Khumeini's Last Will

This is the first time I feel the need to justify anything that I've placed on this blog (which no one reads of course). Nothing I put here do I endorse. I just put what I found fascinating and the stuff that I troll through trying to make sense of life and this world we live in. Khomeini was a complicated figure whom I can never seem to decipher. It's clear to me that the idea of an Islamic revolution seems to have borrowed heavily from the ideologies that it attacked. It seems to me that none of us can truly ever escape the paradigms and prespective of the age we live in. It makes me wonder how I too may be limited by what I know and have been taught. Just as it was hard to imagine that the world was round once, it is now impossible to picture it being flat. But I'm no genius, I didn't figure any of it out myself. I am the product of my age as he was the product of his. Could he see the inconsistencies and contradictions of his ideology? Can I? It's simply dangerous to be ideologically driven. You see what you believe rather than believe what you see. How much was he victim of that? How much am I?

I just think of Sistani saying that it is over his dead body that Iraq would go the way of Iran. Khoei and his ilk were severely criticised by Khomeini for being apolitical. Maybe time will show the wisdom of their ways.

This articles come from The Virtual Vendee.
A Center for Traditionalist and Integrist Studies
http://www.wandea.org.pl

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Ruhullah Al-Musavi Al-Khomeini

In The Name of God the Compassionate the Merciful (I)

The significance of the glorious Islamic Revolution which came to be through the efforts of millions of worthy men and the blood of thousands of martyrs and disabled veterans (living martyrs), and which is regarded as a source of hope and inspiration to millions of oppressed human beings, is so great that it defies evaluation by pen or tongue. I, Ruhullah Al-Musavi Al-Khomeini, ever mindful of the Lord's bounty in spite of my shortcomings and having as provision for my hazardous course only my hope and trust in His Munificence; and, as a humble student of Islamic sciences who, like all other brothers-in-faith, have faith in this revolution and the everlastingness and perpetuation of its achievements and its fruition, undertake to present the following as my covenant and will with the present and future generations. I pray that God may grant me sincerity of purpose in making these remarks:

- 1 -
We all know that the great revolution which severed the tentacles of the tyrannical world-mongers from the face and form of Iran was made possible by divine grace only. It would have been impossible for the people of Iran to achieve this great feat in view of the following conditions that prevailed in the country at that time: Immeasurable anti-Islamic, anti-clerical propaganda, particularly during the last century; creation of disunity and discord among the population by writers, poets, orators and the communication mass media; the establishment of so many centres of gambling, prostitution, narcotics consumption, bars and cabarets to drag the youth into indifference and vice, by the corrupt shah and his illiterate father; the imposition on the people of parliaments rigged up by the embassies of foreign powers; the use of teachers and professors with Eastern or Western leanings in schools and universities,- educators who were one hundred percent opposed to Islamic culture. With all the above-mentioned issues and with scores of other problems such as the isolation of the clergy and perverting their minds with poisonous propaganda, it is nothing short of a miracle that the nation was able to rise up in unison with the cry of Allah-o-Akbar (God is the greatest). In every hamlet, village, town and city all over the country, by stunning acts of devotion and sacrifice, the nation drove out all domestic and foreign elements and agents of power and took the destiny of the country in its own hands. Therefore, without a doubt, the Islamic Revolution of Iran is singular and unique among all revolutions; unique in its emergence, in its fighting character and in its incentive for uprising and revolt. Certainly this was a sacred gift, a divine present from God to the oppressed and pillaged Iranian nation.

- 2 -
Islam and Islamic government is the divine phenomena of utilization in which insures the happiness of man for all times in this and in the next world. They can put an end to injustice and corruption and help man achieve ideal perfection. Contrary to non-monotheistic schools of thought, Islam is concerned with and supervises man in all his individual, social, economic and military affairs. It does not overlook the smallest issue that affects the education and the moral and material progress of man and his society. Islam has pointed out the obstacles to social change and evolution of man and makes every effort to remove them. And, now that by the grace of God, the Islamic Republic has been initiated in Iran by the mighty hand of its people and Islam and its progressive laws and tenets are the concern of this Islamic government, it is up to the nation to insure their implementation in all aspects of life and to safeguard them well as the preservation of Islam takes precedence over all else. All prophets from Adam (AS) to Muhammad (SAW) have consistently taken care of and made sacrifices for it (monotheism). After the Prophet of Islam the Innocent Imams strove hard for its preservation and some gave their lives for it.

It is now incumbent on the Iranian nation, as custodian of this divine trust that has formally been proclaimed in Iran, and which has given magnificent fruits in such a short time, to do all that is necessary for its enforcement and maintenance. It is to be hoped that this divine trust will radiate to other Islamic lands from Iran and all Muslim governments and nations may come to a common understanding of the issue, and as a result, they will thereby cut off the hands of the world- mongering super-powers and criminals of history and remove their hold on the oppressed peoples of the world.

As I approach my last breath, I feel it is my duty to state some of the points that are involved in the preservation and perpetuation of this divine trust (the Sovereignty of Islam) and some of the things that endanger and threaten it, for the present and future generations. May God bless all with success and happiness!:

- (a) -
Without a doubt, the secret of the survival of the revolution is the same as the secret of its victory. The nation knows this secret and the future generations will read about it in history texts. Its two essential components are the supreme divine purposes and aims of the sovereign rule of Islam and the coming together of all the nation in unity of word and expression for the sake of the same purposes and incentives. My advice to all generations, present and future, is that if you desire God's sovereignty to continue and domestic as well as foreign colonization of your lands and exploitation of your resources be curtailed, do not, under any circumstance, abandon this divine incentive that the Holy Quran has emphasized. Forsaking this theocentric incentive and goal, which is the secret of the victory of the Revolution and its survival, will result in dispute, disunity and a forgotten purpose and objective. It is because of this that trumpets of propaganda are sounding off everywhere sowing the seeds of discord and disunity by distortion of facts and outright falsehood and lies. Millions upon millions of dollars are being spent for such mean purposes by corrupt powers that own or control the mass media and by their local stooges. The constant visits by the enemies of the Islamic Revolution to the region has this purpose in mind. Among such visitors, however, one sometimes sees heads of Islamic states who can think of nothing but their personal interests, as well as pseudo- clergymen. These elements blindly hand themselves over to the U.S.A. That of which the Iranian nation and Muslims everywhere must be mindful of, now and ever after, is the importance of neutralizing the vicious disuniting propaganda. My advice to all is that you should react to such plots and, by all means possible, render your unity (of word and purpose) increasingly more solid and thus disappoint the heathen and hypocrites.

- (b) -
One of the major plots of the century especially of the last few decades and particularly after the victory of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, which is clearly manifest, in the multi-dimensional propaganda launched, has the aim of disappointing Muslim peoples especially the Iranian nation with Islam. Sometimes with explicit but crude argument it is claimed that the laws of 1400 years ago can not efficiently administer the modern world. At other times they contend that Islam is a reactionary religion that opposes any new ideas and manifestations of civilization and that, at the present, no country can remain aloof to world civilization in its various aspects. Sometimes, in fiendish yet foolish propaganda jargon, they claim the sanctity of Islam and maintain that divine religions have the nobler task of purging egos, of inviting the people to asceticism, monkhood, morality and of admonishing them against the world of matter. They say that prayers bring men closer to the Lord; that politics and government are opposed to these great moral purposes and are contrary to the traditions of the great prophets.

Unfortunately, such propaganda has impressed some of the clergy and faithful Muslims who are not properly tutored in the teachings of Islam. This influence has been so marked that some simpleminded Muslims have considered involvement in government and politics a grave sin and evil.

This is a calamity by which Islam is affected. The first group, it must be said, either knows nothingabout government, law and politics or else they sham ignorance. The enforcement of law is based on equity and justice; on prevention of cruelty and dictatorship; on the extension of personal and social fair play; on prevention of vice, deprivation and perversion; on liberty, reason, independence, and self-sufficiency; on prevention of colonialism, exploitation and serfdom; on penance and the limits punishment or retaliation in kind and on the basis of implementation of justice to control corruption and vice in the world.
Politics and administration of a community according to reason, equity and justice, etc. is not something to wear away or erode in the course of history and man's life on earth. Claiming such a thing amounts to arguing that principles of reason and mathematics must be altered today and replaced by some other rules. It is absurd to say that social justice which was to be practiced from the beginning of creation and crimes and cruelties which were to be avoided can no longer be exercised in the age of atom. The contention that Islam is opposed to innovations is as foolish as Muhammad Reza Pahlavi's claim that "in this age they want to travel by quadrupeds". This is nothing but an inane accusation because, if by innovations and new features of civilization is meant inventions, new discoveries, industrial progress and the like, let them consider the fact that neither Islam nor any other monotheistic religion has ever opposed such things. Rather, science and industry are very much emphasized in the Quran and Islam. However, if by modernism and civilization is meant, as some professional intellectuals claim, freedom of vice, prostitution and even homosexuality, then all divine religions, men of reason and learning are opposed to it, even though some individuals with pro-western or pro-eastern leanings may blindly promote these things.

However, the second category of the foes of Islam who entertain more vicious plots claim that religion and politics are not compatible and cannot be combined. These ignorant individuals must realize that the Holy Quran and the traditions of the Prophet of Islam contain more lessons, decrees and commands on the rule of government and politics than they do on any other issue. Indeed a good many Islamic laws concerning worship have political aspects as well. Neglecting such aspects has often resulted in catastrophes. The prophet of Islam founded a government just like any other except that it seeks to promote social justice and equity. The early caliphs of Islam enjoyed extensive rule. The sovereign rule of Hazrat Ali (AS) with the same objective, but on a much wider scale and dimension, is all too well known in history. However, after Imam Ali (AS) gradually the rule of Islam became nominal. Even today there are many governments which claim to be Islamic but rarely pay Islam even a lip service. In this my final will and testament I merely mention these points in passing and hope that historians and sociologists will make Muslims see their mistakes in this respect. The contention that the prophets and Imams have been only concerned with moral and spiritual issues and government, being concerned with secular or temporal matters, has been rejected by them is
woefully wrong. Adhering to this unfounded contention leads to corruption of Islamic nations and opens the way for the blood-thirsty colonialists.

What is taboo is the satanic, dictatorial rule; domination, thirst for power and lust for wealth; in short all the worldly things that make man forsake the Lord. But, divine rule is in the interest of the dispossessed and oppressed and seeks to prevent cruelty and injustice. It establishes social justice as did Sulaiman ibn Davood ... and the Prophet of Islam (SAW). Maintenance of justice in the society is a duty in Islam and is regarded as a sublime act of adoration and worship. Wholesome and healthy politics that existed in the above rules are necessary. The alert Iranian nation must neutralize the plots mentioned above with Islamic thought and perception. Let writers and preachers rise and help the nation to defeat the plotting devils.

- (c) -
One such conspiracy, a most vicious one, is the widespread rumor claiming that: "The Islamic Republic" has not done anything for the good of the people! Poor people! They made sacrifices to overthrow the despotic regime of the Taghoot (despot), little did they know that they would emerge with a worse regime. The arrogant have become more arrogant and the mustazaf in more oppressed.

Prisons are full of youths who are our hopes for the future. Torture has become more inhumane and severe than before. Every day a number of men are executed - all in the name of Islam. They had better not call this system 'The Islamic Republic". Circumstances are worse than at the time of Reza Khan... and his son. People are suffering hardships; prices are soaring to high heavens; authorities are leading the regime to communism; people's properties are being confiscated: freedom in all forms has been withheld from the people, etc. Such ratings are proof of planned conspiracies that are carried out daily in some form in some location, town or borough; in taxi cabs, in buses, at small gatherings, etc., and as one false rumor wears off a fresh one takes its place. Unfortunately the clergy, unaware of the satanic plots, come in contact with agents of discord and think that their incantations are true. The fact is that many of
those who listen to the rumors and believe them are persons who lack knowledge of world conditions, of world revolutions and of post-revolutionary events and their inevitable concomitant problems. They lack knowledge of the changes that have occurred in favor of Islam and so, when they hear such rumors they deliberately or by mistake, accept them. I urge everyone not to make hasty conclusion or damning criticism until you have done the following: made a study of world conditions and a comparison between the Islamic Revolution and other revolutions and the post- revolutionary problems in which those nations and countries had sunk; acquainted yourselves with the circumstances of the countries and nations before, during, and after their revolutions; considered the various serious problems brought about by Reza Khan and worse than that by his son Muhammad-Reza, problems including: dependencies of all kinds on foreign powers; bribery and dishonesty of government personnel; bankrupt economy; vice in all forms including prostitution; conditions in the various ministries and the army; cinemas, cabarets and houses of ill-fame; conditions in schools and universities; problems of the youth, the women, the dedicated clergy, the liberals and the chaste but oppressed women before and after the Revolution; conditions of the mosques during the time of Taghoot; the records of persons sentenced to death then and now; considered the circumstances of the collectors of wealth, of capitalists, of real estate manipulators; of the courts of justice and their records; made a study and comparison between the present and former judges and their rulings; compared the representatives of the Majles (The Islamic Consultative Assembly) before and after the Revolution; compared the work of the provincial governors in both regimes; studied and compared the activities of the Reconstruction Jihad in rural areas today with conditions that existed in such areas before the Revolution; considered the entire work of this regime in the span of last few years, with the years it spent at war, with the work of the former regime in more than 50 years of absolute rule having no refugee-problems, no war-torn towns, villages or cities and no problems of disabled veterans, no homeless families, no problems of an economic blockade, no plots by America or its local and alien agents, no multi-million number of Afghan and Iraqi refugees, no problem with a lack of experienced propagandists and religious judges in sufficient number; and considered the lawlessness caused by the perverts, the enemies and even by some untutored friends; and considered countless other issues and drawn comparisons.

Do not levy your tirades of criticism on anyone or anything unless you have made the necessary studies and comparisons. Have mercy on Islam, the Islam which has just re-emerged as a toddler, after centuries of suffering under despots, wrapped up in ominous covers provided by the animosity and opposition of local and foreign foes! Would it not be better if you could, instead of associating yourselves with anarchist and terrorist groups and siding with them indirectly, consider the families of the victims of terror among the dedicated innocent clergy and other innocent servants?! I have never said and do not say now, that today Islam is practiced in this Republic in All its dimensions and that no one acts against Islamic laws here either through ignorance, lack of discipline or because of some personal complex. But, I do say that the Legislative, the Judiciary and the Executive powers are doing all they can to Islamize this country and they are supported in their efforts by tens of millions of citizens.

If this obstructionist, trouble-making minority would come along and, in the spirit of fair play, support such efforts, the realization of the objective shall come about much easier and faster. If they don't join up, they may rest assured that the masses are informed, alert and concerned and they shall defeat that minority. I dare say that today the Iranian nation is more righteous and upright than the people of Hejaz at the time of Muhammad (SAW) and the people of Kufeh at the time of Ali (AS) and Hussein (AS). When the Prophet (SAW) was still alive the people of Hejaz disobeyed him and feigned excuses for not going to the war fronts. For this God has rebuked them sternly in the Sura Al-Tawbah of the Quran. They accused the Prophet (SAW) of lying so much that he damned them for it from the pulpit. The people of Kufeh mistreated and disobeyed Ali (AS) to the extent that his complaints against them is recorded in many books. The maltreatment of Imam Hussein by the people of Kufeh (AS) culminated in history's greatest epic event, the martyrdom of Hossein (AS).

