Leader Meets with Members of Supreme Council of Islamic-Iranian Paradigm of Progress

Islamic civilization isn't conquering countries, it's Islam's intellectual influence: Leader

“An Islamic civilization does not mean conquering other countries, rather it means Islam’s intellectual influence over nations," said Ayatollah Khamenei at a meeting with members of Supreme Council of Islamic-Iranian Paradigm of Progress held on April 25, 2016.

Ayatollah Khamenei, the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, met Monday morning with the members of the Supreme Council of Islamic-Iranian Paradigm of Progress. Speaking at the meeting, his Eminence stressed that the goal of the Islamic Revolution is to establish an Islamic civilization. Referring to the wrong and inefficient paradigms that have been developed for global development, his Eminence stressed the necessity of presenting an Islamic-Iranian paradigm.

He reiterated that doing jihadi and revolutionary work, benefiting from the rich and remarkable capacity of Islamic sources and Islamic seminaries, developing scientific power, and creating discourses are among the requirements of producing and preparing an Islamic-Iranian paradigm of progress.

The Leader of the Islamic Revolution pointed to a five-step procedure through which the Islamic Revolution should attain its goals and its relationship towards the paradigm of progress: “The first step of this procedure is the formation of the Islamic Revolution and after that, an Islamic system should be formed immediately. Imam Khomeini’s (pbuh) great achievement was creating this Islamic system.”

Ayatollah Khamenei described the third step – the current step – as the formation of an Islamic government – a government on the basis of completely Islamic paradigms and standards – and added: “Until this step has not been completely implemented, there will be no opportunity for Islamic society to be formed. And under such circumstances, the issue of an Islamic lifestyle will only remain at the level of discourse creation in society.”

His Eminence defined the last step as the creation of an Islamic civilization, saying: “An Islamic civilization does not mean conquering other countries, rather it means Islam’s intellectual influence over nations.”

Explaining why the current existing paradigms in the world cannot be ideal paradigms, he stated that producing an Islamic-Iranian paradigm of progress is a prerequisite for creating an Islamic civilization. He added: “The current paradigms of development are wrong in terms of principle. They are based on humanism and non-divine principles. And when it comes to results and outcomes, they have not managed to fulfill the promises that they had given on the issue of freedom and justice.”

The Leader of the Islamic Revolution mentioned that the adverse and appalling conditions of some of the countries that follow these paradigms – in indexes such as massive financial debts, unemployment, poverty, and class differences – are signs of the inefficiency of the current paradigms in the world. He added: “Although these societies have made certain achievements, their progress does not enjoy any depth and it has not led to morality, justice, spirituality and security. Therefore, we should define and present our paradigm for domestic progress on the basis of Islamic principles and the Iranian culture.”

Ayatollah Khamenei described the Islamic nature of this paradigm of progress as the essence of the work, stating: “The condition for this to happen is carrying out deep Islamic research and establishing a deep and enduring relationship with Islamic seminaries and with those intellectual and well-informed scholars who have mastered philosophical, theological and jurisprudence (fiqhi) principles.”

His Eminence stressed that paying attention to the Iranian part of the Islamic-Iranian paradigm of progress is very important, saying: “Iran prepares the ground for this paradigm to be achieved. If no attention is paid to the culture, history, geography, climate, traditions, and natural and human resources of this country, then the paradigm of progress will be a document that cannot be implemented and that is useless.”

The Leader of the Islamic Revolution reiterated that doing scholarly work, preparing the ground for having discussions and exchange of ideas about the paradigm, identifying and clarifying the differences of the paradigm with the many paradigms of progress that are available in the world, paying attention to ideals and realities simultaneously, attending to practicality, and enjoying scientific power and resistance in the face of opposing viewpoints are the other requirements for preparing an Islamic-Iranian paradigm of progress.

Ayatollah Khamenei then offered some words of advice to the members of the council: showing patience in preparing the paradigm, carrying out a critical study on the five-year performance of the council, presenting serious and well-informed critiques of the current paradigms for global development, doing serious, jihadi and revolutionary work, benefiting from young, broad-minded, religious and revolutionary researchers, connecting with the organizations and the managerial body of the country and creating discourses were some of the words of advice that his Eminence offered to the members of the Supreme Council of Islamic-Iranian Paradigm of Progress.

He highlighted the importance of discourse creation and added: “By benefiting from organizations and our resources, discourses should be created in a way that the Islamic-Iranian paradigm of progress will turn into a dominant discourse in the minds and hearts of the youth – the future managers of the country.”

He described faith and firm belief as the main condition for achieving success in any task and thanked the head and members of the Supreme Council of Islamic-Iranian Paradigm of Progress for their activities.

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