In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful‌
This meeting was very enjoyable for me. Regarding the achievements of Islamic seminaries - such as Qom Islamic Seminary and other big seminaries including the ones in Mashhad and Isfahan - a lot of things have been said and some promises have been made. But in my opinion what I heard tonight was more enjoyable, more favorable and more believable than all the things I have heard in this regard. The generation who is cultivating its talent today - one example is the gentlemen and the lady who spoke in this meeting - can undoubtedly accomplish major feats, which we expect scholars who engage in the study of religion to achieve provided that this movement maintains its strength and it makes progress on a daily basis.
Regarding Islamic seminaries, I have made some suggestions both in general meetings which I had with the clergy and the scholars of Islamic seminaries and in which hundreds and sometimes thousands of people took part, and in some private meetings which I had with fuqaha and the officials and the prominent figures of the Islamic seminaries. In these meetings some suggestions were offered, but many of these suggestions have not been adopted or they have been left unfinished. However we can see that we have made many achievements such as the religious movement which is self-governing and energetic thanks to the Islamic Revolution and Imam Khomeini. Many of these constructive suggestions have not been adopted yet, but production, the quality of work and the conditions concerning our trained workforce are at a high level which we can see today. One example of this is the speech that the gentlemen delivered tonight which was very enjoyable for me. Another example is what I saw in the meetings that I had with some scholars. About two years ago I met with a group of scholars with inquisitive minds who were engaged in the study of mind, philosophy, kalaam, mysticism, logic and other subjects. I saw the same thing there. I also met with certain scholars who were involved in academic work. I had the same opinion in that meeting. This is very important and it signifies that the capacity for cultivating skilled people's talent in seminaries is at a high level. The conditions for cultivating this talent require certain criteria. We have not fulfilled these criteria yet, but if we do, the benefits will be several times more than the past.
I had written down some points which I wanted to discuss with you, but it is not necessary any more since there is no time. Even if there was time, it would not be necessary because these points which I had in mind were raised by you. It is very interesting and enjoyable for me to see that you had these points in mind. I will just discuss two or three points in brief which will not take much time.
The first point is that Islamic seminaries, which consist of certain components, are like living things. That is to say, they both grow up and they wither. They are energetic and lively and they fall into decline. They both live and die like living things. The reason for this is the history of Islamic seminaries. An Islamic seminary like Hillah seminary, which was founded during the seventh century or maybe during the late sixth and early seventh centuries of the Hijri calendar, was a very active seminary. When Khawaja Nasir al-Din al-Tusi went to Hillah, there were a group of prominent scholars there. As far as I remember, there were around 20 or 25 prominent scholars. One of them was al-Muhaqqiq al-Hilli. Other prominent figures were al-Allamah Hilli's father, Yahya bin Said and there were also others. Hillah Seminary does not exist now. Besides Hillah seminary, Najaf seminary also fell into decline after its first success. At first there were no prominent figures in the Najaf seminary. Then, Vahid Behbahani's students such as Bahrololoum and Kashif Al-Ghita'a helped that seminary rise to prominence so much so that in my opinion, Najaf seminary was preeminent for 200 years. Their great competence in fiqh made the seminary lively and by Allah's favor, it has prevailed until today.
Qom Seminary was not as successful as it is in the present time. After its first success it fell into decline. When Hajj Sheikh Abdolkarim Haeri Yazdi was active in the Seminary, it started to blossom. This is the nature of Islamic seminaries. You should not confine yourself to the present time. You have a future ahead of you. How is this future going to be? It is you who should decide how it is going to be and you should make your decision today.
Today if the foundation of seminaries - that is to say, the executives, experts, scholars, teachers and the prominent figures of seminaries - increase their efforts, think carefully and make firm plans, Islamic seminaries will improve by a large degree in terms of depth and strength compared to their current state. If we do not try to make firm plans for the future, it will not be clear whether there will be a Qom seminary with its current depth, because some prominent figures, researchers, scholars, fuqaha and philosophers will be taken away from the seminaries in the future. "We are bringing destruction upon the land by curtailing it of its sides". (The Holy Quran, 13:41) New prominent figures should follow them and they should achieve more progress. If we have such foresight, there will be a bright future ahead of us. But lack of this foresight regarding Qom Islamic Seminary and satisfaction about its current conditions will end in either the destruction or the decline of the seminary in the future.
