Sayyid Mahdi Husseini
On December 13th 1982, Imam Khomeini by issuing a command in 8 articles to the judiciary, governmental and parliament systems of the country drew a hopeful destiny for the Islamic revolution and the Islamic republic system; this command was a unique act by Imam Khomeini and we could look at it as a turning point in our contemporary history and as some experts and jurisprudents believe it is a unique jurisprudence document throughout the history.
The articles of this directive have been and still are a life and soul for the Islamic revolution and unfortunately it has been neglected and least significant by the writers and scholars and the media in our country. When this message holds all the requests and needs of Iran’s Muslim nation and the revolutionaries after the victory of the Islamic revolution, we could consider that it should always be discussed so it could change to a public culture.
This directive issued by Imam Khomeini, the great leader of Iran’s revolution and the founder of the Islamic republic as a complete Islamic jurisprudent and the symbol of Qom’s jurisprudence school of thought, was issued in a war situation and during the crisis made by the terrorist groups during 1981 and 1982, when the country was at the height of insecurity, terrible assassinations and explosions, and by stressing that “there is no benefit above Islamic and human values”, he worked hard for its fast execution.
The issuing of this message was quite a happy and pleasure news for the nation and it brought hope to everyone, and now that almost three decades has passed from it, still studying it will give us self-confidence and brings us a lot of questions. Such as why was this directive issued? What were the reasons for the late Imam to issue this message? To whom was this directive? And different questions like these. Now we’ll shortly talk about Imam’s goals for issuing his Eight Articled Directive in the following items.
1. The first subject that Imam stressed on it before anything else was the ruling of law in the country. In the first article he stresses on “preparing, approving and issuing religious laws accurately and fast” and “without neglect and ignorant problem settings” and said: “The Islamic qualified judges, who serve in the courts or the revolutionary courts should approve the sentences of Islam with power and independently and without fear from any of the authorities …”
Actually the reason of founding the Islamic republic was the “realization of law and Islamic regulations ruling” and as the supreme leader has said in his speeches the reason of founding the Islamic republic is “realization of Islamic, religious and moral values in the society”.
Because of the importance of the Eight Articled Directive, the authorities of that time form a committee from the judiciary, government and parliament high officials to step in the execution level of the commands. This committee is actually leaded by the head of the Supreme Court who then was also the Chief of the Judiciary system; an important issue that this committee did was forming a 24 article charter as the regulation for the investigation and observing teams, and the reports by these teams were fit in their agenda. What our nation had always requested from the beginning of their rise was the ruling of law; the law which stood at the top of the Islamic revolution’s requests and it had been reflected in this command. Another notable point is that this command was issued in a time that from one side Iran was standing in front of internal threats and the messed up situation of the post revolution and the anti-revolution movements and from the other side Iran was facing the conspiracies of foreign enemies and was invaded by the Baath regime of Iraq by the support of the Western and Eastern superpowers. In such an emergency situation, the supreme leader of Iran emphasizes on respecting the Islamic law and civil rights and he asks the authorities and officials to be the first who commit to his command.
2. Preventing the violations was another request of Imam in his command. In the post revolution incidents during 1979 to 1982 and the revolutionary spirit within the authorities who ruled the country in one way or another they indulged or neglected and at times a disappointing or irrational or out of mind action was seen from them, and at times the rights of people was not considered by them and in the name of the revolution or being an agent of security or judiciary organization they did their work and instead of acting by the law they did what they desired, somehow that it was considered against the public opinion; and in some issues they acted obviously against the law and had no respect to morality and civil rights, especially when safe team houses were discovered or at times when bombs had exploded the security and intelligent officers entered the scene with no observation and this caused a fear among families. Issuing this command and following it by the committees was quite successful, and it brought a hopeful destiny, somehow that it intimidated a number of bold and opportunist persons and revealed those who wanted to use the national treasury for their own. In other words by the entrance of these commands to the execution level, a group of people found their benefits in being isolated and paving the way for the authorities.