And those who did not participate in the act of martyrdom of Imam Hossein either fled or sat by and watched the bloody crime take place. But, today, we see how the Iranian nation wholeheartedly supports its armed forces, the Sepah and Basij recruits and volunteers. We see all these elements, including the tribal peoples and the militia, making unimaginable sacrifices at the war fronts as well as behind the lines. We are delighted to observe and enjoy the invaluable assistance rendered by our people from all over the country. We are proud to see the survivors of our martyrs and the disabled veterans and their meet all of us with open arms and such reassuring mien and words. All this is due to their unwavering faith in Allah and to their love for Him and Islam and to their assurance of the eternal life, while they are neither in the company of the Prophet (SAW) nor accompanying an Innocent Imam (AS). Their assurance and
incentives are elsewhere, - in their faith in the unseen, the Invisible (ghaib).

This is the secret of victory and success in their various dimensions. Islam should take pride in having raised and trained such followers and sons. All of us are proud to be in the presence of such a nation in such an age as this. I hereby counsel those who, for any reason, oppose the Islamic Republic, the youth, the girls and the boys who are exploited by the perverts and the hypocrites, to maintain an open mind and then sit in judgment of the propaganda of those who wish to see the Islamic Republic collapse; to study the mode of conduct of such individuals toward the people, toward the governments and groups and toward their own supporters; to carefully observe the shifts in their attitudes and positions on various occasions and compare same with the conduct of the survivors of those who were martyred by the hypocrites, and then decide which group truly supports the oppressed and the deprived peoples in the community. Authentic tape recordings of both pro and con groups are on hand and will help you with your task of comparison and evaluation.

Brothers! You will not read these lines while I live, you may read them after I am gone and am no longer among you to want to say things to gain your favor and support. But, as you are worthy young people I would like to see you spend your time in the path of God, for noble Islam and for the Islamic Republic, so that you may attain happiness in this and in the next world. I ask God to guide you to the straight path and to forgive our past deeds. I advise you to make the wish when in seclusion, for He is the Guide, the Merciful. My counsel and recommendation to the noble Iranian nation and to all the nations who suffer under corrupt governments and are chained by great powers is this: cherish as your most precious thing the blessing that you have gained by your great jihad and by the blood of your worthy young men. Guard it well and preserve it as a divine favor and great trust from your Lord. Make every effort to safeguard it, do not worry about difficulties if any should arise. Remember: 'If you help Allah, He will help you and make you strong" (The Holy Quran, Sura 47, Muhammad, Verse 7). Help the Islamic Republic with all your hearts and do your utmost to solve some of its problems. Consider the Majles (The House of parliament) and the government as your very own and protect them as you would your loved ones. Likewise, I recommend this nation to the care and attention of the Majles and government authorities who should serve the people well, particularly the deprived and oppressed who are our true benefactors. These are the people who made the formation of the Islamic Republic possible and insure its continuity. The authorities should regard themselves as belonging to the people and recognize the people as parts of their own beings. Always condemn the despotic rule of the UN cultured plundering bullies by humane methods worthy of an Islamic government.

My suggestion to the Muslim nations is that you consider the government of the Islamic Republic and the crusading Iranian nation as your examples. Do away with your own despotic governments unless, they bow to the demand of your own nations which is the same as the demand of the Iranian nation. The dependent puppet governments, who are either pro-East or pro-West are the cause of the misfortunes of the Muslims. I recommend with emphasis that you pay no attention to the propaganda sirens of the antagonists of Islam and of the Islamic Republic as they always try to force Islam to the sidelines so as to insure the interests of the super-powers.

- (d)-
One of the satanic plots of the major colonialists and exploiters, that has been in force for many decades and reached its apex in Iran in the reign of Reza Khan and was continued by Muhammad Reza, was to isolate the clergy by different methods including pressure, suppression, imprisonment, unfrocking and various forms of abuse, insult and derision. Another technique is to create friction, disharmony and animosity between university circles and the clergy. Extensive propaganda was used to achieve such tension and it was effective because of the ignorance of both groups of the devilish plotting of the super-powers.

Grade school, high school and university teachers, tutors, principals, instructors, lecturers, professors, deans, etc were selected from among persons with pro-Eastern or pro-Western leanings. These educators were religious perverts. Devout and virtuous educators formed a small minority. The purpose was to train the future authorities of the state from childhood through adulthood in such a manner as to hate religions in general and Islam in particular and to despise religious enthusiasts especially the Muslim clergy. Muslim clergymen were accused of being British agents, supporters of capitalists, land-mongers and reactionaries opposed to civilization and progress. At the same time they threw the fear of students in the clergy and the "educated" university scholars with malicious propaganda accusing them of atheism, libertinism and opposition to all manifestations of religion. These conditions lined up the government authorities against religions including Islam and its clergy. The situation placed the clergymen and the religious masses, who cared for their religion and its clergy, against the government and all that was part of it. The deep gap between government and the nation, and between the university and the clergy opened the way to the exploiters and the plunderers so much that the fate of the people and the country's resources fell into their hands and pockets and the nation suffered as we all witnessed. And now that by the grace of God and the sacrifices of all the nation including the clergy, the university people, the businessmen, labourers, agricultural and industrial workers and other segments, the fetters of bondage have been removed, the shackles of serfdom broken, the powers of arrogance repelled and the country virtually sequestered and saved from their clutches and from the clutches of their domestic puppets, I would like to recommend to the present and future generations not to slacken their efforts. Let the university men and the youth strengthen their links of friendship and mutual understanding with the clergy and the students of religious sciences. Never overlook the plotting of the perfidious enemy, provide counsel and guidance whenever you see someone trying to sow the seeds of discord and disunity. If your counsel to such individuals is not effective, turn away from them, isolate them and do not let their machinations and conspiracies take root as prevention is easier than cure. Students in both the theological schools and in the universities should be alert to the insidious propaganda diffused by their teachers and professors. As soon as you hear an instructor say or explain things in a manner that distorts the truth and tends to pervert the mind, reject him and turn him away from your classes. This suggestion is directed primarily toward the clergy and students of religious sciences in theological centres. Conspiracy in a university has a particular dimension and depth. Both categories of students, being the brains of the society, should beware such plotting.

- (e)-
One of the most effective conspiracies that has, unfortunately, left an indelible mark on the nations, including our own, is the alienation of the peoples of colonised countries with their true selves. In other words "Westerners" or "Eastern block" peoples have become estranged with their own cultures and they have come to regard the peoples of the super-powers as being of races and cultures superior to their own. They look upon the super-powers as their Qiblah (direction to which Muslims face when saying daily prayers, i.e., the Kaaba in Mecca) and think that affiliation with one of the two poles of power is indispensable to themselves. The question has a long, sad story and the blows we have received and are still receiving from it are devastating and fatal. A most unhappy point is that the colonialists have bared the oppressed peoples under their rule from all progress and have turned them into consumer nations. The colonial powers have so frightened us through their satanic might and advancement that we dare not venture into any initiatives. Rather, we have submitted our minds to them and placed our fates in their hands and have become their followers with our own eyes and ears shut. This vacuity and artificial mental inanity has prevented us from trusting in and relying on our own knowledge and thinking and made us blind followers of the East or the West. And whenever and wherever we did have and made manifest our own initiative, our own industry and culture these came under such heavy barrages of criticism and ridicule by Communist or Westernised writers and commentators that the net effect was to suppress our native abilities. Foreign customs and ways, no matter how trite, hackneyed or redundant, were promoted and propagated and imposed on nations through actions, words and eulogies. For example, if books contain a number of foreign words and terms they are accepted right away with wonder and awe regardless of their meaning. The writer of such a book is deemed erudite and broad-minded.

Whatever is tinted with Western or Eastern terminology is good, noteworthy and a mark of progress and civilization. If elaborated in native terms, it is regarded as decadent. Our children whose names smack of foreign Western roots are honored and progressive. If they carry traditional names, then they are looked upon as retarded. Streets, alleys, firms, drugstores libraries, textile materials, and other commodities, if manufactured locally, should have foreign names so that people may be pleased with them and receive them well. Manifesting Western ways in all facets of life and in all aspects of social intercourse is cause for pride and regarded as tokens of civilization and progress. Meanwhile, traditional modes of conduct and customs are deemed as retrograde and ancestor-worshiping. Going abroad for treatment of minor ailments that are easily cured at home is the thing to do, disappointing our own scientists and physicians. Making a trip to England, France, U.S.A or Moscow enhances one's dignity while going to Mecca to perform the Hajj or visiting other holy shrines is considered backward and old fashioned. Disregard for all that is related to religion and morality is a sign of open-mindedness and civilisation whereas commitment to these issues is a sign of being backward and antiquated.

I do not say that we have everything. In the course of recent history especially during the recent decades we have been deprived of any progress. The treacherous statesmen of the Pahlavi regime and their propaganda belittled every domestic product, created inferiority complexes in us and withheld all means for advancement. The importation of all types of goods and commodities from abroad provided channels for our young men and women and specially our youth to preoccupy themselves with such trivial things. They became engaged in childish competitions and pursuits with imported objects as toilet articles, and games of chance. At the same time they became consumers of such things as well as items of luxury which has a long, sad story. No effort was spared in diverting the attention and the minds of our youth from thinking about their own fate and the destiny of their country. And, now that the Iranian nation is to a large extent freed from such traps and the deprived generations have risen to the occasion to create and build, at their own initiative commodities many
examples of which we witnessed such as aircraft spare part that all thought could not be manufactured locally and all hands were extended to East or West for such items. This is because economic blockade and the compelling conditions of the imposed war made their domestic production without assistance of foreign experts possible. Such items were produced more economically and they satisfied our needs. Our people have proved that they can do things if they want to. Our people should be alert and watchful lest the East or West affiliated politician draw us back towards the international pilfers. Take decisive action to do away with all dependencies. Be sure that the Aryan or Arab races are in no way less endowed than the Europeans, American or Russian races.

If we succeed in finding our true selves and not let despair overtake us and rely on ourselves and expect nothing of others, we shall be able, in the long run, to do and make everything. This is possible provided you rely on Almighty Allah and yourselves and sever all dependency (on others. Moreover, you should work hard to achieve an honourable life and escape the influence and domination of others. It is incumbent on the authorities both in the present and the future governments to cherish and appreciate their experts and specialists and encourage them through moral and material support to make initiatives. It is necessary that harmful consumer goods be not imported. Let the people do with what they have until they can make everything themselves. I ask the youth, boys and girls not to compromise their freedom, independence and human values for luxury, pleasure-seeking and other vices that are offered to you by the corrupt agents of the West or the East. Experience has taught us that they think of nothing expect your degeneration, your indifference toward your own destinies and the fate of your country, control of your natural resources, your consumer potential, your dependence, in short your colonisation and exploitation
This is one reason they try to keep us in a state of backwardness and underdevelopment and, as they say, semi-primitive people.

- (f)-
One of their major plots, that was noted before, is to take over the education centres especially the universities whose trained output must have the control of the country, in their hands. Their methods with respect to the clergy and the schools of Islamic sciences is different from their method in respect of the universities and high school, Their plan is to remove the clergy from the scenes and to isolate them. During the time of Reza Khan considerable torture and persecution was used to achieve this but results were contradictory. With propaganda, false accusations, and devilish plans they tried to segregate the educated and the so-called intellectual layers during the Reza Khan's rule using torture and persecution. This was continued during the time of Muhammad Reza, viciously but without torture.

As to the university, their plan is to alienate the youth with their own values and culture and draw them over to the East or the West and to select the statesmen from among them, institute these selected individuals in position of authority and do whatever they want with country, its resources and people by the hands of their puppets while the isolated, despised and defeated clergy looks impotently on. This is the best way to hold a nation in a backward state and to pilfer the countries under domination because, it is easy for the superpowers and is of no cost to them while all that there is goes to their pockets quietly through the national circles. And, now that the universities and teacher training colleges are being purged, it is necessary that we all help the authorities and not ever let these institutions deviate from the right course and take necessary action as soon as we notice a deviation step by an authority. This vital task must, in the first place, be carried out by the young men of the universities, teachers and colleges. Saving the university from deviation and perversion is saving the nation and the country. I urge all our youth and the young people in the first place and their parents and friends in the next place, and the statesmen and intellectuals who care for the country, to participate wholeheartedly in this important task that maintains the safety of your country, and to entrust the universities to the next generation. I ask the successive generations to guard the universities against defection to the East or to the West, as this is necessary for the salvation of yourselves, the country an the beloved Islam. This humane, Islamic act severs the hands of the superpowers off the country and makes them lose all hope. May Allah bless and keep you!

- (g) -
The commitment of the representatives of the Islamic Consultative Assembly is a major issue, we witnessed the damage that Islam and Iran suffered at the hands of the corrupt and perverted representatives of the former Majles: (House of Representatives) since the constitutional regime was initiated in the country through the era of the Pahlavi rulers. Such Majles representatives were worthless individuals, servants of foreign powers and they betrayed the country and the nation. During the fifty years of the tyrannical rule of the Pahlavi regime, a sham majority of Majles representatives was forged which carried out the dictates of the U.S.S.R and England and of the U.S.A in recent decades. After the constitution was initiated in Iran its major articles were almost always ignored. Before Reza Khan came to power, the country was in the hands of number of treacherous pro-Western feudal overlords. Then came the bloody Pahlavi regime and its cruel agents.

Now that by grace of God and the determined and spirited endeavors of the nation, the destiny of the country has fallen in the hands of the people, their true representatives are elected and sent to the Majles without foreign interference and without intervention of the government or feudal khans. It is to be hoped that with their dedication to Islam and the interests of the country, all sorts of perversion will be avoided.

My recommendation to the present and future generation is that they choose virtuous, upright educated persons in every election. Let these be persons with commitment to Islam and to the Islamic Republic; persons who come mostly from the deprived middle classes of the society and are not perverted nor gone astray from the straight path; individuals who are aware of the problems of the day and of the policies of Islam.

My advice to the honourable clergy, especially the religious authorities (Marajae) is that they do not stay away from and show indifference to the elections of epresentatives to the Majles, nor to the elections of the President of the Islamic Republic. You all saw, and future generations shall hear, how the politicians, who were followers of the East or the West, forced out from active politics the clergymen who were greatly influential in laying the foundations of the constitution in the country and how the clergy were deceived by such politicians and came to regard involvement in the affairs of state and of the Muslims as being outside the parameters of their position and status. And, consequently they relinquished the realm (of politics) to pro-West or pro-East elements who did to the constitutional law, the country and Islam damages which takes a long time to remedy.

Now that, thanks God, the obstacles are removed no excuses remain. A free atmosphere is made available for involvement and participation in the affairs of state. It is an great sin to compromise the affairs of the Muslims. Each and everyone should be, to the extent possible, available for service to Islam and to the country. Everyone should, as much as he can, check and thwart the spread of the influence of the pro-West and pro-East elements and the influence of those who deviate from the great school of Islam. All should realise that the opponents of Islam and of Muslim countries, that is, the superpowers, the international thieves, infiltrate into our country and into our Islam states subtly and by degrees and manipulate the people into colonialisation. You must all be alert and vigilant and as soon as you see such a state, act to resist an neutralize it. Give them no time! May God help and assist you!

