Statements of the Supreme Leader in Meeting with Various Segments of the People (30th Day of the Blessed Month of Ramadan)

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

Thanks be to God, Lord of the worlds, and peace and blessings upon our Master and Prophet, Abul-Qasim Muhammad, and upon his pure and chosen family, especially the remainder of God on earth. Peace be upon you, O greatest month of God, and O festival of His friends.

First, I will briefly address issues related to Eid al-Fitr. One issue is the matter of Fitr alms, which has been repeatedly stated as obligatory for everyone to pay approximately three kilograms of the staple food for themselves and each of their dependents. The staple food is what people commonly use for nourishment, such as wheat.

Regarding whether something other than the four grains can be given, or which is preferable, there are different opinions. Since these issues do not make much difference in the current situation of the Iranian people, if you consider three kilograms of wheat or its price for each Fitr alms, it is certainly sufficient. This obligation falls upon the responsible person from the sunset of the last day of the month, meaning the night of Eid al-Fitr, and it is prudent to pay it before performing the Eid al-Fitr prayer for those who will participate in and perform it. Therefore, if you calculate tonight how much is due from you, set aside the money, and pay it tomorrow morning before going to the Eid prayer, it is the best way. Of course, if you do not pay it at that time, you can pay it after the Eid prayer, and there is no problem.

It is prudent for the people of each city to give their Fitr alms to the poor of that city. Organizations like the Relief Committee, which collect these funds from the people and use them for their intended purposes, which is a positive and good action, should observe this aspect, as it is in accordance with prudence.

Another issue concerns the crescent of the month of Shawwal. The most sensitive crescent of the twelve months is the crescent of Shawwal. Of course, brothers and sisters should know that seeking the crescent and determining the beginning of the month is a positive, even necessary, action in all months and under all conditions, as all our religious and Islamic calculations are based on the lunar months. Suppose you want to observe the virtues of the blessed days of the beginning of Rajab, the thirteenth of Rajab, the twenty-seventh of Rajab, and the middle of Sha'ban, each of which has recommended acts, you must know that day, which is not possible without knowing the crescent of that month. On the other hand, obligatory acts such as fasting in the month of Ramadan, the days of Hajj, the day of Arafah, the day of sacrifice, and many other obligations depend on knowing the month.

However, the issue of the month of Shawwal is more important than other months because it involves an obligation and prohibition; if you had seen the crescent last night, fasting today would have been forbidden; now that you have not seen it, fasting today is obligatory. Therefore, the matter on the day of Eid al-Fitr is between obligation and prohibition. Thus, seeking the crescent, meaning striving to see the moon on the first night, is obligatory unless you know that others are observing it.

Unfortunately, it is now very uncommon to seek the crescent; it was more common in the past. Especially in Mashhad, I saw that seeking the crescent was very prevalent. It was customary for people to gather in groups on the suspected night of the first of Shawwal, in the streets, on rooftops, especially on the rooftops of mosques, to see the moon. So, remember that we must cultivate this habit in ourselves to be vigilant about all months, especially these sensitive months like Shawwal, Ramadan, and Dhu al-Hijjah, and determine the beginning of the month.

Of course, I mentioned this point last year, and this year, thanks be to God, it was implemented to a large extent, but it is not enough. We need an organization so that in all months, specialists with technical equipment and armed eyes go to places where the crescent is likely to be found, search for it, find it, and inform us; we, in turn, inform the people which day is the beginning of the month.

The religious obligation is based on lunar months. That is, a girl is obligated when she completes nine lunar years, and a boy is obligated when he completes fifteen lunar years. Some people calculate the religious age of their children based on solar months. They calculate from September to September nine or fifteen years later, thinking their child reaches the age of obligation. No, you must see which day of which lunar month they were born, take that as the starting point, and calculate to determine.

In short, seeking the crescent is important. How is the beginning of the month established for a person? Several methods have been mentioned: one is sighting. Of course, provided you know the position of the moon and are familiar with it; some familiarity is necessary.

One of the scholars of Tehran, may God have mercy on him, said: On the rooftop of the large Akhund school in Najaf, on the last day of Ramadan, the students would seek the crescent. An elderly man was sitting and had spread his iftar, but he was not seeking the crescent. The young students stood on one side and looked at a corner; then they saw the moon and pointed it out to each other. When they wanted to go down from the rooftop, they passed by the elderly man. One said, for example, O Sheikh Muhammad! You did not come to seek the crescent? He said: Did you see the moon? They said: Yes. He said: Where was it? They said: There. The old man shook his head and said: Now look that way. When the students looked, they saw the moon there! It is interesting that they had occupied themselves for half an hour, had seen something, pointed it out to each other, and believed they had seen a very high, clear, and bright moon without any haze!