Today we are planning for the time when we will run out of oil supplies. We are trying to produce energy which is not generated from oil. We will be a country without oil and other countries in the world may also be out of oil. The world is thinking about the energy to replace oil. We are also confronted with the issue of finding a new source of energy and we want to fulfill this task today. If we do not do this, the damaging consequences of our negligence will ensue in the future though we will not be alive by then. We will be held responsible for our negligence. This way of thinking should be internalized in Islamic seminaries. All the executives of seminaries, the High Council, the prominent figures in seminaries and all fuqaha should know the importance of this way of thinking and they should consider that today we should have plans for twenty or thirty years from now regarding Qom, Isfahan and Mashhad Islamic seminaries or seminaries in other cities. How is the world going to be thirty years from now? It will probably bear no resemblance to today's world in terms of the ability to influence others, winning the hearts of people and leading other nations in the world. Twenty years ago, information technology - which the dear gentleman delivered an excellent speech about in this meeting - did not exist or it was in a nascent state. But see how fully it has developed today.
If we think about finding a solution for this problem now, we will not encounter major obstacles in the future. At each school, in each house and, as one gentleman said, in each village or everywhere else we go we can see a trace of information technology. Do Islamic seminaries want to fall behind? Compare thirty years from now, in terms of the progress in information technology, with the present time. Of course, this comparison should also consider the faster pace of change because regarding scientific progress, the pace of change was definitely slower in the last twenty years compared to what it will be in the next twenty or thirty years ahead of us.
Thirty years from now, degenerate people who have radically different opinions, who are engaged in various schools of thought and who have corrupt ambitions may easily take over your universities and your schools, and the education of your children at home may easily fall into their hands. You may not be able to do anything against these people. Islamic seminaries should plan for that day because they will be responsible. The clergy have the task of providing people with religious education and the clergy are educated by Islamic seminaries. You should view your responsibility with such an attitude because in this way we can understand the significance of our heavy responsibility. Having great foresight is the first important issue that I want you to consider.
Another issue is that you should manage change. Dear brothers and sisters, you should know that change is inevitable. Change is the natural way of the creation of God Almighty. I have pointed out many times that change takes place. Imagine a creature which does not undergo change. There are two possibilities. It will either die or it will be isolated. As a result of change in the environment around it, it will find no chance of surviving and it will be trampled underfoot. Or if it survives, it will be completely isolated. It will be like the man living in a jungle whose story we read recently in the newspaper. Forty years ago he went to one of the jungles in Mazandaran and he has had almost no contact with the outside world and he has become completely isolated. It is possible to avoid change, but it will involve isolation. If Islamic seminaries decide to avoid change and if they manage to survive, they will be isolated. Of course, the existence of religious beliefs in Islamic seminaries will prevent them from being destroyed, but they will be increasingly isolated on a daily basis.
Change is inevitable. However it has two sides. One is directed towards the right path and the other deviates from that. We should manage things so that this change will be directed towards the right path. This is the duty of the influential figures in the seminaries. Dear executives and scholars of the seminaries, you should not avoid change. You mentioned that change is necessary in the way education is provided, in the way research is carried out and in teaching materials. All these areas require change, but you should not say that you improved all these areas by developing a plan ten or fifteen years ago. That plan was good for ten years ago. You should improve that plan. This is the meaning of change which is being up-to-date and being aware of the latest developments. Islamic seminaries naturally fell behind in contemporary times. Of course, no one is responsible for this because when the revolution was carried out in Iran, it brought about a rapid pace of change. This made us fall behind in all areas. Intellectual life in our society is also behind other countries. Our universities are not as efficient as they should be and Islamic seminaries have declined too. We have not managed to catch up with the remarkable development which took place in our society and which brought about a profound effect on our country. Seminaries are behind this development to some extent, but they can catch up if they show diligence and if they increase their speed.
