The esteemed lady who spoke in this meeting raised an important point in regards to humanities that is completely right. First of all, what she said was absolutely well-thought-out and accurate. She said that behind the progress of humanities is the progress of thought, and thought comes before knowledge and experience. These are tried and true facts. This is why I am so sensitive about the issue of humanities. I never said we should not learn knowledge from Westerners who have made much progress over several centuries. I never said we should not read their literature. My point is that we must not imitate them. The lady rightly pointed out the same thing in her statements.
The principles of western humanities originate from materialistic thought. This is completely clear to anybody who has read the history of the Renaissance and anybody who has become familiar with the people of that era. Well, the Renaissance became the source of different transformations in the West, but our intellectual principles are different from western principles. There is nothing wrong with benefiting from the kind of psychology, sociology, philosophy, communication sciences, and other fields of humanities that have been established or promoted by the West. I have, repeatedly, said that we do not at all feel ashamed of learning. We need to learn: both from the west and from the east. "Seek knowledge even if it is in China." [A famous tradition from Prophet Muhammad (s.w.a.)] Well, this is clear. We would only be disappointed and ashamed if our didation did not lead to knowledge, awareness, and thought. We cannot remain apprentices forever. We work under a master in order to become a master: Westerners do not want this. This has been the colonial policy of the West since old times. They want a kind of discrimination and division among scientific matters.
History is one of the branches of humanities. Once again I would like to advise you to read more about history. Read the history of the era of colonialism in order to see what great violence Westerns caused in spite of misleading appearance and their claims to support human rights. This is not to say they only killed people. They also made a lot of effort to keep their colonies backwards and to deny them the opportunity to make progress in different areas. We want to prevent this from happening. What I am trying to say is that we should learn humanities so that we can produce an indigenous form of humanities and export it to the world. Yes, when this happens, then every single person who travels beyond our borders will be a source of hope and confidence for us. This is why I say we must not imitate Westerners in their type of humanities. This is what I want to say as far as fields of humanities are concerned[...]
I would like to raise a point about the issue of humanity which was also discussed in the meeting. My opinion about humanities is what I explained before: we need to develop our own theories. We must not only imitate the West. But a certain field of humanities may be totally eliminated from a university or it may be sidelined. I do not have any opinion on these things. I neither reject nor endorse such measures. This does not concern me. The decision is up to our officials. They may have good reasons to eliminate or not eliminate certain fields. This is not my point. My point is that there should be profound work in humanities and that intellectuals should work on this issue.
One clear manifestation is that we should turn the outlook of scientific consumption into an outlook of scientific production. How long should we keep consuming others [production in] science? I am not opposed to acquiring science from others in any way. I have said this many times and everyone knows it. I have said that we do not think it would distort our dignity to acquire science from someone who possesses it and to be students [of their knowledge]. However, it is one thing to be students, but it is quite another to imitate. How long should we keep following this and that in science?
On the issue of humanities, why do some people become enraged when it is said that we should sit and develop Islamic humanities. Such individuals say, "Is this science? Is it science?" In the area of natural sciences, which can be experimented on in laboratories, it occurs that scientific findings are questioned and rejected on a daily basis. So, do you expect studies and research in humanities to be completely correct? How many contradictory ideas exist in economics? There are so many contradictory ideas in management, in various branches of humanities and in philosophy. So, which science?
Science is something that can be achieved and understood and that flows from your active minds. We should seek the production of science. How long should we keep consuming others’ sciences? Yes, it is alright to take from others the products that we do not have and to benefit from others' science, but this cannot be permanent. This cannot be eternal. Sometimes, other people's science is not correctly transferred to us. Sometimes, they do not give us the good, new an up-to-date parts. This has unfortunately happened frequently in our country during the time of the tyrannical regime [of Pahlavi]. We should not repeat [failed] experiences over and over again. Therefore, we should produce science.
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