Supreme Leader’s Speech to Members of Assembly of Experts

Supreme Leader’s Speech to Members of Assembly of Experts
08/09/2011

The following is the full text of the speech delivered on September 8, 2011 by Ayatollah Khamenei the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution in a meeting with the head and members of the Assembly of Experts in Tehran.

In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful

Honorable gentlemen and dear brothers, welcome. Besides the legal aspects, this meeting which is held once every 6 months is beneficial to me because I get the chance to meet my good friends and brothers, which is very valuable to me.

Fortunately this meeting has been arranged after the month of Ramadan and it is definitely surrounded by the spiritual aura of Ramadan. As evidenced by the reports, the points which were mentioned by the gentlemen were good and important points. All of these things are a sign of God's mercy and it is necessary to be thankful to Him.

When you take a brief look at this year's Ramadan, you realize that it was better and more pleasant than previous Ramadans. Thankfully I have the same feeling every year. The meetings in which the Holy Quran is recited are arranged not just in a couple of cities. They are arranged in many cities of the country and sometimes in one single day more than one thousand people sit down and listen to recitations from the Holy Quran. One does not really know how to thank God for the fact a country which had been separated from the Holy Quran during the time of taghut is so wrapped up in Quranic verses today. One can see young people sitting down and reciting the Holy Quran for an hour and their recitation is so eloquent. Their recitation is correct, accurate and meaning-based and people listen to it. Considering the entire country in general, one can say that the number of people who recite the Holy Quran in the month of Ramadan is in the millions.

The same is true of the meetings arranged for dua. Just imagine a million people - both the people who take part in the meetings and those who stay at home and listen to the duas on TV or on the radio - reciting Dua Abu Hamza during the nights and early mornings of the month of Ramadan. These things are not insignificant: they are a sign of God's grace.

Then it was time for political presence of the people in Quds Day rallies. Again one can see the hand of divine power which attracts the hearts of the people like that and encourages them to take to the streets on a hot day while they are fasting. They show their loyalty to the Revolution and the revolutionary ideals and they shout slogans. Old men, young children, women and men take part in the rallies.

Afterwards it was time for Eid ul-Fitr and the prayers. The solemn duas that are recited in the country on Eid ul-Fitr, the people who get together and attentively pray, cry and ask God the best things - when did we have such things in the country? When was our country so wrapped up in divine signs, solemn praying, dua, attention to God and dhikr over the past centuries? It is not possible to imagine any motive other than sincerity, faith and commitment to Islamic principles. Well, all of these things bring about divine mercy. "Dear God, I pray to You for things that bring about Your mercy." These are the things that will shower us with divine mercy.

Of course sometimes we get confused. Sometimes we fail to notice this divine grace. We fail to see the hand of divine love in different cases. And sometimes we mistakenly think that it was ourselves who did a certain thing. "Had you spent all that is in the earth, you could not have united their hearts, but Allah united them." [The Holy Quran, 8: 63] Who encourages believers to step into the arena? What is it that makes them pay attention to God? It is nothing but the hand of divine power. These are the things that make us hopeful.

I do not want to recount what has happened because we can all see what has happened. I only want to infer this point: "He it is Who strengthened you with His help and with the believers." [The Holy Quran, 8: 62] Allah the Exalted bestows His approval and assistance through believers. It appears that in this ayah assistance means spiritual assistance, as in "I will assist you with a thousand of the angels following one another" [The Holy Quran, 8: 9] and similar other ayahs. "He it is Who strengthened you with His help and with the believers." It is believers who bring about divine assistance. It is believers who preserve Islamic governments. It is believers who prepare the way in different arenas so that their Islamic government can make great achievements. We must not think that "I have been given this only on account of the knowledge I have." [The Holy Quran, 28: 78] We must not think that it is ourselves who are doing what is being done. These things are being done by God. This is the first point. I believe that our people are good people and they are good because they are committed to their religious faith and because faith has permeated their hearts.

