Statements of His Eminence in Meeting with Employees of the Ministry of Education, Welfare Organization, and Social Security Organization

In the Name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

First, I extend a warm welcome to all dear brothers and sisters, especially those who have come from the cities of Isfahan, Semnan, Zanjan, Karaj, and some other cities, and particularly to the dear families of the martyrs, as this month is especially the month of the martyrs. I also find it necessary to congratulate the dear brothers who are engaged in service in the 'Jihad of Construction' and are present here, for their service in this revolutionary organization, and to say that they should appreciate this genuine and valuable institution.

The Jihad of Construction is truly one of the offspring of the revolution, and its blessings were evident in war and peace, in defense and construction, for all to see. We hope that this sacred institution will be strengthened day by day, both in terms of work effort and revolutionary and faithful orientation. This institution is a flower that has blossomed on the robust trunk of the revolution's sapling, and God willing, this flower will always remain fresh and benefit the people. I also find it necessary to thank the brothers working in the country's welfare organization, who are also participating in this sincere and friendly gathering, for the difficult task they have undertaken. Caring for the disabled, the mentally challenged, and children and adults who are not physically healthy is one of the greatest acts of charity and goodness. Of course, the country's welfare organization is the leader in this important task; however, I say to all our dear nation: for this task to be organized, everyone must feel responsible. Put yourself in the place of a family that has a mentally challenged and disabled child among them, to see what a great virtue it is for a person to be able to provide financial, material, and spiritual assistance to this organization! We hope that God will help them and grant them goodness, and also make this dear nation more aware of the importance of this task.

The matter I wish to discuss is related to the attribution of these days to the Fourth Imam, peace be upon him. Because the twenty-fifth of the month of Muharram, according to a narration that may also be the stronger narration and opinion, is the death of the Fourth Imam. That noble figure lived for approximately thirty-four years after the event of Karbala in the Islamic environment of that day, and this life, in every aspect, is one of the lives full of lessons that I wish those who are aware of the high qualities of this life would explain it to the people, to Muslims, and even to non-Muslims, so it would become clear how our fourth great Imam, after the event of Ashura, which was a great blow to the body of pure and true Islam, was able to stand alone and prevent the destruction of the edifice of religion. If it were not for the efforts of Imam Sajjad, peace be upon him, the martyrdom of Imam Hussein, peace be upon him, would have been wasted and its effects would not have remained. The share of the Fourth Imam is a great share. In the life of the Fourth Imam, there are several strands of work, one of which is this strand of ethics. That is, the education and purification of the ethics of the Islamic society. This is a point I want to talk about for a few minutes with you dear brothers and sisters and with the entire nation of Iran.

Imam Sajjad dedicated himself to teaching and changing ethics in the Islamic society. Why? Because according to the analysis of that great Imam, a significant part of the fundamental problems of the Islamic world that led to the tragedy of Karbala were due to the moral decline and corruption of the people. If the people had Islamic ethics, Yazid, Ibn Ziyad, Umar Saad, and others could not have created that tragedy. If the people had not become so low, had not clung to the earth so much, had not distanced themselves from ideals, and had not been dominated by vices, it would have been impossible for governments, even if they were corrupt, even if they were irreligious and tyrannical, to be able to incite the people to create such a great tragedy; that is, to kill the son of the Prophet and the son of Fatimah Zahra, peace be upon her. Is this a joke?! A nation, when it becomes the source of all corruption, will be when its ethics are ruined. Imam Sajjad, peace be upon him, examined this in the face of the Islamic society and dedicated himself to cleansing this face of this ugliness and improving ethics. Therefore, the prayer of 'Makarem al-Akhlaq' is a prayer; but it is a lesson. 'Sahifa Sajjadiya' is a prayer; but it is a lesson.

I recommend to you young people to go and read 'Sahifa Sajjadiya' and reflect on it. Reading without attention and reflection is not enough. With reflection, you will see that each of the prayers of this 'Sahifa Sajjadiya' and this prayer of 'Makarem al-Akhlaq' is a book of life lessons and ethics lessons.

