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Date: October 14, 1978 (AD) / Mehr 22, 1357 (AHS) / Dhual-Qa’dah 11, 1398 (AH)
Place:Neauphle-le-Chateau,Paris, France
Theme:The comprehensive and edifying dimensions of the Islamic school of thought
Occasion:The Shah’s decision to carry out a wholesaleMassacre on the fortieth day following the
Martyrdomof those killed on September 8 (Shahrivar 17 AHS)
Thosepresent: A group of students and Iranians residing in Paris
Forty days after the tragedy of September 8 (Shahrivar 1 7 AHS), Imam Khomeini (pbuh) Issued a declaration in which he declared Monday, October 16, 1978 (Mehr 24, 1 357 AHS) a day of public mourning; high-ranking members of the clergy also called on the people to observe a general shutdown on this day.( 40) Two or three days before this day arrived, rumours spread that members of the military and disciplinary forces had been instructed to steep their hands in blood and to use a heavy hand in crushing any proposed popular demonstrations. Again, two or three days before the proposed demonstration, armoured vehicles and trucks crammed with soldiers had been stationed in the key positions of every city. Unlike before, soldiers in various parts of Tehran now prevented the gathering of any social group, which comprised more than a few people.
Meanwhile, on another front, the Ba athist government of Iraq released an official statement, which read: “Hazrat Ayatullah al-’ Uzma Khomeini, leader of the world’s Shi’ i Muslims, went to France of his own volition.” The official Iraqi news agency wrote: “Ayatullah al-’ Uzma Khomeini will always be welcome in Iraq on condition that he abides by the laws which apply to those who have been granted political asylum and that he respects international regulations.”( 41)
News of the restrictions placed by the French government on Imam Khomeini’s activities in Paris, led merchants and tradesmen in Tehran to issue a statement which was subsequently quoted by the French newspaper Liberation as saying: “Members of the bazaar in Tehran have warned that should Ayatullah al-’ Uzma Khomeini be harassed in any way then they will boycott French products.
During this time, amongst the reports which came in from the provinces, one told of a teacher who was martyred during a demonstration in the city of Durud in Luristan; another, of female political prisoners going on hunger strike in Qasr prison; and yet another of employees of the Medical Organisation joining others who were taking strike action.( 42)
The rumour concerning further killings which were to take place on the fortieth day following the martyrdom of those killed on September 8 (Shahrivar 1 7 AHS) grew stronger by the second. Anonymous persons continued to contact the newspapers stressing that: “ . . . It is your duty to publish what I am about to tell you in the press in order to prevent anyone
From being killed. Instructions have been given by His Imperial Majesty personally for the demonstrations to be put down with the utmost severity.
This news also reached Paris and disturbed Imam, whose comments bespeak this concern as follows: “They have just informed me that the Shah has decided to carry out a wholesale massacre during tomorrow’s strike action -action which the Muslim people propose to take because of the lives that they have already lost( 43) .
On Monday, i.e. forty days after the martyrdom of those killed on September 8, against all expectations, and in particular the expectations of the prying eyes of foreign onlookers, the whole of Tehran observed a general shutdown in response to the call made by Imam and the clergy, whereby not a single shop was open throughout the entire bazaar of Tehran. In addition, various demonstrations were held in different parts of the city during which officers pursued the people and the latter attempted to escape the officers; whilst the majority of schools across the country were also either totally or partially closed.
Dr. Nahavandi, the former head of Farah’s administrative bureau, who held office as the Minister of Science and Higher Education in Sharif Imami’s Cabinet, now hands in his resignation; but meanwhile Dr. ‘Ali Amini announces: “I conditionally accept the premiership” and “The holding of direct talks between Ayatullah al-’ Uzma Khomeini and myself will help to resolve many of the problems.
