Ghadir, Imam Ali, and the New Islamic Civilization: Our Responsibility to Wilaya

Editor’s note: It was a humbling honor to be invited by the noble and honorable people of Kerman province to attend a celebration for Eid al-Ghadir, the holiday celebrating the appointment of Ali ibn Abu Talib (as) as the divinely-chosen successor to the Holy Prophet (S). However, due to the cowardly terrorist aggression by the Zionist forces against the Islamic Republic of Iran on Friday, 13 June 2025, we came the mutual conclusion that it was best for us to cancel our train tickets scheduled for that evening. I was supposed to give a speech on our responsibilities towards the system of wilaya (divine governance/guardianship – led by a representative of God on earth, or in his absence, a righteous grand scholar of Islam who practices what he preaches and has deep sociopolitical insight) and establishing a new Islamic civilization. The following text is the speech I prepared for the event, whose Farsi translation would have been projected onto a screen.

“The decades ahead are your decades, and it is you who should protect your revolution while you are qualified and full of motivation, and move it closer to its great ideal: that is, the emergence of a new Islamic civilization and the preparation for the rising of the great sun of wilayat (may our souls be sacrificed for him) [Imam Mahdi (a.s.)]. To take steady steps in the future, we need to develop a good knowledge of the past and learn from the experiences. If this strategy is neglected, lies will replace the truth, and the future will be menaced by unknown threats. The adversaries of the revolution are strongly motivated in their efforts to spread distortions and lies about the past and even the present, exploiting money and all the necessary tools for it. The bandits of thought, creed and awareness are ample; the truth cannot be heard from the enemy and its troops.”

– The Leader of the Islamic Revolution, from the “Second Phase of the Islamic Revolution” blueprint

We, the Muslim Ummah and especially the Shi’a of Ali ibn Abu Talib (as), need to start seeing ourselves as a civilization-state, beyond the artificial and materialistic nation-state creation that has existed only since Europe turned away from God and towards their nafs during the so-called “enlightenment” age of liberalism. The foundation and starting point for that civilization-state is the Islamic Republic of Iran, which temporarily exists as a nation-state but is bound to evolve past that designation.

An Islamic civilization is an even bigger project than civilizations of the past, who were defined almost exclusively by material progress and expansion, with little development in the way of moral and spiritual development. In the Islamic civilization, both the material and moral/spiritual aspects of society will be considered and developed.

Civilizations are known by their various markers, such as contributions towards science, discoveries, innovations, and more, in addition to unique and beautiful displays of culture, architecture, food, and various customs.

In Islam, any aspect of culture which is based off of polytheism, sin, ignorance, or superstition is problematic and should either be reformed or totally deleted, but the rest of culture which does not contradict the values of tawhid (the oneness of God) should be embraced, especially in today’s world in which the international capitalists wish to erase the unique aspects of our various cultures and make us all the same: Nike, Levi’s blue jeans, McDonald’s, iPhone, and speaking English at least as a second language. The traditional architecture, folk clothing, food, and more can and should be embraced as a symbol against capitalism, and can be complemented with modern advancements and technologies.

An Islamic civilization should therefore be pioneers in various fields: science, culture, and that uncharted field in which no other civilization has sought to develop, which is morality and spirituality. It should have the self-confidence to see itself at the top of the world and not living under the shadow of anyone except Allah and the Imam of the Time (aj) – certainly not the shadow of the US.

This is why we cannot stick to the post-colonial mentality of living under the shadow of the west and copy/pasting all their policies. A civilization is the one that leads the way and pioneers its own policies, not one that sees itself as inferior and helpless which then goes to copy from others.

We see how America, despite not being a real civilization due to its rootless nature, has the power of a civilization without actually being one. Most of the world copies American policies, no matter how harmful or corrupt. Most often, the few good policies of the west are not copied.

