Statements on the Meeting with Various Segments of the People on the Occasion of Eid al-Ghadir

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

Thanks be to God, the Lord of the worlds, and peace and blessings be upon our master and prophet, Abu al-Qasim al-Mustafa Muhammad, and his pure, infallible progeny, especially the Awaited One on the earth.

Happy Eid to you; God willing, may the Almighty God, by the blessing of this great Eid and the remembrance of our Master, always illuminate your hearts with His grace, tranquility, and kindness, and grant us the success to truly benefit from this occasion and similar ones in an appropriate and desirable manner. Well, thanks be to God, our gathering today started very well; the recitation of the Quran was excellent, and the poetry recited here was very good both in form and content; your hearts are full of love and affection for the Master of the Faithful - peace and blessings be upon him - and this eagerness, this love, and this devotion, God willing, should be a means to draw us towards that direction which is desired by our Master.

One point about Ghadir itself; it has been said in some expressions that Eid al-Ghadir is the greatest Eid of God and is higher than all other Eids; what is the reason for this? Well, in the Holy Quran, there are verses that cannot be applied to any other issue besides Ghadir. The well-known verse "Today those who disbelieve have despaired of your religion; so fear them not, but fear Me. Today I have perfected for you your religion and completed My favor upon you and have chosen for you Islam as religion" (Quran 5:3), which is at the beginning of Surah al-Ma'idah, cannot be applied to any other issue of the same weight and importance as Ghadir; only such an issue can be described by the expression "Today those who disbelieve have despaired of your religion." Those who have criticized the content of these verses have made statements, and the opponents and those who do not accept the issue of Ghadir have interpreted this verse in a way, but this part of the verse cannot be interpreted. Today is the day when the enemies - the disbelievers - have despaired of your religion. What was added to the religion that caused the enemy to despair? The rulings mentioned in this verse, before and after this phrase, how much importance do they have? This expression has not been mentioned regarding prayer, regarding almsgiving, regarding jihad; it has not been mentioned regarding any of the subsidiary divine rulings that "Today those who disbelieve have despaired of your religion"; thus, this is another issue; it is different from these subsidiary rulings. What is that issue? The issue of leadership of the Islamic community; the issue of the system of governance and Imamate in the Islamic community. Yes, they may deviate - as they did; for several centuries, the Umayyads and Abbasids and others ruled under the name of Imamate and Caliphate and similar titles; they ruled as kings - but this does not harm the philosophy of Ghadir. The matter of Ghadir's designation is the matter of establishing a criterion, establishing a rule. A rule was established in Islam; the Prophet of Islam established this rule in the last months of his life; what is that rule? The rule of Imamate; the rule of Guardianship. Human societies have had governance since ancient times; humanity has experienced various types of governments; Islam does not accept these types of powers and power structures; it accepts Imamate. This is the rule of Islam; Ghadir expresses this. Its example is also specified; the Commander of the Faithful is someone whose character has never been blemished, neither at that time nor in later times, by anyone. Well, yes, they insulted, they insult God, they insult the Prophet - God forbid - insults are not evidence. No human being, when they think, when they free themselves from emotions and prejudices, can ever - even to a small extent - blemish this luminous body, this sacred figure. The Prophet designated him as the example of Imamate. This became the rule; until the end of the world, wherever Muslims want and strive and are guided by God to realize Islam and the Islamic community, its criterion and rule is this: they must revive Imamate. Of course, no example will ever reach those examples designated by the Prophet; it does not even reach less than them; the greatest scholarly, spiritual, and mystical figures we have are like that weak ray of light seen at the bottom of a well compared to the sun; yes, it is the same, it is the same ray, but how great is the distance? How great is the difference? Our greatest figures, for example, someone like Imam Khomeini (may his soul be sanctified), who was indeed a complete, great, magnificent, comprehensive figure and an outstanding and distinguished personality in every respect, if we want to compare him with the Commander of the Faithful, the comparison is as I mentioned: [that is] compare the sunlight with that ray seen at the bottom of a well or in some corner from the sun or light; the distances are like this.

