Khamenei.ir

The following is the full text of the speech delivered on May 15, 2007 by Ayatollah Khamenei, the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, in a meeting with the students of Ferdowsi University of Mashhad.

In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful

It is a great pleasure for me to be among the students of this city and the Ferdowsi University. This meeting brings back memories of years ago when I had meetings with students of this university in this city. These meetings used to be warm, exciting and at the same time dangerous. Of course, there is a 35-year gap between today's students at this university and the students of the early years of 1350s, whom I will talk about. But students are like a crystal river. Although each current of water that flows in a river changes on a momentary basis, it is still the same current. When you stand on the bank of the Karun River or the Zayanderood River, you see they are the same rivers that they were last year. When I look at you dear young students, I remember Keramat Mosque and Imam Hassan Mujtaba Mosque when you - that is to say, students of thirty five years ago - and I held meetings in which we talked about and took notes of religious commentaries on the Holy Quran and Nahjul Balaghah and in which we discussed the principles of the Islamic movement.

We used to be punished for these meetings. Both you and I were punished for these meetings. The taghuti regime could not tolerate clerics and students holding meetings particularly these warm meetings where many people were present. And the subject of these meetings was about religion. Of course, there were never meetings like the ones that have been held since the victory of the Islamic Revolution. However compared to the meetings which were held in those times, no meeting was like the ones that were held in Keramat Mosque and Imam Hassan Mujtaba (a.s.) Mosque - in those meetings, I taught Quranic Tafsir - in terms of harmony and the number of participants. You remind me of those memories.

First, I want to talk a little about the issues that the dear students in the meeting discussed. I agree with almost everything that these dear students said. The suggestions, the new plans and the brilliant ideas that come into the minds of our students, are very valuable to us. These things that you said were recorded. By Allah's favor, we will pay attention to your ideas. I will deal with those parts of your ideas that lie within the remit of my responsibility and I will ask the officials to attend to those parts that lie within their responsibility. Of course, when our dear students - not just the students in this meeting, but also in all meetings - talk and discuss their ideas with us, they mix it with a little complaint and annoyance. There is nothing wrong with this. They have not become hardened to problems the way we have. They are very sensitive:

"My heart trembles with everything because of my thoughts about my paramour. I have little patience which is as thin as the string of a musical instrument" [from a poem by Malek Qomi].

What I want to discuss today is the necessity to reconsider our paradigm of progress. We want to make progress. What is our paradigm for making progress? We have to reanalyze this paradigm. I raised the issue of development in the last meeting that I had with students - the meeting that I had a few months ago in Semnan. I said that development is a divine tradition. We should not oppose tradition, rather we should welcome it. We should manage development so that it results in progress and our people can move forward. I brought this up in that meeting. Of course, I said there and I repeat now that all academics and seminarian personalities - whether students, professors or clerics - should move in this direction. I will give more explanations so that we reach a conclusion.

Great achievements originate from brilliant ideas. It is not possible to come up with brilliant ideas without any interaction with the outside world. People with different thoughts and ideas should get familiar with your idea so that it results in a valuable idea. The main issue that I am going to discuss with you is that we should reanalyze the concept of progress. We should find out what the paradigm of progress for our country and society is.

There have been two wrong approaches to the concepts of progress and development. One approach deals with the treacherous actions that were carried out in the name of progress and development. Our people received serious blows because of the actions that were taken in the name of reform. During the time of the Qajar regime, many Qajar courtiers and princes - who were illiterate and materialistic - were in touch with westerners. These people made our country and our culture dependent on the west and they claimed that this is progress and development.

During the Constitutional movement, those people who were England's agents carried the flag of progress. They chanted the slogan of progress and development. Those people who killed the Constitutional leaders, hanged Sheikh Fazlullah Noori, murdered Ayatollah Behbahani, indirectly murdered Sattar Khan and Baqer Khan, pressured Constitutional leaders, brought to power people who were dependent on the west and the colonialists, raised the flag of progress. They were also claiming that they pursued progress. Such treacherous actions were carried out in the name of progress.