In short, one is the sighting by the person themselves, seeing the moon and being certain they have seen it. Even if the ruler's decree is contrary to this, a person must act according to their own knowledge; that is, what they have seen is the criterion.

The second is that there is a widespread or common report that brings certainty to a person; that is, it has become known that tonight is the first of the month. Everyone says it, many have seen it, everyone reports it, and a person hears it from everyone until they gain confidence and certainty.

The third is that two just witnesses testify. Being trustworthy is not enough; they must be just. Last night, when we inquired from different parts of the country, some places said that someone came to a gentleman and said they had seen it. This was said in two or three places, but from a religious standpoint, none of them were valid because the informants were not known to be just, and no one knew if they were just.

This is not a small matter; it is the day of the Muslims' festival. When a person wants to act according to it, or the ruler wants to issue a decree, they cannot step on shaky and uncertain ground. No, they must be just; not just one person, but two just and informed people who do not lie or speak falsely. They must be people who recognize the moon, and from their words, it can be understood that they have understood correctly.

Sometimes people go to the rooftop and see the moon, but they make mistakes. I have seen before that experts wanted witnesses and asked people, when you saw the moon, how was it? For example, they said, the moon was like this; that is, the two sides of the moon were downward. It was clear that they had not seen the moon. The moon on the first night is not like that. On the first night, the two sides of the moon are upward. So, if someone is just but comes and says they have seen the moon, and it was like this, showing the two sides of the crescent downward, it is clear they are not lying, but they have made a mistake; this is also not acceptable. There must be two just witnesses who do not make mistakes.

Another way is the decree of the ruler. When the Islamic ruler decrees that today is the first of the month, all those for whom the matter is not clear are obliged to act according to his decree, unless someone has seen it themselves, or someone knows that the ruler, in this decree, relies on the testimony of someone who is not just or expert and has made a mistake. If someone knows this, it is not obligatory to act according to the ruler's decree; but all the people who walk in the streets and markets and have not sought the crescent, or have not obtained information and do not know the situation, or have inquired but nothing has been proven to them, as soon as the ruler decrees that tonight or today is the night or day of Eid al-Fitr or the first of the month, it is obligatory for all of them to obey; it does not matter whether they are a jurist or a follower, a layperson or a scholar or ignorant; all are obliged to act according to the ruler's decree.

Of course, another discussion is the Eid al-Fitr prayer, which is a very virtuous and spiritual prayer. In this prayer, there is supplication, humility, weeping, and attention to God. The Eid al-Fitr prayer is a good prayer. Of course, there are different opinions on whether in such times, the Eid al-Fitr prayer is obligatory or recommended, and how it is in congregation. In any case, if you participate in the Eid al-Fitr prayer with the intention of hope and perform it in congregation, you will certainly be rewarded.

After mentioning these few issues, I will present my main discussion. The human body without exercise will be weak, thin, and powerless. Whoever you are, no matter how strong and powerful your constitution is, if you do not exercise and only eat and sleep, your body will remain weak; there is no doubt about this. Just as if you do not exercise, your body will not achieve the necessary growth, there are also beauties that exercise will reveal; it cannot be done without exercise. Your soul is exactly the same. Without exercise, without practice and discipline, it is impossible for you to become strong.

There are many people with strong and beautiful bodies, but with thin, ugly, weak, and powerless souls; this is of no use. All acts of worship are for us to exercise, to be trained, and to progress. Of course, acts of worship must be understood. Acts of worship also have a body and a soul. The body of acts of worship alone is not enough. If a person performs prayer but during the prayer does not pay attention to the remembrance itself, is not aware of what they are saying and with whom they are speaking, and recites the contents of the prayer completely heedlessly, this prayer is a useless prayer.

Of course, those who have not studied Arabic and do not know the meaning of these sentences, if during the prayer they at least pay attention to the fact that they are speaking with God and remember God, this is also a good benefit; but try to know the meaning of the prayer. Learning the meaning of the prayer is very easy; you can quickly learn the translation of these few sentences. Perform the prayer with attention to its meaning. This is the prayer that will be "the sacrifice of every pious person." Prayer is what brings a person closer to God; but it brings a pious person closer.