I ask the present and future representatives of the Islamic Consultative Assembly not to honourable reject the credentials of any deviate delegate who captures the votes o his constituents through fraud and political intrigue. Let no sabotaging element work his way into the Majles. I advise the recognized religious minorities to learn lessons from the Majles sessions of the Pahlavi regime and elect representatives who are dedicated to their own religion and committed to the Islamic Republic, persons who are not dependents of the world-mongering powers, persons with no leaning towards any deviations, forged or atheist' school of ideology.

I ask all Majles delegates to treat or another with utmost goodwill and brotherhood and take care lest some enacted law contradict Islam. Be faithful in Islam one and all so as to attain to happiness in this world and in the hereafter.

My advice to the Council (Guardianship) now and in the future, is to perform its Islamic and national duties with candor and take great care not to be influenced by any power and to cancel any law, rule or regulation that is opposed to Islam and the constitutional law. Also, the Council should be attentive to the exigencies of the country that must be dealt with sometimes by secondary decrees and sometimes by the decrees of the Walayate-e faqih (guardianship of the Theologian or Jurisconsult). My advice to the honourable nation is that it participate actively in all areas relating to the elections, whether presidential elections, election of delegates to the Majles or elections of experts to determine the council of leadership or the leader. The choice and nomination of such representatives must be based on solid and creditable criteria. For example, if, by oversight, election of experts to determine the council of leadership, or the leader, be not based on religious laws and standards, irreparable damage to the religion and the country may ensue, in which case all shall be responsible before God. Thus, non-participation in elections by the people from the Ulema (men learned in Islamic laws) and authorities (Marajae) down to other strata including the bazaar (business world), workers, farmers, office workers and others, indicates their irresponsibility toward the destinies of the country and Islam whether in the present or future generations.

It is very likely that absence from the political arena and non-participation in the affairs of state and elections, in certain instances, may constitute a most grievous and capital sin. Therefore, all must bear in mind that "Prevention is better than cure". If necessary action is not taken in advance, the control of affairs get out of all hands. This is a reality we have all experienced after the constitutional government was proclaimed in the country. No remedial action is better and more effective than the people nation-wide performing the tasks and duties assigned them in accordance with the constitution and Islamic law and standards.

In elections for president and the Majles delegates, voters must consult educated, open-minded persons. Such persons must be aware of the channels action. They should not be dependents of a super-power. They should be dedicated to Islam and the Islamic Republic and be renowned for their virtue. Such consultation must: also be entered into with dedicated and chaste clergymen. Care must be taken to insure that those elected as President of the Islamic state and as delegates to the Majles, are individuals who have felt and experienced the circumstances of the deprived and oppressed classes of the society and are concerned with the well- being of these groups. The president and the Majles delegates should not hail from the high-ranking, land-mongering capitals classes who are sunken in carnal pleasures and are unable to feel nor understand the bitterness and pains of the deprive the barefooted and the oppressed human beings.

We must realise that if the Majles delegates and the president are competent, most difficulties will not emerge and if they do, they will be solved without delay. This applies to the election of Experts determine the Council of Leadership or the leader. If the Experts are elected by the nation with care and consultation with the prominent Ulema and religious authorities (Marjae Taqlid) of the time, if learned dedicated and virtuous persons go to the Assembly Experts, then, most of the major problems will not arise because of the selection of the most competent individuals as The council of leadership or leader and if they do, they'll be dealt with dispatch and exactitude.

In view of Articles 109 and 110 of the constitutional law (of the I.R.I) concerning the grave duty of the nation in electing the 'Experts" and the "Delegates" to determine the leader or the Council of Leadership it becomes clear that gross harm will accrue to Islam, the country and the Islamic Republic by the least oversight and negligence in their related elections. Because of the extreme importance of the probability of their incidence, their occurrence surely entails divine responsibility.

My advice to the leader and the Council of Leadership in this era which is the era of invasion and aggression by the superpowers and their stooges, domestic or alien against the Islamic Republic, indeed against Islam, and, to the future leaders and councils is to devote and dedicate themselves to the service of Islam and the mustazafin (the meek, the deprived and the oppressed) and of the Islamic Republic. Do not think that leadership (or guardianship) is a gift or an exalted position for you. Rather, think of it as a heavy and grave duty in which errors due to mean and lowly considerations will subject the perpetrator to life-long shame in this and to the wrath of God in the next world. I beg of the Lord and supplicate to Him that He admit us to His Presence having emerged from this trial with success. This danger exists, though to a lesser degree, for presidents, governments, and authorities, now and in the future, each in proportion to his responsibility. These, too, must be mindful of the presence of God and His watchfulness over their actions.

May the Lord guide them and show them the right path!

- (h) -
One of the major, essential questions is the issue of justice, for it is involved in the peoples' lives, properties and virtue. My advice to the Leader and to the council Leadership is to do their utmost in the selection of high qualified, deeply committed and dedicated persons in assignment as judges and other judicial positions. Sue persons should be authorities in Islamic religious laws and in politics. I ask the Supreme Judicial Council to clear up the woeful conditions in which all legal and judicial matter had sunk during the former regime, to cut off from this sublime tribune the hands of those who play games with the people's lives and properties and those judges for whom Islamic justice has the least meaning. Effect revolutionary changes in the judicial system and replace judges who lack Islamic qualifications with duly qualified judges who, God willing, should be trained by the theological seminaries especially by the Holy Theological Centre of Qom and recommended for assignment to judiciary posts. It is to be hoped that soon enough Islamic Justice shall prevaileverywhere in the country. I advise the present and future judges to keep in mind the ahadith (plural for hadith=tradition) ascribed to the Infallible Imams (AS) remind yourselves of the instances in which justice has gone amiss and always bear in mind the importance of judgment and the dangers inherented in its abuse. Let those who qualify as magistrates assume the responsibility of the great task and do not let it go and fall in incompetent hand. Let all know that as the responsibility of adjudication hazardous and great, its rewards and excellence are also considerable and grand. All must know that assuming the position of a judge is an incumbent religious duty (wajib-e-kafaee).

- ( i) -
My advice to the holy theological centres, as I often have said, is that opponents of Islam and the Islamic Republic are determined to uproot Islam in every devilish way possible. A major approach they make towards their ominous objective which is dangerous to Islam and the theological centres is to have saboteurs and miscreants infiltrate the theological seminaries. This, in the short term, poses the danger of casting aspersion on the conduct of the theological students, accusing them of having corrupt, perverted and unethical behaviour and character. In the long run, the infiltration of theological seminaries by such evil agents and their integration into the ranks and files of the students of these centres, poses the greater danger that some of them may attain to high positions through their machinations. With the help of their sham knowledge of Islamic laws and rules they may work their way into the confidence and hearts of the people and then, at the right time, deliver fatal blows to the theological centres, to Islam and the country. We are aware that the superpowers have implanted in various communities agents in different disguises such as: 'nationalists', 'pan- Iranists', 'liberals", 'intellectuals', 'spiritualists' and 'religious jurists'. This last group if given the opportunity is the most insidious and harmful. Such agents live, sometimes for decades, among nations with patience, Islamic conduct and deportment, sham patriotism, spirituality and other designs and carry out their assignments at the most propitious times. During the short span of time since the triumph of the Revolution people have seen such agents under the titles "mujahid-e-khalq" (lit, fighter of the people), "fadaii khalq" (lit, sacrifice of one's life for the people), the "tudeh" (masses) and other such appellations. It necessary that all co-operate in neutralizing such conspiracies. All must be alert to the danger of these agents.

The purging of the theological seminaries takes priority. This is the task of the honourable mudarresin (scholars and teachers of Islamic texts) and the well-known theological centres with the approval of the Marajae authorities of the time. Perhaps the contention that "order lies in disorderliness" is one the vicious ruses of these plotters. At any rate, my advice is that it is necessary in all ages especially in the present era, in which plots and intrigues have increased, to rise and bring order to the centres theology. Let the students, the scholars, and the instructors spend time and, by careful, sound planning, purge a preserve the major theological centres especially the Qum Theological Centre. It is necessary that the honourable Ulema and mudarresin prevent perversion and distorts from creeping into the teaching materials concerning Fiqh (Religious jurisprudence). Let there be no deviation in Fiqh and the methods of the grand fuqaha (plural for faqih, learned authorities of religious law) in the teaching of the principles of Fiqh - for, only in this way can the real Islamic Feqh preserved. Efforts should be made for a daily increase in conciseness of views and investigative methods and research and creative work. Traditional Fiqh, which is the heritage of our worthy ancestors, must be preserved and maintained. Deviation from it weakens the foundations of research. Let research studies (in Fiqh) pile up and develop into tomes. With respect to other sciences, to be sure, research programs should be arranged with a view to the needs of the country and Islam. Men should be trained to do research work at the highest levels and in as many areas as needed. Research, its learning, teaching and practice must be made available to all. Islamic moral sciences such as ethics, ego-purging, mystical experiences, etc. should be covered in the course of such educational research. This is especially necessary with the "sayr-o-sulook-e-el-Allah" purification of the soul and the ego better known as the jihad-e Akbar or the "greater crusade". May Allah help us achieve it!

- (j)-
One of the areas that need purging, reform and care is the Executive Power. Sometimes beneficial and progressive laws are enacted by the Majles, seconded by the Guardianship Council (Shuraye Negahban) and communicated by the related cabinet minister to the proper administrative unit or department for implementation, but they are thwarted by bureaucracy, by incompetent personnel, by open violation of rules and regulations. Such actions are sometimes deliberately taken to create dissatisfaction and unrest in the community.

My advice to the concerned cabinet ministers, now and for the future, is that they and their employees are living on public funds and therefore must all be true public servants especially to the Mustazafin (the oppressed). Creating uneasiness for the public, not doing one's duties are interdicted and may incur the wrath of the Lord. You all need the nation's support, especially that of the oppressed classes. It was by their popular support that victory could be achieved and the hands of tyrants cut off from the country and its wealth. If you become deprived of this support someday, the oppressors shall turn you out just the way ousted the oppressive monarchical system. In view of the tangible facts you should make efforts to satisfy the nation thus and earn their confidence. Avoid inhuman un-Islamic conduct. With this motive I recommend that our future cabinet ministers take great care in the select of provincial governors and make sure that such men competent, wise, agreeable, dedicated to Islam and Islamic Republic and can get along with the people so peace and tranquillity become the pervasive rule in country. It must be remembered that although every cabs minister has the responsibility of Islamization regulation of the affairs of his own area of responsibility - yet, some of the ministries have special characterize.

Take for example, our embassies abroad. Since the early days after the victory of the Revolution have often counselled the ministers of foreign affairs as the pro-taghoot (inclined towards the taghoot or tyrant) leanings of our embassies abroad and the need for conversion into embassies worthy of the Islamic Republic. Some of them, however, either could not or did not want to take positive steps. But, the present minister is hopeful that this aim will be achieved by perseverance in due time, he has taken some steps in that direction hoped that in time these efforts will bear positive rest.

Advise the foreign ministers: now and for the future your responsibilities are heavy indeed, whether in purging your offices, departments or embassies or in the area of foreign policy, preservation of our independence, securing the interests of the country and in the area of having good relations with the countries that do not intend to interfere in our affairs. Avoid anything that may indicate dependence in its various aspects and dimensions. Know that dependence on others though it may appear useful and even yield rich fruit now, in the long run, it will corrupt the country at the roots. Make every effort to improve relations with Islamic countries and to awaken their statesmen and invite all to unity and alliance for God is with you.

My advice to the Muslim nations is: do not wait for external help in reaching your objective which is the implementation of Islamic teachings and tenets. You yourselves must rise and undertake this vital work which will realise your independence and freedom. Let the grand Ulema (outstanding scholars) and the honourable preachers in the Islamic states call on their governments to extricate themselves from dependence on big foreign powers and come to an understanding with their own nations. In this way victory shall be yours. Invite the nations to unity and alliance. Avoid racism which is against the teachings of the Holy Quran. Shake hands in friendship with your fellow believers in any country and from any race they may be for the great Islamic Faith has termed you all "brothers". If, by the grace of God, this spirit of brotherhood-in-faith be realized, you will one day see that the Muslims constitute the world's greatest power. God willing, this brotherhood may manifest itself soon.

My advice to the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance at all times, especially at the present, which has its own particular characteristics, is to act to propagate truth versus falsehood and to present the true face of the Islamic Republic. Having severed the hand of the superpowers from our country we are now subjected to the propaganda tirades and barrages of mass media affiliated with the superpowers. Consider the baseless accusations levied against us by the writers and speakers of these mass media of communication belonging to the superpowers. Regrettably, most of the Islamic states of the region, who should, by the command of Islam, show us brotherhood, have risen opposition to us and to Islam and placed themselves the service of the world-mongers for
aggression and invasion against us from every side and quarter. And our propaganda is weak while today the world revolves around publicity and propaganda. The so-called intellectual writers are drawn to one or the other camp and their ambitions, selfishness and seeking exclusiveness do not let them think of the independence and freedom of their own country. These factors do not allow the writers to consider, even for a moment, the interests in their own nations and draw comparison between freedom and independence as enjoyed in the Islamic Republic today, with that which existed in the former tyrannical regime. Such writers and speakers do not stop to weigh and measure the worthy and honourable life in this country today, including the partial losses in comfort and physical pleasures, against and in comparison with that which they had in the former regime which was steeped in dependent servitude, praising and eulogising those nuclear corruption and vice; otherwise, they would desist from bringing such false and totally inaccurate accusations against this newly born Islamic Republic and use their pens and speech against the taghoots in favour of this nation and government.

The issue of propaganda is not exclusively the business of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance. Rather, it is a duty incumbent on all writers, speakers, artists and scholars. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs should see to it that the embassies are supplied with public relations literature to reveal the radiant face of Islam to all the world. If the real face of Islam, which the Holy Quran and Tradition (sunnah) have invited all to its various dimensions, would emerge from under the veils spread over it by the opponents of Islam and be relieved from the misunderstandings of friends, Islam would overwhelm the whole world and its banner of honour would be unfurled everywhere. How sad it is that Muslims should be in possession of a most valuable gem, matchless to the world all over and be not able to present it, a most dear thing that each man, by his own intuition, is in search of and yet, its holders themselves are not aware of it, ignore it and sometimes even run away from it.

- (k) -
One of the most important, destiny-shaping issues is the problem of educational institutions from kindergarten through the university. Because of its extraordinary significance, I repeat the matter with a passing remark. The pillaged nation must know that during the past fifty years all the devastating blows to Iran and Islam have come mainly from the universities. If the universities and other education centres were actively engaged in training, purifying and educating our children, our  youth and our young people, armed with Islamic and national programs aimed at promoting the interests of the country, homeland would not have been swallowed first by England and then by Russia and America and such ruin agreements or treaties would not have been imposed on deprived nation. Nor would foreign advisors have been admitted to the country and our resources including black gold would not go down the pockets of the Satanic powers. Similarly, the Pahlavi family and its dependents could not have plundered the people's wealth and built themselves private parks and villas over the bodies of oppressed people at home and abroad. Foreign banks could not become rich with the wages of our deprived people: such Moines could not be spent by the taghoot and offspring and kinsmen on brothels and other carnal whims.

