Statements of the Supreme Leader in Meeting with Students and University Students

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

Today, students, schoolchildren, and educators, thanks be to God, form a distinguished and outstanding segment in our country. Since almost everyone present in the session is young, it is appropriate to begin my remarks by stating that young people, at any point in the history of countries and nations, can be one of the most important centers of a nation's prosperity. The reason is that youth is endowed with innate purity. The young are pure and untainted. The impurities that come to people throughout life, binding their spirit with chains and preventing them from movement, ascent, and perfection, are either absent or very minimal in the young. The young are the recipients of divine grace, and in many cases, their hearts are the site of special divine favors. Young people must appreciate this blessing. The clarity that can be attained by the human spirit, allowing it to pass through layers of material entanglements, impurities, and filth, and keep itself pure, is more present in young people than in anyone else.

In our traditions, perhaps from the words of the Noble Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family), it is said: 'Pay attention to the youth'; meaning, pay attention in all matters. Especially if the youth are knowledgeable and seeking intellectual perfections—as practically the student, schoolchild, and seminary student segments in our society are—they are more deserving of attention in all matters. In this case, the young segment in universities, seminaries, and schools is distinguished in various aspects. In politics, in the progressive movements of society, and in awareness, it is the same. But above all, it is that spiritual and mystical inclination, that divine orientation. I find it necessary to tell you, dear and esteemed group, who in reality form the most cherished elements of our society, to know your worth. The world is for activity, work, construction, struggle, and being built by humans. All these economic, social, political, military, combative, scientific, and research activities are necessary for humans. Everyone, according to their turn, opportunity, and share, must perform their work in these areas. There is no doubt about this; but beyond all these, there is a spiritual and divine point, and that is that in the responsibility you undertake—whether it is political work, scientific work, studying and teaching, research and investigation, building and constructing, or demolishing the foundations of corruption and decay—you must be one of these two: the work you do either advances you in that spiritual journey, which is the essence of human creation and for which everything else is a prelude, or it holds you back from it. There is no third option.

All the efforts of divine religions, spiritual paths, the endeavors of prophets, and the martyrdoms of great men of God are to draw humanity to the first path and place them on the straight path. That is, humanity should move towards God, attain spiritual ascent and human perfection, become acquainted with God, and secure their future, which is the essential stage of life after death, and everything else is a prelude to it. 'The world is the farm of the hereafter'; you and I are here to prepare for eternal life. Every action you perform here—acquiring knowledge and teaching it, struggle, sports, acquiring the world and building and developing it, defeating enemies—must have a spirit that advances you on the straight path. Anything that diverts you from this path is a sin. Sin, in religious terminology and in the words of the prophets, means obstacles and hindrances to the path of human perfection. Sin does not mean that the Almighty God—forbid—did not want His servants to have joy and pleasure. Pleasure that diverts a person from the path of God is like harmful food that someone eats and brings them closer to death. A wise person does not eat this food and discards this pleasure. Someone with high cholesterol or blood sugar or a harmful substance in their body avoids delicious food that increases that substance in their body. They do not eat it and discard it, even if eating that food is pleasurable. The pleasure of this food is for a moment; then its misery and entanglement seize a person. Sin is such a thing. That is why in the Quran, emphasis is placed on seeking forgiveness. The noble verses that a moment ago filled the atmosphere with their soul-stirring melody have this meaning: 'And those who, when they commit an indecency or wrong themselves, remember God and seek forgiveness for their sins'; those who, when they commit a wrongdoing or wrong themselves—sin is wronging oneself—immediately after wronging themselves, 'remember God'; they remember God and 'seek forgiveness for their sins'; then they ask the Almighty God for forgiveness. 'And who forgives sins except God?' The young should be the embodiment of abstinence and seeking forgiveness. In today's world, young people are troubled. They suffer the consequences of their indiscretions. If you see that hippie culture and various miseries have continued in the Western world from thirty or forty years ago to today, affecting European and American families and societies, it is due to being distant from God, neglecting seeking forgiveness, and indiscretion in committing sins. This issue has multiple reasons. The main one is that these societies do not spiritually nourish their youth. The youth seek to be quenched from a pure source, and if they do not find that source, they will fall into deviation. Today in the Western world, even politicians have become aware of this matter; although they are alert in material matters, they are in a deep sleep in spiritual matters and become aware of deviations and problems very late. You must have read about this awakening in newspapers or news. Of course, we have more information in this regard, and this is just the beginning. The flood that has started from their moral cesspools has not yet reached the slopes. When it reaches the slopes, it will destroy Western civilization and annihilate the happiness of Western countries, which is based on materialism. Perhaps you, the new and young generation, will witness this destruction, and this event is not very far off.

