Statements in Meeting with a Group of University Professors, Elites, and Researchers on the Twenty-Fifth Day of the Blessed Month of Ramadan

In the Name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

Thanks be to God, the Lord of the worlds, and peace and blessings be upon our master Muhammad and his pure family.

Welcome, dear brothers and sisters; thanks be to God, today’s session was very good, and with the topics that the friends here discussed - the thirteen individuals who spoke - fortunately, one of the points I had noted to mention in this session was the engagement of the university with the issues of the country and the challenges facing the country - which is our definitive recommendation, and now, God willing, I may also say a few sentences about it - was realized in this session. I see that in this session, the professors who spoke addressed most of the major issues and challenges of the country; for example, consider the issue of cinema - which is an important matter - the issue of the JCPOA, the issue of water, the issue of social harms; these were the topics that the gentlemen discussed here, addressing these issues; and this is our recommendation. Or the issue of family, marriage, and childbearing, the issue of aerospace industries and the realm of air and space, which is a very important matter; the issue of scientific diplomacy; or the issue of water, which is a very important matter, and I saw that the gentlemen paid attention to it. Or the issue of innovation - which I may also refer to - the issue of the economy and similar matters. Well, thanks be to God, these are good. When I look and compare this year’s session with some sessions from, say, seven, eight, or ten years ago, I see a significant difference; this indicates that the academic community has made a progressive intellectual and motivational movement in these years; I see today the movement of the academic community, the feelings of the academic community, the motivations of the academic community, the concerns and feelings of pain of the academic community are better than, say, ten or fifteen years ago; this is a very important point. Of course, we do not want to claim that this group present in our session represents the entire academic community, but they are, after all, a sample of the whole, indicating that this thought, this feeling exists in the academic community. Of course, time has become short; I had prepared for a longer time, but there is no opportunity, so I must speak briefly.

Dear brothers and sisters! The university is a very important center. We say this from a deep and heartfelt belief, and I have reasoning for this matter; why? Because one of the important centers for training the rational force of the country is the university; training the rational force of the country. And no country can be managed and advanced without a rational force. You see, these two premises lead to one conclusion, and that is that a good university is vital for the country. Well, professors in the university have an extraordinary role; that is, in this process of building and nurturing the rational force for managing the country, the professor has a special role; therefore, the position of professors is very important, very dear, and sensitive; it is a sensitive position. If the university wants to play this role - the role of creating and nurturing the rational force of the country - correctly, it has certain requirements that it must pay attention to. I have noted three of these requirements here, and I will briefly discuss each of them.

One is engaging with the issues of the country; that is, the university should not separate itself from the issues of the country, and the issues of the country, the challenges of the country should be real, true, and primary issues for the university.

Second, the cultural, ethical, and identity training of students; that is, beyond education, the issue of training; also with a moral and spiritual orientation and instilling a sense of identity in the young student body.

Third, a continuous evolution in the university environment, a constant and ongoing transformation in the university environment; the reason is that, firstly, all institutions of the world need transformation, because humanity is in a state of transformation and progress and movement, therefore, human institutions must all create the power of continuous transformation within themselves, and this should be a concern for them; secondly, our university has been incorrectly founded without any hesitation, it has been incorrectly founded from the beginning; this does not mean that the university environment is a wrong or bad environment; no, fortunately, our university has produced very good outcomes, but the foundation of the university was laid by unreliable people and with unreliable policies during the reign of the tyrant, and this foundation still exists: the university was founded on the basis of secularization; the university was founded on imitation of science and not scientific innovation and production of knowledge; this is how the university was founded, and some of its effects still continue to this day. Therefore, a reform and a transformation and an internal evolution for the university is continuously necessary, and I have noted some examples of it here that I will mention. These three are among the requirements; and of course, there are other requirements as well.

Regarding engagement with the issues of the country, which we fortunately observed today, I truly felt happy to see that our brothers and sisters raised these issues; I really thank God that this expectation we have is fortunately at least present in the minds of some of our dear academics. Why do we say we must engage with the issues of the country? Well, every country has its issues; today we have problems, we have issues, and tomorrow we will have problems as well, and all countries of the world, all societies of the world have such issues; they have problems that must be solved; these problems must be solved scientifically; if we enter these problems in a non-scientific, non-deliberate, thoughtless, and unwise manner, they will not be solved, the problem will become more complicated, it will persist, multiply, and increase. Therefore, problems must be solved scientifically. Well, if it is to be solved scientifically, who should solve it? Scholars, scientists; that is, academics who are among the scholars of the country and a major part of the scholars of the country. Therefore, the university must consider the issues of the country as its own issues and seek to solve them.

