Statements of His Eminence in Meeting with Workers, Exemplary Teachers, and Housing Foundation Staff on the Occasion of 'Teachers' Day' and 'Workers' Day'

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

I extend a warm welcome to you, dear brothers and sisters, especially the devoted ones and the families of martyrs and veterans present among the crowd, as well as the distinguished individuals selected as exemplary. Among the days that have found a name and title in the Islamic Republic, there is no day like this one; because two very important, sensitive, effective, and dear titles have come together on this day. One is the title of knowledge, and the other is the title of work. It is both the day of knowledge and the day of work. Truly, if we look closely, the world and the hereafter of every nation, community, and individual depend on these two things. Each without the other does not have its complete effect. Knowledge without work is like knowledge without action. 'The scholar without action is like a tree without fruit.' A tree has grown; it is a manifestation of divine power; but it bears no fruit. On the other hand, 'the worshiper without knowledge is like the donkey of the mill.' When someone works without knowledge, even if that work is the worship of God, it still has no benefit. It is like circular motion: someone spins around themselves without progress. The country needs both knowledge and work. God Almighty has made both of these good deeds and has determined reward and recompense for them.

Well, when we define knowledge, it is actually a definition of the teacher. Why? Because it is the teacher who imparts knowledge to others. If there is no teacher, knowledge cannot be acquired: 'Whoever learns something must learn it from a teacher.' Knowledge without a teacher has no meaning. Work is the same. Whoever defines work defines the worker because work without a worker has no meaning. Pay close attention and see how interconnected these concepts are! Knowledge and work are two wings for a nation. A nation without knowledge and work will not progress. I have repeatedly stated that the Iranian nation should curse the two royal dynasties of Pahlavi and Qajar from the depths of their hearts because these two malicious dynasties cut off the two wings of the country and the great body of this ancient, intelligent, and talented nation. They provided neither knowledge nor work for this nation. The work that existed was worthless or of little value. The knowledge that existed was imitative and second-hand. They did not promote the work that springs from the heart and truly provides cover and adornment for life and accomplishes fundamental tasks in the country. Whatever they could, they eradicated and dismantled the scientific foundation that springs from the heart and contains innovation. Those families bear these crimes. As a result, the Iranian nation, which in the race of knowledge and the advancement of civilization, science, and experience was either ahead of others or at least not lacking, fell behind for years. Now we must strive and endeavor to finally pull ourselves out of the water. God willing, with your people's efforts, we will do this; the signs are already evident.

First, the Qajar family—from Nasser al-Din Shah onwards—and then the Pahlavi family—this father and son—truly auctioned off the assets of this nation and country and its spiritual capital. 'That was a nation that has passed away; it will have what it earned, and you will have what you earn.' They are gone, and their affairs are with God. They will see the recompense of their deeds. Now it is our turn. 'And you will have what you earn.' Of course, from the beginning of the revolution until today, truly and justly, much effort has been made in the field of knowledge and work. If someone denies this, it is like saying, 'What is the reason it is day now?' It is so obvious. If someone looks at the country, they see the increase in students, teachers, professors, specialists, students, numerous workshops, agricultural work, industrial work, precise and outstanding work, innovations, and inventions that Islam has brought to this nation in these fifteen years. Neither I nor we can say, 'We did these things.' These achievements belong to Islam. The characteristic of faith, the characteristic of the presence of the people, and the people's government.

