Imam Khomeini’s Last Will and Testament

Sub Title: 

Imam's Final Discourse

The text of the political and religious testament of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution and the Founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran,' Imam Khomeini

Prologue

In the Name of God the Merciful, the Compassionate

The Prophet (S.A.W) said: "I leave two great and precious things among you: the Book of God and My Houshold. Verily, these two will never be separated from each other until they encounter me at the pool of Kawthar [in paradise].”- The tradition of Thaqalayn 1

And, I feel it appropriate to remind you briefly of "The two trusts" (thaqalyn). [My approach] is not to talk of their transcendental, spiritual and mystical aspects where pens such as mine would be incapable of daring to venture into a domain whose cognition for all circles of beings, -from this world to the heavens and from there up to His Divine presence including circles which lie beyond the intellectual capacity of you and me- if not impossible, requires great efforts and demands perseverance.

Neither am I dealing with what has befallen upon humanity from its negligence and abandonment of true nature and stature of the greatest trust [the Holy Qur'an] and the greater trust [the Household of the Prophet], the latter being greatest of all entity but the greatest trust which is the absolute greatest (akbar al- motloq). Nor do I recount here what has befallen "the two trusts" from the enemies of God and the tricky oppressors (taqutiyan), who are too many for me to enumerate, given my limited knowledge and lack of time. I found it suitable to mention briefly what has happened to "these two trusts."

Perhaps by the sentence "these two will never be separated from each other until they encounter me at the pool [of Kawthar],"2 it is alluded that after the departure of Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W) whatever has befallen one of the trusts, has equally be fallen the other and neglect of one means neglect of the other until such time when these two [trusts] encounter the Messenger of God (S.A.W.) in the pool of Kawthar.

Whether "the pool" refers to the stage of submergence of parts (Kethrat) in the whole (Vahdat) or the absorption of drops into the ocean or something else, lies beyond the domain of man's intellect and cognition. One should add that the same injustice of the oppressors towards these two trusts of God's Messenger have been inflicted on the Muslim community (Ummate Eslami)-and upon humanity for that matter- which the pen is incapable of description.

It should be noted that the tradition of Thaqalyn has been reported from the Prophet (S.A.W) successively and by many sides (mutawatir) among all Muslims and in the books of the Sunnis, including the Six Reliable Collections3, using various phraseology and on different occasions. This noble tradition is an unequivocal evident (hojjate qate') for humanity as a whole, particularly Muslims of all schools (madhab) of thought. All Muslims for whom this evident apply are accountable and if there be an excuse for the ignorant people, there will be none for the scholars (ulama).

Now, let us review what has befallen the Book of God, this Divine gift, and the bequest of the Messenger of Islam (S.A.W). The sorrowful events, for which one should cry one's eyes out, began following the martyrdom of Imam Ali (A.S.). Selfish people and oppressors exploited the Holy Qur'an as a tool at the service of governments who opposed the Holy Qur'an, under various pretexts and with premeditated plots forced the true interpreters of the Qur'an and the learned and discerning people who had learned the entirety of the Qur'an from the Prophet (S.A.W.) and in whose ears the Prophetic saying "I leave two great and precious things among you" reverberated.

In fact, by misusing the Qur'an, which has brought the greatest material and spiritual guidance for humanity until the day it encounters the prophet in the pool, they disposed of the Qur'an. They declared the Divinely Righteous Rule, one of the ideals of the Holy Book, null and introduced deviation from the religion of God and the Divine Book and Tradition so much that it makes it hard to describe without embarrassment.

The more this deviant institutions endured, the greater become the deviations and distortions to the point that the Holy Qur'an-the book which was descended as the complete and the seal of revelations to Prophet Muhammad in order to enhance the people of the world, to become the source of uniting Muslims and even human race, to elevate humanity to the desired status and save this offspring of God (valideye 'elm-ul-asma') from the evils of satans and the oppressors, to establish justice(‘adl) and equity (qest), and to entrust governance to men of God, the infallibles (A.S.) from the first to the last, so that they would entrust it to whomever served the interest of humanity- was removed from the scene to the extent that it seems it never had any role to play in guiding [humanity].

[The distortions] reached the state that the Qur'an was misused by tyrannical governments (hukumathaye ja'er) and by the more wicked preachers (akhund) than the oppressors in order to establish injustice and corruption and for legitimization of [the rule of] oppressors and enemies of the Almighty God. Unfortunately, for the conspiratorial enemies and for the ignorant friends, the Qur'an, this determinant (sarneveshtsaz) book, has no role other than recitation in the graveyards and funeral ceremonies.

The book which was to be the source of Muslim unity and that of humanity and to be a living source in their lives has become the source of disunity and discord or has been eliminated from the scene altogether, to the point that if one initiated to discuss Islamic government or to speak of politics (i.e. of the great and noble Islam, the Prophet's (S.A.W) [career] and [the contents of] the Qur'an and the traditions). It deemed as committing the gravest sin and the phrase "political preacher" (akhunde siyasi) was used for him to mean irreligious person and so is the case [even] today.

And more recently in order to eliminate the Qur'an and to secure the interests of the superpowers, the big satanic power. Through deviant governments of Islamic precepts, who falsely claim commitment to Islam, published the Qur'an with artful calligraphy and has distributed it throughout; it is to withdraw the Qur'an from the scene by this device. We all witnessed how the Qur'an printed by Muhammad Reza Pahlavi deceived some people and even some preachers, ignorant of the essence of Islam, praised him for it.

We also see how, every year, king Fahd allocates large sums from the public wealth in order to publish [this kind of]Qur'an and to propagate anti-Qur'anic religion of Wahhabism -this utterly unfounded and superstitious cult- thereby attracting ignorant people and nations towards the superpowers and take advantage of noble Islam and the Holy Qur'an.

We take pride and our noble and thoroughly committed nation is proud in being the followers of a school of thought which intend to dig out the Qur'anic truths -which commit themselves thoroughly to the unity of Muslims and even humanity- from the graveyards and utilize it as the greatest prescription for the disentanglement of man from all shackles on his limbs and on his mind and souls which are leading him towards destruction, slavery and servitude to the oppressors.

We are proud to be the followers of a faith that has been established by the Messenger of God based on His Decrees, and that the commander of the faithfuls, Ali b. Abu Talib, this emancipated slave from all entanglements, has been commissioned to free man from all shackles of slavery.

We take pride that Nahjul-Balagha, which is the greatest manual of spiritual and material life after the Holy Qur'an, is the greatest book of man's liberation and its spiritual and governmental dictums offer the greatest path to salvation, belongs to our infallible Imam.

We take pride that the infallible Imams from Ali b. Abu Talib till the savior of humanity, his Holyness Mahdi, the Master of Ages (A.S.) who lives by the power of Almighty and oversees our affairs is our Imam (leader).

We take pride that vitalizing supplications, which we call the Ascending (sa'id) Qur'an belongs to our Imams: supplications of the month of Sha'ban, Arafat prayers of Hussain b. Ali (A.S.), Shifa al-Sajjadiyyah -this Psalms of Muhammadans- and Shifa al-Fatemieh -the divine revelations to her Holyness Fatimah Zahra (A.S.)- belong to us.

We take pride that the [fifth] Imam, Baqer ul'ulum (A.S.), is the greatest personality of history and no one but the Almighty God, His Messenger (S.A.W), and the infallible Imams has appreciated his stature.

And we take pride that we belong to Ja'fari school [of jurisprudence, fiqh] and ours, a vast and endless ocean, has been developed by him. We are proud of all infallible lmams (A.S.) and we pay our allegiances to them.

We take pride that the infallible Imams (A.S.) were imprisoned, lived in exile, and finally became martyrs while enhancing Islam, implementing the Holy Qur'an -the establishment of Just and Righteous Rule being one of its dimension and while toppling the tyrannical governments and the oppressors of their time. And we are proud today that we want to execute the precepts of the Qur'an and the traditions and that the various classes and sectors of our nation participate in this great effort zealously, sacrificing their wealth, life and their loved ones in the path of God.

We take pride that our women, regardless of age, prominent or unknown, are taking part, alongside men, in cultural, economic, and military domain, sometimes better than men, in enhancement of Islam and implementation of its objectives. Those who are capable of fighting take military training -which is an important strategy for the defense of Islam and the Islamic land -and ignore [and tolerate] bravely and committedly the deprivations that the conspiratorial enemies and the ignorant friends imposed upon them, upon Islam and Muslims.

[They also] have disentangled themselves of the shackles of superstitions which the enemies have produced for their own benefit by the ignorant people or some uninformed preacher about the interest of Muslims. And those who are not able to fight are busy rendering services behind the front, so profoundly that they are breath taking for our own nation and annoying and angering for the enemies and the ignorant [friends] who are worse than enemies.

We have repeatedly witnessed gracious women who crying out like [her Holyness] Zainab (A.S.) that they are proud to have lost their children in the path of Almighty God and the noble Islam and are ready to sacrifice whatever else they possess. They know that what they have gained is more valuable than the lofty paradise, let alone compared to trivial worldly things. And our nation, and also Islamic and oppressed nations of the world are proud that their enemy -who are the enemies of the glorious God, the Holy Qur'an and the noble Islam are savages who would not hesitate to commit crimes and treacherous acts for their wicked and criminal goals and for obtaining domination and for satisfying their base interests [and in so doing], they recognize no enemy or friend.

Chief among them, America this self-indulging terrorist, is a government which has enflamed the whole world and its ally is international Zionism, which, in order to satiate her desires will commit crimes which pens are embarrassed to enumerate and tongue likewise to describe; the silly notion of greater Israel lead them commit every conceivable crimes. Muslim nations and the oppressed people of the world are proud that their enemies are the Jordanian [king] Hussein, this professional vagrant criminal, and [king] Hassan and Hosni Mubarak [of Egypt], the cohorts of Israel, are criminals and are in the service of America and Israel. [They] do not hesitate to commit any kind of treasons against their own nation.

And we are proud that our enemy is the Ba'athist Saddam whom is recognized by friends and foe as a criminal and a broacher of the principles of international law and human rights. Everyone knows that his treacherous acts against the oppressed people of Iraq and the Shiekhdoms of the Persian Gulf are not less grave than those committed against Iranian nation. We and [other] oppressed nations of the world are proud that international mass media and the propaganda machine accuse us of crimes and treasons that only the criminal superpowers dictate and order.

What pride would be more sublime and more dignified than to witness that America, despite her claims, military machine, her puppet governments, her having access to the wealth of the oppressed nations, and her control of mass media, failed and lost heart before the upright nation of Iran and the country of his Holyness Baqi-at-Allah [special designation for the Shi'i twelfth Imam], may god sacrifice us upon his coming, to the point that she does not know to whom to turn to. Whomever she turns, she is refused ant this could not have come about but only through the invisible aids from the Almighty, whose Greatness is the Highest, and Who has awakened nations especially the Iranian nation and has elevated it from the darkness of despotic monarchy into Islamic light.

On this occasion, I advice the noble but oppressed nation of Iran not to divert from the straight path of neither the atheist East nor the oppressor West, but rather be firmly committed, loyal and dedicated to the path which is granted to them by God. Never neglect appreciating this blessing and not to allow unclean elements of the superpowers, whether foreign elements or internal ones, who are worst, to shake its pure intentions and to interfere with its iron will.

You should know that the more the international mass media be antagonistic towards you, the more that reflects your divine power, and the Almighty God shall punish them both in this world and in the Hereafter; Truly He is the Lord of all blessings and

"in His hand lies the dominion over all things." [The Qur'an: 23:88].

I earnestly appeal to Muslim nations to follow whole-heartedly, sacrificingly -both self and loved ones- and with proper manner, their Holyness the Imams, particularly their political culture, social [manners], economic and military [principles], and never to abandon, even an inch, the traditional jurisprudence (figh al- sonati), which is the manifestation of Prophetic and Imamate school and the guarantor of the enhancement of nations, whether the Primary Ordinances (ahkam al- avvaliye) or the Secondary Ordinances (ahkam al- thanaviye), both of which are schools of Islamic jurisprudence.

Never heed the temptations of the misguided enemies and beware that one deviate step would mean the prelude to the corruption of religion, Islamic ordinances and the Divinely Just and Righteous Rule. For example, never neglect the Friday congregational prayers which reflect the political dimension of prayers: This Friday prayer is among the greatest blessing that the Almighty has granted to this nation. Also never neglect the mourning ceremonies on the occasions of the martyrdom anniversaries of the Imams, particularly the master of all martyrs his Holyness Abi-Abdollah Hussein (A.S.) (much may God, His angels, the Prophets and saints bless his great and daring soul).

People should be reminded that the decrees of the Imams (A.S.) for commemorating this great epic4 and whatever curses have been sent to the enemies of the Household of the Prophet are, in fact, the heroic cries of nations against the tyrannical rulers throughout history to the end. You should know that the curses against the injustices of the Umayyads, who have been eliminated from the face of earth and dropped into hell, reflect the cry of [the people] against the oppressors of the world.

