Supposing that you did benefit from pleasures and worldly interests...

Supposing that you did benefit from pleasures and worldly interests, there would be no place for disagreements, unless you were not ruhani [spiritual, a cleric], and the only thing you inherited of ruhaniyyat [spirituality, being a cleric] was the robe and turban.

A ruhani [a cleric] who is occupied with metaphysics, a ruhani who benefits from living teachings and reformative Islamic attributes, a ruhani who considers himself a follower of ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib, peace be with him, is not possibly tempted by the world, nor would he allow it to cause disagreements.

You who have declared yourselves to be followers of the Commander of the Faithful, peace be with him, you should at least make a bit of research into the life of that great man, and see if you are really one of his followers! Do you know and practice anything of his asceticism, taqwa [piety, God-wariness] and simple unadorned life?

Do you know anything of that great man’s combat against oppression and injustice, and class differences, and of his unhesitating defense and support of the oppressed and persecuted, of how he lent a hand to the dispossessed and suffering social classes? Have you put it into practice? Is the meaning of the “Shi‘ite” nothing more than the ornamental appearances of Islam?

[^2]32 Therefore, what is the difference between you and other Muslims, in virtue of which they are much further ahead and more advantageous than the Shi‘ah? What distinguishes you over them?

Those who today have set a part of the world on fire, who spill blood and kill, do this because they are competing with each other in looting the nations of the world and swallowing their wealth and the products of their labor, and in bringing the weak and underdeveloped countries under their dominion and control.

Thus, in the name of freedom, development and prosperity, the defense of independence and protection of borders, and under other deceptive slogans, every day the flames of war are set in some corner of the world, and millions of tons of incendiary bombs are dropped upon nations without protection. This fighting seems correct and accords with the logic of worldly people whose brains are polluted. However, your conflicts, even according to their logic, are incorrect.

If asked why they are fighting, they will say that they want to take over such and such a country; the wealth and income of such and such a country must be made ours.