Document – Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, “Message to the Pilgrims” (1980)

Document

Greetings to the visitors to God’s Sacred House who have gathered at the focal point of revelation, the place where God’s angels alight. Greetings to the believers who have migrated from their own homes to the House of God. Greetings to all Muslims of the world whose prophet is the Most Noble Messenger [Muhammad, founder of the Islamic faith], the Seal of the Prophets, whose book is the Noble Qur’an, and whose qibla [the point toward which Muslims turn to pray] is the Exalted Ka’ba [the small building containing a sacred black stone, the objective of pilgrimage to Mecca]. Greetings to those . . . who have freed themselves from the fetters of slavery and obedience to the idols installed in the centers of tyranny, imperialism, and satanic power, who have joined themselves to the absolute power of God and the firm rope of tauhid [divine unity]. Greetings to those who have grasped the sense of God Almighty’s summons and set out, in response, to His House.

Now it is necessary for me to bring certain matters to your attention, free Muslims who have gathered at the site of revelation in order to fulfill a duty that relates both to worship and politics, so that you may be made aware of what is happening in the Muslim countries; what plans are underway to subjugate, exploit, and dominate the Muslims; and what impure hands are engaged in kindling the fires of division.

At a time when all the Muslims in the world are about to join together and achieve mutual understanding between the different schools of thought in Islam, in order to deliver their nations from the foul grasp of the superpowers; at a time when the arms of the Eastern and Western oppressors are about to be foreshortened in Iran, by means of unity of purpose and reliance on God Almighty—precisely at this time, the Great Satan has summoned its agents and instructed them to sow dissension among the Muslims by every imaginable means, giving rise to hostility and dispute among brothers in faith who share the belief in tauhid, so that nothing will stand in the way of complete domination and plunder. Fearing that the Islamic Revolution of Iran will spread to other countries, Muslim and non-Muslim alike, and thus compel it to remove its foul hands from the lands it dominates, the Great Satan is resorting to another stratagem now, after the failure of both the economic boycott and the military attack. It is attempting to distort the nature of our Islamic Revolutions in the eyes of Muslims throughout the world in order to set the Muslims at each others’ throats while it continues its exploitation and oppression of the Muslim countries. . . .

3. One of the themes that the planners of disunion among the Muslims have put forward, and their agents are engaged in promoting, is that of race and nationalism. For years the government of Iraq has been busy promoting nationalism, and certain other groups have followed the same path, setting the Muslims against each other as enemies. To love one’s fatherland and its people and to protect its frontiers are both quite unobjectionable, but nationalism, involving hostility to other Muslim nations, is something quite different. It is contrary to the Noble Qur’an and the orders of the Most Noble Messenger. Nationalism that results in the creation of enmity between Muslims and splits the ranks of the believers is against Islam and the interests of the Muslims. It is a stratagem concocted by the foreigners who are disturbed by the spread of Islam.

Part of the extensive propaganda campaign being waged apparently against Iran, but in reality against Islam, is intended to show that the Revolution of Iran cannot administer our country or that the Iranian government is about to fall, since Iran supposedly lacks a healthy economy, proper educational system, disciplined army, and armed forces ready for combat. Propaganda to this effect is put out by all the mass media of America and its allies, giving comfort to the enemies of Iran and Islam.

The propaganda is actually directed against Islam, for they want to pretend that Islam in the present day is incapable of administering a country. The Muslims should study matters carefully, comparing the Iranian Islamic Revolution with non-Islamic revolutions. Our Islamic Revolution inherited a country that was completely dependent upon the outside world that was ruined and backward in every respect. For more than fifty years, the Pahlavi puppetⁱ had dragged our country down, filling the pockets of the foreigners—particularly Britain and America—with the abundant wealth of our land, and awarding what little remained to itself and its agents and hangers-on. In short, it left us many problems to face. But by the blessing of Islam and our Muslim people, in the space of less than two years, we have voted on, approved, and put into practice all the measures necessary for the administration of the country. Despite all the difficulties that America and its satellites have created for us—economic boycott, military attack, and the planning of extensive coups d’etat—our valiant people have attained self-sufficiency in foodstuffs. Soon we will transform the imperialist-inspired education system that existed under the previous regime into an independent and Islamic education system. The armed forces, the Revolutionary Guards, the gendarmerie [soldiers who have police authority over civilians], and the police stand ready to defend the country and uphold order, and they are prepared to offer their lives in jihad [divinely authorized struggle] for the sake of Islam. In addition, a general mobilization of the entire nation is under way, with the nation equipping itself to fight for the sake of Islam and the country. Let our enemies know that no revolution in the world was followed by less bloodshed or brought greater achievements than our Islamic Revolution, and that this is due entirely to the blessing of Islam. Do our enemies know what they are saying? Is Islam supposed to be incapable of administering countries, the same Islam that for several centuries ruled over more than half the populated areas of the globe, and that overthrew the governments of unbelief and oppression in less than half a century? . . . [T]he true nature of Islamic rule has been abandoned and obscured. It must now be presented to the world anew through the efforts of all Muslims, particularly the scholars and thinkers, so that the bright visage of Islam will shine over the world like the sun.