The Leader of the Islamic Revolution once alluded to this, that the US doesn’t seek to use its soft power to spread some of the few good things it has, rather it spreads its sin, corruption, mindlessness, hedonism/selfishness, and sexual promiscuity.

We see people in this region, when they want to copy the west, they copy the west in nudity and stupidity, making sure their mind is as empty as possible, thinking that this makes them civilized. For example, you never see liberals copying the west in terms of creating a culture of safe and orderly driving so as to reduce traffic fatalities and unneeded car repair expenses, whose money could be better spent elsewhere.

Yes, not everything from the west is bad, but when we have a mentality of inferiority, we will end up copying from the west blindly, not being able to separate the good from the bad, and unfortunately it is mostly the bad that gets copied.

The Leader of the Islamic Revolution recently stated that “we must be careful to consult experts who are faithful, honest, believe in the country’s domestic and national capabilities, and recognize our national assets. We must refrain from consulting experts who seek to implement the outdated solutions used by foreigners. Sometimes, an economic, social, or political policy that was considered in other countries some 50 or 70 years ago and has since been discarded, is raised and discussed here! Be careful not to use such experts. Otherwise, the principle of seeking the opinions of experts is truly essential.”

Even westerners themselves have given up some of the things that people here in this country and neighboring countries are desperately chasing.

For example, in the year 2000 or 2001, the US removed Thimerosal – a form of mercury – from childhood vaccines. However, vaccine producers in Iran and India still put mercury in childhood vaccines, even though safer alternatives exist. The US even has a special court for awarding payments to victims of vaccine injuries, however it is not publicly advertised as it would be an embarrassment to the pharmaceutical mafia which controls the US Congress.

As a parent, I am not an extremist on either side. I want to vaccinate my daughter but I don’t want to inject her with mercury. If we followed the civilizational model, then Iran would be the pioneer and would have been the first to remove mercury from vaccines before the US did and would have had massive demand from other countries seeking safe vaccines without toxic ingredients and could have earned lots of money from exports to those seeking such safer alternatives.

With the civilizational mindset, the Islamic world becomes the pioneer and trendsetter for public policy. Just as the US has spread corruption around the world via its soft power, we would undo the US’ corruption through our soft power. The masses of humanity are thirsty for alternatives to their failed policies, and if we used our capabilities and potential correctly, then it will be the policies of Islamic Iran that is copied, rather than the policies US. Copying the US will seem passé, while copying Islamic Iran will be considered sensible.

Instead of being a sad copy of the west – often the worst parts of the west, which either their governments or their people no longer follow – we should be the ones whom people look up to for guidance. We have to understand that the banner of Imam Hussain (as) is a responsibility and duty to uphold, and everywhere there is injustice, the flag of Hussain should be seen hovering over that which is coming to extinguish that injustice.

Despite the massive push to break up the family, promote LGBT, and promote general selfishness and consumerism in society by the western governments and NGOs, many people in the west are waking up to the failures of feminism and liberalism and are turning away from such ideologies and lifestyles, while some people in this region are tripping over their shoelaces to dive into these ideologies.

Many studies show that unmarried, childless women in their 40s are the highest users of anti-depressants. Real Islam is neither east nor west: neither the eastern concept that women are kitchen slaves, nor the western feminist concept that women are corporate slaves.

The western extreme has not given any true fulfillment to women in the west. They end up 40 and childless, and all they have is a piece of paper saying they were manager of a WalMart (American hypermarket notorious for its abuses of workers and low pay). They realize climbing the corporate ladder is a waste of life and that the money they got to buy material possessions which do not fill their heart did not make them happy. Nowadays, the money they get doesn’t have the same purchasing power so they have to go into debt for everything.

Family is truly the vehicle in which we be the change we wish to see in the world. It is the building block of civilization. It determines if our society is corrupt or righteous, selfish or selfless. Family itself is a form of selflessness, as we are choosing to dedicate our lives to someone other than ourselves. The western model of late marriages and few kids is spread in order to promote selfishness among people, because selfish people will not sacrifice. A selfish nation cannot produce a Hajj Qassem.

