Statements in Meeting with Students of Religious Seminaries in Tehran Province

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

Thanks be to God, the Lord of the worlds, and peace and blessings be upon our master and prophet, Abu al-Qasim al-Mustafa Muhammad, and upon his pure and chosen progeny, the guided, the Mahdi, the infallible, especially the Awaited One among the people of the earth.

I am very pleased with this meeting. Besides the sweetness and joy of interacting and conversing with a group of students, the topics discussed in this session—both those presented by friends here and the writings I received, which I hope to examine more closely later, as well as the points raised by a few dear brothers in the form of objections or requests—were all good matters and are gratifying to me.

When I look at you—young people, young students—I see the towering saplings of the garden of Imamate and Guardianship. Thanks be to God, these saplings have grown; some have borne fruit, and some give assurance that they will bear fruit; one feels this from the words and the overall meeting. And their example in the Gospel is like a seed that sprouts and strengthens and grows thick, standing firm on its stalk, which amazes the farmers, to provoke the disbelievers against them; this last point is very important. Your standing firm, your growth, your spiritual expansion, your various abilities astonish both the farmers and those who have sown these seeds; when they look and see these advancements, these new ideas, these hopeful faces, they themselves are astonished. More importantly, it provokes the disbelievers against you; and this must be the case. If we see that our behavior is such that the enemies of religion, the enemies of Islam, the enemies of the rule of the Quran are not angered by us and are not disturbed by our existence, we must doubt our effectiveness. If Amir al-Mu'minin (the Commander of the Faithful) is such that his decisiveness and movement provoke figures like Muawiya or Amr ibn al-As or others, you too are on the same path; it must provoke the disbelievers against you.

Thanks be to God, one observes that there are outstanding developments in the seminary. I listened carefully to the points you made; of course, I must revisit these points that were raised and reflect on them if God grants me the ability; but the amount I have heard so far has been gratifying and hopeful; it was very good.

Let me mention two or three brief points; of course, I have made some notes that I will share with you—if possible, I will share some of them—but I will present these two or three brief points.

First, do not underestimate studying. The good words you have spoken, these good phrases, do not mean that you have studied well; it means you are good thinkers, good speakers; but have you studied well? From these words, one cannot understand that you have studied well. You must study well.

I taught the Risaleh and Makatib in Mashhad; every now and then, they would take us and imprison us, and my students would scatter; then when we came back from prison, we would start the lessons again, and they would gather and come back; the enthusiasm for struggle and observing my condition—the special beatings we received from the regime at that time—sometimes caused them to doubt the lessons we were giving them; now, when I would explain the details of Sheikh's teachings in Makatib or, for example, Kifayah, I would see they were in doubt; I always told them: my dear children! Know that if you do not study, you cannot be effective; I would tell them that without substance, it is like a flatbread; you must study.

If you want your thoughts, your proposals, the outstanding qualities that your spirit, thanks be to God, possesses, to have an impact in society, you must be educated, you must study, you must be scholars. Take your studies seriously; do not say that the world is now being run based on technical and technological advancements, and we are sitting here reading, for example, the margins of Mulla Abdullah or, for example, Mantiq al-Muzaffar! No, you must read this Mantiq al-Muzaffar; you must read this book of grammar or this book of morphology as a prerequisite; you must read this book of jurisprudence and this book of principles so that you can be an influential cleric—what I will explain shortly about what being a cleric means. You must study. Among the clergy, we had those who lacked nothing in terms of struggle, but in terms of knowledge, they did not meet the necessary standards; these individuals could not have a significant impact on advancing this struggle or creating this great movement. The one who could was someone like the Imam, who was at the complete standard. Study! This is my first recommendation; take your studies seriously.