You young people, thanks be to God, are pure. A young person raised in the atmosphere of Islam, the revolution, and the Islamic Republic system possesses healthy innate purity. The destructive factors of this purity in our society, thanks be to God, are less compared to other countries and our own past. Appreciate this purity and preserve it; in this case, you will see its radiance. Any young person who abstains from sin and does not forget God in their ordinary behavior and considers the divine direction as much as possible will see its radiance. If a young person, in studying and various activities, sincerely intends to strive for their own perfection, to serve society and Islam, and to help the future of this country, they will see the results and radiance of it in their heart. This matter will have many effects for them. One of the effects is something we need very much today, and this is my main point today. That effect is maintaining the spirit of standing firm against the enemy and fighting it. My dear ones! This subject is very important. Some imagined that in a world dominated by the system of domination, a military person cannot speak of virtue, spirituality, independence, reliance on their own human and material resources, and disregard for foreign encroachments and live without trouble. Now, I will briefly explain the terrifying truth of the system of domination.

The meaning of the system of domination is that countries, nations, and governments must either be dominant or dominated. The world was bipolar until a few years ago; one side was the Western system led by America, and the other side was the Eastern system led by the Soviet Union. These two systems agreed on a hundred issues. One of those issues was maintaining the system of domination. That is, both had accepted that the world is divided into two regions. They had agreed that neither side would interfere with the other and that each would establish the system of domination in its own sphere. Today, even though one of these two poles has collapsed and disappeared, the other does not learn from the collapse of its rival; rather, it seeks to seize the remaining legacy from it. Look at the commotion in the world today regarding Eastern Europe and the competition among Western countries to seize the countries separated from the former Soviet Union, such as the Central Asian countries! Look at what is happening in the Republic of Azerbaijan today! America from one side, the Zionists from another, and some Europeans from another have entered the field. Perhaps today, over the issue of connecting with Central Asia, tens or hundreds of thousands of people are under pressure and threat of death; because the system of domination wants to swallow this region like the rest of the world.

Today, the manifestation of the system of domination is America. Any evil that arises in the world based on the system of domination, certainly part of the blame lies with America. The meaning of the system of domination is that if the American regime assumes interests for itself in a part of the world, it has the right to establish a powerful military presence in that area and crush anyone who opposes its interests. The issue is not about whether these interests are legitimate or illegitimate. For the system of domination, it does not matter; even if these interests are against all international treaties. The system of domination sometimes carries out its domination secretly; sometimes it openly declares that a certain organization, government, group, or movement has conflicted with its interests, and this creates a legitimate excuse for America to crush that organization, person, government, and nation. This is the law of the jungle and an inhumane system contrary to human nature. Only those who are submissive are acceptable to the dominant power. If a government hands over its oil, resources, security, economy, foreign relations, and various policies to the dominant power, seeks its opinion, and obeys it, it is pleasing to the dominant power and it accepts that country. It does not matter to it whether this government is oppressive or just; whether it has human rights or not; whether there is democracy in that country or not; whether the name of parliament has reached the ears of that nation or not. Look at the Middle East region! What kind of governments are accepted and recognized by the American dominant powers? Have they developed in terms of thought, politics, human rights, and democracy? Do they even understand the meaning of democracy? Do their people know the meaning of elections? Is there a breathing space in these countries? These issues do not matter to the officials of the dominant country—that is, America. What matters is that these countries are submissive to that dominant power, and that is enough. But if a country, group, or organization, with any nationality and characteristics, does not submit to the dominant power, wherever it is in the world, it is deserving of being struck and attacked. Look at the confrontations! Look at the friendships and enmities! Observe the confrontation with the Islamic Republic system! The dominant system considers any crime against countries and nations that do not submit to it as permissible.

Today, everyone has accepted that there are governments in the world that commit oppression and injustice, and elements from the oppressed nations rise up to fight them. The world views such elements not as terrorists but as fighters. Today, there are those who fight against the oppressive, occupying, usurping, and violent Zionist regime. The faithful young man who was recently martyred by the criminal and murderous Zionists and their mercenaries was among these people. The crime of the organization and group to which that young man belonged is that they fight against the usurping regime of their homeland. Of course, according to the Zionists, another major crime that these fighting elements have is that they speak of Islam and following the Imam and openly take pride in being followers of our great Imam. This is a very great crime! The Zionist mercenaries murdered that young man. This is not very unnatural. It is obvious that a regime like the terrorist regime of Israel, if it finds its enemies, will kill them. If they find others besides that young man, they will kill them too.