In many cities, the aforementioned mourning ceremonies developed into bloody demonstrations, the press reporting twelve killed and hundreds wounded in various cities across the country. A major incident, which occurred at this time, concerned the burning of the Friday Mosque in Kerman by the regime’s hired thugs. Armed with clubs and shouting “Long live the Shah,” the latter set about beating and cursing the audience of a sermon which was being delivered by one of the preachers. Government forces who served as a backup for the thugs then fired tear-gas canisters amongst the people thereby rendering the latter very incapable of defending themselves. The thugs then attacked the shops in the town, setting ablaze or looting any shop, which was found to have Imam’s picture in its window. News of the attack made on the Friday Mosque by the regime’s hired thugs in Kerman, subsequently gave rise to a surge of horror and disgust nationwide.
In the present speech (33) Imam Khomeini argues that America’s all-out support for the Shah is the reason for the regime’s continued existence and is the cause of a perpetuation of the crimes committed by it. In another part of his speech, Imam discusses in detail the comprehensiveness of the religion of Islam and introduces the uni-dimensional understanding reached by Islamic philosophers, gnostics and “experts,” as an incomplete understanding of the harmonious order in Islamic thought. He argues that this incomplete understanding has led to a disregard of other dimensions found within the religion. Imam continues by emphasising the different stages of man’s growth and development - stages which pass from the physical to the metaphysical world, and he states: “Islam is a school of thought which has come for the edification of mankind; and we are both to examine the different dimensions of this mankind, whose true nature, some argue, remains unknown, and are also to examine his needs . . . Islam contains instructions concerning Islamic government; it contains instructions on Its organisation; it contains instructions on how to kill its enemies during battle; it contains instructions on how to motivate a society; it contains instructions on how to reach the metaphysical stage of existence; It contains all of these different kinds of instructions. Islam is not merely uni-dimensional. .
Towards the end of his speech whilst pointing to the turbulent state within Iran and referring both to the nationwide strikes and demonstrations there and to the self-sacrifices being made by the people, Imam Khomeini drives home the grave responsibility borne by those Iranians residing abroad.
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They have just informed me that the Shah has decided to carry out a wholesale massacre during the strike action to be taken tomorrow - action which the Muslim people propose to take because of the Jives that they have already lost.1 I have said time and again that this person has become mentally unstable. He is now living in a state of insanity; and having reached the last days of his life he wants to take revenge on the people of
Iran. ( 44) He has already committed whatever crimes he possibly could, but now that the people have risen up to demand that he go and he has sensed that indeed he does actually have to go, like a madman he wants to first slay the people and then go. He had once said: “If I am to go, I shall firstly turn Iran back into a heap of soil and then go; yes, I shall make Iran into a heap of soil and go;” and now he evidently means to abide by these words.( 45) I found out about it today; that is, they said someone had phoned from Iran to say that he (the Shah) is getting ready to slay the people en masse.
We are at a loss as to what we should do with this regime. The oppressed nation of Iran does not know what it should do with a person who has now become insane and is suffering from a mental disorder. What course of action are we to take? I am concerned about tomorrow; I am worried that what we have been told may be true and that these people may be gunned down and come under the attack of tanks and cannon-fire; I am worried that lives may be lost and that having reached the final stage
Before his (the Shah’s) departure, he firstly plans to do something to ensure that no one will be left behind and only then does he intend to go. This is the kind of creature with which we now have to deal and so we must truly pray for God’s assistance. We must ask the Lord to grant a favourable end to this affair (i.e. the proposed protest demonstrations), for should such a massacre actually take place it would have truly disastrous results for Iran. Although it is true that his leaving would compensate for any kind of disaster, nevertheless, why should we have given him the opportunity to enact these deeds before he leaves? Needless to say, it is the machine guns and weapons of America that are behind him in all this, otherwise the people of Iran would never allow him to go ahead with such a deed. The fact is that these American guns and weapons are indeed here though, and American advisers are also here yet again. However, he (the Shah) has reached the end of his life and there remains no doubt about his imminent departure.