Fasting leads to piety and creates piety; but fasting with attention. In the first sessions of this gathering, I referred to the narrations of fasting; some of the other gentlemen who came here and spoke also referred to it. Fasting is not just about not eating and drinking; fasting is a kind of training for your soul. You can develop the organs of your soul with fasting and become purified and cleansed and attain purity.

This almsgiving and charity, which is considered a great act of worship, also has a body and a soul. "And whoever is protected from the stinginess of his soul, it is they who will be successful." This almsgiving should break our inner greed and stinginess and eliminate our attachment to wealth and worldly adornments. This is good almsgiving.

This year, thanks be to God, the fasting of the month of Ramadan was thirty days. For several years, the month of Ramadan was twenty-nine days and did not reach thirty days; but this year it was one day longer. You fasted for thirty days, performed attentive prayers, and supplicated. This certainly has a result in your being. Our ambition should be to preserve this result. This is a valuable result. If attentive prayer and fasting and enlightening and awakening remembrance exist for us, then we will be Muslims who progress day by day towards the goals of Islam. If you see that in societies there were or are Muslims who have not approached the goals of Islam and have moved away, one of the defects in their work is here. Perhaps there are multiple defects, of which this is one.

If there is no attention during worship and the spirit of worship, which is servitude and intimacy with God and submission to Him, is not considered, then various dangers lie in the path of a person, one of which is rigidity.

Some of these Kharijites, whose names you have heard a lot these days, worshiped in such a way and recited the verses of the Quran and prayer with such fervor that even the companions of the Commander of the Faithful (peace be upon him) were affected! During the days of the Battle of the Camel, one of the companions of the Commander of the Faithful was passing by and saw one of them worshiping and reciting these verses in the middle of the night with a beautiful voice: "Is one who is devoutly obedient during periods of the night..." He was moved and came to the Commander of the Faithful. Even intelligent, clever, and aware people, who were mostly the close companions of the Commander of the Faithful (peace be upon him), made mistakes.

It is not without reason that the Commander of the Faithful (peace be upon him) said: No one could do what I did and quell this sedition. This task truly required the sword, awareness, and the faith of Ali in himself and his path. Even sometimes the elite were shaken. The Commander of the Faithful (peace be upon him) said to that companion of his, according to this narration, I will tell you tomorrow. The next day, when the battle was over and less than ten of the Kharijites remained alive and the rest were killed in battle, the Commander of the Faithful, as a means of admonition and exhortation for his companions and followers, walked among the dead and spoke to some of them for a reason. They reached one of these dead who had fallen on his back. The Commander said, turn him over; they turned him over. Perhaps he said, sit him up; they sat him up. Then he said to the same close companion of his: Do you recognize him? He said: No, O Commander of the Faithful. He said: He is the one who was reciting those verses last night and had captivated your heart!

What kind of Quran recitation is this?! What kind of worship is this?! This is being distant from the spirit of worship. If a person is familiar with the spirit of worship, prayer, and the Quran, they understand that when the existence and truth and essence of Islam, embodied in Ali ibn Abi Talib, is on one side, they dispel all doubts from themselves and join him. This is being distant from the Quran and distant from religion that someone cannot recognize this matter and consequently raises a sword against Ali (peace be upon him).

So, one side of the issue is these rigidities and lack of thinking and major mistakes that we observe throughout the era of the Umayyad and Abbasid caliphates. Some people were pious and devout and worshipful and ascetic, and their names are recorded in books among the worshipers and ascetics and moralists and reputable people; but they made mistakes; mistakes as great as the mistake of the front of truth with falsehood. The greatest mistakes are these. Small mistakes are forgivable. The mistake that is not forgivable is that someone mistakes the front of truth for the front of falsehood and cannot recognize it.

The greatness of people like Ammar Yasir is in this. The greatness of those special companions of the Commander of the Faithful (peace be upon him) is in this that they never made a mistake in any situation and did not lose sight of the front. I have seen this greatness in multiple instances in the Battle of Siffin; of course, it is not limited to the Battle of Siffin. In many of those places where a point was mistaken for a group of believers, the one who came and with his penetrating insight and enlightening speech removed the doubt from their minds was Ammar Yasir. One sees the presence of this great enlightening man in the various events of the Commander of the Faithful, including in Siffin.

The Battle of Siffin lasted for months; it was also a strange battle. People saw their opponents praying, worshiping, performing congregational prayers, and reciting the Quran; they even carried the Quran on spears! It took a lot of courage for someone to draw a sword on these people who were praying.