It is necessary to preserve these curses, and it is necessary to include elegies in the memory of the Imams (A.S.) and also the condemnation of the oppressors of each epoch. The present era, which is the epoch of the oppression against the Muslim world by America, the Soviets and their lackeys, such as the Saudis, may God's curse go to them, these conspirators against the House of God: they should be condemned firmly. We should all know that what will unite Muslims is this political ceremony [the Friday prayer], which will protect the dignity and preserve the identity of Muslims, particularly the Twelver Shi'is.

What I need to remind everyone here is that my politico religious testament is not written solely for the noble people of Iran, but it is an advice for all Muslim nations as well as the oppressed people of the world, regardless of nationality and creed.

I humbly appeal to the glorious and magnificent God never to neglect us and not to deny the children of Islam and our beloved combatants His divine blessings.

Ruhollah al-Musavi al-Khomeini

1. For an account of this important tradition for the Shi'i Muslims see Allamah Sayyid Muhammad Husayn Tabatabai. Shi'ite in Islam. Translated by Sayyid Husayn Nasr. (Albany: The State University of NewYork Press, 1975) and the Sources cited therein.

Based on this tradition, the Shi is consider these" two great and precious things" (thaqalayn) as the two cardinal foundations of their faith. Since the great interpreters of the Shi'i traditions and faith have also called them "the trusts" (amanat) of the prophet, in Imam Khomeini's testament wherever reference is given to it, we will translate it "the two trusts". (T).

2. Imam Khomeini simply quotes "the pool" without bothering with the name Kawthar. The latter literally means "abundance" but here it refers to what the Prophet has described as a river in Practise (lbn Hisham, p. 261) and as a pool intended for him personally (al-Tabari. Tafsir. Vol. XXX, p. 180), and also described in the Holy Qur'an (XLVII: 15). (T).

3. Reference is to the six collections of traditions compiled in the third century A.H, by the following great Sunni jurists and scholars: 1) al-Bukhari (d. 256/870); 2) Muslim (d. 261/875); 3) Abu Dawud (d. 275/888); 4) al-Tirmidhi (d. 279/892); 5) al Nasa'i (d. 303/915); 6) lbn Madja (d. 273/886). (T).

4. Martyrdom of Imam Hussein (A.S.) in the wake of his struggle against Yazid b. Mu'awiya in Karbala on the tenth day of the month of Moharram in the lunar in the year 61 of Islamic calendar. (T).

The Testament

In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

The magnificent Islamic Revolution in Iran, which has been the accomplishment of millions of estimable people and the product of the effort of thousands of memorable martyrs and disabled citizens -the Living Martyrs- and which is the hope of millions of world Muslims and oppressed masses, is so great an achievement whose description defies the power of pen and speech.

I, Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini, who, despite the bulk of my faults, am not hopeless about the great benevolence of the Supreme Lord, and who am setting out to the next world with a travel kit for this perilous journey solely of my trust in the benevolence of the Generous Supreme Being, take this opportunity to mention a few items -repetitious as they may seem- in my capacity as a humble student of religion, placing my hope, like my brothers-in-faith, on this revolution and on the permanency of its fruits and its further fruition, doing so as my last will and testament to the present generation and to our dear future generations, and imploring God, the Merciful, to inspire me with absolute sincerity in my so doing.

1. We understand that this Great Revolution which curtailed influences of world-devourers and tyrants1 from the great Iran triumphed with the Invisible Help of His Divinity. In the face of the vast propaganda against Islam and the ulama, especially during the present century; of the bulk of the divisive insinuations by publicists, and silver-tongued people in the print media and in public meetings disguised as expressions of nationalistic sentiments; of the bulk of the facetious poetry and derisive witticisms, of the number and variety of quarters for prostitution, gambling, immoral amusements, drinking and narcotics aimed at attracting the young generation -a generation with an inherent commitment to the progress of our beloved country- towards corruption and indifference towards the treacherous acts of the corrupt Shah and his uncultured father; of the governments and puppet parliaments imposed on the nation by foreign embassies in Iran; of the status of colleges, universities, high schools and educational institutions with their West-struck or East-struck (gharbzadeh ya sharqzadeh) teachers and professors hostile to Islam, to the Islamic and national culture, for that matter, posing themselves as promoters of nationalism, against the presence in their circles of committed and very concerned people who could not do anything because of their being only a hard-pressed small minority; of tens of other problems, such as the government led isolation of the scholars (ulama) and the adulteration of the ideology of many of them by force of the state propaganda machinery, this nation of 36 million could not possibly have succeeded in their solid uprising with a unity of purpose and with the call of God is Great (Allahu Akbar) relying solely on their own miraculous self-sacrifices, sweeping out the ruling powers in the country and doing away with the foreign powers, making themselves the master of their own fate.

No doubt, therefore, the Islamic Revolution in Iran stands out from all other revolutions for its origin, for the features of its struggle and for the motive behind it. Doubtless the Revolution in this country has been a gift of God and a favor from the Invisible bestowed on this ravaged and tyrannized nation.

2. Islam and the Islamic government are divine entities, the fulfillment of which guarantee prosperity in this world and salvation in the Hereafter in its optimum form. It is capable of nullifying injustices, tyrannies, ravages and corruption, and of helping humanity attain its loft y goal. It is an ideology which, unlike irreligious ideologies, has guidelines for and oversees every aspect of the private life of the people as well as the social, material, spiritual, cultural, political, military and economic system of the society without overlooking any point, however trivial it may seem in connection with the education of men, and the society and their material and spiritual progress, reminding man of stumbling blocks and impediments on the road to perfection and offering solutions to those problems.

Now that with the grace of God the Islamic Republic has been instituted with the mighty hands of the committed people of this country, and bearing in mind the supremacy of Islam and Islamic edicts as far as it concerns the Islamic Republic, it is the obligation of the noble people of Iran to strive for the fulfillment of all aspects of the system, since the preservation of Islam takes precedent over all other obligations.

The great prophets, starting from Adam (A.S) to Seal of the Prophets (S.A.W), performed acts of self sacrifice and struggled untiringly for that cause without allowing themselves to be hampered by any stumbling block for this cause, and their struggle was upheld later by their self-committed disciples, and by the Imams (A.S) who did their utmost for the promotion of that cause without hesitating to shed their blood for it.

Today, it is a responsibility of all Muslims generally and the Iranian nation specifically to safeguard as best as they can the divine entrustment which has been officially pronounced in Iran and which has produced great results over a short period of time, and to create the conditions necessary for its perpetuation as well as remove obstacles and surmount hindrances on its way, so that hopefully its brilliant rays may eventually illuminate all Muslim countries, prompting governments and peoples to reach mutual understanding in relation to this vital issue and helping them to eliminate, once and for all, the influence of world-devouring superpowers and the criminals of history from the tyrannized and downtrodden people of the world.

I, who am now taking the last breaths of life, beg to present hereunder in response to my obligation to the present and future generations, some of the elements which are instrumental in the protection and perpetuation of this divine gift, as well as some of the obstacles and hazards which threaten it, and I ask the Almighty for the success and prosperity of all.

A. Indisputably the secret of the permanence of the Islamic Revolution in Iran is the same secret that caused its triumph. The nation already knows the secret of the victory of the Islamic Revolution, and the future generation will read in their history books that two principal constituents of the Revolution were its divinely-based ideology and the solidarity of the people throughout the country with a unity of motto, with same spirit and for the same goal.

I advise all generations, present and future, who want to witness the continued life of the divine rule and witness also the eliminating the influences of colonialists and exploiters, in, or outside of, the country, from their land, cannot do better than to continue to preserve the same theocentric feelings which the Supreme Lord has emphasized in the Holy Qur'an; a feeling which helps us to forget individual differences. The complex international propaganda machinery, which is the mouthpiece of our enemies as well as their local offshoots here and there, is exploiting all its resources for airing rumors and divisive lies and expending billions of dollars on that for an obvious purpose.

So, too, are the regular trips to the cities of the region by the enemies of the Islamic Republic of Iran, among them, unfortunately, being certain turban wearing pharisees, overlords and chiefs from certain Muslim nations who think but only of their own personal good, who are unprotesting servants to the United States. To thwart the divisive and destructive propaganda should he the concern of the Iranian nation and the world Muslims today and tomorrow.

I advise Muslims, and especially the Iranians of the contemporary period, to react to all hostile propaganda, to solidify their ranks and their unity by whatever means and thereby dishearten the unbelievers and the hypocritically self-righteous enemies [of Islam and the Islamic Revolution].

B. Among the noticeable conspiracies during the present century and especially during the last few decades and since the victory of the Islamic Revolution is the vast worldwide propaganda for dismaying nations and especially the self-sacrificing people of Iran with a view to making them lose their confidence in Islam and eventually renounce it.

Sometimes they do it directly, albeit crudely, suggesting, for example, that the edicts of Islam which were established one thousand and four hundred years ago cannot possibly be relied on as laws on the basis of which to administer countries in the present century; that Islam is a reactionary religion opposed to every innovation and to the manifestation of modem civilization, or that in the present era the world's countries cannot discard the world's civilization and its manifestations.

And similar foolish and occasionally malicious and vicious propaganda nicely wrapped and offered in the form of pro-Islamic propaganda and under the pretext of support for the sanctity of Islamic says, among other things, that Islam and other divine religions are concerned about the spiritualities, about the moral rectification of mankind, that they invite them to resign earthly pursuits, that they invite man to renounce the material World and engage himself in acts of worship, saying prayers and devotions which, they argue, bring man nearer to God and distance him from the material world; that involvement in the administration of state and government and politics is against that lofty and spiritual goal because the latter activities are solely for this material world, which is against the teachings of the great prophets.

And it is unfortunate that the propaganda of the latter category has affected certain Muslim clerics and religious persons who are uninformed about Islam, even leading them to conclude that interference in politics and government tasks is a cardinal sin; and perhaps some know the magnitude of this very disaster which has befallen Islam.

Advocates of the first notion, are either virtually uninformed about government, laws and politics or feign ignorance for their private purposes; for the execution of laws based on justice, equality and fairness; the checking of oppressors and oppressive rules, the promotion of justice for individuals and the society, the checking of corruption and prostitution and of other deviated indulgences; and alternatively recognition of civil liberties on the basis of reason and justice for attaining independence and self-sufficiency, and for preventing colonialism, exploitation, slavery and servitude; for executing corporal punishments on the basis of justice and for preventing the corruption and destruction of society; as well as engagement in politics and the administrative affairs of society on the basis of reason, justice and equity and other (factors) are not things which might become old-fashioned or out-dated in the passage of time and for man's communal life.

The argument to the contrary would only be as sound as suggesting that in our present century the common sense laws as well as the laws of mathematics should be replaced by new laws, or that although as early as the beginning of man's creation the Almighty ordained that social equality be administered, and tyranny, plundering and homicide be prevented, today at the nuclear age those divine laws are old fashioned and outdated.

The pretension that Islam is opposed to technological innovations -such as the perception of the ousted Muhammad Reza Pahlavi that they [the ulama and advocates of the Islamic Revolution] advocate travel by quadrupeds- is but a stupid allegation.

If by "the manifestations of civilization and innovations'' they mean inventions and new products and advanced technology which contribute to the progress of man and his civilization, the idea has never been, nor will it ever be opposed by Islam or any other divine religion. On the contrary, Islam and the Holy Qur'an stress the value of science and learning and technology.

But if "civilization and modernity" is to be interpreted according to the terminology of some professional intellectuals who define it as liberty to engage in religiously prohibited acts, including prostitution and even homosexual relations and the like, then I can only say that the idea is invariably opposed by all divine religions and people, however, the West and East may advocate the idea and propagate these same practices in their blindfold adherence to conventionalism.

But as for the second category of opponents of Islam who have malicious designs, and who separate Islam from government and politics, they need only be reminded that the Holy Qur'an and the traditions of the Messenger of God (S.A.W.) have more edicts in relation to government and statecraft than in any other area. More importantly, many of the apparently devotional precepts in Islam are truly politico-devotional precepts, the overlooking of which has been responsible for the present afflictions of the Muslim world.

The Prophet of Islam (S.A.W .) instituted a government like other governments of the world except that his was one for the purpose of promoting social justice and, likewise, the early Muslim caliphs had full-fledged governments and so was Imam Ali's (A.S.) government which was broader and more inclusive and which is an obvious record in history. Subsequent governments, too, were established in the name of Islam, and even today the governments which pretend to be Islamic and to have been founded on the edicts of Islam and Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W.) are varied and many.

In this last will and testament of mine I will do it as briefly as I can, trusting that our men of letters, our sociologists and our historians will disillusion Muslims that the prophets were (A.S.) concerned solely with spiritualities, that involvement in government and management of the state affairs is condemned in religions, that the prophets and the saints refused to get themselves involved in these areas and that, by the same token, we, too, must guard against getting ourselves involved in those concerns is a sad mistake which entails the destruction of Muslim nations and opens the door for the bloodthirsty colonialists.

