Speech [Popularity of officials in the Islamic system and need for them to serve people]

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

I would like to mention a point which is not be taken as a complaint to the government or other organizations. As all of you are aware of this fact.

One of the great favors of God Almighty to the Islamic Republic and the Islamic Revolution is that the incumbent officials, whether those serving in the Majlis or those in the government and in the army are not from the affluent class whose attention is all focused on gaining posts for themselves and doing works for themselves even if their activities would be a disservice to people.

If you study governments in the course of history, particularly in the past 50 years, you will notice that those at the helm of government affairs consisted of princes, feudal lords and the so-called noblemen. When noble people and, borrowing their words, counts and barons, take charge of affairs in a country, naturally they don't consider people. As a matter of course, they are humble before superior powers and tyrants and oppressors in dealing with the weaker people. If you notice the dealing our former governments had with people and foreign missions, you will see that they totally lost their character, if they had any at all. As far as I remember, one of the ambassadors- the British ambassador or another one- seized the then chancellor by the collar in the room and pressed him against the wall. The top Iranian official threw in the towel before him. However, they committed so much oppression against their own people and in their words, acted magnanimously towards their people of which all of you are aware.

If the officials of a country are comprised of the aristocrats and in our terms the grandees and the nobles, the well-off people who brag of their limos, mansions and in those times barouches and so and so forth, this is a great disaster for a nation. The source of all the afflictions suffered by nations is that their incumbent officials are from among the aristocrats and the nobles, as put by them. The noble people and aristocrats consider all values to lie in the place they live, in the way the treat people, or in the number of gardens and villas they posses. All their attention is focused on such matters. One must hold private garden and park in Shemiran (a district north of Tehran), in Tehran and in, I don't know, where so that one can become, let us say, prime minister or minister of so and so. Their mental state in view of their social standing demanded them to be humble before a superior power. They consider power as the greatest value. In contrast, when confronting the weaker people, they act haughtily. This is the natural condition of a country governed by the grandees and the nobles and, as put by them, the affluent class. This condition is inevitable. When the government is in the hands of such people, their domineering attitude to people and fawning over foreign governments is inevitable. They are servile before these governments because they are more powerful. Wherever they fancied a superior power might be able to deal a blow, they threw the towel before them, acting in servile demeanor so as to preserve their hold, not caring what befalls the people. They did not mind whatever treatment the foreign powers meted out towards the people.

This was one of God's big favors that the incumbent officials in the Islamic Republic are not from among the grandees and the nobles and dukes and barons. When officials lead a normal life and do not consider values to lie in material life, when they regard humanity and Islamic morality as value, the government that is comprised of them and thinks of Islamic values and serving the human being, will naturally have the support of people. No foreign power can impress such a man and government. To dominate people, foreign powers always intimidate the upper classes, which give in because all they seek is to gain a foothold among people and treat them with haughtiness and oppress them. This is the natural position of such a government and a government administered by common people. The latter naturally is from the people and hence serves the people, because it does not count name and fame as value.

You know that in the Islamic Republic positions have lost the meaning they bore in the former regime. The president, ministers or other officials do not fancy to hold high positions and be high-powered, Hadrat Ashraf «1» and so and so. They know that their values lie in serving the people, not governing them. In the Islamic Republic the nature of positions has changed and therefore it is not comparable to the situation in the former regime. The commissioners holding office in the Islamic Republic are not from among aristocratic families behaving with a cocky air and thus being unable to get along with people or living a life free from pomp and pageantry. Last night I was watching TV, which screened a program showing the house of the late Raja'i «2». The gentlemen sitting beside me said:" We have visited his house; it is a humble house; he led a simple life along with his family." When a president or a prime minister lives in such a simple house, he will not fear big powers. Why should he? One who wants to plunder and exercise dictatorial rule should fear. But Raja'i, may God bless his soul, and the like of him, Bahonar «3» and like-minded ones whom we lost, were not humble before others so as to keep what they had or did not oppress ordinary people to a mass wealth.

This is a favor God Almighty granted this nation that people from among the masses rose up to establish the government. When from among ordinary people individuals form a government, they can understand the people's pain. I don't want to praise you; I want to admonish you that as long as this state of affairs persists, Islamic government is there. As long as this state of affairs prevails among the government, Majlis, army, military commanders and everywhere we observe today, you should not fear lest the Islamic Republic should suffer harm.

You should be afraid of yourselves. You should be afraid that the direction may change, that you may be distracted from what is important today, and that you may lose this caring attitude. Be afraid of the time when such things may happen, when you are no longer caring towards people, when your attitude changes. At that time you may think that you have achieved something how that you are a president, a prime minister or a minister. Then know that you will become vulnerable and at that time foreigners will come to you.

