Muslims Must Find Islam

November 3, 1979
Imam Khomeini meets with a group of Saudi Arabian students who live in Iran on the occasion of Eid al Adha. Imam Khomeini spoke about the following:
In the Name of God the Merciful, the Compassionate
The movement in Iran does not belong to itself alone because Islam is not special to anyone group. Islam has come for mankind not for Muslims and not for Iran. The prophets and the Prophet of Islam were sent to human beings. They called out to the people (aiyahan nass) and we who brought about the movement did so for an Islamic Republic. A movement for Islam cannot relate to one country and not even to all of the Islamic countries. Islam is, in fact, the movement which follows the prophets.
Our great Prophet came from Saudi Arabia but his invitation did not belong to Saudi Arabia alone. It related to the entire world. A human being is a creature who at the beginning is like an animal and if he grows, he becomes a spiritual creature, who becomes higher than the angels of God and if he goes towards corruption, he becomes a creature lower than all of the animals.
Now you see those people who claim to be humanitarian and they support human beings and animals but I do not think that you will find an animal among all the animals that is more savage than they are. They are creatures who want to murder millions of human beings because of their own interests. Even if an animal is a flesh-eater, it does not kill more than that which fills its stomach and when it is full, it leaves the other animals alone. But these people are ready to kill multitudes of people for only a small profit.
Other people who do not wall their interests or at least, do not act to the other's advantage, their existence cannot be considered to be unimportant. Unfortunately, there are organizations among Muslim and eastern societies themselves, in your countries, who believe their words and they say, 'The east is backwards from the point of view of thought,' or they do not believe them but they work for them. We must call them traitors.
They design these words in the midst of their own society. American media and the media which is directly under the influence of Zionism expresses that. These very expressed problems are spread to their own countries so that eastern and Muslim countries can no longer find Islam. They cannot have a noble existence. Muslims must rediscover Islam. Islam has fled from their hands. We do not know what Islam is now. The West and these criminals have influenced our minds to such an extent that we have lost Islam. Even though every year in the great Mecca, which God, the Most Exalted, has determined to be the place of gathering of Muslims, Muslims gather there but they do not know what they are doing. They do not use it in an Islamic way and this political center is changed into a center where affairs neglect the problems of Muslims.
If Muslims knew the politics for which the Pilgrimage (haj) was established, this would be sufficient in order for them to find their own independence. Unfortunately, we have lost Islam. They have completely separated it from politics. They cut off its head and gave the rest to us. They have created this situation for us. As long as Muslims remain in this situation, they cannot reach their glory. The glory of Islam is that which existed at the beginning of Islam. They destroyed two empires with their few numbers because they wanted to build human beings.
Islam does not conquer. Islam wants all countries to become Muslim, of themselves. That is, Islam seeks to make those people who are not human beings, human. They captured some people in a jungle. They tied them up and were taking them back when our great Prophet said, 'I must take them to paradise with chains.'
Islam exists to correct society and if a sword is unsheathed, it is unsheathed to destroy the corruptors who do not allow society to be corrected. In this way, the others can be corrected. I hope that if we are successful, it will gradually be corrected. We face many difficulties now.
We need the prayers of all Muslims. May God confirm all of you.