On the contrary, the idea that is discountenanced is the very existence of satanic and dictatorial tyrannical governments which are instituted for the very purpose of domination over the masses. Corrupt worldly pursuits, including the accumulation of wealth, the gaining of power and the status of worldly gods and, in essence, involvement in such worldly concerns which tend to make man overlook the Blessed and Supreme Lord.

Institution of a government for administering justice in the interest of the oppressed and downtrodden masses, for preventing tyranny and oppression and for instituting social equality similar to what Solomon and the Glorious Messenger of Islam (S.A.W) and his noble disciples struggled for is among prime duties and -its establishment is a lofty act of worship since the rational politics which mark such governments is a principal social requisite.

I exhort the wakeful and vigilant people of Iran to neutralize such plots relying on their Islamic perceptions, and also exhort our self-committed writers and public speakers to help our nation, and thereby eliminate the conspiring worldly satans of our time.

C. And of the same category of plots -and perhaps more malicious than the rest -is the hostile propaganda by way of rumor-making which regularly festers the air throughout our country, boiling down in essence to such insinuations that the Islamic Republic, like its predecessor, has not done anything for the people; that the 'poor' people, with such fervor and enthusiasm as they had, did acts of self-sacrifice to rid themselves of the tyrannical rule of the oppressors only to find out eventually that they were plagued by a worse regime; that the arrogant moneyed class has become even more arrogant, that the oppressed masses have become more oppressed, that the prisons have become crowded with the young people who were the hope for the future of the country, that acts of torture are now more common than and more beastly than they were during the past regime, that everyday a number of people are executed in the name of Islam, that the government here would have been wiser if it did not call itself 'Islamic', that these times are ever more terrible than it was during the times of Reza Khan and his son, that the people are being drowned in a deluge of agonies, hardships and 'high cost of living, that the people at the helm of the state are transforming this government into a communist government, that the personal properties of the people are being expropriated, that they are being denied civil liberties in every aspect, and the likes of such rumors which are being published as a strategy for a malicious scheme.

That they are the tools for promoting a conspiracy can be readily witnessed. Rumor making is undertaken as a periodical and regular device, each rumor being published for several days until another is in the air; the usual platforms for airing them being our taxi cabs, our city buses, and wherever a small gathering of people presents itself as a potential form for airing those rumors; and once one rumor has lost its credibility another is invented and aired.

And it is unfortunate that some of our ulama who are unsophisticated about satanic devices are likely to fall prey to publishers of rumors and allow themselves to conclude that what they hear in the form of rumors is true, because they are uninformed about the state of world affairs, about the world revolutions, and about the developments and the inescapable hardships that have followed other revolutions elsewhere in the world, and about the developments which are in the interest of Islam, and who listen to those rumors with blind eyes and who out of no ill will, or perhaps with deliberate ill will, promote the same insinuations.

I ask of you all not to try to find fault with the Islamic government and not to try to discredit the government or indulge in scurrilities against the system without first having studied the present status of world affairs and compared the Islamic Revolution in Iran with other revolutions elsewhere in the world, without first having studied the situation in other countries during and after revolutions, without first having looked at the afflictions inflicted on this country by Reza Khan and his son Muhammad Reza as a result of their plundering of the wealth of this nation, without first having studied the destructive pre-revolution dependence [on foreign powers], as well as the ruling system in government ministries at that time, without first having studied the status of the nation's economy before the revolution, and of its armed forces; without first having looked at the centers for corrupt fun-making, and recalled the places for dispensing intoxicants [liquor stores] and for promoting an abandoned way of life and irresponsible attitude ,in every aspect of the people's daily life, without first having recalled the shabby status of education in the pre-revolution time, and the ruling situation in high schools, and in our colleges and universities; without first having recalled the status of our movie houses, and recalled also the professional places for debauchery, the status of our youths, our women, and the afflictions of the holy, the religious people and self-committed freedom-lovers and our oppressed but virtuous women during the past regime, without first having recalled the status of our mosques at that time and also studied the cases of those who were executed after the Islamic Revolution or who were found guilty and sentenced to prison terms, without first having investigated the performance of public officials, and observed the collection of data on the assets of capitalists and big landlords and on the status of hoarders and profiteers, without having investigated the condition of the post-revolution courts and revolutionary tribunals against the status of our justice system before the revolution.

And having compared the post- revolution judges with their predecessors before the revolution, and investigated the status of the deputies of the majlis [parliament] of the Islamic Republic and members of the cabinet as well as governors and other post-revolutionary officials and compared it with that of their predecessors, without having studied the performance of the government and of the Construction Jihad2 in under-privileged villages, which did not even have piped water and basic health care services, and compared it with the situation during the past regime in light of the burden of the war imposed on Iran and its natural consequences, such as the multi million war refugees and bereaved families and war-injured people and the million-strong refugees from Afghanistan and Iraq in the face of economic sanctions against Iran and regular plots against Iran by the United States and its agents in and outside of Iran, to say nothing of the shortage of Islamic propagandists, religious judges, and the confusion created since the culmination of the Islamic Revolution by the enemies of Islam and deviated people and even by feeble-minded friends of the Islamic Revolution, or of tens of other things.

I ask of you all to have mercy upon this estranged Islam which, in the wake of hundreds of years of the tyranny of power-wielders and as a result of the ignorance of the masses is now only revived unsteadily like a tottering child beleaguered by enemies in and outside of our country, and ask of you also to judge for yourselves whether you would not do better by supporting the oppressed and the tyrannized people rather than condemning the Islamic Revolution, and think of the assassinated people, rather than supporting the hypocritically self-righteous3, the tyrants, the capitalists, and the cruel hoarders.

I have never said before, nor do I propose to claim now, that the great Islam is observed and implemented in its full implications in our Republic, or that there are none who act against the instructions of Islam either out of ignorance, or for personal hatred or lack of self-discipline; but I say that the legislative branch as well as the judiciary and the executive branches of the government have been trying hard to Islamicize this country, that a multi-million nation here support the government, and that if this minority of naggers and obstructionists, too, lend a helping hand, the aspirations of the Revolution will be attained more easily and more speedily; and that if, God forbid, they do not come to their senses they will not be able to stand against this roaring deluge of the people.

Since the millions of masses are wakeful and conscious of the situation and at the scene, the humanitarian and Islamic aspects of the Revolution will eventually materialize. I say with confidence now that the Iranian nation and the multi-million masses in this country today are better than the people of Hijaz at the time of God's Messenger (S.A.W.), and the people of Kufa and Iraq during the era of Imam Ali (A.S.) and Imam Hussein (A.S.).

At the time of our Prophet (S.A.W.) the people of Hijaz would not obey his order to go to the battlefronts and would bring excuses to evade the task so much so that in the Chapter Repentance (The Holy Qur'an: 9) the Almighty has reproached them, and assured them of retribution, and they imputed to him so many lies so far so that as has been related he cursed them on the pulpit; and also the people of Iraq and Kufah wronged Imam Ali (A.S.) as much as they could and they disobeyed him, and the complaints of His Holiness of those people of his time is recorded in religious and history books.

Also, the Muslims in Iraq and Kufa were the same people at whose time that greatest injustice of all time befell the Master of All martyrs [Imam Hussein(A.S.)], and even, those of the people of Kufa who did not actively challenge him with swords either fled the scene or chose to sit back and watch what would happen.

In contrast, however, today we see that the Iranian nation, including the armed forces and the military men and the Sepah [Islamic Revolution's Guards Corps-IRGC] and Basij [the Mobilized] and populist forces of tribes and of other volunteers are performing acts of self-sacrifice at the war fronts and that the people behind the fronts are doing the same with the utmost enthusiasm and create epics, and we see our respectable people throughout the country giving liberal contributions to the national effort.

We also see that the bereaved families who have lost their relatives at the battlefronts and the relatives of wounded veterans say only encouraging words to us with fervor and confidence, which is evidence of their love of and their faith in God and Islam and the Hereafter, despite the fact that they are living neither at the time of His Holiness the Greatest Prophet (S.A.W.), nor at the time of Infallible Imam.

In so doing, they are motivated solely by their faith in the Invisible, which is the secret to victory in its various dimensions, and Islam should take pride in rearing such offsprings, and it is a matter of great pride to live in this era and to be in the presence of such a nation.

And I take this occasion to address myself to those who, with various motives, oppose the Islamic Republic, as well as the youth both boys and girls- who are being exploited by the monafiqan (hypocrites) and opportunist deviants who seek their benefit at the expense of others, and call on them to judge for themselves without bias and with a clear mind, and examine the propaganda of those who wish to see the collapse of the Islamic Republic, as well as watch their behavior with the oppressed masses, and the groups and the (foreign) governments which have supported them, and the people in our country who are their supporters and their periodical change of position which they make at various junctures.

I wish the people who would like to see the collapse of the Islamic Republic to investigate the character of those who were martyred in the hands of the hypocrites and deviants and reevaluate them against thei1 enemies. There are recorded tapes of those martyrs and you, too, may have recorded tapes of the opponents of the system. Just find out for yourself which group is really concerned about and committed to the oppressed and tyrannized people.

My dear brothers, you are not reading these pages while I am living, but probably after my death. Then, I am not among you to be tempted to exploit your sentiments for selfish interests or do so in a struggle for power. Because you are meritorious youths I long for you to spend your youthful years at the service of the Almighty, our beloved Islam and the Islamic Republic so that you will become prosperous both in this world and in the Hereafter.

I implore God, the Forgiver of Sins, to lead you along the straight path of humanity, and to forgive our and your past with His Bountiful Mercy. You, too, implore Him for the same in your private moments, and rest assured that He is the Leader and the Compassionate.

And I have a word by way of this last will and testament of mine to the noble people of Iran and to other nations who are plagued by corrupt governments and are under the yoke of the big powers. I call on the dear Iranian nation to endear the blessing which they have gained with the great struggle of their own and with the blood of themselves and the blood of their young ones and to cherish it as the most beloved thing, to safeguard and protect it, to toil for this great divine blessing and this great divine entrustment, to challenge the obstacles on this straight way, without fear because

"If you help Allah. He will help you and will make your foothold firm." [The Qur'an: 47:7].

Contribute to the solving of the problems of the Islamic Republic with your hearts, to consider the cabinet and the majlis [parliament] as being of your own, and to protect them as an endeared blessing.

And I also exhort the majlis, the government and administrators to appreciate the merits of this nation and to serve them and especially the oppressed and tyrannized masses who are the light of our eyes and benefactors of all, who instituted the Islamic Republic as a result of their acts of self-sacrifice; the survival, of which, too, is the result of their services. Consider yourselves as having risen from the masses and consider the masses as being in your circle; always condemn the governments of the oppressors that were and are uncultured plunderers and empty headed bullies, by humane acts befitting an Islamic government.

And as for Muslim nations, I exhort them to follow the example of the Islamic government in Iran and of Iran's struggling people, and subjugate your own cruel governments in the event that they do not yield to the demands of their people, which is the [same as the] demand of the Iranian nation, and exhort them to remember that the government dependent on either the West or East is the cause of the misfortune of Muslims.

And I advise you against heeding the hostile propaganda of the enemies of Islam and the Islamic Republic, for they all intend to do away with Islam so that the interests of the superpowers will be safeguarded.

D. A satanic scheme of the big colonialist powers and imperialists, underway for years now, which reached its climax in Iran during the reign of Reza Khan and was followed by Muhammad Reza was the scheme of isolating the ulama. During the reign of Reza Khan the strategy) was to oppress the ulama, to defrock them, to imprison them, to banish them, to slight them and to execute them, and at the time of Muhammad Reza the scheme was followed up by other means, such as [pitting] the university students and university educators and the ulama against each other, and they did this with the help of vast propaganda which unfortunately because of the negligence and unsophistication of both groups about the satanic devices of the superpowers, proved to work.

On the one hand, they did their best to make sure that teachers in elementary schools, High schools and college professors and chancellors of universities were selected from among those who were West-struck or East-struck or from among the un-Islamic individuals and deviated people who do not adhere to any religion.

They did their best to ensure that the self-committed pious people would be a small minority, and to ensure that those who take the helm of the country in the future would be the same people who hate all religions, especially Islam, and the people associated with religions, particularly the ulama. At that time they pretended that such people, the ulama were the agents of Britain and advocates of the capitalists, and big landlords and advocates of reactionaryism and later they said the ulama were opposed to progress and civilization.

Alternatively, by their sophisticated hostile propaganda they led the ulama to fear college students and university educators because the propaganda invariably labeled all college student educators as being irreligious abandoned and opposed to Islam and other religions.

The idea was to make sure that the people at the helm were opposed to Islam and other religions and the ulama and religious people, and that anything related to the government, and that deep schism between the government and the masses and university students and educators would pave the way for the indulgence of plunderers so that every aspect of the business of the government would be in the hands of plunderers who could pocket the resources of our country, as they had during the previous regimes and were continuing to do, with obvious implications.