Yes, these distances exist, but the rule is this; the rule is Imamate. The rule of governance and authority and power in the Islamic community was determined and established by Ghadir; this is the importance of Ghadir. The importance of Ghadir is not only that the Commander of the Faithful was designated; this is important, but more important is that they established the criterion, they established the rule; it became clear that in the Islamic community, monarchical governance has no meaning, personal governance has no meaning, governance by wealth and force has no meaning, aristocratic governance has no meaning, governance by arrogance over the people has no meaning, governance by privilege-seeking and greed and accumulating for oneself has no meaning, governance by lust has no meaning; it became clear that this is how it is in Islam. This rule was established in Ghadir. When this rule was established, then "those who disbelieve have despaired of your religion"; the enemies can no longer hope to change the path of this religion; because the path of religion changes when that main point, that core point changes; that is, the core of power, the core of management, the core of leadership; if it changes, everything changes; yes, in practical reality, changes occur, and individuals like the Umayyad and Abbasid caliphs come to power under the name of Islam, Hajjaj ibn Yusuf also comes to power, but these cannot disrupt the rule. Today, if those in the Islamic world; those who are familiar with Islamic teachings refer to the Quran, refer to the rules established in the Quran for the worship of God and the life and direction of the servants of God - that is, the nations - in the Quran, they cannot reach any conclusion other than the conclusion that Imamate of the Commander of the Faithful (peace be upon him) and what follows him must govern the Islamic communities; that is, the path is this; the path is Imamate. This relates to Ghadir.

Well, when Ghadir is so important, then the other noble verse "O Messenger, convey what has been revealed to you from your Lord; and if you do not do it, you have not conveyed His message" (Quran 5:67) becomes clear. [It says] if you do not convey this ruling, you have not fulfilled your mission at all. The Prophet has been striving for 23 years - those struggles in Mecca, those struggles in Medina, those wars, those sacrifices, those self-denials, that great guidance of humanity that he has carried out, all of these have been done during this time - what event and what occurrence is it that if it is not there, all of these [seemingly] do not exist? "And if you do not do it, you have not conveyed His message"; this cannot be a few subsidiary rulings; this is something beyond these; what is it? It is Imamate. Who is the first Imam? The Prophet himself. Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him) said in Mina: Indeed, the Messenger of God was the Imam; the Prophet is the first Imam; "Then after him, Ali ibn Abi Talib" and then the rest of the Imams.

God Almighty, after having tested Prophet Abraham so much, after he went through so many difficult stages - in his youth, he fell into the fire; then he came to Babylon and in those areas, he made so much effort and worked hard - when he reached old age, then God says: "Indeed, I am making you a leader for the people"; now I want to make you an Imam. Imamate means this. This is belief; Islamic belief based on solid foundations and irrefutable arguments. We invite all of the Islamic world and all thinkers, this unity that the Islamic world needs today can easily be achieved by reflecting on the verses of the Quran and contemplating these truths if the thinkers and those with foundations pursue these issues.

Of course, on the other hand, they should not provoke their emotions. Some people think that proving Shiism is to constantly speak ill of the great figures respected by the Sunnis and others; no, this is contrary to the conduct of the Imams. The fact that you see radios or televisions in the Islamic world that their job is to speak ill of the great figures respected by other Islamic sects under the name of Shiism, it is clear that their budget is from the treasury of England; this is the English Shiism. No one should think that the spread of Shiism and the belief in Shiism and the strengthening of Shiite faith is through this speaking ill and this way of talking; no; this has the opposite effect. When you speak ill, a barrier is drawn around them from anger, from emotions, and the truth becomes intolerable for them. We have many logical arguments, many rational arguments, arguments that anyone who is a thinker will accept if they hear them; we have many of these arguments; let these arguments be heard, let these arguments have the opportunity to penetrate the hearts of the opposite side. When you insult, when you speak ill, a barrier is drawn and this argument is not heard at all, they do not listen; then wicked, dependent, and mercenary groups funded by America and the CIA and intelligence services - like ISIS and Jabhat al-Nusra and others - take advantage of a bunch of ignorant, unaware people to create the situation that you have seen in Iraq and Syria and elsewhere; this is the work of the enemy. The enemy is waiting for an opportunity; the enemy uses every opportunity. We have the truth, we have logical arguments, we have strong arguments; a small example of this was what I presented to you today. This is regarding Ghadir.

[Next] regarding the Commander of the Faithful (peace be upon him). All the values and qualities that a person - whether as a believer in Islam, whether as a believer in any religion, or whether as a person without belief in any religion; any kind of human - respects and honors, are gathered in Ali ibn Abi Talib; that is, Ali ibn Abi Talib (peace be upon him) is a personality that if you are a Shiite, you respect him, if you are a Sunni, you respect him, if you are not a Muslim and you know him and go after his affairs, you respect him. Many from the Sunnis have written about the virtues of the Commander of the Faithful over the years; George Jerdak, a Christian, wrote that five-volume book; a Christian writes passionately about the Commander of the Faithful years ago. This personality came here to me and we talked about his book, he said I became acquainted with Nahj al-Balagha in my youth, Nahj al-Balagha guided me to the personality of Ali ibn Abi Talib; he wrote this book: [the Imam] Ali, the Voice of Human Justice. Someone who has no religion at all - that is, does not believe in any religion - when they recognize the personality of the Commander of the Faithful, they bow before him, they honor him.

