In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
All praise is due to God, Lord of the Worlds, and peace and greetings be upon our Master, Muhammad, and his pure, chosen Progeny, particularly the Remnant of God on earth.
It is very pleasing and heartwarming for me to participate in this esteemed and distinguished gathering of Islamic seminary students and scholars. It has always been my dream to be among and to live in the environment of the Islamic seminaries, Islamic seminary students, and religious officials. Once when I was with Imam [Khomeini] and he was instructing me to run for a second term for the presidency, I told him that I would rather go to Qom and live there after my first term in office. He said that he would like to go to Qom as well, but it’s not possible. It is my dream to be among you and to work with you my dear brothers and sisters — you seminary students are among the best and most trustworthy groups with whom a person can comfortably work with.
The issues mentioned by Mr. Arafi [Head of the Islamic seminaries] were very good. Before entering here inside the hallway, they had set up a small exhibition and some [of the seminaries’] activities were mentioned, which I also found very pleasing. I completely approve the things that regarding the duties of the Islamic seminaries were said here and were depicted in the exhibition.
There is much that can be said about the Islamic seminaries and those who are a part of them. Different aspects of this can be discussed. The point that I have chosen to speak about today is the issue of tabligh [propagation of Islam]. When I see the information that has been given to me concerning different matters, I become very worried about tabligh. All of the activities that were mentioned and reported are true, we know they are true. However, what we need is much more than these things.
The capacity for tabligh in this country is so abundant, replete, and widespread, that even if we work several times harder than that which we are currently working, I don’t think it will satisfy the capacity that we have. We need tabligh as well as preaching and research. If our tabligh is not based on research, it will be ineffective and futile. I will say something about this at the end of my talk. So, I have prepared some points on the subject of tabligh that I will share with you today.
Today, the common view held in seminaries is that tabligh is a second priority. The first priority is other things [such as] academic degrees and things of that sort. Tabligh comes second. We need to move past this viewpoint. Tabligh comes first. This is what I want to say. Why do we say this? For, what do we consider to be the purpose of religion? What has God’s religion come to do with us human beings?
Well, we have an ultimate purpose which — depending on our potential — elevates us on the path of being khalifatullah [God’s viceregent], on the path of being a complete human being. This is the ultimate purpose of religion. There are intermediate and primary goals as well, such as upholding justice, “… so that mankind may maintain justice” (Quran 57:25). Or there is the need for the establishment of an Islamic system of governance, “We did not send any Messenger but to be obeyed by Allah’s command” (Quran 4:64). The center of obedience is religion which means the formation of an Islamic system of governance, one of the goals of religion. It is an intermediate goal, as is the establishment of good, the spreading of good, the removal of evil, and the propagation of good words and righteous deeds. “To Him ascends the good word, and He elevates righteous conduct” (Quran 35:10).
So, these are the goals of religion. Whichever of these you examine, you will realize that the means to achieve these is through tabligh. This cannot happen without tabligh. Now there may be exceptions where a [divine] light enters someone’s heart, through a divine reminder, and enlightens them, but that is another matter, it is an exception. When considering these goals and similar goals for people, God’s religion will not be realized if there is no tabligh. So tabligh comes first. This is why we see that in the Quran emphasis is placed on the issue of tabligh.
I referred to the Quranic indexes for this discussion and the word balagh [communication] or balaghun mubin appears in the Quran about 12 or 13 times. “Balaghun mubin” means such communication that leaves no room for doubt: “And our duty is only to communicate in clear terms” (36:17). It must leave no room for doubt. Balagh means to convey and communicate a message to people’s ears and to people’s hearts. This has been repeated many times in the Quran, it has been repeated 12 or 13 times. This term has been used by the prophets, “And our duty is only to communicate in clear terms” (36:17). It is used by Almighty God when He addresses the Prophet, “Then [emphatically] your duty is to communicate” (3:20). This matter of communication is also present in the verse, “Those who communicate the messages of Allah and fear Him, and fear no one except Allah” (33:39). This is the verse that was recited [at the beginning of the meeting] by the respected reciter. There are also various other verses in this regard, “I communicate to you the messages of my Lord” (7:62) or “Communicate that which has been sent down to you from your Lord” (5:67).
