Imam Khomeini’s Last Will and Testament

In Iran, too, in which the people worked this great miracle of our time [the Islamic Revolution], the armed forces had a great role to play, and today when th15 damned war that is being imposed upon us by Saddam [Hussein] by the order of the United States and other world powers is, after two years since its outbreak, bringing political and military defeat for the invading Ba’athist army of Iraq, a success which has been accomplished by our armed forces and by the Sepah [Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps], and by the effort of populist forces and the liberal support of the masses and their contributions to the war effort both at war-fronts and behind the fronts, and they are the people who have made Iran proud, and the various internal plots designed and engineered by the pawns of the arch-leaders of the Western bloc and Eastern bloc countries were foiled, thanks to the mighty hands of our youth in Committees [Islamic Revolution Committees]8 and to our zealous people.
And our committeemen are the same people who keep overnight vigils so that the people might now rest peacefully. May God be their Aider.
Therefore, in these last days of my life I offer my brotherly advice to our armed forces as follows: You dear people who endear Islam and who are performing acts of self-sacrifice at the battlefronts and other valuable services elsewhere throughout our country for the cause of God and prompted by your love for reunion with God, be wakeful that the sharp edge of the weapon of treachery and murder of political operatives and veteran West¬ struck and East-struck politicians as well as the secret hands of behind-the-scene criminals are pointing at you more than at any other group.
They want to exploit you who have brought forward the victory of the Islamic Revolution with your acts of self-sacrifice and who revived Islam-for toppling the Islamic Republic, and plan to sever you from the nation and throw you into the fold of either one of the world-devouring poles and cancel your efforts and your acts of self-sacrifice by political intrigues with a show of commitment to Islam and nationalism.
I enjoin the armed forces not to subscribe to any political party or group and that they keep themselves aloof of political games, and adhere to the relevant discipline. This applies invariably to all sectors of the armed forces, including army men, security forces, Islamic Revolutionary Guardian Corps, Basij [Mobilized forces] and others Volunteers. Only then will they be able to maintain their military power and prevent in-fighting due to personal differences. The commanders, too, have a responsibility to prevent the people under their supervision from subscribing to political parties.
Because the Revolution belongs to the people and its protection is the responsibility of all, it is the religious and national responsibility of the government, the people, the Defense Council and the Islamic Consultative Assembly to oppose any act by the armed forces and their commanders of whatsoever level which is judged to be against the interests of Islam and the country, and also to oppose their subscription to political parties, or their involvement in political games, which will certainly entail their doom.
It is the responsibility of the leader or leadership council of the Islamic Republic to firmly stand against such things so that our nation will be protected from harm. At the end of this earthly life of mine, I sincerely exhort all members of the armed forces to be loyal to Islam, as you have been to this point, which is the only religious ideology for independence and freedom and in which the Blessed and Supreme Lord invites all men with the leading rays of Islam to a most exalted status. It rids you, your country and your nation of the disgrace of dependence on the foreign powers who want you only for serving them as slaves and who will keep your country and people backward, and only as a consumer nation and under the burden of oppression.
Then prefer a dignified human-like life, although fraught with obstacles, to a humiliating life of slavery to foreigners, although it may be marked by animalistic comfort. Remember that as long as you extend an asking hand to foreigners for your needs in advanced technology and as long as you lead a beggarly life in the international community you will not witness the growth of your inventive talent in technology.
In the wake of the economic sanctions against Iran you witnessed with your eyes that the same Iranians who used to judge themselves as being unable to do many of the things previously done solely by expatriate workers and who had been previously been told that they would not be able to turn the wheels of their country’s industries, and who distrusted their own inherent capacity for doing so, eventually ventured to rely on their own talent and thereby responded to the needs of the armed forces and their various factories and plants.
Therefore, this war economic sanctions, and the ouster of foreign experts from Iran was, in fact, a divine blessing for us the value of which we did not appreciate in the beginning. Now if the government and if our armed forces voluntarily ban foreign-made products and instead increase their efforts for improving native capacities in technical and industrial areas, there is hope to believe that our country will become self-sufficient and will be rid of begging its own enemies for technical and industrial help.
I must hasten to add that our need for advanced industries of progressive countries is indisputable, but that is not to be interpreted that for advanced technology and scientific know-how we will have to depend on either of the two power blocs politically.
Our government and armed forces should make an effort to send self-committed students for higher studies to the countries which do not adhere to colonialism or pursue colonialistic policies rather than send them to the U.S. or the Soviet Union and to certain other countries which follow and promote the policies of either of the two poles.
Except, perhaps when the two powers have admitted their past mistakes and have abandoned their predatory policies and adopted a foreign policy based on humane principles, or when, God willing, the oppressed masses of the world, the wakeful nations and committed Muslims have subdued them. May that day comes.
M. The radio, the television, the print media, the theaters and the cinemas have been successfully used to intellectually anesthetize nations, and especially the youth. During the present century, particularly during the latter half of the century, the broadcast and print media have been used to full capacity as a propaganda tool against Islam and the serving ulama, as tools for airing the propaganda of the colonialist Western and Eastern power blocs, as a tool for marketing products, especially luxury items of every sort, ranging from building items to ornamental products, drinks, clothing, etc. promoting not just products but also a form of life as a prestigious model, so much so that to look like Westerners in every aspect of one’s daily life became a status symbol impelling people, especially affluent ladies, to adapt their daily conversation, their attire and their fashions to prevailing fashions in the West, the mentality conspicuous also in the people’s craze for using European words in their daily conversations as well as in their writings, which needlessly complicated their utterances and rendered them incomprehensible even by their peers.
Television films were products of either Western or Eastern countries, tending to lead the young generation and men and women away from the healthy business of life, work, and industry and production and learning, and plunge them into a world of self¬ estrangement or of disrespect for and mistrust of everything native, including their country and even their culture, and their native artifacts, many of which were taken to museums and libraries in the Western and Eastern bloc countries.
The magazines publishing scandalous articles and shameful pictures, and the dailies running the race of anti-Islamic and anti¬ national culture proudly lured the people and especially the more socially instrumental youth to the ruling culture of the West or East. To say nothing of a never ending propaganda for legitimizing centers for corruption, houses of ill fame, gambling and lottery houses, and promoting shops and other centers for dispensing fancy items and promoting whatnot in modish extravaganzas of Western culture, including cosmetics, entertainment, alcoholic beverages, extravagant gift-shop items, including toys and dolls, and hundreds of their [things] unknown to me and to my peers against the export of oil, gas and other of our resources to the West.