In the Commander of the Faithful, there are three types of qualities: one is the divine spiritual qualities that are not measurable by any standard for us; faith, that profound, elevated faith; precedence in Islam, sacrifice in the way of Islam. Sincerity; there is not a single atom of anything other than divine intention in his actions; do we [understand this]? Is this state at all understandable for someone like me? All actions are for God, for divine pleasure, for executing divine command; [that is] sincerity. These are things that are not measurable for us; they are not even properly explainable. Knowledge and understanding of God; understanding of God. What do we understand of God? When we say "Glory be to my Lord, the Most Great, and praise be to Him", what do we understand of this greatness, what does the Commander of the Faithful understand? Understanding of God. These are a series of qualities of the Commander of the Faithful that are truly not describable for us, not comprehensible; [if] they come and sit down to explain to us, we do not grasp its depth, because it is so great, so profound; this is one category of the qualities of the Commander of the Faithful.

Another category is his prominent human qualities; these are the very things that attract every human, whether Muslim or non-Muslim, Christian or non-Christian, believer or non-believer: "bravery", "compassion"; the one who fights like that in the battlefield, when he encounters a family with orphans, he accompanies the orphans like that, bends down, plays with the orphan children, carries them on his shoulders; these are the very things that have nothing to do with whether we are religious or what religion we are to respect; every human feels humility and reverence when they encounter this greatness. "Selflessness"; selflessness means to prefer others over yourself; it means to forgive; it means that where the right is with you, for the sake of God, for the sake of some interest, you forgo this right - of course, personal right - whether it is financial right, whether it is honor right, whether it is any other right of yours; this is the meaning of selflessness. These are also a category of the qualities of the Commander of the Faithful that if a person wants to count these characteristics, it would become a book, it would be a long scroll.

The third category of the qualities of the Commander of the Faithful are the governmental qualities that result from the issue of Imamate; Imamate means this kind of governance. Of course, there are degrees of intensity and weakness, the highest degree of which is in a personality like the Commander of the Faithful. Governmental qualities like what? Like "justice", like "fairness", like "equal treatment of all individuals"; even those who live in your community, but are not of your religion. When the Commander of the Faithful heard that Basra ibn Arta entered the city and entered the homes of women, he has a painful sermon: "I have heard that this tyrannical and oppressive force enters the homes of Muslim women and non-Muslim women - the covenant means those Jews and Christians who lived in the Islamic community - and takes their garments, their hijabs, their bracelets, their anklets, and plunders them; then he says that if a person dies from the grief of such a thing, they should not be blamed. See, this is personality, his compassion for the people, his empathy for the people, that too for all people; well, in the Islamic community, Jews and Christians and others live who are covenants. Well, this is one of his governmental qualities: "justice", "fairness", "equality".

"Avoidance of worldly adornments and luxuries for oneself"; one of the calamities of worldly governments is this; because once we become the head of state, the financial resources of the country are at our disposal; we may be tempted; [to say] this is good land, this has good facilities, this has good money; let me take a share of these now. Those who are very wicked and unfortunate take all of it for themselves, like Reza Khan; those who have a little more fairness take a little for others, mostly to their surroundings; they take a little for themselves. This is one of the calamities of governments; all these democratic governments are the same. You hear; the wife of such a president goes on a winter or summer vacation to such a beautiful island, spending millions of dollars! Where from? Such a royal family traveled to such a city, this number of hotels, this number of facilities were at their disposal, in ten days, twenty days that they stayed, this amount of billions - billion amounts - was spent! The governance of Imamate opposes these things. Personal use of public resources is prohibited; avoidance of worldly matters for oneself.

