Speech [Importance of judiciary affair and the need for the clergy to pursue judicial affair]

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

I must first mention two points to the men. One is that the clergy that were in the theological school and were reared there, they can come out of there with sacred honor and serve in other places. It is not like some people such as the hypocrite munafiqin think that the clergy do now have hold of what not and what they want to do. Even now, they engage in holy struggle; it is a religious obligation for them to take up such matters- not that position is important for them. They have for thirty or forty years come to terms with the seminaries and are habituated to staying in those places. Based on their education and training there, and the environment they have been in, they are conditioned not to naturally seek position. They would like to serve. If this service is in the theological school, they serve therein; and if see that heir duty is to serve outside the theological school, they serve outside them. Although justice is a matter that based on Divine command, is the right of the clergy, and during the time, the previous regime was in power, in the same way that they had deprived everybody of their rights, this divine right was taken away from them. Although it is painful, yet it is their right, they must take it up, and they cannot absolve themselves.

Now, also, that the men wherever they are and engaged in serving, it is not that they want to occupy a place by force and take it over and so forth. In the same way that well, they accuse Iran of wanting to take over all the countries and for example, and create an empire like the Ottoman Empire. It is not Iran has any such intentions to form an empire; Islam has not been such. The wars fought by Islam were not such that they wanted to establish an empire; it was in order to do away with empires that were oppressive and to establish an Islamic justice.

Now, too, those that are inside the country and are fair and are not of the Westernized type and find the system of the West to their liking and say that if it is not of that type it is neither humanitarian nor anything else.

Those that can comprehend the issues as they are seeing how Iran has changed from the way it were before. When they see its women, what the women in those days did and what they are doing now. Now they are seeing that these women are in the arena and are working for their country. In the war that is going on now, these women are busy working. When you look at everywhere and see their images on the television, you see that they are serving with their heart and soul. In former times, if something were to happen, no one of those who in those times were in the parliament, for example, of the women or who were in other places would be ready to say a word about this subject; take a step about this subject. All of them were thinking of doing other tasks. I am surprised that in these two days there was the seventeenth of Dey «1» when it was the time that Rida Khan did and inflicted that blow to our women; I could not imagine that there would be women who even now take his name and say that, for example, they want him and say that he had done a favor. However, abroad, well there are groups that are in this manner, praise Rida Khan, and overlook all the crimes that Rida Khan committed in Iran. Any person that remembers those days and those issues of that time and those tragedies that they created for the women, will know what an element this man was. In those times, also the British were at work; the British selected the time for the suppression. In any case, these are beyond the scope of our subject.

I wanted to say that the clergy today also enter into any field; it is not that they want to gain domination and for example, exercise authority. You are seeing that although the president has a higher position, yet how his condition is. How he deals with the people! How he lives! How he goes along his job! How he meets with the people! Well these are matters that all are witnessing. That person is the speaker of the parliament and this man is the head of the country's Higher Court. You are witnessing all of these things. It is not that they are one thing on the outside; you are seeing how they are; they have the same circumstance that they had when they were theology students and now also they are the same. Except that now they are performing greater service. Then their services were closer to spirituality. We must not be under the illusion and no person must be under the illusion that the clergy have found something here and are pursuing it to increase it. They come here with toil and trouble.

They know what a difficult and responsible job judgment is; you, too, know this; you, too, are a part of the clergy. You sirs also know that what an important task judgment is and what a responsible and tough job it is. Finally, one side of the verdict is unhappy with the judge. It is seldom that two person's dispute with each other and the party that is convicted is satisfied with the verdict. Definitely, the person who is convicted is discontented. Well, these widespread discontent that occurs for you sirs; the amount of hard work that you sirs are putting in and in return you are seeing that they get no reward from the people or for example, they are paid sufficiently- there is no such thing involved.

This was a point that I mentioned which we must know. We should be grateful for the sirs who enter this field from an environment that they were accustomed to and to come out of that environment was difficult for them. They felt they had a duty and they have a duty; they felt this, came out of that environment, and came here. We must be grateful to them for coming out of that environment to which they were accustomed; had friends; had jobs; were studying; possessed Islamic thinking and have now forfeited them in order to perform a duty here and engage in service.