In a narration from Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him), it is reported that if the Commander of the Faithful (peace be upon him) had not fought with the people of the Qibla, the duty of the bad and rebellious people of the Qibla would not have been determined until the end. It was Ali ibn Abi Talib who opened this path and showed everyone what to do. Our children, when they entered some of the trenches of the attacking front and captured them, found prayer beads and rosaries in their trenches! Yes, just like those who stood against the Commander of the Faithful (peace be upon him) and also prayed, resulting in some people falling into doubt. The one who went to these people was Ammar Yasir. This is vigilance and awareness, and someone like Ammar Yasir is needed.

If the spirit of actions and worship, which is the same attention to God and servitude to Him, is not resolved and clarified for a person, and a person does not try to bring themselves closer to servitude to God in each of these obligations, their work is superficial. Superficial work and faith are always at risk, and this is something we have seen in the history of Islam.

I mentioned earlier, some of the religious, pious, worshipful, and ascetic people would go and sit next to the oppressive, usurping, immoral, deceitful, and hypocritical caliph and give him a few words of advice; he would either out of deceit and hypocrisy, or perhaps something would stir in the corner of his heart, shed a tear. Some were drunk and in a state of intoxication, they would become emotional and bring someone to speak to them a little; they would cry at their words! Then these simple-minded, ignorant people, even if they were knowledgeable about the outward aspects of religion, would become followers of this caliph!

In the history of Islam, one sees strange things of this kind. This same "Amr ibn Ubaid," the famous worshipful ascetic, is someone about whom the Abbasid caliph expressed devotion and said: "All of you walk slowly, all of you seek prey except Amr ibn Ubaid"; meaning the account of "Amr ibn Ubaid" is separate from other claimants of piety and asceticism! If you look at this "Amr ibn Ubaid" and "Muhammad ibn Shihab al-Zuhri" and the like, you see that they were among the major headaches of the truth movement in their time. They would go with their presence, strengthen the front of falsehood, and leave the front of truth, meaning the front of the Ahl al-Bayt of the Prophet, alone and oppressed, and as a result of this ignorance, they would extend the enemy's hand over them.

In short, the spirit of worship is servitude to God. Brothers and sisters! We must strive to revive the spirit of servitude in ourselves. Servitude means submission to God, breaking that idol within us. That inner idol of ours, meaning the self, manifests itself in many places. When your benefit is at risk, when someone does not accept your word, when something appears contrary to your desire, even if it is against the law, or when you are at a crossroads, one side personal interests, the other side duty and obligation, in such tight spots and critical moments, that inner self of a person raises its head and shows itself.

If we can control this inner self, this desire, this inner Pharaoh, this devil within us, or at least control it to some extent, all matters will be reformed. Before anything else, we will become human and achieve success. The month of Ramadan is a prelude to this. Fasting, attentive prayer, almsgiving, even jihad in the way of God, are for reaching such a world where people are servants of God. O Lord! By Muhammad and the family of Muhammad, make us Your servants.

Today the month of Ramadan ends. Brothers and sisters! Try to preserve this achievement you have gained in this month. Preserving it is by avoiding sins and keeping the remembrance of God alive in your hearts. As much as you can, in various situations, during work, in interactions with people, in encounters with material benefits, in encounters with desires, and so on, try to keep the remembrance of God alive in yourselves.

We ask You, O God, and we call upon You by Your great and greatest name, O Allah, O Allah, O Allah. O God, O Praiseworthy, by the right of Muhammad, and O Exalted, by the right of Ali, and O Creator, by the right of Fatimah, and O Benefactor, by the right of Hasan, and O Ancient of Goodness, by the right of Husayn.

O Lord! By Muhammad and the family of Muhammad and by Your grace and kindness, accept from all of us. O Lord! Make these insignificant, humble, and incomplete deeds of ours, by Your grace and kindness, accepted by You. O Lord! Grant us success in breaking the satanic and infidel-like self. O Lord! By Muhammad and the family of Muhammad, make us familiar and close to Muhammad and the family of Muhammad; make our life and death like their life and death. O Lord! By Muhammad and the family of Muhammad, make the sacred heart of the Guardian of the Age pleased with us. O Lord! Envelop the sacred soul of our dear Imam with Your blessings, favors, and graces. O Lord! Gather him with his friends and make him pleased with us. O Lord! Make everything we said and heard and everything we did in this month for You and in Your path and accept it all. O Lord! Do not make this Ramadan the last Ramadan of our lives. O Lord! Do not deprive us of Your blessings. O Lord! Do not make our death anything but martyrdom in Your path. And hasten the reappearance of our Master, the Owner of the Age.

Peace be upon you and God's mercy and blessings.