There are numerous words that are parallel and similar to balagh in the Quran. Tabligh of “invitation” has been repeated on numerous occasions in the Quran, “Invite to the way of your Lord with wisdom and good advice” (16:25), or “Answer Allah and the Messenger when he summons you to that which will give you life” (8:24). There are numerous other verses that refer to invitation as well. There are also numerous verses about warning people and giving them glad tidings. All of these are invitation, all of these are tabligh.
If you broadly examine the Holy Quran, you will see that it emphasizes tabligh. In fact, the Holy Quran considers tabligh to be the duty of the prophets. But what about the successors of the prophets? “The scholars are the successors of the prophets” (Saduq’s Al-Amali, 60). Since you are the successors of the prophets, a fundamental part of your duty is tabligh, you must engage in tabligh. You need to convey the message of religion and the message of God to the hearts and ears of people. To whom should you convey this message? To all of humanity. Of course, there are priorities, naturally your own society has a higher priority. Some places have a higher priority and some places have a lower priority. But the message should reach everyone. Let us look at the importance of tabligh in this way.
That is why you see that the tradition of tabligh existed in Islamic seminaries from the beginning, from a thousand years ago. Of course, I did not have time to examine this in detail — I mean I didn’t have time to find the reference of this matter, but from what I recall from memory, say from the time of Sheikh Saduq, for example, the numerous books written by Sheikh Saduq (ra) are all about tabligh. Al-Amali is about tabligh, Al-Khisal is about tabligh and Uyun Akhbar Al-Reza is about tabligh. All of these books are about tabligh and they’re not just about tabligh of denomination, they are about tabligh of ethics, tabligh of religion, and tabligh of monotheism. These are exactly the things that we need to do.
A number of Sheikh Mufid’s treatises that were in response to questions from various countries — which were published a few years ago in the Sheikh Mufid Conference — are a form of tabligh. Sheikh Tusi, in addition to the profound jurisprudent that he was, wrote the book Al-Amali. The Sheikh’s book, Al-Amali is tabligh. Sayyid Morteza’s Al-Amali is tabligh. Like I said, I have not had the opportunity to search the references, but you can refer to them, you have more time to see how tabligh was conducted in the Islamic seminaries in previous centuries. For example, in recent centuries [Mohammad Baqer] Majlisi (ra) — who was a great personality and should not be underrated since he truly was an exceptional personality — in addition to his [very famous hadith encyclopedia Bihar-al Anwar] and his numerous books on hadith and hadith studies and the like — he wrote books such as Haq-ul Yaqin and Hayat-al Qulub which were both written in Farsi. What was the purpose of these books? Tabligh!
The late [Muhammad Mahdi] Naraqi also wrote books in Farsi. Of course, there were other ones written later that some of them I recall. For example, Minhaj-al Sadeqin and other such books have been written in Farsi. Who are these Farsi books for? They were not for scholars, they are books of tabligh for the general public. In other words, the scholars attached importance to the tradition of tabligh. I did not have the opportunity [to research] when tabligh began in this [current] form of speaking from minbars [pulpits], I would have liked to research this, but consider for example, Mullah Hussain Kashefi Sabzevari in the ninth and tenth [hijri] centuries or for example Vaez Qazvini in the tenth century, who was also a great poet. As I recall, they would go on the minbar and often gave speeches and the tradition of speaking from the minbar existed then.
Mullah Hussain Kashefi is the author of the book Rawzat-ul Shuhada. The elegies we recite are in fact from his book. And also later on, great scholars like Sheikh Jafar Shushtari [are the same]. Sheikh Jafar Shushtari was a well-known preacher, cleric, and he was a great jurist, but he also spoke from the minbar, of course he shouldn’t be confused with Sheikh Jafar Kashif al-Ghita.