Reza Khan came to power with the slogan of progress and reform. He launched a coups d'état . After he came to power, he established a dictatorial regime that had no peers. All his actions were done in the name of progress and development. Mohammad Reza Pahlavi - who launched acoups d'état  in Mordad of the year 1332 - also claimed that he was after reform. But Reza Khan and Mohammad Reza led the country to disaster. With these actions, they delivered severe blows to the country.

The same situation holds true at an international level. The colonization of peoples was done in the name of progress. This has been a source of disgrace for human history in the last two centuries. From the viewpoint of colonizers, colonization stimulates innovation. The English, the Dutch, the Portuguese and the French went to different parts of Asia, Africa and Latin America to murdered the natives, to occupy different countries, to steal many things and to betray many peoples. They led many nations to disaster and they did so in the name of innovation and progress.

When neocolonialism emerged, the situation was still the same. America, England and other colonizers raised the flag of innovation, progress and development in order to justify their violence, warmongering and all the coups d'état  that were organized by their intelligence services. In the present time, you can see what is happening in Afghanistan and Iraq. The Americans entered Iraq to create a new world in which the people of Iraq can have freedom and democracy and in which they can make progress. But notice what is happening in Iraq in the present time. Perhaps all the pains that the people of Iraq endured during the time of all coup governments in Iraq - Saddam's government was the last coup government - was not as terrible as the suffering that they are experiencing at the hands of the Americans.

In the present time, men and women of Iraq are being humiliated by the Americans. An American young soldier presses his boots on the neck of an Iraqi young individual. Why does he do so? He does it because when the Iraqi person is crossing the street, the American soldier becomes suspicious of his behavior. Then the American soldier makes him lie on the ground and pushes his head against the ground and he does it just in front of his wife and children. Another example is that the American soldiers beat an Iraqi man in front of his wife. They search an Iraqi housewife in the name of progress and in the name of saving the people of Iraq. The same thing is being done in Afghanistan.

On the one hand, the concept of progress has been subject to such abuse throughout history. This is being done in the whole world and in our own country. On the other hand, there were - and still are - people who were opposed to all kinds of innovation and development. These people were opposed to innovative ideas claiming that these ideas have not been tried before and they are totally unknown. They say that they are suspicious of these ideas. These people misunderstood the hadith "The worst thing is innovation." Despite the fact that innovation is firmly established in tradition and human nature and despite the fact that without innovation human life is meaningless, these people have opposed it. These two contradictory approaches have existed in human history.

Therefore, we should define progress and development for ourselves and we should understand what we are looking for. We should do this to prevent that abuse of the concept of progress and that opposition to innovation. Of course, this does not mean that we have just decided to make progress and therefore we need a paradigm of progress. No, this is not what I mean. Progress started in our country with the victory of the Islamic Revolution. A stagnant people, who were under enormous pressure and who were not allowed to demonstrate their extraordinary talent, changed dramatically with the victory of the Islamic Revolution.

Today besides the fact that the victory of the Islamic Revolution was a big development and great progress in itself - during the Revolution, a people managed to turn a hereditary government into a democratic government. No development was greater than this and this revolution was the most significant progress. There is no country in the world that has the same situation as the one you can see in our country today. In our country the officials hold direct meetings with students and they talk in a friendly manner with them for several hours. Our president goes to all nearby and distant cities, talks to the people face to face and the people give him a warm reception. Our officials travel to other cities with the purpose of winning the elections and they meet their supporters. Although these meetings are held for the purpose of winning the elections, the officials and the people maintain their relationship after the elections are over, whether the officials win or lose the elections.

Not only the elections are based on the votes of the people, but there is also a close relationship between officials and the people. There is interaction and an emotional relationship between the people and officials. There is affection between officials and the people. Our honest officials love the people in the true sense of the word. The people love officials too as well.

