In other words...

In other words, if the people do not try to understand Islamic foundations and principles properly or if their awareness diminishes, satanic hands will actively be involved and propagate incorrect thoughts in place of Islamic knowledge, and try to mislead the people by groundless thoughts through the use of propaganda.

Therefore, those who are loyal to this revolution and worry about it should strive with utmost vigilance for preserving people’s Islamic thoughts and beliefs and decisively parry any threat that may divert their minds and beliefs. Parrying these threats does not mean that the ideas and beliefs of others be suppressed because surfacing of deviant ideas cannot be controlled by restricting the freedom of people’s minds. Doubts are raised and deviant ideas are put forward.

As a result, erroneous ideas and thoughts will willy-nilly find their way to people’s minds. Therefore, the most appropriate way of encountering intellectual and ideological threats is to strengthen people’s intellectual foundation and to widen their knowledge about Islam lest they should be affected by deviant ideas because when their religious and ideological knowledge is very firm, they would not be influenced by doubts, and, most importantly, they would be able to clear these doubts up.

Thus, one of the most important issues that ought to be widely discussed and settled as one of the social problems is the issue of the legitimacy of this system or in other words, the issue of Islamic government. Our revolution came to establish an Islamic government but the people’s image about the Islamic government was general and ambiguous.

It is true that this general and ambiguous picture was enough to topple down the ṭāghūt , but it is not enough to achieve and preserve unerringly the Islamic system and to make this idea settle, by the help of God, the Exalted, in the hearts of people and future generations for centuries.

These concepts should be made clear and the people should have a more realistic perception of the Islamic government and understand its exigency so that they may be prepared to defend their ideas against the opposing schools of thought and theories and not be satisfied with chanting slogans.

The academic status of the question of Wilāyat al-Faqīh When we say that we are supporters of the Islamic system and our society has to be governed according to Islam, we mean that the government should be based on Islam.