They know how to deteriorate a country. They know that they should achieve their goal through the government, through the Majlis and through the incumbent officials. They know that military expedition to conquest a country fails to bring them any fruit. They experienced it in Afghanistan in spite of the fact that the Afghan government and many of the parties sided with them. «4» They failed because the masses of people who are Muslim, attentive and opposed to foreign powers. They have experienced this and know what the situation is like. They know that a nation which puts up resistance to whatever befalls them cannot be manipulated by military expedition. Yesterday, a 10- year old child came here and while crying asked me to pray for him to achieve martyrdom. When a nation has such children, women, men and youths, aggressive powers know that this nation cannot be manipulated by coercion and bayonet. Naturally, they formulate a design. They collect their wits and wait in patience.

They work out a design for the next 30 or 50 years from now. They chart out a plan today to reap the fruit 30 years later. If, for instance, a deviation, God forbids, creeps into our universities, they will benefit from this deflection 30 years from now. If non-Islamic and devious persons interlope into our universities, they will gradually undermine them. They are not in a hurry. Even if they cannot do anything now, they take control of the country gradually by propaganda and word of mouth, thus securing the attention of the public through university graduates and command the fate of the nation at the hands of people themselves.

You should strive in different ministries to appoint individuals with such a mental state as to get along with people. People should not feel that they would again get lost in the labyrinth of bureaucracy. If one wants to submit an application to the minister has to wait behind the door for some time and the secretory passes him to the other and this process is repeated until finally one gets minister's room where he has to wait some more time for a petty request, you should know that your are deteriorating. You will be strong when the grocer in your locality, the pious man in the mosque and the grandees and the nobles living in mansions are equal in your view. You should not, let us suppose, do something for the tycoons while doing nothing for the less powerful or poor people. You should prefer the latter to the former. We must appreciate the value of those who placed you in the office of ministry- though the position is not an important thing to you today- those who expelled the bigwigs that had led country to ruin. We should preserve them. For the sake of God, Islam, your own prestige and your country, you should preserve these barefooted people. Those who march and beat their chest and mourn anyone of you when he achieves martyrdom, as you see, you should value such people. If once they are disillusioned with the government and think that the government is serving itself and not the people, no one will even bother to pray for forgiveness of any of your dead.

Do something that after your death people become sad for you. Act in a way that if you are entitled to achieve martyrdom, people would pray for you. When God Almighty sees that people are crying and beating their chest as token of mourning, let us suppose, for Raja'i, God will have mercy for Raja'i. If, God forbid, one has done a wrong, He will show compassion. As the narration goes, if 40 believers bear witness to righteousness of a person, God will accept it, because he was a person whom 40 people recognized as being upright. When you are recognized as righteous, God will forgive you. If people take to streets and mourn for Mr. Raja'i, Mr. Bahonar, Mr. Beheshti «5» and our innocent Friday prayer leaders, «6» it is not because they had commanded power or treasured wealth but for the fact that they were with people, served people and loved people. The nation knew that they were serving it. Therefore, despite those massive propaganda operations launched by the corrupt elements against the late Beheshtiin in particular and the late Raja'i whom that wicked man «7» bedeviled, people did not heed but they continued with their commiseration with Beheshti, Raja'i and others. People recompensed the plagues against that diseased. After his death, they mounted that magnificent funeral. All of you should have similar situation. I hope all will pay attention to this state of affairs and preserve it. If you want to preserve Islam, this state, Iran and yourself, you should preserve this state of affairs.

You should proceed towards improvement and change the current situation for the better. You should admonish each other to observe Islamic rules. There is a point in my insistence on Islamization of affairs. As you say certain individuals are destroying the woods, this is an un-Islamic practice to ruin the forests. This is un-Islamic to violate the state rules and regulations. The government should powerfully prevent one who violates the rules set by the government to preserve the establishment. Cutting the trees will deteriorate the woods and is an un-Islamic act and should be stopped. Violation of traffic rules is an un-Islamic act and must be stopped. If one does not pay attention to the red light, he has done an un-Islamic act and must be sued and taken to the court. I insist on Islamizing all affairs of the country because Islam has a complete program and code for all aspects of human life. Islam preaches order to be preserved, government to be preserved and all affairs pertinent to government to be preserved. If one violates the system, this is against Islam and must be prevented.

I reiterate that you should watch lest you may be effected by position. Man's value does not lie in position, in being a prime minister, a president, Majlis Speaker, a parliamentarian, etc. These are no value. Man's value lies in what one should do for God Almighty and His servants, and in his attitude towards God and his servants This attitude is valuable. As long as you preserve this value, you have preserved the Islamic and human value. If one is deflected from this path, he will lose his value before God and people, no matter how much he has progressed, what positions he has achieved, and how hard he has tried in acquisition of knowledge and piety. You should serve the country and the people. If you do so, after your death- God willing you will live long- people do as they did with regard to the late Raja'i, beating their chest for his loss. People should give practical witness that you are good so that God almighty accepts you in His court. Raja'i has been a man whom multitudes of people endorse as being good by beating their chests as token of mourning over his martyrdom. This is practical witness to one being accepted. God Almighty will then accept such a man in His threshold. Even if such a man has done a wrong, God Almighty will forgive him because of such endorsements by people.