The progress that we have made in scientific, social, political, international and economic areas is impressive. You young people and today's students have not lived in the past to see the difference between those times and the present time. Today, you compare your country with an advanced country that has a background in research and scientific work for 200 years and then you think that you have certain shortcomings. Although this is true, such a comparison is not reasonable. You should compare your country with what it was in the past. You should compare your country with our neighboring countries and the countries which have a background similar to ours. Today global statistics show that Iran has the fastest rate or one of the fastest rates of scientific growth. Of course, even considering this fast rate, we are still far behind.

Despite this fact, what has been done in all areas is great progress. You can see an example of this progress in academic environments. The population of Iran has doubled after the victory of our Revolution. The number of students has increased ten times and the number of universities, fields of study and the achievements, which students made, has increased more than ten times. Once we had to beg our countries for the most ordinary things, but in the present time, we can develop the most complex technologies in our own country. These achievements are astonishing. Other countries have acknowledged this. If there is enough time, I will speak about this matter.

In any case, our discussion about the paradigm of progress does not mean that we have just decided to make progress. Progress has started since the victory of the Revolution. By offering a clear and precise definition of progress, we want to raise public awareness - first among outstanding personalities and second among all the people - about this issue so that they know what we are looking for and what we want to achieve and so that different organizations of our country know what they should do. We should be looking for this. Of course, today I do not want to discuss what our paradigm of progress is. No, I want to discuss the necessity of this issue.

Developing a paradigm is your responsibility. That is to say, it is the responsibility of our outstanding personalities. They should carry out research in academic environments and they should finally develop a paradigm of progress for Islamic Iran by considering its geography, its history, its resources and its ideals. This paradigm will determine the future path of our people towards progress in different arenas.

Why should we discuss the necessity of developing a paradigm? It is very simple. It is because from the viewpoint of many of our outstanding personalities and officials, the paradigm of progress for our country should be based on western paradigms. They believe that we should copy western paradigms in order to make progress. Our officials believe in this, but it is very dangerous. it is wrong. It is both dangerous and wrong.

Westerners are very competent at using propaganda. Of course, they have acquired this competence. During the last two or three hundred years that they have been developing propaganda techniques, they have managed to promote the idea that following western ideals equals making progress. Each country that wants to be considered as an advanced country should be westernized. This is the idea that they promote. Each country which does not follow western patterns is not an advanced country. The farther away they are from western paradigms, the father away they are from progress. They want to instill such an idea in the minds of our people and unfortunately, they have managed to do so.

Although westerners have applied these propaganda techniques to promote the idea that the criteria for progress are western standards, they have not offered substantial help to countries that desired to be westernized. They were not honest even on this issue. I am telling you that westerners have never been - and still they are not - willing to let non-western students and scientists enter their scientific centers. The west never helped the Asian countries which have progressed - such as Japan, China and to some extent India. In the struggle between the east and the west - that is to say, the struggle between communism and capitalism, China was generously supported by the Soviet Union. Even their nuclear energy was provided by the Russians. China did not have anything on its own. Because the Soviet Union wanted to form a powerful Asian alliance against America and Europe and because China had a communist government, it equipped China with different weapons.

India enjoyed the same condition. In the struggle between the east and the west, India leant toward leftists. The Soviet Union - that is, the leftists - helped India. The Americans supported Pakistan in order to counteract this measure. Of course, Pakistan did not produce its nuclear energy. It got it from China. But America closed its eyes to the needs of Pakistan. Japan did not achieve scientific progress with the help of America and other western countries. The Japanese managed to grab their scientific information - perhaps it is false to say that they stole their scientific information. They managed to lay their hands on their scientific information while the Americans and other western countries were not willing to give up this information. The Japanese people were industrious people and they managed to push their nation forward. But the west did not help them in any way.