Well, for example, consider the issue of the economy; one of the issues facing our country today is the economy. It has been repeatedly said, and it was mentioned in this session that some of the managerial methods of our economy - what is practically being implemented in the country - are weak or wrong; well, this must be corrected; who should correct these? Who should address this issue? The university. I have advised some high-ranking officials several times and said that these economic opinions that university economics professors publish in the media - now those that are published in the media that I often look at - should be collected for you and brought to you so that you know that besides the decisions made within the relevant governmental organization, these opinions also exist; this is enlightening; looking at these materials and hearing these opinions will certainly be enlightening. Therefore, the issue of the economy is one of the issues that today one of the gentlemen here discussed.

In industry; well, our industry is facing problems; the university can play a role in this regard. Of course, I must mention that some universities, according to a report I received, have performed well in terms of their relationship with industry; some universities have not, they have not engaged and have not performed well. Recently, I heard that a one-year study opportunity for professors in industry has been planned and approved in the relevant approval channels; this is good, it is a very good initiative. Suppose they give a study opportunity to professors related to industry to go into the industry and become familiar with the problems of the country’s industry up close. We have problems in the country’s industry; these problems must be solved by the university. Of course, some industrialists are complaining, saying that the relationship of academic institutions with us has not helped us, but in principle, the university can help advance industry, promote industry, and elevate industry, so that we do not have to rely on a foreigner to come and sign a contract with us to provide us with technology for our oil industry or our electricity industry; this is a statement that is currently being made, and we, thinking we are compelled and need to sign a contract with a foreign oil company to increase the extraction capacity from wells, for example, from 25 percent to 50 percent, may be imposed upon us.

If our university enters this field, I believe it can certainly do so. How did we manage to achieve this in some areas; all the relevant world thought it was impossible for us to achieve 20 percent uranium enrichment; they did not believe that such a thing could happen in the country, but it did happen. They imposed conditions on us for selling 20 percent enriched uranium, and unfortunately, some of our officials were inclined to give these concessions. A bit of insistence, a bit of perseverance, and a bit of effort from our youth, and suddenly the world saw that we do not need 20 percent from America and Russia and, I believe, France - which was being discussed back then - we produced 20 percent ourselves. Well, that capability that can accomplish such a great task - people who are involved in the field know that the main movement from 3 percent and 4 percent to 20 percent is the challenge; otherwise, moving from 20 percent to 99 percent is an easier path - and we were able to accomplish that, why can we not increase the efficiency and yield of our oil wells? Why can we not work on the advancement of our industries? Therefore, the university can help in this regard - in industry.

Regarding social harms; the issue of divorce, addiction, marginalization, crimes, cyberspace, and similar matters that were mentioned; of course, it has been a while - now they said four years, apparently it is not four years; it seems to be between two and three years - we have engaged all the institutions of the country in this issue; we have involved the relevant institutions from the three branches in this issue of social harms, good sessions are held, follow-ups are made, and many works are done. Of course, these are long-term works, and their effects will not be seen soon; the university can help. Suggestions were mentioned that are very good, and I now order our office to collect these suggestions that have been made in all areas and to sit in sessions to think and find ways to operationalize and implement them.

Or this issue of the production and consumption cycle and the issue of innovation that was mentioned; well, we must first have innovation [meaning] creating ideas, then production, then marketing, and so on. This marketing of supply and consumption is a chain; this chain must move correctly; that is, from the production section to the consumption section, there is a chain, these links must transfer the opportunity correctly to each other so that the work is done properly. If there is a flaw in this cycle, who should enter the field? The university; the university must see where the flaw is, resolve the problem so that we can proceed.

