Speech [Two main pillars of education]

The gentlemen know, it is also good to be reminded. The issue of teaching and the question of scientific training and education is a subject that has been cited in the Holy Qur'an and in ahadith (narrations) of the saints of God, ranging from the Messenger to other Immaculate Imams. They have attached significance to the station of the `ulama' in the wider sense and encouraging learning and seeking knowledge even if one has to go to China. «1»" Going to China" is a famous saying, which means for the acquisition of knowledge you should travel to the extremes of the world. Even if these countries are remote from you and do not have information about Islam, you should avail yourselves of their knowledge. Seek knowledge from the cradle to the grave. «2» From birth to the end. This stresses the fact that education and learning is not exclusive to a given age and no one can do without it. Knowledge is an infinite truth and even if man seeks knowledge to the end of his life, he still will not attain the ultimate goal of knowledge. Therefore, one should seek knowledge to the end of life. We need to learn from one another. We all stand in need of a scientific training and education. Never can man do without knowledge. One who acquires knowledge should not stop at any level. If one considers that a certain level of knowledge is enough he has not appreciated the nature of knowledge. Knowledge is a concept and a truth that has no limit in any field. Therefore, we should acquire knowledge throughout our lives. We should study and train others scientifically. We should enhance the level of knowledge of people. Iran is a country that has not been successful in this aspect. Now that you have taken charge of literacy campaign, you should invite all to join. Those who cannot read and write should participate in the classes so that they can understand the issues independently. Education should be taken seriously from kindergarten to university and higher. You should not simply obtain a degree and be content with a paper and a document. One should seek knowledge itself. Even university teachers stand in need of learning and education. So are the teachers in theological seminaries. One should not be content with a certain level of knowledge but should seek knowledge to the end of life. Teachers know that they benefit from teaching and learn many things from their students. A class is a free venue and anyone has the right to raise questions and reject the teachers' opinion. Teachers know that in this give-and-take and exchange if opinions one can learn a lot and improve himself. The issue of knowledge is obvious and all know that knowledge is a noble pursuit that everyone desires to acquire. Seeking knowledge is ingrained in man's primordial nature. If you acquire all material and spiritual knowledge but hear that in a given place there is more knowledge, then you are bound to seek that knowledge. The desire for acquiring knowledge is unceasing. The significance of knowledge is an issue that everybody knows and is evident to all.

However, we should make a distinction between education and training. We have to find more about moral, spiritual training and self-edification. For example, if in our universities and seminaries sciences are taught, but spiritual and moral training has been forgotten, what will this scientific teaching minus spiritual education bring for the country? What will it bring for Islam? What will it bring for the nation? If knowledge were acquired minus spiritual training, this knowledge would many a times serve as a source of corruption. A scientist or scholar who has not undergone self-edification and a university professor not experiencing purification of the self will bring corruption for the country. Such learned people can give rise to corruption in a country. You know that our nation, you and we, have suffered in the course of history. In recent years, the harms had aggravated and the country's dependence had reached its peak. This state of affairs has been the result of domination of knowledge and science minus moral, religious and spiritual education. If the two pillars of knowledge and spiritual training had prevailed in universities from the outset, the products of the universities would have been correct, progressive and constructive, and our country would be in the present state.

All our troubles have all been caused by moral crookedness and absence of self-edification. All the calamities which befell countries and the oppressed people in the world are due to the absence of spiritual training. So much time is spent working on a particular idea, I don't know, on the manufacture of missiles, tanks and the like to kill people, all of which are the result of the fact that moral training has been brushed aside. Neither those who claim to be Christian are trained in the teachings of Christ (peace be upon him), nor Jews act according to what Prophet Moses (peace be upon him) ordered nor Muslims have been trained in spiritual Islamic teachings. There are abundant claims, claims of being peace-loving and struggling to establish peace in the world. Superpowers make such claims more than all else. They claim that they want to bring peace to the world. Prophets also had such claims. But which of them is telling the truth? Which of them is sincere? Prophets invited people to peace; these superpowers also claim to be aiming for peace. Radio Israel had a program presenting Zionists and these criminals as people working for God, for the truth, for peace and for the oppressed people and other things! This is their claim and their action shows the opposite! Regarding an incident which has occurred just recently, America, too, claims to be peace-loving. If they go to the Church, they will perform the Church rituals and repeat the teachings of the church, but when it comes to action, you see what they do. It is not because they are not Christian. I am amazed at why the followers of Christ with all the purification of the self and invitation to spirituality have become worse than the Jews. It cannot, of course, be said that anyone is worse than the Jews. I mean the Israeli Jews. What has happened that the followers of Christ, the heads of countries, are eradicating the entire humanity? It is because they have knowledge, the discipline of politics, industries, everything, but they don't have that which they must possess, they don't have that which is useful for humanity. That missing thing is self-edification and spirituality. Christians care not for the spirituality of the Christ; Jews have forgotten the spirituality of Moses, the interlocutor with God; and Muslims have pushed into oblivion the spirituality of Islam. The educative aspect of knowledge is significant but if spiritual education is absent, so these teachings will be harmful for man. All the damages and destructions befalling countries have emanated from scholars. The academicians are the source of these problems. Those who manufacture missiles, jet fighters and other things are the source of all these devastations. Whatever befalls man comes from knowledge- knowledge minus edification.

