Statements in Meeting with Deputy and Officials of Various Sections of the Foundation of Martyrs of the Islamic Revolution

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

I extend my heartfelt gratitude to all the brothers and sisters who have accepted the honor of serving the families of the martyrs and have pursued this as a revolutionary duty. I pray that Almighty God assists and grants them success.

The foundation of the Martyrs was established from the beginning with a revolutionary understanding of the ongoing events in our society. If the revolution is not alive, active, and present in the scene of true revolutionary construction, and does not have a serious and determined face against the enemy, where would its martyrs be, for the Foundation of Martyrs to exist? The assumption of the Foundation of Martyrs is the assumption of the life of the revolution, and it is with this perspective that one must view the Foundation of Martyrs; both those who look from outside and especially those who have engaged and involved themselves under the heavy burden of this great task and have identified their duty in this, which is a good and blessed identification. We hope that Almighty God values your efforts and rewards you and grants you success so that you can tread the path better, more correctly, and more precisely.

Regarding the Foundation of Martyrs, what I have always paid attention to in the past and am concerned about, and in the messages I have sometimes given in the past seven, eight, ten years on the anniversaries of the Foundation and various occasions, or to some of the Foundation's officials — Mr. Karroubi and other gentlemen who have sometimes met with me — or in gatherings where Foundation groups have come, I have said, is that the Foundation of Martyrs deals with a delicate and sensitive human collection. This institution is different from the Relief Committee and the Foundation of the Oppressed and Disabled; although the aspect of the disabled in the Foundation of the Oppressed is almost the same.

You are faced with a collection that there is no doubt about their sincerity, loyalty, faith, and righteous deeds — that is, the main criteria we have. If there is any doubt about whether a certain family still has the same initial sincerity or not, we must refer to ourselves and ask why this has happened? Otherwise, the family that sends its child to the field of martyrdom and endures and holds its head high and takes pride, or the woman whose husband goes and takes pride, is a self-revolutionary entity; there should be no debate about this.

On the other hand, they are human; that is, the delicacies of a human being and the expectations and values of a martyr's family are also present in them. These are three things, each of which alone necessitates considerations. That is, it is a human collection that, by itself, requires considerations; a collection that, for a reason, has rightful expectations; a collection whose sincerity has been proven for a clear and reasoned reason. See how difficult your work is.

When they talk about cultural issues, these are the same things I have repeatedly told you. Your work, more than being practical and physical and tangible, is cultural work. I once said, if the Foundation of Martyrs considers the body and soul equivalent, it should allocate half of its resources to the soul — that is, cultural work. Of course, cultural work is not just teaching and speaking. Sometimes you give a pill to someone, or you put a morsel in someone's mouth. This work is cultural. When cultural work is mentioned, do not immediately think of magazines and newspapers and the like. No, this lady's work is also cultural. What they do in the hospital, in my opinion, many times, may even be more cultural than a book we give to someone.

Let's strip cultural work correctly and understand what it means. Cultural work is not what has a cultural dress. Cultural dress means writing and paper and pen and the like. This becomes culture; but it is not cultural work. Cultural work means that there is a cultural spirit in it, a cultural movement, it nurtures and creates action and reaction in the mind and brain and soul and emotions of a person. If you build a school, but this school does not have a positive effect on the soul of a child who is the target of your promotional work, what is this work? Can you claim it is cultural work? No, this is anti-cultural work. I want you to pay attention to the sensitivity of the issue.

These statistics make us happy. I have close contact with the families of the martyrs. Sometimes one of them says that I went to such and such a place, such and such help was given to me. Truly, the whole being of a person feels pleasure from the fact that a martyr's family is happy and satisfied. Just as a family expresses satisfaction, it is as if a person has entered paradise; they find the goal. Therefore, any of your statistics and figures that go a little up and down are influential; however, I want you as a responsible brother to pay attention that these statistics are not everything. These are the body and have a soul; be careful of its soul. Its soul is that in the Shahed University, or in the Shahed school, your movement and interaction should be such that your goal — which is the community of martyr's children — moves in terms of perceptions and thoughts and aspirations and emotions in the direction you want. That is, you should have a scale in your hand and constantly measure.

You have established a psychology unit for the psychological direction we mentioned, which is a good job and if they work well, it is a successful job; but I must tell Mr. Rahimian and Mr. Karroubi themselves to go to this, to see the reaction of your own work in real and pessimistic and strict statistics about yourself. ...

There are two or three important points that I raise in line with my remarks:

Firstly, the family of the martyr should not become an employee. You say that we used to give this much salary; now that inflation has increased and this salary does not reach them, we should give more, for example. It seems that we are talking about a group of official salary earners. It does not seem that this method is very successful. How positive is this salary earning? What good work can be done for this family? Can't we think and examine? Maybe this is also part of the duties of your organization. Examine whether it is possible to find a substitute for giving salaries to the family?

Of course, giving salaries, from one perspective, is the easiest task for them and for us; but it is not clear that it is the best task. The easiest is sometimes the best and sometimes not. Maybe better work can be done. For example, give someone the equivalent of ten months' salary, so they can create capital and get started.

I remember that in the past there was talk of investing for the families of the Shahed. Very well, an investment should be made and they themselves should take charge of their own affairs and the Foundation of Martyrs should not have to give salaries continuously. This salary, after a few years, becomes a fixed thing and a little cannot be cut from its corner and inflation also rises. I do not know how much this issue has been examined. ...

One of the gentlemen pointed out a very correct point. They said we are truly servants of the families of the martyrs. This spirit and feeling of service must, God willing, be strengthened in all the ranks of this Foundation. That is, this state should never arise where, for example, a Foundation of Martyrs official behaves like a homeowner to whom people come and bring a bowl for him to pour a ladle of soup for them! Everyone should be like a warehouse keeper to whom the owner of the goods has given a referral and said, go and get this commodity. Here, the warehouse keeper cannot say why you have become too many, why you have come a lot. In fact, you who are the warehouse keeper are standing there for this very work, so they come and you deliver and they go. This spirit must truly prevail so that we can interact with the families of the martyrs with the same dignity and status of martyrdom. ...

In any case, in my opinion, the Foundation of Martyrs is one of the blessings of the revolution and one of the signs of the legitimacy of the revolution and Imam Khomeini (may his soul be sanctified). From the very beginning, he paid attention to this issue and gave it importance and we saw how sensitive he was to the issue of martyrs and the families of martyrs and how interested and concerned he was about the foundation that takes care of their affairs.

We hope that, God willing, God grants success and the spirit of that great man helps you to pursue this very valuable movement and perform the great service that is entrusted to you and all of us, in truth, well. I once again thank all of you brothers and our dear sister for the efforts you make and hope that our tomorrow, God willing, will be better than our today and yesterday.

Peace be upon you and God's mercy and blessings