Khamenei.ir

The people should advise officials and counsel them to do good. They should write, speak, and deliver messages to them, lest they commit a great sin. If officials commit great sins, this will cause more dangers for the Islamic Republic, the country and the people.

One sometimes feels this when certain statements and moves are made. One can see the signs of this deviation in such statements and moves. We should seek refuge in God, and we should only ask Him for help.

Another point is that the same thing—that is to say, corruption and deviation—may happen to a system, as it may happen to individuals. The same disease which may afflict individuals may afflict a political, healthy Islamic system. The same diease may afflict an Islamic government. It may afflict the Islamic Republic. The name of this system may be an “Islamic Republic,”
and it might have an Islamic appearance, but its behavior, actions, and plans are non-Islamic. This is the same issue—the issue of the appearance and behavior of the Revolution—that I discussed with a number of dear students during a gathering last year.

Society and the Islamic Republic may launch two kinds of movements: positive and negative. It may move towards transcendence and peaks, and it may move towards downfall and destruction. Moving towards peaks means that society gets close to pursuance of justice, religion and religious behavior. It means that society achieves growth in an environment of freedom. This growth is a practical, scientific and industrial growth.

In such a society, people "enjoin each other in truth, and enjoin each other in patience.” This society feels more powerful on a daily basis in the face of the enemies of God, religion, and the independence of the country. It resists in a more powerful way, and it increases its resistance in the face of the camp of oppression and international corruption on a daily basis. These things mean growth, and they are a sign of the positive movement of a society. These are the characteristics which build a society in this world and in the hereafter. We should be after such a positive movement.

But, there is a downward movement which is the opposite of this positive movement. In this movement, people move towards creating great economic and social rifts instead of moving towards justice, and they do it with different excuses.

In this movement, they use freedom on the path of promoting corruption, decadence, sins, and wrongdoings instead of using it for achieving scientific, practical, and moral growth. They adopt a passive role, feel weak and retreat in the face of arrogant powers, transgressors, and international looters instead of showing them resistance and strength. They smile when they should frown at them. They give up their rights—whether nuclear or non-nuclear rights—when they should assert them.

These are signs of deviation. A society should move towards transcendence and values. Its movement should be upward and positive. Such a downward movement is like a disease which may afflict the Islamic government. This is a danger for the Islamic government. Therefore, people should be vigilant.
 

September 11, 2009