Or there was the late Agha Reza Hamedani Vaez, a great cleric. He should not be confused with Agha Reza Hamedani who wrote Misbah al-Faqih. He is someone else. Vaez wrote the book Hidayat-ul Naml ila Rais-ul Millah. In our time, the late philosopher, Sayyid Abul-Hasan Qazvini, under whom Imam Khomeini briefly studied during his youth, was a great scholar. I saw him myself, he would pray in a hall of the Grand Mosque of Tehran. He would speak from the minbar there and the people would sit and listen to his lectures.
Before him, the late [Mirza Muhammad Ali] Shahabadi, Imam Khomeini’s teacher — whom [unfortunately] we did not see — used to speak from the minbar in the same mosque. They did not consider it to be a lowly thing for them to speak from the minbar. In Mashhad, the late Haj Mirza Hussain Sabzevari and the late Haj Agha Hasan Qomi used to speak from the minbar as well. So the tradition of tabligh — whether it is in the form of writing, giving a speech, or in the form of poetry recitation — has existed in Islamic seminaries. This shows how important it is.
So as I said, tabligh is the top priority of the Islamic seminaries. It has been like this in different periods of time, but it is much more important in our time. This is because something has taken place in our era that has not happened in over a thousand years, since the beginning of Islam — that is the establishment of an Islamic government. The formation of the political organization of the country's administration based on Islam has no precedent. When this is the situation, it is obvious that enmity with Islam intensifies, as you know and as you can see now. These enmities have increased so much that we have all become used to it and we don't notice all the different types of the enemy’s enmities.
Therefore, tabligh is much more important in our time. This is because in the Islamic system, the foundation of the system's strength is the people, faith of the people. If people do not have faith, there will be no system. As [Imam Khomeini] stated, “Preserving the Islamic system is among the most important religiously obligatory matters.” And one thinks that if it is the most important obligatory matter, preserving people’s faith becomes obligatory. Tabligh becomes more important in this sense. Secondly, because this age is an age of scientific development, there are various ways of spreading the message today, which could not have even been imagined in the past. There are televisions and satellites, the internet and the post-internet and even newer things such as artificial intelligence and the like. And there are many more things on the way!
In such a situation where the enemy has its sharp, blood-soaked swords ready in its hands, what are we going to do? Tabligh gains greater importance in this situation. Today, as I mentioned, both the hardware and the software of the opposition and the enemies have advanced and developed. They commonly use various methods in order to make their various messages believable — using scientific and psychological methods and the like. These are methods that people did not know of in the past, these are the soft tools they use and they are very important. The way they speak, the way they make movies, the way they create a scene, and the way they write news headlines are such that anyone who sees it will not doubt its validity, even though it’s all one-hundred percent false. This is what we are facing today.
If we neglect these things, and if today Islamic seminaries neglect the importance of tabligh, significance of tabligh, and high priority of the duty of tabligh, we will face problems that cannot be easily compensated for — I’m not saying [compensating for] it would be impossible, but it wouldn’t be easy — and we would be afflicted by a cultural emptying. If, God forbid, a cultural emptying takes place, correcting the situation and compensating for it would not be a small task. Imam [Khomeini] said on multiple occasions that if such a thing happens, it would be a slap in the face for Islam and the effect of it would remain for many years. This is the case, if we are negligent, this will happen. If we are negligent, sins will become normalized. Major sins will no longer be considered to be major sins and will become normalized. You can see how this has already happened in the West!
The West is moving in that direction step-by-step. One doesn’t even like to use the phrases they commonly use. That is, the dignity of a human’s speech and human’s language [and tongue] is higher than to repeat these phrases, but this is the reality. If we underestimate [the importance of] tabligh, these things will afflict our society.
So these points that I mentioned, these viewpoints that I mentioned are clear and leave no room for uncertainty, but in order to make this discussion more practical, I have written down some points that I will mention.