The second point is that you have criticisms of the seminary—whether of Tehran's seminary or the seminary in general—very well! The seminary you desire, which you say does not currently exist, you must create it. The seminary is brought into existence by your will and desire; yes, you do not have the managerial position and financial resources to make a decision and immediately act; however, achieving desirable aspirations is not solely dependent on having management and financial resources; sometimes, even having them does not suffice; something else is needed. That something else is what you have: motivation, desire, clarity of the desired goal; these are necessary. And you must struggle; without struggle, nothing is achieved; this desired seminary must also be obtained through struggle. Of course, the meaning of struggle is not merely shouting slogans; it does not mean political struggle; it means effort, striving, speaking, thinking, collaborating, organizing. Therefore, you must create this seminary. Of course, we have a duty to assist you; the managers of the seminary have a duty to facilitate your work; but you must feel the weight of responsibility for what must be created in the future on your shoulders. You are the ones who must carry out these tasks; it may be that in ten years, five years, or fifteen years, it will be your turn to play a role; in any case, this work will be done, and you are the ones who can take action and work. This is another point.

One of the friends mentioned about the seminary that "we came to the seminary for this work to be done, we came to do that work"; I disagree with this expression. Do not say "we came"; say "we have come." What does "we came" mean? Say "we have come to make this work happen"; that is, express your continued presence in your expression. In your statements, show and express that resolute determination, like a runner, like a determined traveler on this path; say "we have come to make this work happen." Yes, it must happen, and it will happen; when you decide, stand firm, and refine your words, it will definitely be accomplished. Of course, also know that the realm of action is different from the realm of thought, study, and planning; there is a completely meaningful and noticeable distance between them. Many of the things we say are aspirations that are expressed in the form of sentences and words; however, when you want to act on this aspiration, it requires a lot of effort. Let us not make mistakes; the field of action, the field of reality, has a clear distance from the realm of mentality, study, and mental imagery; in the realm of action, many tasks do not proceed as easily; one of our difficulties during the Sacred Defense was this. At that time, I was the president; military meetings were held in our office; they would spread out these military maps and plans and say that we want to move from here to there; for example, they would say this number of forces or things like that are needed. Some of our friends who gradually became involved in the war would look and see that from here to there is a very short line, so they would quickly become convinced, promise, and make decisions; while the reality of "from here to there" means, for example, an operation like Ramadan; action is different; the field of action is different from the realm of thought and ideas; this is also a point we wanted to convey.

Another point is that some of the things we say are about the clergy; that is, the entire scientific-religious community that we call the clergy, which ranges from students to the highest religious authorities; we express expectations from the clergy; sometimes our perspective is like this. At other times, our audience is not the clergy, but the seminaries; the seminaries are the training grounds for clerics, the places for the scientific, intellectual, and spiritual development of students; this is a different issue. Some of the things we address to the seminary audience are matters that are not directed at the seminary; they are directed at the entire clergy; please pay attention to this distinction. There are expectations that pertain to the entire clergy; now, including the religious authority or a teacher or a responsible cleric in national organizations and so on; at other times, we raise expectations related to the seminary. In these types of sessions, the latter is more relevant than the former, although the former is also important, and we have things to say about that.

Friends! The topics you raised were very good in my opinion. Our friends raised fundamental issues. I truly enjoyed that attention is being paid to these points, and I thank God that, thanks be to God, our young clerics and students are so connected with the important current issues of the country and society; they think about them and discuss them. However, we must also state that the revolution continues. The notion that some people convey, that they write and say, "Well, the revolution was an event, it is over; let us return to normal life," is a betrayal of the revolution; the revolution does not end. I said that day in this gathering of these responsible individuals; the revolution disrupts past norms and creates new norms in society. Preserving these new norms is the continuity of the revolution; and these are difficult; these are challenging tasks. The same hands and powers that opposed the revolution with all their being and obstructed it will also oppose the continuity of revolutionary norms; they will be hostile, as you see they are doing. Therefore, if the revolution required struggle to achieve victory, today, struggle is also necessary to stabilize these revolutionary norms; we must bring it to fruition so that society becomes an Islamic society.

We do not have an Islamic society; we do not even have an Islamic government! From the multiple stages we have discussed, we are still at the stage of the Islamic government; after the Islamic government, it will be time for the Islamic society; we have these stages ahead of us. We managed to create an Islamic revolution—a revolutionary movement; then we managed to establish an Islamic system based on that; very well, up to this point, we have achieved success, which is very important; however, after this, creating an Islamic government means establishing an Islamic management structure for the country; we are still far from reaching our goal in this regard. Of course, this does not mean that anyone should feel hopeless; absolutely not; we are moving forward; despite all the oppositions, all the obstructions, and all the mockeries, we are undoubtedly moving forward. There are many reasons for this; however, we still have work to do; we still have a long way to go before we can establish an Islamic government. After the Islamic government is established, then it will be time to create an Islamic society. Therefore, my dear ones, we must struggle.