If we suppose that human beings were morally educated but ignorant, would the world be in peace and quiet? If man did not seek knowledge and simply pursued self-edification, man would lag behind because of failing to acquire knowledge. This state of affairs would be a great defect. Man needs knowledge. If one were to choose between acquiring knowledge and undergoing spiritual training, which would man be predisposed to seek? We have no doubt that if man experienced self-edification with all its prerequisites, so that he would not harm others, would be kind to people, and would consider others to be fellow creatures and people would be in peace and harmony even without knowledge. If knowledge was there but without self-purification and if the Prophets were exclude from humanity and man would be left alone to grow on his own, the entire humanity would perish and live in chaos, and there will not be a single happy face among human beings. If you see that a good number of people are good, it is because of the spiritual teachings of Prophets. It is true that not all people accepted the spiritual teachings of Prophets, yet these teachings have shed so much light on the world that the weaker masses of people are all good. Corruption is less frequently found among them. But, for example, you who have initiated the literacy campaign and those who want to teach fail to undergo a spiritual education, your good efforts will fall through. Self-edification should accompany learning and knowledge. If you who are in charge of teaching children simply seek to enhance their knowledge without training them in spiritual and moral edification, you will not be successful in your efforts and you have not rendered a positive service to your country.

More important than this is universities. If university professors only attempt to teach lessons without regarding spiritual education, those who graduate will spread corruption. The universities in the former regime did not teach properly. If they had done so, we would not lag behind so much in sciences. The same thing is true about theological seminaries. If the seminaries have nothing to do with self-edification, morality and spiritual training and are simply concerned with intellectual teachings and learning, the scholars trained in such seminaries will ruin the world. Therefore, the two pillars of teaching and education are to be inseparable. If the two accompany each other in the society, school or university, then we can benefit from such a university, seminary, other higher or lower centers of learning and everywhere and at all levels.

Therefore, what is important is to nourish the spirit of children from childhood so that they can attain their goals. Wherever they go they should undergo spiritual as well as scientific training. If knowledge enters a corrupt heart and mind, its harm will be greater than that of ignorance. Ignorance is a big defect but it does bring about destruction. However, if knowledge is acquired without any moral insight and spiritual purification, this will perish human beings. The extent to which the Prophets urged people towards edification of the self, they did not encourage people towards seeking knowledge. Self-edification is more useful than knowledge alone. Of course, knowledge is something that all have underscored to acquire, but the two should accompany each other. They can be likened to the two wings enabling one to fly. If a nation wants to fly towards happiness, the two wings are required. If either of them is absent, there will be no flight. I hope university professors and theological `ulama' preserve their relationship. One of the treasons committed against this country was the separation of university from the theological seminary. Professors avoided the mullahs (clergymen) on the assumption that they were empty-headed and knew nothing. Our seminaries were also scared of universities on the assumption that they were irreligious. If mutual understanding is developed, I guess these cases will disappear. When the `ulama' find their way into university and university professors find their way into seminaries, then they will understand what crime has been committed against this country. When university professors visit Qum and sit together with the `ulama' at the seminary and exchange views, then they will understand that we did not cry out in vain that Islam was a rich culture. Then those things would not be written on the walls of universities. From the beginning, plans were underway to train our children to be hostile to Islam. At university, one could not cite anything concerning Islam and the akhounds (clerics). Such was the case in seminaries. Any one of them who visited the university or seminary felt like a stranger. They assumed to have entered a bad environment. This was because plans had been worked out to keep these two fronts that could protect the country and save the country, hostile to each other. They wanted these two centers to suppress each other so that they could reap the benefits, as they actually did. What was the reason for so much insistence on enmity of the two strata? The reason was that the enemies of Islam feared that if these two got close and understood Islam, they would understand how much affliction we had suffered, particularly in the last 50 years. We were hostile to our brothers. Each tried to weaken the other. Note that this unity between the university and seminary should be established and strengthened so that you can protect your country. If the universities and seminaries strive to be acquainted with each other and develop understanding, our country will not have any defect. All the sufferings are because one corrupt university graduate, examples of whom you know, will ruin a country and if such a graduate is upright, he/she will correct the country. The corruption of a scholar corrupts the world. A scholar corrupts the world. The mass of people cannot corrupt the society.