If the Majles, the government, the judiciary and other organs had come from Islamic national universities, nation would not be facing these ruinous problems today, chaste personalities, with sound Islamic and national inclinations, not like that which is offered as Islam to were dispatched from the universities to the three centres of power, we would be in different circumstances and c see different days and our homeland would be a different place; our deprived people would have been saved; cruelty and oppression of the monarchy had been foiled by the people much sooner as would the houses of prostitutes and other centres of vice one of which was enough to corrupt a whole generation of our young people, and would not be heirs to the odious conditions of narcotic addiction. If our universities were Islamic, humane nationalistic, they would have trained, educated and presented to the society hundreds and thousands of mudarresin (teachers). How sad it was that these institutions were administered and our children trained and educated all, with rare exceptions, by people who were either Westernised or Easternised, persons who were put into vital positions and assigned by special planning and design. Our dear, oppressed and innocent children were, unfortunately, trained by such wolves affiliated with the superpowers and they occupied high legislative, executive and judiciary positions and carried out the orders of the tyrannical Pahlavi regime. However, the universities, thanks God, have been liberated. It is now and for ever after, up to the Islamic nation and government to prevent corrupt elements who are adherents of the pervert Eastern or Western ideologies, from infiltrating the teacher-training colleges, the universities and other education institutions. Such elements should be repelled as soon as they take the first step so that difficulties do not set in later. My advice to the students of high schools, colleges, universities is that they themselves rise bravely and oppose all deviation and perversion so that the independence and freedom of the nation and themselves may remain safe and secure.

- (l)-
The entire armed forces including, the army, the navy, the airforce, the Sepah, the gendarmerie, the policemen of the revolutionary committees, the Basij volunteers as well as the enlisted tribal militia, all enjoy special status. They are the mighty arms of the Islamic Republic and are border guards; they insure the safety of the roads, the towns and the rural areas. Indeed they provide peace and security for the nation and merit special attention by the nation, the government and the Majles. All must remember that armed forces, of any description, manipulated and taken advantage of, more than any other group or institutions by the superpowers and the destructive policies. It is by political intrigues through t armed forces that coup d'etats are arranged and carried o governments changed and regimes altered. The treacherous profiteers buy off some heads and commanders of such forces and, through them, work out their vicious conspiracies and take over or dominate a country or some innocent oppressed nation, putting an end to their freedom and independence. If military commanders be honourable and chaste, there can be no occasion for a military coup d'etat in a country, nor for its occupation and if one do occur, it will be defeated or neutralized by the dedicated commanders.

In Iran this miracle of the age was performed by the hand of the nation. The devout and committed armed fore personnel and their chaste and patriotic commanders had considerable part in it. But, today, the accursed war imposed by Saddam at the instigation, order a through the assistance of the U.S.A and other powers has; after two years, met with the political and military defeat the aggressive Ba'athist army, its strong supporters and allies. The armed forces, the security police forces, the public militia, the sepahis, with the unsparing help of the people have brought us honour at both the battlegrounds a behind the front lines. The internal intrigues and acts of mutiny by the puppets of the East or the West aimed overthrowing the Islamic Republic, were defeated by the youth of the Revolutionary committees, by the Pasdaran .(Revolutionary Guards), by the mobilized volunteers, by the ,police and with the help of the nation. It is these zealous youths who stay awake at nights so that families may rest in ace, may Allah help and assist them!

Therefore, in these last few steps left to the end of my life my brotherly advice to the armed forces who love Islam, who give their lives at the war fronts for the love of leqa-ullah (spiritual perception of or union with the Lord) and who carry out their devotional work everywhere in the country, is that you stay alert and be vigilant and beware the treacherous political ruses of the pro-West or pro- East elements at play behind the scenes! Rest assured that the cutting edges of their blades is, from every side, directed at you more than any other group. They want to make use of you, who have given your lives that the Revolution could triumph and Islam be revived. They want to overthrow the .Islamic Republic and, by shamming Islam and service to country and nation, they mean to separate you from Islam and the nation and toss you down into the laps of one of the two world mongering poles and to cancel and void your efforts and sacrifices by political tricks and by their pretension to Islam and nationalism.

My emphatic counsel to the armed forces is to observe abide by the military rule of non- involvement in politics. Do not join any political party, group or faction. No military man, security policeman, no Revolutionary Guard or Basij may enter into politics. Stay away from politics and you'll be able to preserve and maintain your military prowess and be immune to internal division anddispute. Military commanders must forbid entrance into political ties by the men under their command. And, as the Revolution belongs to all the nation, its preservation is also the duty of all.

Therefore, the government, the nation, the Defense Counci, the Islamic Consultative Assembly are all charged with the religious and national responsibility to oppose, from the very beginning, any interference in politics or any action against the interests of Islam and the country by the armed forces, regardless of category, class, branch and rank. Such involvement will surely corrupt and rervert them. It is incumbent on the leader and the Leadership Council to prevent such involvement of the armed forces by decisive action so that no harm may beset the country. My loving advice to all the armed forces in these last days of my earthly life is to remain faithful to Islam, even as you are faithful to it now. Islam is the only true ideology of liberty and independence and Almighty God invites us all to attain to the exalted status of humanity by the light of Islam. Islam saves you, the country and the nation from the shame of dependency and leaning on powers that want only slavery for you and desire to keep your country and your cherished nation retarded and as a consumer market under the yoke of subjugation. Prefer a humane life of honor with difficulties to the beastly comforts with slavery. Know that as long as you extend your hands begging for advanced industrial needs, the power of initiative and inventiveness will not bloom in you. An objective example we all witness concerns ourselves in the post-revolutionary period. Those of us who seemed to be unable to make or repair anything after the economic blockade was forced on us were impelled to use our minds and brains and succeeded in manufacturing a good many things-that met the needs of the army and the manufacturing plants. This war, the economic blockade and the expulsion of foreign specialists were divine blessings in disguise of which we were negligent. Now, if the government and the army would boycott the products of the world-mongers and make more effort to increase inventiveness, the country may become self -sufficient and not have to beg anything of the enemy.

Here I must add that after such prolonged artificial backwardness our need for foreign manufactured goods is an undeniable fact. This, however, does not mean that we should become a dependency of one of the two poles in advanced sciences. The government and army should send dedicated students to countries that possess advanced technology but who are not colonizers or exploiters. Do not send students to the U.S.A or Russia or to countries that follow these two poles.

Perhaps, God willing, the day shall come that these powers see their mistake and fall in the line of philanthropy, humanism and respect for the rights of others. Or, God willing, the oppressed people, alert nations and devouted Muslims make them take their proper places. May that day come!

- (m)-
Radio, television, the press, the cinema and theatres are the most effective means for stupefaction and corruption of nations especially the younger generations. During the past century, especially the second half of it, great plots were hatched and executed through these media against Islam and its faithful servants, the clergy. The mass media are used, also in the colonial propaganda networks of the East and West. They are used to create markets for goods, especially for the sale of luxury and decorative commodities. The media are focused to make people imitate others particularly in areas like clothing, consumption of alcoholic liquors, styles of architecture in housing and in many other things. To behave or 'be" like a European was the thing to be proud of.

The "pseudo-Europeans" especially ladies in higher or middle income groups imitated the westerners in all forms and manners, in attire, in talking, in deportment, in all facets of behavior and social intercourse. Foreign words and terms were used in speech and writing in such a way as to be difficult to comprehend by most people, even by the peers of their user. Television films depicting eastern or Western products made young men and women stray from the normal course of their work, throwing life and industry into oblivion in respect of themselves and their personalities and produced pessimism in people vis-
ŕ-vis their own beings, their country and culture and about highly valuable works of art and literature, many of which found their way into the art galleries and libraries of the East and West through the treachery of middlemen and collectors.

Pornographic magazines printed pictures and written articles detrimental to morality. Newspapers took pride in guiding the youth towards East or West by publishing anti-Islamic and anti-indigenous culture and articles. Extensive publicity promoted centres of vice like houses of prostitution, gambling, casinos and lotteries. Large retail stores sold luxury goods, toilet articles, paraphernalia for games of chance, alcoholic beverages, etc. All this came to the country financed by the sale of oil, gas and other valuable minerals. If the Pahlavi regime had survived, before long, our youths, these children of Islam and the country, who were the nation's hope for the future would have been lost from Islam and the nation by the Satanic conspiracies of that corrupt system and through the mass media and pro-West or pro-East liberals and intellectuals. Or, the youth would have ruined their own lives in the centres of vice or turned stooges of the superpowers and destroyed the country.

Almighty God has, by His mercy saved us from the mischief of evil-doers. My advice to the Islamic Consultative Assembly, to the Presidents, to the Guardianship Council, to the Supreme Judicial Council and to the governments, now and in the future, is to maintain the news agencies, the press, and the magazines in the service of Islam and the interests of the country. We must all know that Western style freedom degenerates the youth, and it is condemned in Islam's view and by the intellect. Propaganda literature, written articles, speeches, books and magazines that oppose Islam, public morality and the interests of the country are taboo (=haram = interdicted by religion) and it is incumbent on all Muslims to prevent their printing and distribution. Harmful liberties must be checked. If all that is "haram" and against the path of the nation and the Islamic state and contrary to the prestige of the Islamic Republic is not decisively controlled, then all are to be held responsible. If any one, including a Hizbullah (lit, the party of God) youth meet with a violation of these rules, they must report it to the appropriate authorities and if they fail to act then the people themselves must take preventive measure. May Allah, the Exalted One, help all!

- (n)-
My advice to the bands, groups and persons who are actively opposing the Islamic Republic and Islam, and to their sons abroad or at home, is that long experience in conspiracy in different ways, in asking foreign authorities and states for support, must have taught you, who regard yourselves wise and knowing, that the course of a self -sacrificing, dedicated nation cannot be altered by acts of terror, sabotage, explosion of bombs and spread of miscalculated lies. No state or government can ever be toppled by such inhuman and illogical methods, particularly a nation like that of Iran whose youth, old men, women and children all sacrifice their lives in the path of the Islamic Republic, the Holy Quran and the religion. You know (and you'll be thinking naively if you don't) that the nation is not with you and the army is against you and if you assume they were with you, your crude moves, and the acts of crime perpetrated by you, have separated them from you and you've gained nothing but the enmity of others. As a well-wisher, my advice to you at the close of my days is that: you are
fighting an oppressed nation that has, after 2500 years of suffering under the tyrannical rule of the shahs freed itself, by sacrificing the lives of its finest children and youth, from the yoke of the oppressive Pahlavi regime and the world-mongering East and West. How can the conscience (no matter how wicked) of a man allow him to behave so cruelly and mercilessly with his nation and country for consideration of a doubtful position!? I advise you, give up such useless and unwise actions, be not fooled by the world-mongers. If you have not committed any crime, come back home from wherever you are and get into the fostering lap of Islam. Repent for Allah is the Most Forgiving One! And the nation and the Islamic Republic may, God willing pardon you! If you have committed a crime for which divine punishment is decreed, return to Him from the middle of the way and repent. And if you have courage, accept your punishment and thereby save your soul from the 'Painful Scourge!" Do not waste your lives longer, change your attitudes and do something else. That is best to you.

I inquire of the supporters of these groups, whether domestic or foreign: why ruin your lives and youth for these people who, as has been proven, are in the service of world powers, follow their designs and, unknowingly, have fallen in their traps?! What incentive can you have? Why do you wrong your own nation?? What for, and who for?! You have been manipulated and deceived by them!! If you live here in this country you can see with your own eyes that these multi-million strong masses are faithful to the Islamic Republic and are dedicated to it. You can see that the present government and regime are most sincerely serving the people and the needy. Those who falsely claim that they are of the people or are mujahed (strugglers, crusaders) or fadais(those who sacrifice their lives) for the people, have actually risen in opposition to God's men. They have deceived you, young boys and girls, to serve their own aims or the aims of one of the two world-mongering poles, while themselves live in pleasure in the arms of one of these two poles of crime. Or, they live in luxury and comfort in elegant 'team-houses" or residential villas and continue their crimes for which they sacrifice your lives.

My loving advice to you, the youth, who live in this country or abroad, is to give up the wrong path. Return and join up with the deprived peoples of the society who are serving the Islamic Republic with all their hearts. Act to serve the free and independent Iran so that the country and the nation may be rid of the enemy's sedition and mischief. Live in honours one-and-all and altogether. Why and how long do you want to listen to the commands of people who fight their own nation, with the support of superpowers, who think of nothing except their own personal gain and sacrifice you for their wicked aims and ambitions. In the interim period since the victory of the Revolution you have noted that their words and deeds are two different things. Their claims are made to deceive pure- hearted youths. You know you have no power vis-ŕ-vis the torrential movement of the nation and your actions can result only in the loss of your own lives. I have discharged my duty to provide counsel and advice for you. I hope you will listen to it when it reaches you after my death when there can be no question of personal gain on my part and thus deliver yourselves from the painful scourge decreed by the Lord. May the Beneficent God guide you to the straight path!

My advice to the groups such as communists, peoples guerrillas (fadai-yan-e-Khalq) and other leftists is this: Without prior study of various schools of ideology, without going to and obtaining the views of authorities on Islam, how could you bring yourselves to embrace an ideology that is already defeated and defunct. What was your incentive? What made your hearts settle for "isms" that are already ruled null and void by the researchers? What is your purpose in wanting to draw your country to the lap of the Soviet Union or China? What makes you fight against your own nation in the name of love for the masses, or plot against your own people for the benefit of foreigners?? You see very well that those who claimed and adhered to communism since its inception, have been and still are the most dictatorial, power-hungry, hegemonistic peoples and governments. How many nations have been crushed under the Soviet Union's pressure and ceased to exist? Yet, the Soviets claim they are supporters of the masses. The Soviet nations, Muslim or non-Muslim, are all struggling and writhing under pressure by the communist party under a strangulation worse than anything on earth.

Stalin was one of the so-called bright faces of the party. We all saw his entrance and exit and the accompanying aristocratic ceremonies. Even now that you deceived individuals are ready to sacrifice your lives out of love for the party, the deprived soviet peoples and the peoples of its satellites such s the people of Afghanistan, etc. are perishing under the Soviet regime's cruelty. Meanwhile you, who claim to be siding with the people, hurt and harm the people (of Afghanistan) in any way you can, wherever you can. You committed unthinkable crimes against the respectable people of Amol whom you had erroneously regarded as your staunch supporters and, by deception, sent a good number of them to fight the government and the people with the result that many of them were killed.

You, who claim to be supporters of the people, want to hand over the innocent and deprived peoples of Iran to the Soviet dictatorship and for this you disguise yourselves as 'Fadai-yan-e-Khalq (those who sacrifice their lives for the people) and supporters of the oppressed. This is being carried out now by the Tudeh Party and its cohorts through plotting and intrigues under the guise of supporting the Islamic Republic and by other groups of leftists by means of arms, terror, bombings, etc. I advise all (political) parties and groups who are known as leftist although indications point to their affiliation with American communists, whether fed and inspired by the West; or those who in the name of 'self -rule' and support for the Kurds and the Baluchis, have taken up arms and ruined the lives of the deprived people of Kurdistan and other localities, and have thus thwarted the Islamic governments efforts to present educational, medical and economic services as well as reconstruction activities in those provinces, such groups as Kumulah and the Democrats, I advise all of these groups to (forsake this path) and join the nation. Their experiences show they have done nothing but harm and have brought nothing but misery to those areas. These are the things they (the leftists) can do and nothing more. Therefore, it is in the interest of themselves, their nation and their provinces, that they co-operate with the government, avoid insurgency, serving the foreigners and doing treason to the country. Rather, let them participate in the country's reconstruction and rest assured that Islam is better for them than the criminal West or the dictatorial East and can better fulfill man's wishes.