The first point about tabligh is to know your audience. If we want to conduct tabligh correctly, we must get to know our audience. For example, the level of public awareness today among both the young and the old is not comparable to [the levels of] the past. It really is not comparable. Almost all of my life of conducting tabligh — for over 60 years — has been spent with the youth. In my younger years in Mashhad, I would organize discussions that young people, academics, university students, and high school students would attend.
The youth back then had good ideas, they thought well too. But they are not comparable to [the youth of] today. The level of thinking has increased. Tabligh without keeping this fact in mind will be useless. We must know what level of thought our audience has so that we can adjust the content, the subject matter and form — the patterns — according to their needs. Without this, it will be pointless. In addition to the fact that the level of thinking of our youth, our teenagers, and our audience has increased, there is also a problem that exists. The problem is that in this chaotic situation where there are numerous voices coming from cyberspace and various types of media, amid this pluralism of voices, there is one voice that has been pushed aside and that is the voice of families and generations passing down their knowledge.
Parents teach many things to their children. Many of our people, or perhaps the majority of our people, have gained their information and knowledge about religion from the words and behavior of their parents. These voices have become weak today. In the commotion caused by the media pluralism, this voice has been drowned out. This is also something to consider that our audience [on the one hand] is an audience that hears many words, all sorts of different matters reach their minds, and [on the other hand] they have to deal with them as a problem as well.
In the past, we would counsel the youth and warn them to stay away from bad friends and companions. Now bad companions are there right inside their pockets! They have a screen of bad companions right before their eyes and everything is in it. You should get to know this audience. If our tabligh material and methods do not suit our audience’s situation, we will not succeed. This is one point. It is possible that this is one of the meanings and examples of the holy verse: “We did not send any Messenger except with the language of his people” (Quran 14:4). If we were to take this to mean that, for example, Turkish-speaking people should be sent Turkish-speaking prophets, well this is obvious, without this it wouldn’t make sense, but I believe that “We did not send any Messenger except with the language of his people” means more that [the prophets] should speak and explain according to the thinking and intellectual structure of their people. This is one point. So the first point is to know your audience.
The second point is that tabligh isn’t just about answering doubts and taking a defensive approach. This approach is wrong for us to just sit and wait to see what doubts and misgivings exist so we can then prevent them [from spreading] or answer the doubts. Yes, this is wajib [religiously obligatory act], it is necessary, but tabligh is not limited to this alone. The other side has certain intellectual foundations which should be attacked. The other side has words, has thoughts, and has its own logic. Their logic has foundations which are incorrect and we should identify these errors. In tabligh, it is necessary to take an offensive approach.
If this offensive approach is to be truly realized, it is necessary to know the scene. You must know who you are up against when you are confronted with a large number of doubts in the minds of young people. Who are we up against? Now suppose that a certain editorial writer, a certain columnist for some newspaper, or a certain Tweeter posts something on a social network. Who are we up against? Who is this? Is the person doing this him/herself? It is highly likely that this is not the case. It is highly probable that something is going on behind the scenes. Who is behind the scenes? We should know who they are.
There was a day in this country — when most of you were probably “nothing capable of being mentioned” (Quran 76:1) — about 50 or 60 years ago when the Tudeh Party was active in propagation and the like. In appearances, there would be this young member of the Tudeh Party who was debating a young Muslim cleric or non-cleric, for example, trying to conquer that young person’s mind with his/her own words. That is how it was in appearances, but that was not the reality. The reality was that the Tudeh Party was fundamentally dependent on the vast intellectual and political system called the Soviet Union. That is where the Tudeh party was being nurtured from and where they received their financial and intellectual support. Marxism was actually being confronted.
Therefore, our wise scholars at that time, such as Allamah Tabatabai, did not go after trying to answer those people, but instead they responded to Marxism. The book The Principles of Philosophy and the Method of Realism is a response to the theoretical foundations of Marxism. [So] find the other side’s intellectual foundation and aim at that. This is what many of Martyr Motahhari’s books did. So we should know the scene, and know who we are up against.
