Statements of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution in Meeting with Families of Martyrs

In the Name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful This dear gathering is very valuable and blessed, and I thank God Almighty for granting me the opportunity to be in your presence; the fathers, mothers, and spouses of dear martyrs, fathers and mothers of four martyrs, three martyrs, two martyrs and one disabled veteran, two martyrs and two disabled veterans, a group of our dear disabled veterans who sacrificed their youth for the path of the revolution and gave their youth for God, a group of dear freedmen, a group of the tortured fighters before the revolution in the era of the call of truth, who endured imprisonment, torture, and hardships. If we want to truly introduce the spiritual elites of the country, we must reach such a gathering. Today is also a very important day - the third of Khordad - and as mentioned, it is a day of resistance, sacrifice, and victory. The third of Khordad symbolizes the sacrifice and resistance and victory of the Iranian nation, thanks to faith and the mobilization of its forces against the enemy. We should not stop at the past; the past is always a staircase for nations to progress towards brighter futures. Likewise, we must never forget the past; we must always keep the past alive. A number of the enemies of the Iranian nation and Islam try to consign the glorious past of this nation to oblivion; they try to separate the people from their glorious past; this is treason. The past of the Iranian nation, whether the long glorious historical period - especially some of its peaks - or the past of the dear Iranian nation in the last twenty-five or six years, where every day is an event, a saga, and a creation of greatness, must never be forgotten; the arenas of the sacred defense must not be forgotten; the victories that your youth have achieved in difficult fields must not be allowed to be forgotten; these victories are very great; it is not just a victory in a war and a victory over an invading enemy; it is a victory over the world of global arrogance that, when it sees a nation standing up and achieving its independence under the shadow of religion in a sensitive point of the world like Iran, feels that all its calculations have gone wrong; therefore, it comes to the battlefield against this nation with all its might. Your victory in the past twenty-five or six years in various fields is a victory over such an enemy. This is a lesson for all nations and all generations in our future. The summary of this lesson is that if a nation accompanies its action and effort with firm faith and belief, its victory against any kind of enemy is certain. We must take advantage of this lesson - which we must never forget - for the future. We are still at the beginning of the path; it cannot be said that we are in the middle of the path. We have wanted to build our country and society according to the teachings of Islam. According to Islam, what kind of society should be built? A society where there is justice and fairness; where there is freedom of thought and ideas; where talents grow and flourish; where good and virtuous morals prevail in social relations; where there is no poverty, corruption, or discrimination; where people feel dignity, pride, and hope and want to build a world with dignity, pride, and virtuous morals. Islam wants a society where knowledge flows and, based on knowledge, all social foundations are renewed and advanced. Islam wants a society where individuals and the collective of a nation are a beacon and a flag for all nations; "and you be witnesses over the people." Of course, we have entered this path and have made some progress, and we are witnessing the results of that progress. How much work has been done in this country; how much has this country advanced scientifically and technologically; how much has the self-confidence of the youth increased in various scientific fields, technology, and diverse activities. A nation that had been made to understand that it could do nothing and that everything had to be done by others and that it had to sit and watch and beg from them, has now reached a feeling of self-sufficiency and capability and has outlined new horizons before itself. We have made significant progress; however, we are still at the beginning of the path and must progress much more. We must establish justice and ethics and make our society truly Islamic. This requires work, effort, faith, righteous action, and striving in the way of God. Does this striving have an effect? Does it yield results? Yes. The evidence is the third of Khordad. The evidence is the liberation of Khorramshahr. The evidence is the eight years of sacred defense. Martyr Mohammad Jahan Ara, whose honorable father spoke here, in which military class did he receive training? Which of our dear martyrs had advanced military equipment at their disposal? I went to the vicinity of the Khorramshahr bridge during that era of exile - when Khorramshahr was occupied by foreign enemies - and I saw with my own eyes how the situation was. The atmosphere was sorrowful, and hearts were filled with grief, and the enemy, relying on foreign forces that were assisting him - the same Americans and Westerners and the same lying and hypocritical human rights claimants - had established themselves in Khorramshahr. His tanks, his advanced equipment, his modern airplanes, his fully armed forces; our boys did not even have RPGs; they fought with rifles; but with faith and determination. These young men, empty-handed but with hearts full of hope and faith in God, without having advanced tools and without having undergone military training, went into the battlefield and overcame all those factors. On the third of Khordad, at the very first hour when our warriors had taken Khorramshahr, the late martyr Sayyad Shirazi called me - I was the President at that time - and reported on the situation at the front. He said thousands of Iraqi soldiers and officers are lined up to come and have their hands tied and be captured! The spiritual power of a nation is this. It is not just Khorramshahr - Khorramshahr is a symbol - our Karbala 5 was the same; our Valfajr 8 was the same; many of our other victories were the same; the operations of Kheibar and Badr and the entire eight years of sacred defense were the same. Of course, we also faced failures and defeats and lost martyrs; it is a battlefield. Thanks to the faith of our martyrs and your faith, fathers, mothers, and spouses - who are also behind the martyrs; because if the father of a martyr, the mother of a martyr, and the spouse of a martyr are not in harmony and faith with him, he cannot go to fight - you were able to achieve victory in this struggle. This is the lesson that we must always keep in front of our eyes and look at. The diligent struggle accompanied by faith is always accompanied by victory at all stages. There is not always war; this