There is something that I wish now to say to you gentlemen, and which I shall again make mention of lf and when we hold another gathering tomorrow; but before this let me say that tomorrow’s gathering is for all the students and for all those Iranians who are living outside Iran. It is for everyone and you must regard it as you would your own home, as somewhere that belongs to you all. The doors of this gathering are open to whoever may wish to come. Therefore, if no hitches occur and tomorrow s gathering does actually go ahead as planned then all of the men are welcome to attend. Some have mistakenly suspected that Someone, somewhere, is influencing affairs and that they hold sway over who attends our gatherings This is not the case however We are all united, we are all brothers together and no one is to interfere in our affairs at all These gatherings are for all of the gentlemen and everyone is equally welcome to attend All participants at our gatherings should be regarded in the same light, everybody. We are all each other’s equals. I am fond of you all. I pray for you all. No particular group can meddle with our affairs.( 46)It is not to be imagined that a certain group has a say in These affairs or that I am aligned with any particular group. No, I am with you all, and I pray for you all.
As for the matter about which I wanted to talk to you however, and on which I shall elaborate further at tomorrow’s gathering should I have the time and the opportunity, it concerns a disaster, which has plagued Islam from the very beginning. That is, the disaster of Islam having been misunderstood. Those who have discussed Islam, be it in the past or the present, have not fully understood or grasped this religion in all of its different dimensions. Each of them has only ever looked at one of its many dimensions and has interpreted all of the issues found within Islam and within the Holy Qur’ an according to his own limited perception. In the past, in centuries gone by, there used to be a group of Muslim theologians who expounded Islam according to their own understanding of it; each according to his own degree of talent and ability to reason. This group either consisted of philosophers who, because of their knowledge of this subject, understood Islam to be a philosophy, thus mistakenly believing it to be a philosophical school of thought, or it consisted of gnostics and the like who, until only recently, interpreted Islam according to the understanding of a gnostic, thus believing Islam to be a gnostic school of thought.
Therefore, from the time of these theologians down to the recent past, many of Islam’s different dimensions remained undiscovered. Theologians were familiar with some of the. Various dimensions of Islam, although of course not completely so, but each religious sect would study Islam according to its own understanding, its own learning. It would interpret all the verses of the Qur’ an and all of the teachings of the Prophet and the Immaculate Imams (pbut) according to its own perception; according to what it had been able to grasp from Islam. It would relate
Both groups however, each believed this proposed meeting to exclusively concern their own group, whilst the Muslim Students Confederation in Europe in fact held another meeting elsewhere in Paris - a meeting which Imam was prevented from attending by the French government. It is to these misunderstandings and differences of opinion that Imam refers here, differences, which he in fact resolved on this particular occassion by speaking to those, concerned. Eventually beam attended the meeting at Neauphle-le-Chateau where a clerical member of his administrative office delivered a speech.
Every page of learning to that page which it had itself grasped and understood. Therefore, these expositions of Islam make no mention of what Islam has to say about this world and about how it is to be governed; issues which relate to another of Islam’s many dimensions. All of those issues, which relate to philosophy and Gnosticism, are to be found in these expositions, but nothing is said about the duty of those people who are living now, about the form an Islamic government should take, or about how people should relate to the physical world. They have nothing to say in this regard. These theologians have confined their discussions to issues concerning the metaphysical and to matters relating to Gnosticism and philosophy and so on.
Therefore, this situation has remained until the present, when it has now become the turn of this latest group of theologians, a group that has taken an opposite approach to that taken by its predecessors. That is to say, this latest group has totally set aside those dimensions of Islam, which concern its spiritual aspects, its philosophical aspects, and its gnostic aspects, and has confined itself to objective and external aspects only. Hence, those in this group have perceived Islam as a materialist school of thought. Indeed, whereas the former group had perceived Islam as a spiritual school of thought as if it were totally unconcerned with temporal issues - even having expounded the Qur’anic verses concerning battle with the polytheists as concerning battle with the self and so on - this latter group of theologians, by contrast, although Muslim, although composed of good people, although just as religiously devout as the former group, has nevertheless understood Islam according to its material dimension. This is a situation, which has come about over recent years, during a period when Western learning and knowledge has been promoted and has reached us here in the East. Hence, whereas the former group propounded the subjective and the spiritual and ignored the objective and the temporal, the latter group propounds temporal concerns and disregards the spiritual. However, both of these groups are in error. Islam is neither confined to the spiritualism of which the former group speaks - yes, it has a spiritual dimension but it is not confined to this - nor is it confined to the temporal concerns of which the latter group speaks. That is to say, it covers temporal concerns in its teachings but does not exclusively confine itself to these issues.