Now that by the will of the Blessed and Supreme Lord and due to the struggles of the nation, including the ulama, college students, and traders and toiling men and farm workers and other sectors of the society the people have broken the shackles of bondage and the hindrance of the superpowers and rid the nation from their hands and from the hands of the agents of those powers.

I exhort the present and future generation against tending to overlook the implications of the situation, and I call on the college students to solidify their bond with the ulama and religious students of theology, and never to neglect the schemes and conspiracies of our treacherous enemies, to guide and admonish any individual whom they should see trying to sow the seeds of discord between them, and in the event their words did not work on him renounce and ostracize him so that the plots against us will not take root, because it is easier to stop the current from the fountainhead.

If they should encounter a professor at their college who tends to mislead the youth, the students should guide him and if they should be unsuccessful they should reject him as a professor. I have addressed myself here mainly to the ulama and theological students, since plots at the universities are very grave and every respectable strata of our society who are the think-tank of our society should watch for plots.

E. Among the gravest plot which, unfortuntely, has left destructive effects on our beloved country has been the plot to alienate colonialized countries and make them look to the West and East as their models. So much so that those nations eventually lost their self al-steem and their trust in their own cultures [and are] looking to the West and East as the two poles of power with a nobler generation and loftier culture and concluded that their countries could not but become dependent on either of the two powers.

This has been a long and saddening story and the blows we suffer from the two powers are pounding and deadly. More saddening, however, is that the two powers have checked the progress of the nations whom they attempt to make consumption-oriented countries, and instil a fear in us of their technological advancements and of their satanic power and destroy our self-confidence to test our own intuition, so that we entrust whatever we have to their hands and sit quiet and blindfolded and leave the administration of the state to those powers.

This sense of self-nothingness and this feeling of dullness as inculcated in us by the big powers served to make us distrust our own knowledge and expertise and capacity in all areas and led us to simply try to imitate the West and East blind foldedly, our own West-struck and East-struck uncultured men of letters and public speakers disparaging our own culture and literature and technology and intuition. As little or as much as we had, belittling our own inherent capacities and alternatively publicizing the exotic culture of foreigners, even though they might be totally absurd and ridiculous and forcing those cultures upon the nations by admiring even in our own time.

To cite an example, if a book or an article or a lecture should also include several non-native words, that book or article or lecture is likely to be commended and its writer or the speaker very likely to be commended as a learned and intellectual person. For the nomenclature of our native things, too, names from the Western or Eastern languages seem to suggest status and civilization and are likely to be received by the public with applause. Be they the name for anything ranging from 'cradle' or ‘grave', whereas native names would be outmoded and a sign of reactionism.

The craze for Western culture persists in all areas: if our children happen to have Western names they feel proud and if they have native names they feel embarrassed and backward. The names of our city streets, shops, companies, drug-stores, bookshops, as well as the writings on materials and other commodities would sound a lot better if they were foreign words, even though those commodities are domestically produced, which will ensure better reception by the people.

European-styled mannerisms in every behavior, in social contacts, and in every aspect of our daily living is a source of pride and a sign of being civilized and progressive, and in contrast manifestations of native culture are signs of backwardness and of being old-fashioned. To remedy your illness, however trivial and curable it may be at home, you should go abroad, and thereby belittle and reject your native but capable doctors.

[As the propaganda for western and eastern cultures suggests]. To go to England, France, the United States and Moscow is a source of pride for the Iranian traveler, and to go to Mecca and to other holy shrines for pilgrimage is a sign of backwardness. A lack of concern about religion and its related topics and spirituality is evidence of intellectuality and, in contrast, a commitment to such things is a sign of backwardness and reactionism.

I do not claim that we ourselves have everything we need. Obviously, during recent history and especially during the past few centuries they [the foreign powers] blocked our progress in every area, and the treacherous people at the helm, and especially those during the Pahlavi Dynasty, and the destructive propaganda against our native capacities as well as the infusion of the feeling of self-unworthiness, served to block our every effort for technological advancement.

The importation of foreign-made products of whatever category, the induced preoccupation of women and men, especially the youth, with a wide variety of imported goods, including cosmetics, luxury items and childish toys, the pitting of people and families against each other in a race for consumption-it is a sad story- and the pulling of our youth -potentially the most active members of the society- to prostitution and to places for that purpose and for sensual pleasures, as well as tens of other devices, are schemes for keeping the countries backward.

Now that we have largely disentangled ourselves from those traps, seeing the unprivileged present generation rising up to work and contribute to the technological and industrial progress of our country, many of our factories manufacturing such things as aircraft, in the face of initial feelings of their incapacity for turning the wheels of our factories and the feelings of an eventual turning to the West or East for help, our youth manufacturing many parts and components to cope with economic sanctions and the imposed war and offering those items at lower prices than similar foreign-made products and demonstrating the native capacity, by this last will and testament of mine I beg to offer this nation my heartfelt advice against allowing themselves to be lured to the international plunderers and succumbing to the satanic insinuations of the politicians dependent on West and East, and advise them to rise up for ending the remaining symptoms of dependence with diligence, resting assured that the Aryans and the Arabs are not inferior to the Europeans, to the Americans and to the Soviets, and assure them that once they have discovered their true selves [they will] discard self-distrust and the tendency to expect help from others. Certainly, in the long run, you people will demonstrate the talent and the capacity to manufacture absolutely everything, and you are able to go as far as other people, like you have, provided only that you trust m the Blessed and Supreme Lord and have self-confidence and are committed to the goal of ending your [technological] dependence on foreign countries and are ready to tolerate the burden of hardships for attaining a dignified life and ridding yourselves of foreign domination.

It is incumbent upon governments and people at the helm, now and in the future, to appreciate their own native expertise, cheering them on by their material help and by their moral encouragement, to prevent the inflow of luxury but needless or ruinous products and to help the nation survive with what it has until they make everything they need.

I call on the youth, both boys and girls, not to sacrifice independence, freedom and humanitarian values for attaining a luxurious life, however hard it may be, or for sensual pleasures and abandonment and for visiting the dens of prostitution which may be offered to you by the western powers or by their treacherous local agents. Based on all past experiences they think only of seeing your destruction, of beguiling you into forgetting about what is going on in your own country and preoccupying you with other concerns so that they may plunder your wealth, and put the shackles of colonialism and dependence on your feet, and make you solely a nation of buyers of foreign-made goods. This is a device whereby they mean to keep you backward and, according to their own term. 'semi-savage’.

F. Among the plots of the western powers, as I have all too frequently reminded, is to control our public educational system, especially our colleges and universities, which are centers for nurturing people for taking the helm of the country in the future. With the ulama and the holy and theological students they have a scheme which differs from that for high schools and universities.

Their scheme is to do away with the scholars (ulama) and to isolate them, either by suppressive measures such as they did at the time of Reza Khan -which backfired and led to opposite results- or by publishing defamatory propaganda and implementing other satanic devices for alienating the ulama from the college students and college graduates and so called the intellectuals which device was implemented by suppressive measures at the time of Reza Khan and which continued, though cunningly rather than by power of force, during the reign of Muhammad Reza.

At the college and universities the ideal of the foreign powers is to alienate students from their own native culture and lure them to the West or East and to select government administrators from the same category of graduates and install them 1n ranking positions so that the foreign powers may then exploit them as tools for doing whatever they want to do to this nation; so that they [the educated] will lead the country along a course ensuring the plundering of its wealth by foreign powers, and its orientation towards western cultures, the ulama being unable to counter the scheme because of their being isolated, hated and defeated.

That is the best scheme for keeping colonized nations backward and for plundering their wealth, since it assures the superpowers of the unobstructed, unprotested, and cost-free pocketing of the wealth of nations.

Therefore, now that the universities and teaching colleges are being reformed with an academic and administrative purge, we have a responsibility to extend a helping hand to the people in charge so that we will ensure that never again in the future will our universities be misled to deviate education and anywhere we should happen to encounter a symptom of deviation we should try to rectify it as speedily as we can.

This vital goal should be implemented first and foremost by the mighty hands of the youth in colleges and universities and teacher colleges, and to salvage the colleges and universities from academic ruin is to salvage the country and the nation.

I first and foremost exhort the youth and the youngsters and secondly their parents and friends and the people at the helm and self-committed intellectuals to endeavor with all their hearts in this concern and entrust the universities to future generations, as they should be. I also advise all future generations to protect the universities against the pitfalls of inclinations to West and East, and by the humanitarian and Islamic endeavor eliminate the influences of big powers from their country and make them feel frustrated in their plots. May God be your Supporter and your Savior.

G. A principal thing is the commitment of the members of the Islamic Consultative Assembly (Majlis). We witnessed what Islam and the nation suffered as a result of unqualified and deviate parliaments from the advent of the Constitutional monarchy until the rule of the criminal Pahlavi Dynasty, and we remember the bulk of afflictions and grave losses as a result of the involvement of the worthless and servile criminals in state affairs. Which sufferings were the worst of the past history.

During a period of fifty years a treacherous pseudo-majority [in the parliament] against an oppressed minority acted virtually as the extended hands of the British and the Soviets and more recently the Americans for carrying out the wishes of those powers in Iran and for plunging the country into its doom.

Since the institution of the Constitutional monarchy in this country, almost none of the important articles of the constitution were observed. Before Reza Khan, the promoter of the Western culture and a handful of tribal chiefs and big landlords acted as local agents of the foreign powers and during the reign of the Pahlavis, by the very same criminal regime and its stooges.

Now that with the Blessings of the Supreme Lord and the willpower of the glorious nation of Iran the people are exercising the right of self-determination, the majlis deputies as true representatives of the people selected by the people and for the people, without the interference of the government and tribal chiefs, and in view of their commitment to Islam, there is hope to expect that all forms of divergence from the right path will be prevented.

By this last will and testament of mine I exhort the nation to send only self-committed and qualified candidates to the majlis; people who are committed to Islam and to the Islamic Republic and people who usually hail from the middle-class families as well as from the deprived masses, who do not diverge from the right path. Who are not inclined to the Western or Eastern ideologies or to other deviated schools, who are educated and well-informed about political developments and Islamic politics.

I advise the revered ulama, and especially our highest religious sources (maraje'), not to be indifferent to and not to evade involvement in the significant issues of the society and especially in such issues as presidential elections and majlis elections. You all witnessed -and the future generation will read and hear- how the veteran politicians inclined to West and East managed to eliminate the ulama from the political scene: a people who had instituted Constitutional monarchy with their toil and much hardship, and how the ulama too, were taken in by politicians into believing that involvement in state affairs and in the affairs of Muslims is below their dignity, and you witnessed their retiring from the scene and their giving of the political arena over to the crazy adherents of western culture wreaking the havoc as they did to the Constitutional monarchy and Islam to make good on, which would still take a long time.

Now that with the grace of the Almighty the obstacles have been removed and a favorable atmosphere avails itself for the participation of all sectors of the society, there is no good excuse for evading our individual responsibility, and I remind you that to neglect the affairs of Muslims is a cardinal sin.

Every person within his power and within the power of his influence must be in the service of Islam and the country, and must diligently prevent the infiltration of agents of the two colonialist powers, as well as the adherents of the Western or Eastern bloc ideologies, and rest assured that the enemies of Islam and Muslim nations, that is the ravaging superpowers, infiltrate Muslim countries gradually, systematically and in a creeping manner, exploiting the very people in those countries for luring them to the trap of exploitation.

You must watch against such things and rise up against them as soon as you witness an indication of such infiltration, and you should not give them a respite. May God be your Aid and Protector. I also call on the members of the Islamic Consultative Assembly (majlis), present and future, to refuse votes of confidence to any person who should be found to be deviated and who should have paved the way to the majlis by fraudulent means and political artifice, and make sure that not one subversive and foreign-inspired element will find his way to the majlis.

I also advise the officially recognized religious minorities to learn a lesson from the era of the Pahlavi Dynasty, and elect their representatives from among the individuals who are committed to their own religion and to the Islamic Republic, who are not inspired by the world -devouring foreign powers, who are not inclined to atheistic, deviate or eclectical schools of thought.

I call on all majlis members to maintain a fraternal spirit and good will in their daily association with one another, and to make sure that, God forbid, the majlis bills will not be un-Islamic, that they are loyal to Islam and observe the divine decrees so that they will prosper in this world and in the Hereafter.

I call on the respectable Council of Guardians (Shuraye Negahban), and the future councils, to carry out their Islamic and national duties with the utmost care and scrupulousness without allowing themselves to succumb to any power and prevent the ratification of law bills which are against pure Islam and the Constitution without any hesitation, and also have an eye to the exigencies of the day which sometimes will have to be executed by way of Secondary Ordinances (Ahkam Thanaviyah) and at other times by way of the decree of the Guardianship of the Jurisconsult (Wilayah al- Faqih).

