy of a human being. You should forbid them from enslaving themselves to anyone besides Allah and should train them to serve only Allah. If one serves society with the intention of serving Allah, all his acts are like worship.

If one only bows in the service of Allah and refrains from enslaving himself in the service of other persons or things, and if he even engages in worldly matters or answers the call of his instincts or attends school or government offices or is active anywhere in society for the cause of Allah, every act of him would become like worship because it originates from his intention to serve Allah. As you must have all noticed in the Noble Qur'an as well as in your daily prayers, the servant [`abd] aspect of the Messenger of Allah (s) precedes his Messengership. «3» And this may refer to a fact that the Prophet (s) attained his Messengership through the course of divine servitude [`uboudiyyah] He is freed from everything and is dedicated only to the service of Allah and not anything or anyone else.

Only two ways exist and, thus, one is either in the service of Allah or then he is enslaved into the service of his carnal self. If one frees himself from enslavement to others and submits himself to the service of Allah- Who is worthy of man to be His servant- all his actions will end up being free of deviation, or in other words, he will not have any deliberate deviation.

All those who are crooked- including those who are deviated in their beliefs, deviated in their actions, deviated in their writings, and are deviated in their words- are so because they have not passed through the channel of serving Allah. They are the slaves of the whims and fancies of the carnal self.

These small children who are entrusted into the hands of the school teachers of the lower classes have the potential to emerge as human beings; they have the potential of becoming" human" in the fullest sense; and they also have the potential to turn either into devils or into beasts.

It is upbringing that causes a child to traverse either the path of humanity or the path of beastliness. If a child is taught to focus only upon worldly positions and if his heart is filled with attraction toward worldly positions, posts, statuses, etc., he will grow up focusing simply upon such things. Since he has only learnt these things, only they are reflected in his heart- because the heart of a child is very pure and luminous and is very vulnerable- and so in the later stages of life, he strives to legitimize all his lawful and unlawful actions.

If you fill the minds of children only with worldly concerns and incentives like positions, statuses, material possessions, etc., all their attention comes to be diverted only to such matters. As if nothing else matters! However, even if you train them to live in their country with human dignity and to serve Allah, they will finally be able to achieve all that others gain through unlawful means. But there is a difference between these two. While one has managed to build a house through treacherous means, the other has gained the same through the service of Allah. His focus was not upon gaining a house but since it was a legitimate need, he has attained it. For the other, his entire focus was only on attaining the house and he was not concerned about anything else. If one is not guided to the Straight Path that Allah Almighty has shown us, all the other paths lead to deviation and crookedness. If the reins of the country fall into the hands of corrupt and deviated elements, the country heads toward deterioration and deviation. And if virtuous and accomplished scholars take the matters of the country into their hands, the country is bound to be filled with human values. This is because people are generally accustomed to giving importance to people of high position and their words have a powerful influence on the minds of the masses. An influential person could easily lead a society either toward corruption or toward righteousness. You honorable teachers play an important role in this matter. Do not regard your students as insignificant individuals. This very ordinary-looking child may end up as the head of a country and reach to high positions in the future. That will be the acid test. If he has emerged as a deviated person and has become crooked under your training as well as the training of those who influenced him in the higher levels and onwards, even though he is only a single individual, he could corrupt an entire society. Each of the prophets (`a), too, were only a" single individual" but since they had attained their Messengership through the course of serving Allah, all their qualities were human and they succeeded in reforming large societies during and even after their own times. They were" just one person" but a person who could reform his society. If the world and humanity were devoid of divine messengers (`a), we could have been facing unimaginable indignities. Similarly, all the blessings that are present in the world, too, are because of the endeavors of the prophets (`a) who honored the human race with their teachings and training, despite all the opposition they faced at the hands of the deviated people who invited people to their crooked paths. If you were to scrutinize all the countless cases that are left pending in the world courts, you would discover that none of them belonged to the believers and followers of the divine teachings of the prophets of Allah (`a). All the cases of crime- material and non-material- belong to people who have ignored the training of the prophets (`a), and even if they spent a lifetime in prayer, their prayers were not in the service of Allah. And even if they indulged in some good deeds, they did not stem from traversing the straight path of service to Allah. All their actions stemmed from selfishness and self-love.

If you train children to love Allah from the very beginning and to focus themselves upon serving Him and being connected with Him- knowing that children are very adaptable to this learning- and teach them that Allah is the source of everything, you have served this society and your efforts and endeavors will bear value. But if- God forbid- the case is contrary to this, no matter who it is, it is an act of treachery. And this treachery is unmatched because this is a treachery toward Islam, humanity, and the service of Allah.

Pay heed to the fact that although the profession that you have chosen is very noble, you also need to pay due attention to the responsibility that lies inherent in it. It is moral and ethical training which is of importance. Mere knowledge does not benefit anyone and in fact is very dangerous. When rain, which is divine mercy, falls upon flowers, a fragrance emanates; and when the same rain fall upon filth, a stench arises. Such is also the case for knowledge. If it enters the heart of a virtuous person, its benefits reach the entire world. And if it enters a corrupt heart, it corrupts the entire world. It is said that" a corrupt scholar corrupts the world". Conversely, a virtuous scholar emanates peace, goodness, and welfare for mankind. You are in charge of such affairs. You are responsible for carrying the world from darkness to light. You are vested with the responsibility of bringing out the inner luminosity of children. You are charged with the important responsibility of giving them a proper Islamic training so that, God willing, your country will find its way toward prosperity.

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