Islam is a school of thought which has come for the edification of mankind; and we are both to examine the different dimensions of this mankind, whose true nature, some argue, remains unknown, and are also to examine his needs. We must ask whether Islam, which has come for man’s edification, only means to develop the animal nature in him, or whether it means to develop his spiritual nature; or yet again, whether its intention is to develop human beings as a whole. Human beings are unlike other creatures. Other creatures, such as animals for example, which are considered to exist on a superior plane to that of plants and minerals, merely exist on a physical plane, whilst also possessing a minute sense, a little but also perverse understanding, of the metaphysical, other than this they Do not have a metaphysical state of being. Humankind however, can pass through several phases of being; he can advance from his initial physical state of being until he finally reaches a spiritual state of being. Thus, man can transcend the physical to the metaphysical, and can then transcend the metaphysical to the divine until he then reaches the stage where he is actually able to comprehend this superior state of being.
Man is a multifaceted being; he is not a creature of but one or two dimensions. Some other creatures are often uni-dimensional, some bid I tensional, and yet others possess several dimensions; but none of these other creatures possesses all of the different dimensions collectively. It is only man who, amongst all other creatures, is a multi-dimensional being; a being that has needs for each of the dimensions he possesses. In order for him to develop in every dimension, he has certain needs, which have to be satisfied. With the exception of Islam, all of the other schools of thought are materialist schools - schools that have perceived man as an animal, as a creature which simply eats and sleeps, but which does so in a more desirable maimer. This is true for all schools. Although it is true that animals share the same need as we humans to eat and sleep, these schools of thought have perceived man to be an animal like all other animals whose needs and development revolve around those corporeal criteria, those corporeal matters, which they have called “matters of reality.” They mistakenly consider reality to be composed of this physical world only; whereas there are in fact other worlds that they have not perceived, worlds, which are indeed more tangible - that is, worlds that are endowed with a more tangible reality than the physical world.
The physical world has been placed last in the scheme of creation; it has been given the least recognition. Therefore, a world in which we now exist, this physical world, is the lowermost world. The lowest of all the worlds in the universe is the physical world. It is not a case of there just being man and this physical world, and of they are being no other stages of existence to which man can ascend. There are several stages to Humankind’s existence. He who has simply concerned himself with the metaphysical aspect of mankind’s existence and who has neglected to consider these other lower stages of his being has erred; and so too, he who has concentrated solely on this physical world, recognising only the physical stage and ignoring the metaphysical, has also erred.Islam has a set scheme; it has a programme which can be followed by this comprehensive, multifaceted human being - this being who is capable of going beyond the physical stage of existence to reach the, metaphysical, and then of transcending the metaphysical to reach the divine Islam wants man to develop into a complete being meaning it Wants to allow him to grow in accordance with his true nature If man wants to make the most of this physical world then Islam teaches him how to do so, if he wants to make the most of his stay in purgatory( 47) then Islam teaches him how to do so; if he wants to make the most of a spiritual existence, then Islam teaches him how to do so; if he wants to make the most of the powers of reason, then Islam teaches him how to do so it he wants to make the most of religious learning then Islam teaches him how to do so All religions have come to develop those properties with which man is endowed properties which are imperfect and which are presently immature All religions have come to enable this unripe fruit to ripen to ‘~,, this undeveloped fruit to fully develop.
Those of you who have now come to reside in the West - the West ‘which is obsessed with the material aspects of the world, and where no attention is paid to the metaphysical - must not be deluded by these ‘“ schools of thought and thus mistakenly believe that man is nothing more than a creature who eats, sleeps and so on, and that no other considerations are involved. This is a mistaken belief which has developed because of those who have misunderstood Islam by concentrating wholly on these material issues and by retracing all of the verses and teachings in Islam to these same issues - verses and teachings which have come to allow man to grow. Yes, these people are in error; and so too were those before them who retraced every Islamic verse and teaching to metaphysical issues.
