Speech [Importance of work and workers in Islam]

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

I extend my congratulations on the occasion of the auspicious Labor Day to all workers throughout history. Congratulations to you, dear strata of society, who contribute to great human values! Happy this auspicious day to you and our entire nation! Thank God, today in our country, Labor Day, Army Day and Woman's Day are days for all. All are in solidarity and have given expression to a single divine unit, a unity as ordered by the Almighty God. «1» Thank God, this unity has been materialized in the different strata of the Iranian people. If there is a meager minority they will be assimilated in the majority. I do not know which dimension of labor I should talk about. I cannot present all the aspects that I have in mind in one limited session. Nevertheless, I will touch on some of its dimensions here. Refer what I present to your conscience and if you accept, I will appreciate it. I want you to evaluate it with a clear conscience and see what conditions the workers have in your country and in other countries.

Let me first highlight a trifling aspect of labor. Notice the group of workers including you who are working in factories and industries, those who toil on farms and finally the active toiling group. Today is your day and the day of all. Notice the jubilation of the workers and see if it is the working class that enjoys greater physical and mental health or the employer. Look at the capitalists who refuse to work and are sitting in a corner and spending their life idly. Refer to your conscience. Compare such a gathering, which is now a sample of workers who have, thank God, come here with another gathering composed of capitalists and idle people and those who sit at home and do nothing save eating and sleeping. If a person comes from abroad and observes your faces, your arms, your broad chests, the joviality in your countenance and the tone of your voice and then shifts to the gathering seated by employers, capitalists and good-for-nothing people, he will see the former are healthy and jovial and the latter napping or yawning, complaining of stomachache, headache, etc. It is because those who are not workers- in the general sense of the word- do not usually have happy times. Perhaps many of you do not notice the bitter days of the capitalists, employers and liege lords suffer. You are not aware how hard these sufferings are for them. One day of yours is more valuable than their lifetime. Due to their idleness, gluttony, sleep and debauchery they resort to opium, morphine, brazier, heroin or prostitution centers, because they cannot tolerate what is going on in their self nor can they endure the troubles they have. As far as I know and observed in my youth, most of these feudal Khans and liege lords took refuge in opium. Those who are not committed to religion take recourse to drinking, heroin and the like of them or to prostitution centers. You workers, thank God, have not and hopefully will not experience those troubles, ailments and sufferings.

You should appreciate the value of your labor, which retains the health of your disposition and spirit. If one sits idle, one's bodily activities and the functions of one's cells will come to a halt. Those who are active, their cells will function as much as their activity, making up for the deficiencies. You see that in a large group of workers perhaps one of two might be sick and depressed. The overwhelming majority of workers, thank God, are hale and hearty, but imagine that the liege lords are comfortable. This is what the workers might think. However, the liege lords or, borrowing their own words, the upper class, and in our word lower class, are incalculably dejected and in low spirits.

This is an issue that you should think of later and ponder among yourselves. Compare your youth with those who are idle and spend their life in debauchery. Your value and the value Islam has accorded you are in no way comparable to them. The Holy Prophet has been reported kissing the calloused palm of a worker. This is a token of value for workers throughout history. The Holy Prophet, who is the greatest and the best example of a perfect man shows humbleness before workers and kisses the palm of their hand. There is a point in kissing the palm of his hand, not the back of his hand. The palm of the hand shows the signs of labor and the Holy Prophet kisses it to display the value of labor to the world and to show to Muslims the value of labor. He kisses the hand of a worker so that Islamic nations and human beings come to realize the value of the worker.

Today's worker differs from the worker of those days. At that time and environment when and where the Holy Prophet lived as well as other regions, particularly Hijaz, where the Holy Prophet raised, there was either little or no relation with other countries. If there was drought in a city, it would be compensated for by other cities. People only needed their own countrymen and cities. If a city could not meet a need within itself, another fulfilled it. Nowadays countries are interdependent on each other and the living conditions are totally different from those in the past. The world is so closely connected that if you say something people in the U.S will hear about it before it gets out of your room. The dependencies the world has developed and the dependencies countries have on capitalist and communist countries did not exist in time of the Messenger of God. The value of work at that time can be summed up in the fact that labor was honorable and that labor was useful for man and his spirit. Work is useful for man and his temperament, his soul, and is also useful for the society. However, there was no idea as to if one does not work, one will be dependent on the US or the Soviet Union. Such an idea was not then relevant.