I call on the noble people of Iran to be in the political scene, whether on the occasion of the elections for the majlis or presidential elections, or for [the Assembly of] Experts for determining the leadership council or the leader. For example, 1n elections of Experts for determining the leadership council they should remember that if they do so carelessly and if they do not elect experts for the council on the basis of religious criteria and the relevant laws, it is likely that they will thereby have inflicted irreparable damage to Islam and to the country, in which case everyone will be responsible before the Supreme God. Therefore, to keep oneself aloof in such circumstances would be a cardinal sin, whether committed by the people, or the ranking ulama, or businessmen, or farmers or workers, or government employees who are responsible for the fate of this country and Islam.

Then as the old saying goes, an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure, or else the situation will be out of everybody's control. This was truly experienced after the Constitutional monarchy. There is no better remedy than to have a nation who, throughout the country, does only according to the Islamic dictates and the Constitution, to have a people who solicit the opinion of the committed educated people and people independent of the foreign powers and people who are well-reputed for their faith in Islam and in the Islamic Republic as well as the committed members of the ulama on such occasions as presidential elections, elections for the majlis and who make sure that the President and majlis deputies will be elected from among the candidates who have felt the oppression and deprivation of the oppressed masses and who are concerned about their welfare rather than from the group of capitalists, or landlords and aristocrats who indulge in sensual pleasures and who know nothing of the bitter taste of deprivation and hunger and the barefooted.

We should remember that as long as our presidents and our majlis deputies are worthy people and are committed to Islam and concerned about the country and the people, the [country's] problems would be fewer and more easily managed. The same considerations should be emphatically observed when electing Experts for determining the leadership council or a leader.

The Experts who are elected by the nation should also consult the leading ulama of their time, and the religious personalities and committed learned men and make sure that as long as they work with scrupulousness they will prevent many problems, and will easily solve those that may be encountered. Articles 109& 110 of the Constitution define the serious responsibility of the people for electing Experts and in turn the latters for electing leadership council or for electing the leader, and it is evident that the slightest negligence and carelessness is most likely to inflict grave damage upon Islam and the country, make them responsible to God for their carelessness.

This era being the era of the inroad of the superpowers and their dependent elements in and outside of Iran seemingly in the name of Islamic Republic and actually against the Islamic Republic, and more truly against Islam, I admonish that the responsibility of the leader and the leadership council is to consecrate their lives to the service of Islam, the Islamic Republic and the deprived and oppressed masses, and watch against the notion that they are dignified by reason of their offices since, truly speaking, offices like that are very heavy and precarious responsibilities in the performance of which any lapse, if, God forbid, is committed out of worldly pursuits, will be a life-long infamy upon the incumbent and will entail God's wrath upon him in the Hereafter.

I implore the Beneficent Almighty God and supplicate Him to receive you and me in His Kingdom only after He has helped us to pass proudly through this grave ordeal and to save us in our endeavors, the rest of the public officials ranging from the president to lower-level officials, depending on the gravity of their responsibilities, too are likely to lapse into pitfalls, today and in the future, wherefore they should always feel conscious of the presence of the Blessed and Supreme Lord wherever they are and feel themselves as being in His blessed company. May Almighty God lead them on the right path.

H. Judicature is a prime business of the government, and a branch which deals with the lives, properties and chastity of the people. By this last will of mine I call on the leader and the leadership counc1l to do their best in the designation of an incumbent for the highest judicial position and make sure he is self committed, has experience. and is an authority in sharia laws, as well as Islam in general and politics, I call on the High Judiciary Council to rehabilitate, as diligently as they can, the judicial affairs which during the past regime had degenerated into a shabby and deplorable condition, and to dismiss people who might be occupying judiciary seats in our law courts toying with the lives and assets of people without being really concerned about Islamic justice, to gradually reform the justice adm1ninstration diligently and steadily, and to replace judges incompetent and unqualified from the point of Islam by other religiously educated and competent nominees with the contribution of our theological schools, especially graceful Qum Theological School, so that with the grace of the Blessed and Supreme Lord, Islamic justice will prevail throughout the country, By this last will and testament and in view also of the traditions attributed to the Infallible Fourteen4 (A.S.) in relation with the gravity of judiciary affairs and also in relation with perilous position of the judgments, I exhort all respectable judges of today and tomorrow to assume this task with due commitment and prevent the occupation of judiciary seats by unfit people, and advise the qualified people not to reject the offer of involvement in the task. Let them know that as great as the risks of this position are, just as great is its divine recompense, and know also that for qualified persons to engage in the task is a religious duty.

I. As for our theological schools, by this last will and testament of mine I feel impelled to repeat what I have said on frequent occasions before, namely, that our time is marked by a struggle of the opponents of Islam and the Islamic Republic for doing away with Islam by satanic designs and by the strategy of introducing deviate and vicious people into our theological schools; that as such the immediate, though grave, implication of the strategy would be to disrepute our theological schools by their unbefitting behavior and deviated ethics and principles, and that its long-term and exceedingly grave impact would be the coming to higher offices of one or a number of imposters who, by virtue of their insight of Islamic sciences, win the favor and affection of the masses and the innocent people, only to pound a deadly blow upon Islam, theological schools, and our country when the opportunity avails itself.

We know that the big plundering world powers have their own various agents of different categories among the people of other nations, such agents including nationalists, the imposter intellectuals and turban-wearing hypocrites, the latter being the most dangerous of all if given the chance. Sometimes they live among the people for thirty or forty years, assuming a quasi Islamic, a clerical and a sanctimonious and saintly appearance, or hide themselves under such masks as 'pan-Iranism' or pretend to be patriotic, resorting to all possible subterfuges, and when they find the opportunity inflict their blow upon the society.

Since the culmination of the Islamic Revolution, our beloved nation has seen examples of such people, among them the Mujahideen Khalq Orgamza1ion (MKO), the Fada'eyan Khalq5, the Tudeh Party6 and others and it is necessary that we all vigilantly neutralize such forms of plots.

But most important of all are our theological schools in which the purge must be carried out with the joint effort of our respectable theological teachers and senior scholars and with the approval of religious authorities of the time. Perhaps the proposition that 'order' is in 'disorder' is the sinister indoctrination theory of the very same plotters.

At any rate, my testamentary reminder on the topic is that in the face of the increasing plots and conspiracies in our time a breakthrough attack for giving a system to our theological schools is necessary, and it is necessary that our revered theological teachers invest time and effort in that so as our theological schools and especially the Qum Theological School will be protected against harm.

It is incumbent upon the ulama and theological teachers to make sure that principal topics related to fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) are presented unadulterated and in their proper format, which have been bequeathed to us by the leading pioneers in the field, and make sure that each and every day more and more scrutiny than in the past, with a view to safeguarding the traditional fiqh which is the bequest of our elders and betters to deviate from which would be to undermine the foundations of our scholarship, and so that new scholarship will regularly follow previous scholarships.

Naturally for other areas of human learning other programs will be prepared. and more people should be provided education in those area, but among the most exalted areas of human learning and education are the spiritual sciences of Islam such as ethics, spiritual edification and moral uplifting, which are the hardest struggles of all.

J. The executive branch of the government is one that needs to be purged, reformed and protected. At times it is likely that plausible bills are ratified by the majlis and endorsed by the Council of Guardians and then communicated to responsible administrators by the relevant government minister, but that the law degenerates in the hands of the former, or its execution becomes entangled in customary red tape and bureaucracy, which may be deliberately hampered with for the purpose of disconcerting the people and gradually arousing their revolt.

My exhortation to our government ministers and their future successors is: You and the employees of government ministries make a living by receiving salaries from a budget which belongs to the nation and, therefore, you should all be serving the people and especially the oppressed masses. To needlessly inconvenience the people and behave against the responsibility is now a religiously sinful act which may sometimes, God forbid, incite divine wrath. You all need the support of the nation.

We owe the victory of the Islamic Revolution to the support of the people, and especially to the support of the oppressed masses, and owe it to them for having stopped the tyrannical monarchy from plundering our land and from its resources. Bereft of their support, you will be done away with and tyrants such as there were during the monarchy will occupy your offices. Therefore, in the face of this obvious reality you should do your best to win the favor of the nation, and to discard un-Islamic behavior.

By the same token, I advise the future incumbents of the Interior Ministry to exercise maximum scrupulousness in their selection of Governors-General and to make sure that they will be meritorious, pious, self-committed, wise and well-behaved people so that the country will have complete peace.

Although invariably all government ministers are completely responsible for administering the affairs of their ministry according to the dictates of Islam, some have a heavier responsibility than others, among them the Foreign Ministry, which is in charge of our embassies abroad. At the beginning of the victory of the Islamic Revolution I gave periodical advice in connection with the prevailing monarchical morality in our government ministries and the need to reform government agencies consistent with the character of an Islamic Republic.

Some government ministers, however, either refused to reform their ministries or were unsuccessful in their efforts for doing so. Today, three years7 since the victory of the Islamic Revolution, the Foreign Minister has undertaken various measures for this purpose and I hope this significant undertaking will be accomplished by the investment of more time and by continued application.

My testamentary advice to the Foreign Minister and to future incumbents of his ministry is: You are shouldering a grave responsibility. Both for reforming the Foreign Ministry and our embassies and for recasting our foreign policy and protecting the nation's independence and its interests and for establishing friendly relations with the foreign governments which do not intend to interfere in our internal affairs and avoid anything that is contaminated by any kind of dependency.

Remember that although in some areas dependence on a foreign country might seem perfectly all right with certain transitory advantages, in the long run it will cause the destruction of the country. Do your best to improve your relations with Muslim nations, to awaken the people at the helm in other [Muslim] countries, call them to solidarity and unity, and rest assured that Almighty God will assist you.

I advise Muslim nations against expecting external help for attaining their goal that is Islam and the institution of Islamic edicts. You should help yourself in this vital task which ensures your freedom and independence. So let the ulama and preachers in Muslim states call on their governments to rid themselves from dependence on big foreign powers and to come to an understanding with their own people, which assures them victory.

Let them call on the nations for unity and for discarding racism, which is against Islam. Let them shake a brotherly hand with their brothers-in-faith of whatever race, since Islam refers to them as brothers, and once this spirit of brotherhood has become a matter of fact between all Muslim governments and Muslim nations you will see that Muslims are the greatest power on earth. Let us hope to witness this brotherhood and this equality between Muslim nations, God willing.

I advise the Ministry of Guidance (Ershad) for all time, especially in this particular era, to do its best in propagating right against wrong and for portraying a true picture of the Islamic Republic. Now that we have eliminated the superpowers from our country we are the subject of much hostile propaganda by the mass media dependent on the big powers. The writers and spokesmen dependent on the superpowers have accused us of whatever they wanted, and sadly enough the majority of Muslim governments which, according to the dictates of Islam, must extend a brotherly hand to us are rising against us and against Islam and, our propaganda power being very weak, every foreign government aligned with the world-devouring powers is making some sort of inroad against us.

You know that today the world turns on the wheels of propaganda. It is saddening that the so-called intellectual men of letters privately inclined to either of the two powers, hampered by their selfishness, and by opportunism and monopolism, are incapable of thinking about the good of their 1ation and their people and are unable to compare the freedom and independence in the Islamic Republic with its status during the past regime.

They would not set the honorable life such as they now have, although devoid merely of the material plentifulness and extravagant sensuality of their past, against what they earned during the autocratic monarchy in this country at the cost of their subservience, their servant-like status, and by eulogizing and raising the elements of corruption and the fountainheads of tyranny and prostitution.

They would not stop levelling unfair remarks and unjust accusations against this new-born Republic and they would not push pens or lash their tongues in a single file with the nation and government against the worldly gods and the fiendish.

Tablighal [ideology-oriented publicity work] is not the task solely of the Ministry of Guidance, but of all scholars, public speakers, writers and artists. The Foreign Ministry must do its best 10 ensure that our embassies abroad will have ideology-oriented publicity periodicals to unveil the brilliant vision of Islam to the world people.

Once the graceful visage of Islam to which the Holy Qur'an and traditions have invited humans is seen unmasked by enemies and once the mask of the enemies of Islam and its misinterpreting friends is taken off, then Islam will be universal, and its proud banner will be hoisted in the four corners of the world. How agonizing and tragic it is that Muslims have a possession unique since the beginning of history until its end, and not only have they failed to present this valuable gem to other people who, simply by reason of their human nature are its natural seekers, but they have consigned it to oblivion, are ignorant of it, and sometimes even run away from It.

K. Another extremely important social and cultural determinant is the status of educational institutions ranging from kindergartens to colleges and universities, which I would like to point out again, due to its extreme importance. The ravaged people of Iran must know that during the past fifty years Iran and Islam have suffered more with regard to the universities than they have suffered from anything else.