Notice how many tools there are to lure the hearts of young people. The number of these tools is not comparable with the past. These satellite programs, these websites and different kinds of communication tools lure hearts and lead them astray. They undermine spiritual motives in people. They provoke human passions. In spite of all these things, the meetings which I mentioned were mostly attended by young people. Sometimes they do not even appear to have a heart that is filled with love for God, but they have such a heart. They go to these meetings and they speak to God. They cry. Their tears make people envy them. When people see a youth sitting in a corner with his face covered in tears, they envy him. Such youth have a pure heart and they are close to God. This is a factor that brings about divine assistance. "He it is Who strengthened you with His help and with the believers." [The Holy Quran, 8: 62]

The point that I would like to raise today - and I will try to make it short - is that political fiqh in Shia Islam dates back to the time when fiqh was first formulated. That is to say, even before derivative jurisprudence was formulated in the 3rd and 4th centuries of the Islamic calendar, political fiqh had a prominent place in Shia fiqh and you can find some examples in Islamic narrations. In the narration that is cited in "Tuhaf ul-Uqul" fiqh is divided into four categories and politics is one of these categories, which is explained in the book. In this and many other narrations the criteria are mentioned, including the famous narration "everything from You is beautiful..." and many other narrations. Later on when derivative jurisprudence was being formulated - during the time of Sheikh Mufid and afterwards - political fiqh was still there. Political fiqh was present in different areas related to the principles of politics.

Therefore, political fiqh has a long history in Shia Islam, but there is something that is new and that is developing a system of government on the basis of this fiqh, which was what our magnanimous Imam (r.a.) did. Before him nobody had developed a system of government on the basis of Shia political fiqh. Imam Khomeini (r.a.) was the first person who developed a system of government - both in theory and in practice - on the basis of Shia political fiqh. He proposed the idea of religious democracy as well as the issue of Vilayat-e Faqih. The Islamic Republic was established on the basis of this fiqh. It was our first experience. We had never had such an experience in our history, neither during the time of the Safavid dynasty nor in other eras. Although during the time of the Safavid dynasty people like "Mohaqeq Karaki" has stepped into the arena, there was no trace of this Islamic and fiqhi system at that time. His best achievement was that he was put in charge of appointing judges, not more than that. There has never been another political system in our country formulated on the basis of fiqh. Establishing a system of government was something that our magnanimous Imam did. As Mr. Mahdavi pointed out in his speech, Imam Khomeini (r.a.) discussed the issue of Vilayat-e Faqih in Najaf and later on he put it into practice, which led to the establishment of the Islamic Republic. Now there are two points in this regard which deserve our attention.

One point is that there has always been a challenge in the way of preserving the identity of the Islamic Republic and this challenge will not go away in the future. The challenge is the conflict between commitment to the principles and foundations of the Islamic Republic on the one hand and achieving material and spiritual progress on the other. Sometimes people start to have doubts. Of course there is a reason why these doubts arise. The reason is that the goals which are based on the principles are not short-term goals, the kind of goals which could be achieved in ten or twenty years. Sometimes it takes generations of people to achieve the goals that have been specified on the basis of the principles. When these goals are not achieved in the short or medium term, prominent figures and government officials start to think that maybe it is their commitment to the principles that prevent them from achieving the goals. This is a very great challenge.

A long time ago I mentioned in a speech that one of the manifestations of the Imam's greatness was his patience in this regard. Of course his leadership was short - it did not last more than ten years. But he managed to establish firm foundations during that short period of time. The Imam did not back down in the face of the problems that came his way - both on domestic and international levels. That is to say, he was patient in the sense that he could tolerate problems. He did not give in to pressure. For example, he was told that Iran could make certain accomplishments if he refrained from issuing a certain hukm - in the case of Salman Rushdie and other issues. But he did not give in to pressure. Today we are faced with the same challenge.