I hope you will all follow the lifestyle of Prophets. Prophets stood firmly against arrogant powers and were humble before the weak, poor and oppressed people. When an `Arab entered the mosque named after the Messenger of God, he asked:" Who of you is the Prophet of God?" This happened at a time when the Prophet (s) was at the helm of government. He was then in Medina engaged with establishment of government. On the other hand, he was not humble before any power, because he trusted God and whoever believes that power rests with God Almighty and others are not of any inherent value, he can no longer be humble before powerful ones.

You have studied the history of late Mudarres. He was a scrawny Sayyid wearing a canvas cloak. One of the abuses of that poet against him was" the one who puts on a canvas cloak". Such a man stood so firmly against that hector. Anyone have experienced that time knows that the age of Rida Shah was different from that of Muhammad-Rida Shah. He was such a bully that our history had very few examples of him. In Majlis once Rida Shah had asked Mudarris:" What do you want from me?" Modarres replied:" I want you not to be!" This gentleman whose class I once attended had set up a class in Sepahsalar School, currently Shahid Mutahhari School. Once I attended his class. He seemed to be like an ordinary person, a simple talabeh (student of theology) who was teaching, but he was spiritually powerful. It was at a time when he was in the center of that political tensions in the Majlis. He would go to the Majlis after that class. When he attended the Majlis, he was a man whom everyone had a high regard for. I had seen the Majlis of that time. It appeared that the Majlis looked forward to Modarres entering. Despite being on bad terms with him, the Majlis sensed to be incomplete in the absence of Mudarres. When Mudarres entered, it seemed that some new event had happened. What was it for? It was because he was a man who heeded neither position nor wealth nor any other mundane things. Neither position nor wealth interested him. It has been related that once he was preparing his hubble-bubble for smoking. The ruler of that day- when I say ruler you may not know what it implies- entered the house of Mudarres, who told him" Your Eminence, while I am pouring water into the jar to prepare the hookah, please prepare the brazier", thus belittling him so that he would not dare to make any request. Mudarres treated that governor in this way, asking him to prepare the brazier for him to smoke water pipe, asking a man whom everyone bowed down. He treated such dignitaries like this let they should allow themselves to make a request from him.

I was witness to an episode when somebody had written something. This story goes back to the time when Rida Khan was not yet a king but a brutish bully. Somebody came to Mudarres and said: I have written something for department of justice. May I beg you to give it to somebody to take to His Eminence Rida Khan to attend to my problem! Mudarris replied: Rida Khan does not know how justice department is written. You want me to give the letter to him who does not know A from Z?" He did not say so behind his back; in his presence he said it. He was this sort of man.

Why so? Because he was righteous; he was not attached to carnal passions." Hast thou seen him who chooseth for his god his own lust?" «8» He had not taken his carnal passions as his God. He did not act for name or fame but for God. One who acts for God, his living condition is what you are aware of. No worse condition is conceivable for him. Why should he then fawn over the king or so and so? He feared none. When Rida Shah invaded the Majlis, the bullies accompanying him cried viva Rida Khan! Mudarres stood up and shouted:" Down with Rida Khan! Viva me!" You don't understand what it meant to stand against Rida Khan. But Mudarres stood. It was because he was freed from carnal passions; he was righteous not dependent.

All dependencies emanate from the dependency one has on oneself. When one's soul is dependent, all dependencies outside of the soul are traceable to the soul. Hence, if something is imposed on the soul, one will accept. If one finds that something counters one's aspirations, one will be humble. If man is delivered from this dependency on the self, he will become free. Such a soul does not fear anyone; if all powers of the world come together to frighten him, he will not fear, because one believes that at most he will be killed. Nothing is worse than this, something that our people seek. They ask me to pray for them to be martyred. They ask me several times in a day to pray for them to achieve martyrdom. I tell them I pray for them to emerge victorious, God willing.

May God grant you all success! I hope you will be sanctioned. May God give peace and blessing to all the martyrs, who served the nation such as Martyr Raja'i, whose martyrdom anniversary is approaching, the late Bahonar and others whom we have lost! Of course, we suffered a lot, yet the system remained intact. It was because people supported them and the nation succeeded them, not the grandees and the nobles. In those days if a prime minister got killed, confusion would erupt. If a king died the entire country would be disrupted. Today if the president achieves martyrdom, another will succeed. The entire Iran is full of Beheshti. «9» Well! People believe that Beheshtis was from them. This is not something we have imported from abroad. People cry that Beheshti is from them and one of them has departed, being substituted by another. When Raja'i died, another one succeeded him. If any one of us is killed, someone else will take his place. This is the situation of Iran. If we preserve this state, each of us has a substitute who will fill our empty place. If the situation changes and the condition prevailing in former time is restored, again with the death of a prime minister, for instance, the country will be chaotic. May God protect all of you and grant us success in acting according to Islamic laws and in Islamizing our ministries. If, God forbid, there are devious persons, you should advise them, and if it is not useful remove them, as we do not need such people in a ministry. He can go and do a different job. God willing, you will be successful and sanctioned.