Each of man’s dimensions must be developed in turn. Man must develop on a physical level as much as he possibly can. He must make the most of this physical world, but within reasonable limits, limits that must obviously be determined by taking factors of temperance and virtue into consideration. Then once he has developed in this physical stage of his existence, he must go on to develop in the next, higher stage, and then again in the next. All of man’s different dimensions must develop without exception in order for him to become a true human being.
To become a true human being is a difficult task, but nevertheless it is a task which man needs to undertake. The point I wish to make in saying these things is that you are not to mistakenly believe that Islam h~” come to train an animal; that it has come to prescribe the sleeping and eating habits of an animal. This is but one of its intentions. Yes, it gives such prescriptions, but this is merely one of its dimensions and the least important one at that. Islam also has other dimensions, which relate to the training of humankind. It wants to train man to become a complete, mature being; a being which encompasses all of the different human dimensions in their entirety. In addition, it has instructions, which relate to these dimensions. Islam contains instructions concerning Islamic government; it contains instructions on its organisation; it contains instructions on how to kill its enemies during battle; it contains instructions on how to motivate a society; it contains instructions on how to reach the metaphysical stage .of existence; it contains all of these different kinds of instructions. Islam is not merely uni-dimensional whereby one could claim to have understood it in its entirety were one to have a knowledge of its history for example, of its social history, or of its rules concerning the material aspects of life and so on. No, this is not the case. The issues with which Islam deals are
Loftier than these meanings which are ascribed to them; and Islam’s dimensions are manifold.
Whoever wishes to become acquainted with Islam must make an accurate study of the Qur’an, for this is the key source of reference. He must take note of all the dimensions found therein. He must not make the mistake of accepting only those verses, which relate to the physical world, and with issues concerning government, rejecting the verses, which relate to resurrection. He who makes this mistake is unaware of the meaning of resurrection, or of what will happen when the Day of Resurrection arrives. He thinks that there is no truth in it; that it is but a fantasy. But he is gravely mistaken. It is indeed true, and its truth is more real than the reality of this physical world; but we have not yet reached the level of understanding required for us to grasp this fact.
Be that as it may, I wanted to advise those studying in Europe, may God grant them all success, against categorizing Islam and thereby believing it to be a school of thought like that of Communism; believing the issues it covers to resemble those found in the Marxist doctrine; believing it to be a school of thought like other schools of thought; for this is not the case at all. Those who are unacquainted with Islam however, mistakenly believe it to be some such school.
The other thing I must mention concerns our being obliged to fulfill certain duties. Even as we are now peacefully seated here, Iran is in turmoil. I do not know what will actually happen in Iran tomorrow, but I am truly concerned about what may well happen. We must decide what to do about this situation and I am presently giving it much thought. As you yourselves are well aware, it has now almost been one year since calmness left Iran. No matter which part of the country one looks at one sees that the people there are outraged. No matter which part of the country’s many cities one looks at, one can see strike action being taken there. For several days or so now strikes have engulfed the country. Almost all of the factories, newspapers and both governmental and non-governmental offices are now on strike. The public is all involved in this unfortunate situation and is taking part in strikes. We who are here and are not caught up in all this turbulence must not forget those who are there. We are to help them as much as we can. We can help by our use of the pen; if we are able to disseminate information via the press here With regard to the feelings of the Iranian people, the oppression to which they are being subjected, and the crimes, which this regime has committed against them, then we are to do so. You are to do whatever is in your power; and anyone who is unable to do anything to help can at least pray for those who are about to suffer the torments of this dying regime tomorrow.
I pray that God grant you all success. Tomorrow, if I am able and the opportunity presents itself, I shall again speak with you, God willing (the audience recites a salawat). I must apologise to you, both for my late arrival and for my inability to sit here with you for a longer period - an inability which stems from the fact that I am about eighty years of age, and thus, unlike you, who fortunately are young and have the strength and stamina to remain seated for a long period of time, I do not possess such strength. I therefore ask you to forgive me for not being able to sit here in your company for any length of time (the audience cries “Allahu akbar” (God is Greater)).