The following is a translation
of Jihad-e akbar, ya mubarezeh ba nafs (The Greatest Struggle, or
Combat with the Self') a transcription of lectures by Imam Khomeini (R.A.)
delivered during the period of his exile in Najaf, Iraq, republished by the
Institute for the Compilation and Publication of the Works of Imam Khomeini (R.A.).
The Directorate of Research of the Baqir al-Ulum Institute, Qum-Iran, supported
this translation.

In the Name of
ALLAH, the Merciful, the Compassionate

Yet another year of our lives
has passed. You young people are advancing toward old age, and we old people
toward death. During this academic year you have become aware of the extent of
your learning and study. You know how much you have acquired and how high the
edifice of your education has been raised. However, with respect to moral
refinement, the acquisition of religious manners, divine teachings and
purification of the soul, what have you done? What positive steps have you
taken? Have you had any thought of refinement or self-reformation? Have you had
any program in this field?

Unfortunately, I must submit
that you have not done anything striking, and have not taken any great steps
with regard to the reformation and refinement of the self.

Recommendations for the Seminaries Of Religious
Learning

Simultaneous with the study of
scholarly matters, the centers of religious learning are in need of teaching and
learning in morals and spirituality. It is necessary to have moral guides,
trainers for the spiritual faculties, and sessions for advice and counseling.
Programs in ethics and moral reform classes in manners and refinement,
instruction in divine teaching, which is the principle aim of the mission of the
prophets, Peace be upon them', must be officially instituted in the
seminaries.

Unfortunately, scant attention
is paid in the centers of learning to these essential issues. Spiritual studies
are declining, so that in the future, it is feared, the seminaries might not be
able to train scholars of ethics, refined and polished counselors, or godly men.
Occupation with discussion and inquiry into elementary problems does not allow
the opportunity for the basic and fundamental topics attended to by the Noble
Qur'an and of the great Prophet (S.A.W.) and the other prophets and saints, (awliya')
Peace be with them'. The eminent jurisconsults and high-ranking professors,
who are noteworthy in the scholarly community, had better try, in the course of
their lessons and discussions, to train and refine people and to be more
concerned with spiritual and ethical topics. For the seminary students it is
also necessary that in their efforts to acquire higher virtues and refinement of
the soul that they give sufficient weight to their important duties and
momentous responsibilities.

Recommendations for the Seminary Students

You who today are studying in
these seminaries, and who shall tomorrow take charge of the leadership and
guidance of society, do not imagine that your only duty is to learn a handful of
terms, for you have other duties as well. In these seminaries you must build and
train yourselves so that when you go to a city or village you will be able to
guide the people there and show them refinement. It is expected that when you
depart from the center for the study of religious law, you yourselves will be
refined and cultivated, so that you will be able to cultivate the people and
train them according to Islamic ethical manners and precepts. If, God forbid,
you were not to reform yourselves in the center of learning, and you were not to
realize spiritual ideals, then - may ALLAH (SWT) protect us - everywhere you
went, people would be perverted, and you would have given them a low opinion of
Islam and of the clergy.

You have a heavy responsibility.
If you do not fulfill your duty in the seminaries, if you do not plan your
refinement, and if you merely pursue the learning of a few terms and issues of
law and jurisprudence, then God protect us from the damage that you might cause
in the future to Islam and Islamic society. It is possible - may ALLAH (SWT)
protect us - for you to pervert and mislead the people. If due to your actions,
deeds and unfair behavior, one person loses his way and leaves Islam, you would
be guilty of the greatest of the major sins, and it would be difficult for your
repentance to be accepted. Likewise, if one person finds guidance, then
according to a narration "it is better than all that the sun doth shine
upon."[1] Your responsibility is very heavy. You have duties other than
those of the laity. How many things are permissible for the laity, which are not
allowed for you, and may possibly be forbidden! People do not expect you to
perform many permissible deeds, to say nothing of low unlawful deeds, which if
you were to perform them, God forbid, people would form a bad opinion of Islam
and of the clerical community.