We should accept change and we should manage it. We should be very careful. You talked about the issue of diplomas in seminaries. I myself am one of those people who have stressed the importance of gaining a diploma only from seminaries from a long time ago. I still insist that clerics should gain a diploma only from seminaries, not from the Ministry of Science because the prestige of seminaries is greater and more considerable than the prestige of all ministries. Seminaries should award diplomas under their own authority no matter what the diploma is called. Some gentlemen complained that why we do not award diplomas under the name of Ph.D. or M.A.? And why have we named these diplomas level 3 and 4? I am not concerned about these complaints. They can discuss these things and we will accept whatever decision they make. I am more concerned about the issue of awarding diplomas only from seminaries. However, too much focus on gaining a diploma is damaging for students. It is too bad for clerics to study only for the sole purpose of gaining a diploma. We should follow a middle ground in embracing change. This is the management of change as far as awarding diplomas is concerned. You can award diplomas, but you should avoid giving it too much focus because we have always considered it one of the weak points of new methods of education. This is an example of what I have mentioned.
The issue of textbook materials that some gentlemen addressed is very significant. Once I took a trip to Qom. I cannot remember when I took it. One gentleman said that it was ten years ago. I do not remember exactly. I thought it was three or four years ago. We had a meeting with some scholars on changing textbook materials. The feedback that I gave them produced an immediate reaction. There were some complaints. Of course, I was not surprised and I knew that there would be some complaints about this issue. Changing textbook materials is absolutely necessary and there is no doubt in this regard. I have written down the argument that one of our brothers presented here. It is a very compelling argument which says if we were not supposed to change textbook materials, we would study "Maalem" as a textbook. There would be no need to write "Ghavanin", "Rasaeel", "Fosul" and "Kefaya". This argument is convincing and it should be applied to the present situation. We should also change textbook materials for the present situation. We should change them so that the purpose of the study becomes understanding the whole subject, not a particular phrase. Making a phrase difficult to understand is not considered a remarkable achievement. Even if we do not mean to make it too difficult, we should be careful not to be negligent because our subject matter may involuntarily become difficult to understand. This way the clergy spend some time to understand it. Is this a remarkable achievement? Is this useful? No, it is not. We should use the phrase in a way that whoever is talented enough to understand such subjects can easily grasp the meaning by reading the phrase. This way the teacher will have no trouble conveying the meaning of the phrase and he will only explain the subject matter.
We can make some changes to "Kefaya". Why not? We can also change "Makaseb" in which Sheikh Morteza Ansari used complicated language to explain Islamic jurisprudence. "Makaseb" is Sheikh Morteza Ansari's book about Kharej and we should not underestimate the difficulty in understanding it. Although a lot of books like "Makaseb" have been written, who can be as good as Sheikh Morteza Ansari? There is a compilation of books on Kharej today which are only good for people who took part in Sheikh Ansari's classes. People who took part in his classes can complicate the subject matter and they can use innovative methods to convey the message. But this method is not good for people who want to understand fiqh by reading text. It is not good because it will make it very difficult to understand. You should try to make Islamic jurisprudence easy to understand. You can use the same ideas - which Sheikh incorporated - in a new book, but you should make it straightforward for the clergy. You can use remarkable writing skills to convey the message, but you should be committed to the original text that Sheikh wrote. You should explain Sheikh Ansari's ideas in a new book. This will become the new version of "Makaseb" and in my opinion, it is necessary to write such a book. Some executives and prominent figures of the seminaries may not like such an idea and such a book may not be written, but it will be definitely written in the future. This is one part of the issue.
The other part involves managing change as I said earlier. We should consider it important not to ignore the scientific aspect of this task and we should not reduce the outstanding quality of Sheikh's book and also Osul written by Akhund-e Khorasani. We should consider it important to make sure the clergy understand issues which are very fundamental in figh and usul. The phrases used in these books should incorporate vivid Arabic language. When I study some writing written by seminarians, I notice that we have some weak points in this regard. We do not have a basic and influential text which can be recognized as a prominent work in Islamic scientific communities and in which there no errors in grammar and subject matter. This is because it is written in Arabic. It is our language of science and everybody should be able to use it efficiently. This is an inevitable part of the issue and these were only two instances of change out of many. You have referred to many of them in your speech which I agree with. Change in this issue should be managed. This is an important point.
