Statements in Meeting with Members of the Assembly of Experts

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 Muhammad and his pure family, especially the Remaining One of God on earth.

Welcome, esteemed gentlemen, dear brothers! It brings me joy that, thanks be to God, this very important session is being held at the appointed time, and all friends are participating, and as Mr. Raisi reported, discussions are being pursued with seriousness. May God, God willing, assist you and accept your efforts. I congratulate you on the celebrations of Sha'ban, especially the mid-Sha'ban, which is the day of the blossoming of the hopes of all humanity throughout history. We hope that, God willing, the Almighty will show us that day, the day of relief, the day of appearance, and that it will happen as soon as possible.

The month of Sha'ban, aside from these celebrations, is also a very important month; the Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) used to engage in fasting and praying during its nights and days, showing great respect and reverence for it. After that, we ask God, "So help us to follow his tradition in it." This fervent supplication that has been narrated and transmitted in this month is a testament to its greatness. The phrases in this noble and cherished supplication are rarely found elsewhere. Of course, all the prayers available to us that are transmitted from the Imams (peace be upon them) are extraordinarily meaningful and profound, all of them are extraordinary — those that are known and transmitted — but we truly have few like this supplication. Once, I asked Imam Khomeini (may his soul be sanctified), I said, among the prayers that exist, which one do you have more affection for or feel closer to — I don't remember my exact wording; I asked a question like this — he reflected briefly and said the supplication of Kumayl and the Sha'ban supplication. Interestingly, these two supplications — the supplication of Kumayl is indeed a remarkable supplication — are very close to each other in terms of themes, even in terms of some phrases they are very similar; this supplication is indeed an opportunity. "O God, grant me a heart that draws near to You with its longing, a tongue that raises its sincerity to You, and a gaze that brings it closer to You with its truth." Truly, speaking to the Almighty God in this manner and expressing one's needs and longing to the Almighty is something extraordinary, very sublime; or this phrase, "O God, except that You bring me to the place of Your obedient ones and the good abode of Your satisfaction"; or this phrase, the pinnacle of this supplication that Imam Khomeini (may his soul be sanctified) repeatedly mentioned in his statements: "O God, grant me the perfection of severance to You and illuminate the eyes of our hearts with the light of their gaze towards You until the eyes of the hearts pierce the veils of light." How can we truly express these? Before us are dark veils, one after another; and the request of this supplication is that: "until the eyes of the hearts pierce the veils of light."

Well, these are indeed extraordinary signs, and blessed are those who have access to them and whose understanding, hearts, and souls are familiar with these themes and truly comprehend these concepts; blessed are they! May God, God willing, grant us this as well. In any case, this month is a blessed one, and God willing, we can utilize it as much as we can and to the fullest extent possible.

The Assembly of Experts is one of the legal institutions that plays a significant role in strengthening the Islamic system; of course, all legal institutions — the government, the parliament, the armed forces, the Expediency Council, the Guardian Council, and others — all of these play a role in strengthening the Islamic system, but some have a greater role, and some less. In my opinion, the Assembly of Experts is among the most influential institutions in the Islamic Republic system, which of course the condition for the effectiveness of all these legal institutions is that they operate according to the regulations and limits set for them in the Constitution; you too must do the same; that is, you must truly adhere to what is required of the Assembly of Experts, whether regarding the person currently in the position of leadership or regarding the person who will later be elected by you and will enter this field, and you must observe the precise legal regulations concerning them; the Assembly must do the same, and the government must do the same. The government has specific legal limits; it must comply with all the laws of the parliament; the parliament has specific legal limits; it must not interfere in executive matters at all; it must legislate; and so on.

The necessity of this strengthening of the system, which I mentioned, is that this Assembly and other institutions have an impact on the strengthening of the system, arises from the fact that if this strengthening exists, "national power" and "national strength" will be realized; national power and national strength. And national power is vital for a nation; that is, if a nation wants to be independent, to be proud, to utilize its vital resources according to its own will and for its own benefit, to apply its own opinion in its fundamental issues and not be forced to follow the opinions of others, not to be worried about the greed of foreigners, not to live in constant fear and trembling, if a nation desires these things, what must it do? It must be strong. National power and national strength are vital for a nation. If there were no national power and a nation was not strong, the fundamental and most important issues I mentioned would not be realized for it; it would always be worried, always in a state of weakness and humiliation, with foreigners dominating it and so on. Therefore, the strengthening of the system is necessary; national power and national strength are necessary.