The issue up to this point is not very unexpected. We do not expect anything else from Israel; because it is a terrorist regime. However, the important thing is that in the Western world, no one condemned this terrorist act. This is the system of domination; the ugly face that has filled the world today, and humanity everywhere in the world has the right to clench its fist and shout against it. This silence is very painful. Journalists, human rights organizations, politicians whose tongues are filled with talk of terror and terrorism, easily remain silent. The President of America, in front of representatives of all governments and nations of the world, shamelessly accused the Islamic Republic of fostering terrorism. They are so unrestrained and inconsiderate in making accusations. They have no report and no accuracy in realities. Just to please the Zionists, they say things, whether true or false; then they do not condemn the explicit terrorist crimes of the Zionists and do not bring them to light. This is a very vile and ugly issue that if someone neglects its existence in the world, they must consider themselves negligent.

Now the Islamic Republic system stands against this system of domination. The foundation of the Islamic Republic's work is to govern the nation and country of Iran based on divine concepts and values learned from Islam. The assumption is that these values can make a society prosperous; and certainly, they will make the society prosperous. The foundation of prosperity in a society is that it can live independently, think, build, and pursue its path and goal with complete independence. Therefore, independence is the foundation of this important Islamic movement. Our country stands against the system of domination based on independence and non-submission. This country cannot progress without struggle, effort, and jihad. Those who think that the Islamic Republic system, because it is in the era of construction, no longer fights its enemies, are very ignorant. Does the enemy allow us to construct? The enemy does not allow you to pursue the path of this nation's prosperity and move forward. Can the dominant enemy tolerate a nation being independent and cutting off the hands of the dominators from its life? They cannot tolerate it. They will confront and attack, create various conspiracies; cultural, economic, security conspiracies—which are being intensely applied to our country today—and if they deem it necessary and appropriate, they will also engage in military conspiracies. When a country follows a goal and path and is determined to continue it, it should not submit to the enemy; rather, it should disregard the illegitimate desires and demands of the enemy. When this nation faces such an enemy, it is compelled to defend itself. You are forced to defend yourselves.

My dear ones! The spirit of struggle and standing firm against the enemy remains complete and healthy in you, the young segment, when piety, returning to God, and the greater jihad are incorporated into your existence and life. If we recommend to the youth that purity, piety, seeking forgiveness, avoiding sin, turning to God, and paying attention to spirituality be at the forefront of their actions, it is because, in addition to bringing personal happiness to you, your country also needs young people who can understand the truths, stand in the fields, recognize the enemy's conspiracies, and confront them. The university, seminary, and scientific and educational environments are the places for this steadfastness, resistance, vigilance, and struggle. This is the expectation from the young generation.

I once said that universities should be political and students should be political. The meaning of this statement is that students should have the ability to analyze politics to recognize the alignments of the world; to understand where the enemy is today and from where and with what tools it attacks. This is necessary for you. If you do not engage in political efforts, political work, study, and political discussion, you will not acquire this ability. Of course, be aware that the enemy does not exploit this matter. The enemy stands with complete vigilance. The Commander of the Faithful (peace and blessings be upon him) said: 'And whoever sleeps, he is not slept upon'; be careful that if you are negligent, the enemy is not negligent of you. The enemy is watching with complete vigilance.

I said that the system of domination, like a dangerous octopus and like a cancer, has gripped the world. Our country is among the healthy points of the world. We do not say that the whole world is unhealthy. There may be a few points in the world that have remained healthy. The country and government that has remained healthy and apart from the system of domination and the web of this dangerous spider weaving into the fabric of nations and countries is the Islamic Republic system. Naturally, they are alert against you, think, and make every effort. You too must be alert. Students, seminarians, and schoolchildren must be alert. High school boys and girls must be alert and vigilant. Today, this expectation is from all of you. You are the chosen generation of this country. The enemy must be recognized. This is the first step.

