Message [Invitation to Islam and expressing the deficiency of the materialist thought in determining the needs of humanity; prediction of the defeat of communism]

«۱»- Born on March ۲۱,۱۹۳۱, in Stavropol territory in the Southwestern Russian SFSR, Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev joined the Komsomol (Young Communist League) in ۱۹۴۶ and proved a promising komsomol member. He became a member of the Communist Party in ۱۹۵۲ and was named a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSLL) in ۱۹۷۱. He became a candidate member of the Politburo in ۱۹۷۹ and a full member in ۱۹۸۰. He owed much of his steady rise in the party to the patronage of Mikhail Suslov, the leading party ideologue. During Yuri Andropov's tenure (۱۹۸۲-۸۴) as the Secretary-General of the Communist Party, Gorbachev became one of the Politburo's most highly active and prominent members. After Andropov died and Konstantin Chernenko became Secretary-General in ۱۹۸۴, Gorbachev became a likely successor to the latter. Chernenko died on March ۱۰,۱۹۸۵, and on the next day the Politburo elected Gorbachev, the youngest member of the Politburo, as Secretary-General of the CPSU.Upon his succession, Gorbachev quickly set about implementing policies heralded by Andropov, and having retired an older generation of dogmatist or incompetent high officials, he liberalized and democratized the party and the USSR. He sharply criticized Brezhnev's policies that had brought the Soviet economy to stagnation and revealed Stalin's tyrannical excesses in an unprecedented manner. Gorbachev's tenure as chief political leader of the Soviet Union, characterized by glasnost and perestroika, marks a new era in the history of Marxism, and the changes Gorbachev brought about is the most significant event in the Western world in the latter half of the ۲۰ th century.In a speech he delivered on March ۲۵,۱۹۹۱, Gorbachev summed up the wrong policies of former communist authorities in one sentence," In the past we were negligent of one thing- the intrinsic tendency of people toward religion." «۲»- Ever since the emergence of communist governments, the struggle to uproot religious faith has been at the top of the agenda of communist leaders. This endless struggle has taken different forms depending on the circumstances of religious societies. After the victory of the Russian Revolution, the struggle found an ideological basis. Marxism, in Lenin's words," considered all religions and religious institutions as instruments in the hands of the bourgeoisie to exploit the non-propertied proletariat." As early as ۱۹۱۹, the Russian authorities set up a complex machinery for anti-religious education and set about implementing administrative policies such as closing the mosques and churches.Viewing Islam as a remnant of the pre-socialist stage, Marxists took two major approaches to confront it: to wipe out Islam as an alien element from the scene of public life by openly challenging it, and to assimilate Islam into Russian society by Russianizing Muslims. Stalin, the most notorious of all communist leaders, persecuted Muslims on a large scale by banishing certain Muslim peoples collectively to Siberia and Asia Minor. The astonishing number of Russian anti-religious publications distributed in Islamic countries is part of the Soviet government's universal struggle against Islam. The occupation of Afghanistan was the Soviet Union's last attempt to penetrate the Islamic world. «۳»- Mao Zedong's policies in early years were based in many respects on, as Mao later said," copying from the Soviets." But soon Mao took steps that were to lead to the breakdown of the political and ideological alliance with Moscow. The source of difference was what Mao called Sinification of Marxism- its adaptation not only to Chinese conditions but to the mentality and cultural traditions of the Chinese people. This manifested itself in the Rectification Campaign of ۱۹۵۲-۵۳. This program aimed to giving a basic grounding in Marxist theory and Leninist principles of party organization to new members. But a second and equally important aspect of the movement was the elimination of what Mao called" foreign dogmatism"- in other words, blind imitation of Soviet experience and obedience to Soviet directives. After Stalin's death in ۱۹۵۳, the ideological split with the Soviet Union became public and irreparable. In the ideological dispute that followed, Mao accused the Soviets of revisionism; the Soviets, in turned, called Mao a revisionist, a chauvinist.Mao's inflexible approach of his version of Marxism, on the one hand, and his obstinate stance against imperialism, on the other hand, isolated him from his Soviet alliances as well as the Western world. It was against this background that he proclaimed the policy of" letting a hundred flowers bloom"- that is, the freedom to express many diverse ideas- designed to prevent the development in China of a regressive political climate analogous to that in the Soviet Union under Stalin and to foster an enthusiasm for economic development