Today we are suffering from the scholars of the two superpowers. They are corrupt. We are suffering from these Islamic countries. Do you know what happened in Fez? «3» Do you know what Israel did afterwards? Many things have been said about Fez. I will not repeat them any longer. I shall touch on the seventh paragraph. Some of them claim that Israel has not been recognized. Has it not been recognized? Or, it has been recognized plus one other favor. When Islamic countries sit together and call on the UN Security Council to guarantee the security of the region, is Israel not a country in the region? If it is, did the Fez Conference make an exception? Israel has not been excluded. It is a regional country. Well, when you said that the security of Israel should be ensured just as that of Hijaz, Lebanon and elsewhere and the UN Security Council should prevent any transgression, this means if one wants to harm Israel or do something against it, the Security Council should prevent it as agreed upon by the gentlemen coming together in Fez. This means insuring Israel in addition to its recognition. Recognition here means acknowledging that it is a country with its own government and so forth. This is recognition. But in addition to recognition, the Fez Conference insured Israel. Now what did Israel do afterwards? Knesset called the plan devoid of value. It is not even worth to be read. Subsequently, Israel committed those crimes in the past two days and some more are forthcoming. One of crimes was so heinous that some gentlemen have said that even the US has described it as butchering. You see, when the US describes one place has been butchered then one understands what has happened there. The chief of butchers (the US) says Israel is butchering. What have the innocent people of Lebanon, Beirut and the like done? The gentlemen insured the country that does not give a fig about them. I want to say something. If Israel has said one right word throughout its existence, that word is that" this agreement is not worth looking at." You see! The gentlemen sat together and insured Israel. Not that Israel does understand that it has been insured and recognized. Either it is one more lie told by Israel and there is some political horse-trading or it is right. This statement that the resolution is not worth to look at is correct. Why? Because those who signed it are worthless. If they were worth anything, could Israel make such a remark? If such an insult is hurled at anyone, they will become enemies to the end. These gentlemen supported one who has insulted them and degraded them. Afterwards, Israel set fire on Beirut and South Lebanon. In Hijaz, one is not authorized to cry out" Death to Israel"! Some groups who went to take their complaint to the Prophet of Islam, to the Exalted and Blessed God in His House, were banned from staging such protests and were told not to make any protest. «4» O, Lebanese people! Get cudgeled and martyred but don't utter a word (of complaint).This is what it means to insure Israel! Israel holds no value for you. God, the Exalted and Blessed, holds no value for this agreement and does consider it even worth mentioning. Prophets, even their Prophet- they don't have a Prophet; the Israelis say a rhetoric just as some of us who are Muslims- attach no value for this resolution. Do those who say Israel has been simply recognized know that the recognition included its security or not? If they don't, I don't know what to say. If they do, how do they accept such a contemptible act? Such crushing contempt, which no government can accept! How is it that these governments with all those accoutrements and claims allow and accept to be belittled by such a small government whose own citizens do not approve of. Now that Israel has degraded them, the police in Hijaz in support for the US and Israel detains our young and old and women and children and send them back. What have they done? Are they not Muslim? What have they said? They have said" Death to the US! Death to the Soviet Union! Death to Israel!" They have simply cried out" Down with them". So you mean they are not at all Muslim. Have they not come to perform an act of worship? What have they done to deserve such a" compassionate" treatment! They are crying out for Islam. What have they done that you say they have not come for this? They have come and cried out" Down with Israel". What is Israel then? Is Israel our friend? Is the government that says your words are not worth listening to, your friend? Or is Israel your master? Even the US has not so far hurled such an insult at you. The US with all its power has not made such an insult by saying that it is not worth listening to a resolution adopted by a group of governments which make such claims. The US has not so far made such an insult that you accepted from Israel. You should await the disgrace in this world and the hereafter.

