Speech on the Occasion of Meeting with a Large Group of Guards on the Birthday of Imam Hussein (peace be upon him) and Guards Day

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

On such a day (the third of Sha'ban), more than anything else, one remembers our great and esteemed late Imam Khomeini (may his soul be sanctified) — that shining sun of life and that brilliant flash in our tumultuous history — who on such a day, like some other occasions, would be in a state of excitement and unique spiritual characteristics. The memory of the Guards and these devoted, sincere, and self-sacrificing young lovers, whose like is rarely found throughout history, would excite him. The memory of the Master of Martyrs — Hussein ibn Ali (peace be upon him) — would elevate the great spirit of that noble figure and immerse him in the all-encompassing spirituality of the sacred existence of the Master of Martyrs. Similarly, the memory of the month of Sha'ban and the supplications of Sha'baniyah and the spirituality of this month and the anticipation of the blessed month of Ramadan would give him a special state and spirituality.

Many times on this occasion and other occasions, we had visited him with these characteristics and manifestations of meaning. We hope that the luminous image of the face of that dear departed and that great traveler will always be before the eyes of all of us on this occasion and other occasions, for this is our clear path. I also congratulate you dear Guards — whether from the Corps or the Committee — and all the people of Iran and all believers and Muslims and the oppressed and those who fight against oppression in the world, for truly the birth of that noble figure is a global celebration.

The sacred existence of the Master of Martyrs (peace be upon him), although more known for his aspect of jihad and martyrdom, in truth, that noble figure is the manifestation of the perfect human and a sincere and devoted servant for God. Essentially, true jihad and martyrdom in the path of God cannot be achieved except with a prelude of such sincerity and attention and except by moving towards 'detachment to God.'

In this exalted supplication of Sha'baniyah, it is stated: 'O God, grant me complete detachment towards You.' How does this complete detachment towards God and severing from everything and cutting all ties and attachments in the direction of moving towards the true beloved and flying towards that direction become possible for a person? Martyrdom, which is the pinnacle of a person's self-sacrifice, does not occur for a person without moving towards detachment and without striving and struggling to create 'detachment to God.' Whenever a person makes an effort and takes the first step with determination and will, then God Almighty opens the way and steps are taken one after another towards enlightening the heart and illuminating the existence of a person.

You strive, you walk the path, and God Almighty also helps you along the way and makes the task easy for you and — as this noble figure requested in the supplication of Sha'baniyah — grants you the complete detachment to God. Reflection and attention to these meanings and words and familiarity with them are obligatory and necessary for each of those who want to fulfill their great duties.

I believe that if our unparalleled great Imam — whom we truly do not know anyone like him among the people of this time and after the Imams of guidance and the friends of God (peace be upon them) we find very few like him — was not familiar with these concepts and did not engage in supplication and prayer and was not a person of humility and seeking forgiveness and crying and seeking intercession, it would have been very unlikely that God Almighty would have granted him all this success. The successes of this noble figure were largely due to this connection with God and the openness of his heart's path to the divine threshold and supplication and prayer. One could feel the moment-to-moment progress of this spiritual and divine man over the recent years. Every Ramadan that passed for this noble figure, one could see that he had become more enlightened and that God Almighty was guiding him.

The path we have traveled over these eleven years behind the Imam was not a path that we could have traveled naturally and without divine guidance and support. We passed through strange twists and turns and, by the blessing of the leadership of Imam Khomeini (may his soul be sanctified), we overcame strange ups and downs, and this was only because divine guidance was helping us.

His own belief was the same, and I had heard this from him when he said: 'From the beginning of the revolution, I feel that a guiding hand is helping us and advancing us and opening the paths before us.' This was indeed the truth, and God Almighty grants this guidance in response to struggle, sincerity, purity, and enlightenment.

Divine guidance does not reach heedless people. In this very supplication of Sha'baniyah, it is stated: 'And enlighten the eyes of our hearts with the light of their vision towards You.' This enlightening of the heart's eye and illuminating the truths for the awakened heart and the insightful eye of the believer does not come for free and cannot be realized without struggle and effort and connection with God.