This command made the authorities dominant and it moved the society towards respecting the laws and prevented violations; an issue which was very important for the Islamic revolution. During those days the reconstructing and clearing committees of the administrations and educational centers were a mess and offending people’s rights and privacy had become a daily routine, so this command guided the law respectful current to new way and so this way they prevented a lot of violations.
3. Requesting rights and performing a justice raised from the Islamic jurisprudence is one of the great goals of the Islamic revolution and the Islamic republic system which Imam had emphasized on it in his messages and guidelines. Ayatollah Dorri Najafabadi in an interview about Imam’s Eight Articled Directive states: “In Imam’s school we learned that a power committed to morality, justice, dignity and freedom of mankind is reliable for all the people and it will attract their souls… the late Imam emphasized on preserving the maximum civil right of individuals and the society based on the Islamic jurisprudence and laws and he institutionalized the sum of individual’s civil rights and the society’s civil right without hurting anyone them…”
In the third article of this command it is stated: “The nation should feel that their life, property and dignity are safe under the Islamic justice… no one has the right to have a non-Islamic behavior towards the people.”
Actually the charter of honor and dignity, independence and freedom and being free-hearted, human dignity and protecting everyone’s rights and having effort to dominate justice and equity rules in an Islamic society are hidden in each article of this command.
4. By this command Imam wanted to bring development and changes to the structure of organizations, and the judiciary system was one of those centers which needed to be restructured to be more practical for the society. Making the judiciary system more effective was one of Imam’s goals, because judging is a governments basic feature and is the measure for the competency of governments.
A just and justice pervert and pure and wise performance judiciary system, is a sign for the safety of a countries laws. Behaving as the Islamic laws brought hope to nations and also a lot of issues were referred to religious scholars to be done and a filed to stand against the violations of the offenders was presented …
Actually what the justice hungry world society was awaiting for a country based on Islamic law had been realized.
5. Dealing with the accused and suspected people and noticing the anti- revolution conspiracy in the organizations was pointed in this command as we have in the seventh article: “about conspiracies and anti-Islam and anti-Islamic Republic groups who gather in safe team houses to overthrow the Islamic Republic and to terror devotees and innocent people in streets and markets and for sabotage and corrupting plans and those who are enemies of God and his prophet; where ever they are and in whatever governmental or judiciary organization, university or other centers they work, they should be faced with a firm and strong action but of course with full caution, and a religiously legal action, with the permission of prosecutors and courts, because crossing the religious laws, even for them, isn’t permitted as carelessness and negligence isn’t permitted. At the same time, the officers shouldn’t do anything beyond their mission, which their mission is also limited to the arresting area, and beyond legal and religious regulations.”
This message talks about Imam’s goals to submit laws based on Islamic rules so that the base of the revolution and the ruling system could be protected by Islamic rules and so they won’t only rely just on slogans and names. A complete manual should be prepared within the Islamic laws.
6. Standing against corruption was another goal of Imam within this command and he stressed on executing it. The late Imam, our present Supreme Leader, all the fighters and revolutionaries were all against any kind of corruption, such as embezzlement, evil doings, bribery and prostitution, and had always fought with them. Corruption will rust a ruling system from inside and weaken the ruling of law. Actually all the governments, throughout the history, have been affected by corruption somehow or another, and this has leaded them all towards collapse, and this danger has always existed, so Imam has stressed on it and its bad effects in his command and other guidelines. By the existence of such a threat or other problems caused by corruption, a powerful and clean judiciary system should work hard to be successful. Otherwise it won’t be acceptable by the society.
Imam’s Eight Articled Directive which were issued to submit law and public safety, have other dimensions too, and by studying them we’ll reach to a lot of economic, safety, political and social achievements and as time passes by the need for studying them is more recognized. I hope that it’ll be studied by those who care, because it holds crucial and determining teachings within itself.