I have long been familiar with the university environment and students and have frequented such places. Many things need to be said to students. Our duty is also to advise. Today, one of the issues that the enemy particularly pursues in the university environment is the attack against the system of clergy in our country. Pay attention to this point. This point is not a matter of today. From the day the Pahlavi regime came to power, the enemies understood that if they want to take over this country suddenly, there should be nothing called religion and religious faith in this country, and for religious faith not to exist in an organized form, the clergy must be dismantled. As long as the clergy exists, there is essentially a central organization that people recognize as religion and hear the word of religion from it. Religion cannot be removed from the lives, hearts, and minds of people. An organization that is not financially dependent on any power apparatus cannot be easily eliminated. The clergy of our Sunni brothers in Islamic countries are dependent on the apparatuses and cannot oppose them. The Christian clergy is also something similar. The characteristic of the Shia clergy has been that it is not financially dependent on the ruling apparatuses for its livelihood. Therefore, their tongues have been free.

For the past hundred years, every reform movement, social and political struggle, and every major transformation in Iran has either been led by clerics or the clergy has been among their leaders. History is before us. The enemies of the clergy in the past sixty years, no matter how much they have tried against the clergy, have not been able to deny this fact; because it is the text of history. The first call for constitutionalism came from the mouths of great scholars. In the tobacco issue, the concessions of the Nasser al-Din Shah era, the nationalization of the oil industry, and the struggle against the Pahlavi regime, which led to the great Islamic movement and the establishment of the Islamic Republic, it was the same. The enemy knows this history. When an organization known as religion and clergy is recognized, with a specific center and responsibility, and leadership by those who cannot reach leadership except through piety, the enemy's work becomes difficult.

Enemies may sometimes criticize great religious authorities scientifically; but they cannot criticize them in terms of piety. The late Ayatollah Boroujerdi and the late Ayatollah Sheikh Abdul Karim are examples of these great authorities. The Almighty God exposed those who had issues with piety. Jurisprudence is a method and a way of deduction; it is a science. This science must be learned. The way is open for everyone to learn religion and deduce from it; but deduction from religion has a scientific method and is not a common task. Anyone who arrives from anywhere cannot deduce from the Quran and the Sunnah. The main knowledge of the clergy is jurisprudence. Of course, there is also Islamic philosophy and mysticism, both of which are included in jurisprudence in its broad sense. If the method of jurisprudence is removed, nothing remains of religion. Some came from that side and interpreted religion with Marxist thought. These people had an Islamic appearance and a Marxist interior and were hypocrites in this regard. When we placed their books against the ideological writings of the Tudeh Party and communist groups, they were indistinguishable. These similarities were more noticeable in economic, historical, historical philosophy, and socialist economy fields. The difference was that these people had added the name of God and the Prophet to their books. When religion has no official interpreter and custodian, it reaches the point where some people arrive and align religion with Marxist thought or Western democracy and capitalism. Today in the world, there are those who align Islam—not absolute religion—with what large companies and corporations want. If the clergy existed, this would not happen. Of course, the clergy always needed reforms. Our great Imam, at the beginning of the revolution, spoke about the necessity of the clergy's existence and attacked those who wanted to uproot the clergy. During the talk, he added a point with this meaning: among the clergy, there are those for whom it is unjust to call them clerics. Then he recited this verse: 'There are many cloaks that deserve to be burned.' It is indeed so. We have clerics; but the essence of the clergy is necessary. To preserve religion, religious faith in society is necessary. The enemy understood this sooner than anyone.

One of Reza Khan's greatest responsibilities was to dismantle the clergy to destroy religion. Therefore, as soon as he gained power, in the years 1934 and 1935, he began dismantling the clergy. Reza Khan's action was forceful. He thought he could advance his work with force. He banned wearing turbans, long robes, and the name and domain of clerics. He dismantled the seminaries of Qom and Mashhad as much as he could—in his imagination. Of course, he could not. Our dear Imam was among the students of that era; the same era when the clergy was supposed to be completely destroyed by Reza Khan's intense pressure and suffocation. But the clergy not only was not destroyed, but also produced people like our great Imam. I myself heard from the Imam that he said: 'In Qom, we would leave the school or house early in the morning and go to the gardens of Salarieh, which at that time was a league away from the city. There, under the trees, we would engage in study, discussion, and research. At sunset, when it got dark, we would return so that Reza Khan's agents would not see us!' This is how they studied. This was the first step. In Reza Khan's apparatus, it was not just Reza Khan. There were a number of so-called literati, thinkers, and ideologues of Reza Khan's apparatus who designed and thought. When they saw that the pressures were not effective, with money and support and the command and policy-making of Reza Khan, they devised another plan. This plan was to create an institution called the 'Preaching and Sermon Institute' in Tehran. Unfortunately, the young generation does not know these matters. The establishment of the 'Preaching and Sermon Institute' dates back to the years 1937 and 1938—two or three years after the start of the clergy's suppression. The establishment of this institution was so that anyone who wanted to remain a cleric could remain a cleric under the supervision of this institution, which was affiliated with Reza Khan! In other words, they could be clerics; but Reza Khan's clerics, court clerics, and in the service of the policies of global arrogance. Of course, that institution had good teachers. I studied the publications of the 'Preaching and Sermon Institute' from 1959 to 1960 from beginning to end. They had very good materials in the fields of religious studies, ancient religions, and contemporary religions. They had gathered prominent teachers and had no shortage of material. Their only goal was that the organization of the clergy should not exist. The religious materials of this institution were written by non-specialists. The history of religions and the philosophy of religion were among the sciences that could be worked on; but their goal was to dismantle the organization of the clergy during Reza Khan's era. After Reza Khan was overthrown, people welcomed the clerics with full respect and open arms, the seminaries became crowded, and the religious authorities were honored and revered by the people. Due to previous strictness, Mohammad Reza's apparatus pursued the same policy with other forms. During my life as a seminary student until the victory of the revolution, I had seen and knew several of the Pahlavi regime's plans. The last of them in the 1970s was the formation of the Endowments Organization in the desired form of the Pahlavi regime and bringing the clergy under the umbrella of the Endowments Organization. This was a policy pursued for years.