O, God! What should we do with these oppressed nations who are under the pressure of these governments? What answer should we give to these nations? O, God! What should we do with these governments who undergo so much contempt and don't utter a word in the name of Islam? What should be done? Nations should awaken and defend themselves. They should not wait for their governments to do something for them. If we had sat and waited for Aryamehr to do something for us, we would have been in a worse situation than today. Our nation did not sit idle and watch the" gate of the great civilization" to be brought for them. Our people took him by the tail and threw him out, and took the rein of affairs. Now that we are sitting here is different from how things were one year ago or two years ago. Thank God, today everything that belongs to nation and the Muslims of the country is thriving. Above all, note this one word! If this country had not made Islamic and national progress, why are all countries opposed to it? There a few exceptions, which are not opposed to us. What has happened here prompting all to be on bad terms with us? The leftists, the rightists, munafiqs, royalists, the US, the Soviet Union and all are on bad terms with it. What has happened here that prompts all to be on bad terms with it? Many other countries have experienced revolutions. But not all were on bad terms with them. One group supported and the other opposed. What has happened in Iran, causing all to be opposed to it? This indicates that something that all cannot digest has happened. Iran is pursuing a scheme, which they cannot accept or their ears cannot hear. That program is Islam, the Islam which says all should be rejected and that you should be yourselves; the Islam, which says if one develops friendship with the right or the left, one has announced war with God. They fear this mentality. They fear that this attitude may spread and each other places, so go on with your efforts so that it can reach everywhere, and, thank God, it has. Pursue this agenda so that the world understands what you have done. Thwart the numerous propaganda operations of foreign powers. Today propaganda is against you everywhere in the world. Only a few nations side with you. Anyone who hears and understand what you say supports you. Those who have grasped your call but find it inconsistent with their monarchy and presidency and interests, are also opposed to you. Every one of the weaker nations hearing your call sides with you. Those coming back from foreign countries say that nations love Iran; they want Iran; they have pinned their hope on Iran. The people of Iran should keep up resistance. The universities, theological seminaries, the military and the nation should persevere. Resistance causes this revolution to continue and permeate everywhere. The phrase" Carry onjust as you have been ordered to" has been cited in two places in the Qur'an: one in Sourah ash-Shawra' «5» and one in Sourah Houd. «6» However, the Holy Prophet has been quoted as saying," Sourah Houd has aged me." «7» Why is this verse cited in Sourah Houd? It is because Sourah Houd continues as follows:" So tread thou the straight path as thou art commanded, and those who turn (unto Allah) with thee, and transgress not. Lo!" «8» God has enjoined resistance and wants nations to be straight. Those who tend towards the Prophet and accept that he is the Prophet of Islam and believed in him, should also be upright. Following this, the holy Prophet said that the chapter aged him. He did not fear that he would not be resistant. He was resistant. He knew he had been, but was afraid that people might not be steadfast. If you see that disappointment creeps among the masses of people regarding the revolution, know that perseverance is absent or is diminishing. Do something to enhance the resistance of the people in the revolution they have accomplished. This revolution is a divine movement. God has said: So stand firm and straight as you are commanded In the same way that the Holy Prophet rose up from nothing and emerged victorious with his light pervading everywhere; likewise, you started from nothing after that corrupt regime. Everywhere there was ruination and you started building. Now, don't be fair-weather friends. We should implement the divine command: Therefore stand firm (in the straight Path) as thou art commanded Our nation has been steadfast in the revolution and been so far victorious. You are reckoned with in the world. In all corners of the world, the governments of the world are afraid that their nations may become like you. So far you have been triumphant. Persevere up to the final victory. Build up yourselves and your young adults and children. If they are brought and built up in accordance with Islam, they will be straight. No crookedness will creep in them. They will not be deflected on the way or in the middle of the way. The university professors should know that if they build up the universities, they have insured their country for good. Teachers of high schools and primary schools preparing the children for universities know that if they educate these children and nourish them as believers and hand them over to the university as believers and the university delivers them to the nation as believers they have protected their country against all harms. Those who want to disrupt this process are at the service of one of the powers and treason the nation. If you see one attempting to separate you from the Faydiyyah (seminary) and the Faydiyyah from the university know that a foreign hand is at work, struggling to pit the two against each other like in the past, to reap their own benefits, as they did and witnessed. Whatever trouble we have today is inherited from the former regime. This (Islamic) regime has not brought you difficulty. War is, of course, difficult, but we did not initiate the war. Thank God, the nation will be victorious. God Almighty is with you and you should be with Him. I pray to God to grant health to this nation, government, Majlis,

president, ministers and all to serve this nation. I pray that God will protect you, students, and teachers and scholars who teach them and the educators who educate them and the teachers of seminaries who nourish others. May God grant health and happiness to our nation and guarantee their worldly progress and bliss in the hereafter!

May God's peace and blessings be upon you.