Well, one issue is whether knowledge and work, or in other words, teaching and working, are just like other trades, only for earning bread? The answer is no! Teaching and working, even if they are a means of earning bread for individuals, can achieve things that are even higher than bread. One of those things is divine reward. Believe that teaching has merit. Working has merit. When you stand behind a machine and do a job, or work on your farm, or sit in a design room and prepare a plan for a job or product, or go to a classroom and want to deal with a number of students for fifty minutes, or prepare the preliminaries for the teacher's work—such as studying or preparing a book—know that you are worshiping. This is very important. What will come to me and you after the gate of death—which we all must pass through—is not the five measures of food we provide daily for ourselves or our wives and children. What will benefit us there is righteous action. 'And those who believe and do righteous deeds.' See how often this expression 'faith' and 'righteous deeds' is repeated in the Quran! One of these righteous deeds is that you teach in class or work in a workshop or farm. Spreading knowledge and providing work is like prayer and reading the Quran; it is worship. This is no small thing. Why has God Almighty made teaching and working a cause for reward for humans? God forbid, God's actions are not in vain! This is because the perfection that God Almighty wants humans to achieve during their lifetime depends, among other things, on knowledge and work. A society and people who are idle, or work poorly, or are uneducated and illiterate cannot reach the stages of human perfection as they should. Their worldly life will be wasted. In the complete and comprehensive knowledge of the Exalted and Almighty Truth, this meaning is clear. Therefore, He has said, 'If you work, you will be rewarded.' The more useful and better the work, the greater the reward. The more useful the knowledge you teach, the greater the reward. It is not that if you teach the Quran and religious sciences, it has merit, but teaching algebra, trigonometry, physics, and geometry does not have merit. You teach in class and make the children of the people knowledgeable. Any lesson that can make a person knowledgeable, a scholar, and useful to society has merit in teaching it. This is the logic of Islam.

So, one achievement is divine reward. Another achievement of work and teaching is that you participate in building the future of your society. This is very important. The whole dispute in the world today and yesterday is over one word, and that is that the arrogant powers want to control the destiny of nations. This America that you see making so much noise and commotion in the world today—mostly useless and fruitless and hollow—is because it considers itself entitled to superpower status and wants to have control and destiny of the world in its hands. Why did so-and-so make such a deal? Why did such-and-such government sell such-and-such thing to such-and-such government? Why did such-and-such country reject an issue of interest to America or approve an issue not of interest to America?... All these words are for interfering in world affairs. Can they control the destiny of the world? Some say, 'They can.' Those are weak, powerless nations and the weak-willed leaders of some countries. But enthusiastic, passionate, and motivated forces say, 'America is wrong! How can it control the destiny of the world!' What do I say? I say that under one condition, it cannot; under one condition, it can. If the nation facing America has a lively, determined, and politically resolute will, is hardworking, diligent, and serious, America cannot; but if a nation is not hardworking, diligent, and lively, can America still not gain control?! Yes, it can. Why did they gain control over so many countries? If the leaders of a country are willing to deal with America and the people of that country are idle, inattentive, and careless, it can. If a government is not willing to deal and negotiate with America, but its people are lazy, America can gain control here too. Why? Because that government becomes desperate. People who do not work, people who have no initiative, people who do not consider themselves obligated to manage the country and produce their own needs, people who only know how to consume and do not know how to produce, will put the country and those in charge in a bad situation. A nation that can stand against the brazen, demanding, extortionists and greedy powers of the world—like America—and resist and defend its rights is one that says, 'Sir! We manage ourselves.' If the enemy says we will not sell you such-and-such thing, it says: Well; better! Do not sell. If you sell to us, we become lazy and do not produce ourselves. We say, 'Sir; it comes packaged.' If you give it to us for free and do not take money from us, you have betrayed us. If you close the door of trade with us and do not flood our country with your junk, it is to our benefit. Because we will gain the spirit of work, vitality, effort, and production. Believe me, the day this simple-minded, inexperienced, naive man announced that he wants to ban America's economic relations with Iran (then he went to the Zionist meeting, and in fact, he was played. Now, who put the banana peel under this man's foot, I do not know), I was genuinely happy for several reasons. Until now, they sometimes said things with hypocrisy that some, here and there, would say: 'Sir; they are not so much our enemy. After all, you say death to America, people say death to America, it is bad! It is a flaw! It is ugly!'

Some irresponsible or irresponsible people wanted to stifle this cry of death to America that comes from the depths of our people's hearts and keep it in their throats. Now, when people are faced with such frankness, wherever they are in the country, they easily shout: 'Death to America.'

But more importantly, during the war, we had many limitations in terms of weapons, ammunition, and military tools. Now these gentlemen want to create limitations for us. Did we not have limitations during the eight years of the war?! What did we do there? I may have said this at another time: Brothers and sisters! You would be surprised to know that our officials had bought barbed wire; they wanted to pass it through the Soviet Union and bring it; but the Soviet Union did not allow it! What is barbed wire?! What tool is more defensive than barbed wire?! They had not even bought it from them to say, 'We will not sell it.' Rather, they had bought it from elsewhere.