Or this issue of supporting Iranian goods, which fortunately I saw one of the gentlemen has addressed this issue, thought about it, and worked on it; exactly the points I have noted here were present in his statements. Suppose we see what the obstacles to producing quality goods are; the first issue is that we must produce quality goods domestically so that they have customers, so that they sell. What are the obstacles to producing quality goods, and then how to market; what can we do to find a market for these products both domestically and abroad? Now, the external issue is a separate matter - which is a separate topic - the internal issue is the mental and cultural issue that was mentioned; it is completely correct. That is, in the fields of sociological and psychological sciences in the university, it should be examined why certain segments of the population have a greater inclination towards foreign goods and less towards domestic goods, and what the remedy is. Of course, some remedies were mentioned, but these are not enough; they require scientific examination; truly, ways can be found. Sometimes you see that within two, three, or four years, the whole situation has reversed; just as right now, with the advertising that has been done to some extent, some sellers sell their foreign goods as domestic goods to customers! We are aware of this - I have been informed, it has been reported to me - that a person goes to a seller and asks for a product, and he has the foreign one, and since he knows that the customer needs domestic goods, he falsely tells him that this product is domestic! This is not a desirable thing. Of course, lying is a bad thing; however, it is very good that the seller feels compelled to say that this is domestic to sell his goods; this culture must be expanded. How is this expanded? This requires scientific work; you must do this. Or transferring scientific achievements to production sectors; all of these are the work of various sectors of the university.

Therefore, the university must identify issues in the country - I fortunately saw in the statements of these gentlemen, and I noted here, and it was very interesting [to see]; I saw that they have really sat down and identified issues; for example, they say that this is an issue that you say a woman should be both a housewife and have higher education; how can these be reconciled? Well, this issue identification is a very important thing that we should sit down and identify issues - and then solve those issues. Therefore, the university can help both in issue identification and in solving issues. Now, of course, there is much to say in this regard. I have noted things here, but time is short.

Of course, managers must want this. I hereby urge the government officials present here to seriously raise these issues and the issue of the relationship between the university and the issues of the country in the cabinet meetings so that everyone becomes motivated and interested to pursue it. Of course, we tell each of the ministers. I once had a very good minister of energy who himself was a graduate of Amir Kabir University. He was discussing a matter with me that we have a problem with this issue; I said, brother! You should take this issue to the very university where you studied and present it there; they will solve it for you. I have no doubt they would have solved it. That is, if this engagement of the university with the issues of the country is taken seriously by the managers - which is the essence of the matter - I believe it will progress. That is, the manager must go to the scholar’s door; the fundamental principle is this. The scholar should not be left waiting behind the manager’s office; the manager should go to the scholar’s door and request help from him.

The second requirement we mentioned is ethical, cultural, and identity training: training the rational force. What is the rational force? What is intellect? Intellect in Islamic literature is not just that apparatus that makes material calculations for us; no, intellect is what is worshipped by the Most Merciful and what is acquired by the gardens; intellect is this. Intellect guides and saves; intellect is this. Intellect must be able to elevate human beings. At one level, intellect is the factor that brings a person to the station of proximity, to the station of monotheism; at a lower level, intellect is what leads a person to the Islamic way of life; at another level, intellect is what organizes the material relationships of worldly life; all of these are the work of intellect. The rational force is that force that can possess all of these; thus, it requires spiritual training. Train the students spiritually. They are young; youth is naturally tender, relatively pure, and capable of moving in a spiritual direction; and this must be secured in the university. Life cannot be sustained without intellect. Therefore, the educational aspect of this rational force must be strong; the university must train young people who are faithful, honorable, proactive, not lazy, diligent, self-confident, truth-seeking, and justice-seeking; these are the characteristics of a noble human being; Islam wants such a human being; this human being, if he reaches the management of society, can guide society towards righteousness and prosperity; otherwise, suppose that now it has become common in cyberspace, it is a normal and prevalent practice to speak ill of each other, to slander one another, to exaggerate a small weakness, to tarnish the reputation of a believer without knowing who it is; well, this is a very bad thing. Such things exist among our youth that must be stopped; this can be achieved through spiritual training.

In the Prophet’s assembly, someone insulted the honor of a believer - it does not specify in the narration how he insulted - another person in that assembly defended the believer who was insulted. The Prophet said, what you did - defending the honor of a believer - is a barrier against the fire of hell; this is the essence of Islamic lifestyle; that is, be merciful to be shown mercy by God; these must be taught to our youth. Our youth must be fierce against the disbelievers and compassionate among themselves - this very verse that was recited here - they must be trained this way; they must stand against oppression, against the aggressor and transgressor, but behave kindly and forgivingly with their believing brothers; we must teach our youth forgiveness. If today this youth is not refined, tomorrow when he becomes responsible for a part, he will either perform weakly, or uncertainly, or wrongly. The one who today is willing to insult someone for fun, for passing time, to satisfy that inner feeling, tomorrow when he is in electoral competitions, for example, will be willing to completely trample the honor of a believing human being for his own victory; this is how it becomes.

