Statements of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution in Meeting with Students during the Blessed Month of Ramadan

In the Name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful Dear students! Welcome. For years, this session has been held on a day in the blessed month of Ramadan in this manner. The purpose of this session is not for me to speak; it is for you to speak. I have many things to say to the students - necessary and important things - but I will share them in student meetings that I attend at universities or during some trips when youth sessions are held. The Ramadan session is primarily for me to hear from you. Our purpose in this session is two or three things:

First, it is to honor the university and the student. This act is symbolic. We want to express the spiritual value and dignity of the university and the student in a clear language; this is one of the clearest languages. We spend almost two hours here to sit and talk with you.

Second, it is for student organizations to come together. Of course, it is obvious that the student organizations in question are those that operate within the framework of the laws of the country and the fundamental principles of the Islamic Republic. Certainly, anyone who is more committed to the foundations, more committed to piety (taqwa), and more committed to correct thought and faith is dearer to us - there is no doubt about that - but the organizations that move with the indicators of the ideological and practical foundations of Islam and the Islamic Republic are acceptable and desirable to us. Also, a group of elites from other sectors - in the same way that our friend just mentioned - sit together and present a collective image to the eyes of this nation; because our session will be seen by all the people later.

Third, this is a very valuable opportunity for me to hear your thoughts; because you - whether from organizations or elites - have things to say that are worth hearing for me. Whenever I have heard something from students, I have noted it down. These notes are not just writing on paper; they go into the cycle of work, effort, and action; some are raised in relation to universities, some in relation to ministries, and some in relation to other governmental sectors, and as much as possible, they are pursued; and if there are requests or reminders, they are taken into consideration.

We are happy that this year we have also had the opportunity; however, unfortunately, time has become short; that is, we now have almost an hour and a half left. In any case, friends should start. I kindly ask that in the introduction of your talks, you refrain from expressing affection and compliments towards me.

... Our friend has raised important points. The issue of efficiency is important, as is the discourse of the government, which he related to efficiency, which is completely correct and important. The year of accountability that we have raised must be taken into consideration; however, there are one or two subtle points here that must be noted: First, when you ask a question and want an answer, you must ask a question whose answer - from anyone - is discernible and quantitatively evaluable; otherwise, if you say, "Do you know what problems arise from unemployment?" the answer is yes, we know. "What are you doing?" The same things you see we are doing. This way of posing a question will yield nothing. Or ask the judiciary, "What have you done to remedy this ruin in the past five years?" They will give you several pages of statistics stating that we have done these things. Accountability is a very sensitive issue. What you must focus on is the demand. The demand for justice and the eradication of corruption is very important. These demands must exist. Alongside these demands, it should not be the case that all the actions taken by the officials are questioned and doubted; no, truly in the areas you have raised, good and many works have been done; however, managing the country at this moment is very difficult. You know today we are facing a tremendous challenge with power centers that think if this system proves its efficiency completely, the space will become narrow for them; as they see right now that they have underperformed against the Islamic Republic, which has been able to achieve the advancements that friends have pointed out. Of course, let me tell you; the advancements in various sectors are more than this. The discourse of justice is a fundamental discourse and - as I mentioned a few days ago in a session - it is everything for us. Without it, the Islamic Republic will have nothing to say; we must have it. This discourse must be spread; in such a way that every current, every person, every party, and every faction that comes to power feels compelled to submit to this discourse; that is, to strive for justice and be forced to carry the banner of justice; this is what you must maintain and preserve; this is important. However, in dealing with what has happened, you must approach it domestically; not as a foreigner and a protester. After all, many works have been done, and there have been occasional shortcomings; but the problem must be solved. The result of a harsh manner of expression should not be that after a while one feels that they are severely protesting against the entire system; no, you are striving for the success of the entire system; your entire effort is to advance the system. As much as you can, complete the details. In areas where there are gaps, help as much as you can to fill the gaps. As much as you can, strengthen and generalize the main slogan of justice and deepen it in minds and work on its backing and philosophical thought - these are necessary - but do not do anything that your opponents stir doubts about whether the Islamic system can? Has the Islamic system succeeded? Of course it can; of course it has succeeded! I am the one who claims the efficiency of various institutions. I constantly question and demand from them regarding efficiency; however, I believe that the Islamic system has acted more strongly than all the governments that existed in our country during the colonial era and the era close to colonialism. Undoubtedly, the Islamic Republic has acted strongly in all sectors. Faithful and efficient elements have existed in the system; the popular backing has also helped them. In some areas, we have entered the field with power that we could not have imagined. This is the case in all sectors. Now is not the time for explanation and presentation of statistics. Of course, the demands of this period of the Islamic Republic require more revolutionary, faithful work, and bringing all resources to the field more than this; we accept this. Of course, there is underperformance, but there is no inefficiency; a distinction must be made between these. There is no inefficiency; the Islamic system is efficient. A sign of the system's efficiency is your presence. A believing and committed student can strongly present their voice and motivation in the social space. Your words will be published throughout the social space tomorrow; this is a very important point; this itself is the efficiency of this system. The efficiency of the system is different from the efficiency of this or that institution; the system is a system of efficiency. Of course, the efficiency of the system is the sum of the positive and negative performances of the institutions of the system; however, this is a positive outcome.