Today the value of your work is proportionate to the progress in the world. If a worker fails to work as much as he should he cannot cope with the progress prevailing in the world. Today, the dependency a country or an environment may find on others differs from the ones prevailing in former centuries or during the time of the Messenger of God. With your work today, you can create a value which was nonexistent then. With your work you can diminish this dependency, which has prevailed here since the time the East and West found their way into this country and in the course of the notorious Pahlavi monarchical dynasty. You know everything we have is dependent on them. They had made individuals and groups dependent. Today, if you work actively, in addition to the spiritual and material value your work generates for you, you will save a whole country from dependence. How much more should we be dependent on the US or the Soviet Union? This dependence should eventually come to an end. We should instill the idea that we are independent and should be independent wherever we work- in the agricultural sector, in industry and in factories. We should not stretch our hands before others for the fulfillment of our needs. Your work is so valuable it cannot be compared to previous times. The Messenger has been reported as kissing the palm of the hand of a worker to demonstrate the value of labor in history in that environment. We are proud and you are honored that the Holy Prophet has given you such a distinction.

Some narrations state that a drop of sweat from the body of a worker is like the drop of blood from a martyr in the cause of God. How valuable it is! How valuable are those who are fighting in the warfronts and, thank God, have emerged victorious. They have recently achieved victories and will hopefully attain the final victory! The sweat of your body in factories is equally valuable, because you are also toiling to revive a country and to rid it of dependence on foreign countries; for the independence of the Islamic country. They are struggling to defend an Islamic country and Islam. They are workers like you and you are fighters like them. This is a great blessing given to workers in general and you, my dear ones, who are working in factories and the industrial sector.

You should notice that traitors to this country and those who were dependent on the superpowers struggled to prevent you from producing what your country needed. If it were not for the treason committed by governments ruling over us in the course of history and particularly in the past few centuries when aliens found their way into our country, you could also have developed an advanced industry. Today, you should keep this in mind. If you fail to be mindful of it, you cannot save your country and future generations. You should think that you are also capable of producing everything is produced abroad which you and your country need.

Let me make another remark. Notice the attitude of those who want to support workers, and those who want to drag the country towards the West or are active in the name of the East, the communist and capitalist countries. Also notice Islam's treatment of workers. I told you of how the greatest man in Islam treated workers. The treatment of the one who brought Islam and shari`ah from Almighty God, towards workers was what I pointed out earlier. He kissed the palm of a worker humbly. He kissed the indication of labor and glorified it. The Prophet of Islam (s) held human values in high regard. Workers were independent in those days. Whatever they earned belonged to them. Workers had independence and value and the Holy Prophet kissed the place value came from and thus proclaimed the value of the worker.

The second-in-command in Islam is Imam `Ali (`a). He himself was a worker and used to dig subterranean canals. He made aqueducts to produce water, not for him but for all. After digging the canal and producing water, the Imam donated the aqueduct to the poor. He was a worker who worked to make his livelihood. He dug a number of canals with his own hands, as has been reported. It has been related that the day when people broke their allegiance to the Imam and he renounced the seat of the caliphate, he took his pick and shovel and went after his work. These were the two persons of prominence in Islam and we should set them as our example. Observe the respect Islam has accorded to the workers through the attitude of these two honored men. They worked alongside workers.