When we look today, we don’t see Marxism anymore. Rather, there is another front and another rival confronting us. Today, another confrontation exists, a confrontation between two fronts. If we know these two fronts, then we can determine if the phenomenon that has risen against us is independent or dependent on the opposing front. What are these two fronts? One front is the front of the “Islamic system,” which I will speak about briefly. The other front is the deceptive front that calls itself “liberal democracy.” But actually, it is neither liberal nor democratic! They are lying when they say they’re a liberal democracy.
If you are liberal, why did you colonize others — [in the form of] traditional colonialism, modern colonialism, neocolonialism? What kind of liberals are you? What kind of freedom-seekers are you? And what kind of free-thinkers are you that you colonized a country such as India that had a population in the millions and took control of it for over 100 years? You siphoned off their assets and turned them into a poor nation. These are the words of Nehru. Nehru was an Indian nationalist who became the prime minister of India. He wrote about and explained what India was like before the British came and entered their country, and what it became after that. Are you liberals? Is this liberalism? Or the French, for example, in Algeria committed crimes and murdered people for over 100 years!
The number of people they killed has been recorded and written down and there are clear statistics, I do not recall the exact number. They killed thousands, or tens of thousands of people within a few years in Algeria, in Tunisia, and also in some other places in North Africa. They are not democratic, they are lying! They impose governments on others in many places. They do not support democracy. They are 100% against democracies that do not serve them. That is the other front. You see, we cannot say that this is just regarding the past. Yes, what happened in India was 100 years ago and in Algeria it was 60 or 70 years ago, but [the governments] who committed those crimes in Algeria and India at that time have the same nature today.
Today, they are willing to push the poor, helpless nation of Ukraine forward to fill the pockets of American arms-producing companies. That is what is happening. That is the case in Ukraine. They [the Ukrainians] fight and get killed so that weapons can be sold, so that Europe is forced to buy their weapons, so the arms-producing companies can produce and sell weapons and fill their pockets. They are the same. They want to steal Syria’s oil and they are stealing it. People imagine a thief to be an inferior, lowly person. A government like [the government of] the US is stealing oil from Syria and is doing it openly in plain view of everybody! They are the same, they haven’t changed. So this is one front.
Opposing it there is a system that, relying on Islam and inspired by Islam, opposes arrogance, opposes colonialism, and opposes interference in the interests of various nations. This opposition exists. Now these two sides are standing against one another. Sometimes you see propaganda against the Islamic system, where they create doubts about the foundations of this system. Where is this coming from? When we look into it and follow up on it, which, thank God, we can easily do with the tools that are available to us, we understand where this is coming from. But for someone who does not have these tools available to them, when they look into it, they too should understand.
We are not up against some anti-revolutionary columnist who took refuge abroad or maybe even resides in our country — although there are not many of those. We are up against certain governmental organizations. This battle is a civilizational battle, it is a global battle. This is the conflict that exists. However, that’s not the whole story. In this global battle, other things can be done as well. To reduce the damages caused by this battle, there are people who are obligated to conduct diplomacy and the like. When diplomacy is carried out based on correct principles, there is nothing wrong with this, and it should be done. But we should know who we are facing and who we are dealing with. Without this, tabligh will not be done correctly.
Of course today, the West is fortunately more vulnerable than ever. Imam [Khomeini] named the United States “The Great Satan,” which is very true. There exists a collection of Satanic traits and villainies in the US that each can be a target for tabligh attacks. When I say we should not limit ourselves to being in a defensive position, this is one example. Today, the villainies and Satanic traits of America can be seen in various fields such as in politics, in confronting other nations, in the treatment of the American people, in racism, in the class differences that exist, in sexual ethics, in crime and just plain cruelty [they display]. All of these are weak points.
