Ayatollah Khamenei—the Leader of the Islamic Revolution—opened his Dars-e Kharej
Fiqh lecture on Monday, October 15, 2018, by elaborating on a letter by Imam Ali
(a.s.) addressing the officials and military commanders (letter 50; Nahjul
Balagha). He mentioned some of the responsibilities of the officials and
commanders as explained by Imam Ali (a.s.) and regarded this letter as a code of
conduct for all individuals with managerial roles within an Islamic
establishment. Then, referring to some excerpts from the letter, he maintained:
"In the logic of the Alawi governance [Imam Ali’s manner of governing], if
someone—due to the responsibility they are given—reaches a certain social
position or privilege, their position should not influence the way they treat
the people, distancing them from the rest of the people”. Ayatollah Khamenei
added: "The officials of the Islamic establishment must know that being grateful
to God for having been granted the position requires getting closer to the
people, interacting with them, and being kinder and more caring towards them.”
The leader of the Revolution raised another excerpt from the letter that
addresses transparency of the officials by stating: "Beware, your rights upon me
is that I should not keep anything secret from you except during wars.”
Elaborating on this sentence from Imam Ali’s letter, he asserted: "This is an
extremely important point. Transparency—which is insisted on today—already
exists in the words of Imam Ali (a.s.). Some individuals are into the habit of
crediting the West for any good quality that exists in the Islamic society. One
is appalled by the extent of their low-mindedness of these individuals. Some say
that values such as caring for the people, being attentive to their votes, and
promoting the well-being of the people are [qualities] transferred to us from
the West. When you do not refer to Islamic resources when you do not study the
words of Imam Ali (a.s.) and the honorable Prophet of Islam (pbuh), you are not
familiar with them, and so you refer to the West. Some say that transparency is
something we learned from the West. This is not true; because, Imam Ali (a.s.)
teaches about transparency. He says: Your right upon me--that is, the right you
have and I need to observe it-- is that I should not keep anything secret from
you except during wars when we face an enemy. During wars, we cannot share all
the words, because if you can learn about it, the enemy will also be able to
learn about it. So in the matters of war, including military war, security
issues, defense and foreign affairs, we should not be transparent. Nevertheless,
in other affairs, general matters of the people, "I should not hide from you
anything as secrets”.
The leader of the revolution stressed: "Except in military, security and foreign
affairs when we deal with the enemies, the officials must be transparent and
should not keep any secret from the people.”
Source: khamenei.ir