... Of course, I always defend the support and assistance of elites and believe that this is the right thing to do; however, in my opinion, it is good that athletes and scientific elites are not compared. For decades, this has been common in the world, and it has also been common in our country; however, the discussion of scientific elites has only become common here in recent years; such a thing did not exist in the past. This will gradually become a culture; it will turn into a serious and public issue. Of course, it is also true that in the world, the popular spirit of inclination towards sports prevails; this must be acknowledged. Now you see that sometimes a country is recognized by a football player. That country must have politicians, scientific elites, and scholars; however, none of them are recognized; sometimes even the country itself is not recognized! The world has an inclination towards sports, but it is not a correct inclination; I do not endorse this inclination. Our country is somewhat subject to this issue. In our country, which is the cradle of other sports like wrestling, football currently has more attraction; people watch football matches and get excited and align with the public sentiments of the world. What you want, God willing, will be realized. My belief is that many of these works will be seen by you before you become the source of affairs, God willing; some of them will remain for when you become the source of affairs; because these are long-term works.

... Recording experiences is not such that, for example, a manager sits down and writes: my experience in this matter is this. Experiences are reflected in the documents and writings of a collection. For example, the experiences of economic institutions - the Central Bank, the Management Organization, the Ministry of Economy, etc. - are recorded in documents and resources. Therefore, in the course of work, experience is gained and recorded there. It is not that experiences come and go with people and are destroyed; then the next individuals come and do not use them. That we say in which sectors, in which projects, and in which fields work and research should be done, of course, this is a specialized and special task. In our opinion, the same foundation that we mentioned, God willing, if established, will also dedicate a part to these matters; it will determine priorities and address these issues. However, it is clear what a country wants from its elites. A country wants its elites to think about the needs and public demands and the interests of the country; to respond to them and consider themselves committed. I have repeatedly told the Olympiad elites - of course, thank God, now all of you are elites; I consider all of you young people elite in a sense - that elites should not consider themselves as demanding from the nation. We constantly advise officials to take care of the elites; these are the treasures and assets of the country, and of course, they must be taken care of; there is no doubt about that. One point is that we officials must consider ourselves responsible for supporting, assisting, and defending the elites; but another point is that we say elites should consider themselves as indebted to the Iranian nation and their country; this second point is absolutely unacceptable. We are all indebted: indebted to this nation, indebted to this history, indebted to future generations. Those who leave the country and go abroad, sometimes they go to complete their knowledge and return; what is the problem with that? This is not a barrier at all. For example, if they have a need here - a workshop, a working tool, a lesson, knowledge, a rank, a professor - and this need is not met here; it is met in some point in the world; therefore, they go there, use it, and return; this is approved by us; we have no complaints about this. But those who abandon their country and do not look back, they gain nothing. They abandon their home, which belongs to them, and all of them consider it their place and home; they go to a point where they become hired! Being hired and working for a wage; it makes a big difference. Living in your own home, breathing in your own home, considering yourself the homeowner; where is this? That an Iranian goes to some point in the world - for example, to Australia or Canada or Europe - even if they find a center there to work in and receive a salary that is ten times the salary they would receive in Iran; but there they are not the homeowner, everyone considers them a stranger, no one recognizes their rights, and they do not feel kinship with them; where is this? It is not that going abroad is considered an advantage; no, staying here is an advantage. You work in your own home, for your own people, and for your own family; and this has a very high value. Elites are from this nation and this country, and our expectation is that they will also be for this nation and this country. Of course, we constantly advise officials and consider it necessary for ourselves to utilize and support this elite group - which are the reserves of the country.