Muslims the world over who believe in the truth of Islam, arise and gather beneath the banner of tauhid and the teachings of Islam! Repel the treacherous superpowers from your countries and your abundant resources. Restore the glory of Islam, and abandon your selfish disputes and differences, for you possess everything! Rely on the culture of Islam, resist Western imitation, and stand on your own feet. Attack those intellectuals who are infatuated with the West and the East, and recover your true identity. Realize that intellectuals in the pay of foreigners have inflicted disaster upon their people and countries. As long as you remain disunited and fail to place your reliance in true Islam, you will continue to suffer what you have suffered already. We are now in an age when the masses act as the guides to the intellectuals and are rescuing them from abasement and humiliation by the East and the West. For today is the day that the masses of the people are on the move; they are the guides to those who previously sought to be the guides themselves. Know that your moral power will overcome all other powers. With a population of almost one billion and with infinite sources of wealth, you can defeat all the powers. Aid God’s cause so that he may aid you. Great ocean of Muslims, arise and defeat the enemies of humanity. If you turn to God and follow the heavenly teachings, God Almighty and His vast hosts will be with you.

The most important and painful problem confronting the subjugated nations of the world, both Muslim and non-Muslim, is the problem of America. In order to swallow up the material resources of the countries it has succeeded in dominating, America, the most powerful country in the world, will spare no effort.

America is the number-one enemy of the deprived and oppressed people of the world. There is no crime America will not commit in order to maintain its political, economic, cultural, and military domination of those parts of the world where it predominates. It exploits the oppressed people of the world by means of the large-scale propaganda campaigns that are coordinated for it by international Zionism. By means of its hidden and treacherous agents, it sucks the blood of the defenseless people as if it alone, together with its satellites, had the right to live in this world.

Iran has tried to sever all its relations with this Great Satan and it is for this reason that it now finds wars imposed upon it. America has urged Iraq to spill the blood of our young men, and it has compelled the countries that are subject to its influence to boycott us economically in the hope of defeating us. Unfortunately, most Asian countries are also hostile to us. Let the Muslim nations be aware that Iran is a country effectively at war with America, and that our martyrs—the brave young men of our army and the Revolutionary Guard—are defending Iran and the Islam we hold dear against America. Thus, it is necessary to point out, the clashes now occurring in the west of our beloved country are caused by America; every day we are forced to confront various godless and treacherous groups there. This is a result of the Islamic content of our Revolution, which has been established on the basis of true independence. Were we to compromise with America and the other superpowers, we would not suffer these misfortunes. But our nation is no longer ready to submit to humiliation and abjection; it prefers a bloody death to a life of shame. We are ready to be killed and we have made a covenant with God to follow the path of our leader, the Lord of the Martyrs.

Muslims who are now sitting next to the House of God, engaged in prayer! Pray for those who are resisting America and the other superpowers, and understand that we are not fighting against Iraq. The people of Iraq support our Islamic Revolution; our quarrel is with America, and it is America whose hand can be seen emerging from the sleeve of the Iraqi government. God willing, our struggle will continue until we have achieved real independence, for, as I have said repeatedly, we are warriors, and for Muslims surrender has no meaning.

Review

1. 1. Who does Khomeini identify as the same enemies to peace?

2. 2. What did Khomeini offer to warriors for Islam?

3. 3. What did Khomeini accuse the United States of doing that was harmful? What were America’s motives?

4. 4. On the basis of this message to all Muslims, what did Khomeini seem to think was necessary to bring lasting peace to mankind?