"Planning"; thinking about the Islamic community; separating the enemy, separating the friend, dividing the enemy into several classes. The Commander of the Faithful had three wars; these three wars were against three groups of enemies, but he did not fight them all the same. The war with Muawiya and Sham was one way, the war with Basra was another way. When the Imam was fighting with Talha and Zubair, he fought differently. At that time, he wanted Zubair, in the middle of the battlefield, he spoke to him, advised him, saying, "Brother, remember our past; we have fought together so much, we have worked together so much"; it had an effect, of course, Zubair did not do what he should have done, he should have joined the Commander of the Faithful, he did not do this, but he left the battlefield; his behavior in the war with Talha and Zubair was like this. But his behavior with Sham is not like this; what should the Commander of the Faithful say to Muawiya? Should he say we were together? When were they together? In the Battle of Badr, they stood against each other; the Commander of the Faithful executed his grandfather and uncle and his relatives; they have no history together. He also uses the same enmities and fights against the Commander of the Faithful. The Commander of the Faithful would categorize the enemies; in the issue of Nahrawan, there were ten thousand of them, the Imam said from these ten thousand, whoever comes to this side of this flag that I have erected, we will not fight with him; they came, most of them came to this side. The Imam said go, they let them go. Yes, those who remained and insisted and were obstinate, he fought with them; he also prevailed over them. That is, planning in the administration of the country; recognizing the enemy, recognizing the friend; not all enemies are the same; he overlooked some of them. Some did not pledge allegiance to the Commander of the Faithful from the very beginning; Malik al-Ashtar was standing over the Imam, sword in hand, he said, O Commander of the Faithful! Allow me to kill this person who does not pledge allegiance to you; the Imam laughed and said no, this young man was a bad-tempered person, he was a harsh person; now he has aged, he has become harsher, let him go; they let him go. This is planning; the highest planning is that someone who is at the head of power knows who they are dealing with and how to behave with each person; one of the qualities of the Commander of the Faithful was this.

"Speed of action"; he did not delay, as soon as he recognized that this action should be taken, he moved.

"Clarification"; he would explain the truths to the people; you look at the sermons of Nahj al-Balagha, many of them are clarifications of realities that existed in the society of that day - whether the sermons of the Imam, or the letters of the Imam - part of Nahj al-Balagha is sermons, part of it is letters; those letters are mostly letters to those whom the Imam has objections to; or they are enemies like Muawiya and others, or they are the agents of the Imam to whom the Imam has objections; mostly it is like this; some are also recommendations and instructions and commands, like the covenant of Malik al-Ashtar; in all of these, he clarifies, he explains the truths to the people. One of the strands of the work of the Commander of the Faithful is this.

The issue of "guiding the community towards piety"; in these sermons of the Commander of the Faithful, there is hardly a sermon that does not contain a command to piety: Fear God; because piety is everything; when there is piety in a community, all material and spiritual problems of the community will be solved; this is how piety is. [Of course] piety with the correct meaning it has; piety is not just that a person averts their eyes from the unlawful or, for example, suppose they do not commit a certain forbidden act; this exists, this is part of piety, but piety is much broader than this. The true meaning of piety, which is to be vigilant over oneself, to be vigilant over one's actions, and to strive to preserve oneself on the straight path; this is the meaning of piety; if this exists in a community, all problems will be solved. The Commander of the Faithful constantly invited the people to piety.

In acting upon the truth, he was fearless, he did not consider; in acting upon justice, he was fearless, he did not consider; there was no hesitation in the life of the Commander of the Faithful. The same person who tells Malik al-Ashtar to let this person who refrains from allegiance go, in other cases, he is strict, he is meticulous, he insists.

See, this is also the third section of the qualities of the Commander of the Faithful, which are governmental qualities; apart from personal qualities, apart from those spiritual and divine aspects that are incomprehensible for us, indescribable for our limited and deficient tongues. This is the personality of the Commander of the Faithful; that is, a comprehensive personality that truly "You are great and in a small mirror, you do not show yourself". We cannot see that great personality with these weak and incapable eyes, with this incomplete vision, with these hearts covered with illusions; but well, we know something about that great man, a description of that great man, and we say; this human was designated in Ghadir.

Well, what should we do now? It is clear that we cannot live like the Commander of the Faithful, we cannot act like him, we cannot be like him; the great man himself said: "Beware that you cannot do that"; the Imam said to his governors and officials that you cannot act like I do. We must look at this peak. We have repeatedly said: this is the peak. They tell you, O man! That peak is the goal, move towards that peak. Our duty is to move towards the peak. Take these qualities of the Commander of the Faithful into consideration, to the extent of our ability, to the extent of our capacity, let us move in this direction; let us not move in the opposite direction. Our society should move in the direction of the asceticism of the Commander of the Faithful; not that we should practice asceticism like the Commander of the Faithful - which we cannot and they do not want that from us - but we should move in that direction; that is, we should distance ourselves from extravagance, excess, and envy; this way we become the Shiites of the Commander of the Faithful.

