Speech [Detailing and determining the duties and responsibilities of the courts of Revolution]

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

I am also aware that the difficulties of the courts of the Revolution and the tribunals of the Revolution are many; I also know of their toils that are many because to interact with the likes of those that are in contact with this bunch of men is itself a difficulty. Assuming that a person wants to state a problem to them and for them to give an answer, the volume of this work is very large. I know that with the large volume and shortage of personnel that the theological schools are unable to meet even though I have told them and keep telling them, yet there is a shortage. The point here is that the theological schools were not thinking of these problems meaning that the theological schools were concerned only about those teachings, that concerns them and that are raised by the people because there was no governmental concerns involved to think about them. These issues have started recently and the theological schools are attempting to train individuals and to search for individuals. I am also pursuing the matter vigorously and shall continue to do so but this is however, a difficult task and you must not and you do not expect that these problems are resolved easily when there is a revolution. If some person gives you a reward for instance, recognition, you are working for the cause of God; a person is insignificant, a person is one who says one thing now and something else tomorrow and may even say something contradictory. What is fundamental is that we set right our account with God and not with the people and we should not have any expectation from any person. We that want to perform a task for God should not have expectation.

I especially have great fondness for this section that deal with individuals that are anti-Revolution and miscreants and am aware of their toil. In the article that I wrote, I made the anti-revolution an exception and yet I see sometimes it is asked that what about them. Well, I have said from first that they are to be treated distinctly from these issues. For them now there is no amnesty unless they are judged to have truly reverted as otherwise we cannot behave with the anti-Revolution in a manner that tomorrow they again congregate and create a problem for Iran; create a problem for Islam. Islam does not permit this to us. We are talking about other individuals that are ordinary people; individuals that have committed such crimes that are commonplace and normal. However, they must be thoroughly investigated and so on and so forth.

Regarding properties, if the properties are such that they are truly in danger of destruction, if they are not taken care of, in the manner that Mr. Muhammadi «1» mentioned, well, they are to be taken care of. This is because they pertain to religious affairs and sometimes, it is mandatory to perform this task for safeguarding their properties that are at risk; that are in danger of destruction and to sell them and maintain them as pointed out by Mr. Mousawi «2» and God willing, you shall perform these tasks.

About the courts of the Revolution and about the tasks related to the courts of the Revolution, I do not say that one must be negligent here. Here, they must be forestalled with earnestness; these immoralities must be prevented. They must arrest them, confine them and educate them or if they truly deserve to be meted the prescribed punishments, they must implement the prescribed punishments. The prisons must be places of education and training; the people in the prisons must be given training. The prison itself must be a training ground. Well those that are in the prisons should be spoken to and enlightened; the officials should speak to them and enlighten them. It is possible that a group of them have been truly deceived and perhaps the majority of them have been deceived. Those that have been deceived shall gradually reform until the time that calm has been restored and then they can turn back to normal living. However, those other than these for instance a person has committed a theft; a person for instance has committed an offense, the one for whom the legal punishment is prescribed should be handed the prescribed punishment. The one that has no prescribed punishment must be investigated and be acquitted and set free if required. The one who is sentenced to the prescribed punishment is to be given the prescribed punishment and then set free. To keep them in the prison is an offense and against the consent of God. A person that has to be freed after flogging should not be mistreated and his case must be investigated promptly. Now, too, everybody should know that other than the revolutionary courts that concerns these minor terrorist groups, the rest of the courts and tribunals must clear the work of the people promptly. I also advise and counsel the theological schools to help, for today Iran is in need of help.

If you knew that no where in the world can you find a country like Iran or a place where immediately after a revolution, things get back to normal. Now there is a bunch of miscreants. Well, does not America have all so many miscreants? Not all crimes, which are being committed in America, are not committed in Iran or in other places, all this is because a group of pious people handles the tasks; a group of the pious arrived on the scene and performed the tasks. Now a section of these pious people are men of learning while a group of them are ordinary people albeit pious; they came and performed the job and are still there. Even now all the Iranians that were present from the beginning are still present in the arena, even now they are still serving. Considering that there were some disturbances involved, well I thought it expedient to mention some of issues and to tell them to the sirs and the sirs are following them up. I hope that they perform the tasks properly. However, in that same place I said that the courts and tribunals of the Revolution that pertain do this group, I made it clear that theirs is a separate accountability. They must be pursued with earnestness, their cases attended to seriously, and their cases resolved. However, until the time they are in the prison, they must be a humanitarian-Islamic counseling and treatment with them. When it becomes clear that this person is to be given the such and such prescribed punishment, he is to be given the punishment and he must stay in the prison while the miscreant who again reverts to mischief making should remain imprisoned until God wills.