Not only that, the army of Imam Mahdi (aj) needs people. We need to start seeing population as the strategic asset of nations. After all, Japan, China, Russia, and other secular countries (whose ideologies are not focused around God) consider population to be a strategic asset. They’re biting their fingers with anxiety over the future of their economies and the strength of their countries if their birth rate continues to be critically low. Why don’t we have the same worries about our low birth rates? Is Iran not a nation? Is the Islamic Ummah not a nation?

Population is the concern of our enemies. Long before Bill Gates came around and advocated reducing the global population, the US government made it their official policy.

Former secretary of state Henry Kissinger wrote the National Security Study Memoranda (NSSM) 200 in the 1970s. Although he didn’t state it explicitly, the implications of what he said was basically that the US wants to reduce the population of countries which are adversarial to it and that depopulation is part of American foreign policy interests.

It’s simple math. Larger population = more resistance. Smaller population = less resistance. It’s easy to conquer a small group of people. So, why do many of us, through our life choices, follow what these enemies of humanity want us to do? Why are we willingly committing national suicide?

There are many things in life that are outside of our control. But we can control our own lifestyle. We can control what our priorities and choices are. Who will serve Imam Mahdi (aj) into the future if we don’t have any kids? Will his supporters fall out of the sky?

We need to eliminate any unnecessary and materialistic burdens for young people to get married.

“Putting off marriage until the onset of one’s middle age is common practice in Western culture; but like most other practices prevalent there, it is wrong, it is against man’s fitra, it runs counter to the general welfare of mankind, and it actually stems from libertinism and promiscuity. Among the foreign customs that have found their way into our society is the European-inspired idea that a young man needs to have completed his studies and secured a job (and not just any job!) before marriage. These are irrational customs originating from Europe. The person you choose to marry should be religious, modest, and decent. Pursuing beauty, career, status, and wealth is not what Islam envisions through marriage. In fact, it prohibits this.”

– Ayatollah Khamenei

What are our goals for marriage? Do we have a family mission to serve the Imam? Are our children mere material possessions or do we see them as torches of truth to send into the future once we leave this planet and return to Allah? We should see marriage as something lofty and not something mundane.

If we see marriage as lofty, then why would we want to spoil it with materialism? Do we really need these luxury wedding halls and spending a fortune to impress people and get likes on Instagram? Or can we have more traditional weddings, in more visually-pleasing and simple places like traditional Iranian homes and sofrehkhanehs with traditional folk clothing (adjusted to fit standards of hijab) as our wedding outfits so that we can wear those outfits again, instead of the useless culture of single-use wedding dresses that cannot be worn outside of one event.

Marriages based on flashing money around do not last and are empty and cold. Mahr (dowry) is not a price, it is a gift. Read Ayatollah Mutahhari’s Rights of Women in Islam. He describes the nature of man and nature of women as a perfect harmony and balance of divine creation.

Mahr simply demonstrates the nature of man as the seeker and the woman as the sought. It is not a price, it is a gift. We need to be Ibrahimi and smash the idol of high mahrs based on birth years. More than 14 gold coins, the Leader’s suggestion for the max mahr amount, is excessive and is not befitting of someone who worships God instead of money. Especially in this economy, with the global gold prices soaring through the roof (an indication of the weakening of the US dollar), is it realistic and rational to ask for 140 or even 1,400 gold coins? No wonder many people don’t ever get married.

Men should not be expected to be rich with a car and a house in order to be married: we shouldn’t expect a 22 year old to have the same financial foundation as a 52 year old. He should at least have a future and not be a lazy deadbeat who just likes to play video games all day. As long as he is working towards something, it is okay even if he doesn’t have an income now, as Allah will provide! As long as he is studying for a future job, or is learning a skill for a trade, or something.

