First of all, he had the spirit of advocating transformation since long ago. This was not something that emerged in him at the beginning of the Islamic movement in the year 1341 (1962).
Since his youth, he was an advocate of transformation. Evidence for this is the piece he wrote at the office of the late Vaziri-Yazdi in his youth – when he was in his thirties.
Later on, the late Vaziri-Yazdi showed me the same writing. I have seen it published and many people have access to it today. In that essay, he quotes this holy ayah:
“I admonish you on one point: that you do stand up before Allah, in pairs or singly” [The Holy Quran, 34: 46].
This ayah invites the masses of people to rise for the sake of God. He had such a mentality. After that, he put his idea into practice and as I mentioned, he carried out a transformation. He entered the arena of transformation in action, not just in words and in commands.
Transforming a spirit of passivity and lassitude into a spirit of demanding.
In my youth, during the time when the movement began to take shape, the Iranian nation was a nation that was not preoccupied with its fundamental issues. They had given up and they were passive. They did not have an opinion about their personal lives.
There was no trace of dynamism, active presence and insistence, on big and important issues, in the behavior and conduct of our people.
However, Imam aroused these qualities in the people. He turned the same submissive and passive nation into a determined nation that pursued its demands. His inspiring, stirring and stimulating speeches moved the people in a way that they turned into a people with demands.
An example of this pursuance of demands is the events of the year 1341 – when the Islamic movement started – during which time, the people held massive demonstrations in different cities which ended in the events of the 15th of Khordad.
On the 15th of Khordad, despite a large-scale massacre, the regime could not extinguish the movement. And the people continued to stage uprisings until the end. That was an astonishing transformation that had been masterminded by Imam.
Transforming a sense of self-deprecation into a sense of national esteem and dignity
The Iranian nation used to have a feeling of humiliation.
That one can overcome the will of powers and superpowers would have never crossed anyone’s mind. This was not particular to the will of global powers.
The people could not imagine, in any way, that they could overcome the will of domestic powers and even the will of such and such a policeman or security agent.
They could not think of overcoming those who had bitter and dangerous whims. Therefore, they had a feeling of humiliation and incapability. Imam turned that into a sense of dignity and national confidence.
He liberated the people from the thought of considering dictatorship as a natural phenomenon. At that time, people had such a notion.
In those days, we used to think that the will of the ruler at the top is above everyone else’s will. We used to consider it a natural and normal fact.
He turned the people into individuals who were able to determine their own government.
The people’s slogan during revolutionary activities was Islamic system, Islamic government, Islamic Republic. The people determined what they wanted and they had demands.
Later on, they chose those responsible through various elections. In other words, the feeling of humiliation that existed in the people changed into a sense of dignity and national confidence.
(Extracted from Ayatollah Khamenei speech delivered on the anniversary of the passing of Imam Khomeini on the 3rd of June 2020/// Source: www.leader.ir)
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