My advice to the Muslim groups, who have mistakenly acquired 'Eastward' or 'Westward' leanings and sometimes supported the hypocrites (monafiqeen), whose treason was proven and who unwittingly cursed those who opposed the enemies of Islam, is that they do not persist in making such mistakes. Let these groups and individuals show Islamic courage and admit their mistakes and, to please the Lord, line up behind the government, the Majles, join the people, and, altogether rescue history's mostazafeen from the mischief and wickedness of the arrogant people. Remember what that great Muslim jurist, Mudarres said at a sad Majles meeting of his day: "Now that we must be destroyed, why do it ourselves". In memory of that great martyr of God I say to you today that it is much better we be eradicated from the face of earth with honour at the treacherous hands of the U.S.A and U.S.S.R and meet our God in glory than to live in comfort under the Red Army of East or the black army of the' West. Such has been the practice of God's great men of religion and this is the line we must follow. We should make ourselves believe that if a nation wants to, it can survive without any dependency and that world powers cannot impose anything on a nation against that nation's wishes. A lesson must be learned from Afghanistan where the usurping government and the leftist parties have been and still are with the U.S.S.R but have not been able to suppress the people.

Moreover, today, the deprived nations of the world have awakened and soon enough their raised consciousness shall result in uprisings, movements, insurgencies and revolutions. They shall emerge from the domination of the arrogant oppressors and you, Muslims, who care for Islamic values can well see that separation from the East or West is revealing its blessings. Native intellects and minds have become active and are moving in the direction of self -sufficiency. All that the treacherous specialists of the East or the West pretended to be impossible for ourselves to achieve is markedly achieved by the hands and brains of the nation. God willing the trend shall continue in the future. Alas, this revolution took place late! Had it taken place even as late as the beginning of Muhammad- Reza's rule, this pillaged country would have been something else today.

My advice to the writers, orators, intellectuals, fault-finders and to those with complexes is this: Rather than spending your time pursuing a course contrary to that of the Islamic Republic and doing all you can to vitiate the Majles, the government, and other public servants with your pessimism and ill-will, thereby pushing your country into the path of the superpowers, sit one night in seclusion with your God, and if you do not believe in God, sit in seclusion with your conscience and study your inner motives, of which people are often unaware, and think of the reason why, and, by what standards of fairness do you ignore the blood of all these mutilated bodies of youths strewn everywhere on the battle-fields and in the town and city streets?! Why do you start a war of nerves with a nation that has shaken off its neck the pressures of foreign and domestic oppressors and plunderers and has paid dearly for its freedom and independence with the blood of its children and now wants to preserve these with further sacrifice??!! Why do you reopen the way for the arrogant oppressors by treacherous plotting and by creating discord and disunity?! Is it not better if you would guide the government, the Majles and the nation by your pen, word and your minds in order to preserve your homeland? Are the deprived not worthy of your assistance? Is it not better that you help in the establishment of the Islamic government?? Do you regard this Majles, this President, this government and this judicial system worse than what we had in the former regime? Have you forgotten the cruelty with which the former regime treated this oppressed nation? Did you not know that this Islamic country had become a military base for the U.S.A at that time and was treated by her as a colony, or, that the Majles, the government and the military forces were in their hands? Did you not know that foreign specialists and advisors and industrialists played havoc with this nation and its resources? Have you forgotten the spread of prostitution nation-wide, centres of vice and saturnalia, including gambling, bars, night-clubs, liquor stores, cinemas, etc.,? Each one of these was a major agent of corruption of the youth! Have you forgotten the pornography which was promoted by the corrupt mass media during the former regime? And, now that the vice markets do not exist, the trial of several young men, mostly from deviant and pervert groups, who had acted to defile and tarnish Islam and the Islamic government and the execution of a number of those who had revolted against Islam and the Islamic Republic and were sentenced to death, make you cry humanity!! At the same time you befriend individuals who have frankly and overtly condemned Islam and have risen against it with the 'sword" or with their pens and tongues which is more woeful than armed uprising.

With people such as these you enter into bonds of brotherhood and shake hands!? You call individuals whom God has declared "mahduruddam" (Lit, = whose blood it is lawful to shed) the "sight" of your eyes (i.e., a highly cherished person)! You sit beside these 'actors' who created the 14th of Esfand (March 5, 1981) calamity in which youths were beaten up, and watched the carnage!

You then call such acts Islamic and ethical! But, when the government and the courts of justice try and rightly punish the enemies, the atheistic perverts, you cry, 'humanity!", you cry "Innocence!". I feel sorry for some of the brothers of whose records I am aware. I am interested in some of you, not in those who were insurgents disguised as well-wishers and wolves in lamb's clothing for they were actors who made game and fun of all and meant to destroy the country and the Nation because they were servants of one of the two plundering poles.

Those who, with their own unclean hands, martyred the youth, valuable young men, the cherished Ulema ,educators and instructors of the community and showed no mercy toward innocent Muslim children, have forfeited everything before Allah and have no way of return as they are governed by the nafs-e-ammarah (carnal soul). But you, mo`men (believer) brothers and sisters why don't you aid the government and the Majles that are trying to serve the deprived, the oppressed, barefooted people who are deprived of all things? What is your complaint? What ails you? Have you thought of measuring the amount of service rendered by this government and by the various foundations of the Republic? This was accomplished in spite of the disruptions that any revolution necessitates, despite the imposed war with all its damages, destruction, its millions of local and foreign refugees, with all the acts of sabotage in this relatively short time (compare this) with the development programs of the last regime. Did you not know that the development programs and works in the former regime were confined, almost entirely, to the cities and within a city, to the better quarters, those of the well-to-do? The poorer classes had little or no part of it, whereas the present regime and the Islamic foundations wholeheartedly serve the deprived groups. You believers, support the government so that projects get done faster. Thus, when you perforce appear in the Lord's Presence you do so wearing the Badge of Service to His servants.

- (o)-
One, of the issues that require comment is this: Islam does not support oppressive and uncontrolled capitalism which deprives the masses. The Qoran and the Tradition seriously condemn this type of capitalism and regard it as opposed to social justice. Although some have thought, wrongly, that Islam favours unbridled forms of capitalism, that is not true! Such reasoning veils the shining face of Islam and prepares the way for biased attacks by the enemies of Islam, who consider it as a capitalist regime on the order of the U.S.A, England and other Western plunderers. Relying on such baseless accusations and wrong understanding, the enemies, without referring to Islamic sources for clarification of the point, rise to challenge Islam. Nor is Islam a communist or Marxist-Leninist regime which opposes private ownership and advocates, or advocated, communism in all things including sexual relations and homosexuality. That would be a destructive dictatorship. Rather, Islam is a balanced and moderate regime that recognises ownership and respects it in a limited form of production and consumption. If this is implemented, a sound economy and social justice will result from it, for social equity is a prerequisite to the health of a regime.

Here, too, a number of unaware and illogical persons with no knowledge of Islam and its ideas of a healthy economy have risen in opposition to the first group. By resorting to some Quranic verses and citing phrases from the Nahj-ul-Balagha, (they) consider Islam as being in agreement with the deviations in schools of ideologies such as that of Marx and his peers Such men do not pay attention to the (other) parts of the Nahj-ul-Balagha and the Quranic verses and, as a result of their inadequate comprehension, have risen to follow a communistic faith. They ignore the inherent atheism, dictatorship and strangulation of human values-by a minority party treating human masses as animals!!

I counsel the Majles, the Guardianship Council, the Government, the President and the Supreme Judicial Council to be humble before the commands of God and not be influenced by the inane propaganda of the cruel, rapacious pole of capitalism and the atheistic pole of communism and to respect ownership and private capital within Islamic limits. I advise you to reassure the nation so that private and creative initiative proliferate in order to make the country and government reach self-sufficiency in all areas including light and heavy industries. I advise those who lawfully acquire wealth to invest their justly earned gains for innovative development works in agriculture, rural development and industries. This in itself is commendable worship. I advise all to make every effort for the welfare of the deprived classes. This is good work in this world and in the hereafter as these groups have suffered throughout the long and oppressive feudal and monarchical history. How nice it would be if the wealthy classes could voluntarily provide housing and other relief items for the slum dwellers, as it would be a blessing to them on earth and in the next-world. It is far from fairness that one person own scores of buildings while scores of other people (of his community) lack a single room in which to live.

p)-
My advice to those clerics and to the pseudo-clerics who oppose Islam for various reasons and devote their time to uproot it and aid other enemy plotting and political intrigues and, as is said, donate to them sumptuous sums from helpers they receive from Godless capitalists, is this: You have gained nothing so far from your wrong-doings and, I think, you will not achieve anything if you continue. Thus, if you do all this evil for the sake of this world, God shall not let you gain anything.

It is better for you, then, to repent while there is a chance; beg for the Lord's forgiveness and join ranks with the oppressed nation and support the Islamic Republic which has come to be by the sacrifices of the nation, although I do not think you will repent.

To those groups who mistakenly or deliberately commit errors and oppose Islamic laws and decrees and are against the Islamic Republic and act, for God's sake, to overthrow it and think this regime is worse than monarchy, or is one like it, I say: think about the Islamic Republic with sincerity in seclusion. Make a fair and impartial comparison between it and the former regimes and consider that world revolutions have all entailed disruption, riots, confusion and disturbances and opportunists wanting to take advantage of such conditions for their own selfish aims. Consider the fact that the Islamic Republic faced all these things and, besides, had to withstand false accusations, propaganda, lies, armed attacks from the outside and within its borders and had to fight the unavoidable infiltration of corrupt, anti-Islamic elements, who were trying, in all state and government organs, to create dissatisfaction and unrest.

Moreover, most of the public servants in the regime were inexperienced and many old-timers were dissatisfied because their unlawful incomes were curtailed. Thus, they showed their resentment by spreading lies and baseless rumours. All of this, plus a shortage of judges, strenuous economic entanglements, difficulties in purging corrupt personnel and a shortage of qualified, competent personnel and many other problems had to be and were dealt with. On the other hand, biased monarchists, with immeasurable capital acquired by usury, foreign exchange manipulations, profiteering, exorbitant commodity prices, extortionist rates of services, smuggling, hoarding and similar evil acts, place the deprived classes under extreme pressure and draw the society to vice and disintegration. Men of this category come to you with deceptive purposes. To make you believe what they say they sham Islam sometimes even pay the "sahm-e-imam" (Imam's portion) and shed crocodile tears. They enrage and incite you to opposition. Many of these individuals 'sponge the people's blood" or exploit them by some illegitimate ways and means and make the country's Economy go bankrupt.

My brotherly, humble advice is that you, honourable people, be not influenced by rumours. Support and strengthen this republic for the sake of God and for the preservation of Islam. Be sure that if this Republic falls, a republic acceptable to Baqiyyatullah (the Qaem or Mahdi = titles of the last (12th) Imam, now in occultation but whose advent is expected) and obedient to you shall not be realised. Rather, a regime acceptable to either one of the two power poles will replace it much to the disappointment of the world's deprived peoples who have turned to Islam and the Islamic government. Islam shall for ever become isolated and you will regret your conduct someday when it is too late! If you gentlemen expect all things to be Islamised overnight, you are making a mistake.

Such a miracle has never happened in all the history of man. And, when the great Reformer (Musleh) appears do not think that a miracle will take place and the entire world will be put aright in a day! Rather, it is by hard work and sacrifices that the oppressors will be done away with. And if you think, as some misguided laymen do, that for the Mahdi (AS) to appear, the world must be entirely overwhelmed with cruelty and injustice therefore, to have him appear sooner, cruelty should be promoted, then let us all chime our own death knells. (From God we are and unto Him we return.)

- (q)-
My advice to all Muslims and oppressed people of the world is this: you should not sit and wait till your own authorities or rulers, or some foreign power act to make a gift of freedom and independence to you. During the past one hundred years we have observed the infiltration of the world's major powers into all Islamic countries and into smaller lands. Reliable history has related this for us. None of the rulers of any of these countries has been concerned with the freedom, independence and welfare of his nation and none is, even today. Rather the majority of such rulers have been themselves cruel oppressors who tried to strangulate their own people. Whatever good they did was to benefit themselves or was in the interest of some special group. or, such rulers, promoted the welfare of the upper already well-to-do classes but never did a thing to benefit the deprived groups and slum-dwellers. These last groups were deprived even of their daily bread. The miserable, deprived groups were taken into the service of the profligate Epicureans or they were made puppets for big powers, doing their best to make their countries more and more dependent on foreign powers. The rulers of such countries, who were rulers in name only, secured the interests of their Eastern or Western masters, turned their countries into markets for the consumption of the manufactured products of their overlords, kept their own lands in an undeveloped condition, and are doing so even now.

Oh Mustazafeen (deprived, oppressed) of the world! Oh Muslims and Muslim Countries of the world! Arise and wrest your rights by your teeth and fingernails! Never mind the rigmarole and propaganda cries of the superpowers and their puppets! Drive out from your lands your wicked rulers who hand over your wages to your enemies and the enemies of Islam. Yourselves and the dedicated public servants should take charge of the affairs of your country. Gather together, all of you, under the proud banner of Islam and fight the enemies of Islam and of the deprived peoples of the world. Advance toward an Islamic sovereign government with so many free and independent republics. If you realise this, the arrogant powers shall retreat to their rightful positions and all the Mustazafeen will come to inherit the earth and attain to guardianship over it. Look forward to the day when God's promise shall be fulfilled!

- (r)-
At the conclusion of this testament once more I say to the honourable Iranian nation that in this world the amount and volume of one's pains, sufferings, devotion, deprivations, and sacrifices is commensurate with the greatness of one's cause and its value and station. That for which you crusading, noble nation have risen and follow and give of your life and wealth for, is the noblest, the most sublime and the most valuable cause that has been put forth since time began, nor will a similar cause be ever presented again. That cause is the 'school of divinity" in its broad sense and meaning.

It is the idea of 'Tawhid" (the oneness of God or Monotheism) in its supremely lofty dimensions whose ultimate creative foundation lies throughout the expanse of the world of being and at the levels and degrees of Occultation and Presence (Ghayb and Shuhood) as made fully manifested in the School of Muhammad (SAW), and, for the realisation of which the prophets (SAW) and the divine guardians (Awliyaa) (AS) worked hard. Absolute perfection and utmost glory and beauty cannot be attained except by it, - the Supreme Divinity who has exalted the earthly man above the heavenly beings. That which accrues to the earthly man from progression in His path does not accrue to any other being perceptible by the eye, or veiled.