Some people, according to our information and assumptions, do not have motives like those of the Pahlavi regime, and apparently, they are among the insiders and Muslims. But I am sorry to see that these individuals today are saying the same things that the Reza Khan and Mohammad Reza regimes wanted to establish with various policies and measures. Why should it be this way? The clergy is a fundamental institution in the Islamic system. If it were not for the clergy and the turbaned seminarians, this revolution would not have taken shape. For sixteen years—from 1962 to 1979—seminarians traveled across the country and in every city, village, and region—even in military barracks—they preached Islam and the struggle against the regime. The government apparatus could not prevent them. What could they do with a single seminarian? All the monthly salary that a single seminarian received from the seminary was equivalent to the salary of a low-level employee for five days. What could an oppressive regime do with such a person? They would imprison him. He was not a merchant whose money and capital they could confiscate. He was not a government employee whose salary they could cut. He would go to prison, and people would become more attached to him. Therefore, the regime could not do anything. The clerical force of the clergy, with this official organization and using the people's deep belief in itself, traveled across the country and preached the movement, the Imam, the struggle, the Islamic Republic, and opposition to global arrogance, and explained the meaning of global arrogance to everyone, otherwise, the people did not know America. The people of Iran had been distanced from politics for many years. Young clerics across the country injected this awareness into the people. In those days, many student and university youth benefited from the clerics' preaching. In those days, the agents of global arrogance would tell effective and active clerics: You are misleading the students! Misleading, in their view, was that the clerics were drawing people into the struggle. The influence of the clergy is to this extent. Today, too, the clergy are the ones who untie the country's problems and open the small knots. During the war, when a cleric went to the front, he influenced the other fighters. The front-line youth would come to us and complain if there was no cleric in a place; if there was, they would praise him. If a person dedicates their job, life, and everything to explaining religion and religious teachings and spiritual spirit, they elevate society. Why do some people not understand this truth?

If today someone opposes the clergy, it pleases the Zionists and America more than anyone else. If a voice is raised somewhere, all the Zionist media will cheer and applaud it. Because they were hoping for the demise of the clergy and want the absence of the clergy. These are seditions. Speaking in this way and misunderstanding the truths and spreading them is sedition. I must advise those who are not aware and do not understand. I cannot believe and accept that these individuals are doing this deliberately, otherwise, if it becomes clear that these individuals—God forbid—are doing these things with malice and ill intent, the Islamic system will strike them down.

The clergy serve the people. It is an institution with low expectations, little share, and little portion of the world. It is not based on the world and does not aim for the world. Of course, among the clergy, there have been bad, unworthy, and treacherous individuals. Today, too, there are such individuals, not that there are none. We are also aware of the unworthy individuals in the clergy. Some of them have broken hearts. They have broken the hearts of the Imam and their righteous ones. But this should not cause the organization and structure of the clergy to be questioned. The unworthy elements in the clergy are mostly those who have deviated from the correct path and the clergy, otherwise, the clergy that has been moving on the straight path of our great Imam, thanks be to God, is good. We hope that the Almighty God will guide all of us and grant us success and include us in His grace and mercy. I entrust you dear young people to God and hope that God will protect you from the evil of enemies and devils and, God willing, make you a reserve for the Islamic system for the future.

Peace be upon you and God's mercy and blessings