In the past, there were those who loved the fighters but did not engage in any part of the struggle; they did not even get their skirts wet; they did not even come close to the battlefield; however, they loved it and liked the fighters. Now, there were also those who disliked the fighters, those who opposed them and collaborated with the enemy—this is another matter—but among the good people, there were many who liked the fighters but did not enter the battlefield; well, these people did nothing. Yes, the day the enemy front weakened and it became clear that the tyrannical regime was on the verge of collapse, naturally, that vast crowd entered the battlefield and finished the job; however, during the difficult times of struggle, the fighters were those few who were striving and present in the field. Today is the same; just as struggle was necessary back then and sitting back and liking the fighters was not enough, today, struggle is necessary; sitting back and praising and commending the fighters is not enough; you must engage. Of course, today’s struggle is fundamentally different from the struggle of that day; however, struggle is struggle; it is effort, it is striving. You must find the path of this struggle.

One more point regarding the proposals that have been made—several gentlemen and ladies have also made proposals that we must, God willing, look into and present to the respected brothers and managers to follow up on; God willing, we will see if we can realize them or not—I would like to say that practical proposals must be made. Whatever proposal you want to make, consider how feasible it is; provide a program that aligns with the realities on the ground. Here, I would also like to refer to something I mentioned to these responsible individuals the other day—because there, programs are discussed, what the program is, what the program is—I told them that a program is something beyond goal-setting; goal-setting is not a program. A program is about drawing a path, creating a road toward the destination; this is a program, this is what is called a program. If you do not consider the characteristics and specifics of the land when you want to draw the road and do not prepare yourself to deal with these specifics, you will quickly encounter obstacles; you will reach a height, for example, and say it cannot be done; well, you should have thought about this from the beginning, that this road has heights, this road has rocky elevations, this road has rivers, it requires bridges; when you do not foresee these things in advance and do not include them in the program and do not adjust the program based on the realities of the land, you will inevitably get stuck. The program must be written with regard to the realities; what is real and can be acted upon.

Well, time has passed; let me mention two or three more points. One is that the entire clergy—of which you young clerics are a passionate and influential part in the movement of the clergy—continues the work of the prophets; this is how the work of the clergy should be viewed. The lessons you study, the plans you make for your future, should be viewed with this perspective; you are following in the footsteps of the prophets. Well, the work of the prophets in Surah Al-A'raf [is described]: And to 'Aad, their brother Hud said, "O my people! Worship Allah; you have no deity other than Him;" the issue is the issue of monotheism. The movement of the prophets is a movement for monotheism; the very essence of the prophets' call is a call to monotheism. The call to monotheism does not merely mean believing that God is one and not two and that these idols or these gods—those who exist—do not have the value of divinity; it is not just this; belief in monotheism is a foundational pillar or basis of a worldview that shapes life. Belief in monotheism means creating a monotheistic society; a society that is formed and governed based on monotheism; this is belief in monotheism; if this were not the case, enmities against the prophets would not arise. And thus We have made for every prophet an enemy, devils among men and jinn, inspiring some of them to others with adorned speech as a delusion; these enmities arise because the prophets came and challenged the shape of society; they presented a new form, a new geometry for the way of human life. That way of life is the pure life, which one of the brothers recited this noble verse: O you who have believed, respond to Allah and to the Messenger when he calls you to that which gives you life; true life is the pure life. Whoever does a righteous deed, whether male or female, while believing, We will surely give them a good life; this means that beyond this apparent life, there is something called pure life; what is it? It is the life that is accompanied by faith. Life requires water, air, food, knowledge, technology, and everything; life needs all of these; however, if it is without faith, it is not life; it is dead. The Quran does not consider this life. Life is when this collection of life movements and life factors is accompanied by life; it gains light; it is like a dark environment in which a bright light is shone. This is the duty of the clergy. You want to give life to human society. This naturally has the same problems as the prophets, the same rewards of prophethood, and the same successes of the prophets; because the prophets succeeded, the prophets found success. All the prophets, even those who were martyred, even those whose people denied them, ultimately, their words became fruitful. You look and see that the words of Prophet Noah and Prophet Hud and various prophets who faced so much enmity at that time now have countless admirers and followers in the world. Well, then, these words remained alive, they triumphed. They faced denial at that time, but gradually, the series of prophets came, and their words triumphed. So your work is the work of the prophets; your words will also flourish and undoubtedly progress, and divine successes will certainly be upon you; this is another aspect—and just like the prophets, you will undoubtedly have enemies, opponents, and adversaries, so prepare yourself for that. All of you are young; after this, God willing, you may have sixty or seventy years to live and work and strive. Prepare yourselves for fifty, sixty, seventy years of effort and work and toil, and know that at the end of this path, the world will change due to your efforts and will undoubtedly move toward the desired goal; it will definitely be so.