I say to you dear brothers and sisters: when a revolution occurs in a country, it is to change the general conditions and social system of the country; to transform the government; to transform social and economic relations. This is the goal of a revolution. But what is the goal of changing and transforming social conditions? Why do we want social conditions to change? So that the ethics of the people change. Because in a corrupt and tyrannical system, in a tyrannical system, people are poorly educated. People become materialistic, without spirituality and truth. People become unfaithful, insincere, and dishonest. People become distant from compassion, kindness, friendship, cooperation, and companionship. These are the effects of a corrupt and wrong social life. The revolution is to change society, and changing society is to change the ethics of people. It is so that people are well-educated. Therefore, you see in the prayer of the days of Ramadan, one of the main phrases of the prayer is: 'O God, change our bad condition with Your good condition.' This is how social justice is ensured. Social justice is a principle. A main and lofty goal. But social justice is ensured in society when individuals in society are educated; they do not oppress and do not submit to oppression.

Today in our society, one of the fundamental efforts must be to change ethics. Each of us, just me and you sitting here facing each other; each of us must consider ourselves obligated to change the ethics of one person and draw them from badness to goodness. That one person is also ourselves. 'All of you are shepherds and all of you are responsible for your flock.' All of you are responsible, and the first responsibility is towards your own person. Supervise ourselves. Keep ourselves away from moral corruption, from baseness, from lying, from ill-will, from malice, from cruelty, from infringing on the rights of others, from injustice towards others, from indifference to the condition of people in need of attention and care, and the rest of the corrupt ethics. All the prophets and saints came to change the ethics of people. However, changing the ethics of people in the form of preaching and advice and in a wrong tyrannical system happens slowly. But in a system that has been established based on divine values, changing the ethics of people happens easily. As we see and have seen this before us.

Our society, thanks to the revolution, has made a significant turn towards divine ethics; although this turn is not complete and must continue. Did you see what these young people did in the war?! Did you see how these fathers and mothers sacrificed their loved ones for God, the Quran, and religion?! Did you see how these people gave up their personal wealth women from their gold, men from their earnings for the sake of public interests, for the war, for solving the country's problems, for the flood and earthquake in such and such a place?! These are turns towards Islamic ethics. Before the revolution, these things existed; but on very short and small scales. It was not general. Be careful that this movement towards Islamic ethics continues. If this happens, our society will enjoy social justice.

Social justice is largely dependent on ethics. Of course, a major part of it is related to the regulations and laws of society. But regulations and laws, without individuals possessing divine and Islamic ethics, are not very effective. Today in our society, there are those who have high incomes. Either their specialization is a needed specialization, or few people have that specialization. For any reason, they have high incomes. Should all this income be spent on themselves? This is materialistic ethics. This is satanic ethics. More correctly, this is animal ethics. An animal, whatever it has, belongs to itself. Human ethics, especially that high Islamic ethics, does not rule this way. What you have, after you have met your essential needs and fulfilled your desires, should be spent on the rest of the people in that society. If your neighbor has a need, spend it on them. If your relative has a need, spend it on them. Suppose today in our society, building schools is an important issue. Building educational spaces, or even attending to the mentally and physically challenged, is an important task. Those who have financial means, it is very appropriate and morally obligatory for them to spend part of their wealth on these. This is the same moral transformation.

If ethics are ensured in society, social justice is ensured; society is prosperous, and people live in paradise; even in this world. On a global scale, we observe that the major calamities that befall humanity are due to bad ethics and the corruptions that exist in the ethics of some individuals of the human race. Look at the injustices that occur on a global scale! Of course, we are not unaware of political causes. The economic and political factors of these analyses are clear. But if you examine the root and foundation of all of them, there is an element of bad ethics. My belief is that wrong education and ethics are what have caused nations in the world to suffer great calamities today. In the same issue of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the homeland of oppressed Muslims who are being massacred in the heart of Europe and are suffering increasing calamities if it were not for the lies of some officials of the arrogant powers of the world, the Muslims there would not be in this situation. For a year and several months, these poor people and this oppressed nation have been under the blows of a group of savage, racist, fascist people, namely the Serbs. They distract people with words and phrases, and all of this is rooted in corrupt ethics, hypocrisy, and lying. The arrogant disposition that the regime of the United States of America has today is, at its core, a moral issue and has a moral root. Arrogance is also a moral matter; it is a corrupt ethic. These people have no fairness. If they had fairness; if they had kindness; if they had humanity, they would not act this way with the nations of the world.