If our universities and our other educational centers had a curriculum and status consistent with Islam and our national interests, our country would not be swallowed by England and later by the U.S. and the Soviet Union: and in that case predatory agreements would never be imposed upon our nation; never would foreign advisers find their way to Iran; never would the wealth and the black gold [oil] of this suffering people be pocketed by the satanic world powers, and never would the Pahlavi Dynasty and their dependents be able to plunder the wealth of the people with which to build palaces in and outside of our country on the bodies of oppressed masses and fill foreign banks with the plundered wealth of those tyrannized people or spend the same for their corrupt fun-making and for the hedonistic orgies of their dependents.

If our majlis, our cabinets, our judiciary power. and our other organs had been manned by graduates of Islamic and national universities, then our nation today would not have to tackle with such ruinous problems; if upright personalities with Islamic belief in its true sense-as opposed to the anti-Islamic mentality today-had found their way from the universities to the three branches of the government, then we would have different things today, and a different nation, and our deprived people would have rid themselves of the claws of deprivation, and would have cleared our society of the bits and pieces of a tyrannical monarchy, of prostitution, addiction, and of houses of ill fame, each of which was alone capable of leading our valuable and active youths to their doom; and if things were otherwise our people would not have been handed over a self-ruining and nationally-destructive legacy.

If our universities were conceived with Islamic, humane and nationalistic values then they could have produced hundreds and thousands of educators for the Iranian society. But it is unfortunate and saddening that our colleges and universities and our high schools were supervised and our youngsters were educated all- except for an oppressed minority- by people who were West-struck or East-struck and there being no other alternative, our youth were nurtured in the bosom of the wolves dependent to the superpowers and would upon graduation occupy legislative, public and judiciary offices to act only according to the dictates of the tyrannical Pahlavi regime.

Now, thanks the Blessed and Supreme Lord, our universities are rid of the claws of the criminals; the people and the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, for all time in the future, have a responsibility to prevent infiltration into colleges and universities of proponents of irreligious and deviate ideologies or of ideologies of either of the two power blocs so that they will not encounter problems in the future, and so that the society will be in control. My advice to students at colleges, universities and teacher-colleges is that themselves rise boldly against deviations so that the independence and freedom of themselves and of their country will be safeguarded.

L. The armed forces: the army, including also the Sepah (Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps), the gendarmery, the state police, the committees, the Basij (Mobilized forces), and tribal forces are important in their own capacities. They are powerful hands of the Islamic Republic and are protectors of our boundaries, roads, towns and cities and villages, and of our security at home, and as such should be subject to the special attention of the nation, the government, and the majlis.

And they should all bear in mind that the big powers and destructive policies tend to exploit the native armed forces of other countries more than they exploit any other group or institution in that country. It is the armed force that is likely to fall prey to political foul plays, state coups, and to devices for chaining governments and regimes. Fraudulent people and scoundrels attempt to buy the chiefs in the armed forces and get hold of countries with the aid of those local chiefs, and as result of the collusions of deceived army commanders, dominate and deprive people of their freedom and independence.

But as long as army commanders are upright and chaste, the enemies of the nations will not be able to stage coups in other countries or occupy those countries, or if they venture to do such things, their schemes will be aborted by committed commanders in those countries.

In Iran, too, in which the people worked this great miracle of our time [the Islamic Revolution], the armed forces had a great role to play, and today when th15 damned war that is being imposed upon us by Saddam [Hussein] by the order of the United States and other world powers is, after two years since its outbreak, bringing political and military defeat for the invading Ba'athist army of Iraq, a success which has been accomplished by our armed forces and by the Sepah [Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps], and by the effort of populist forces and the liberal support of the masses and their contributions to the war effort both at war-fronts and behind the fronts, and they are the people who have made Iran proud, and the various internal plots designed and engineered by the pawns of the arch-leaders of the Western bloc and Eastern bloc countries were foiled, thanks to the mighty hands of our youth in Committees [Islamic Revolution Committees]8 and to our zealous people.

And our committeemen are the same people who keep overnight vigils so that the people might now rest peacefully. May God be their Aider.

Therefore, in these last days of my life I offer my brotherly advice to our armed forces as follows: You dear people who endear Islam and who are performing acts of self-sacrifice at the battlefronts and other valuable services elsewhere throughout our country for the cause of God and prompted by your love for reunion with God, be wakeful that the sharp edge of the weapon of treachery and murder of political operatives and veteran West struck and East-struck politicians as well as the secret hands of behind-the-scene criminals are pointing at you more than at any other group.

They want to exploit you who have brought forward the victory of the Islamic Revolution with your acts of self-sacrifice and who revived Islam -for toppling the Islamic Republic, and plan to sever you from the nation and throw you into the fold of either one of the world-devouring poles and cancel your efforts and your acts of self-sacrifice by political intrigues with a show of commitment to Islam and nationalism.

I enjoin the armed forces not to subscribe to any political party or group and that they keep themselves aloof of political games, and adhere to the relevant discipline. This applies invariably to all sectors of the armed forces, including army men, security forces, Islamic Revolutionary Guardian Corps, Basij [Mobilized forces] and others Volunteers. Only then will they be able to maintain their military power and prevent in-fighting due to personal differences. The commanders, too, have a responsibility to prevent the people under their supervision from subscribing to political parties.

Because the Revolution belongs to the people and its protection is the responsibility of all, it is the religious and national responsibility of the government, the people, the Defense Council and the Islamic Consultative Assembly to oppose any act by the armed forces and their commanders of whatsoever level which is judged to be against the interests of Islam and the country, and also to oppose their subscription to political parties, or their involvement in political games, which will certainly entail their doom.

It is the responsibility of the leader or leadership council of the Islamic Republic to firmly stand against such things so that our nation will be protected from harm. At the end of this earthly life of mine, I sincerely exhort all members of the armed forces to be loyal to Islam, as you have been to this point, which is the only religious ideology for independence and freedom and in which the Blessed and Supreme Lord invites all men with the leading rays of Islam to a most exalted status. It rids you, your country and your nation of the disgrace of dependence on the foreign powers who want you only for serving them as slaves and who will keep your country and people backward, and only as a consumer nation and under the burden of oppression.

Then prefer a dignified human-like life, although fraught with obstacles, to a humiliating life of slavery to foreigners, although it may be marked by animalistic comfort. Remember that as long as you extend an asking hand to foreigners for your needs in advanced technology and as long as you lead a beggarly life in the international community you will not witness the growth of your inventive talent in technology.

In the wake of the economic sanctions against Iran you witnessed with your eyes that the same Iranians who used to judge themselves as being unable to do many of the things previously done solely by expatriate workers and who had been previously been told that they would not be able to turn the wheels of their country's industries, and who distrusted their own inherent capacity for doing so, eventually ventured to rely on their own talent and thereby responded to the needs of the armed forces and their various factories and plants.

Therefore, this war economic sanctions, and the ouster of foreign experts from Iran was, in fact, a divine blessing for us the value of which we did not appreciate in the beginning. Now if the government and if our armed forces voluntarily ban foreign-made products and instead increase their efforts for improving native capacities in technical and industrial areas, there is hope to believe that our country will become self-sufficient and will be rid of begging its own enemies for technical and industrial help.

I must hasten to add that our need for advanced industries of progressive countries is indisputable, but that is not to be interpreted that for advanced technology and scientific know-how we will have to depend on either of the two power blocs politically.

Our government and armed forces should make an effort to send self-committed students for higher studies to the countries which do not adhere to colonialism or pursue colonialistic policies rather than send them to the U.S. or the Soviet Union and to certain other countries which follow and promote the policies of either of the two poles.

Except, perhaps when the two powers have admitted their past mistakes and have abandoned their predatory policies and adopted a foreign policy based on humane principles, or when, God willing, the oppressed masses of the world, the wakeful nations and committed Muslims have subdued them. May that day comes.

M. The radio, the television, the print media, the theaters and the cinemas have been successfully used to intellectually anesthetize nations, and especially the youth. During the present century, particularly during the latter half of the century, the broadcast and print media have been used to full capacity as a propaganda tool against Islam and the serving ulama, as tools for airing the propaganda of the colonialist Western and Eastern power blocs, as a tool for marketing products, especially luxury items of every sort, ranging from building items to ornamental products, drinks, clothing, etc. promoting not just products but also a form of life as a prestigious model, so much so that to look like Westerners in every aspect of one's daily life became a status symbol impelling people, especially affluent ladies, to adapt their daily conversation, their attire and their fashions to prevailing fashions in the West, the mentality conspicuous also in the people's craze for using European words in their daily conversations as well as in their writings, which needlessly complicated their utterances and rendered them incomprehensible even by their peers.

Television films were products of either Western or Eastern countries, tending to lead the young generation and men and women away from the healthy business of life, work, and industry and production and learning, and plunge them into a world of self estrangement or of disrespect for and mistrust of everything native, including their country and even their culture, and their native artifacts, many of which were taken to museums and libraries in the Western and Eastern bloc countries.

The magazines publishing scandalous articles and shameful pictures, and the dailies running the race of anti-Islamic and anti national culture proudly lured the people and especially the more socially instrumental youth to the ruling culture of the West or East. To say nothing of a never ending propaganda for legitimizing centers for corruption, houses of ill fame, gambling and lottery houses, and promoting shops and other centers for dispensing fancy items and promoting whatnot in modish extravaganzas of Western culture, including cosmetics, entertainment, alcoholic beverages, extravagant gift-shop items, including toys and dolls, and hundreds of their [things] unknown to me and to my peers against the export of oil, gas and other of our resources to the West.

And if God forbid the servile and ruinous Pahlavi regime had survived longer certainly our young people, the children of Islam and of our country to whom the nation looks for its future would succumb to the satanic plots and conspiracies of the corrupt Pahlavi regime and to the propaganda of the mass media and to the insinuations of the Western and Eastern-oriented intellectuals or would ruin their youthful days in corrupt quarters or perhaps would serve the world-devouring powers and pitch the nation into total ruin. The Blessed and Supreme Lord obliged us and our youth by ridding us of the evil of the corrupt and predators.

My last word now to the Islamic Consultative Assembly for today and for all times and to the present and future presidents, and to the Council of Guardians and to the Supreme Judiciary Council and to the government, present and future, is that they should look out for any deviation from the true course of Islam and from the interests of the nation by our news agencies and print media.

We should all remember that the 'freedom' of the Western brand which causes the ruin of the youth and boys and girls is condemned in Islam and by common sense, and that to hear, to write, to speak and to publish against the dictates of Islam and in a manner abhorrent to the moral virtue and ethical principles of society and against the best interests of the country is prohibited (haram), the prevention of which is the individual responsibility of all of us and all Muslims.

Destructive freedoms, and anything religiously prohibited or against the social propriety in the Islamic Republic or against the reputation of the Islamic Republic should be prevented, or else each and everyone of us will be responsible for it. If the people and the youth of Hezbollah9 should encounter instances of the violation of such considerations they must report the same to relevant institutions, and if officials in those institutions should show indifference towards it the youth are responsible for taking action to prevent it. May the Supreme Lord be the Aider of all.

My last word to the [political] groups [parties] and grouplets [factions] and to other people who are active against the nation and the Islamic Republic, and primarily my last word to their leaders in and outside of Iran is to call on them to have a retrospective glance at their long experience to find out for themselves that having tried their hands at everything, at every plot, and having tried their luck with any foreign country and personality should have proved to them that they cannot change the course of the life of a patriotic nation by assassinations, bomb blasts, disreputing and nonsensical propaganda; that no government can be toppled by such inhuman devices, and especially the government of the Islamic Republic, which relies on a nation of young children and adults, old men and women who do perform acts of self-sacrifice for their goal, for the Islamic Republic, for the Holy Qur'an and their religion.

You know (and if you don't know, you are far too simple minded) that the nation is not with you, and that the armed forces are your enemies; and if -only taking it for granted- they were once your sympathizers, you repelled them by your crude acts and as a result of criminal acts perpetrated by your provocations, you could not win friends but made enemies for yourselves.

N. My last word of altruistic advice to you in the last days of my life is that I wonder how you may bring yourself to fight a tyrannized nation which, for 2,500 years, has been plagued by cruel monarchies and which rid itself of the oppression of a regime such as that of the Pahlavi's and the world-devouring Western and Eastern powers by giving away their best children and youth as martyrs in their fight for freedom.

How could a human being bring himself to behave like that with his own people for [the sake of] attaining some office; safeguarding neither children nor the elderly? I exhort you to cease such useless and unwise perpetrations and guard against playing into the hands of the world-devouring powers.

If you have not committed a crime return to your homeland and into the fold of Islam, wherever you are, and repent and rest assured that God is Compassionate and Merciful and, God willing, the Islamic Republic and the Iranian nation will forgive your wrongdoing, and if you have committed a crime for which there is a divinely-decreed punishment still turn back midway and repent, and if you are bold enough accept the punishment you should suffer and thereby save yourself from God's retribution. If you do not want to return home, then do not waste your life any longer and spend the remainder of your life in a vocation which ensures your eventual good.