One point I have noted to tell you is that the current era for the seminaries and for the clergy has specific characteristics, features that differ from previous eras, and these characteristics are in favor of the clergy, in the direction of the clergy's success. One is the establishment of an Islamic system; when an Islamic system is established, it means the atmosphere is Islamic. Not that there is no opposition; yes, there is opposition, there always will be; however, the main current is the Islamic current. The day we were in your ages, the main current was the anti-Islamic current; not merely non-Islamic, but anti-Islamic. I was a student in Mashhad, where I taught in the seminary and also held sessions for students; the mosque would fill with students, and I would explain the Quran to them. With a friend—may God have mercy on him—we wanted to come to Tehran, and while walking in the train station until the train's departure time, the young people who were also walking to catch the train would mock me; the friend accompanying me, who was a university student, felt embarrassed. Now, the one who mocked me had no enmity with me, no history with me, I had not wronged him, nor did he likely have proper education, yet he did this. The clergy—a young student who is now busy and studying and teaching—had to be mocked for no reason; the atmosphere was like this. Now, Mashhad was the center of Islam, and it was like this; Tehran was much worse; it was common for many of us. Today, it is not like that; not that today there are no enemies and mockers of clerics and students; yes, there are still some today, and there always will be—prophets were also mocked—but today, the current is an Islamic current. This is one characteristic; this is in your favor; you must take advantage of this characteristic as much as you can.

Another advantage of this era is that there is a global feeling of intellectual void and a need for new thought; this is the case globally; there is much disillusionment and disappointment with various 'isms'—whether leftist or rightist—among countries, thinkers, and youth; a state of intellectual void exists; new ideas find their place. The Islamic Republic has new ideas regarding humanity, society, and politics; Islam has new ideas. If we can spread these new ideas of ours in the world and make them heard, there will be many who will accept and seek them. This is one of today's characteristics. There was a time when this was not the case; when I say "a time," I do not mean a hundred years ago, but during our youth. For example, Marxism was prevalent among youth in most countries; only in some countries like America or some European countries was it not as intense, but in most countries, socialism had a widespread appeal; even in Islamic countries. In our own country and among those interested in this Islamic line, there were some prominent figures—if I say, you will recognize them; I mean all of you know them—who openly defended and supported socialism and wished to align Islamic economic thought with socialism or express it in the terms of socialism. We had various discussions and debates with some of them. Today, it is not like that; today, socialism has been defeated, and the fallacy of what was called "scientific socialism" has been proven to everyone; Marxist thought has been completely isolated; liberalism—with the meaning that Westerners attribute to it regarding the individual and society—has been condemned. There is a void; that is, everyone feels hopeless, embarrassed, and disappointed. Today, there is a place for the words of Islam; Islam's perspective on humanity, Islam's perspective on the elevation of the human path and the ultimate journey of humanity—this journey toward God—contains important messages; Islam's perspective on political issues of the country—this issue of Islamic democracy, Islam's perspective on various issues—these are things that have appeal, and if they reach the ears of the younger generations of the world, they will be accepted. This is another characteristic of today that did not exist yesterday.

One of the other outstanding characteristics today is the readiness of means to convey the message; this very virtual space that our brother elaborated on very well and expressed a good phrase that, in fact, this virtual space is truly a real space; this space is present in the lives of many people. Well, this virtual space is a tool; it is a very effective tool for you to convey your message to the farthest corners of the world, to make it heard by everyone. This possibility did not exist yesterday; it exists today. This is one of the advantages.