in the country. Other movements such as the Great Leap Forward, and the Great Proletariat Cultural Revolution that represented attempts by Mao to achieve these goals resulted in deep changes and revisions in Marxist ideology. «۴»- A term applied by Imam Khomeini to the American Government to show its arrogant and diabolical character. The term was first used by the Imam during a lecture he delivered a day after the storming of the American Embassy in Tehran. «۵»- Human knowledge is dependent on both experience and reason. Experience provides the" manifold" or material of knowledge; reason provides the necessary, infallible principles by which to abstract the general and to order the manifold of experience. In other words, human knowledge begins with sensory experience, which is an awareness of the concrete particular. Sense experience, however, gives the particular and never the general. Knowledge of the general is possible only on the possession of rational powers. Sense and reason, then, are two faculties which, while quite different, can supply objectively valid judgments of things only in conjunction with each other. «۶»- To have sense and sense organs is prerequisite for perception and the acquisition of knowledge about the external world. Sense organs receive impressions of perceptible objects and transmit them as raw materials to the mind. In addition, sense organs can report to the mind the precedence of the impressions, but it is not in the capacity of sense to comprehend the relations or establish connections among the sensory impressions. For instance, through the action of sense organs we do feel the curative effect of medicine after we take it, and, this experience repeated, we deduced that" medicine is the cause of cure." The implicit syllogism underlying this conclusion consists of the premise that" medicine precedes cure cannot be accidental." In other words, in argumentative syllogisms, if, for instance, the minor premise is reached through sense organs, the major premise must be general, rational law so that a conclusion may be drawn. Thus, to deduce a conclusion from sense impressions depends on the reasoning power of the intellect, without which man's knowledge must be a pile of unrelated sense impressions. «۷»- A reference to the Qur'an ۲:۵۵:" And when you said: O Moses, we will not believe in thee till we see Allah manifestly, so the punishment overtook you while you looked on." «۸»- A reference to the Qur'an, ۶:۱۰۳. The physical vision of man, working as it does only within narrow limits and being able only to see bodies, cannot comprehend the Infinite One. He sees everyone and everything but cannot be seen. «۹»- A school of philosophy founded by Aristotle and expanded by his disciples. It is so called because Aristotle taught philosophy while moving about. According to the Peripatetic philosophy man can reach the truth through meditation and reasoning provided he directs his thoughts correctly. Most Muslim philosophers including Farabi and Avicenna were followers of this school. «۱۰»- One of Islam's leading philosophers, al-Farabi was born at Farab, situated on the Jaxartes (Syr Darya), the modern Otrar. Coming to Baghdad, he studied under the Christian doctor Johanna, son of Hilan. Another of his teachers was Abou Bishr Matta, known as a translator of Greek works. He next proceeded to Aleppo, to the court of Sayf ad-Dawlah, son of Hamdan, and led a somewhat retired life under his protection, assuming the garb of a Sufi. When this prince captured Damascus, he took the philosopher with him, and there Farabi died in ۳۳۹ AH/۹۵۰.Farabi's literary production was considerable, but a great number of his works was lost very early. They were chiefly commentaries or explanations of the Greek philosophers, especially Aristotle. He wrote An Introduction to Logic, A Concise Logic, a series of commentaries on the Isagoge of Porphyry, the Categories, the Hermenia, the First and Second Analytics, the Topics, Sophistic, Rhetoric, and Poetics. The whole formed an Organon divided into nine parts. In the sphere of Moral Philosophy he wrote a commentary on the Nicomachean Ethics; in that of political philosophy, he made a summary of Plato's Laws, and composed a short treatise on the Ideal City. To psychology and metaphysics he contributed numerous works, with such titles as Intelligence and the Intelligible, The Soul, The Faculties of the Soul, The One and Unity, Substance, Time, The Void, and Space and Measure. He also commented on Alexander of Aphrodisias' book, de Anima. Believing that Greek philosophy was a unity, he labored to reconcile Plato and Aristotle, and with this idea wrote treatises on The Aims of Plato and Aristotle and The Agreement between Plato and Aristotle. He also discussed certain interpretations of Aristotle proposed by Galen and John Philoponus, and composed An Intervention between Aristotle and Galen.In the sphere of science, Farabi wrote commentaries on Aristotle's Physics, Meteorology, The Heavens, and The Universe, besides commenting on the Almagest of