I also advise the supporters of these people in and outside Iran to think about the reasons why they consecrated their youth to serve a people who are indisputably working for the world-devouring powers? Why they promote their schemes? Why [are they] entangled in their traps? In whose interests and for the sake of whom are you wronging your own people? You are playing into their hands, and if you are in Iran you will see for yourself that the million-strong masses are loyal to the Islamic Republic, for which they perform acts of self-sacrifice.

You clearly see that the present government in this country is wholeheartedly at the service of the people and the impoverished masses. Those who hypocritically pretend to be committed to the masses or bear such labels as mujahid or fada’eyan [devotees] are actually antagonizing the very people who are God's creatures, and they are exploiting you for their own purposes and for one of the world-devouring power poles. If they [the masterminds and leaders of the two grouplets] are outside Iran they are having fun at the heart of either one of the two criminal power poles, and if they are in Iran, they live in their sumptuous common hide-outs as wretched criminals, continuing their criminal acts and plunging you youthful people into the jaws of death.

My sincere advise to you is this: I would urge you to take the opposite course ·and reunite with the deprived masses who are serving the Islamic Republic wholeheartedly, and to work for an independent and free Iran so that your country and your people will be rid of the evil of opponents and so that you may all continue honorable lives.

Wherefore and for how long do you intend to take orders from a people who think not but of their own interests; (a people) who, resting in the lap of the superpowers and sheltered by them, are fighting their own people, and who are sacrificing you for their own dire ambitions and for their craze for power. During the past few years since the triumph of the Islamic Revolution, you have readily seen that their acts do not tally with their pretensions; that pretensions are only devices for cheating unsophisticated youth.

You know that you are no power against the roaring ocean of the nation, and that by what you do; you will only harm yourself and ruin your life. I have now fulfilled my obligation for guiding you, and I hope you will heed this advice of mine which is reaching you after my death and which is untainted by ambition or self-interest, and hope also that you will save yourself from the Eternal Punishment of God. May the Beneficent guide you onto the right path.

I give my last word and advice to the leftists, such as the communists, the Fada'eyan Khalq Organization and others, by asking them: How did you bring yourself to subscribe to a broken down school of thought without first having formed a sound idea of other schools and Islam, with the help of people who are well oriented about schools, especially Islam? Whatever prompted you to indulge your fancy unjust a few 'isms' which are devoid of content among learned and inquisitive people? What motive is prompting you to pull your country into the fold of the Soviets or China, and wherefore should you be prompted to wage a war with your own people in the name of concern for the 'people,' and why should you have contributed to plots against your nation and against the tyrannized masses in this country and in the interests of foreign enemies? You see that since the birth of communism, those who have pretended to subscribe to its ideology have led the worst authoritarian, most absolute, and worst monopolistic governments in the world.

Look at the nations who were trampled under the feet of the Soviets, the advocates of the 'people', and who lost everything they had. The people of the Soviet Union, Muslims and others, are hard pressed under the dictatorial oppression of the Communist Party; they are denied any form of liberty and are subjected to a strangulation which is the worst among all dictatorships in the world today.

We saw the coming to power of Stalin, who was one of the so-called brilliant figures of the Communist Party. We saw his aristocratic life and we witnessed how luxuriously moved around. Now you give your lives for the sake of your love for that regime while the oppressed masses in the Soviet Union and in the Soviet bloc countries like Afghanistan10 lose their lives because of the Soviets' oppression and, heedless of those developments, you pretend to support the 'people', apparently forgetting the crimes you committed against the very 'people' whom you claim to support, against the noble people in Amol11 whom you falsely claimed were your supporters, many of whom you instigated against the Islamic government and other people, and let them get killed in an armed challenge to the Islamic government. You went beyond all limits in your criminal perpetrations and now you 'supporters of oppressed people' wish to put the oppressed and deprived masses in Iran into the fold of Soviet dictatorship, doing it under the cover of Fada' eyan Khalq and advocates of the oppressed and deprived masses, and the Tudeh Party doing the same more slyly under the cover of support for the government of the Islamic Republic, and other political groups, by force of fire arms, assassinations and bomb blasts.

My last word to you, political parties, who are either known as leftists -though there are indications that they are American inventions and pro-American groups- or fed and inspired by the West and those who are using firearms in a contention for self-rule and under the cover of support for the Kurds and Baluchis, and who have wreaked havoc in Kurdestan and in other areas of the country and prevented educational, health, economic, and reconstruction services in those provinces, such as the Democratic Party and Koumeleh12, is to call on you to reunite with the rest of the masses and remember your bitter experience, which has only served to make the people in those provinces miserable, and admit that whatever you do, you will only bring misery to the people in those areas of the country.

So remember that it is for your own ultimate good -and in the interest of the people whom you pretend to support- to join forces with the government and stop revolting and serving foreign enemies and betraying your own nation. Lend a helping hand to the building of the country and rest assured that for you Islam is a better alternative than the criminal power pole of the West and the dictatorial power pole of East.

My last word to errant Muslim groups who are inclined to the West or occasionally to Eastern ideology, who have occasionally voiced support for the hypocrites -whose treachery was exposed to the public- due to their misconceptions, at times cursed and flouted the enemies of the opponents of Islam is to call on them not to persist in their erroneous judgment, but to admit their mistaken beliefs, relying on their Islamic courage, and tojoin forces with and align themselves to the government, the majlis and the oppressed people for God's satisfaction, and rid the oppressed masses of contemporary history of the evil of oppressors.

Remember the words of (Seyyed Hassan] Moddaress13 , the clear-sighted, morally undefiled and self-committed scholar (alim) who said at a sad majlis session of his time that if the ulama [and the Islamic thought] are to be destroyed, why should they pave the way with their own hands? Today, in memory of that martyr of the cause of God, I tell my devoted brothers that if one day it be destined that we be wiped out from the world scene it would be better for us to go by the criminal hands of the Americans and the Soviets, and better for us to seek reunion with God with our sanguine bodies, rather than choose to have a comfortable and aristocratic life under the banner of the Red Army of the East or the black banner of the West.

This has been the way of life of the prophets, of the Imams of Muslims and religious sages. We too, should follow the same course and should inspire ourselves with the conviction that if a nation decides to live without relying on foreign powers they certainly can, and that the world powers cannot impose a way of life on them which is contrary to their own convictions. Afghanistan is a contemporary example proving this argument. Although the usurping government in that country and leftist parties there were and are aligned with the Soviets, they have not yet been able to subjugate the masses.

Moreover, the deprived nations of the world are now waking up and before long their wakefulness will culminate in uprisings and revolts and revolutions, and they will gradually rid themselves of the domination of oppressors. You Muslim people who believe in Islamic values readily see that we are witnessing the fruits of ending our reliance on the Western and Eastern power blocs already in our country.

You see that our capable native brains are working to lead us to self-sufficiency, and we see the accomplishment of things which the treacherous expatriates here said were beyond our technical capacity to undertake and which, God willing, we will be successfully undertaking in the future. Alas for the late institution of this Revolution, for if it had been undertaken at least at the start of the cruel and dirty reign of Muhammad Reza, then our plundered Iran today would be a different one.

To the writers, public speakers, intellectuals and obstructionists, naggers and people driven against the Islamic Revolution by their own complexes, I say: Instead of spending your time doing things against the interests of the Islamic Republic, and instead of depleting all your energy in acts of antagonism and in malicious thoughts and for censoring the majlis and the government and other serving people, [acts] which serve to push your country into the fold of the superpowers, sit at a private place on a still night for a self-trial before God -or before your own conscience if you do not believe in God- and find out your own latent motives which may be in the subconscious of many men and which drive you into acting and speaking as you do.

Find out why and on the basis of what criteria you are looking down at the blood of our youth who are ripped to pieces in the battlefronts, and why you are waging a psychological war with a nation determined to liberate itself from the burden of oppressors and plunderers in and outside of our country, and also determined to safeguard, with whatever self sacrifices, the independence and freedom which it has obtained at the cost of shedding its blood and the blood of its children.

Find out why you are feeding the fire of division and why you promote treacherous conspiracies against the nation. Would you not do better to push your pen and use your tongue to safeguard your country? Would you not do well to help this deprived and tyrannized nation and to help institute the Islamic government? Do you really consider this majlis, this president and this cabinet and this judiciary council to be worse than their counterparts during the past regime? Have you really forgotten the cruelties of that accursed regime upon this oppressed and helpless people?

Do you not really know that at that time this Islamic country used to be a military base for the United States and that they [the Americans] treated our country as their colony? That the majlis, the government and the armed forces were in the clutches of the Americans? Do you not really know what advisors, their technicians and the expatriate Americans did to our resources? Have you really forgotten the increasing prostitution throughout our country as well as the steadily growing number of centers for corrupt entertainment, ranging from houses of ill fame to gambling houses, wine cellars and liquor stores, movie houses and other quarters which were important elements for ruining the young generation? Have you realty forgotten those corrupt mass medias and periodicals and those papers in that regime?

Now you are shouting protest cries because while corruption is not dispensed in our city streets, this or that young man, mainly under the influence of deviate groups, may be put on trial for having committed wrongful acts, or may be executed for being corrupt on earth (mufsid-fil ardh) or for [armed) revolt against Islam and the Islamic Republic. You join causes and shake brotherly hands with the people who expressly condemn Islam or challenge it by firearms or in writing and in rhetoric which is more saddening than armed challenge. You call 'the apple of your eye' the people whom God decrees to be executed. You sit beside the political actors who conducted a bloodbath on March 514 killing innocent youth, and calmly watch the scene, and you consider your attitudes and your acts as being consistent with Islam and the operation of the government and the judiciary council, which punish sworn enemies of Islam and the Islamic Republic], and the deviated atheists for their wrongdoing as being unjust, and cry out for help.

Knowing somewhat the past of some of you, my brothers-in-faith, and having liking for some of you I am sorry for you, but I am not sorry for those who were bandits disguising themselves as nice people md wolves clad in shepherds' garb, and about humbugs who hoodwinked all and who meant to ruin the country and the nation md serve one of the predatory power poles.

Those who have martyred valuable youth and men and ulama who are educators of the society, and who did not even spare the innocent children of Muslims, have brought infamy upon themselves and have made themselves wretched beings before God. For them the return road is closed, since they are totally governed by the animal in themselves.

But you pious brothers-in-faith, why not help the government and the majlis, which endeavor to assist the deprived, the oppressed, the barefooted and those people deprived of all means of livelihood? Why do you complain? Have you compared the bulk of government services for the people during the short interval since the establishment of the Islamic Republic -allowing for all hard luck and post-revolution afflictions which are common to every revolution, including the imposed war and the millions of Iranian and non-Iranian war refugees and the innumerable obstructions with development services for the same period during the past regime?

Do you not know that at that time development services were the privilege almost solely of cities, and even then of the affluent sector of the cities with poor and deprived people benefitting little, if at all, from those services, whereas the present government as well as Islamic institutions render services for those groups of deprived people with all their hearts. Therefore, you pious people, too, support the government so that the projects will be implemented sooner, and hope that on your journey to heaven you will be wearing the badge of service to God's men. (I, myself remored sections from here).

O. One of the topics which needs be recalled here is that Islam does not approve of tyrannical capitalism, which tends to deprive the oppressed and downtrodden masses. On the contrary, it sharply condemns it in the Book and so do the traditions.

They consider ii counter to social justice, although certain half-witted people who are uninformed about the Islamic government and political issues in an Islamic state have somehow pretended and still persist in their writings and in their lectures that Islam advocates uncontrolled capitalism and private ownership, and with such interpretations of the Islamic dictates they have marred the brilliant visage of Islam, thereby paving the way for the invasion against Islam by malevolent people and for intimating that an Islamic government is a government like capitalist governments of the West, such as the United States, England and other plunderers of the West, and there are others who, relying on the judgment of such silly people, or perhaps maliciously and without bothering to check with true Islamicists, they are fighting Islam.

But at the other extreme Islam is not a system of government like communism and Marxist Leninism, which condemn private ownership and which advocate community ownership with varying degrees, and which have undergone certain transformations over the past years, once recognizing the principle of communal ownership, to even authorize polyandry and homosexuality under an absolute dictatorship, but [an Islamic government] is rather a moderate system of government which recognizes private ownership only to a level and allowing it only within bounds, the implementation of which system in its true form will ensure the turning of the wheels of a healthy economy which is required for a healthy political system.

Alternatively others, relying on their own corrupt interpretation of Islam and due to their lack of sophistication about Islam and the healthy economy that it advocates, have adopted a position at the other extreme, even occasionally adducing certain verses from the Holy Qur'an or from the Nahjul-Balaghah pretend that Islam is compatible with such deviated schools as Marxism, disregarding other verses in the Holy Qur'an and in the Nahjul Balaghah, advocating community ownership according to their own myopic outlooks, and supporting blasphemy, dictatorship and strangulation of the masses by a small ruling body which acts like animals.