Look at what they are doing to the people in Somalia today! Their statement is this I am referring to the Americans that they say: 'Our interests require us to intervene there!' There is no one to tell them: 'Do you have enough fairness and kindness to admit that the interests of nations are also respected for themselves, or not?' You say: 'Our interests require us to have a military presence there.' So what do the interests of the Somali nation require? What do the interests of that nation that you suppress with various means require? Your interests are interests, they are respected, they are valid; but the interests of other nations are not respected and valid?

What are you doing in the Persian Gulf? They say: 'We have interests here.' If your interests conflict with the interests of the nations of the Persian Gulf, why are your interests prioritized over the interests of the nations of the Persian Gulf region? Why do you say your interests must absolutely be considered and the interests of other nations, if trampled and wasted, so be it? Why?!

This is the same moral issue. This is the same arrogant spirit. The same corrupt moral root that drives a government and a political system to such oppression, injustice, aggression, inhumanity, and unfairness.

Today, the American system is an anti-moral system. They resort to various cunning and malicious methods regarding the Islamic Republic of Iran. They are asked: 'Why do you do this?' They say: 'We want to put pressure on the Iranian nation!' They openly express the corrupt inner nature of their hearts. During the previous American government the Bush administration they pretended that 'we love the Iranian nation and want to have relations with Iran.' A number of well-intentioned individuals within our country not that they had ill intentions believed it! They said: 'Maybe the Americans have really turned away from their wrong and crooked path. Those who were enemies of the Iranian nation and acted maliciously, maybe they have repented; they have realized they must get along with the revolution; they must get along with the Iranian nation.' Although intelligent and precise individuals knew at that time that they were lying; but their statements were such that they created this belief in some that perhaps the Americans had turned away from their enmity and malice and from their ill nature towards the Iranian nation and the Islamic revolution. But those who have come to power now reveal their true nature. They express the truth with their brazen and vile words. They openly take a stance against the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Iranian nation. They say 'we want to work and strive against Iran.' The truth became clear. It became evident that those who expressed the contrary were being hypocritical. The reality is what is in their words.

Some say: 'These people are inexperienced, naive, simple-minded to say such things.' Of course, they are inexperienced, naive, and elementary people in politics. This is evident from their actions. But this is what prevents them from hiding and concealing their inner thoughts. Their behavior has become such that today the slogan 'Death to America' belongs to the entire Iranian nation. If some had doubts during the previous American government, out of simplicity, today everyone has understood the truth. The Iranian nation feels this enmity. However, the naivety and inexperience of today's American officials are evident in the fact that they have not understood that such satanic actions against the great Iranian nation, against this brave and self-sacrificing nation, against this country with spiritual power, have no effect other than exposing themselves. The Iranian nation will not be defeated by these things.

There was a time when there were two superpowers in the world, and the entire world was under their influence. Both superpowers had also joined hands against the Islamic Republic and had incited a government like the Ba'athist regime of Iraq to use their support to bring various pressures on this nation. But you saw that as time passed, the great Iranian nation became stronger, more honorable, more determined, and its perseverance increased. How can they confront our great and faithful nation without it leading to their own defeat?! Whatever they do is to their own detriment. We will continue the path of Islam, as the revolution and Imam taught us, with strength and power.

Thanks be to God, as time has passed, the honor of the Islamic Republic in the world has increased. Today, the government of Iran, the nation of Iran, the President of Iran, the warriors of Iran, the youth of Iran, and the men and women of Iran are proud and honorable in the world. The Islamic Republic's relations with the world, thanks be to God, are strong. With Europe, with Asia, with all the countries of the world, thanks be to God, the relations are strong and firm, and the devils cannot create problems for the Islamic Republic with their ill-will and malevolence.

The essence of the matter is that our noble nation should preserve this unity, this cohesion, and this adherence to the path of God with the same strength and power. You dear families of the martyrs, you veterans, and you who have invested your lives or your loved ones for the revolution, should know that thanks be to God, these pure bloods have had their effect. The efforts of the great Imam have done their work. Your nation's sacrifices and struggles have had their impact, and God willing, under the attention of the Imam of the Age, may our souls be sacrificed for his noble presence, and the care and prayers of that great figure, this nation will progress day by day on the path of independence, honor, prosperity, and improved living and will become a model for other nations.

Peace be upon you and God's mercy and blessings