Statements in Meeting with Artists of the Islamic Propagation Organization

In the Name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

I am very grateful for your presence here and delighted to meet you collectively, brothers and sisters. Although this collective meeting means that instead of enjoying your remarks, as is usual in such gatherings, I will speak and you will listen; whereas I would have preferred the meeting to be such that you would also express and speak as much as I will.

Mr. Zam mentioned that brothers and sisters are eager to meet with us. I must say that I have always had this eagerness to have good meetings with the artists of the revolution, whether for work, exchange of ideas, or companionship. Last year, I also told him that I am ready to meet with the members of the Art Center. Now, I am very pleased that you have kindly come.

Your large gathering, due to its density, is less usable for people like us who are art listeners; because each of you, wherever you are, will enlighten a large audience. When you are all together, the density and gathering of so much talent and activity naturally means that we cannot benefit from you on the spot, and truly, when a talented and active group like you gathers in one place, it is a very great asset, and every artist can cover a country and even a world with their art, create mindsets, provide guidance for individuals, or offer spiritual and artistic pleasures to those who appreciate art.

I would like to remind you of a point regarding the statements made, which were essentially the statements of this group, and that is that, in my opinion, you should not be too affected by those who do not want to understand or acknowledge Islamic art. The fact that resources are not provided to a group is something that one must strive to resolve. Resources should be provided to a group that does good work. There is no problem in seeking resources and saying why you do not give us resources to do these works or expand our work—there is no problem with this, and we must make our efforts—but if some are not willing to accept our art and us as artists, I say from your perspective that this is not at all important, nor is it a bad thing. Can everyone agree with an art arising from a specific thought and idea? Surely some will disagree; there is no problem, let them disagree. Surely some will oppose the content and orientation. One should not find this issue very significant. There is one thing that no one can oppose, and that is your art and artistic substance.

If you present a good piece of writing, poetry, music, painting, or any artistic product that is rich and full of artistic substance, no one can say it is bad. No one can oppose it; because it would be like opposing the sun:

The praiser of the sun praises himself

For my eyes are bright and unclouded

If I praised your art, I truly praised myself. Anyone who praises your art does not have a favor over you. If someone attacks your art, they have truly ruined themselves and attacked themselves. When it comes to praising art, a prominent artistic work does not mean the exceptional works of history, but rather the possession of sufficient artistic substance is meant. Can anyone deny this reality? Those who are fair will criticize such a person.

I want to conclude from this point that you—as an individual artist and as a group of the Art Center of the Islamic Propagation Organization—must focus on increasing your artistic substance so that your artistic substance humbles the viewer and convinces the claimant and inquirer of your states and the one awaiting your contribution that there is artistic substance here.

There is no doubt that those with wrong thoughts or motives will use art. Art is something that all the intelligent beings of the world—actors and listeners—want to use by employing and enjoying it. Is there anyone in the world who has a mind but does not want to use art? Naturally, everyone wants to use art. One of the types of use is that someone pours an impure idea into minds with an artistic tool. Therefore, that person also wants to use art—there is no blame at all—like money and weapons that are used.

We cannot stop those with impure thoughts and methods. What can be done is to place what the owner of the impure thought wants to use or has used in the hands of the powerful fingers of the sacred, pure, and high thought; otherwise, if that pure and sacred and high thought cannot use this substance, we have no doubt that it will fall behind.

Someone who wants to create corruption in a part of the world will use fast means—like airplanes and cars. He has money, rents a vehicle, sits in it, and goes to organize a theft or start a murder in that place. You, who want to prevent him and go there to revive souls, must also board this airplane and set off. If you are a very good and strong person and you really want good work to be done and souls to be revived, you must arrive there sooner or at least in coordination with him and immediately after him; but if you do not reach the task with this fast airplane, it is inevitable that you will fall behind.

All my talk is in this direction and meaning that you—as the Art Center group, which, thanks be to God, accommodates all kinds of art in this collection, and as non-Art Center individuals—when you find art in yourself and pursue it and bring the root and source of art to boil within yourself, you must strive to thicken the artistic substance so that you can strengthen and expand this sacred thought and this pure spirit of today's world—the Islamic Revolution—which, like an innocent spirit and thought, finally finds its place in the world amidst the impure thoughts and dark times of our world.

We are not very much the owners of this issue. The owner of the issue is God Himself, who advances this thought. These are divine traditions, and we are one of those people and groups who have practiced this tradition. Not that we now think and suddenly have the doubt that we were the ones who brought Islam to this grandeur in the world, and now that in Africa and Europe and everywhere, the issue of Islam has become a dangerous issue for global arrogance, and they feel threatened by it, so we are the ones who, as ourselves, frighten and shake global arrogance, and Islam did not do such a thing!!

The divine tradition in history required that Islamic thought and pure divine thought emerge at a time, and that time has now begun, and it is clear that we are one of its signs. One of its signs is Lebanon and Africa and various Islamic countries. One of its signs is the world's feeling of weakness in the face of divine and monotheistic thought that exists and is coming into being. In this collection and in this great movement, this pure and sacred thought that has emerged in the world—a revolutionary, monotheistic, and divine thought—has lined up against satanic and demonic thought. We who are artists—I mean you, and I speak from your perspective—must use and thicken this artistic substance, and poets and writers and any other kind of artist must serve this sacred thought and make maximum use of art and artistic substance and artistic tools. Of course, now let's leave these discussions about whether art is a tool or not and whether the expression of a tool for art is correct or not for those who are into these discussions. It is clear what I mean. I ask the sisters and brothers working in the Art Center collection to consider this important.