In any case, we must all be thankful to- now there is a section that is not attentive and does not pay attention- these sirs who have put aside their jobs.

These men were engaged in another occupation and this was not their job; they were doing some other jobs. They were attached to certain issues; they were fond of debates; they were fond of studies; they were attached to a certain location. Without having any expectations, they came and got busy to serve Islam, to serve the Muslims. Well then, we must thank them and be grateful to them and the Blessed and Almighty God shall also reward them- and everything is from Him. He shall God willing, compensate for all the deficiencies. Man is nothing; for instance, he congratulates you; this has no effect whereas that which is effective is that the tasks are performed well in the sight of God so that a human being is always merited. I hope that God willing, in the same way that the situation of Iran is towards improvement, thank God and is improving, from now on too it moves towards improvement and this problem of the war, too, is God willing resolved sooner. If Iran is left to- whereas they shall not do that- it will do its job quickly; however, if they do not leave it to itself as of now, even then it will do its job.

The issue that everybody was saying that (it could not be done, that there would be bloodshed and so on and so forth), some of the sirs from Qum wrote to me asking me to stop. They wrote that the Shah would stay and it was enough and that I should leave things alone, well these persons did not know the issue and were excusable. On the one hand, they wanted the good; they were excusable but even for the hypocrites! Well, the hypocrites had taken some of them for a ride; well they had taken some many of our youth for a ride; and not only that, they had also taken some of our theologians for a ride. Some of the elder theologians of ours had written to me cautioning me about them. That man who came and who had written the note of caution, I listened to his talks and noticed that he was a deviant man; I understood this from his excessive Muslim stance.

In any case, we must traverse this path to its final destination. We should not despair and you, too, should not pursue and expect that the foreigners congratulate you or the Iranians. They shall be hostile towards us until the end and we must not pay any attention to these animosities. They have everything; we have God on our side. This means that we have everything while they have nothing. So far, too, the Blessed and Almighty God has favored us and until now, too, thank God, we have not seen any bad in the manner that it is seen in other revolutions. We have not seen anything like the throwing into the sea of millions and millions and such things. This is because the people were involved; Islam was involved; this people sent a message. Sometimes I attribute the narrative that has been quoted to the likes of Muhammad-Rida wherein it states that," Always, this religion is endorsed by means of an immoral and sinful man." «3» These corrupt rulers carried the job to where suddenly a revolution was achieved. This is yet another endorsement; it is an endorsement of religion; this is a reaction. It does a thing whereby the reaction is something like this and this is a clear reference to that immoral ruler «4» who corroborated the regime in this context so that with his evil ways, oppression and tyranny, it caused an explosion. All the people understood that this was not a regime, which one can endear oneself to; that this was not a regime that wanted to do service; it was a regime that wanted to plunder and that wanted to destroy. When the people came to this conclusion- they arrived at this conclusion from their own actions- an explosion occurred. Thank God, you attained victory within a short time and with minimal losses while what you achieved has great value in the world and which is that revived Islam; you brought Islam to Iran. Now let any person say what he wants for it has nothing to do with us. They all speak about us and they also talk about you. For instance, about me they said that- these foreigners wrote at one time- I am not able to do anything any more and that it was the aides that were managing me whereas I am yet to know who those aides are or they say that so and so person has an influence on me. Those who know me are aware that I do that which I must and I am not under any influence. If I were one to be influenced, I would not have entered the job from the start at all whereas they spoke so much for my good until God knows where. Well, when I was in Paris, there were a lot of well-wishers who said that I would be killed; that there would be chaos; that what would happen; that it would not move forward and so forth but we saw that well this is a duty that we must repay. Thank God, we were able to do the job and even now we are capable and we were able to perform our duty. Now also it is the same. Now, we all face with a duty to safeguard this republic; all the Iranians have a duty to safeguard the Islam that you have revived. You removed a regime and brought on a regime of truth; you finally brought down the regime and repaid your obligation. Now, they are waiting to hear what we say so that they do it; now what would be the reaction of the people to this job; what do the people consider to be in their interest and they would counsel the Commander of the Faithful and ask him to let that man «5» stay.

Later on, he would say that he could not let a man who acted against Islam to remain. In any case, I hope that God grants to all of us the strength to resist and that we become steadfast in the face of difficulties. I hope that God willing, the problems are resolved soon and if I am not around to see then God willing, you see that the problems are resolved and you succeed. God endorse all.

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