Today, at the national level, our recommendation to the general public — especially those who have more love and interest in this revolution and its product — is the same, and we see the definite remedy and necessity in this: that all people must strengthen their individual connections and familiarity and conversation and supplication with God within themselves. This is the path of the Imam, and divine guidance follows this connection and contact with God; just as it has been so in these ten years, and you sincere and pure-hearted young people have shown this spirit in various fronts and have seen its results, and just as our Imam's lesson was this.

Once I asked him which of the well-known supplications he was more familiar with or believed in. After some reflection, he said: 'The supplication of Kumayl and the supplication of Sha'baniyah.' When you refer to these two supplications, although other supplications — like the supplication of Abu Hamzah al-Thumali or the supplication of Imam Hussein on the day of Arafah and many other supplications — are about establishing a relationship with God; but in these two supplications and supplications, you see the state of seeking forgiveness and repentance and seeking help and humility towards the Lord in its passionate form. The supplication of Kumayl is also a supplication with God Almighty and depicts the relationship of love and affection between the servant and the worshipped, and this was what our great Imam used to illuminate and enlighten his soul and heart.

This month is the month of Sha'ban and the threshold of the blessed month of Ramadan, and these supplications and the path and purity and recommendation of the Imam of the Ummah are before us. Our nation today and always needs a steel determination and firm steps in this challenging path and the path of the glory of the Islamic Ummah and the elevation of the word of Islam and Muslims and the revival of Islamic values and the realization of true social justice and support for the oppressed and weak — something that was proclaimed in the world but not acted upon.

Today, throughout the world, billions of people are struggling under the heavy pressure of the oppression and injustice of the great powers. They need an example and a model, and you want to show that model. It is a very heavy burden and a great task. Of course, there is a practical way. This path is traversable, and we have traversed it until today, and by God's grace and to the chagrin of the enemies, we will successfully go this path to the last stage and show the way and destination to the nations and the oppressed and seekers of truth. However, it is a heavy and great task and requires readiness and reliance and connection and dependence on the sacred essence of God Almighty and love for divine values and a spiritual and mystical relationship.

Today, you see that at the head of the enemies of humanity, namely this apparatus of global arrogance and the satanic and demonic power of America, and beneath it, all the satanic and demonic powers, what they do with human values and how they drag humanity into degradation and mock and ridicule all manifestations of spirituality. This is enmity. You see that today, because the Islamic Republic has raised the flag of spirituality and is walking the path of Islam and striving for Islam and Islamic values, how much it is the target of their hatred and enmity.

Sometimes one is surprised at how much they are enemies of Islam and spirituality. You see what they do and how much money they spend to portray the Islamic Republic as bad and ugly in the eyes of the people around the world with their poisonous and false propaganda. Why do they spend so much money? Why do they feel such a need to advertise against the Islamic Republic system? Because the Islamic Republic system, without their sinister propaganda, is attractive to the nations, and I say that even with this propaganda, the attraction of the Islamic Republic in the eyes of the nations is great.

The anger of the apparatus of global arrogance and especially America is because they see that throughout the Islamic world, Islamic awakening is increasing day by day. They hoped that with the passage of time, the slogans of the Islamic Republic in the world would become outdated and ineffective; but they saw that it did not happen. They were hopeful that with the passing and absence of the Imam — who was the candle of the gathering of enthusiasts around the world — the Islamic slogans would become ineffective and forgotten; but they saw that it did not happen.

Today, the Imam is not present; but the memory and line and slogans and goals of the Imam are becoming more luminous and prominent in the world day by day. Nations are excited by the memory of the Imam and his words and are making the situation tighter for the arrogant powers and reactionary governments day by day. As we have said many times, this pure Islamic sapling was planted by that heavenly and spiritual hand in the land of human nature, and Imam Khomeini (may his soul be sanctified) protected it for ten years. This is no longer something that can be ended. 'Have you not seen how God sets forth a parable of a good word like a good tree, whose root is firmly fixed and its branches reach to the sky, yielding its fruit at all times by the permission of its Lord.'