Your progress has been very good. Although I do not know most of you brothers and sisters closely and cannot say your progress and the progress of committed and revolutionary art has been good. When one sees your works, one feels this progress. I am sure that if you strive and resources are provided—as they said—true and vibrant art in our country, which has many bases, will truly be able to dominate the atmosphere of this society with the correct thought and revolutionary thought and monotheistic thought in the near future and deepen that thought.

Two or three years ago, I was reading one of your publications, and one of its strong and powerful writings affected me so much that I cried. I said: O Lord! Truly, how much our young people have advanced for Your sake and by the blessing of faith in You, and with what power and courage they write these things. In the same place, a critique was written that I found very interesting. I was truly impressed by how revolutionary art and literature are growing in this way. The things that we, as listeners, can have an understanding of, thanks be to God, have improved day by day, and perhaps in some sections, it has improved a lot, which we have not had much success in using and understanding.

What is very important is that using art, like all other tools that carry a thought, must have a very precise, clear, and correct orientation and not be mistaken in orientation. The Prophet of Islam (peace be upon him) used all tools, even the tool of art, to carry this thought—which you are now pursuing—in the most refined and noble garment and cover, namely the Quran.

Indeed, the Quran has a very strange artistic substance that is not at all imaginable for us. If you observe the Quran from beginning to end and likewise the statements of the Messenger of God (peace be upon him), you will see that monotheism and enmity with polytheism and idols and Satan—which is the manifestation of evil and wickedness and filth—exist and surge. Also, the decision to strive and work and not get tired and love people and honor humanity and humanism surges. In other words, Islamic principles and the things that are the foundations of the revolution are present throughout the Quran and from the beginning to the end of the literature of early Islam and correct Islamic literature—namely the narrations from the Imams (peace be upon them) and also Nahj al-Balagha.

In these sources, there is no zigzag movement that, for example, one day our orientation is such that we go to the left and the next day we turn to the right! This is wrong. We cannot allow ourselves this state of fluctuation under the pretext of being an artist and say that because someone is an artist, they are different from others regarding principles; that is, as if there are some principles of life that are principles for all people, but these are not principles for the artist, and the artist, due to their delicacy and sensitivity of spirit and due to the subtlety of thought and perception, is exempt from the usual principles of life! No, there is no such thing at all. The artist, due to that delicacy and sensitivity and sensitivity, understands the truth better and sooner and expresses it better and remains more committed to it; not that now because they have obtained the truth sooner than others, or obtained it more delicately and subtly, they lose it more easily. Is such a thing possible?!

It is an insult to art to attribute the fluctuations that are inherent in ourselves or arise from wrong feelings that exist within us to art; just as in the past, these artists often had bad addictions and were addicted to various kinds of impurities. At that time, I knew some of them and knew some from afar and knew what situation they were in. Once I told someone why all of them are like this and everyone we heard and understood and saw, it turned out that they were caught in some way. He said: He is an artist after all!! In my opinion, there is no greater insult to art than this statement. He did not make this statement as an insult; rather, he said it as an apology! He wanted to say that after all, an artist is a delicate person and falls into such things; whereas this is not at all permissible.

I say now that we live in a time when those impurities and entanglements have decreased and have fallen in the existing standards of life and in the standards of the post-revolutionary era, these words are more of a defect than before, we should not replace other things with the excuse and justification of being an artist for those entanglements. In my belief, the purpose is to preserve that pure and original Islamic and Quranic line, which is the same original revolutionary line and the line of our Imam.

The artistic identity of the Imam became apparent to everyone after his passing. Perhaps many did not even know that the Imam was a poet or a poet; that too poetry with this level of mystical delicacy and that special burning state of a devoted mystic. This great man, with that mystical spirit, is the same person whose voice was the strongest against global arrogance. That is, spiritual delicacy is accompanied by such a strong will and performs the greatest works of our time.

Indeed, the establishment of the Islamic Republic was not just the establishment of a new government and the elimination of an old government; it was much more difficult than this. In a world where everything is directed towards materialism and perhaps for about two hundred years, it has been systematically working against religions and especially against Islam, the establishment of an Islamic government in one of the most sensitive parts of the world was truly a miraculous task. That great man, with his strong will, was able to employ all the great popular forces and realize this miracle with the help of God.

It is very important that that delicate spirit, throughout the many years of struggle—which had many difficulties—did not deviate a hair's breadth to the left or right. In my opinion, he is a model for all of us and you as committed and faithful artists and for every class in various titles, and we must learn from him.

Personally, I have a lot of affection and interest in you because of the many values that exist in you, some of which I feel and perceive, and because of the capital that is in you and is extremely necessary and essential for our nation and people and country and revolution and history. I ask you to strengthen this capital within yourselves and place it more and more in the service of pure and sacred goals.

Various institutions must help you and remove obstacles from your path so that, God willing, you can establish and shape the foundation and central core of true and authentic Islamic art as strongly and deeply rooted as possible. Others who are artists but have a different thought and spirit must know that it is truly a pity and a waste for that capital and art to be used in a path other than the path of God and spirituality and revolution and the salvation of humanity and helping the deprived and oppressed, and it is also a pity for it to be used in very low-value uses and paths that unfortunately those trivialities are used.

Once again, I thank you for giving me the opportunity to meet you. Of course, my intention in this meeting was not to speak to you as always; my intention was to hear more from you and benefit, which naturally is not possible in such a gathering, and God willing, Mr. Zam should plan well for this.

Peace be upon you and God's mercy and blessings