We also need to smash the idol of cultural capitalism which thinks that menial labor is dishonorable or shameful. Many of you may have seen the video where people went to Behesht-e Zahra martyr’s cemetery in Tehran to ask different ladies if they would marry X or Y person. When asked if they would marry a laborer of various types, they said no. Until they were shown that the martyrs they were visiting had simple jobs as laborers, they changed their minds. This shows they had pure hearts and were manipulated by their parents who are affected by the propaganda of cultural capitalism.

Parents, please don’t pressure your children according to capitalist standards: uphold Islamic standards! Islam is a reasonable religion, so be reasonable. I’d rather my daughter marry a laborer whose wealth is halal and honorable, than to marry a PhD in economics who justifies usury and works at some of these bloodsucking financial institutions in Iran. I’d rather her marry a falafel seller like Shaheed Hadi Zolfeqari – so long as the falafel is made using organic ingredients and using animal oil or virgin sesame oil instead of highly processed corn oil – than to marry someone like Abdolnasser Hemmati, the former central bank head and former minister of economy who is largely responsible for the Rial’s dismal performance and the perpetuation of neoliberal economic policies which lead to various levels of income inequality.

Additionally, if the Leader says that having more children should turn into a culture, that means we need to listen and follow, and our families should stop looking like the American model of two kids maximum and a dog, but without the dog. Although in some places here in Iran, they add the dog too. Sometimes they also have only the dog, and no kids!

If the enemy tells us to not have kids, and the Leader tells us to have kids, then why do we insist on following the enemy’s anti-human agenda by having few to no kids, and yet ignore the Leader? Do we follow the Leader only when it is convenient, and then follow capitalism when it is also convenient?

The Mahdi’s followers will not fall out of the sky. We have to get married, have kids, and make sure we try our best to do proper tarbiyat (upbringing). We cannot just inherit Islam as we found it from our elders. Yes, elders deserve respect, but as Allah says in the Qur’an, do we follow something just because our forefathers did something, even if they were misguided?

We should respect elders and learn from them, both good and bad, but our basis of judgment on what we follow from the previous generations should be Islam, and to do that, we should have an active understanding of our faith rather than just inheriting it as some cultural habit. That way, we can build upon and continue the good sunnah that our elders established, and learn from their mistakes.

Speaking of not marrying my daughter to someone like Abdolnasser Hemmati, the economic pressures of young people around the world unfortunately make marriage difficult and we must not only compensate for that by avoiding cultural capitalist standards that are totally unrealistic in general but especially for today’s conditions, but we must also fight for a more fair and just economic system based on the Qur’anic approach against usury.

Allah permits trade, but opposes usury. Capitalism conflates the two by permitting both trade and usury, so that trade takes place at the expense of society and sucks the blood of poor people, while Communism outlaws both and puts all production and trade in the hands of the state, removing financial incentives for people to produce and innovate.

Allah’s approach is the most balanced and reasonable. If we followed Islamic wisdom on economics instead of blindly copying the western model invented by Jewish-Zionist dynasties like the Rothschild family (who helped to create “israel”), perhaps we would not be in the same position as we are in now, where the current neoliberal economy that has been in place in Iran for over 30 years has worsened the effects of sanctions. The west, which has no war or sanctions, has crippling poverty and a large gap between the poor and the 1% of the wealthiest people, so how will such a system work in Iran which has sanctions?

Unfortunately, Islam, the Leader, and the Revolution get falsely blamed and slandered for the economic problems – and some people leave their religion thinking that being shameless and brainless like a westerner will make dollars magically float into their pockets – instead of placing the blame on liberalism. Liberalism in economics is the choice of the people and so the blame should be placed inwardly. Politics is a mirror of society.

Let me draw an example to show how if society changed its mind and approach to economics, then this neoliberal system would change. It is us who gives consent to this system, and the Islamic leadership can only go as far as the people are willing to go. With such brilliant teachings on economics from the likes of Martyr Baqir as-Sadr (ra), Imam Musa Sadr, and Ayatollah Taleghani, we have an alternative, we just have to be willing to implement it. We are the ones who perpetuate the neoliberal system due to our attitudes and choices.