You, Mujahid (crusading) nation, move under an emblem and banner that is waving everywhere in the moral and material world! Whether you are aware of it or not, you are treading in a path that is the path of all prophets and is the only path to happiness and bliss! This is. the incentive or motive of the prophets in accepting and embracing martyrdom. This is what makes martyrdom to them sweeter than honey. Your youth have experienced this at the battle grounds and it has made them live in ecstasy ever since. It is reflected in the souls and conduct of their (the martyrs') brothers, sisters and parents. We must truly say: "We wish we were with you (the martyrs), perhaps we, too, could be blessed with a great success'. May they enjoy the breeze that delights the heart and the "sight' that sets fire to it. We should know that a fragment of that "sight' or "epiphany" is made manifest in the hot, cultivated fields; in enervating factories, workshops; in industrial centres of research, development and inventions; in the nation on the whole; in the bazaar, the streets and rural areas; and in all who serve Islam, the Islamic Republic and work toward progress and self- sufficiency. As long as this spirit of co-operation and dedication prevails in the society, our country shall, God willing, be immune to worldly woes. Thank God, the theological centres, the universities and the young generation in education institutes, have all been blessed with the divine spirit. They have control over all these agencies which, God willing (insha'allah) are safe from encroachment by the saboteurs and perverts. My advice to all is to advance towards self-awareness, self-sufficiency and independence with the remembrance of God. Without a doubt His helping Hand is with you if you be with Him and continue in this spirit of Ta'avon (co-operation) for advancement of the Islamic country. I pray that all that I see in the noble nation of alertness, intelligence, commitment, devotion, spirit o f resistance, and courage being employed in the path of God, shall, by His Grace,
be transmitted to the successive future generations with increased momentum. With a peaceful mind, a certain heart, a happy spirit, and a conscience hopeful for God's mercy, I take my leave of all brothers and sisters to journey to the eternal abode. I need your prayers and I beseech Almighty God's pardon and forgiveness for my inadequacies and my faults. I hope, the nation, too, will forgive my shortcomings and failings, and move ahead with power and determination. Know that the departure of one servant shall not leave a scratch on the steel shield that is the nation. Worthier servants of greater stature are in service and Allah preserves the nation and the oppressed people of the world.

(Wassalam-o-Alaikum wa Ala Ibadillah-e-salehin.)
Ruhullah Al-Musawi AL-Khomeini
(Bahman 26, 1361 Jamadi-al-awwal 1, 1403 February 15,1983)

IN HIS MOST EXALTED NAME
My son Ahmad will read this will and testament to the people after my death. If he has an excuse for not doing so, the
President of the Islamic Republic or Speaker of the Islamic Consultative Assembly or President of State Supreme Court
shall kindly accept the task and if they too, are excused, let one of the Foqaha of the Council of Guardians accept the
trouble.
Ruhullah Al-Musawi Al-Khomeini

Ostentation

Said al-Imam al-Sadiq (A) that Amir al-mu'minin (A) said: `There are three distinguishing features of one accustomed to riya': he expresses joy and cheerfulness when he is greeted by people; he becomes cheerless and sullen when alone; and he wishes to be praised for everything he does.'

Campaign for real beauty

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Under Egypt's Volcano

By SCOTT ANDERSON
The "Red Sea Riviera," where tourists are shielded from the surrounding poverty and anti-West sentiment, has recently become a suicide-bomber target. Escaping to the seething streets, the author reports on an Egypt you aren't supposed to see

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The commercials are slick and alluring, holding out the promise of a pampered, hedonistic holiday in the sun: beautiful young couples lounging poolside, swimmers frolicking with dolphins and colorful fish, three women with fine, bikini-clad butts, gazing out at an azure sea. It is quite far into the spots before the dark-skinned locals first put in an appearance, but even they are no cause for alarm-most are in tailored servant uniforms and wear friendly smiles as they cater to their paler-complected guests. It's not clear where all this fun is taking place-maybe the Caribbean, maybe somewhere in the Mediterranean-until at the very end of the commercials, shown endlessly on CNN International, it's revealed to be someplace called Egypt's Red Sea Riviera.

Until a few years ago, no one had heard of the Red Sea Riviera. Perhaps that's because most of the shiny beach-resort hotels that fall under the marketing label aren't on the Red Sea at all, but rather on the Gulf of 'Aqaba, that narrow strip of water which separates the eastern coast of Egypt's Sinai Peninsula from Saudi Arabia and Jordan. No matter, because it really could be anywhere. From Taba, at the very north end, flush on the border with Israel, all the way down the 125 miles of rugged Sinai coastline to the main tourist resort of Sharm al-Sheikh, the visitor exists in a cocoon of pleasure scrubbed clean of exoticism, the largest gated playground on the planet. Within those gates are five-star hotels and restaurants and world-class scuba-diving, a Hard Rock Cafe, and McDonald's. Outside those gates is everyone and everything else, a purity maintained by police checkpoints on all roads leading into the enclave. The only Egyptians allowed to enter are those wealthy enough to vacation in the zone, or those who can prove they have jobs there; the others are turned back.

But in the modern world, ugly reality has a way of intruding into even the most sanitized playgrounds. For the Red Sea Riviera, that ugliness started on the evening of October 7, 2004, when a vegetable-delivery truck rolled up to the entrance of the Hilton in Taba. Hidden beneath its crates of produce was a bomb so powerful it brought down the entire front wing of the 10-story hotel, killing 32; almost simultaneously, two smaller bombs exploded at tourist campgrounds farther down the coast, killing 2 more. Nine months later, in July 2005, Sharm al-Sheikh itself was the target: three more bombs, 88 more dead. And just this past April, it was Dahab, a quiet resort town midway between Taba and Sharm al-Sheikh: again three bombs, more than 20 dead.

For the Egyptian government, the Sinai bombings arrived like a ghost it thought it had long since killed. In the 1990s, shadowy Islamic guerrilla organizations carried out a series of attacks on foreigners in Egypt, culminating in a horrific slaughter of 58 tourists and four Egyptians at the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut, in Luxor, in 1997. For this direct assault on one of the bulwarks of the economy-at almost $8 billion annually, tourism is the main source of Egyptian foreign exchange-the government conducted a brutal, no-holds-barred war against al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya (the Islamic Group), killing or disappearing hundreds, and imprisoning thousands more. The pogrom effectively ended terrorism in Egypt-until the 2004 attack on the Taba Hilton.

While nowhere approaching the scorched-earth campaign directed against al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya, the Egyptian authorities have responded to the Sinai bombings in nearly identical fashion. Each time they have launched massive police dragnets among the local population of Sinai, especially in its northeast corner, rounding up hundreds, sometimes thousands. Each time, they have quickly identified the perpetrators as local malcontents working in collusion with elements of Sinai's criminal underworld. Even as those conclusions have been questioned by human-rights organizations, the government has embarked on a new public-relations campaign designed to assure foreign investors and tourists that the danger has passed, that Egypt is safe once again.

By chance, I had a passing familiarity with all three places targeted in the Sinai bombings. In the spring of 2002, after spending six weeks in Israel on a story assignment, I had decided to go to the Sinai Peninsula to unwind. Crossing the Israeli-Egyptian border on foot, I had walked the 100 yards to the Taba Hilton to pick up a rental car for the drive down the coast. On the way, I stopped off in Dahab, the site of the most recent attack, before continuing on to Sharm al-Sheikh. There, I stayed just down the street from the Ghazala Gardens, the hotel where a suicide bomber had driven into the lobby during the July 2005 attacks and claimed the greatest number of victims.

Brief as my time there was, I came to feel that I was confronting two illusions, that just as the tourist enclaves in the Sinai had little in common with the rest of Egypt, so the nation as a whole bears scant resemblance to the placid image that its boosters-the Egyptian government, its friends in the West-wish to project. It is, instead, something of a seething volcano.

With at least 80 million inhabitants, Egypt is not only the most populous nation in the Arab world but in many ways its intellectual and political nexus, the fount from which nearly every major political or religious force to spread through the region in the past century has emerged. And while much has been made since September 11 of the danger posed by such Muslim fundamentalist trends as the Wahhabis in Saudi Arabia, it has been the much broader fundamentalist trends first fostered in Egypt, with their specifically anti-Western tilt, that have probably most fanned the flames of jihad throughout the region.

The pattern is unmistakable, should one bother to look. The Gama'a al-Islamiyya, a social movement espousing a rejection of Western values and a return to Islamic traditions, originated in Egypt in the 1970s before spreading throughout the Middle East. Islamic Jihad also has its roots in Egypt. Osama bin Laden was a disgruntled Saudi rich kid bankrolling Resistance fighters in Afghanistan until he came under the sway of his Egyptian spiritual mentor, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and decided to go global; for that matter, 4 or 5 of the 10 original founders of al-Qaeda were Egyptian. Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, one of the masterminds behind the first World Trade Center bombing? Egyptian. Mohammed Atta, the ringleader of 9/11? Egyptian. Wherever one turns in the arena of Islamic jihadists, one is likely to find either the direct or spiritual influence of an Egyptian.

I decided to take a closer look at the Sinai bombings, sensing that in exploring who might have been behind them and why I could glimpse the darker currents that run beneath the surface in Egypt. To do so, however, would mean somehow skirting the Egyptian state-security apparatus-no small obstacle. In the wake of the 1997 Luxor massacre, for example, the Swiss government launched an official investigation into the killings (most of those murdered had been Swiss citizens) but had been thwarted at every turn by the Egyptian authorities and finally abandoned the effort.

Still, there was at least one strong lead to follow. In the parking lot of the Taba Hilton, authorities had found the mangled bodies of the two men who had driven the delivery truck to the entrance; it's likely they had been running for their lives when the bomb went off prematurely. One of those dead men was identified as Suleiman Flaifil, a previously unknown day laborer from northern Sinai. Nearly 10 months later, Suleiman's older brother Muhammad was killed in a shoot-out with police while on the run from an indictment in the Taba case. Whatever the actual circumstances of Muhammad's death-being killed in a "shoot-out" with police is a suspiciously common event in Egypt-it was hard to imagine any possible motive for the authorities to have invented Suleiman's role in the Taba bombing. My goal, then, was to find out whatever I could about the mysterious Flaifil brothers.

But to focus solely on a tragedy, even one on a grand scale, is to render only a limited portrait of a place. While in Sharm al-Sheikh in 2002, I developed a friendship with a young man I will call Farouk-as much as any relationship between a "rich" American and a struggling Egyptian worker can be called a friendship-and over the intervening years, I stayed in regular e-mail contact with him. In long messages to me-letters, really-Farouk chronicled the slow, sad decline in his fortunes. While the Flaifil brothers' story was certainly more dramatic, I felt that also examining the ongoing saga that was Farouk's life might lead to a fuller grasp of what was happening in Egypt.

The first hint of a problem with this little plan arose when I wrote Farouk that I was coming over and would take him up on his long-standing offer to show me around Bani Suweif, his hometown. I got a panicked reply.

"It is better that you not come to Bani Suweif. I will come up to Cairo and meet you there." Then he pushed the point just a little too far. "Please don't come to Bani Suweif."

Big Nanny

'Welcome to Egypt," the concierge at my Cairo hotel said with a broad smile.

Never mind that I'd already been in Egypt for a week and had spoken with the man almost daily; this was his standard greeting, as it is with many Egyptians upon encountering a foreigner. In restaurants, in taxis, on the street, the phrase is heard so often-and often from people who don't speak any further English-that it almost seems like someone slipped it into the national anthem.

The concierge wore that pleasantly helpful expression common to people in his profession, but his look changed to bafflement when he heard my request. "You want to take a train to Bani Suweif? But there is no reason to go to Bani Suweif, sir."

I explained I had a friend there.

"An Egyptian friend? Then it is much better if he comes here."

"But I want to go there," I said.

With a frown of consternation, he picked up his telephone and spoke in hushed Arabic. He apparently heard good news, for his frown cleared, and he replaced the receiver with a relieved sigh. "I'm sorry, sir; very few trains go to Bani Suweif, and all the ones today are full. What is best is to arrange a minivan for you, with a driver and a guide."

I knew this couldn't be true. Just 75 miles south of Cairo on the Nile, the town of Bani Suweif lay on Egypt's main rail line; there were probably dozens of trains every day, and they couldn't all be full. The real issue, I suspected, was that I had just run up against Big Nanny.

In response to the terror attacks on foreigners in the 1990s, the Egyptian government now operates a vast internal-security apparatus designed to shield visitors from any potential unpleasantness or harm. Wander away from the demarcated and heavily protected tourist zones in the countryside and the ever present tourist police will try to herd you back; insist on proceeding and, more than likely, you will end up with your own bodyguard detail. The specific problem with Bani Suweif, I surmised, was that the nondescript industrial city, best known for the pall of white dust from its two cement factories, fell outside of any conceivable tourist zone. By stating my intention to go there, I had tripped the Big Nanny alarm bells-and those bells would continue to sound until I gave up or submitted to whatever minivan security package was arranged.

Telling the concierge I would think things over, I wandered away. I then went down to the main railway station and caught the first train.

I was met in Bani Suweif by my friend Farouk. He looked much as I remembered him-slight, handsome-but seemed ill at ease, and he barely smiled as he quickly shook my hand.

"It's best we not stay here," he said, turning to go, but it was already too late; one of the policemen lounging at the station entrance, seeing our exchange, hurried over to interrogate Farouk in rapid-fire Arabic.

Once away from the policeman and the rail station, Farouk grew visibly more relaxed. "He was asking how I knew you," he explained, "because it is against the law for a normal Egyptian to be with a foreigner."

This is not technically true, although the effect of a selectively enforced executive order is the same. One of the more bizarre weapons in the Big Nanny arsenal, the order bars all but accredited guides from being in the company of foreigners, and while it is intended mainly to thwart the swarms of touts and souvenir hawkers who congregate around tourist sites-certainly, a well-dressed, middle-class Egyptian walking down a Cairo street with a foreigner is unlikely to be bothered-police can use it as a pretext to stop any Egyptian, like Farouk, who doesn't fit into this rarefied category. As a result, it's not at all unusual when being accompanied by an Egyptian through areas where policemen typically congregate-bus and train stations, museum entrances, or bazaars-for them to walk some distance ahead or behind so as to avoid any signs of fraternization. One possible reason Farouk had discouraged me from coming to Bani Suweif was his fear of harassment by the authorities-quite a reasonable fear, obviously.

As he led me down a narrow, trash-strewn alley to his home, however, I wondered if there was another reason. The crumbling apartment he shared with his parents and three brothers consisted of three tiny rooms; the fetid open-air courtyard at the center, no bigger than a typical American bathroom, was home to two penned goats and a half-dozen chickens. Clearly embarrassed by his poverty, Farouk perfunctorily introduced me to his family, then led me up the stairs to the rooftop bedroom he shared with one of his brothers. It was a converted utility shed, measuring perhaps 6 by 10, with two narrow beds and a poster of the Isle of Capri on a peeling wall.

"So this is my home," he said with an apologetic smile. "I've lived here all my life."

What I had most remembered about Farouk from Sharm al-Sheikh was his broad, easy smile-a lady-killer's smile-and while there were still vestiges of that, it crossed his face far less frequently now, and appeared forced when it did. I also noticed a small circle of discoloration at the center of his forehead that hadn't been there before, the telltale scarring a devout Muslim man gets from repeatedly touching his head to the ground during prayer. I asked him about it.

"Yes, I go to the mosque a lot now." He laughed. His old grin came back. "I have a lot of free time."

From a poor family-his father was a day laborer-Farouk had started out as a diligent student with hopes of going to university, but failing to win admission to the local university, he was shunted into a vocational-training center. After a short time, though, his parents could no longer afford the tuition, and, just like that, he became part of the vast horde of young Egyptian men-countless millions of them-in search of a job, any job. Into his early 20s, he found occasional part-time work in Bani Suweif, while making periodic forays to Cairo in search of something better.

There was nothing better.

Then, in 2002, Farouk's luck finally changed; with a friend's work permit, he managed to cross the police checkpoint into Sharm al-Sheikh. For the twentysomething charmer from Bani Suweif, it was like crossing into a world he had only dreamed of, a land of limitless possibility.

