Statements of His Eminence in Meeting with the Eulogists and Reciters of the Ahl al-Bayt (AS) on the Occasion of the Birth of Lady Fatimah al-Zahra (SA)

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

I extend my congratulations to each and every one of you on this great holiday and the blessed birth. I also express my gratitude to all the esteemed attendees, especially the dear brothers who performed the program; the honorable host, the eulogists, the poets who composed these poems, and our dear poet. I thank each and every one of you. You have illuminated our gathering and hearts with the praises of the daughter of the Greatest Prophet and the greatest woman in the history of mankind.

This is itself a miracle of Islam; that is, Fatimah al-Zahra (peace be upon her) reaches a status in her short life that she is the Mistress of the Women of the Worlds; she is superior to all the great and holy women throughout history. What is the factor, what is the force, what is the profound transformative power that can create such an ocean of knowledge, servitude, sanctity, and spiritual ascent from a human being in such a short time? This itself is a miracle of Islam.

Another aspect is the blessed lineage of this great lady, which corresponds to the Surah al-Kawthar with Fatimah al-Zahra (peace be upon her) - even if it is not mentioned in our hadith literature - it is a correct exemplification. All these blessings are upon the family of the Prophet, upon each of the Imams of guidance (peace be upon them)! The world is filled with the delightful melodies of individuals and society, worldly and otherworldly, that have arisen from these pure voices; Husayn ibn Ali, Zainab al-Kubra, Imam Hasan al-Mujtaba, Imam Sadiq, Imam Sajjad; each of the Imams. Look at the uproar in the world of knowledge, in the world of spirituality, in the great highway of guidance from the words of these great ones and their lessons and teachings! This is the generation of Fatimah al-Zahra.

We should be very grateful to God - in some of the poems that friends recited, this same meaning was present - the great blessing of the love of Fatimah al-Zahra and the great lady (peace be upon her) is for us. Thanks be to God that we recognized her; thanks be to God that we sought refuge under her grace and thanks be to God that we appreciated the blessing of her existence, sought her intercession, asked for knowledge from her, and loved her. These are great blessings from God; we must preserve them.

Your role, dear eulogists, is also our second point. Although religion is based on rationality, philosophy, and reasoning; there is no doubt about this, but no rational, philosophical, or wise foundation can grow and take root in history without being nourished by emotion and heartfelt faith. Religions have this characteristic; they attract faith, which distinguishes them from other schools, ideologies, and various philosophies. Faith is different from knowledge; faith is different from reasoning; faith is different from philosophy; faith is a matter of the heart. The place of faith is one with the place of emotion and feeling. Faith means surrendering the heart, giving the heart. Therefore, the heart plays a role; emotions maintain their place throughout the history of religions in this way.

Even though in the war of philosophies against one another, there is no philosophy that can resist the philosophy of religions and the philosophy of monotheism; especially a philosophy like the codified Islamic philosophy, but the issue is not this; many people know the foundations and concepts of Islam, they know a truth, but they have not surrendered their hearts to that truth. Do you think those who heard the words of the Prophet about Ali ibn Abi Talib at the beginning of Islam did not know the truth? They had knowledge. We have read in the news that they heard it from the lips of the Prophet; they had knowledge; but what was lacking was faith in what was known; faith in that which knowledge had been acquired: that is, giving the heart. What prevents faith? Many things; and this is a vast topic.

The role of art, the role of poetry, the role of literature, the role of presence in practical fields in nurturing this spirit of faith is a role that is very, very effective. You should see the place of the eulogist and reciter of the Ahl al-Bayt here; a faith-creating role, a culture-building role, a role that strengthens the emotional bond between followers and those beloved ones; such a role. This role is very important.

Throughout these years that we have had this session - which now has been over twenty years since we have held this session with the esteemed eulogists; since my presidency; in the 1980s, when this session has been held every year - every year we have said a word regarding the issue of praise and eulogists and reciters; I do not want to repeat these; I want to say that the eulogist brothers should understand the importance of this work. When the importance is understood - alongside the importance, there is responsibility - they should understand the responsibility of this work. What does responsibility mean? It means that we will be questioned. In the supplication of the virtues of ethics, you read: "And make me act in accordance with what you will question me about tomorrow"; tomorrow; on the Day of Resurrection, you will question me; O Lord! Now help me so that what you will question me about tomorrow, I prepare the answer for it today; the meaning of this phrase in the supplication is this. So you have a responsibility. This responsibility means they will ask. Let us act in a way that our actions can respond to that question.