The trouble is here: if the
people witness your actions as contrary to what is expected, they become
deviated from religion. They turn away from the clergy, not from an individual.
If only they would turn away from one person and form a low opinion of just that
person!

But if they see an unbecoming
action contrary to decorum on the part of a single cleric, they do not examine
it and analyze it, that at the same time among businessmen there are unrighteous
and perverted people, and among office workers corruption and ugly deeds may be
seen, it is possible that among the clergy there is also one or a few impious or
deviant persons. Hence, if a grocer does something wrong, it is said that such
and such a grocer is a wrongdoer. If a druggist is guilty of an ugly deed, it is
said that such and such a druggist is an evildoer. However, if a preacher
performs an unbecoming act, it is not said that such and such a preacher is
deviant, it is said that preachers are bad! The responsibilities of the learned
are very heavy; the 'ulama have more duties than other people.

If you review the chapters
related to the responsibilities of the 'ulama in Usul al-Kafi and Wasail
[2]you will see how they describe the heavy responsibilities and serious
obligations of the learned. It is narrated that when the soul reaches the
throat, there is no longer any chance for repentance, and in that state one's
repentance will not be accepted, although God accepts the repentance of the
ignorant until the last minute of their lives. In another narration it is
reported that seventy sins will be forgiven of one who is ignorant before one
sin is forgiven of an 'alim. [4] This is because the sin of an 'alim
is very harmful to Islam and to Islamic society. If a lay and ignorant person
commits a sin, he only wins misfortune for himself. However, if an 'alim
becomes deviant, if he becomes involved in ugly deeds, he perverts an entire
world ('alam). He has injured Islam and the 'ulama' of Islam.
There is also a narration according to which the people of hell suffer from the
stench of an 'alim whose deeds to not accord with his knowledge.
For this very reason, in this world there is a great difference between an 'alim
and an ignorant person with regard to benefit and injury to Islam and to the
Islamic community. If an 'alim is deviant, it is possible that the
community will become infected by deviation. And if an 'alim is refined,
and he observes the morality and manners of Islam, he will refine and guide the
community.

In some of the towns to which I
went during the summer, I saw that the people of a town were well mannered with
religious morals. The point is this, that they had an 'alim who was
righteous and pious. If an 'alim who is pious and righteous lives in a
community, town or state, his very existence will raise the refinement and
guidance of the people of that realm, even if he does not verbally propagate and
guide. We have seen people whose existence causes lessons to be learned,
merely seeing them and looking at them raises one's awareness.

At present in Tehran, about
which I have some information, the neighborhoods differ from one another.
Neighborhoods in which a pure and refined 'alim lives have righteous
people with strong faith. In another neighborhood where a corrupt deviant person
wears the turban, and has become the prayer leader, and set up shop, you will
see that the people there have been misled, and have been polluted and
perverted. This is the same pollution from the stench of which the people of
hell suffer. This is the same stench which the evil 'alim, the 'alim
without action, the perverted 'alim has brought in this world, and the
smell of it causes the people of hell to suffer. It is not because something is
added to him there; that which occurs to this 'alim in the next world is
something which has been prepared in this world. Nothing is given to us except
that which we have done. If an 'alim is corrupt and evil, he corrupts the
society, although in this world we are not able to smell the stench of it.
However, in the next world the stench of it will be perceived. But a layperson
is not able to bring such corruption and pollution into the Islamic society. A
layperson would never allow himself to proclaim that he was an Imam or the Mahdi
(AJ), to proclaim himself a prophet, or to have received revelation. It is a
corrupt 'alim who corrupts the world: "If an 'alim is
corrupt, a world ('alam) is corrupted."

