The present article deals with the reconstruction of the paradigm of the Islamic Revolution in Imam Khomeini’s thoughts. The purpose of this article is to analyze Imam Khomeini’s thoughts regarding the Islamic Revolution of Iran and to draw a paradigm in this regard. Given that Imam Khomeini possessed a unique personality and was the founder of the ideology of the Islamic Revolution as well as a mobilizing and powerful leader in all fields, examining his theory of Islamic revolution, creating a model for it, and native theorizing, demonstrate the importance and necessity of this research.
The Causes of the Islamic Revolution in Imam Khomeini’s Thoughts
The structural causes of the Islamic Revolution
As far as the structural causes, Imam Khomeini referred to how social structures influence the occurrence of the Islamic Revolution. He believes that the basic structures of society, including the cultural, social and political structures, have a great impact on the popular uprising and the victory of the Islamic Revolution.
Structural Cultural Causes
For Imam Khomeini, culture is the greatest institution that either destroys the nation or drives it to greatness. In the opinion of Imam Khomeini, the most important and essential characteristic of this great institution is its independence. Therefore, he characterizes the dependent culture as an unhealthy and negative one. It is the same culture that is formed under the domination and invasion of foreign and arrogant powers and is imposed on societies.
Imam Khomeini’s definition of culture is concrete and exemplary. The elements of culture include knowledge, curtsy, education, ideology, ethics and practice, intellectual attitudes, norms, beliefs, values, art, society and their rules in society. Hence, we can say that for Imam Khomeini the non-material part of the culture is of more importance.
In Imam Khomeini’s view, the fundamental factor in creating reforms in society is the culture and cultural reform: “creating reforms in the culture is the first and foremost type of reform.”
In fact, from Imam Khomeini’s point of view, cultural and spiritual development takes priority over material development and cultural independence takes priority over gaining independence in other respects, and Imam Khomeini believes that cultural change would not occur unless intellectual and cultural dependence is removed. What can be understood from Imam Khomeini’s ideas is that cultural reform includes:
- Promoting authentic Islamic culture in society and inviting people to follow the right path;
- Relying on religious principles and awakening the nation through publishing books on Islamic and revolutionary subjects;
- Forming popular gatherings in mosques as well as holding and attending religious ceremonies;
- Making reforms in educational centres by removing the colonial cultures from the schools;
- Islamizing the university and establishing ties between universities and seminaries;
- Making reforms in seminaries by expelling sanctimonious individuals;
- Fighting against the centres of corruption through enjoining the good and forbidding the evil and standing up against the deviations stem from the cultural dependency and ultimately becoming independent;
- Creating a society comprised of individuals who possess a true identity and proportionate to Islamic culture through Islamic values and changing the views, and in fact, individuals who are intellectually and objectively have obtained revolutionary consciousness.
In the early years of the struggle, the first mission of Imam Khomeini was to raise the awareness of the people and make changes in the minds of individuals so that they would return to their religious and indigenous beliefs by abandoning Western values and flourish a sense of self-esteem within themselves by eradicating the feelings of alienation and ego dissolution with respect to Western culture.
In other words, this should happen in the same that Prophet Muhammad (s) managed the cultural atmosphere of his time by using spiritual power as well as political and religious contexts, and gave a spiritual direction to them and revived the society on the basis of divine values by making changes and developments in the goals and ideals of the Bedouin Arabs.
Imam Khomeini believed that making reforms in the culture of society is necessary from the earliest stages of the formation of a person’s identity. “You should pay special attention to making reforms in culture, including reforming the educational centres from primary school to university and try hard to confront deviation from the right path. We must all strive to do our utmost in this vital matter so that the sacrifices of our youths as well as the efforts of the people and their genuine struggle are not wasted.” For Imam Khomeini, the mass media can also serve as training centres for the education of the youth and elements for positive or negative propaganda.
Social Structural Causes
Increasing Social Discontent
In Imam Khomeini’s view, the social situation of the country in the years before the victory of the revolution was such that there was no progress at that time. Most of the people were living in rural areas and were experiencing deprivation, and social inequality was increased in the big cities and many were living in slums. Imam Khomeini sought to reform and saw social reform at the heart of the decline of poverty.
He believed that one of the main causes of poverty and deprivation is the extravagant government that, under the influence of Western culture and promoting a Western version of freedom, had expanded nightclubs and casinos deviating the youth from the right path. The Shah and the government created conditions for widespread public discontent by importing luxury goods that promoted a consumerist lifestyle among families and introducing the culture of ancient Iran as an alternative to the Islamic culture, as well as de-Islamization and spreading injustice throughout the country.
In the view of Imam Khomeini, the White Revolution was a colonial revolution which was regarded as a calculated conspiracy against Islam, the nation of Islam and the independence of Iran, as it caused the United States and Zionists to dominate all areas of trading, industry, agriculture, culture, and the military. Imam Khomeini also believed that land reform is an imported phenomenon and “The American thesis and plan to destroy Iranian agriculture and impose a single-crop economy on societies.” In addition, he described the land reform as “making a good market for the United States and its allies” which led to Iran’s dependence. Another consequence of this revolution was, from Imam Khomeini’s point of view, violating the dignity of the country and destroying judicial independence by granting American troops immunity and ultimately depriving the nation of its social rights, which led to increasing the level of dissatisfaction of people.