Ptolemy. To him also is due an essay explaining some difficult propositions from the Elements of Euclid. The occult sciences interested him, and he left writings on alchemy, geomancy, genii, and dreams.This great philosopher was also a talented musician, a somewhat exceptional combination. In this sphere he was at the same time composer, virtuoso, and theorist. «۱۱»- Abou `Ali al-Husayn ibn `Abdullah ibn Sina, or Avicenna, entitled al-Shaykh al-Ra'is, or Hujjat al-Haqq by his compatriots, simply Shaykh by his disciples, and the Prince of Physicians in the occidental world, was born near Bukhara in the year ۳۷۰ AH/۹۸۰. When Ibn Sina was five years old he and his family moved to the city of Bukhara, where the young boy had a greater opportunity to study. At the age of ten he already knew grammar, literature, and theology as well as the whole of the Qur'an. When the famous mathematician, Abou `Abdullah al-Natili, came to Bukhara, he was invited to stay at the house of Ibn Sina in order to teach him mathematics. Under his tutelage Ibn Sina mastered the Almagest, the Elements of Euclid and some logic, all of which he soon knew better than his teacher. Having mastered mathematics, he then turned his attention to physics, metaphysics, and medicine. By the time he was sixteen Ibn Sina had mastered all the sciences of his day and was well known as a physician. In another two years, thanks to the commentary of al-Farabi, he was also to complete his understanding of Aristotle's metaphysics which at first had presented considerable difficulty for him.Despite the loss in part or in toto of several of his major works, such as the twenty-volume Kitab al-Insaf on the arbitration of Eastern and Western philosophy and the Lisan al-`Arab in ten volumes, over two-hundred and fifty books, treatises, and letters of Ibn Sina have survived. They range from the voluminous Kitab ash-Shifa and Al-Qanoun fi't- T( ibb to treatises of only a few pages like Risalat al-Fi`l wal-Infi`al and Risalah fi's-Sirr al-Qadar.His books can be roughly divided into four separate groups: the philosophical, religious, cosmological and physical, and finally the symbolical and metaphysical narratives.Kitab ash-Shifa, a vast philosophical and scientific encyclopedia, is probably the largest work of its kind ever written by one man. Al-Qanoun fi't- T( ibb( is the most famous single book in the history of medicine in both the East and West. In the West, this book became the only medical authority for several centuries and Ibn Sina enjoyed an undisputed place of honor. In the East his dominating influence in medicine, philosophy and theology has lasted over the ages and is still alive within the circles of Islamic thought. «۱۲»- See footnote ۵. «۱۳»- One of the most valuable schools of Islamic philosophy, the philosophy of Illumination combines Neoplatonic and Islamic ideas. According to this philosophy, the source of all things is Absolute Light. That which is visible requires no definition, and nothing is more visible than light, whose every nature consists in manifestation. We may distinguish two illuminations, i. e. modes of being of the Primal Light: ۱) pure, abstract, formless; ۲) accidental derivative, possessing form. Pure light is self-conscious substance (spirit or soul), knowing itself through itself `for whatever knows itself must be pure light'. Accidental light is related to pure light as effect to cause and only exists as attribute in association with the illuminated object.Accidental light is of two kinds: a) dark substance; b) dark forms, i. e. quantities, and the combination of these two make up a material body. Since darkness is nothing but the absence of light, and light is identical with reality, the substance and forms of the universe consist of illumination diffused from Primal Light in infinite gradation of intensity. It follows that everything partakes of reality in proportion to the radiance which it receives and toward which it ever moves" with lover's passion, in order to drink more and more of the original fountain of Light." This perpetual flow and ebb of desire produces the revolutions of the heavenly spheres, the processes of nature, and all human activities. While the entire universe is eternal as emanating from Eternal Light, but contingent if regarded as the object of irradiation, some illuminations are simple, others compound and therefore inferior. The intelligences, the celestial spheres, the souls of the heavens, time, motion, and the archetypes of the elements belong to a higher world, which may be called eternal in contrast with all below it, though in the relation existing between them not posteriority but parallelism is implied. «۱۴»- A figure of the Illuminationist School of Islamic Philosophy, Sihab ad-Din Yahya Suhrawardi, was born in Suhraward, near Zanjan, Iran in ۱۱۵۵. After studying in Isfahan, a leading center of Islamic scholarship, Suhrawardi traveled through Iran, Anatolia and Syria. Influence by mystical teachings, he spent much time in meditation and seclusion, and in Halab (modern