In addition, most of the instructions of religion have societal aspects to them even in places where they discuss devotional rules and regulate the individual’s relationship with God.
Even though the specific behaviors of individuals have a direct impact on the soul and psyche of the person at the first stage, however, they cross the limits of the individual’s conscience and affect the society as well.
Individual characteristics and personal dispositions that appear in the behavior of a member of society act like a mobile creature, smashing the barrier of the place of their birth and get going in the constitution of the societal environment. They transfer easily from one unit to another and win over other hearts.
These sorts of psychic impacts neither require mental and tiring preliminaries nor furnishing the grounds, making initial preparations and stage by stage planning.
This means that when these unique characteristics are born in a person who is a member of the setup, they immediately appear in his external behavior and manners and display themselves at the first available opportunity in the sphere of communication with others.
As a jurisprudential authority of Islam and a reformist ideologue who utilized all his physical and mental energies in pathology of Islam’s great society particularly of Iran and improving societal relations on the basis of pure teachings of Islam, Imam Khomeini (s) gives special importance to ethics in the individual and social behavioral system.
As an inheritor of the school of the prophets, a major portion of his successes can be traced to his pragmatic and morally upright personality. Of course, it needs to be pointed out that proper action and behavior at the highest levels and in the sphere of multiplicity of societal issues are derived from knowledge and faith al though at the elementary level, they have their origins in the nature and character of human beings.
For this reason, Imam Khomeini (s) paid greater attention to his scientific and ethical works rather than to the rest of his scientific works. His ethical works can be divided into two theoretical and practical works respectively.
The Imam’s theoretical works are topics that he has discussed as mystical discussions or ethical points and guidelines, while his practical works are those dispositions and methods that he has applied to his social and political life and from which we draw ethical deductions. The volume of each of these two categories is such that mentioning any one of them restrains the writer of this article from mentioning the others.
The ethical thought and method of Imam Khomeini (s) possessing worthwhile features of other methods themselves incorporate prominent and unique points because at the first step, the element of ethics in Imam Khomeini’s teachings derive the essence of their message from the sacred Divine religion and are intensely influenced by Qur'anic concepts so that all over the Qur'an, the heavenly spirit and words of the Infallible Imams (AS) are the greatest fountainhead that quench the thirst of the Imam and augment his soul.
Imam Khomeini (s) emphasizes the utilization of spiritual enlightenment instructions and recommendations as well as experience, sacred struggle, self-abstinence and worship of God.
These teachings are filled with affectionate preaching and promptings to brief and eloquent phrases. Gnostic ethics is a specialty of the Imam’s moral doctrine – a moral doctrine that the Imam teaches and mentions them in his words and writings while it is automatically a prelude to attainment of gnosis. We briefly mention the Imam’s ethical method and thought as well as some of their unique features:
• Universality and all-round perception
One of the distinctive features of the Imam’s ethical thought and method is that in devising and presenting ethical, formative and intellectual issues, he had a comprehensive and all-embracing view. The Imam considered Islam to be a comprehensive religion and the human being a multifaceted creature.
In his ethical methods, he focused on all existential dimensions of the human being and strongly regretted those who by overlooking other human aspects, made him out to be a disharmonious and an abnormal creature.
“Islam is everything; Islam has come to build human beings – and the human being is everything; the human being is the entire universe. The one who rears human beings must be familiar with the entire universe…in order to succeed in reaching this human being to the levels that he enjoys.”
• Candidness and informality
Candidness and informality in statement of ethical concepts are among the other distinguishing features of the Imam’s ethical doctrine. Some people assume that using difficult words and complex and vague terms is a mark of academic standing and conversely, regard usage of eloquent and simple styles as a sign of shallowness and triviality.
However, the Imam despite being the supreme and absolute religious authority as well as the leader of the Revolution paid no attention to these fallacies and adopted the Glorious Qur'an as a role model and style – the chosen method of the Divine Prophets - to communicate with the people.
The Imam would rightly take into consideration the receptive capability, the circumstance and liking of his audience and would not trouble the mind of the listener with bitterness, ambiguity and formality.
The ethical works of the Imam are trimmed of the blight of formality while the simplicity and fluency of those works are such that they present their message clearly, so that the reader does not need to reread and review them over.
On the subject of transfer and reception of the Imam’s ethical thoughts and statements, neither is the reader overcome with weakness nor the listener with ambiguity so that each addressee derives the desired benefit commensurate with his own capability.
It is necessary to remind that the Imam’s ethical teachings neither suffer from weakness in content because of the simplicity of their expression nor from repetitiveness and monotony because of their lack of ambiguity and conventionality; rather, the Imam’s ethical instructions - much like his other lessons and works - overflow with topics and lessons.