Well, some people might start to think that it is our commitment to the principles that has prevented us from achieving our goals. Certain failures on domestic and international levels might create problems for us. This is an important challenge. It is necessary to deal with this challenge in a clever way. The right way to handle this situation is pursue both goals at the same time and to be aware that these two goals are consistent with each other. These two goals are safeguarding the principles of the Islamic Republic and preserving the identity of the Islamic Republic on the one hand and achieving the goals that have been specified by the Islamic Republic on the other, including material goals and advances and spiritual goals such as establishment of justice and other such things. We should know that these goals are consistent. We cannot reach those goals unless we remain committed to the principles. That is to say, we should not give up the principles because of the problems that we encounter. We should not be satisfied with the bare minimum. We should know that if we give up our principles, the Islamic Republic will lose its identity and we will fail to achieve the goals. We saw similar examples in different revolutions. Of course their principles were wrong, but their concessions did not help them in any way.

Proposing the issue of rationality and speaking about "the Revolution coming to its senses" will not get us anywhere. I remember that during the early years of the Revolution some people used to say that they had to knock some sense into the Revolution. That is to say, they wanted to use rationality as a pretext to give up the main principles and foundations. This must not be done. "And if you obey most of those in the earth, they will lead you astray from Allah's way. They follow but conjecture and they only lie." [The Holy Quran, 6: 116] It is wrong to trample on the principles. Of course this is an important task. Certain subtleties and hardships are involved and in certain cases doubts might arise in the mind of our prominent figures. We must assume that commitment to the principles and preserving the main framework of the Islamic Republic is a fundamental principle.

Therefore, we should go after progress. We tried this and we saw that it is possible to preserve the principle and make advances at the same time. Today our country is not comparable with the early years after the Revolution in terms of scientific progress, in terms of technological progress, in terms of political awareness and experience and in terms of developing effective methods in different organizations, including economic and other organizations. We have made a lot of progress and we have also remained committed to the principles. If we have backed down in the case of certain principles, we should repent of it. We must not compromise our principles. We should also know that divine assistance depends on remaining committed to these principles. This is one point.

The second point which I would like to discuss in this meeting is that developing a system is a gradual process - and as I said earlier, our magnanimous Imam carried out this process on the basis of fiqhi principles. Developing a system does not just mean inferring the principles from fiqh once and for all and putting them into practice. No, this is not the case. Developing a system is a gradual and ongoing process. It is something that has to be completed with every passing day. We might make a mistake in a particular case, but what is important is that we should learn from our mistakes and improve ourselves. This is an integral part of developing a system. This is not to say that we should destroy what we have built in the past. When I say developing a system is an ongoing process, it does not mean we should destroy whatever we have built. It does not mean we should throw away our Constitution and our system of government. No, we should safeguard what we have built. We should eliminate the shortcomings and try to improve what we have built so far. This is necessary.

I think the "absolute" aspect which was added to Vilayat-e Faqih by the Imam is related to this point - namely, flexibility. Originally Vilayat-e Faqih was not specified as absolute in our Constitution: it was our Imam who added this aspect. The system of Vilayat-e Faqih, which is a big system of organizations in charge of decision-making and which is led by the Supreme Leader, should be able to push itself forward and transform itself on a regular basis. This is because change and transformation is an integral part of human life and history. If we fail to change ourselves, change will be imposed on us. Change means perfection. It means moving towards what is right and perfect. That is to say, we need to identify and eliminate the flaws of what we have built. We need to see what the shortcomings are and we need to eliminate them. This process should continue.

Of course the enemies interpret "absolute Vilayat-e Faqih" as a kind of autocracy which is based on the whims of a just faqih. But this interpretation has a contradiction in it: if a person is just, he cannot be autocratic and if a person is autocratic and acts on the basis of his whims, then he is not just. The enemies do not understand this. They do not understand the concept. In absolute Vilayat-e Faqih a just faqih does not do whatever he wants. It is not the case that he simply does whatever that comes to his mind. Absolute Vilayat-e Faqih provides the head of government with a kind of flexibility and enables him to correct the path and make improvements whenever necessary.