Another advantage is the creation of questions; questions are very fruitful. In the past, so many questions were not created, did not arise. It is a mistake to think that the enemy always creates questions and doubts; yes, sometimes the enemy does create a question or doubt; however, questions and doubts arise from the creative mind of humans. A young community engaged in study and discussion—this very academic community and similar ones—are all fields for producing questions; there is no problem in that. You are the same; you are young, you have creative minds; this mind can generate questions, and of course, this mind can also generate answers and provide responses to questions.

However, do not stop at the questions! This is my advice to you. Do not stop at the questions; go after the answers. All questions have answers; it is necessary for the mind to work, to strive, to be active, and to reach suitable answers. Of course, one should not be careless or negligent regarding the answers; that is, not every question has every answer; the response must be logical, solid, and correct.

One of today's advantages is the abundance of questions; there are many questions. When there are many questions, the issues that arise open the field for mental activity, for crossing the borders of knowledge; then, outcomes are produced. A biased Egyptian writer wrote a book against Shi'ism years ago called Fajr al-Islam; in it, there were truly unfair remarks against Shi'ism. Of course, later he wrote the sequels Duha al-Islam and Zuhr al-Islam and Asr al-Islam and so on. I read all of these back in the late 40s or early 50s. This book Fajr al-Islam led several of our distinguished scholars to produce several outstanding works. One of those outstanding works is al-Dhari'ah by Sheikh Agha Bozorg Tehrani. One of those outstanding works is Ta'sis al-Shi'ah li Funun al-Islam by the late Sadr. All of these were written in response to Fajr al-Islam. I believe one of the outstanding works that was created under the influence of Fajr al-Islam—the writing of Ahmad Amin Egyptian—was the book of the late Sayyid Mohsen Amin; this book is about the biographies of scholars or A'yan al-Shi'ah. Well, this means that an issue was created, and in response to that issue, several important works were produced that would not have been created if that question had not existed. This is also a point. Therefore, the advantages of this era are many; thank God that you are in this era and can take advantage of its benefits.

And my final recommendation is the issue of piety, devotion, and worship. My dear ones! Know that this path requires piety. Know that the best propagation is the propagation that your practical character will perform regarding those goals and ideals of yours and the impact it will leave: Whoever sets himself up as a leader for the people should begin by educating himself before educating others; first, we must work on ourselves. The fact that in the past some heads of schools would go at dawn and check which of the students were praying the night prayer and which were not—meaning they would monitor that students would not be deprived of the night prayer as much as possible—is very meaningful. Of course, that was easier back then; today, with television and series and such things, it is difficult; however, you must undertake this difficult task. Today, you young people, open the path of God, the path of intercession, the path of prayer, the path of benefiting from the pure supplications of the Awaited One (may our souls be sacrificed for him); open the path of using these authentic supplications that have come from the Imams for yourselves, benefit from them. Some of these supplications are truly with authentic chains in the narrations, and when one looks at them, one enjoys them. These very supplications of Sahifa Sajjadiyya are all of this kind; keep this door open for yourselves; avoiding sin is the most fundamental task. The first recommendation of those who moved in the paths of spirituality, whom we had reverence for and were interested in, to the youth and to us—when we were young—was the same: they would say, try to avoid sin. "Separate me from my sin that prevents me from adhering to Your obedience" which is in the noble supplication of Abu Hamzah; that is, if a person becomes afflicted with sin, this sin causes a person to lose the necessity of obedience; that is, he may not be consistent with divine obedience; divine successes are taken away from him; keep this in mind. The prayer at the beginning of time, prayer with attention and presence of heart, recitation of the Quran, intimacy with supplication and visitation—these are the things that are necessary for you, my dear brothers, my dear sisters, my dear young ones; you must consider these. Then, God willing, by the blessing of the good lessons you will study and by the blessing of the piety and devotion you will observe, and by the blessing of these active and dynamic minds that you have, which we have seen examples of today, our scientific-religious community, which is called the clergy, will have a much better tomorrow than today, God willing.

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