The example is a story of one time when I met an Iranian student of economics at a Muharram majlis in Tokyo, Japan at the Iranian embassy’s Hussainiya several years ago.

This brother comes into the majlis, kind of comes off as a “hot shot,” but with a black shirt and every outwardly religious feature. We start to talk and he mentions that he is a foreign student of economics at one of the prestigious universities in Japan, because he wants to get a job teaching at Sharif University and he says they only hire people with foreign degrees.

I then ask him how he plans to use his knowledge of different schools of economic thought to come up with a practical way of implementing Islamic economics and creating a world free of usury. With a straight face, he tells me that usury is just a function of economics and that’s just how the economy works and we can’t change it. My jaw dropped. I honestly don’t remember if I responded to him or not because I was simply shocked.

First, that is a majlis of Imam Hussain (as). We are guests of Sayyeda Zahra (sa). This person is exactly what Allah says in the Qur’an when He says there are those who equate usury with trade, but Allah has allowed trade and forbidden usury. Here he is saying that usury is just a function of economics. Allah describes those who partake in usury as deranged by the devil’s touch and is a form of war against God. He is in the majlis of Aba Abdillah while waging a war against God! The audacity! The arrogance!

His case is not unique. He is a symptom of a larger problem and a lot of it is due to post-colonial inferiority complexes. University and higher education is important, don’t get me wrong. But the colonialists set up a system to make a comfortable middle class of working professionals who have just enough money to be happy, but their positions and jobs are always mid-level and service sector, such as doctors, engineers, etc. While those fields are important, the colonialists made sure that people were never trained to be the managers of their own countries: that was the colonial invaders’ job to do.

While we should respect experts and those who have earned their PhDs, the colonialists set up something exceeding normal levels of respect, because it would create attachment in the hearts of the people towards mid-level service sector jobs, to prevent them from seeking to be the managers of their own countries, again so that only the colonial masters had the qualifications to hold the levers of power in society and so that their colonial subjects remained stuck in the mid-level of society’s roles.

Unfortunately, this excessiveness causes us to treat west-toxified people brainwashed by western universities as royalty. In areas of hard sciences, western universities contain a lot of benefit and we have many martyrs who studied in the west, such as Shaheed Chamran (ra).

But in the area of social sciences, such as economics, sociology, psychology, and more, western universities are nothing but brainwashing centers. Western economics courses simply put a smiley face on the rich sucking the blood of the poor and make it sound so scientific and wonderful.

How many people are like me and would prefer to marry their daughter to a falafel seller like Martyr Zolfeqari instead of to a rich banker like Hemmati? This is a social problem. Parents who idolize PhDs when it comes to suitors for their children to marry perpetuate this culture. I would marry my daughter to a PhD if he used his knowledge for the sake of Allah and understood how the west and Zionists have corrupted many fields in the world, and knows how to separate the beneficial and objective knowledge from the harmful and corrupted knowledge.

Just think about it. This student who defiled the sanctity of the majlis of Ahlul Bayt (as) cannot easily go to a highly expensive city like Tokyo. Which means that he comes from a well-off family in Iran. Now, that isn’t bad in and of itself so long as their earnings are halal and they don’t live in luxury. However, perhaps this person lived above the clouds (meaning above the people) here in Iran. When he left for Tokyo, he also was above the clouds, since he lived in one of the most expensive cities on earth where most people at least have a job. Then, when he comes back to Iran, he floats easily into a job in the Central Bank, a private bank, or a university to then pass on what he learned from former American central bank head Ben Shalom Bernanke onto impressionable young students. Yes, Bernanke’s real middle name is Shalom and he is the co-author of several university-level economics textbooks.