When this is understood, then we go to the question of how? All the professions that we have spoken - the professions that responsible, knowledgeable, and understanding individuals in the community of eulogists have expressed, you have held a session, you have said things - are in response to this question: What should we do? This "what should we do" is a phrase that has a book of answers. If we want to express three sentences from this book, one of them is this:

When we recite poetry, we should think that from this poetry, the faith of our audience increases. Therefore, we do not recite just any poetry; we do not choose just any way of reciting; we recite in a way that the words, meaning, and melody collectively have an impact. In what? In increasing the faith of the audience. This, of course, is easy to say; one can sit above the arena and give orders to the champion in the middle of the arena. It is difficult to act. But you can act. You have good voices, good memories, good energy and vitality; you can perform all the tasks I mentioned.

I recommend to the youth not to completely abandon the methods of the predecessors; do not give up. I agree with innovation; innovation is not a problem; but if you want to achieve perfection in this innovation, it must be in line with the methods of the past.

"The high is forbidden except for those who build upon the foundation of the predecessors." A layer has been built, you should build a layer on that layer; another comes and builds a layer on your layer; then the building will rise. Otherwise, if one builds, you come and destroy it, build a layer; another comes and destroys what you built, and builds again, you will always remain at that one layer. Learn from the merits of the masters, the predecessors, and those who have torn more than one shirt in this work, and add something to it. New methods should be developed in this way, which is good.

In the past, we heard from famous musicians that they said the authentic Iranian music has been preserved by the mourners and the performers of the rituals; the concordant singers, the discordant singers, the Ali Akbar singer, the Qasim singer. Each of them was given a mode in which they had to sing. This caused the unwritten Iranian music - which had neither notes, nor writings, nor anything else - to reach the hands of those who could record and document them with notes and new methods. Now, today’s youth, whether a radio and television singer - who unfortunately does not have a good situation in this regard - or a session singer, suddenly comes and begins to sing European melodies - even in a wrong and unskilled way; styles that, for example, a certain Western singer or an Arab imitator of that Western singer has sung, we learn this from him and begin to sing! Unfortunately, this was done before the revolution as well. The authentic Iranian music, which could have a permissible type - of course, that authentic music, one type of it is also forbidden; there is no difference between Iranian and non-Iranian - was also wasted. Of course, it improved after the revolution; but now, for example, our mourner or singer comes on radio and television and imitates - even wrongly - a Western melody or a melody of frivolous gatherings in a gathering of faith and spirituality, this is not correct; this is wrong. Innovation is correct; but not in this way. This relates to melody. Of course, a good voice can be ruined by a bad melody; an average voice can be adorned with a good melody. The melody itself is an issue.

Let us go to poetry, the word. There is a lengthy story here. First, the words of the poetry should be good; not everyone recognizes good poetry. Every poetry that an unskilled person thinks is good does not mean it is good. The poetry should be confirmed by a poetry expert that it is good. What is the benefit of good poetry? Its benefit is that without you and I realizing it, its impact on the audience is greater; this is art. A high art, even if the audience does not recognize that it is high, but its impact on the soul of that audience will be deeper than a superficial, marketable art; this is its benefit. The words should be strong, good, beautiful; the themes should be attractive, interesting, fresh, non-repetitive, and the content - which is the main thing - should be educational.

Apart from the words and the construction of the words, there is a category called the category of content. That is, what you are expressing should be educational. Suppose a preacher goes up on the pulpit and speaks from beginning to end without adding a bit to the knowledge of the people, to the insight of the people about that subject. Well, this time he has wasted himself and others. The same goes for the eulogist. You recite a poem; even if the words are good, and it is about Lady Zahra (peace be upon her), but if it contains things from which the listener cannot benefit; neither does his knowledge about that great lady increase, nor does he understand anything about her divine attributes, nor about her struggles, nor about her behavior and character, which is a lesson - because she is infallible and every movement of hers is a lesson for humanity; a model - it will be problematic.

So your work is hard, dear ones! Your work, contrary to what some think, is not just about memorizing four words and having a good voice; no, the work is very hard. The work must be artistic, effective, guiding, and directional.