There are also some opinions about organized group work in seminaries. Of course, you made some suggestions such as writing constitutions, charters and strategic plans. These are all good and necessary, but none of these are possible without efficient management. Efficient management is the key to all appropriate and organized measures with which we can expect and predict what the result of our actions will be.
We should improve management skills in seminaries. Fortunately, in recent years the officials in seminaries have reached an agreement about establishing the High Council of Executives and the organization of managers. They have established these organizations and now we see the benefits of them. Tonight I found out from what the gentlemen said that there are 12 expert councils for scholarly issues in seminaries. This is very interesting and I did not know that these councils exist. There is the council of economy, the council of psychology, the council of prominent men and the council of history. Of course, I had heard about a couple of them. This is the role of efficient management. If it had not been for efficient management, these positive results would not have been produced. We should never think that these achievements in the arena of organized group work in seminaries are enough. There are some weak points. First of all, the High Council - I do not know if the gentlemen working in the High Council are here or not - should pay special attention to the issue of formulating policies. At early stages, the most important issue for the seminaries to consider is formulating policies. This issue has different dimensions. We have always wanted to produce and improve scholarly work. But what is scholarly work? What does improvement in the areas of fiqh and usul mean? Where does this improvement lead to? These are all important questions which we should answer. The policies which are developed in the High Council will help us answer these questions. You should devise definite strategic plans for seminaries as a 20-year strategic plan was devised for the country. You should try to devise a 20-year or 10-year strategic plan for seminaries. This is the duty of the High Council.
When can the High Council fulfill this task? They can do this when they put enough time on it and when the honorable members of the High Council regard the job in this council as their primary responsibility. They should not look at it as a minor role. See the way a university is managed or the way it formulates policies. Considering the significance of Islamic seminaries, whether Qom Islamic Seminary or Mashhad and Isfahan Islamic seminaries, it is very important that you regard your job there as a primary responsibility. You should put a lot of time on fulfilling your tasks in seminaries. This is the first duty of the High Council.
The second duty is that the High Council should build strong teams of experts. Fortunately there are such teams in our seminaries. You yourself who delivered a speech tonight and many other gentlemen who did not speak and many people in seminaries are part of young and intelligent experts in our country. You can build self-sufficient teams of experts. We do not need anybody else in this regard because we can use the capacities of you scholars. As a team of experts you should try and work hard. This is one of the things that the High Council should do.
Regarding the issues of organized group work in seminaries and establishing the High council, the issue of creating management organizations in seminaries is also very important. Definitely, there should be a planning committee in seminaries because as the gentlemen - who delivered a speech tonight - pointed out, certain plans are uncoordinated. Or as one sister said, certain plans in different levels are not flexible. This is fair criticism. Who can solve these problems? A planning committee who is familiar with the latest developments of its time can carry out this task.
Planning requires a scientific approach. It is like other scientific approaches. It is not merely a natural talent though having a natural talent for planning can also be effective. But it mostly requires a scientific approach. You should find people who have expertise in planning. These people should join that planning committee and they should formulate firm plans.
As far as organizing seminaries is concerned, one of the things which is necessary is preparing statistics which I discussed some points about when a number of gentlemen were delivering a speech tonight. We have no reliable statistics on seminaries. Accordingly, we have no statistics on the clergy in our country. We know little about the number of clerics, their education status, the extent of their knowledge, their capabilities in promoting the teachings of Islam, and the influence they can exert on their environment. These are the things which have never been reflected in our statistics. We have not prepared reliable statistics. Preparing statistics also requires a scientific approach. One of the things which should be definitely and quickly done is preparing statistics. It will take certain a certain number of years to carry out this task, but the benefits will be very substantial. We should prepare statistics on the clergy, the extent of their understanding of what they have studied and their progress. We should know the role of the organizations subordinate to the management organizations in seminaries. We should know how they want to work. We have such a weak point. The issue of preparing statistics brings about another issue which is evaluation process. I will address it later on when I talk about the issue of organization in seminaries.