When this student comes back and gets his job, he is given the red carpet when it comes to marriage opportunities, while someone like a Hadi Zolfeqari with a simple falafel shop gets passed over and laughed at by many families whom he might propose to. Rather, the falafel shop owner and the PhD should be considered equals in society and parents should judge suitors based on their faith, merit, and compatibility with their child’s goals and values.

We are treating like royalty the very people whose brainwashed minds perpetuate an unfair economic system. This is a society-wide problem and the Leader is not our babysitter. The Leader is not a “dictator” like the Zionist media claims (nor is he the opposite extreme of a “powerless figurehead”). We ourselves need to wake up. As Allah says in the Qur’an, He does not change the condition of a people until they change themselves first. If we don’t change our approach to economics, then we can’t expect society to change.

Thankfully though, Iran still remains strong thanks to the Leader pushing for a resistance economy of production.

Compare Iran to Lebanon, a failed state whose rentier economy has totally collapsed. Following the end of the Lebanese civil war, the US decided that Lebanon’s economy should be perpetually weak and a house of cards, so they focused on making Lebanon an import-dependent, consumerist economy focused solely on shady international investments into hotel projects, developments, and the stock market, and putting nothing into factories or domestic production.

Everything in Lebanon was to be paid for in foreign currencies such as dollars. Generally, for a nation to maintain its foreign currency reserves, it should have exports of domestically produced goods to earn income for itself. But Lebanon does not export. Due to its huge trade deficit, Lebanon would spend more foreign currency than it earns.

Due to rapidly depleting foreign currency reserves, plus massive illegal capital flight by the Lebanese oligarchs (Siniora, Hariri, Salameh, etc), the weak Lebanese economy collapsed.

If it wasn’t for the Leader and the idea of resistance economy, Iran would be like Lebanon and would not have the foreign currency to pay for the petroleum needed for electricity generation and would be stuck without electricity for most of the day and would have to rely on a mafia of private generators to supplant the state electricity which, in the worst cases in recent years, was barely one hour a week. Private generators could lead to electric bills of over $100 just for one month, which was the case in Lebanon recently. If you think the current electricity issues are bad, it would be much, much worse if Iran allowed itself to be an import-dependent consumerist economy without any domestic production like Lebanon is.

Economics is another crucial area in which Islamic Iran should be the pioneer in for which other countries learn from and copy us, rather than the other way around. The world is drowning under the debt slavery system set up by the Rothschild family and the fractional reserve banking system. It is the banner of Imam Mahdi which should crush this system – we shouldn’t be trying to find ways to justify it!

Iran has the most untapped potential of any other country, because no other system on earth will develop morality and spirituality at the same time as developing science, progress, and the economy. All other countries and systems are focused solely on material success, but do not pay attention to the well-being of the souls of their people. Because of that, Iran could be one of the foremost superpowers in the world. An important component for that is self-confidence and not buying into the notion that people in this region are not human, and they only become human when they adopt western values and get western approval.

The Islamic world needs to have a “we can” attitude if we want to be strong and independent. The stronger and more self-confident we are, the sooner we can contribute to ending the genocide in Palestine.

Imam Mahdi is not a magician who will snap his fingers and everything will get better: we are the ones who will actively participate in his global reforms, but if we are not willing to think big and imagine the world as an entirely different place and we are stuck defending corrupted western systems which the Imam will definitely oppose. We have to prepare the foundation for the Imam to do the rest of his holy work.

To do this, we must make sure our wali (guardian) is the wali of Allah, and that our wali is not America or the international Zionist network. We can know who our wali is by asking ourselves whom do we follow more in practical terms. If we are blindly copying western policies, without separating the good policies from the bad policies, then our wali is the US. The same goes for our lifestyles. On this Eid, the Eid of Wilayat, we should ask ourselves honestly: who is our wali?

“O you who have faith! Do not take the Jews and the Christians as guardians: they are guardians of each other. Any of you who takes them as a guardian is indeed one of them. Indeed Allah does not guide the wrongdoing lot.”

– Qur’an 5:51