In the Sun

Upon entering the courtyard of the walled compound, I was met by an odd sight: in the early-afternoon light, about a half-dozen men lay sprawled over the bare sand sound asleep, and there was something in the tight cluster they had formed with their bodies that reminded me of so many resting pack animals. Not everyone was sleeping, though. Leaning his back against a wall, the weathered lines of his dark face offset by a white robe, sat Sheikh Ahmed, father of the infamous Flaifil brothers.

The meeting had been arranged by an intermediary who had initially been doubtful the sheikh would agree to talk to me. Reluctance would have been understandable, for the death of his youngest son, Suleiman, at the Taba Hilton, had been only the beginning of very bad times for the Flaifil family-and, to a lesser degree, for all the residents of northern Sinai.

Once Suleiman had been identified as one of the Taba bombers, Egyptian security forces descended en masse on the al-'Arish region of northeastern Sinai, rounding up the male populations of entire neighborhoods and villages for questioning. According to the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights, as many as 3,000 men from the region were caught up in the dragnet-some quickly released, others held for months-and there were persistent reports of torture among the detainees. Naturally, the extended Flaifil family came in for special attention; Sheikh Ahmed and many other males of the clan had been hauled off to Tora Prison, outside Cairo, and some were kept there for weeks.

More bad news was coming. In March 2005 the government released an indictment naming three conspirators in the Taba bombings: two men already in custody, and one still at large. That fugitive was one of Sheikh Ahmed's other sons, Muhammad. In late July 2005, Muhammad's luck ran out; he was killed along with his wife in a purported shoot-out with the security forces in the 'Ataqa Mountains just east of Cairo.

"They killed him over there," his father said, waving his hand at the far wall of the compound, in the general direction of the distant mountains. "The police came and told me a few days later."

Initially, I attributed the sheikh's lack of affect in discussing the deaths of his two sons to a certain cultural barrier. The Flaifils were Bedouin, the desert tribesmen who are scattered from Saudi Arabia clear across North Africa, and in their hard life stoicism comes with the territory. Sheikh Ahmed was no more forthcoming, however, when I asked more neutral questions-about his sons' interests, their personalities-and I finally asked why.

"Because five years ago, I put them in the sun," he replied.

The verb in Arabic is shammasa, and in this context means "to banish." In Egypt, where family ties form the very core of one's identity, there can be no worse punishment; in fact, being "put in the sun" is so severe and so rarely invoked that many Egyptians don't even know the phrase's meaning.

According to Sheikh Ahmed, his sons' waywardness began when they were attending high school in al-'Arish, the principal city of northern Sinai, 10 miles down the road from the tribal village. There, they apparently took stock of their surroundings and saw a lot to dislike.

While obviously not to the Flaifil brothers' extreme, a very deep sense of disenfranchisement runs through the people of northern Sinai. Part of it, no doubt, is the continuing impoverishment of the region even as the tourist resorts in southern Sinai boom, but it also stems from the complexities of recent Egyptian history. Seized by the Israelis in the 1967 Six-Day War, the Sinai was returned to Egypt only after the signing of the Camp David Accords, in 1978; living under Israeli occupation for all those years, many residents naturally traded with-and were frequently employed in-the hated "Zionist state." No matter that today the two nations are officially at peace-many Egyptian-government officials still regard the residents of northern Sinai as untrustworthy "collaborationists" and don't consider them Egyptians at all. Not without reason, then, many Sinai natives have long felt they are second-class citizens, with the added insult now of being barred from the opulent tourist enclaves in their midst.

Rather than to overt political activism, however, the Flaifil brothers channeled their newfound discontent in a very different direction, one that would ultimately lead to their banishment from the tribe. In al-'Arish, Sheikh Ahmed explained, his sons fell in with a "religious group" that had major problems with the brand of Islam the Flaifil clan practiced. "They came back here and told me that I was a kafir, an infidel, that we were all infidels, and we had to change. I tried to reason with them-many of us did-but, finally, there was nothing more to be done, so I put them in the sun."

The Flaifils practiced Sufism, a mystical version of Islam that some other Muslim sects view as somewhat primitive. Still, it was hard to imagine any but the most ardent fundamentalists carrying their distaste to the point of denouncing their own families.

He rose to his feet, the audience drawing to an end. "Anyway, what is the use of talking about all this now? Five years ago they left me and that is all I know. Now they are dead, it is finished, and may God have mercy on their souls."

The Flaifil brothers had left this place and been cast into the modern world. Instead of its offering an easier life than the one they had known in their village, they apparently saw in it a vision of hell, a place to be destroyed.

Paradise Lost

In trying to describe his first impressions of Sharm al-Sheikh, Farouk groped for words. "It was just incredible to me. I had never imagined that a place could be so beautiful, or that people lived in such luxury. It was like I was watching a movie."

It was more than just the opulence of the resorts and fancy boutiques that Farouk had to adjust to. The extent of his romantic experiences in conservative Bani Suweif had been limited. In Sharm al-Sheikh, he had crossed into a hedonistic playground, a land of bars, casinos, and barely clad foreign girls lounging on the beach.

Most remarkable of all, he actually managed to find a job. With Farouk's winning personality and near fluency in English, a food-and-beverage manager for a hotel hired him as a stock boy.

"This was something that could never happen in Egypt," Farouk explained, quite unconsciously differentiating the tourist enclaves from the rest of the country, "because there, to get any good job, you must either have connections or you must pay the boss."

Like most young Egyptians, Farouk knows the pay scale by heart. To obtain a low-level position somewhere in the massive government bureaucracy-coveted because such a sinecure means health benefits and lifetime employment-he says one can expect to pay $1,000 for a post that pays $50 a month. To be hired on as a contract worker in the oil-rich Gulf states, where millions of Egyptians, Palestinians, Indians, Pakistanis, and other South Asians do most of the work, middleman "commissions" can easily come to six months of wages or more. It doesn't take a mathematician to figure out that this is essentially a method of indentured servitude, or that Farouk's "free" job represented an unlikely end run around the system.

At a salary of less than 300 Egyptian pounds a month-about $40-he worked 12 hours a day, seven days a week, re-stocking the hotel's various bars and restaurants. During his off time, he strove to better himself by brushing up on his English and gaining a working knowledge of Italian, German, and Russian, the predominant languages of the hotel's clientele. The effort paid off; increasingly, Farouk was called upon to serve behind the bar, a prized position in that it gave him direct contact with hotel guests.

"Because I have always been interested in learning about other countries," he explained blandly, "and it is nice to talk with people from all over."

In truth, Farouk's campaign to get to the "front of the store" was a good deal more calculated than he first let on, and it underscores one of the bleaker, if largely veiled, features of life in the tourist enclaves. Struggling to get by on a yearly wage that is about equal to what a foreign visitor to Sharm al-Sheikh might spend in a day, the Egyptian waiters and bartenders and drivers vie to find someone-anyone-who might somehow change their life: sponsor them for a job in Europe, say, or hire them on as a chauffeur, a personal assistant; almost anything will do. Among the largely male laborers, the most pursued of all are the foreign women, and not just for the chance to live as someone's pampered boy toy for a couple of weeks. The women are the holders of the most magical key of all: marriage, a new life, a permanent escape from a life of struggle.

"That is what all the guys I worked with were hoping for," Farouk said, "to marry a foreign woman and to leave. It was crazy, because sometimes they would take some woman out, spend a whole month's pay on buying her dinner and drinks, and then nothing. It was like gambling; that is the way most of them saw it. With gambling, you lose and lose and lose, but maybe someday you will win."

Farouk played a less expensive and potentially more clever version of this game, befriending foreigners-like myself-during their vacations in Sharm al-Sheikh and then endeavoring to stay in touch with them afterward through postcards or e-mails. Reaching under his bed in his rooftop room, he brought out a shoebox which contained perhaps 200 postcards.

They were from all over the world and grouped by sender. For some time, Farouk went through the bundles, describing their writers: a family in Spain, a businessman in Holland. Most of the messages were short and perfunctory-"This is a castle near our home; I hope you are well"-but the senders had at least been fond enough of Farouk to make the effort. I noticed that one bundle was tied with a piece of multicolored string, a slip of paper with a hand-drawn heart placed on top.

"From the girl I loved," Farouk said, untying the string.

The girl, from eastern Canada, had been on vacation in Sharm al-Sheikh with her family when they had met. As he flipped through the postcards, Farouk described a chaste, almost pre-pubescent version of romance: strolls along the beachfront promenade, long talks in a secluded corner of the hotel gardens, a quick kiss or hug when they were sure no one was looking.

"I loved her so much," he said, "and I thought she loved me, too, but ... " He held out a postcard. "This is the last one from her."

In a loopy, girlish hand, the message read, "How's my Smiler?! Good, I hope! I am fine, just very busy, but I'll write again soon! Hugs and kisses!" The postmark was more than two years old.

In late 2002, lured by the vague promise of even more lucrative work to be had in the Gulf states, he quit his job. What he didn't fully take into account, however, was the tremendous commission he would have to pay a middleman to obtain such work. Unable to come up with the commission, Farouk found himself back in Bani Suweif, living the hopeless life he had known before.

Pointing to the shoebox, I asked how many of his friends still wrote.

"None," he said quietly. "They have all stopped now."

Big Nanny vs. Big Brother

There was a palpable unease in the room, and my questions weren't helping. In a small village on the Mediterranean coast near al-'Arish, I had tracked down the widow of Suleiman Flaifil and been ushered into the sitting room of her family's spartan home. The small room was crowded with perhaps a dozen men and women perched on cushions along the walls, and while they clearly would have preferred I hadn't come, the Egyptian tradition of hospitality had made it all but impossible to turn me away. As it was, the 23-year-old widow, Fawzeya al-Deeb, left most of the talking to her father, 'Emeira. Wearing a black veil that covered everything but her brown eyes, she sat alongside and struggled to control her and Suleiman's only child, a two-year-old boy named Mosaab.

By 'Emeira al-Deeb's telling, he had known remarkably little about Suleiman before inviting him into his family. The two Flaifil brothers had been living together for some time in the inland village of al-Gourah, about 10 miles away, and 'Emeira had first met Suleiman when he came around the area looking for work. "He worked here in the fields-kept to himself. He would pray at the mosque and spend time with his wife. He was very decent and high-minded."

On the topic of his son-in-law's background and religious beliefs, 'Emeira professed to have known even less; it seemed they had never really discussed religion, and other than mentioning he was originally from a village on the other side of al-'Arish, Suleiman had never talked about his family. As for Muhammad Flaifil, Suleiman's older brother, 'Emeira could recall meeting him only once.

"I don't believe he was involved in any of this," the father-in-law concluded. "If I thought differently, I never would have let him into my home."

When gently coaxed, Fawzeya was even less forthcoming, allowing that her husband had been a kind man and that his one pleasure had been swimming in the sea in the evenings. It seemed they had never discussed religion, either.

The source of the family's profound incuriosity wasn't hard to trace. When word of Suleiman's involvement in the Taba bombing had reached the al-Deebs, all the males in the family had gone into hiding, only surrendering to police a week later, when they realized they couldn't stay on the run indefinitely. While most had soon been released, 'Emeira al-Deeb said that four members of the extended family were still being held. Understandably, they had decided that talking with a foreigner about the dead man who had once lived in their midst was only to invite more trouble.

As unenlightening as they were about Suleiman Flaifil, the al-Deebs were very revealing about a larger facet of Egyptian life-how perfectly innocent people might act in seemingly guilty ways. Why had the men of the family run when they learned the security forces were looking for them? Because, faced with the prospect of spending weeks or months languishing in jail, going on the run was precisely what hundreds of other men throughout northern Sinai had done. If to lesser consequence, it also shed light on why Farouk had been so reluctant to have me come to Bani Suweif. Not because he had anything to hide, but because he knew that once the machinery of state security slips into gear-and the catalyst can be as innocuous as an inquisitive policeman at a train station-it can develop a self-perpetuating momentum that will grind up anyone in its path.

But, in fact, the visit with the al-Deeb family was not totally unfruitful. As I was preparing to leave, one of the younger men in the room came alongside to mutter a suggestion. "This was a small group and Suleiman was involved," he said. "If you want to find out more, go to al-Gourah."

Even before the Flaifil brothers' residency enhanced its notoriety, the sprawling farm community of al-Gourah, near the Israeli border, had the reputation of being a nest of criminal activity, a convenient staging ground for smugglers running guns and drugs across the border, while also being remote enough to serve as a gathering place for Islamic fundamentalists seeking to stay below the state-security radar. And it wasn't as if the Flaifil brothers' demise had ended tension in al-Gourah; in mid-August 2005, a bomb targeting the local garrison of the Multinational Force and Observers, an international monitoring group that has patrolled the Egyptian-Israeli border since the Camp David Accords, injured two Canadians.

On the outskirts of al-Gourah, I contacted a man I will call Rami, a neighbor of the Flaifil brothers'.

"They came here about five years ago," Rami said of the brothers, "and, at first, there was no problem with them. They came to the mosque and prayed with us. But gradually we could see that they wanted to take over the mosque leadership, that they were very militant. Then I learned that, after praying with us in the mosque, they would go out to the desert with other men and pray again. From that time, I wanted to have nothing to do with them."

I didn't catch the significance of the Flaifils' repeating their prayers out in the desert and pressed Rami on the point.

"Because they believed the mosque was unclean," he explained, his voice dropping to a whisper. "Because they were Takfiris."

Of all the factions in extremist Islam, the Takfiris occupy a particularly fearsome niche. While holding that all so-called Islamic nations are now in a state of apostasy and thus legitimate targets for jihad, the Takfiris extend this target list to anyone-Muslim and non-Muslim alike-who might oppose them. More unnerving, while most Islamic fundamentalists subscribe to the tradition of growing beards and dressing conservatively, making them easy to spot, the Takfiris do not; instead, in their covert campaign to strike down the enemies of "true" Islam, it's more important to blend into society, even if this means adopting a very modern guise-the ultimate sleeper cells, in other words.

In our conversation, Rami let slip something else. The Flaifil brothers had been employed by relatives of his living nearby. After considerable cajoling, he agreed to try to arrange a meeting with those relatives at a teahouse the following morning. When I arrived the next day, however, Rami was ashen, literally trembling with fear.

"After you left last night," he explained, "the police came to my house. They knew all about our meeting-they had a tape recording of it-and they forced me to tell them when you were coming back. They are coming here now."

As ultimately became clear, nothing of the sort had happened. Rather, Rami had been so frightened at the possible repercussions of talking with a foreign journalist that he called the police himself. The result was the same, however. Within minutes, several cars pulled up to the teahouse, and a dozen or so uniformed and plainclothes police piled out. The one in charge, a stern-faced man in his 30s, instructed me to follow him in my car to the state-security headquarters in al-'Arish. Instead, we continued on through the town to a police checkpoint on its western outskirts, where he stopped, walked back to my car, and pointed down the highway.

"You have been ordered to leave North Sinai," he said. "That is the way to Cairo."

I asked who was ordering me out.

"My superiors."

"And who are they?"

He grew angry at my impertinence. "It doesn't matter who. It is orders, and so you will leave."

I refused to do so until he gave me the names. I could afford to be combative because I figured there would be no great consequences in being so: I was a foreigner, after all, and in Egypt, Big Nanny will almost always trump Big Brother.

