Speech [The great responsibility of the writers and the role of the press in the Islamic system]

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

I have repeatedly spoken about the role of the newspapers, the press, the magazines, and the radio and television. However, it may be useful and effective to repeat. One of the things that are effective in treating illnesses is for the patient and those around him to believe that he is healthy and that he is no longer ill. When this belief is repeatedly instilled, it affects the human soul. The same applies to preaching and sermonic guidance. There is a difference between scientific learning and receiving sermonic guidance. There is no need to repeat scientific facts in a book. It is enough to speak about them only once. But as far as preaching and guidance are concerned it is useful and effective to repeat them again and again. A point to note is that certain matters are also repeated in the Holy Qur'an albeit in different styles and one of the Book's miraculous aspects is that although a matter may have been repeated in it, it does not become monotonous and although the context of the matter may be the same, it is discussed in different ways each time. This is only so that the matter is repeated for him each time, in the various sections that he accesses.

So the same applies to preaching and a man should, both, preach himself as well as expose himself to preaching by others. All human beings need to be preached and guided and there is no one who is not in need of them. However, exalted human beings are preached directly by God while they preach the rest, right up to the end. Years of preaching has not yet had any major effect on me. I have to admit that while I am preaching and drawing your attention toward current ethical matters, they have unfortunately not had the desired effects upon me. This is because every human being has a Satan within himself that is lying-in-wait to destroy him. Even when one is about to take the final step to depart from this world he is standing right there to misguide him. He is determined to ensure that we leave this world without any faith. We should seek refuge in God from such an unfortunate final destiny.

My advice to all of you is to constantly keep in mind that you are in the Presence of God and all of us are in the Presence of God. Even as we are sitting here and talking, we are in the Divine Presence. All of us are before the eyes of God and in His knowledge. God is present everywhere:" and He is with you wheresoever ye may be." «1» We should strive to imbibe deeply, the fact that we are accountable; and the One to Whom we are accountable is omnipresent and our accountability to Him is not like the other ones in which the person to whom we are answerable is away and so can be cheated upon. Nothing is hidden from Him. Whatsoever we do is in His Presence and is being recorded. This entire universe is the" record-book" of our actions. The sound waves that are produced when we speak record all our words; our thoughts, too, are being recorded. When such is the case and since we are in His Presence, we should not defy the One Who is ever-present. We sometimes defy people who are not in our presence. Even if man, at times, gets emboldened to defy others, the level of his accountability toward others is not as great. But we are gravely accountable if we become heedless to God's blessings and of His Presence. Everything that we possess has been entrusted to us by Him. Our tongue belongs to Him and He has granted it to us. Our eyes and ears belong to Him and He has granted them to us. And He, too, is ever-present. Moreover, the Omnipresent One- Who has been and shall remain ever-present- can see us defying and disobeying Him in His very presence and that, too, with the very bounties that He has entrusted to us!

Today, as you hold these pens in your hands, you have taken on a great responsibility. Your workplace is not like a government office. Anything that takes place in a government office generally remains confined to that office unless you (the press) reveal it to the public. However, if your pens make a slip, they could threaten an entire nation. The radio and television centers of a country are such that if corruption arises within them, it could afflict an entire nation. Today, everyone listens to the radio and almost everyone watches television. Thus, any offense within these media cannot be considered the same as an offense behind closed doors. Their offenses are committed in public presence. If your pens have to, God forbid, slip and if you become negligent of your commitment toward God Almighty, it is not as if it will only cause you some personal damage but it will, in fact, affect not only you but also your family, your friends, the nation, and all your brothers-in-faith and religion. Thus, the damage (you could cause) is extensive and is not like a small dent. So you must keep these things in mind, especially since you run a newspaper with a very large circulation.

If you, God forbid, become negligent to such issues, you will be greatly answerable to the people, the world, and most of all to God Almighty. On the other hand, if your newspapers succeed in guiding people (positively) you would have offered a service greater than anyone can offer within the privacy of his home. The guidance that you can provide has a greater impact than what even the preachers in the earlier days could provide since they could only address a gathering of maybe a few thousand people. Your guidance reaches a nation of millions. If the pen in your hand is used for guidance, you could guide a nation on the right path and can save people from deviation. Today, tens of pens are used for misguiding people for every pen that is used for providing guidance. And for every speech that is given for the purpose of guidance there is a speech that is given for misguiding people.