Wherever they go, they are cruel. The Americans entered Iraq about 21 or 22 years ago and even imagining some of the scenes that we saw on television of how they treated the people there makes a person shudder. They treated the people of Iraq like that. It wasn’t even about Saddam — they are cruel. So the first point is to know your audience. The second point is to avoid taking and being limited to a defensive approach. Of course, defense is required and is wajib, but we should have an offensive approach. All these things [I mentioned] could be targets for your attacks in tabligh, although this is conditioned on your understanding global movements and the global political situation and oppositions [that exist], in order to then expose matters — in order to see things correctly and then to narrate matters correctly. This is the second point.
My dear brothers, my dear sisters! The third point is that a jihadi spirit is necessary for tabligh. If a jihadi spirit exists in all the different tasks, then there will be more development, but in this case, if tabligh is conducted without a jihadi spirit, it will not have the required spirit. Without having a jihadi spirit, mistakes will occur in understanding the state of affairs and [furthermore mistakes in] behaviors during tabligh will happen. But when there is a jihadi spirit, things will be seen correctly, work will be carried out effectively, and progress will be made.
Of course, when we speak about a jihadi spirit, it does not mean that knowledge-related, ethical, and other similar abilities are no longer necessary. They are in their own place wajib and so is a jihadi spirit. This jihadi spirit is based on this noble verse, “… nor do they tread any ground enraging the faithless, nor do they gain any ground against an enemy, but a righteous deed is written for them on its account” (Quran 9:120). An action that triggers the anger of the faithless is a righteous deed. Yanaluna minh means to strike. Nala has two meanings, but when it comes with minh it means that he will not strike except that a righteous deed will be written for him. This is the best form of jihad.
Muslim clerics must be present right in the middle of the field, they should not become despondent. This is the characteristic of jihadi action. It is not enough to just sit on the sidelines and sometimes give a piece of advice or a message, like the Christian priests. Of course, there are different types of Christian priests. Some of them were confined to churches, [that is] they confined themselves. But some were the opposite [and worse] and became pioneers of colonization!
In Latin America, in Africa, and other places before the colonizers set foot there and the military forces went forward, the priests would go and prepare the [colonized] people so that they could go there and to severely harm them. That is how some of them entered. But Muslim clerics should be in the battlefield, engage in jihad for Allah, with [the help] of Allah, and through [the strength] of Allah and not become despondent. When this jihad is accompanied with scientific efforts and a scientific outlook, the effect of tabligh is guaranteed. This is another point.
The next point is to pay special attention to the youth and younger generation who will form the future of the country. Of course, other groups should not be neglected — thinkers, thought leaders, opinion leaders, scholars, scientists, artists, authors, poets. They should all have enough food for thought [at their disposal], they all need to be prepared. A few years ago, a large number of people, maybe 50 or 60 people or even more from the country's filmmakers came here and we met on the top floor of this Hussainiyah. They mentioned some matters and they voiced some complaints.
I concluded that sometimes we expect too much from them. When did we provide them with the knowledge they require that we now complain about why they haven’t made films based on that knowledge? We need to provide them with the material they require. This is one of the things that we need to do. Therefore, there should be an appropriate approach taken in tabligh when we are dealing with thinkers, artists, writers, speakers and in all different areas. But the most important group are the youth and teenagers. The future of the country belongs to them. It will be in their hands. Their faith must be strong and their minds must be free from doubts.
Instruments to endear young people to commit themselves to the practice of religion is very important. Sometimes we may have a young person whose passion for Imam Hussain (pbuh), for example, pulls him toward the right path, toward the path of jihad; however, he may be weak when it comes to acts of worship. Well, acts of worship are very important. Prayer is best of deeds. It is higher than all other deeds, it brings salvation, it is best of deeds. For example, let's assume that a young person sometimes neglects his/her prayer. Such cases exist.
There are things and attractions that can encourage this young person to perform acts of worship and to avoid sins — factors and attractions exist. One of these attractions is the mosque. Another are heyats. These are important.