Today, how many issues do we have; not only the issue of America and nuclear energy, which are very important issues; but today all centers and poles of intellectual power and propaganda in the world are designing how they can uproot this enduring and firm root that has taken root in this land and this Islamic faith, this commitment to Islamic and Quranic obligations, and these believing hearts. You are sitting here thinking that life is just going on. No, my friend! It is a war; a real war is currently taking place between this society, this system, the thinkers of this system, the activists of this system in various ranks, including you, who are the eulogists of the country, on one side, and on the other side; those who want to uproot this faith from this sacred soil and from these pure hearts; because they have understood that the system, the structure that has formed on this basis will not be compatible with the greedy, oppressive, and domineering interests of the global arrogance; they have understood this. They are trying to extract the thought of monotheism, the thought of guardianship, the love of the Ahl al-Bayt, the love of the Quran, the zeal and honor regarding religious foundations, and the belief in fighting against the oppressor, the belief in the ugliness and disgrace of accepting oppression from the hearts of these people through various tricks. They are carrying out various types of it and they also express it.

The Congress of America has said that they will spend a certain amount of millions for the promotion of democracy in Iran! Of course, they also call it democracy! Well, they are free to name it whatever they want; the truth is clear. What they want is to undermine the solid intellectual foundation that completely dominates these people, these hearts, these souls, and this direction of the straight path guides them. Their goal is this, their intention is this.

This money they talk about is intended for this work. This money is not much spent on bombs and bullets; mainly it is spent on these propaganda works, these cultural works in various forms. Of course, on this side, there is resistance and even counter-offensive. Therefore, it is a war. In this war, the class that deals with the faith of the people, with the hearts of the people, with the knowledge of the people, with the blessed names of the Imams (peace be upon them) and the Ahl al-Bayt has a heavy responsibility. Dear brothers! Recognize this responsibility correctly; use it properly.

Thanks be to God, one hears good things from individuals; of course, there are also some corners of professions. One of the things that I particularly want to emphasize is the issue of "Islamic unity" that we have mentioned. Islamic unity means that the sectarian biases among Muslims should not be provoked. You should not do anything that provokes the bias of that non-Shiite Muslim against you; he should also not do anything that provokes your zeal and bias against him. They want exactly this. Now you see two Palestinian groups in Palestine are fighting each other! What could be better for Israel? Instead of pointing their guns at them, they are fighting each other! Well, this is very good for Israel. How much they spend, it is worth it for such a situation to arise. Suppose in Lebanon, a group emerges and begins to fight another group. What greater blessing could there be for Israel and America! Is it better for a group like Hezbollah to come forward, with everyone following them - some out of love and faith, some out of fear of public opinion - and defeat Israel? It is clear that the situation of conflict is better for them. In the Islamic world, the issue is the same. Do the Muslims of Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Pakistan, India, Turkey, and other places, if they come to the streets and shout in favor of the Islamic Republic, is it better for America or do they want to make it so that if in a certain issue, the Islamic Iran raises its voice, all these nations become silent; some even express opposition? It is clear they are after the latter. How can this be done? It is very easy. They can provoke the sectarian biases of Shia and Sunni. They can make them understand that these are Shia; these insult the companions; these do such and such to your saints. They want to create division; this is what they want. The herald of unity between Shia and Sunni, since the beginning of these thoughts, has had these things in mind. Why do some not understand? Our great Imam, who was the herald of unity among Muslims, had more love, understanding, and devotion to the Imams (peace be upon them) than all those who claim to have it. Did he understand the guardianship better or some ordinary person who now, in the name of guardianship, does wrong things and speaks irrelevant words in public and private gatherings? Preserve unity.

If you see in society among you those who behave contrary to this, reject them; express and announce your opposition to them; they harm; they strike a blow. They strike a blow to Islam, a blow to Shiism, a blow to the Islamic community. This is one of the very important issues.

Today, Islamic unity is in favor of the Islamic system; it is in favor of the Islamic Republic. Moving against this orientation is in favor of America; it is in favor of the Zionists; it is in favor of those big shots who have filled their pockets with oil dollars in the Islamic world and do not want an element like the Islamic Republic, like the Iranian nation, to exist at all. In any case, we ask God Almighty to guide us all.

O Lord! Bestow your favors and grace upon these pure hearts, these bright hearts, these tongues of eulogists and reciters. O Lord! From all of us, from our martyrs, from our predecessors, from our great Imam, today send endless greetings and salutations to the pure soul of Fatimah al-Zahra (peace be upon her). O Lord! Make us pleasing to that sacred essence and that sacred existence; make us followers of those great ones. O Lord! Make our nation more and more honored day by day; make the sacred heart of the Master of the Age pleased and satisfied with us.

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