struggle also exists in economic, political, and social fields; this struggle exists in the fields of education and production as well. Therefore, struggle exists everywhere. Sometimes the enemy goes mad; then the struggle is in the battlefield. When a nation becomes self-reliant, when it becomes faithful, when it accompanies this faith with righteous action and jihad, its victory in all fields is certain. The lesson of Khorramshahr for us is this; the Iranian nation must not forget this lesson. The enemy has understood both its weak points and your strengths. Your strength is faith and sacrifice and dedication to striving, as well as your solidarity and empathy with one another. Its weak point is that it has no tools against the national force of a nation. Military tools are of no use or advancement; the enemy knows this. The enemy seeks to break this resistance; it seeks to weaken this faith; it seeks to destroy national solidarity and empathy. If you see someone speaking of giving in to the foreigner and abandoning faith and resistance and unity, know that they are speaking the language of the enemy; whether they know it or not. This criterion and standard is useful for you and me to know where and how we are living; to recognize our environment and time. Elections are approaching. Elections are one of the important fields of solidarity. We have spoken about the elections, everyone has spoken, and until the time of the elections, we will express whatever is necessary. What is important is that the people show their solidarity in this selection field. The Iranian nation did not have this opportunity for selection before the Islamic Revolution; it is the Islamic Revolution that has provided this opportunity for the Iranian nation. Before the Islamic Revolution, the Iranian nation would sit and watch for someone to come to power and decide whatever they wanted. Who brought them to power? Various hands and different political factions of the world; one day the Russians, one day the British, one day the Americans. In these matters, the Iranian nation was a mere spectator and completely powerless. The freedom and democracy that the revolution gave us, even during the time of Mossadegh - which was a relatively free period and, as they say, democratic - did not exist at all. Dr. Mossadegh dissolved the parliament of that day - that is, something that on the surface was a symbol of democracy; which, of course, there was no democracy in it - and said he wanted powers. He took the powers; first for six months, then for another six months. During his two years of rule, for a year or more, he ruled with absolute powers; he made laws, he signed them, and he executed them. How does this compare with the Islamic Republic system, which has not had a day in these twenty-six years without the Islamic Consultative Assembly and representatives of the people? Throughout this period, elections have been held repeatedly. Twenty-six years have passed since the establishment of the Islamic Republic, and we have had about twenty-five or six elections; this is an opportunity for the Iranian nation; this opportunity was given to us by Islam, the revolution, and the Islamic Republic. Some have bitten the hand that fed them and break the salt container and show ingratitude towards the Islamic Republic. Today, the greed of the enemies of this nation and the greed of the Americans is to come back and establish the same old dish in this country and create a dictatorship in newer and more modern forms so that many do not understand what is happening in this country. But our nation stands firm and will continue to stand firm. The Iranian nation must greatly appreciate this freedom and this popular presence and this popular choice; we all must appreciate it. This was given to us by the revolution and Islam. This is a divine blessing; we must be grateful for it; our gratitude is to enter this field. With brotherhood and love, let the atmosphere be one of affection. I sincerely urge all those who are candidates for the presidential election and their supporters not to create an atmosphere of enmity, discord, and tension in the country. Of course, the nation is not like this; there are a few who, if we count them all, do not reach a few thousand people - after all, everyone has their supporters - these people create tension in the atmosphere of newspapers and media. The atmosphere should be friendly; everyone should express their own words and present their own programs and state what they can do; what do they have to do with others? They should not create tension in the atmosphere; they should make the atmosphere brotherly and sincere. The people should also look and choose the best. The best is someone who matches the needs you understand for society and can meet the needs of society. Some become overly anxious and concerned in recognizing the best. You should make your efforts; consult; seek guidance from those you think can guide you; whatever conclusion you reach, act upon it and vote; your reward will be given by God Almighty. We are obliged to act according to what we understand and what we determine as a divine duty; whether it aligns with reality or not, our reward is preserved. The reward of someone who acts upon their duty is preserved before God Almighty. Today, the country is a vast field for work. If efficient managers come and work and make efforts, the field for work is very open. We can solve many of the material problems of society. Fortunately, good infrastructures have been established in previous governments, and good work has been done - I have said this many times - these works should be connected to the lives of the people; they should make it so that people taste the sweet flavor of the services being carried out in the country; there should be no poverty in any part of the country - justice should be established - there should be no corruption, and corrupt individuals should be expelled from decision-making bodies and not be allowed to interfere; these are things that we must pay attention to. Rest assured that when my and your intentions are good and we want to work for God and seek help from God Almighty and do what we can, certainly God Almighty will grant the sweet result, and with the help and power of God, the Iranian nation will emerge victorious from this great test. O Lord! Unite the pure souls of our dear martyrs with the pure spirit of the Master of Martyrs and the martyrs of Karbala. O Lord! Unite the pure spirit of our great Imam - who opened this path for us and guided us to this work - with the spirits of the prophets and saints. O Lord! Grant our dear disabled veterans health, grace, and swift healing. O Lord! Grant patience, endurance, hope, and light to the families of martyrs, disabled veterans, and all the self-sacrificers. O Lord! Please the sacred heart of the Master of the Age (may our souls be sacrificed for him) and hasten his reappearance. Peace be upon you and God's mercy and blessings.