Our actions make others believers in us. He said: "Be a beauty for us and do not be a disgrace for us"; he said be our adornment. What does it mean to be our adornment? It means act in such a way that when someone looks, they say: Wow! The Shiites of the Commander of the Faithful are so good! The one who demands bribes, this is not adornment, this is a defect; the one who wants and takes more than their share from the public treasury, this is a defect for the Shiite; the one who turns a blind eye to evils and feels no responsibility for guiding the community towards piety, this is a defect for the Islamic system and the Islamic community; the one who is extravagant in their personal life, this is a defect.

Unfortunately, we have become entangled; we have become entangled in extravagance, we have become entangled in excess. For years we have been constantly advising ourselves, the people, others; we keep saying, repeating; well, we must move forward, reduce extravagance in society. Our men, our women, our youth, our elders, should set aside extravagance - extravagance in clothing, extravagance in food, extravagance in the adornments of life, extravagance in various ornaments and decorations - or the envy that in this wedding, in this gathering, this lady is dressed like this, has adorned herself like this, has used this sign of makeup, I should not fall behind, these are the same mistakes and very big dangers. These are what ruin life, these are what create injustice in society, and ultimately these are what destroy the economy. A significant part of the destruction of the economy relates to these things. If a society wants to reach a point of internal stability in its economy that is not vulnerable, one of the obligatory tasks it must perform is to set aside extravagance, excess, and excessive consumption and similar things. Of course, there are many examples, I have spoken a lot in these areas and I do not want to repeat the same words. In the area of water, in the area of bread, in the area of food, in the area of various types of our consumption, we have a lot of extravagance and excess and unnecessary consumption and bad consumption; we must be vigilant about these.

Many of these tasks are not the government's job, they are our personal tasks; ourselves, within our families, in our lives. This is following the Commander of the Faithful.

[When we say] "Thanks be to God who made us among those who cling to the Guardianship of the Commander of the Faithful and his infallible children", what is this clinging to the Guardianship? Yes, part of this clinging to the Guardianship is heartfelt, meaning you accept the Guardianship; this is very good, it is very necessary, undoubtedly it is effective, but all clinging is not this; clinging is that we look and these qualities that are attainable for us - that selflessness and that spirituality and that knowledge of God and that worship and those cries and that attention to God and similar things that we are very far behind in these areas - in the area of human qualities, in the area of qualities related to the administration of society and governance and so on, and these are attainable for us, [of course] at the level of that great man and we will not reach less than him, but we can move in this direction; these are the things we must do; then this became clinging to the Guardianship of the Commander of the Faithful.

After all, there is much to say. Dear brothers, dear sisters, pay attention! You see, regarding the enemy and recognizing the enemy and standing against the enemy and similar matters, we speak a lot, we say a lot, we are right; that is, these slogans that you and your friends give and the elders, the officials say we stand against the enemy [is true], it is correct; we also know there is an enemy, but pay attention, sometimes the enemy uses our weaknesses without him having to exert any effort. We must correct ourselves, reform ourselves so that the enemy does not take advantage of our weaknesses. Today, our enemies are watching our needs and shortages and economic disruptions within the country. The reason we repeatedly talk about the issue of the economy, resistant economy, and similar matters in these past few years, at the beginning of the year, in the middle of the year, at the end of the year, is because the enemy has focused on this specific point. [They want] to ruin the economy of the country, to make the people's situation bad, to empty the people's pockets, to reduce the people's facilities, to devalue the people's money, to reduce their purchasing power so that they become dissatisfied; the goal is this. They want to make the people dissatisfied with Islam and the Islamic system; this is the enemy's goal. Therefore, who is responsible for standing against this situation? It is everyone's duty; it is the duty of the government, it is the duty of the parliament, it is the duty of various officials, it is the duty of all people. Everyone has a duty, we must fulfill it.

Of course, the general movement of the country is fortunately a good movement. I know many, I receive many requests; they write letters, they come to me, they send messages, they present their work, and I also take the time and see many of these. The youth who today in this country are working hard for the revival of Islam, for the establishment of religion, thanks be to God, are increasing day by day. These are the ones who, by God's grace, with the divine support, will bring every enemy, including America and the Zionists, to their knees. The reason I repeatedly say in various talks that I am optimistic about the future is because of observing these realities. We have many good realities that can advance us; they can be the driving force of the general movement of society; good youth, faithful youth, those who cry for permission to go defend the country and defend the religion; it is not a matter of two or ten or a hundred people; they are many. This is the motivation that will save the country; this must be strengthened. Well, you who want to sacrifice, why not sacrifice for Islam? [Why] sacrifice for the leader, who is the leader? Sacrifice for Islam, sacrifice for this path, sacrifice for the goals.