Of course there is still a threat in this regard that should be avoided. The threat is to think that this flexibility should be influenced by foreign pressure and change in the direction of western frameworks. They criticize and pressure us regarding the issue of qisas, diyeh and different other things. But if we gave in to pressure, that would not be flexibility. It would be deviation, not flexibility. We should be careful. The holy ayah "And if you obey most of those in the earth, they will lead you astray from Allah's way" applies in this case. We must not revise our position on a certain hukm or principle simply because foreign radio stations and the enemy's propaganda machines and think tanks are protesting and making uproar about it. No, this is wrong. This is deviation and we must not fall into this pitfall.

However, there are new issues that should be addressed. In economic areas there are new issues to be addressed. For example, we created Islamic banking. Today there are new issues in the financial and banking areas and these issues should be resolved. It is necessary to see these things within the framework of Islamic banking, a banking system that is free of usury. Who should do these things? A faqih. Of course I would like to use this opportunity to point out that our need for free fiqhi discussions has not been fulfilled in Qom Islamic Seminary, which is one of the most important Islamic seminaries. A number of gentlemen from Qom Islamic Seminary are present in this meeting. There should be certain courses in Qom for serious critical reasoning in the area of political fiqh so that religious scholars can discuss and clarify new political issues and challenges that the government faces. And then the result of these fiqhi discussions will be made available to different university and seminary intellectuals and prominent academic and non-academic figures who will make the ideas accessible to public opinion, university students and the people of other nations. It is necessary to do these things. We need these things. The product of these scholarly explorations can be made available to people and prominent figures of other countries.

Notice that in eight months four governments were overthrown in one of the most quiet and subdued regions in the world - namely, in North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. Four dictators who were relying on the west and America were overthrown in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and Yemen. Well, this is a very significant event. I have said before and I repeat now that we are really unable to delineate the dimensions of the significance of this event in an accurate way. A very great event has taken place. The future of the people of these countries is open to different possibilities. One of these possibilities - which we hope will happen - is that prominent religious figures of these countries will manage to take control of the affairs of their countries and that they will manage to delineate the right path for their people, the path which is based on Islam, sharia and indigenous needs. But what are the odds that happening? It can create apprehension in one's heart.

Another possibility is that the same people whose agents were thrown out of the door will get back in through the window. The same people who supported dictatorship against Islam and against the anti-Zionist movement of the Egyptian nation for thirty years, might prepare the ground for another dictatorship. Well, a dictator does not say that he is a dictator when he first comes to power. Dictators come in disguise and they have the necessary propaganda machines, money, facilities and mercenaries to do so. Therefore, one possibility is that they may come and create systems that are totally modeled on western systems. This is a very great threat for these countries: they may come and create western systems of government in these countries in the name of democracy, freedom and other such things. And various kinds of threats will result from this.

The idea of religious democracy is what can help these countries. Religious democracy, which was the result of our magnanimous Imam's innovation, can be a prescription for all these countries. Religious democracy is based both on democracy and religion.

Of course Sunni religious scholars - including Shafi'i scholars in Egypt, Maliki scholars in other countries of that region and Hanafi scholars of certain other countries - might not believe in absolute Vilayat-e Faqih. It is alright. We do not insist that they should accept our fiqhi principles. Religious democracy might take on different forms. We should clarify and explain the principles of religious democracy to them. We need to present these principles to them as a gift. The people of these nations will certainly like religious democracy. This is our duty and we need to do it to prevent the enemies of the people of these nations from exploiting the vacuum that has been created. They should fill this vacuum with Islam.

I hope Allah the Exalted will give us the opportunity to fulfill our responsibilities and act in the best possible way.

Greetings be upon you and Allah's mercy and blessings

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