One of the issues that I should discuss here is the issue of liberal attitude in seminaries. The gentlemen, who participated in this meeting, talked about this issue tonight. Why do not we have meetings in which everybody can freely express their opinion in Qom? What is wrong with it? Our seminaries have always been - and still they are - the center of freedom of expression and scholarly discussions. We have no examples of such an attitude in other educational organizations in our country. We are proud of the fact that a student in the classroom can bitterly question what the professor says and the professor does not become upset and he will not harbor a grudge against the student. This is very important and it is specific to our seminaries. In our seminaries, there have been some prominent figures which had differences both in fiqh and in more fundamental issues. There have been philosophers, mystics and fuqaha in seminaries, but these people could easily live and work with one another. Our seminaries have such a background in which one cleric had a certain scholarly opinion while the other cleric did not agree with him. If you study the biography of prominent figures, you can see plenty of these examples.
Sahib Hadaiq and Vahid Behbahani, who had widely different ideas, lived both in Karbala. They were contemporaries and they used to debate over different matters. One night they started arguing over something in Imam Hossein's (a.s.) holy shrine. They continued arguing until dawn. Vahid Behbahani was rather young while Sahib Hadaiq was very old. They used to debate over things which would sometimes change into a fight, but they used to live in the same city and they used to teach. I heard that some of Vahid's students - Vahid had a strong bias against the Akhbaris- including Sahib Riadh and certain other students used to attend Sahib Hadaiq's classes. The situation was like that. We should raise the tolerance level in seminaries because some people may be inclined towards philosophy, some may be inclined towards mysticism and some may like fiqh. These people may not agree with one another. I said a couple of months ago in Mashhad that Sheikh Mojtaba Qazvini was against the transcendent theosophy which was introduced by Mulla Sadra. He was heavily biased against this philosophy while Imam Khomeini (r.a.) was an ardent follower of Mulla Sadra. The Imam (r.a.) followed not only Mulla Sadra's philosophy, but also his mysticism. However Sheikh Mojtaba, not only accepted the Imam (r.a.) as a religious leader, but also he propagated the Imam's (r.a.) ideas. He even came from Mashhad to Qom to visit the Imam (r.a). Mirza Jawad Agha Tehrani was one of the prominent figures of the same school of thought, but he fought in the war. He did not agree with the Imam's(r.a.) interpretation of sura al-Fatiha which was broadcast on TV. He said this to me. Both Mirza Jawad and Mr. Morvarid did not agree with this interpretation, but they used to support the Imam (r.a.). They used to follow different schools of thought, but they supported one another when it came to political and social issues and they used to tolerate one another. Qom Islamic Seminary should follow such behavior.
If somebody gives an unusual opinion in fiqh and if you do not agree with them, you can hold a meeting in which you can express your opinion and you can debate over this matter. Five or ten scholars can reject this fiqhi opinion by giving reasonable explanations. There is nothing wrong with this. If somebody gives their opinion in areas of philosophy, mysticism and Kalaam, you should follow the same attitude. Such things as anathematization and cursing should be removed from seminaries. Anathematization of prominent figures in seminaries is horribly wrong. It is terribly wrong to anathematize and curse somebody whose opinion may be partly different from yours. We should start rejecting this behavior by teaching the clergy first. It is not possible to reject this behavior unless the clergy themselves try to hold meetings to promote liberal attitude which I pointed out earlier. You should make this attitude a custom in seminaries. You should address the point in journals and other writing. If somebody gives a fiqhi opinion and if you do not agree with them, you can write an essay against it. There is nothing wrong with scholarly discussions. In my opinion, scholarly discussions are very constructive.
Another issue is the social status of the scholars and professors of seminaries which is one of our problems. The gentlemen participating in this meeting made a suggestion which I will tell you now. They suggested that departments be formed in Qom for different levels and for different majors. When somebody reaches a particular standard and when they pass a test, they can be a member of faculty. This can be a criterion. Of course, I put forward a similar suggestion a couple of years ago to the honorable members of the Society of the Seminary Teachers of Qom. I said that they should broaden the scope, but at that time it was not possible to put it into practice the way it was planned. However you have put forward a new suggestion now.