Mobilizing Social Groups
Imam Khomeini saw Islam as the source of the mobilization of people. From his point of view, it is Islam that unites all strata and facilitates a huge mobilization, believing that most groups, including clergies, academics, physicians, engineers, employees, marketers, and women were mobilized, engaged in politics, and played a key role in the mobilization and triumph of the movement by the spiritual transformation that Islam had created within them. According to Imam Khomeini, those who led the movement were faithful women and men of the disadvantaged class of the society who took to the streets and stood up against the Shah’s regime.
Also from Imam Khomeini’s point of view, the religious leaders and clergymen mobilized various groups of the society and sought to overthrow the Shah’s regime by forming congregations in mosques, especially during the months of Muharram and Ramadan, informing people and making them aware of the conditions prevailing in society, the corruption and destruction of the culture, strife and chaos within the country, and the despotism of the government as well as creating unity among people.
Political Structural Causes
For Imam Khomeini, the political structure during the reign of the Shah was tyrannical, dictatorial, and a form of royal government in which oppression and corruption existed has dominated the country.
According to Imam Khomeini, by promoting de-Islamization, the Shah sought to undermine Islam, spread the idea of separation of religion from politics and isolate the clergies. Furthermore, the government did not pay attention to people, and there was no common understanding between the state and the nation.
Tyranny and Oppression
Dictatorship is the autocracy and authoritarianism of a person or a political structure dominating the society that disregards the will, vote and interest of the people and governs them via military power and administrative authority. In this case, the political ruling body will oppress people; there would be a violation of human rights and an atmosphere of suppression and intellectual stagnation; the ruler sees himself as a goal making others the means and he plays with people’s feelings and ignores their freedom and thoughts.
In Imam Khomeini’s view, politics is the relationship between the ruler and the nation as well as the relationship between the ruler with other governments and the prevention of corruption. He believes that corruption of the political system and the oppression and dictatorship are the exemplifications of corruption in society stating that: “The traitors are frightened, that is, the traitor does not harm others because he is frightened.” In Imam Khomeini’s anti-authoritarian thought, the parliament of the Shah, as well as his law, are both unreal. He viciously attacks the Shah, criticizes him, and considers his autocratic government to be the source of all corruption and problems.
Acting Against the Law
In his messages and remarks, Imam Khomeini spoke of the impact of the commitment to the law on the advancement of life considering lawlessness as a cause of all social corruption:
“We cannot call a country, in which the law does not rule especially the law of Islam, Islamic.”
“In Islam, the law should rule. Prophet (peace be upon him) also abided by the divine law and he did not violate it.”
The Lack of Political Freedoms
In Imam Khomeini’s view, freedom has a high status. It is a basic, natural and God-given right. It is not the governments that grant people freedom; rather, the Creator of man has made him free and granted him freedom. The governments neither have given citizens freedom nor can they ignore it. Freedom is a right that governments are obliged to observe and protect.
Imam Khomeini has always strongly criticized restricting the social-political freedoms and believed that the regime, by preventing the political freedoms, is thinking of removing the clergies as the major obstacle to its colonial goals. He also believes that the promotion of people’s political consciousness, the awakening of the nation, changing of people’s ideas and views, the increase of their level of political understanding, and the public dissatisfaction with the lacking of legitimate freedoms and rights had been among the root causes of the uprising.
It was because of the promotion of people’s consciousness and their awareness on the one hand and the lacking of the popularity of the Shah’s regime as well as the lack of political freedom and participation on the other hand that the revolutionary people of Iran began an Islamic uprising to gain their religious rights and freedoms.
The Separation of the Government from People
Imam Khomeini addresses the separation of the Shah’s government from the people:
“If a country wants to be a healthy state, there must be an understanding between the ruling regime and the nation. Nonetheless, such understanding did not exist in the imperial regimes, and especially in the recent regime. In other words, the ruling system was on the one side and the nation was on the other. The government tried to intimidate, oppress, persecute, torture, and imprison the nation, and the nation tried not to pay taxes and did everything in its power to confront the government. As a result, people and the government became separated, the government received no support, and the governing body was independent such that it had nothing to do with the people. Also, people didn’t trust it either. They considered the government as their enemy, and when a government has no popularity it has to leave the country.”
The Political System’s Dependence on Foreigners
In Imam Khomeini’s attitude, paying attention to the danger of colonization in Islamic countries is of importance. This view stems from his ideology that the world is divided into two parts: Dar al-Islam and Dar al-Kufr, according to which Dar al-Kufr is always trying to abolish Dar al-Islam. Historical experiences and the imposition of great powers on Islamic countries have reinforced this presumption, such that the Muslims’ took a cautious approach towards non-Islamic nations while preserving Dar al-Islam’s identity and integrity against pressures from the Dar al-Kufr and colonization have been considered as their most important intellectual concern. In many of his speeches, Imam Khomeini has always referred to the great powers as arrogant and colonial powers whose aim is to dominate the Islamic states and exploit their resources, make the oppressed nation of Iranian as their slaves, eradicate the Holy Quran as well as Islam and Muslim scholars, destroy Islamic countries, and create division among Muslims.
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