The Importance of the Refinement and
Purification of the Soul

Those who have constructed
(their own) religions, causing the straying and deviation of masses of peoples,
have for the most part been scholars. Some of them even studied and disciplined
themselves in the centers of learning. The head of one of the heretical
sects studied in these very seminaries of ours. However, since his learning was
not accompanied by refinement and purification, since he did not advance on the
path toward God, and since he did not remove the pollution from himself, he bore
the fruit of ignominy. If man does not cast pollution from the core of his soul,
not only will whatever studying and learning he does be of no benefit by itself,
rather it will actually be harmful. When knowledge enters in this evil center,
the product will be evil, root and branch, an evil tree. However much these
concepts are accumulated in a black impure heart, there will be greater
obscurity. In a soul which is unrefined, knowledge is a dark cover: Al-'ilm
huwa al-hijab al- akbar (Knowledge is the greatest veil). Therefore, the
vice of a corrupt 'alim is greater and more dangerous for Islam than all
vices. Knowledge is light, but in a black, corrupt heart it spreads wide the
skirts of darkness and blackness. A knowledge, which would draw a man closer to
God, in a worldly soul, takes him far distant from the sanctum of the Almighty.

Even the science of tawhid
(i.e. the higher gnostic teaching), if it is for anything other than God,
becomes a veil of darkness, for it is a preoccupation with that which is other
than God. If one memorizes and recites the Noble Qur'an with all the fourteen different readings, if it is
for anything other than God, it will not bring him anything but obscurity and
distance from Haqq ta'ala (God). If you study and work hard, you may
become an 'alim, but you had better know that there is a big difference
between being an 'alim and being refined. The late Shaykh, our teacher,
may ALLAH (SWT) be pleased with him, said, "That which is said, 'How easy
it is to become a mullah; how difficult it is to become a man,' is not correct.
It should be said, 'How difficult it is to become a mullah, and it is impossible
to become a man!' " The acquisition of the virtues and human nobilities and
standards is a difficult and great duty which rests upon your shoulders. Do not
suppose now that you are engaged in studying the religious sciences, and
learning fiqh (the study of Islamic law), which is the most honorable of
these sciences, that you can take it easy otherwise, and that you have carried
out your responsibilities and duties. If you do not have a pure intention of
approaching God, these sciences will be of no benefit at all. If your studies -
may ALLAH (SWT) protect us - are not for the sake of God, and are for the sake
of personal desires - the acquisition of position and the seats of authority,
titles and prestige -then you will accumulate nothing for yourself but harm and
disaster. This terminology you are learning if it is for anything but God, it is
harm and disaster. This terminology, as much as it increases, if it is not
accompanied by refinement and fear of God (taqwa), then it will end in
harm in this world and the next for the Muslim community. Merely knowing
terminology is not effective. Even the science of tawhid, if it is not
accompanied with purity of the soul, will bring disaster.

How many individuals have been
learned in the science of tawhid, and have perverted entire groups of
people! How many individuals have had the very same knowledge that you have, or
even more knowledge, but were deviant and did not reform themselves, so that
when they entered the community, they perverted many and led them astray!

This dry terminology, if it is
not accompanied by piety (taqwa) and refinement of the soul, as much as
it accumulates in one's mind it will only lead to the expansion of pride and
conceit in the realm of the soul. The unfortunate 'alim who is defeated
by his own conceit cannot reform himself or his community, and it will result in
nothing but harm to Islam and the Muslims. And after years of studying and
wasting religious funding, enjoying his Islamic salary and fringe benefits, he
will become an obstacle in the way of Islam and the Muslims. He will pervert
Nations. The result of these lessons and discussions and the time spent in the
seminary will be the prevention of the introduction to the world of Islam and
the truths of the Qur'an; rather,
it is possible that his existence will be a barrier preventing the society from
coming to know Islam and spirituality.

I am not saying that you should
not study, that you should not acquire knowledge. But you have to pay attention
that if you want to be a useful and effective member of society and Islam and
lead a nation to awareness of Islam and to defend the fundamentals of Islam, it
is necessary that the basis of jurisprudence be strengthened and that you gain
mastery of the subject. If, God forbid, you fail to study, then it is forbidden
for you to remain in the seminary. You may not use the religious salary of the
students of the religious sciences. Of course, the acquisition of knowledge is
necessary, although in the same way that you take pains with the problems of fiqh
and usul (law and jurisprudence), you must make efforts in the path of
self-reformation. Every step forward, which you take in the acquisition of
knowledge, should be matched by a step taken to beat down the desires of the
soul, to strengthen one's spiritual powers, to acquire nobility of character,
and to gain spirituality and piety.

