In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
It was a very sweet and pleasant meeting. What we managed to witness and hear today in this almost two-hour visit was very sweet. First of all, I apologize to the dear brothers who were supposed to have a share in this report but who failed to do so. I apologize to Mr. Erafi, Mr. Ali Asgari and some other gentlemen whose speeches we were supposed to benefit from. I do not know whether adhan was said sooner than expected or what. In any case, this did not happen [Supreme Leader and audience laugh].
I remember that we were supposed to benefit from the statements of Mr. Torkaman as well, but this did not happen either. I apologize to him. Secondly, I am very thankful to all the brothers who had a part in this valuable piece of group work including the institute itself, the brothers in charge and managers and officials at various levels. I thank everyone involved. There has really been an effort to carry out this chain of good tasks in a determined and innovative manner and by benefitting from all kinds of good taste, talent and mental capacity. This is another point.
The next point is that in my opinion, the movement that you have launched is more valuable than the letters themselves. Well, the letters were the results of a certain thought and task, but the fact that all these forces have been organized to move in a particular direction and to produce all these results is a very valuable phenomenon. This is the main point. This is what is important. I consider this to be more valuable than the essence of writing a letter.
You should not abandon this task. You should sit and think. The friends in the meeting pointed out that they have formed think tanks to sit and think on the quality of the work and how to develop and continue it. Very well, now these think tanks should think on how they can benefit from all the talents that have gathered together and all the ones who can join them later on in order to carry out the numerous tasks that we have in hand and convey our ideas to our audience. You should benefit from this. It is a source of joy for me to witness that all these forces, talents, capacities, motivations, and enthusiastic youths have gathered here.
After all, this is a task that can only be accomplished by you. It is you who should move the tasks forward. This Revolution, this new idea, this very important phenomenon – which is referred to as the Islamic Revolution and the Islamic Republic with its deep, meaningful, constructive and really blissful message – requires a lot of work and effort.
We have not yet done much of the things that we need to do. An example is the tasks that you have done. Before you, they had been left untapped. Perhaps it did not cross the minds of you yourselves that one could do these tasks. However, you entered the arena, you thought and you saw how much work one can do. Very well, now you should sit and think on future steps, on future tasks and on what should be created as a pivot – an intellectual and promotional pivot – and the extra things that should emerge for conveying it to the hearts and minds of individuals. This is another point which is your duty and that of your institute. This duty should be carried out by Allah's favor.
Another point is that Allah the Exalted has blessed this task. When I first thought of this and when I consulted with two, three individuals about writing a letter, I did not know that it would develop and spread to such an extent. So, Allah the Exalted blessed this task. We should thank Allah the Exalted and ask him to bless our tasks. Sometimes, you utter one word, but it is lost in the moment. However, sometimes you utter one word and Allah the Exalted spreads it among public opinion in the world. This is the meaning of blessing.
Another point is that we have experienced that the diversity of talents and capacities is very important whether in this task or in all other tasks. For example, we need writing, music, graphic art and various other things in order to carry out a collective piece of work. Nothing should be ignored. No talent should be ignored and neglected. All these talents should be benefitted from. The effect that a song produces might not be produced by a book. Sometimes, the effect that a poster produces might not be produced by an article. However, we need books and articles as well. If we manage to win the admiration of a number of outstanding personalities or the masses of the people with such tasks and if we manage to attract their attention, this should not make us ignore the significance and value of eternal and long-term works. Posters are not eternal works. They are necessary and definitely so, but books are eternal things. You should think of writing books.
Of course, I have thought of this, but unfortunately I cannot implement even one of the ten ideas that cross my mind because I am very busy. Once, I thought of an idea for writing a book in response to the question: "You who say that we should know Islam and that we should directly refer to Islam, where is your Islam? Introduce it to us." Should we only give them the text of the Quran? Is this enough or should we do more? An idea crossed my mind to work on this. Later on, if there is time, I might discuss it with the friends who are skilled at this. There are certain topics in my mind.