This attitude is not exclusive to `Ali Ibn Abi Talib (`a). Imam Sadiq and Imam Baqir were reportedly working in a certain place. Imam Sadiq was asked to let his followers do the work. The Imam replied:" I would like to do the work myself; I want to feel the heat of the sun on my body." «2» Imam Sadiq also had many tasks to do. His spiritual activity was much. He taught as well as promoted Islam. Nevertheless, he reportedly went to the place he owned and worked. How valuable this is! One who is the commander of Islam and enjoys such a high spiritual standing, working like this, thus teaching us the value of work. Notice the leaders of communist blocs! They make a lot of claims and rhetoric. They have chanted slogans and made claims in the course of time. However, when you observe them in practice, you see how they treat workers and how they look at workers. Also notice capitalists. What do they do? Both use workers as tools to take advantage of. Both blocs use workers as tools for their own benefits- one way or another. In communist countries workers are treated- I do not want to use this expression- as animals who are not allowed to have anything their own. Workers in communist countries are allowed to receive food in exchange for work. When they are unable to do anything, they are driven away. Some of them believe that such people should be thrown into the sea! The capitalist bloc has also beguiled you workers; capitalist bloc is plundering workers in a different way. Islam, however, attaches great value to workers. Islam has great consideration for labor and laborers. It describes the laborers and farmers in the same way it does the strugglers (mujahid) and learned men. It ascribes the same volume to all of them. They are like a comb with a row of equal sticks. The holy Qur'an stipulates that capital, power and, the like, are not the mark of distinction. Value and honor rests with taqwa or piety, with human values. «3» However, these two blocs have pushed human values into oblivion. They do not care for workers, and do not regard them as human beings like us. When Stalin was born he was no different from a vassal. Then he came to power and acted as he did and treated the poor peasants in the way that you have seen. Such is the case with the capitalist bloc. They place no value on human beings. They value only their own power. They help any country yielding to their power.

Now if this Islamic country tilts towards either of the two blocs, they will do anything for it. However, human and Islamic values requires Iran not to depend on any of them. Any country demanding to be independent of them and separated from them, like our country, will face difficulties. Now, each one of the blocs encumbers your country in its own way. All the corruption spread by these pervert groups in this country and all the propaganda carried out by these groups outside Iran are masterminded by either this or that bloc. The day when, God forbid, Iran tilts towards the US you will see that all those who have come together in Paris and think that they can cause trouble for Iranians will begin eulogizing Iran and it will be the same with the other bloc.

We want to be independent. We want to be an independent nation. In the course of the rule of these two corrupt men «4», the British government and then the US entangled us in a way as to strip us of human values. They worked to drag our youth to corruption, to centers of corruption and to strip them of humanity. We do not want to be under their domination any longer. You should endeavor. The improvement or corruption of this country lies in the hands of the nation. You are important members of this nation, very effective members who can end dependence of your country on foreign powers. Farmers are another segment of this country who have the ability to remove this country's dependency on foreign countries. You two great arms of the country should strive so that our agriculture will not be in need of others any more. It is the same with the industrial sector. If you start today, you can obtain independence. Farmers can reach it sooner and you a little later. Yet the values of your actions are great. You are engaged in technical work. Do not think that only they can do this kind of work! In their propaganda, they inculcate the idea that we should be dependent. However, we should not be dependent; we should be independent of them. We should suffice to whatever we ourselves earn. We should plan to reach a level were we can export foodstuff, wheat, barely and the like. This country has considerable potential in this respect. You should make it so that others would depend on you in industrial matters. We can; you can and we can achieve this.

Let us suppose that we are not able to do this, yet we should endeavor, because effort is an act of worship and value. I have repeatedly made the point that we do not struggle to be hundred percent victorious. Of course, we want to be victorious, but we are not absolutely certain that we will be victorious. However, while we are not certain that we will be victorious, we fulfill our duty. We are human beings and you are human beings, and valuable. You want to preserve your value. You do not want to be given dolls or dragged to centers of prostitution to destroy your value and fill up your stomachs. You want to preserve your value and, by the same taken, save your country which is of utmost importance.

You, we, all of our friends, all farmers, all laborers and all of the Iranian nation should remember that the value God Almighty has granted us and the independence He has granted you have made you proud in the world. Let corrupt pens deny you, deny Iran, deny the courts, deny the government. What counts is that the world has come to understand your value and the fact that you are a nation unequalled in the course of history.

I hope that other nations take you as a model and follow our dear Islam so as to become like you and obtain their independence and freedom. May God grant you all health and happiness!

Since today falls on the anniversary of martyrdom of the late Mutahhari (may God peace and mercy be upon him), I would like to speak of him. The late Mr. Mutahhari was a versatile man who rendered services to the younger generation that few others have done. His works are exceptional. I know no one else whose works are exceptional like this. His works are exceptional and humanizing. He has served the country. In that suffocating atmosphere, this honorable man rendered great services. May God unite him with the Holy Prophet on the day of resurrection! May God bless the soul of all our martyrs! May God grant final victory to our combatants! May God grant the reward of martyrs to you dear laborers and all laborers!

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