My last word to the majlis and the Council of Guardians, the government, the President and the Supreme Judiciary Council is to call on them to be resigned to divine decrees, to resist falling prey to the empty propaganda of the marauding pole of capitalists and the irreligious communists, to recognize and respect legitimate private ownership and private capital obtained within the bounds of Islam and to assure the people of your recognition of such principles so that private capital will be invested in productive activities so that it will contribute to the self-sufficiency of the government and the country both in light and heavy industries.

In addition, my last word to the wealthy and the owners of legitimately-obtained money is to invest their lawful money in healthy enterprises, in farms, factories and our villages, resting assured that the enterprise is a lofty act of worship.

I exhort all to endeavor for the welfare of the deprived masses, and remind them that their eventual good is dependent on serving the deprived masses of the society who have suffered hardships and agonies during monarchies and the rules of feudal lords. And benevolent are those of our moneyed people who volunteer to build houses for pit-dwellers and shanty-dwellers, and who provide for their welfare, and let them be assured that such acts will bring them good in this world and in the Hereafter and of course it is far from equal that one person should be homeless and another have many apartment houses.

P. My last word to that sector of the ulama and imposter clerics who oppose the Islamic Republic with different motives, who spend their lives in subversive schemes, who collaborate with conspiring oppositionists and political actors, sometimes reportedly doing so with the aid of the colossal amounts of money they receive from the ungodly capitalists, is: To date you have not gained anything by such wicked acts, nor do I see it likely that you will do so at any future time.

If you have done such acts as you have for worldly purposes, which God will prevent you from fulfilling, then it is better that as long as it is not too late for repentance you repent your acts and join the cause of the oppressed and impoverished nation, and support the Islamic Republic, which guarantees your good in this world and in the Hereafter, though I feel it is unlikely that you will want to repent before it is too late.

But as for those who antagonize the Islamic Republic based on the misjudgments of certain other individuals or groups or on the strength of their verdicts which, whether with or without malice, antagonize the Islamic government, and who -in their own judgment- try to subvert it for the cause of God, and who pretend that this Republic is as bad as or worse than the toppled monarchy, I only advise them to think things over with a clear heart in solitude and compare this Islamic Republic with the past regime, and also remember that all revolutions throughout the world have also been characterized by chaos and transgressions, and instances of opportunism as unavoidable realities.

If you consider the afflictions of this Islamic Republic, such as plots and conspiracies, malicious propaganda, armed attacks from across the borders and by others inside our country, the unavoidable infiltration of certain corrupt people and opponents of Islam in all government organizations for rousing the people against Islam and the Islamic Republic, the lack of experience of all or the majority of administrators of the Islamic government, the airing of malicious rumors by those who are now unable to reap the unjust profits such as they did during the previous regime or who pocket less than they did at that time, the acute shortage of religious judges, the onerous economic burdens, the colossal problems in the administrative purging affecting several million employees as well as their ideological reformation, the shortage of well-wishing experts, and tens of other problems which may not be known by anybody except by those who themselves are in the scene, the mal-wishing monarchists and owners of large amounts of capital who engage in usury, outrageous profiteering, sending out foreign exchange, smuggling and hoarding and thereby pressuring the impoverished and deprived masses of the society and leading the society to corruption; who at times come to you for campaigning dishonestly and for cheating you, occasionally pretending to be true Muslims by handing over sums of money to you as religious tariffs on their shoulders, who shed crocodile tears and make you angry and rouse your feelings against the Islamic government- many of them privately sucking the blood of people by illegitimate profiteering and crippling the national economy; I only humbly advise them in a spirit of brotherhood to guard against falling prey to such gossipy rumors, and instead uphold this Islamic Republic for the sake of God and Islam, and I must remind them that if this Islamic Republic should happen to collapse it will not be replaced by an Islamic government having the seal of approval of the Imam of Our Time, or doing according to the wishes of people like you, but that the regime to substitute this Islamic Republic will be one such as is the wish of either of the two superpowers.

At that time, the deprived masses of the world who have placed their trust in Islam and the Islamic system of government and who look to it as their refuge will be disappointed and frustrated and it will be too late then for making good on past mistakes. If you people expect to see things being reformed according to the principles of Islam and to divine decrees overnight then you are in error, for never at any time in the past did men witness such a miracle, nor are they likely to experience that overnight transformation any time in the future.

Do not allow yourselves to think that once, God willing, the Last Reformist should make his advent then the people will witness the miracle of a universal reformation in only one day, but even at that time the tyrants will be suppressed and isolated only as a result of the self sacrificing efforts of the people. If, however, you belong in the circle of those aberrant and ignorant people who maintain that to speed up the advent of the Imam of Our Time we should try to spread injustice and tyranny throughout the world as the preliminary requisite for his advent, then why, of course, We are all from God and to Him shall we return.

Q. My last word to Muslims and oppressed masses of the world is: You should not sit back and expect to be gifted with independence and freedom by the people at the helm of your country or by the foreign powers. At least during the present century, which has witnessed the gradual coming of the big world devouring powers to all Muslim countries as well as to other [third world] countries, you and we have observed or read in true history books that hardly any one government in those countries was concerned about the freedom, independence and welfare of its own people, nor are they so at the present time.

On the contrary, the large majority of those governments have either tyrannized and strangulated their own people, doing so to safeguard only the interests of a few or a small group or for the welfare of the well-to do upper class society in the face of the deprivation of tyrannized people and of those living in reed shelters and pit-dwellers who are denied all comforts of life and even such things as water, bread and the means of daily sustenance; and exploiting the oppressed masses only for the benefit of the well-to-do class and fun-making people; or [they] have been puppet governments of the big powers which have done everything in order to subjugate countries and nations and make them dependent countries, only markets for the products of the Western or Eastern bloc countries, protecting the interests of the latter and keeping nations backward and consumption oriented. Even today they are pursuing the same plot.

You oppressed masses of the world, you Muslim countries and you Muslims Rise to your feet and get your dues with your teeth and claws, defying the noisy propaganda of the superpowers, and expel the criminal men and the helm who give out the fruits of your toil to your enemies and the enemies of Islam, and let the self committed and serving sectors of the society take the helm of your country, all joining together under the dignifying banner of Islam and rising against the enemies of Islam, marching towards an independent and free Islamic Republic and resting assured that the realization of the proposition would mean the subjugation of all oppressors of the world, and helping the oppressed masses to become leaders and inheritors of your lands. Let us hope for the advent of that day which the Supreme Lord has promised us.

R. At the conclusion of this last Will and Testament of mine I wish to remind the noble nation of Iran that man toils, and suffers and performs acts of self-sacrifice and self-abnegation to the extent of the loftiness and worthy sublimity of his goal.

What you rose for, what you pursue, what you sacrifice your lives and your means for is the noblest of all goals since the creation of the universe throughout eternity. It is the divine ideology in the extended sense of the word and the idea of the unity of God in its lofty magnitude, which is the foundation and the final goal of the earthly world and of the Invisible and which idea is fully crystalized in the Muhammadan faith, and which was the goal of all leading prophets (A.S.W) and is something without which man will not attain absolute perfection or find reunion with the Absolute Glory and the Infinite Beauty of His Divinity.

It is this very same thing which has exalted earthlings beyond the rank of those in the Kingdom of God, and the journey to that very destination by an earthling has a consequence unique solely to him and not to any of His other creatures, visible or invisible. You struggling people, you are marching under a banner hoisted throughout the material and the spiritual world.

Whether or not you will realize what your quest is, you will have marched on the same road that was the path of all prophets (A.S.W.) and is the only road to absolute salvation. It is this same motive which prompts all saints to embrace martyrdom on that path and which makes the sanguine death sweeter to them than honey15.Your youngsters have taken a gulp of that in the battlefronts and have felt elated at doing so, the effect of which is also manifest in their mothers, sisters, fathers and brothers. Truly we must say: Blessed be they with that cheerful zephyr and with that inspiring sign.

We must remember also that one aspect of this divine revelation is manifest to all who struggle in such other places as the blazing farmlands, factories, workshops and in the centers for industries and technological developments, and to the majority of those who engage in our markets, in our city streets, in our villages and to all others who have assumed a task for the cause of Islam, the Islamic Republic and for helping the country move towards self sufficiency. God willing, as long as the spirit of cooperation prevails in our society our country will be protected from all worldly harm.

Thanks God our theological schools, our universities, our beloved youth and our educational and learning centers are gifted with this divine gift; those centers are under their total command and the hands of criminals and deviated people are very far from those centers.

My last word to all is to march towards a better knowledge of ourselves and towards self-sufficiency and independence in their full scope, and no doubt as long as you are at the service of God and as long as you contribute to the progress and exaltation of this Islamic country with a spirit of cooperation the hand of God will be with you, and based on my observations of our people's vigilance, wakefulness, self-commitment, self-sacrifice and of the spirit of firmness and resistance in the cause of God, I believe there is hope that this same spirit is inherited and improved upon by all future generations.

With a tranquil and confident heart and a conscience hopeful God's beneficence, I now take leave of my sisters and brothers for a journey to my eternal abode while I very greatly need your blessing, and supplication of the Blessed and Supreme Lord to accept my pleas for His pardoning of my negligence, my faults and my failings, and I hope the nation, too, will pardon my shortcomings, my negligence and faults and march on firmly and resolutely, assured that the absence of one servant will not cause a crack in the iron like ranks of the nation, for there are better and more noble servants among you, and Allah will protect this nation and the oppressed masses of the world.

Ruhollah al-Mousavi al-Khomeini

February 15, 1983

1. Originally toghut, a post-revolutionary term and expression adopted from the Holy Qur'an and descriptive of the nature of monarchy in Iran. (T).

2. National Construction Corps originally formed upon Imam Khomeini's decree after the triumph of the Islamic Revolution. Volunteers for performing basic services in development, health, agriculture and related fields in rural areas and less-privileges areas in Iran comprise it. It expanded and undertook diversified tasks shortly after the outbreak of the Iraq-Iran war in 1980. (T).

3. A title used for the outlawed Mujahideen Khalq Organization (MKO).

4. According to Shi'ism, the fourteen are Prophet Muhammad(S.A.W ), his daughter her Holiness Fatimah (A.S ) and the twelve Imams (A.S ). (T).

5. A communist-Marxist party officially disbanded in Iran sometime after the triumph of the Islamic Revolution.

6. Communist party of Iran leaning towards Moscow, now disbanded.

7. The Islamic Revolution in Iran culminated on Feb. II, 1979, and Imam Khomeini's last will and testament has been written in 1982.

8. A paramilitary force with various disciplinary and peace keeping duties formed immediately after the triumph of the Islamic Revolution in Feb. 1979. (T).

9. Literally, 'Party of God' as referred to in the Holy Qur'an, and by extension ardent and militant supporters of the Islamic Revolution.

10. The document was written when Afghanistan was under the Soviet occupation.

11. A city in northern Iran, Mazandaram Province.

12. Leftist Party in Kurdestan Province of Iran.

13. A Muslim scholar, a majlis deputy and political activist, and outspoken critic of the policies of Reza Shah died in Kash mar, in 1937.

14. Reference is to the clash between Bani-Sadr's supporters and the members of the party of God in 1982.

15. Reference to the words of Ali Asghar, son of Imam Hussein (A.S.) in the eve of Ashura in Karbala.

The Last Will

In the Name of God the Merciful, the Compassionate

Let Ahmad Khomeini read this last will and testament of mine to the people after my death, or if pardonable the respectable President or majlis speaker or Chief Justice, and if pardonable a member of the respectable jurisprudents of the Council of Guardians.

Ruhollah al-Mousavi al-Khomeini

Postscript

In the Name of God the Merciful, the Compassionate

Postscript: In this postscript to my twenty-nine page last Will and Testament1 and its prologue I would like to state a few points.

1. During my life I have at times been quoted as saying things which I never said, and it is likely that more misquotations will be attributed to me after my death. Therefore. I need to say that nothing attributed to me is true unless it is my own voice or my own handwriting and has my own signature, and is authenticated as such by experts, or unless it is based on my own words, as broadcast on the I.R.I.B. (The Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting) during my lifetime.

2. During my lifetime certain people have pretended that they have written my messages, which I definitely deny, and I declare that none of my messages were written by any one but myself.

3. I hear that some people have said that they were responsible for my trip to Paris [in the winter of 1978], which is totally untrue. After I was denied [permission to] stay in Kuwait I decided to proceed to Paris after consultation with my son Ahmad, because it was thought that Muslim states would not give us entry visas since the governments in those countries were influenced by the shah, but Paris did not seem to be so.

4. During the Islamic Revolution on certain occasions I happened to speak highly of certain individuals, though later on I realized that I had been deluded by their sanctimonious behavior and their Islamic pretensions into believing them to be as they pretended to be. At that time they pretended allegiance and commitment to the Islamic Republic, but allegations should not be allowed to be a basis for taking undue advantages. The criteria with which to judge the people is their present-day character.

Ruhollah al-Mousavi al-Khomeini

1. The manuscript of the document (in persian) is in 29 pages.

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