This is one point. Another point is the Supreme Judiciary Council that existed which I must thank them. They worked hard; they toiled for two or three years; suffered and served well. It is not that they also came to take up positions. They are of the elites of the clergy. They, too, like the rest of the clergy came from an environment to which they were accustomed and desirable for them to an environment that requires lots of hard work and toiling and its responsibility with God is great and so is its discontent with the people. It is not that they came here to get any benefit. For them it is not important that now they should serve here or serve there. For an Islamic clergyman who is accustomed with the spirit of Islam, it makes no difference to him that he becomes the head of the Supreme Court and the prosecutor general of the whole country or does another job; or serves in some other manner; there is no difference in this, too. Therefore, it is not such that if because of some considerations and some expediency that was involved a person should be under the impression that the sirs that are in the Supreme Judiciary council are God forbid, incompetent. They are all competent; all of them are servants; they have served. Some of them have served in the Revolution; from the beginning of the Revolution. It is not that if an interest demands that the sirs who have toiled for a period should now hand over their troubles to some other persons and they themselves for example, sit back and relax or serve in a place where the job is easier and the toil is lesser. It is not so that for example, now people think that it has become apparent what these sirs were. Not at all, I know all of them since the past thirty years and some of them even longer than thirty years. Therefore, it is not such that the people should think or a person should think that these sirs were incompetent and they have gone away. They were competent; but they were tired. Fatigue reaches a stage where a person in the Judiciary gets tired and these results in seeking a lighter job, or a better prospect and to seek a change in circumstance.

Now we would like to place this burden around the neck of Shaykh Yousuf Sani`i as the Prosecutor General and introduce him to the sirs. I have brought up Mr. Sani`i like a son. This Mr. Sani`i who in the course of long years would attend my lectures and debates, he would especially come and talk to me and I would marvel at his knowledge. He is a distinguished person among the clergy and is a theologian and aware of the issues. He is opposed to these deviations that existed in this country such as the" munafiqin: and so forth. He is staunchly opposed to them. He acts with sincerity; he acts decisively when the time is ripe.

For this reason, I instate him in place of Mr. Rabbani «2» at the same time that I also thank him and express my appreciation for him. He must think to serve again in some place where can serve the country and be a civil servant. In the same way that other sirs are doing and I introduce him. I hope he pays greater attention to all the matters that he is aware of. I must say to all the sirs about this issue of justice, that the subject of judiciary is something that has very great responsibility. A person deals with the life of people, the honor of people, the wealth of people, the dignity of people. A single slip can result in the honor of a Muslim to be at stake. A single slip can possibly result in the deprivation of a Muslim until the end of his life; to make him miserable. These are the things that pertain to the power of the Judiciary. However, despite these, because the duty is a divine one and we cannot, because of the difficulty of a task shirk our divine responsibility. The duty is a divine duty and for this reason, one must, take it up.

The subject of justice is the right of learned individuals that are familiar with Islamic justice; who are just; who are pious; who are aware of what they are dealing with; of the great task that they are engaged in. A single slip in some instances can wipe out a whole country or weaken and destroy a family until the end. On the other hand, also, a good work can bring awareness to a country. Serving in the Judiciary is a great service. It restores the rights to those deprived people that are usually oppressed, and weakened. I hope that all the respected judges that we have throughout the country, our prosecutors, and those that are serving in the affairs of the Judiciary, all are successful for the cause of God, for the cause of Islam and for the sake of this poor. The deprived poor that throughout history have been under the pressure of the kings or the feudal lords, the capitalists and so forth and about whom the sirs are aware and know better many of them. God willing, they be delivered so that our country shall God willing, becomes a country that gets closer to the horizons of Islam. However, it is our aspiration that it becomes an Islamic country and all its affairs become Islamic affairs. This depends upon each person bears this in mind wherever he is serving which is that he is serving for the sake of God and for Islam. He does not want to work for status; position is insignificant. Position is something that however high it is, it is what you witnessed about the position of monarchy and you saw what happened to the Father and the Son and what condition they got into and what was their fate while it is not known what it would be in the hereafter. It means that we do not know how they are going to be dealt with in the afterlife. We are not concerned with their afterlife.

In any case, position is not a matter for a human being to overlook the human value. You have human value. Human value is the loftiest of things for you; and this human value must be strengthened. Serving the people is not corrected by stepping aside. The value of a human being lies in how he can serve society; and in what way he can serve these creatures of God.

You can see that the honorable Prophet of Islam suffered more than all to educate the people; in order to liberate those deprived people from the hands of the tyrants. Later, those persons that were devoted, and replaced him also bore hardships; and all of them toiled to do something. Well, you see that the Prophet of Islam in the situation that he was in at that time, and the creatures that had all become submissive to him, yet when he would sit in a gathering, no one would be able to distinguish which one in the gathering was the Prophet of Islam. An `Arab would ask," Who is the Prophet?" Another would call him by his name and point to him. His meetings were in the mosque. He would go to the mosque and perform all the great tasks of the world in the mosque.

I hope that now also our mosques return to the era when the mosque was the venue for solving and agreement of issues and the mosques become the venue for planning war strategies, for everything. The mosque-goers are present so that the jobs are well done. God grant success to all of you; may you be successful and victorious and I pray for you.

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