While waiting for the names of the officials who were expelling me from northern Sinai-a list I already knew would never be provided-I chatted with the state-security man, and the initial hostility between us began to melt away. Now that he had accomplished his mission-it was just a matter of time before I gave up, and we both knew it-his tone became solicitous, Big Brother slipping into Big Nanny. "We are only doing this for your own safety, you know? The area you were in is very dangerous for an American. The people there are criminals, not good Egyptians. Anything could have happened to you."

When finally I re-started my car for the four-hour drive to Cairo, he extended his hand with a warm smile.

"Welcome to Egypt," he said. "I hope you have an enjoyable visit."

The Angriest Man in Egypt

In the afternoon, Farouk and I took a walk around Bani Suweif. He had told me the town wasn't much, and he hadn't been lying: it was a sleepy, dusty place of ramshackle cinder-block buildings.

As we strolled, Farouk told me of his life in the nearly four years since he had left Sharm al-Sheikh. It was an unbroken litany of disasters and dashed hopes, the worst being when he did finally go to the Gulf under the promise of a hotel job in Dubai. According to Farouk, to come up with the $1,200 commission charged by the middleman contractor, he had hocked his mother's sole possession of any value, a gold bracelet, but the Dubai hotel turned out to be a weekend condominium complex 50 miles from the nearest town, and there Farouk and the other Egyptian contract workers essentially toiled for their room and board, sometimes so hungry they would scavenge for scraps in the trash cans of the wealthy weekenders. After 15 months he returned home, having saved nothing.

"Now it is hard for me to stay here," he said. "Because I am the oldest son in my family, I should have a job. So everyone sees me as a failure."

I asked why he didn't try to return to Sharm al-Sheikh.

"I've thought about it, but it's not so easy- and that takes money, too. Besides, the lifestyle there is not a good one."

I took this as a reference to the enclave's libertine ways, and I noticed again the spot of discoloration on Farouk's forehead, evidence of the untold hours he was spending in the mosque.

Lending a certain desperation to his situation, he had recently fallen in love with a local girl and wanted to marry her. For that to happen, though, he needed money for an apartment, for furniture-perhaps $5,000-and that was a fantasy as long as he stayed in Bani Suweif.

"She says she loves me, too, and would like to marry, but now there is a rich guy who is interested in her. She says she will wait for me as long as she can, but I know she won't wait much longer."

When I asked what he planned to try next, Farouk merely looked out at the Nile, his face settling into a deep somberness. After a time, he turned to stare at me. "I have a friend who would like to meet you."

He led me back to his neighborhood and down a different alleyway. Climbing the stairs of a run-down apartment building, we were met on the landing by a man in his 30s whom I will call Ashraf. He was unlike any other Egyptian I had met. No warm greeting or customary offer of tea; instead, Ashraf ushered us into the tiny sitting room of his parents' apartment and fairly glared at me through the haze of his cigarette smoke.

"So you're an American?" he asked.

I said I was, and he immediately launched into a tirade against the United States. "America right now is on top, but the top is unfair. It will come down. History shows us that."

Gradually, though, a local component to his rancor emerged and his angry words shifted to Mubarak and the Egyptian government. "'King' Mubarak and his gang have collapsed our economy.... We have no economy, we have no freedom." Relative to other regimes in the Middle East, the Egyptian dictatorship permits a fairly wide latitude when it comes to political expression, and it's not uncommon to hear people criticize President Mubarak. Ashraf's vituperation, however, fell into an altogether more dangerous category, for while the middle class and intelligentsia can hold protest marches in Cairo-in fact, that plays very well to the Bush administration's claims of Egypt's being an "emerging democracy"-that privilege most certainly doesn't extend to young, disaffected men on the streets of places such as Bani Suweif.

In contrast to Farouk, Ashraf had attended university and done well enough to aspire to become a "professional." He borrowed money to start a business in Bani Suweif and did very well until the harassment and demands for kickbacks from the local authorities began.

Now in debt, Ashraf scratched by on the occasional day job, but most of his time was spent, like Farouk's, idly walking the streets of Bani Suweif or sitting in his parents' apartment. But there was a difference between the two. Where Farouk still nursed a flickering hope for something better, Ashraf, his elder, had given up.

If angrier than any other Egyptian I'd met, Ashraf also seemed to personify a facet of the Egyptian personality I'd long sensed lay just beneath the surface: the rage of a people living in a state of near-constant humiliation.

Some of these humiliations come with life under a dictatorship-the corruption, the petty harassments-but others are specific to Egypt. In the land of one of the world's most fabled ancient civilizations, the average Egyptian now struggles to get by on less than $1,000 a year. About the only opportunity for most Egyptians to economically advance is to labor as indentured servants for their far richer Gulf Arab cousins, or to obsequiously cater to the foreigners in their midst.

Perhaps the greatest humiliation of all, however, is that a people born in the very cradle of pan-Arab nationalism now find themselves in servile alliance with the two nations-Israel and the United States-that they most regard as the mortal enemies of the Arab cause. For this, Egyptians quite correctly blame their government, and it is no coincidence that recent public demonstrations against the current regime began as demonstrations against the American invasion of Iraq, shouts of "Down with Bush" seamlessly, quite naturally, segueing into shouts of "Down with Mubarak."

"Look at me," Ashraf said. "I feel like I'm 70. I feel like I don't have any future. Not even 1 percent of my dreams have come true. If I had a chance to do something, I'd take up a gun. It's the same life for me whether I live or die."

Throughout Ashraf's diatribe, Farouk listened intently, occasionally studying me as if to gauge my reaction.

The Trial

In the shabby little lawyers' lounge of the Isma'iliyya courtroom, the half-dozen defense lawyers in the Taba Hilton bombing trial debated among themselves just how weird their case was about to become.

Up until that morning, everything had been going their way. In eight months of stop-and-start testimony, the prosecutors of Muhammad Abdallah Riba'a and Muhammad Gayez Sabah, the only two surviving suspects in the case, had done little more than establish that a crime had been committed, while producing virtually nothing in the way of evidence to tie either man to the crime. The government's effort had also suffered from a disquieting pattern of violent death among alleged co-conspirators. Along with Muhammad Flaifil, the original third defendant in the case, at least five other men had been killed in purported shoot-outs with security forces, with the added difficulty that most had not been identified as suspects beforehand, their names joined to the "conspiracy" only in death.

In recent weeks, however, rumors had circulated that the prosecutors were preparing to drop a bombshell in the Isma'iliyya courtroom-and that they were going to do it at that morning's session. The most popular theory held that they would try to add more defendants to the case, but just how many the defense lawyers in the lounge could only guess.

Shortly before noon, word came that the trial session was about to begin, and we made our way through a lobby crowded with uniformed and plainclothes police. The courtroom was remarkably small given that this was Egypt's most notorious terrorism trial in a generation, just seven narrow spectator benches descending to a well, beyond which rose the judges' bench. In one of those architectural peculiarities that speaks volumes about a society, the three prosecutors sat at a table that formed part of the raised dais, only slightly lower than the table for the three judges; the defense attorneys were relegated to standing in the well, six feet below. The most arresting feature of the room, though, was a metal cage, measuring perhaps 6 by 12, along the right wall, its iron bars reinforced by steel mesh.

After a few minutes, the defendants began filing into the cage from a back room. I recognized Riba'a and Gayez from photographs, but after them, more and more men-13 more in all-crowded into the cage. All were in white or blue gallabiyyas, the traditional calf-length gown worn by Egyptian men, most bore scrubby beards from their long captivity, and they gazed about the courtroom with wide, puzzled eyes.

The session was brief. The chief prosecutor, a portly, balding man with an imperturbable manner, read out the newly expanded indictment, one which, like the original, provided little in the way of specifics about what the men were said to have done. The new defendants were then asked how they pleaded to the charges. All professed their innocence, and some took the opportunity to complain that they had been tortured during their captivity, that they had no idea of why they were there, or who the other men in the cage-their alleged co-conspirators-were. These various protestations appeared to impress the three judges about as much as the defense team's suggestion that, under Egyptian law, it is illegal to add new defendants to an ongoing trial-which is to say not at all. As plainclothes policemen formed a human wall around the cage, the prisoners were herded out the back door for their return to prison.

Afterward, I came across Ahmed Seif, the chief defense lawyer, somberly smoking a cigarette in the lobby. "I'm afraid they will make these men pay," he said. "The prosecution's case is so weak that now they must make examples of them."

If found guilty by the special state security court in which they're being tried, the Taba defendants not only face the death penalty but have no right to appeal.

At a coffee shop across the street from the courthouse, I was greeted by the elderly parents of Muhammad Riba'a, whom I had interviewed two months earlier in al-'Arish; their 42-year-old son, one of the original defendants, had been a metalworker and stood accused of having built the steel casings for the Taba bombs.

Muhammad's mother explained they had come from al-'Arish that morning to attend the day's session but had been barred from entering by the police. "How did it go?" she asked me with a kindly smile. "How did my son look?"

I didn't know what to tell her, so I said that Muhammad looked well, that his lawyers seemed to be doing a good job. She beamed at this, still apparently oblivious to the elaborate apparatus that had her son in its grip, that now seemed even less likely to ever let go of him.

The American Dream

'People might say that we take a severe approach to terrorism," a senior Egyptian government official told me on condition of anonymity, "but the fact is it works. Look at our record. There has never been an act of terrorism in Egypt that hasn't been solved."

At the time, the 13 new defendants had just been added to the Taba bombing case, and the Egyptian government had hinted it was about to bring indictments for the July 2005 attacks in Sharm al-Sheikh.

"I think we can say with great confidence that this group is finished now," Major-General Ahmed Omar, the spokesman for the Interior Ministry, told me in his Cairo office. "We uncovered [them] in record time.... Others are now being questioned."

General Muhammad Hani Metwalli, the new governor-general of southern Sinai, where both Taba and Sharm al-Sheikh are located, was even more sanguine. "President Mubarak has helped us to recover and to overcome these incidents very rapidly." The general pointed to the 95 percent occupancy rate among Sharm al-Sheikh hotels during the last Christmas-New Year season as proof that the resort had fully recovered from the July attacks.

"We are now working on expanding the airport runway," he explained, "and making the blueprints for the next five years' development. In a few years, Sharm al-Sheikh will be twice the size it is now."

One of the general's goals was to see more Americans come to the Red Sea Riviera, expanding from its mostly European client base. "This is a city of peace and beauty. We welcome any American tourists."

On my last day in Cairo, Farouk came up from Bani Suweif to say good-bye. Uncomfortable with being seen on the streets with me, he suggested we go to a caf�, and we ended up at a Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet, of all things, in the basement of a downtown shopping center. For some time, we talked about Farouk's latest plan. He had heard there were hotel jobs in Tunisia, and he was trying to raise the money he needed for the expedition.

His ultimate dream, though, was to win the American-visa lottery. Every year, the U.S. awards some 50,000 work visas around the world, and this was the fourth year in a row that Farouk was applying.

"Of course, it is a very small chance I can win," he said, "but all my friends apply each year, and I have heard that two men from Bani Suweif have won in the past. One is in Chicago, the other in Los Angeles, I think, and now their lives are very good."

For some minutes, Farouk rhapsodized about what his life would become if he won the lottery, how it would answer all his dreams. "Because I know in America I would be a great success. Everything would be wonderful for me then."

After a short time, though, Farouk seemed to reflect on just how improbably small the odds were of this happening, and grew more solemn.

"You remember my friend Ashraf?" he asked. "He didn't tell you this, but last year he got an Iraqi visa. He wanted to join the jihad-as a fighter or as a shaheed [martyr], he didn't care-but so many Egyptian men have gone there that they have closed the land routes. To go to Iraq now, you first have to fly to Syria, and he didn't have the money for that."

It sounded like some bad joke, a guy so down on his luck he couldn't even get himself killed, but then Farouk continued in a soft voice.

"Sometimes I think maybe I should do that. They talk about it a lot in the mosques, about all the young men going there. I think I'm too soft to be a fighter, that it's not in my spirit, but I don't know ... If I could go and kill some Americans before I die, then maybe my life would have had some meaning."

Throughout our conversation, the K.F.C. manager had been solicitously hovering a short distance away, and as we rose to leave, he hurried over to ask where I was from.

"America," Farouk answered for me, touching my shoulder with a hint of proprietary pride. "He is my American friend."

"Ah, American!" The manager beamed, extended his hand. "Welcome to Egypt."

Destiny

At the end of my meeting with the anonymous Egyptian official, in late March, he gave me a polite admonishment. "You'll write whatever you want, obviously," he said, "but all I ask is that you not scare people about Egypt."

I assured him that was not my intention.

On April 24, less than a month after that conversation, the three bombs went off in Dahab, killing more than 20. Two days later, the Multinational Force and Observers garrison outside al-Gourah was again targeted, this time by a suicide bomber, while almost simultaneously another bomber blew himself up near a group of policemen outside al-'Arish. While neither shaheed succeeded in killing others, the attacks bore a foreboding similarity to those seen all too often in Iraq.

As in the wake of Taba and Sharm al-Sheikh, the Dahab bombings led the Egyptian security forces to conduct a dragnet in the northern Sinai. By the end of that month, they announced they had rounded up some 30 suspects in the latest attacks, while at least 6 other suspects had been killed in shoot-outs with the authorities. On May 9, news came that the alleged mastermind of the attacks, Nasser Khamis al-Mallahi, had been slain in a shoot-out near al-'Arish. The Egyptian Interior Ministry declared that his death was "a significant breakthrough."

In early April, Farouk made the passage to Tunisia in search of work. He was detained after one day there and deported back to Egypt, where he spent five days in prison. Upon his return to Bani Suweif, he learned that the woman he hoped to marry had become engaged to his wealthy rival. In an e-mail to me, he said he had contemplated suicide for the first time in his life, but had then talked to a wise old man in the local mosque.

"He told me that nobody can change his destiny," Farouk wrote, "and I should pray to God more and more. After I listened to his words, I felt very relaxed."

Scott Anderson has covered conflicts across the globe. His most recent book is Moonlight Hotel: A Novel (Doubleday).
Illustrations by TIM SHEAFFER

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I mentioned this before, my friend miguel's band... noooot baaad eh.....

These Saudis are nuts!

I quote from the blog I stole it from Lantern Torch

"I was perusing a popular salafi site (just to see what type of information they had — and to check out their latest sufi-refutations), and I stumbled upon an intriguing fatwa, apparently from Shaykh Al-Uthaymeen, proving that the sun revolves around the earth.

His only argument is that the Qur’an mentions the sun moving, and thus he makes an assumption from those verses that the earth is stationary. But the fact that the sun moves is not indicative of its movement around the earth. The Qur’an clearly states that the sun has its own orbit and does not mention that orbit as being around the earth. Science now confirms this (although the Qur’an mentioned it 1400 years ago), that the solar systems revolve around the center of the galaxy.

There is also quite a bit of evidence in the Qur’an about the earth’s rotation on its axis and its revolving around the sun."

Imam Ali once said: "O' (people of) differing minds and divided hearts, whose bodies are present but wits are absent. I am leading you (amicably) towards truthfulness, but you run away from it like goats and sheep running away from the howling of a lion. How hard it is for me to uncover for you the secrets of justice, or to straighten the curve of truthfulness." Truly these days we are running blind.

An amazing animated short, must watch

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