Now we should think of a way to dispel this illusion. What is this illusion? Certain people have the illusion that we should necessarily follow western paradigms in order to make progress. This illusion will create a dangerous situation for our country. Western paradigms are in line with western mentality and western principles. These paradigms match the present conditions in western countries. Moreover, these paradigms have not been successful. I say with total confidence that the western paradigm of progress has been unsuccessful. It is true that they have gained power and acquired wealth with this paradigm, but they have also led humanity to disaster. The entire humanity has become the victim of western progress. Both backward countries and advanced countries have been suffering in specific ways. This is the kind of progress which has made a small number of wealthy families wealthier, but which has humiliated, colonized and imprisoned other peoples. It has forced many peoples into different wars, it has forced dependent governments on many nations, it has promoted immoral behavior, prostitution, corruption and sex inside western countries and it has the main cause of the breakdown of families in these countries. Therefore this paradigm is not successful.

If you read the literary works of western countries such as France - written two or three centuries ago - and if you compare them with the present conditions in these countries, you will understand that they have declined to a great extent in terms of morality. The situation was not the same in the past. The progress of western civilization has created certain problems in terms of morality for these countries. It has caused moral decline for these countries and it has not improved their living conditions. That is to say, it has not eliminated poverty in any way. There is a lot of effort in such countries, but there are no results for individuals and for families. Therefore, the western paradigm of progress is unsuccessful.

We should develop an Islamic-Iranian paradigm of progress. This is vital for us. Why do I say Islamic? And why do I say Iranian? I say Islamic because our paradigm is in line with Islamic principles and philosophy and it is based on the Islamic view of humanity. Why do I say Iranian? It is an Iranian paradigm because it will be developed by Iranian minds. Islam has been available to other nations, but this is our nation which has managed or will manage to develop this paradigm. Therefore it will be an Islamic-Iranian paradigm. Of course, other peoples will undoubtedly use this paradigm. As many nations have held up our people as a role model in different issues until today, they will continue to hold up this paradigm as a model for the progress of their nation.

What makes us think that the western paradigm is not fit for the progress of our society is primarily the western view of humans. The Western view and philosophy towards human beings - of course, western philosophies are different, but they all have the same idea about human beings - is different from the Islamic view of humans. There is a fundamental difference between these two views. Therefore, progress, which is made for and by humans, is defined in different ways by western and Islamic philosophies.

From the viewpoint of westerners, progress is materialistic. The purpose of progress is to bring material benefits to people. The more worldly benefits, the more remarkable our progress is. The purpose of progress is to increase wealth and power. From the viewpoint of westerners, this is the meaning of progress. Western philosophy is after this and it advises everyone to pursue this kind of progress. When progress is based only on materialistic values, it may sacrifice morality and spirituality to achieve such progress. Based on this viewpoint, the only important thing for a people is to make progress, no matter that if these people lack morality and spirituality or not. From an Islamic point of view, this is not what progress means. Of course, Islam regards material progress as positive, but it is only a means. The purpose of progress is the growth and transcendence of human beings.

Each plan that is formulated for the progress of our country should consider the growth and transcendence of people. It should not humiliate people. These plans should involve the entire humanity, not just a group of people and not just the Iranian people. The kind of progress that we decide to achieve is not only beneficial to the Iranian people, let alone a specific class of people. This progress is for the entire humanity. Here, the main point is our view of human beings. Let me draw your attention to an Islamic philosophy. Later on, I will continue this discussion.

Islam has two viewpoints on human beings and these viewpoints complete each other. They can provide us with a basis for all macro issues of our country and for all the plans that we will draw up in the future. The first viewpoint is about human beings as a single individual. Islam considers you, me and other people as individuals with the power to think and make decisions. Islam addresses individuals directly, gives them responsibilities and shows them great respect. I will speak about this matter later on. The second viewpoint considers human beings as a group of people. These two viewpoints are in line with and complete each other.