The friends in the meeting highlighted the issue of monotheism. Very well, monotheism is an issue, but it is not clear if familiarizing the young society of countries like France, England and such and such countries with the issue of monotheism will have the same efficiency as familiarizing them with the viewpoint of Islam about animal rights. As it happens, animal rights – which crossed my mind all of a sudden – has been reflected in our narrations to a great extent. In the present time, the issue of the environment is a hot debate which sometimes involves political motives. If you prepare a writing, a clip, a poster and an article – whatever is available, every means of promotion – about animal rights, this will attract more hearts towards Islam than preparing a deep writing about the issue of monotheism, for example. These things should not be ignored. The diversity of topics and issues is important.
Another example is social interests. In the meeting, there was reference to the writing that a French lady has written. She has said that she had considered such and such a person to be a prejudiced person, but then she realized that she was wrong. About prejudice, the Commander of the Faithful says that satan "the enemy of Allah is the leader of the prejudiced" [Nahjul Balaghah, Sermon 192]. Satan is the chief of the prejudiced in the world. He is the most prejudiced. In the present time too, "The Great Satan" – which is the US according to Imam – is the chief of the prejudiced. Notice how frequently the speak about American values. You should not think that these American values are delicate things like spirituality, for example. This is not the case. American values are things whose most important manifestation is shown in American policies in the world. Even those policies which have been formulated in the direction of supporting others are not like this.
For example, the "Point Four Program" introduced by Truman – only those of former generations, individuals like us, remember this – was intended to help other countries, but this help contained ulterior motives. Another example is “freedom”. When they speak about freedom, it means the same things that you see in cowboy, western and violent movies. In such movies, four individuals, for example, attack somewhere and kill five cows. They will kill these four individuals and they will also massacre 40 other individuals if they happen to be behind those four individuals for any reason. They say because it is my territory, my life and my property, I have the right to kill you: you attacked and now you will be killed. Freedom means this! They are really the leaders of the prejudiced.
American values – on which they place such emphasis – are these. Promoting American values shows that they are the leaders of the prejudiced. Westerners themselves are the leaders of the prejudiced. They are much more prejudiced. Prejudice means unreasonable commitment to something. The word "osbah" or "asbah" means commitment to relatives or to a specific group and party – no matter which root of the word we look at. This is the meaning of prejudice. They are committed to this notion more than us. As it happens, we show negligence and ignorance more than we should in these areas.
Well, these issues should be clarified. To sum up, selecting the topics and subjects with which one can convey the message of Islam – either explicitly or implicitly – is very important and these selections should be compared with other viewpoints that exist in today's civilized world and today's material civilization. This is the continuation of the task that should be carried out, God willing.
In any case, I am very grateful and I am very happy to have met with the friends here today. The song which was performed [referring to an English clip which was played in the presence of His Eminence] was a very beautiful and exquisite song. However, as I said, you should be very careful in translation. It was said that such and such a person was a native of Italy, but when he looked at the Italian translation, he saw that it contained errors. This is correct. We have certain individuals who are skilled at Farsi, but when they write a Farsi letter, we – natives of the Farsi language - look at it and see that it is not Farsi. We see that there are certain things in the text which do not exist in our language. This is very important.
The reason why Crescent Magazine - which belonged to the late Kalim Sadiqi – was popular in English-speaking countries was that it used to be written on the basis of English language and culture. Those who are were well-informed in these areas said this to me. This is very important. This can only be understood by natives. Non-natives cannot feel this correctly. You should observe this in translation.
The same is true of songs. Of course, in the case of songs, it will not cause much harm if a song contains a mixture of other kinds of music. This is because songs are beautiful and performed by those who have a good voice. For example, if someone sings an Iranian song but uses Indian music and melody in the middle of it, this will do no harm to the song provided that the singer will not go beyond this. However, if someone wants to sing an Iranian song but the song will turn out to be an Arabic song in the end, this is not very good. You should pay careful attention to these points. These will produce important effects.
I am very thankful.
Greetings be upon you and Allah's mercy
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