One issue is also the matter of identity; raise the youth with identity. If a society does not feel identity, loud and domineering voices will easily overpower it. The one who stands firm is the one who feels identity; now this identity can sometimes be national identity, sometimes religious identity, sometimes human identity, dignity; whatever it is; they must be raised with identity. Fortunately, today our Islamic-Iranian society has a deep-rooted, historical, strong, and resilient identity that has shown this; we must transfer this to our youth. After all, the cultural issue is an important matter; cultural sectors must feel responsible and work in this regard.

The third issue we mentioned is the continuous evolution of universities. I have noted several issues that I will mention. This correction and reform of university work has clear examples today.

One clear example is that we should transform the consumer approach to knowledge into a production approach to knowledge. How long must we sit and be consumers of the knowledge of others? I am not opposed to learning knowledge from others; I have said this many times, and everyone knows; I said we are not ashamed to learn from someone who has knowledge and to be a student, but being a student is one thing, imitation is another! How long must we follow the knowledge of this and that? Why, when it is said that we should sit down and think and find Islamic human sciences, do some people immediately react that “Sir! It is knowledge”? Knowledge? In empirical sciences, the validity of its results is testable in the laboratory, and the incorrectness of findings is being proven day by day, and then you expect in human sciences [not to be wrong]? In economics, how many contradictory and opposing statements exist! In management, in various issues of human sciences, in philosophy, there are so many contradictory statements; which knowledge? Knowledge is what you can grasp, what can emerge from your active mind. We must seek to produce knowledge; how long must we consume the knowledge of this and that? Yes, there is no harm in using the knowledge of others like a commodity that we do not have, but this cannot be permanent; sometimes the knowledge of others does not transfer correctly to us, sometimes they do not give us the good part, sometimes they do not give us the new and updated part, and this has unfortunately happened in our country many times during the reign of the tyrant; we should not repeat experiences again; therefore, we must produce knowledge.

Of course, recently I have heard that some people constantly write and say that the scientific advancements of the country, which are recognized by international bodies, are denied; I completely reject this claim, I completely reject it; no, the scientific advancements of the country are real advancements, and they are not bubble advancements as some claim; we have made progress in nanotechnology, in stem cells, in nuclear technology, in biotechnology, in various fields of medicine, we have made progress in many different areas; these advancements are real and exist.

As mentioned, there was a time when there were few Iranian doctors when we left the big cities. I myself was in Zahedan, in Iranshahr; the doctors there were Indian; I went to them; of course, they were not bad, but the country needed outside doctors. In the early days of the revolution, for heart diseases, they would give an eight-year, nine-year, ten-year wait for surgery; that is, a heart patient would refer to the hospital, and his surgery appointment would be ten years later, and by that time, most would die! This is how it was; today, in remote cities, specialized doctors perform open-heart surgeries. These advancements are real advancements. Why do some want to discourage our academic community and our specialists and scientists? No, advancements are truly real advancements, but these must be expanded.

Another action is to make research purposeful; today we have research. Well, article-centricity in our university is a phenomenon, it is an issue; some oppose it, some say there is no choice; now increasing articles, especially those that are cited, is a reputation for the country and is not a flaw, but articles must be produced that are purposeful. We have previously said this; this discussion is not new; in previous years, both I and some respected professors who spoke here have repeated that research must be purposeful; see what the needs of the country are, where the gaps are; this research must fill that gap; this is very important. Aimless research must be excluded from the scope of work. Of course, the aim of research is generally two things: one is to reach scientific authority and presence among the elite of science and technology, and the second is to solve current and future issues of the country. These two do not contradict each other; I have heard some say, “Sir, how do they not contradict? Is this aim correct or that aim?” Both aims are correct. Research must be for both reaching the peak of science and creating scientific authority - which we must certainly reach in the future to be considered a scientific reference in the world - and for solving the current issues of the country.

Another issue that must be pursued in the university is the realization of the comprehensive scientific map of the country. Well, part of the comprehensive scientific map has been realized, but not all of it has been realized. One of the problems that I incidentally raised in the past in this very session is that many of our academic bodies have not read the comprehensive scientific map of the country and are not even aware of it. So much work has been done on the comprehensive scientific map, so many scholars, specialists, and scientific experts have worked on it, and a comprehensive and good thing has been produced; well, this comprehensive map must be realized in the university. Who should realize it? It is the academic body of the country; it is the professors; they must read this comprehensive map, see it, know what is required in this comprehensive scientific map, and discussions must be held for operationalizing it among professors and graduate students, and its traces must be seen in the educational environment, in the education of the country and the research of the country.