When we say national power, it is a composite matter, a connected set; it should not be seen in a specific point or in a specific movement; rather, it is a matter that consists of a collection of elements that, when combined, create national power, and now I will mention a few of these.

One pillar of national power is science and technology; that is, a part of this [power] is science and technology. One pillar is thought and intellectual endeavor; having thought is different from having knowledge; there must be thought. This free thinking that we advocate and anyone who advocates it we accept, its effect is this intellectual advancement; that is, if there is no intellectual advancement, even if knowledge and such things are available to a nation, they will not be of any use; thought must work, move, and advance within the nation as a whole, which is only possible with freedom of thought; that is, without freedom of thought, intellectual advancement is not possible.

Another element is security and defensive power; a nation must be assured that in times of emergency it can defend itself. Another aspect is the economy and public welfare; this is also very effective in ensuring that people have peace of mind regarding their livelihood. Another pillar is political power and political bargaining and diplomacy; this is also a part of national power, that a country and a nation have representatives and experts who can negotiate and stabilize and obtain the interests of the nation in the fields of politics and diplomacy. Another pillar is culture and lifestyle; this is also a pillar of power. If a nation is dependent and enslaved by others in terms of lifestyle and does not have its own established culture, this will naturally be a severe weakness in national power.

Another pillar is an attractive logic that influences other nations and creates strategic depth for the country. If you have an attractive logic in the Islamic Republic that, when presented without intermediaries to other nations, is appealing and has an attraction and they accept it, this becomes your strategic depth. All of these things are part of the interconnected set of national power. Of course, there are other elements as well, which I will later return to and refer to some of them that are relevant to our discussion.

None of these arms of power should be sacrificed for the benefit of others; keep this in mind. We have no right to cut any of these elements of power under the pretext that, for example, it conflicts with some other element; no, all of these must advance together, which is indeed possible. It is truly naive if someone suggests that we reduce our defensive power so that the enemies do not become sensitive to us! In my opinion, there is nothing more naive and foolish than to say that in order not to attract their sensitivity, we should reduce our defensive power and our external security capabilities. Or suppose we should not have a presence in regional issues so that some great power does not dislike it or does not find an excuse against us; no, this presence in regional issues is our strategic depth; this itself is a means of strengthening the system, a means of the power of the system; how can we give this up when we can have it and must have it?

Or refraining from scientific advancement! Some say, "Sir, set aside the nuclear issue; the nuclear issue has created so much sensitivity or problems." Well, the nuclear issue is a scientific issue; the issue of scientific advancement and technology is our future. Soon — not too long from now — in a few years, we will be in need of nuclear energy products; that is, we will be completely dependent on it; who will we turn to? When will we start to obtain it? Therefore, disregarding and being indifferent to these matters is not right. Or, for example, yielding to the United States or any other power to avoid sanctions! That is, we would cut our political arm and political bargaining in order to yield to them so that, for example, if we are a little tough, they do not impose sanctions on us. These are, in my opinion, mistakes, errors that some have indeed mentioned; we have had these things over time; with weak arguments, with flawed and disputable reasoning, these statements have sometimes been made in newspapers and elsewhere; although all their arguments were refutable and were refuted, their insistence was of no benefit.

If over these years it had been allowed for those who wanted to cut some of these arms of power to do so, today the country would be facing great dangers. The Almighty God willed and helped, and they could not carry out these actions. This is the matter.

Now, I said I would return to some of these pillars of national power. An important pillar of national power is those things that directly relate to the masses; such as national unity, national trust, national hope, public hope, and national self-confidence. There is a time when you, the responsible person in a certain section of the country's administration, are a person with self-confidence, but you want to do something that requires the help of the people; if the people do not have this self-confidence, you cannot carry out this task; I have previously spoken in detail about this national self-confidence. Or the firmness of national faith; there are principles that our nation believes in; this faith enabled the people, when they had no weapons at hand, not even stones at times, to stand against the bullets of the tyrannical regime's soldiers and overthrow it; this was due to faith. This national faith is a very valuable asset; preserving national faith is one of these assets that relates to the people. Or the issue of public livelihood or the smoothness of social issues.