What has remained of the great man’s tutoring and guidance while being simple and eloquent, abound with learning and encouragement, reasoning, spiritual perception, tradition and politics, philosophy and governance, live and afterlife as well as belief in Jihad. The Imam’s ethical works rejects the fallacious belief that moral exhortation is purely a reminder and preoccupation of a few with a particular harmony and does not require research and large amount of intelligence.
In his valuable works such as “Arba’een-e-Hadeeth”, “Aadaab As-Salat”, “The Greater Jihad”, “Israar As-Salat”, “Commentary on Recruited Troops of Intelligence and Ignorance” etc…the Imam skillfully and masterfully illustrates the standings and stages of followers of the spiritual path, rites of attentiveness and ethics, principles of virtues of ethics as well as the source of many of the vices of the carnal soul and fundamentals of the lofty religious cognitions and begins the subjects without any superfluities.
• Removing Despair and Giving Hope
The one who is responsible for education of human beings must have sufficient expertise and capability so that he undertakes the task of promotion and annunciation competently. Undoubtedly, the moral teachings of Imam did not suffer from melancholy, despair and impotence; rather, he seeks to build optimistic and motivated human beings. He was a person who would neither despair of the compassion of God nor consider himself exempt from Divine chastisement and nor become pessimistic of God’s mercy.
Thus according to the great men of religion, one should get close to an ‘Alim’ Islamic scholar who invites you to humility from pride and arrogance; to conviction from doubt; to piety from dabbling with religion and to goodwill from ill will – and no person deserves this status except the one who sincerely fears these afflictions.
• Pragmatism and shunning exaggeration
Pragmatism and shunning exaggeration are among the other distinctive features of the Imam’s ethical doctrine. He would take into consideration the mental faculty and receptive capacity of every listener or reader whom he came into contact with and would act realistically and meticulously in moral and formative teachings.
He would put forward the discussions judiciously and in accordance with the mental and spiritual capacity of the audience and for any group or audience whom he counseled and admonished, he would endeavor to avoid becoming estranged or superior in relation to their ability and potential. He would neither impose lofty spiritual thoughts on any idea nor tire weak intellects with heavy topics.
Pragmatism and audience-cognition are among the worthy distinguishing features of the Imam’s moral exhortations and admonishments. In particular, he would take into consideration the societal, cultural and political circumstances in public meetings and gatherings while he would desist from propositioning subjects that needed allegorical interpretation and justification and were seemingly shocking and ambiguous.
• Focus on ethical principles; not on their derivatives
Focus on the pillars and principles of ethics are among the hallmarks of the imam’s ethical instructions. Like an intelligent tutor, he seeks to find out the source of corporeal degenerations and deviations and discovers the hub of each of them in the human soul.
He aims to track down the source of abnormalities; continually warns humanity and selfishness, which is the mother of all evils and summons to sincerity, which is the source of benevolences and the mother of all virtues.
• Centrality of ethics in Imam Khomeini’s thought
From the Imam’s viewpoint, moral competence is the source of merits and self-discipline is the basis of all societal and individual aspects. Right from individual living to family, social, regional and even international exchanges – all of them must be established according to ethical principles.
The Imam regarded the aim and objective of the prophetic mission to be self-discipline and drawing away from darkness towards light and always in his speeches and writings, he would lay emphasis on the point that the Divine prophets arrived in order to train human beings and would state:
“The human being is the subject of discussion and of training of all the prophets…”
The Imam viewed human beings with a monotheistic perception and believed that no government or system could train human beings and nations except in the style of the Divine prophets because their vision and perception is limited and materialist whereas the human being is a creature that possesses both materialist and spiritual aspects.
Thus only the person who is proficient and has knowledge of all aspects of human existence is capable of assuming responsibility for training and purification of a human being – and this characteristic is found only in the religion of the Divine prophets.
“The prophets want to train a human being who does not differ in private and in public.”
In the same way that he does not sin openly, he remains aloof from sin in solitude and covertly as well. Therefore, it could be said that all the hardships of the prophets and the miseries that the Divine men suffered in the course of history was aimed at liberation and purification of the soul of human being.
“Basically, Islam arrived on the scene for development and …development of human beings takes precedence over all engagements in ‘Jihad’ holy warfare... it is indeed a great and difficult ‘Jihad’ (holy warfare); and all virtues are the outcome of that ‘Jihad (holy warfare)..”
For this reason, ethics is the essential ingredient of Imam Khomeini’s thought. Towards this end, he strongly emphasizes on self-reformation before reformation of others and considers starting from the self as a basic principle.
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