The first viewpoint addresses an individual. According to this viewpoint, man is a traveler who is taking a certain path. If he follows the right path, he will approach God Almighty: "Oh man, Surely you must strive to attain to your Lord, a hard striving until you meet Him" [The Holy Quran, 84: 6]. This path is defined as transition from worshiping oneself to worshiping God. Man should move away from worshiping himself and he should move towards worshipping God. This is the right path. From this viewpoint, the responsibility of an individual is to take this path. This viewpoint addresses each and every one of us. It does not matter if others do not take this path and it does not matter if the world becomes full of dark forces or it becomes infused with the light of faith. Each individual should only try to take this path. "Oh you who believe, guard your own souls: If you follow guidance, no hurt can come to you from those who stray" [The Holy Quran, 5: 105].

An individual should move away from the path of egoism and he should take the path of worshiping God. What should we do to prepare ourselves for taking this path. We want to take a certain path and therefore we need to prepare ourselves. We should observe religious obligations and avoid unlawful acts in preparation for this trip. For our trip, we need faith that acts like an engine and we also need moral virtues that act like our food supplies and that make it easy for us to follow this path. Another thing that we need is piety which means self-monitoring. We should monitor ourselves so that we do not deviate from this path. According to the first viewpoint, this is the responsibility of an individual. An individual should do his best to carry out this task at all times, whether during the government of prophets or during the government of dictators.

This viewpoint advises human beings to lead a life of piety. Piety means being detached from the world. Although Islam advises human beings to lead a life of piety, it warns them against separating themselves from the world. What is the world? The world means nature, our bodies, our lives, our society, our politics, our economy, our social relationships, our children, our wealth and our homes. The Islamic viewpoint on individuals says that attachment to the world and attachment to materialistic things is forbidden. Individuals should not be attached to the world. Austerity means not being attached to these things. Of course, we should not forget about these things. It is also forbidden to turn your back to the pleasures and God's blessings in the world: "Say: Who has prohibited the embellishment of Allah which He has brought forth for His servants and the good provisions? Say: These are for the believers" [The Holy Quran, 7:32]. It means that no one has the right to turn his back on the world. These are self-evident facts that are mentioned in Islam.

So, I do not need to give details. This is the viewpoint of Islam on individuals. In this viewpoint, Islam allows individuals to enjoy the pleasures of life, but it also teaches human beings to enjoy higher levels of pleasure such as the pleasure of establishing a spiritual relationship with God and engaging in dhikr. On this path, human beings as beings who have the ability to think and the authority to make decisions, should choose what they want and then take this path. It is individuals who are addressed by this viewpoint. The purpose of this path is the happiness of human beings. If people follow the guidelines that are given to them, they will achieve happiness. This is the first viewpoint of Islam on human beings.

From another perspective, the same man who was addressed as an individual and who is selected by God as the caliph of the earth has been entrusted with another task. He should manage and build the world. "It is He Who has produced you from the earth and settled you therein" [The Holy Quran, 11: 61]. The same man is responsible for building the world. What is the meaning of building the world? It means that man should discover the blessings that God has created in nature and he should use these blessings for improving human life. There are blessings that God has created on earth and man should discover them. Once, man did not know about fire, but fire existed. Once he did not know about electricity, but there was electricity around. He did not know about the force of gravity and steam power, but these things existed in nature. Today, there are also many such blessings in nature. Human beings should try to discover these blessings. This is the responsibility of human beings because they are caliph and one of the requirements for being a caliph is this.

The same is true of all humans. That is to say, in the second viewpoint, man is responsible for discovering his own talent. He should discover and develop his intelligence, his wisdom, his knowledge and his extraordinary capabilities which have made him a powerful creature. This is the macro viewpoint. Who is addressed in the macro viewpoint? All individuals are addressed by this viewpoint.

Islam has asked for administering justice and establishing a good relationship with others. Whom has Islam asked? It has asked all individuals. Each and every member of the human community is addressed by this macro viewpoint. They all have responsibilities. All individuals are responsible for administering justice, forming governments that carry out divine rules, establishing good relationships with other people and building a world which is full of development and freedom. In this viewpoint you see that man is in control of everything. He should exercise self-discipline and self-edification and he should also build the world. This is the viewpoint of Islam on man.