Statements at the end of the students' speeches In the Name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful Today's session was a very good session. As I mentioned at the beginning of the session, the plan is for me to listen and for friends to express their thoughts. The goal of this session is primarily to honor the university; we want respect to be given to the university and the student in the public space of the country. Respect for the student and the university means respect for knowledge; it does not mean that we allow a class to have arrogance and pride; no, it is not like that at all. Honoring the student and the university means honoring knowledge. If our country does not invest and strive in the field of knowledge, it will certainly face delays in comprehensive progress and development for many years to come; as the backwardness of our country during the reign of the tyrants - both the Pahlavis and the Qajars - was due to the fact that the issue of knowledge was not given importance in this country and knowledge was not respected. When knowledge is respected in a society, the talents and inner sources of the human elements of the country are stirred, and knowledge becomes indigenous. Investment in knowledge must be with this goal; otherwise, that others have scientific products and teach us formulas and words, and we learn those words without gaining any depth from them, does not help the progress of any country; neither us nor any other country. In the past, the source of knowledge in this country had dried up. This was done in various ways: one was that in the face of the hegemony of the advancement of Western knowledge, this perception became thickened and emphasized in our country that an Iranian is incapable, an Iranian cannot, an Iranian does not have the necessary talent for scientific and industrial advancement. Today, this statement sounds foreign and unfamiliar to you; but know that for a long period, this thought was produced and promoted in the country; they said an Iranian is suited for literature - literature of feasts and flowers and nightingales and such things - that too literature in the sense of poetry; otherwise, literary research had to be done by Europeans and European Orientalists. An Iranian is not suited for serious and fundamental work. The result of scientific poverty was industrial poverty. The result of industrial poverty was spending all resources to reach a normal worldly standard of living; that is, importing, assembly industry, constantly running after others, giving all internal resources to reach that level. Another result was that many natural talents - apart from human talents - remained stagnant in our country. When a people are not scholars, are not industrialists, and do not have technology and knowledge, they remain oblivious to many of their natural wealth. Many years passed; oil was in this country, but there was no one to know what this oil is and what it is good for! Others who had advanced knew this substance and its application; thus, they came, discovered, and extracted it; they became its owners and seized it for their own benefit; both in our country and in most oil-rich countries in the world. All of this is a consequence of scientific backwardness. When there is no knowledge, there is no industry. When there is no industry, many of the wealth of society are not discovered. When there is no industry, all resources are spent to obtain the contemporary industry; following the foreign and inevitably taking the foreign culture and being inevitably subject to foreign policies also arises. All of this is due to lack of knowledge. Therefore, knowledge must be promoted in the country. One of the important tasks of the revolution was to promote knowledge within the country. At the beginning of the revolution, for a short period, we were forced to not have universities. Universities were closed due to the cultural revolution and the issues that were in the universities. Universities were closed at the insistence of the students. In the same Tehran University, groups created a war room; that is, they used the university as a means for chaos, sedition, war against the revolution, war against the system, and war against Islam! The university was closed for a short period; however, after this short period, scientific activity and the university and students advanced miraculously. You are now in the midst of this flow; you do not truly feel what situation we had and where we have come from. For many years in this country, we had to use Thai, Pakistani, and Indian doctors for our treatments; because there were not enough doctors in this country; but today, one of the concerns of the system has become how to employ this many extra doctors. Some people are worried about this issue. In my opinion, this is a misjudgment; it is not a worry. At that time, to manage the few universities in the country, we did not have professors. Of course, at the beginning of the revolution, some professors left the country; but those who left were not that many; there was exaggeration about their number. Today, fortunately, we have many active professors in all these universities that have been established in the country. The number of universities today is incomparable to the past. There may be mistakes in policymaking and implementing those policies - I do not defend the quantitative expansion in this way absolutely - but the main point is that importance was given to knowledge. Today, I want to convey this point to you. My dear ones! Pay attention to knowledge. The key to unlocking various locks is to give importance to knowledge. Of course, alongside this, you must also keep in mind this obvious matter that knowledge and the scholar can be as beneficial as they can be harmful; "When a thief comes with a lamp, he takes the goods more carefully." If someone who has knowledge does not have piety (taqwa), integrity, and honesty, they can be a harmful entity; they can use their knowledge against the country and the interests of the country. Therefore, alongside knowledge, culture, purification, ethics, and spirituality are also necessary; do not doubt this. The movements that are being made to make the university environment and the student environment a place of irreligion and meaninglessness, in my opinion, although part of it is out of negligence, part of it is also calculated. In this matter, many are to blame; there are culprits in the universities, and there are also culprits in the ministries and governmental institutions. Some want to deliberately empty the student and university environments - which are the environments of knowledge and scientific expansion and scientific growth and the scientific future of the country - of spirituality so that faith, piety, spirituality, God, and religious commitment do not exist in them; this is certainly a movement against the interests of the country.

O Lord! Fill the hearts of the young and ready and capable with the light of Your knowledge. O Lord! Grant blessings and special attention to this gathering of dear young people that took place at an hour of the day in the month of Ramadan. O Lord! Grant our youth righteousness and guidance. O Lord! Place the future of the country in the hands of these young people, the future of knowledge and understanding and piety; make the enemies increasingly hopeless of infiltrating this country and the Islamic Republic; make the heart of the holy Imam of the Age pleased and happy with us; unite our martyrs with the Prophet and the Prophet's saints; and unite the pure soul of Imam Khomeini (may his soul be sanctified) with Your saints.

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