Now, Mr. President has explained your statements, gentlemen. One of the important issues in managing the country and the public life of the people is that people's issues should be smooth; they should not be faced with problems and obstacles; like the recent decision by the esteemed officials to open a single window for investment and similar matters; such things; work should be done smoothly, easily. These are things that relate to the people. If these matters are secured, the presence of the people in the scene will be ensured; that is, if we can secure these issues that directly relate to the people, the presence of the people in the scene will be one hundred percent. Of course, thanks be to God, even now, although we have problems in some of these matters, the people are present in the scene. Even in the 60s, during the Sacred Defense, despite many problems, the people were present in the scene; there is no doubt about this, but if these matters are secured, the people will be united in their presence, and when the people are present, a country and a nation will have no worries, will have no fear of anyone.

Therefore, for this reason, because the presence of the people is very important and the presence of the people is dependent on these matters, you see that small and large devils are trying to mislead the people; just as their leader said, "I will surely mislead them all," they are constantly engaged in misleading; through these media that today have made it very easy to convey any word, any lie, and to beautify and justify any wrong statement, they constantly convey things to the depths of the community's consciousness. They mislead; "I will surely mislead them all"; in order to divert the people from that faith, from that trust, from that hope, from that self-confidence, from these things we mentioned, to dishearten them, to take away their trust in the authorities, to weaken national unity; they are constantly engaged in such activities; and this is what the enemy does.

Of course, the goal is to mislead the masses, but the means of misleading the masses is misleading the elites. Today, one of the important tasks is to mislead the elites of society, that is, those who have a title and some capability and perhaps some education and so on. Because when the elites are misled, if these misled elites are given the opportunity and means, they will easily mislead the masses. One of the heaviest soft wars in the history of our country is currently underway in this regard. They are constantly creating mercenaries, corrupting individuals with various tricks; when someone becomes corrupt, like a filthy animal, it becomes very difficult to distance them from corruption. They create mercenaries; some through threats, some through bribery, and various means. Therefore, there is currently a hard soft war.

Of course, let me say this: why is the soft war against us so intense today? The reason is that we have become strong; we have become strong. Today, the front of truth has become strong in terms of infrastructure and capabilities. Today, the enemy's challenge with the front of truth is not easy; it is a difficult task; hence, they resort to soft war and make every effort to corrupt mentalities; this is due to our power and strength. Of course, we said the elites are the targets, but among the elites, there are many, large groups of elites, thank God, today — from the nurtured of the seminary and university, especially the youth — who are both insightful and motivated and can truly be a pillar, a solid column. Of course, the enemy is also making intense efforts, intensely trying to influence and infiltrate.

Now, what should we do in the face of this enemy movement? The jihad of explanation; this is what you have repeatedly mentioned in your statements over these two days; I have also repeated several times until now and discussed the jihad of explanation. Now, why do we say jihad, the jihad of explanation? This is taken from the words of Amir al-Mu'minin (peace be upon him); Amir al-Mu'minin in his famous will to Hasan and Husayn (peace be upon them) — which is addressed to them, but he says, "And whoever receives my letter"; that is, I and you are also addressed by this will — among the things he says is: "And be mindful of jihad with your wealth, your souls, and your tongues in the way of God"; jihad with the tongue. Fortunately, among our people, those who could, have participated, have fought with their wealth, with their souls; they are still engaged in jihad; they must also engage in jihad with their tongues, where those who can be truly active and engage in jihad.

Now, we have discussed various aspects of the jihad of explanation; I will mention a few points in this regard today that perhaps I have not mentioned before: one point that I must mention first is that I heard that a heavy budget has been allocated for the jihad of explanation in the parliament; I am not very compatible with this style of approach. We have been dealing with institutions and budgets for years. My experience tells me that such nameless and unmarked budgets often go to waste and do not yield results. A heavy budget is allocated by the parliament, which of course I trust the officials to whom this budget should reach! Let me tell you, I have no distrust in those officials; whether in the Ministry of Culture, the Organization of Islamic Propagation, and similar institutions; we trust them; they are faithful and sound people, but the nature of this work is a fundamentally wrong nature to allocate a heavy budget under the title of jihad of explanation, which we hope these gentlemen will pay attention to. In summary, I do not agree; as someone who gives great importance to the jihad of explanation, I do not agree with this kind of budget allocation and spending. This is one point.