Western humanism revolves around man. Humanism which was the main philosophy in the 19th century and also before and after that, revolves around man. But what kind of man are we speaking about? Man in western philosophy and western humanism is completely different from man in Islamic philosophy. From an Islamic point of view, man has both a material and a spiritual nature. He has two sides, but from a western point of view, man is a completely material being and his main goal is to enjoy the pleasures of life. This viewpoint is the pivot of the western paradigm of progress. Man has a profit-based mentality from the western point of view. But from the viewpoint of Islam, wealth, power and knowledge are all means for transcendence of man. From a western point of view gaining wealth, power and knowledge is an end in itself. It does not matter if human beings are humiliated and if millions of people are trampled underfoot and killed in jungles as long as a certain country gains power or wealth or as long as it can sell its weapons. This is the main difference between the western and the Islamic viewpoint.

Therefore, what we need is to develop the paradigm of progress for our country according to the Islamic outlook on humans. In this paradigm of progress, we do not need to make progress by promoting prostitution or by sinking in immorality. Spirituality will be the basis of this progress. Man is the pivot of this progress, the kind of man who has a strong spiritual dimension to his life and who uses knowledge, wealth and worldly matters as means for achieving spiritual transcendence and getting close to Allah the Exalted. This kind of progress is different from the western viewpoint on progress. I can hear the sound of adhan. Usually, I do not continue my speech when adhan is said. I have to speak briefly and finish my speech.

I want to say that one of the main tasks of the academic community and outstanding personalities - both in Islamic seminaries and in universities - should be to formulate a comprehensive plan for the progress of our country according to Islamic principles. They should not rely on western paradigms. The west cannot save our country. The west cannot develop a paradigm for the progress of our country. Those who work at planning centers, scientific centers and research centers and who work on economic and political matters - at a national and international level - and on other such important issues, should not be after coordinating the issues of our country with western models, western economic models, the World Bank or the International Monetary Fund because these models are not good ones for us. Of course, we will use western science. We are not biased. We will try to benefit from science, wherever it is. We will try to learn the positive aspects of western science, but we will draw up the plan for the progress of our country according to our own thoughts and our own needs.

Today, the independence of our country has been held up as an example in the world. We should show this independence in all areas. If we want to be independent, we should not become passive in the face of global powers. We should follow what is to our advantage and what matches our goals and ideals. We should not be influenced by the enemy's propaganda and political measures. Our people have proved that they have the power to resist the enemy's pressure. Once, all eastern and western powers formed an alliance and imposed a full-scale war on our people which lasted for eight years, but our people vigorously resisted these attempts. After the war, we were under the pressure of propaganda and economic sanctions and this has continued until today.

It is interesting that they threaten to impose economic sanctions on us. But when was it that our people were not under economic sanctions? We have made these scientific achievements in the area of nuclear energy and in other areas during the time that we were under heavy economic sanctions. The westerners know this. Of course, there are certain people in our country who are so besotted with western philosophy and western culture that they do not want to believe we have made great achievements. Until other countries do not confirm that we have made scientific achievements in our country, these people do not believe us.

I remember that when our scientists managed to operate our centrifuges about two years or two years and a half ago and when our officials, our president and other people broke the news to me, a number of academic physicists - who are good and honest people and who know me - wrote me a letter and told me not to believe these things. They said that such a thing has never happened and that it is not possible to do such a thing. They did not want to believe it because the enemy had instilled this idea in their minds. When westerners, the International Atomic Energy Agency and other people came to our country, they themselves took a look at our centrifuges. They acknowledged that they could not believe such a thing happened in our country. When they confirmed that Iran has made such an achievement, then pessimists in our country started to believe.

The same thing happened in the area of stem cells. When I spoke about the achievements of our country in the area of stem cells in several speeches, I received many letters from a number of scientists and academic personalities. They told me not to mention this issue anymore because this is not true. They told me not to believe that we have made great achievements in the area of stem cells and that our scientists are working on cloning. Such a thing has never happened and will not happen in the future. When everybody saw the cloned sheep and when famous scientists and brilliant biologists in the world - they had participated in a congress in our country - confirmed that these achievements are extraordinary, then a number of pessimists in our country started to believe. It is a disaster that we do not believe in our talents and our capabilities. It is a disaster that we do not believe in our achievements, even when they are really made.