One of the wajib tasks is to improve mosques and keep them alive. Of course, the number of mosques that we have across the country is not much compared to the population. But some, or perhaps most of the ones that already exist, are not well-maintained or very active. At most, they open their doors at prayer time, people say their prayers there and then the doors of the mosques are closed! This should not happen! Mosques should be places for people to constantly come and go. Of course, [the state of] heyats are good, they’re one of the places that also encourage the youth.
Preaching should also not be neglected, as I mentioned in the beginning. We all need to hear preaching. All of us, everyone, without exceptions need this, we all need to hear preaching. Sometimes we know something, but the effect of hearing it [again] can be greater than knowing about it. We need to hear preaching, good preaching. So these were the practical measures that I wanted to mention.
The last point, which in my opinion is the most important point in some ways, is about how we can implement these things. I’ve spoken about these matters and you probably know twice as much about the things I have mentioned, but, anyway, I spoke about these matters. So what is important is how these things should be implemented. I see that there is good work being done in tabligh, both in written form and in the form of speeches and minbars. There is good work being done in tabligh, but, of course, it is far less than what should be done. We are very behind in terms of quantity.
If we want to have people required for tabligh with these characteristics in agreement with the capacities, or close to the capacities, we need large centers for this in the seminary. Centers should be created in the seminary for just one purpose, to train people in tabligh. And they need to have intellectual, research, and scientific support in them. That is, when we say that “we need to focus on tabligh,” it shouldn’t become an excuse for some to say that they don’t want to study Kifayat or Kharij [higher Islamic studies] courses anymore. No, this scientific foundation is necessary, but paying attention to this matter [tabligh] is very important. We need a proper center, which primarily is Hawza Ilmiyya of Qom [Islamic Seminary of Qom]. When this work is carried out in Qom and experience has been gained from it, then this can be repeated in other large seminaries throughout the country.
A center needs to be formed with the primary mission of “preparing up-to-date tabligh materials.” There are some things that are suitable for mentioning on the minbar today, but the same thing may be ineffective and useless in the future. Something that was suitable last year may not be suitable this year. This is how the world is moving forward, events are taking place one after another. The content required for tabligh should be created up to date. In this context, the sources, the Book [Holy Quran] and the Sunnah [words and deeds of the fourteen Infallibles] are so profound and comprehensive that they will never end. One can use the Quran so much. You can come up with new content or new speeches based on the Quran and the hadith, which can be enough to take care of all needs in tabligh. So one of the missions of this great center would be the preparation of materials.
The second mission is to organize effective methods for tabligh. After all, our methods of tabligh are limited, there may be more effective methods. These techniques should be organized and prepared in that center. The West is ahead of us in this matter. They have innovative, effective methods for spreading their messages. We are behind in this field. We need to organize and create methods. We need to teach oratorical skills in the true sense of the word. This is the second mission.
So there is the matter of training mubaligh [people who propagate Islam], mubaligh should be trained in these centers in the true sense of the word. We need to train mubaligh in the same manner that we train mujtahid [Islamic jurist]. Thank God, the respected officials in Qom have begun a new initiative in fiqh [Islamic jurisprudence]. They are researching contemporary fiqh issues, they are working on current issues in terms of fiqh. This is very important and it must continue. Similarly, we must train mubaligh, who can be effective and spread their message everywhere, in terms of quantity and quality.
There are some places that one knows of that do not have any active clerics in their community. This is not the case in just one or two places. There are many such places. For example, such cases exist in the center of the country, for instance, right here in Tehran, we have such cases. A lack of teachers, a lack of mubalighs, clerics who spread the message should be compensated for in this center.
Therefore, what must be pursued and is one of the essential tasks — and if you start today, it may show results in five years or maybe even longer — is to create such a center with the goals that I have mentioned.
I am very happy to have met you. Peace be upon the martyrs and the pure soul of Imam [Khomeini].
May God’s greetings, mercy, and blessings be upon you.
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