The second point is that in hard wars, one cannot fight with old weapons anymore. Today, one cannot go to war with cannons and missiles with swords and spears. The same is true in the jihad of explanation; one cannot work with old methods. Of course, some old methods have no substitutes, like the pulpit, like eulogizing; these are old but have no substitutes; these remain effective, and nothing else can replace them, but in terms of various tools, we must move forward with the times. Of course, today our hard tools are good; that is, the cyber space and similar things are finally active and working, and although the cyber space has problems — which, God willing, Mr. Raisi and his friends must strive to resolve these problems as soon as possible — but in any case, it is accessible; the tasks that need to be done, in terms of hardware, are accessible; the important part is the software aspect. The weapon of explanation has an important software component; here, innovation must take place, new words must be spoken, and new methods of expression must be introduced.

And in my opinion, today what can act most effectively as a powerful weapon is the explanation of high Islamic concepts in various fields. We have many untold stories in the realm of knowledge, in the realm of spirituality; we have many things that are attractive and sweet for the world. In the realm of issues related to Islamic lifestyle, we have many untold stories. For instance, one aspect is environmental issues, one aspect is dealing with animals, one aspect is family; these are all lifestyle issues. In all of these, Islam has attractive words; Islamic teachings can be extracted and distilled from the Islamic texts and made available to everyone.

Or in the realm of Islamic governance; one of the very important topics that can be raised is the issue of Islamic governance. Governance in the logic of Islam is fundamentally different from the governance systems prevalent in the world; it is neither similar to monarchy, nor to the presidential systems of today's world, nor to commandership, nor to the leadership of coup leaders; it is not similar to any of these; it is something specific based on spiritual foundations. The style of Islamic governance is this: it must be popular, religious, and ideological, not elitist, not extravagant, not oppressive; neither oppressor nor oppressed: "I will not be wronged while You are able to defend me, and I will not wrong while You are capable of restraining me." This is found in the supplications of Sahifa Sajjadiyya; each word of it has important epistemological foundations; these are the new weapons we must use.

The third point I want to make regarding the jihad of explanation is that in the jihad of explanation, the path of the material advancement of the nation must be separated from the wrong paths and deviations; this is one of the important issues. Many years ago, in a Friday prayer sermon, we said "the insiders and outsiders"; there was an uproar about why we divide into insiders and outsiders, while those who raised this issue have repeatedly applied the insiders and outsiders in various matters. The discussion of "insiders and outsiders" is a fundamental discussion; not insiders in the sense of relatives or fellow ideologues or party members; no, insiders are those who believe in the path of Islam, in the opinion of the Quran, in Islamic faith and the great movement of the Islamic Republic for which so much has been sacrificed. This is important; this correct path must be separated from the wrong and deviant paths; this meaning is important in the jihad of explanation.

And the final point regarding the jihad of explanation is — which is a warning to ourselves, a threat to ourselves — that we must know that if the jihad of explanation is not carried out correctly, worldly people will even use religion as a means for their own lust and desires; that is, if you and I do not do our job correctly, those for whom only the world matters — their personal world, that is, their desires, their personal wishes — will even take religion into their service. This phrase is in the famous letter of Amir al-Mu'minin (peace be upon him) to Malik al-Ashtar. He explains that you should choose those who have these qualities; he elaborates on the qualities and says, choose these for your cooperation; then when he mentions those qualities, he says: "Look at this carefully; for this religion has been a captive in the hands of the wicked." It is remarkable! Amir al-Mu'minin says this to Malik al-Ashtar; that is, twenty-some years after the Prophet's passing; this refers to the dominance of the Banu Umayyah and such elements; those who prayed the morning prayer four or six rak'ahs and then said they were well, and if you want, we can pray more for you. "For this religion has been a captive in the hands of the wicked, it is acted upon according to whims and is sought for worldly gains." We seek refuge in God from falling into these hard traps of Satan; both ourselves and our people. And we hope that from these words we have spoken, God willing, we ourselves will first be admonished; then these words will have an effect.

O Lord! By the right of Muhammad and the family of Muhammad, bless this month of Sha'ban for all the Islamic Ummah, for the dear nation of Iran. O Lord! Make the sacred heart of the Awaited Savior pleased and satisfied with us; grant us the prayers and satisfaction of that great one; and convey our greetings and respect to him.

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