Aleppo) he favorably impressed its ruler, Malik az-Zahir. His teachings, however, aroused the opposition of established and learned religious men [`ulama], who persuaded Malik to have him put to death. The appellation al-Maqtoul [the killed one] meant that he was not to be considered a shahid [martyr].Suhrawardi wrote voluminously. The more than ۵۰ works that were attributed to him were classified into two categories: doctrinal and philosophical accounts containing commentaries on the works of Aristotle and Plato, as well as his contribution to the Illuminationist School; and shorter treatises, generally written in Persian and of an esoteric nature, meant to illustrate the paths and journeys of a mystic before he could achieve ma`rifah (gnosis of knowledge). For a brief account of his doctrines see footnote ۱۳. «۱۵»- Man's knowledge is of two kinds: acquired and intuitive. As for the former, this kind of knowledge is" acquired" through an intermediary, a conception of the thing, concrete or abstract, that is formed in the mind and is gained either through rational argument or sensory impressions.Intuitive knowledge is the immediate apprehension or cognition of things without the help of an intermediary. It is evident that man's knowledge of his self, of his attributes and moods, is of the second kind and that man's apprehension of concrete particulars is dependent on the knowledge of his self. «۱۶»- A school of philosophy founded by Mulla Sadra (see footnote ۱۷). After centuries of philosophical development in Islam, Mulla Sadra brought complete order and harmony to philosophical problems for the first time. He organized and systematized them like mathematical problems and at the same time wed philosophy and gnosis, thereby bringing about several important developments. He gave to philosophy new ways to discussing and solving hundreds of problems that could not be solved through Peripatetic philosophy. He made possible the analysis and solution of a series of mystical questions which, to that day, had been considered as belonging to a domain above that of reason and beyond comprehension through rational thought.By following the methods he had developed, Mulla Sadra succeeded in proving" transubstantial motion." Earlier Muslim philosophers, following Aristotle, believe that motion is possible only in accidents of things, not in their substance. Mulla Sadra asserted on the contrary, that whenever something partakes of motion, its substance undergoes motion and not just its accidents. Mulla Sadra also discovered the intimate relation of time to the three spatial dimensions in a manner that is similar to the meaning given in modern physics to the" fourth dimension" and which resemble the general principles of the theory of relativity. It should be noted here that Mulla Sadra based his philosophical arguments on pure reasoning, without appealing to intuition and illumination, but he found reason in need of illumination and intuition. «۱۷»- Mulla Sadra (d.۱۰۵۰ AH/۱۶۴۰), also called Sadr ad-Din Shirazi and Sadr al-Muta'alihin, was a philosopher who led the Iranian cultural renaissance in the ۱۷ th century. The foremost representative of Ishraqi [Illuminationist] School of philosopher-mystics, he is commonly regarded by Iranians as the greatest philosopher of Iran. A scion of a notable Shirazi family, Mulla Sadra completed his education in Isfahan, then the leading cultural and intellectual center of Iran. After his studies with scholars there, he produced several works, the most famous of which was his Asfar (Journeys). Asfar contains the bulk of his philosophy, which was influenced by a personal mysticism bordering on asceticism that he experienced during a ۱۵- year retreat at Kahak, a village near Qum in Iran.Toward the end of his life, Mulla Sadra returned to Shiraz to teach. His teachings, however, were considered heretical by the orthodox Shi`ite theologians, who persecuted him, though his powerful family connections permitted him to continue to write. He died on a pilgrimage to Mecca. «۱۸»- Muhyi'd-Din ibn al-`Arabi, the celebrated Muslim mystic whose influence came to permeate the intellectual and spiritual life of virtually the entire Muslim world, was born at Murcia in Southern Spain in ۱۱۶۵. Much of his youth was spent in Seville, where he devoted himself to literary, theological and mystical studies. After visiting Granada and other Spanish towns, as well as Tunis, Fez, and Morocco, he set out in ۱۲۰۲ for the East by way of Egypt, whence he made the pilgrimage to Mecca. He did not return to Spain. Many of the remaining years of his life were passed in the neighborhood of Mecca, but he also traveled extensively to Babylonia, Asia Minor, and Syria, everywhere gaining disciples and spreading his doctrines through dialogues with scientists and scholars.Whether we regard the extent of his theological writings or their influence on the subsequent development of Islamic mysticism, Ibn al-`Arabi can justly claim the supreme position among Sufi authors which posterity has accorded him, and