What the Revolution has offered us and what we expect from ourselves is that we should strengthen our self-confidence. We should strengthen our national self-confidence. Our people should have confidence in themselves. They must know that they can reach their goals with firm determination and with unity among all the people in the country. We should know this. Our academic community should firmly believe that they can do whatever they want in areas related to their field of study. Our students, our university professors, our researchers and our academic managers should know that they can achieve whatever they want in the shade of determination and hard work. This is what we need. Of course, I wanted to hold a longer discussion about this matter, but I made it shorter anyway.

Finally, I have some pieces of advice for students. In academic environments, it is necessary to both make fair criticism and to accept criticism. Young people, particularly young students, should be allowed to speak freely about various issues. They should be allowed to make criticism. Of course, this criticism should be fair. We should not confuse making criticism with finding fault, speaking angrily and complaining. It is necessary to make criticism, but at the same time we should accept criticism. If other people such as students criticize us, we should accept that. We should have patience. If we accept criticism, it means we are patient.

Another piece of advice is that it is necessary to have political tolerance in academic environments. Student organizations should show political tolerance towards one another. Making student organizations fight against each other is a dangerous plot that has been hatched by the enemy. They have devised such a scheme. You should be vigilant. They want to pit student organizations against each other, as we have recently witnessed such conflicts between a number of universities. Of course, wise students with a deep political understanding did not allow such a thing to happen. But this is the enemy's plot. Student organizations can thwart their plot if they show political tolerance towards one another.

Another piece of advice is that you should preserve your idealistic outlook. You should not become conservative. Certain people may become conservative as they become old, but youth is the engine of change. Our youth should not become conservative. Young people should be idealistic. You should not abandon your ideals, rather you should pursue them. If you try to reach the summit of a mountain, you can be sure that you can at least walk half of the way. Of course if you try to reach the summit, I am sure you will reach it. You should preserve your idealistic outlook. The manifestation of this spirit is maintaining your principles and ideologies.

Self-education in both scientific and religious matters is another issue which was pointed out by a number of students in this meeting: "Guard your own souls" [The Holy Quran, 5: 105]. You should remember the Islamic viewpoint on individuals. You should guard your own selves. You should take the path that leads to God and to enlightenment by avoiding unlawful acts and observing religious obligations. You should appreciate the value of religious obligations and you should avoid sins. This is the meaning of self-purification. I thank God that you have youthful and enlightened hearts and souls and that there is no moral corruption in them. Allah the Exalted will help you and will bestow His blessings on you.

The next piece of advice is about studying and pursuing knowledge. You should really study your lessons. Students should really pursue knowledge in academic environments. Sometimes one sees that in academic environments, students do not really seek knowledge. These students only memorize certain things with no purpose. You should not let this happen. You should really seek knowledge and you should not think that knowledge only means reading texts and studying your lessons. I discussed the same issue in a meeting that I had with university professors before I came here. I said to them that students should be taught to pose good questions, think deeply, challenge professors and pursue details in scientific discussions.

And finally, a dear lady in the meeting raised the issue of sports activities. I believe in sports activities. Of course, this issue is to some extent related to managers - they should provide students with facilities - and it is to some extent related to students themselves. You should not pin all the blame on managers. The people have access to the good mountains around Mashhad. I always criticize the youth in Tehran about this issue. There are no entrance tickets and there are no problems for the people, but they do not go mountain climbing. They prefer to sleep in the morning. They are lazy when it comes to sports activities. Sports activities are important and they are absolutely vital for your health and your fitness. I hope that Allah the Exalted bestows success on you and that with the firm determination of our dear youth, He will create a bright future for our people and for regional nations.

Greetings be upon you and Allah's mercy and blessings