Statements of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution in Meeting with Judicial Leaders of Islamic Countries

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

We welcome all the esteemed guests, brothers, and sisters who have come from Islamic countries to this place, which is your home.

You are here in your own home and among your brothers. This conference at this high and esteemed level is, in our view, a great opportunity for the Islamic Ummah, and we must make the utmost use of this opportunity. The first thing that can be gained from these meetings is familiarity and acquaintance with one another. We must consider this very important. For a long time—decades—the enemies of the Islamic Ummah have taken advantage of our negligence and have distanced us from one another in various ways; they have made us unfamiliar with each other; they have instilled suspicion among us. We are brothers whose interactions with one another resemble those of strangers, and the strangers exploit this situation within the Islamic Ummah. We must correct this; we must correct this. These sessions are steps in this direction.

The Islamic Ummah is a large, living entity; it has goals and aspirations. These goals and aspirations do not belong to a single nation or a single country within the Islamic Ummah; they are common aspirations of the Islamic world. In order for these aspirations to come alive and be realized, we must come closer together. Islamic governments become a means of bringing their nations closer, and when nations come closer, they exchange their experiences, spirits, and temperaments, and as a result, what the Islamic Ummah will achieve will be something very valuable and significant.

Today, in the Islamic world, we are faced with continuous blows from the powers that are directed not at a single country or a single nation, but at the body of the Islamic Ummah. One example is the Islamic judiciary and Islamic rights. Islam has advanced and lofty judicial laws; Islamic rights are among the most refined and advanced rights in the world; everyone can see this. Let us look at what Islamic scholars have compiled over the centuries regarding Islamic legal issues, criminal issues, and the overall judicial matters. When we examine these, we see a very valuable collection. If we had concentrated on this collection in the Islamic world over these years, we could have, considering the law of evolution and progress, refined them day by day; however, this did not happen in the Islamic world. The power and wrath of colonialism, just as it dominated the Islamic Ummah in political and economic matters, also imposed its dominance over Islamic countries and nations in cultural and legal matters, and our judiciary became a foreign, Western judiciary; without reason. These are the pains and problems of the Islamic world.

The Islamic world today needs self-confidence and reliance on God. We must regain our self-confidence. When one looks at the Islamic world, sometimes one sees a jurist lacking self-confidence in issuing fatwas, a judge lacking self-confidence in judgment, and retreating in the face of the propaganda onslaught of the opponents of Islam. Today, the Islamic world needs self-confidence; both in the political arena and in various economic fields, as well as in various intellectual arenas; including in Islamic judicial matters and Islamic rights.

We sometimes see that a jurist does not explicitly state or even denies an Islamic ruling because the Westerners do not approve of it; this is very bad. We have criteria; our criteria are the Book and the Sunnah, and these are the criteria that are useful for the proper management of human life today—in the twenty-first century. We are not behind the times. If we correctly return to Islamic rulings, we can manage the needs of today’s humanity better than Western culture. The result of the dominance of Western culture is evident in the world. There is no justice in the world, there is no security, there is no spirit of brotherhood and camaraderie among humans, and enmity, discord, and animosity are abundant. The unchecked dominance of the powers also exists in the world. Well, all of these are the offspring of Western culture and the cultural dominance of the West over the world.

You see how the so-called free-thinking countries treat Muslim minorities today. Compare this with the behavior of Islam in various periods with the minorities that existed in Islamic countries. In the conquests that took place during the time of the Rightly Guided Caliphs, wherever Muslims went—after the stage of war—in the stage of governance, their behavior towards non-Muslims was kind. In this region of the Eastern Roman Empire of that time, which today constitutes a collection of Islamic countries, there were some Jews living—this has been mentioned in histories—who, when the Muslims arrived, swore, saying: "By the Torah; the justice of Muslims is dearer to us than what has passed over us." They praised the justice of Muslims. Today, in Islamic countries, you see that Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians live freely, send representatives to the parliament, and perform their religious ceremonies; the same is true in other countries. This is Islam. Compare the behavior of Islam with minorities with the behavior of today’s so-called civilized advocates of human rights with religious minorities in their countries, especially with Muslims.

Today, the world is thirsty for justice, thirsty for security, thirsty for the absence of discrimination. Islam can provide these. Western culture and Western civilization have shown that they are incapable of providing justice for humanity. Look at the current situation, look at the situation in Palestine. The Zionist officials explicitly state that if equality is established between us and the Palestinians—in the occupied land of Palestine—then the same fate as South Africa awaits us. They openly acknowledge apartheid; they confess to this racial discrimination. The world is hearing this; the world condemned by Western civilization and culture is hearing this, yet it does not fulfill its duty.

This is the situation that warns us; it tells us Muslims that we must gain self-confidence and rely on God and know that if we move according to our beliefs, with thought, with planning, and with unity, the Almighty God will grant us victory. We must have good thoughts about the Almighty God. The Almighty God condemns those who have ill thoughts about Him: "And He will punish the hypocrites and hypocritical women and the polytheists and polytheistic women who think ill of God; upon them is the circle of evil, and the wrath of God is upon them, and He has cursed them and prepared for them Hell, and it is an evil destination." We must have good thoughts about the Almighty God and not have ill thoughts about Him. Where have we acted and taken action, and God has not helped us? The places where we faced problems, weakness, and defeat are where we did not act, where we did not fulfill the right of action. Wherever we fulfilled the right of action, the Almighty God helped us, and this is the divine promise; "God has promised those among you who believe and do righteous deeds that He will surely make them successors upon the earth as He made those before them successors." And many other verses of the Quran.

Now, what relates to this judicial and legal collection is that we should seriously take independence of opinion, self-confidence, and a return to divine and Quranic teachings regarding the judiciary in Islamic jurisprudence. This conference and these meetings with one another can help us in this regard. Fortunately, there are good experiences in this area in Islamic countries; we also have good experiences. Over the nearly three decades since the revolution, we have gained useful experiences in this area. Let us utilize the experiences of our brothers, and let the brothers utilize our experiences. Let us all help each other to rebuild the Islamic judiciary, which is a lofty foundation in the true sense of the word.

Yesterday, I heard the proposals that were made in this conference by the guests and hosts. They are very good proposals; we support the establishment of such a union and the realization of these proposals. Let us all help, let us all cooperate so that, God willing, Islamic countries can make progress in this area. Of course, our meetings, our coming together, our camaraderie with one another have opponents. These opponents will not remain silent; let us also be aware of this. Let us decide, with the help and power of God, God willing, to advance our work in a brotherly and correct manner. Let us seek success from the Almighty God, ask for His help, and God willing, let us be hopeful that the Almighty God will assist us.

I hope you all have a pleasant time in Tehran and that, God willing, you leave Iran with good memories.

Peace be upon you and God's mercy and blessings.