Today, it has become like this, and this very point angers the enemies. They hoped that within the Islamic Republic, this light would gradually dim and extinguish; let alone that it would become more inflamed in the world day by day. Today, they see that inside and outside the country, the light of Islamic virtues and jihad against the devils and the great Satan and the movement towards divine and Islamic values is becoming more and more radiant day by day.

This great and glorious movement of the twenty-second of Bahman this year burned the enemies. Congratulations to our great nation that with their vigilant movement, they were able to cause pain and anger to the enemy. 'Say: Die in your rage.' This rage was created in the hearts of the enemies by the revolutionary movement of our nation. This nation is an aware nation. A movement that is carried on the shoulders of such a nation is not something that can be ended.

After the twenty-second of Bahman, the apparatuses of global arrogance are constantly working to perhaps somehow eliminate the effect of this great movement, which of course they cannot and will not be able to do. Today, the propaganda of foreign radios is at its highest volume, trying against the Islamic Republic. This is after the twenty-second of Bahman. Of course, over the past eleven years, we remember several periods of all-out and full of rage and hatred and malice attacks by foreign radios and news agencies, which shows that these news agencies and radios mostly end up in the same centers and are tools in the hands of capitalists and Zionists and the managers of today's world of arrogance and exploitation.

They launched a massive propaganda war against the Islamic Republic whenever they deemed it necessary, and in the past couple of weeks after the twenty-second of Bahman, after their confusion and lack of analytical power was resolved, they started a massive volume of propaganda against the Islamic Republic and did everything they could. The Iranian nation must be aware that the enemy does everything: from rumor-mongering and creating lies to inciting and magnifying weaknesses and creating a cloudy and hopeless atmosphere about the future; exactly the things that are soothing for the enemy.

Everything they hoped would be inside our society but is not, they tried to pretend with propaganda that it is! They want there to be division; but thanks be to God, there is no deep and fundamental division in our society; what exists is superficial and not significant and is not harmful at this level; but they pretend that the divisions among the officials of the Islamic Republic are deep and there is a power struggle! The same thing that exists among themselves in the world of arrogance, they falsely and contrary to reality attribute to us.

Among our people, there is hope for the future. Hearts see the future as bright. We who have traversed the hardest part of this path for eleven years, why should we not be hopeful for the future? Therefore, our people are hopeful for the government and programs and the parliament and the judiciary and the military and law enforcement forces and feel powerful and know that in the future, they will be even stronger. This is the feeling of our people and it is a justified feeling and people should be hopeful.

The path we are moving on is a path of hope; because it is the path of God and the divine laws of nature. We are moving according to the divine and natural laws. These divine and natural laws are the same laws that despite about two centuries of efforts by the enemies of Islam and religion to remove religion from the scene, nullified those efforts and today religion is a topic in the world. A religious government was established at this sensitive point in the world and today religion is a topic in the world and countries that were kept away from religion for seventy, eighty years are undergoing religious reconstruction. This is the same natural and divine laws.

Did the Zionists want this transformation? Did the managers of materialistic currents and policies — who dragged the world towards debauchery and completely forgot spirituality in people's lives — want this change and were they willing for religion and religious symbols — especially Islamic ones — to be revived again? You see that it happened. This is the same divine laws that despite the will of the enemies of God and Islam and religion and spirituality, do their work and open their way. We who move according to these laws, why should we not be hopeful?

We move according to the same laws that the Messenger of God (peace be upon him) felt hopeful relying on in the hardest times of his life. On the very day when all his people in Mecca had besieged him and even his life was in danger and they did not let him live in his house and he was forced to go one day to Ta'if and one day to the valley of Abu Talib, on that day he said: 'I am only a clear warner.' He said: I am a warner and a clarifier of truths. What was he relying on to say these words? He was relying on God and the divine laws and the struggle he intended to make. We too, who move relying on these laws, why should we not be hopeful? He was able to and we will be able to. He was able to change history and influence the world with his rules and system for hundreds of years; we too are following the same path and we will be able to.