Anyhow, man should stay alert over the efforts of the deviants and should try to find out what motives are behind their actions. Why is a person from this very country and this very nation motivated into causing deviation? Are they truly the well-wishers of this nation who wish to eliminate corruption or are they simply playing games with the nation in order to spread corruption? There may be some people among them who sincerely intend to draw attention toward certain issues in order to rectify them. However, even so, it is not difficult to guess the underlying intention of a critic from the tone of his words. It is possible to guess from the words of a critic if his intention is to guide people or whether there is some other motive.

As soon as someone opens his mouth, it is possible to guess whether the words have emerged from an evil mind for the purpose of mischief-making or whether they have emerged from a peaceful heart, for the sake of general welfare. However, we hardly find these pens and words employed for the sake of welfare. In other words, although those who run the newspapers as well as those who speak publicly may be sincere, the level of their efforts is not up to desirable standards. On the other hand, there are also many corrupt publications that aim at dragging the nation to corruption.

In order to counteract (their mischief), your publications should be such that when they reach the hands of the people, they should be able to say that you are teaching them something positive and that your publications are like a school that is imparting education in this manner such that even the godly people are satisfied with your efforts. Do not bother to gain the approval of the deviants but try to reform them instead. And if you try to win the satisfaction of the deviated elements, they will also manage to misguide you. But if you try to rectify them, your pen will be in the service of reform each day. And all the articles that you will write will be articles that will aid reform.

One only has to glance at the headlines of the newspapers in order to guess its source and motive. Quite often one finds on reading the actual article, that the headlines were totally exaggerated. The headline says something while the article says something quite different. Not everyone can go through the entire newspaper. Many people just take a glance at the headlines and falsely end up imagining all the negative or the positive things that could have transpired. But if one only has to go through the entire article, he will find that the situation is not quite as the headlines had made it seem to be. You should know clearly that such things are tantamount to fooling the Muslims. Oftentimes, the situation is neither as gross as it is made to seem through the headlines and nor is it as grave as it is made to appear. In the same way that the acts of a merchant who places good stuff at the top of his bad wares, and for instance places good oil at the top to sell the bad stuff at the bottom, is unlawful [haram] and fraudulent, even if a newspaper by using attractive headlines tricks people into believing that it is a very good one and that it publishes very important issues and criticizes the wicked people although when they go through the whole article they find that either the situation was not really what the headlines made it appear or at least not of such a gravity, this too is fraudulence that you are indulging in with the use of your pens. In the same way that the act of a merchant who places a layer of good oil to sell the bad one at the bottom is fraudulent and unlawful, placing sensational headlines that are not commensurate with the actual contents is fraudulent and unlawful.

Always keep in mind that undoubtedly there is a hereafter. There is for us a Day of Judgment on which we shall be questioned about everything.

Man judges his own self on that day. All the pens will stand in witness on that day. Hands and eyes will bear witness. There is such a day. It does not matter much whether it arrives sooner or later but( we do need to keep in mind )that there is going to be such a day.

You should bear in mind that when you have opted for an Islamic country, its publications and newspapers should also be as per Islamic standards. And especially when there are people around who are just waiting for the slightest opportunity to add fuel to the fire. You see how, no sooner does a certain thing appear in the newspapers that the BBC and the Voice of America and the other radio services pick a certain sentence and play around with its words to make it mean something else or at least exaggerate it such that the entire world ends up believing that such things are truly happening in Iran. And that such corruption is rampant in Iran. And that there is complete mayhem in Iran! All this is because those who wish to make mischief use such means, one of which is the press.

I am hopeful that as the editors of these newspapers, you will strive to gradually guide the elements that wish to harm the Islamic Republic, even if you cannot do it overnight. Do not regard anyone as your enemy. Of course I am not saying that you should not regard someone like Saddam as your enemy; but these people who are governing the nation today are certainly not enemies. There are just differences of opinion. These differences of opinion stem from the motives that lie within man. And all these differences of opinion could lead to hostility. Newspapers should not deal with anyone with antagonism and should instead act as a form of guidance. Express yourselves and do not hold back criticism. There can be no reform in a society without criticism. There are shortcomings everywhere. Man is full of shortcomings from head to toe and these shortcomings should be pointed out for the purpose of social reform.

May God protect you! I wish you all success and may all the pens succeed in winning divine satisfaction!