The next issue is the imbalance of university fields; some fields are in a state of neglect. The statistics given to me show that, for example, about fifty percent of the candidates for the entrance exam in the mathematics field, which is a very important field, have decreased; this is dangerous for the future of the country; we need these important basic science fields - especially like mathematics or physics - for the future; if the candidates for these are few and there is a rush towards income-generating fields that provide immediate money and jobs, this will cause problems. The consequences of this imbalance must be compensated and corrected by the university institutions.

One issue is also the article-centricity that I mentioned, which must be directed towards solving the issues of the country. The simple path of producing articles for the promotion of professors is itself a problem; in the promotion regulations, articles play a very fundamental role; well, this is a simple path; the work must be done more precisely, that is, promotion should not be solely based on articles; there are more fundamental works that can be the criteria for promotion.

Dear ones! The university must train hopeful students for the future, optimistic about the situation of the country and the future. This is the most fundamental issue. Today’s student must be assured that tomorrow, when it is time for management, efficiency, deliberation, and reform to come to him, what will be handed over to him will be a country better than today; this hope must be given to the student. The reality is that today we have advanced significantly compared to ten years ago, twenty years ago, and forty years ago. Now some of you are aware; [but] many of you are young, meaning you do not remember thirty years ago - you do not remember the situation of the country, nor the situation of the university - but I tell you that the progress of the country and the progress of the academic environment in these twenty to thirty years is truly commendable. [So] the student must be trained this way: believing in the capabilities of the country, believing in the successes of the country - both internal successes and external successes - believing in the progress and capability of the country to shape the future; he must believe, recognize the position of the country in the world. We are now in the world a country that has the most enemies among the arrogant powers and among the worthless powerful, and we have the most supporters among the masses in many countries; I do not say in all countries, but in many countries; the extent to which the Islamic Republic is respected in many of these countries - in neighboring countries and beyond - no foreign country has this much respect. There may be an inclination and attraction towards, say, a certain scientifically advanced country, but there is no love and devotion. The Islamic Republic has this position, it has this base; that is why it has wicked and determined enemies, and all these enemies, with God’s grace, will be defeated in front of the Iranian nation and the Islamic Republic and will not achieve anything.

Now suppose that the Shimmer of the time, the child-killing prime minister of the occupying regime, rises and goes to Europe and plays the victim, saying that yes, Iran wants to destroy us, and similar statements - well, firstly, they are truly Shimmers in the real sense; that is, they are those who are at the forefront of all the oppressors in history in terms of oppression and tyranny - and his European audience listens and nods and says yes, yes, and does not mention that you are committing these atrocities in Gaza, in Jerusalem; they do not mention these at all; he says it, and they nod; well, this world is a bad world. The Islamic Republic has acted logically in all areas; in this issue of the occupying regime, Jamal Abdel Nasser, forty or fifty years ago when you were not around, used to shout that we will throw the Jews into the sea; that is, when he wanted to speak against Israel, he would say we will throw the Jews into the sea; the Islamic Republic has never made such statements from the very beginning; we have proposed a plan from the very beginning; we have said that today democracy and referring to public votes is a modern and advanced method that the whole world accepts; very well, for determining the type of government in the historical land of Palestine, refer to the public opinion of the Palestinian people, hold a referendum; this has been stated as the opinion of the Islamic Republic and the thought of the Islamic Republic to the United Nations and has been registered there. This is our statement: those who are truly Palestinians - for example, those who at least have been in Palestine for the last hundred years or eighty years; in Palestine, there have been Muslims, Jews, and Christians who are Palestinians - should be consulted wherever they are, whether in the occupied territories, meaning all of Palestine, or outside of Palestine; whatever system they determine for the land of Palestine, that system is acceptable; whatever they want. Is this opinion bad? Is this not an advanced opinion? The Europeans are not willing to understand this, and then the wicked, child-killing, oppressive Shimmer goes and plays the victim that yes, Iran wants to destroy us and annihilate millions of people.

O Lord! Whatever we have said and whatever is in our minds and whatever we have heard, place it for You and in Your way. O Lord! Bring our country closer day by day to the peak of elevation and desired progress of Islam. O Lord! Place our university environment, our academics, our esteemed professors, our dear students under Your observation, grace, and support; grant them success in what pleases You; unite the pure spirit of Imam Khomeini (may his soul be sanctified) and the pure souls of the martyrs with their leaders; and join us with them.

Peace be upon you and God's mercy and blessings.