See what they did to the Islamic Republic! They would not sell us the insignificant, unimportant RPG ammunition. Does anyone even believe it?! Well; this Islamic Republic is the same country that had these limitations at that time. Do you know what the result was? The result was that, by the grace of the Lord and by the power and strength of God, the faithful youth of this country went to the corners of warehouses and workshops; they closed the doors on themselves and started working. Today, we ourselves prepare some of the most complex military tools that the enemy would not even imagine. Of course, they accuse us of making atomic and chemical bombs, which is a lie. They themselves know it is a lie. What is true, they do not know and cannot even imagine.

How did we manage? In this country, a pilot flew an American plane; the airman and technical officer did the repair work; but none of them dared to disassemble the parts of this plane to see what it looked like. Their name was also a repairman! When the parts of the plane broke, they had to take them to America, repair them there. Permission to repair the parts of the American plane was not given to our repairman who dealt with that plane. The same armed forces and people of this country managed to create a great advancement in this field. Why? Thanks to the same sanctions and preventions. Now they threaten that 'we will cut off our trade relations with Iran.' Well; to hell with it, cut it off! Do we dislike it?! We are happy that you cut off your relations with us. But the world does not follow you. Is America the headman of a village that everyone must follow?! Well; you do whatever you want for yourself. Some weak people, in some Islamic countries, as soon as they hear these things, their bodies start to tremble! What is the matter?! Thanks be to God, within our country, the spirits of the country's officials—from the President to the Speaker of the Parliament, the head of the judiciary, and the representatives of the Parliament—and the people everywhere in this country are strong. Fists are clenched. They feel vitality. Whoever stands against them, they face with power and decisiveness. We have no problem from these aspects. May God protect you. We have no worries from this aspect.

My dear ones! What is necessary is 'work' and 'education.' Dear teachers! You must build the youth. You must nurture the adolescents with the spirit of work, independence, and the pursuit of knowledge, not with the spirit of seeking a degree. What is a degree? A degree, as a sign that an individual possesses this knowledge, is good; but it cannot be a source of effect. What is important is knowledge. Knowledge and work are necessary for society. All people and officials should know: What I said about 'work conscience' is not a compliment. They must plan. 'Work conscience' must become the general culture of the people. If someone does a job, they should think that someone is standing over them; even if they are alone in a quiet room. The work must be complete, strong, innovative, and done with need.

One of the jobs that requires work conscience is education and training. The teacher in the classroom of a school at the end of a city or a remote corner of Tehran or a village must teach, work hard, and strive as if an inspector is sitting in the class, watching their work, or will come an hour later to see the result of the work. This is work conscience. We are not making compliments!

My dear ones! A nation cannot maintain its dignity with compliments! You cannot face the treacherous and bloodthirsty enemies with compliments! Action, effort, and planning are necessary. We said: 'Work conscience,' 'social discipline,' or 'economic discipline.' The country's officials, the government, the judiciary, and the representatives of the Parliament must plan for these tasks to be carried out, otherwise, by praising someone for saying a good word, the work will not be completed!

All the people must help. Each and every person is the real doer of the work. My dear ones! This house is your house. This country is your country. It is a great, blessed, and wealthy country. There is a lot of wealth hidden in this soil, all of which belongs to you and the future generations of this country. There is a lot of spiritual wealth in this country, and all of it belongs to you. All this knowledge, talent, awareness, and good morals exist in this country thanks to Islam, the ancient Islamic culture, and the history of this nation, which belongs to you. When can you use it? When this nation is ready to work; when it is committed; when no one neglects their work and does not consider idleness as an opportunity for themselves. There are those who, even in a state of fatigue from work, when there is work, work with great enthusiasm. No one asks them, 'Why didn't you work?' The thought of divine accountability and the needs of the people compel them to work. This spirit must become universal. This is the same 'work conscience.'

We hope that God Almighty will help and, God willing, the pure prayers of the Awaited Savior, may our souls be sacrificed for him, will assist you. With this situation, not only America, but America and its allies, with all their capabilities, will never be able to defeat such a nation and such wills.

We hope God will elevate the pure soul of the great Imam, who opened this path for us, to higher and higher degrees and unite the dear martyr of this day, 'Martyr Motahhari,' with his saints and include you dear ones in His blessings, success, mercy, and grace.

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