which is attested by the title, Ash-Shaykh al-Akbar, conferred on him by the almost unanimous voice of those who are best qualified to judge. The list of his works drawn up by himself contains ۲۸۹ titles, and some of them are of enormous length. The most famous and important is the Futuhat al-Makkiyah. In this, as in many of his works, Ibn al-`Arabi professes to communicate mysteries revealed to him in ecstatic vision by prophets, angels, and even God Himself. «۱۹»- Since the third century AH, Qum- the burial place of Fatimah Ma`soumah (peace be upon her), the sister of Imam Rida, the eight Imam from the Prophet's Progeny- has been a center of learning and pilgrimage. In the mid- ۱۴ th century, the great scholar and faqih, Ayatullah Ha'iri settled in Qum and reorganized the religious teaching institution. Following Ayatullah Ha'iri, scholars from other cities came to Qum and it was not long before Qum was elevated to the status of the center of religious learning in Iran. At present thousands of students from Islamic and non-Islamic countries are studying in Qum. The students, having completed introductory courses, embark, depending on their interests, on a wide range of Islamic sciences, including jurisprudence, exegesis, usoul [the principles of religion or dogmatic theology], philosophy, mysticism, history, and hadith. «۲۰»- A stage of gnosis, or maqam is a spiritual stage that periodically marks the long path followed by Muslim mystics (Sufis) leading to the vision of, and union with, God. The Sufi progresses by means of his own mujahadah (strife or self-abnegation) and through the help and guidance of the masters (shaykhs). In each maqam the Sufi strives to purify himself from all worldly inclination and to prepare himself to attain an ever-higher spiritual level.The order and number of the maqams are not uniform among all Sufis. The majority, however, agree on seven major maqams: ۱) the maqam of tawba (repentance), which does not mean remembrance of sins and atonement for them but rather forgetting them along with everything that distracts from the love of God; ۲) the maqam of wara (fear of the Lord), which is not fear of hellfire but rather the dread of being separated eternally from God; ۳) the maqam of zuhd (renunciation, or detachment), which means that the person is devoid of possessions and his heart is without acquisitiveness; ۴) the maqam of faqr (poverty), in which he asserts his independence of worldly possessions; ۵) the maqam of s abr (patience), the art of steadfastness; ۶) the maqam of tawakkul (trust or surrender), in which the Sufi knows that he cannot be discouraged by hardships and pain, for he is in total submission to God's will and finds joy even in his sorrow; ۷) the maqam of rida (satisfaction), a state of quiet contentment and joy that comes from the anticipation of the long-sought union. «۲۱»- Following a bloody Marxist coup in Afghanistan in ۱۹۷۸, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan on December ۲۷, ۱۹۷۹ to prop up a friendly regime. Within months, ۱۰۰,۰۰۰ Soviet troops had dug in for a long war of attrition against Muslim fighters in the mountains. Opposition to the Soviet spread rapidly. Men were drafted only to desert at the earliest opportunity, and the Afghan military dropped from its ۱۹۷۸ strength of ۱۰۵,۰۰۰ to about ۲۰,۰۰۰- ۳۰,۰۰۰ by ۱۹۸۷. As the result of this bitter war, a great number of cities and towns were devastated and the Soviet and Muslim fighters suffered considerable casualties. The continuation of resistance resulted in a series of short-lived, Soviet-backed government, bringing more and more discredit upon the Soviet Union. «۲۲»- A reference to Lenin's notorious statement:" Religion is the opiate of people." «۲۳»- A reference to the Qur'an ۲۰:۴۷. The verse contains a clear warning to Pharaoh of his end in case of rejection. Moses and Aaron were directed to convey this message. The full verse reads:" So you go to him and say: Surely we are two messengers of thy Lord: So send forth the Children of Israel with us: and torment them not. Indeed we have brought to thee a message from thy Lord, and peace be upon those who follow the guidance."The delegation representing Imam Khomeini, headed by Mr. `Abdullah Jawadi Amuli, one of the Imam's disciples, accompanied by the Deputy Foreign Minister, Mr. Muhammad-Jawad Ardeshir Larijani, and a lady representative of the Majlis, Mrs. Mardiyyah Hadidehcheh (Dibagh), arrived in Moscow on Dey ۱۳,۱۳۶۷ AHS [January ۳,۱۹۸۹]. This delegation was welcomed by Muntashioly (?) (Secretary of the Presidium of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics), Deputy Foreign Minister of the Soviet Union, Friday and congregational prayer leader of Moscow and the Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Moscow. The detailed commentary on Imam Khomeini's message to Mikhail Gorbachev written by Mr. Jawadi Amuli after return from the journey was published by the Institute for Compilation and Publication of Imam Khomeini's Works under the title, Ava-ye Tawhid [A Call to Divine Unity].