Anyway there is a lot of work to do in seminaries today. What was supposed to be done is not done yet but it should have been done by now. If it was not possible to carry it out in the past, you should start doing it from now on. This great deal of work which we should carry out is hundred times more than what we have done by now in seminaries. However, we can do this great deal of work provided that you make your presence felt, express your determination and enter the arena. You can work each in the area in which you are specialized and by Allah's grace, the management team will use your abilities.
I have written down some of these suggestions, but all of these suggestions have been recorded. It seems to me that they are very good. Perhaps, it is necessary to compile all the things, which have been mentioned here, into a book and publish it. In my opinion, this is very useful. One wishes that these could be broadcast on TV, but because I do not know what is necessary to do this, I cannot tell you if it is possible or not. If we can broadcast them on TV, it will be good. However, the least which is possible to do is that both people working in my office here and people who cooperate with my office in Qom can collect these suggestions put forward here and they can edit and publish them. This can have a lot of advantages and it will be very constructive.
One of the suggestions which was offered to me and which I liked very much is that the executives of seminaries throughout the country can hold a conference, and they can share their experiences. This will produce very positive results.
Another suggestion which in my opinion is very good is [the idea that the Islamic government and seminaries should interact with one another].Tonight you raised your expectations regarding an Islamic government and an Islamic system. Some of these expectations cannot be satisfied now unless seminaries show their solidarity. That is to say, seminaries should produce a body of intelligent, trustworthy and competent managers. If they can do this, one can interact with them. Many of these suggestions put forward here need the full capacities of seminaries. Imagine that the scholars of seminaries are asked for cooperation. But with whom, where and how can they offer their cooperation? Seminaries should be improved and by Allah's favor, the result of this improvement will be that seminaries can interact with the government. The Islamic system is obliged to use the abilities of seminaries and it should interact with them. However some of the suggestions requiring the interaction between the Islamic system and seminaries can be adopted at present.
You suggested that we create an educational organization for promoting Islamic ideas in international arenas. I entirely agree with this idea. Of course, if I remember correctly, I raised this point about 14 or 15 years ago. At that time, one of the prominent figures of our seminaries, who is still alive by Allah's favor, became sick. He went abroad -to one of the European countries - to recover from this disease. There, the youth, the students and the Iranians came to him and asked him to give a speech in this or that place or meeting. They stayed with him for one month or so and he became aware of their expectations. Then he came back to Iran and he asked to see me. When we had a meeting, he said with resentment, "why do not you meet these expectations?" I answered that I have done some work, but I do not have enough resources. I told him that he could enter the arena and that he could create an organization for educating the promoters of Islam outside Iran. I suggested that [speaking in Arabic] "I would provide for his family" -I used exactly the same sentence - and I would provide all the money needed for this task. You should create such an organization because I myself cannot come to Qom to carry out this task. He went there and he tried to do so and I think there was an announcement in this regard which invited those who were interested to participate. But it was soon forgotten and it has been forgotten up to the present. You should fulfill this task. This is absolutely essential and it will produce spectacular results.
Regarding minbars which you talked about tonight, I must say that this has always been my concern. I have always pointed out the issue of appreciating the significance of minbars and educating the promoters of Islamic viewpoints. You can enter the arena in this area. Go and work on it. You should make plans and go ahead with them. You should make definite and long-term plans and you should implement them. Of course, there are a lot of problems, but when you enter the arena you will get familiar with these problems little by little. However I believe that you can resolve all these problems with your energetic spirit, your strong determination and your unshakable faith.
Dear God, make this meeting full of blessings for Islam, Muslims and the clergy. Let what we said and what we heard be for Your own sake. Dear God, help us justify - [speaking in Arabic] make us do things that we will be questioned about on Judgment Day - our actions on Judgment Day. Dear God, associate the immaculate souls of our dear martyrs, whom we owe all these blessings and resources available to us, and the immaculate soul of our magnanimous Imam with Your saints and make them pleased with us.
Greetings be upon you and Allah's mercy and blessings‌