The learning of these sciences
in reality is an introduction to the refinement of the soul and the acquisition
of virtue, manners and divine knowledge. Do not spend your entire life with the
introduction, so that you leave aside the conclusion. You are acquiring these
sciences for the sake of a high and holy aim: knowing God and refining the self.
You should make plans to realize the results and effects of your work, and you
should be serious about reaching your fundamental and basic goal.

When you enter the seminary,
before anything else, you should plan to reform yourselves. While you are in the
seminary, along with your studies, you should refine yourselves, so that when
you leave the seminary and become the leader of a people in a city or district,
they may profit from you, take advice from you, and reform themselves by means
of your deeds and manners and your ethical virtues. Try to reform and refine
yourselves before you enter among the people. If now, while you are
unencumbered, you do not reform yourselves, on the day when people come before
you, you will not be able to reform yourselves.

Many things ruin people and keep
them from studying and purifying themselves, and one of them, for some, is this
very beard and turban! When the turban becomes a bit large, and the beard gets
long, if one has not refined oneself, this can hinder one's studies, and
restrict one. It is difficult to trample the carnal self under one's feet, and
to sit at the feet of another for lessons. Shaykh Tusi, may ALLAH (SWT)
have mercy on him, at the age of fifty-two would go to classes, while between
the ages of twenty and thirty, he wrote some of his books! His Tahdhib
was possibly written during this period. Yet at the age of fifty-two he
attended the classes of the late Sayyid Murtada and thereby achieved such
station as he did.

God forbid that prior to
acquiring good habits and strengthening one's spiritual powers that one's beard
should turn a bit white and that his turban should get big, so that he would
lose the blessings of knowledge and spirituality. So work, before your beards
become white before you gain the attention of the people, think about your
state! God forbid that before a person develops himself, that people should pay
heed to him, that he should become a personality and have influence among the
people, causing him to lose his soul. Before you lose hold of the reins of your
self, develop and reform yourself! Adorn yourselves with good traits, and remove
your vices! Become sincere in your lessons and discussions, so that you may
approach God! If one does not have sincere intentions, one will be kept at a
distance from the divine precincts. Beware that, after seventy years, when the
book of your deeds is opened, ALLAH (SWT) forbid, that you should have been far
from God Almighty for seventy years.

Have you heard the story of the
stone', which fell into hell? Only after seventy years was the sound of
it's hitting the bottom of hell heard. According to a narration, the Prophet,
may the Peace and Blessings of ALLAH (SWT) be with him and with his Progeny,
said that it was an old man who died after seventy years, and during this
seventy years he was falling into hell.

Be careful that in the seminary
that you do not reach hell by your own labor of fifty years, more or less, and
the sweat of your brow! You had better think! Make plans in the field of
refinement and purification of the soul, and reformation of character. Choose a
teacher of morals for yourself; and arrange sessions for advice, counsel, and
admonition. Yourself cannot refill you. If there is no place in the seminary for
moral counselors and sessions of advice and exhortation, it will be doomed to
annihilation.

How could it be that fiqh
and usul should require teachers for lessons and discussions, and that
for every science and skill a teacher is necessary, and no one becomes an expert
or learned in any field spontaneously and by himself, yet with regard to the
spiritual and ethical sciences, which are the goal of the mission of the
prophets and are among the most subtle and exact sciences, they do not require
teaching and learning, and one may obtain them oneself without a teacher? I have
heard on numerous occasions that the late Shaykh Ansari, was a student of
a great Sayyid who was a teacher of ethics and spirituality.

The prophets of God were raised
in order to train people, to develop humanity, and to deliver them from
ugliness, filth, corruption, pollution and moral turpitude, and to-acquaint them
with virtue and good manners: "I was raised in order to complete noble
virtues" (makarim al-akhlaq). This knowledge, which was
considered by God the Almighty to be so important that he raised the prophets