Why should the Iranian nation not be hopeful? The enemy who wants the Iranian nation not to be hopeful reflects this hopelessness in its propaganda and rumor-mongering and lie-making. God knows how many false rumors the enemy has spread in our society these days. I am constantly informed of these rumors and I know what specific rumors — even in some cities — are spread by these radios and a few treacherous elements who have turned their backs on God and the people.

Thanks be to God, our path is the clear and Islamic path that Imam Khomeini (may his soul be sanctified) introduced to us. Our path is the path of that Islam that the enemies of God fear and the oppressed and the oppressed are happy and hopeful about; not something that is called Islam and from beginning to end is in the service of the enemies of Islam. We do not accept this as Islam. This is the same American Islam; the correct expression that our late wise Imam repeatedly used.

Pure Islam is the Islam that should make the Abu Jahls fear it. If there is an Islam that the Abu Jahls and Abu Sufyans do not fear and are not enemies of, we should doubt its being Islam. That Islam which the oppressed and deprived classes do not hope for and do not give their hearts to is not Islam. An Islam that cannot revive and awaken the dormant and suppressed aspirations of the oppressed classes worldwide — not just in our own country — doubt whether this religion is Islam.

All religious humanity is waiting for a reformer and all Muslims are waiting for the promised Mahdi, and the characteristic of the promised Mahdi (may God hasten his reappearance and may our souls be sacrificed for him) in the view of Muslims is that: 'God will fill the earth with justice and equity as it was filled with oppression and tyranny.' Justice and equity, the establishment of justice in society, the elimination of oppression from the surface of the earth, is the characteristic of the promised Mahdi. An Islam in which there is no effort for justice and no struggle against oppression, how can it be Islam and humanity move towards it? Humanity moves towards that which is embodied in the sacred existence of Mahdi (peace be upon him and may God hasten his noble reappearance) and he is the one who, according to the continuous traditions, will fill the world with justice and equity and eradicate oppression.

Our path is this; the path of Islam that Imam Khomeini (may his soul be sanctified) outlined and spoke about for ten years — apart from what he said during the struggles and before that. In these ten years, on various occasions and in the course of life and in dealing with events, he clarified Islam for us. Today, there is no ambiguous point left for anyone. Our path is this path which is very certain and hopeful and clear.

In this path, there is hope; but it also requires struggle and this struggle is not possible except with connection with God and purifying oneself and distancing from moral vices. Traversing this path is not possible with division and disunity either. The unity of word that you have must be preserved. You must avoid division in any form. No one should take any action that causes division, and if someone does, another should not intensify it. This is a general duty. This is an obligation like prayer and jihad. This is itself jihad in the path of God. Today, jihad is this.

Of course, all armed forces — whether military or law enforcement, whether army or corps, whether committee or police and gendarmerie — and behind all of them, the great popular mobilization, must also maintain their readiness for military defense of the achievements of the revolution. We have repeatedly made this recommendation, and we do so again. This is not just a dry recommendation; this is an order and all officials and also the officials of the armed forces must hear this as a duty and seriously pursue it.

Readiness includes combat readiness and training and organization and discipline and ethics and support and other types of it, and especially in the case of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, this readiness must be greater. While the three forces of the Corps are obliged to carry out their tasks, the ground force in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has a particularly special role.

Today, the importance of the ground force is doubled and its duties are very important and clear, and as they outlined for the Corps and the army, the lines of work of these organizations are specified. The ground force of the Corps must, God willing, become more prepared day by day in terms of organization and training and presence — especially in areas where their presence is necessary.

With these efforts you make and will make, God will also bestow His help and grace and favor upon you. We hope that God Almighty will include all of you and all the people of Iran and all the struggling and fighting Muslims of the world in the prayer of His Holiness the Remaining Proof (may our souls be sacrificed for him) and include the prayer of the pure soul of our dear Imam for all of us.

Peace be upon you and God's mercy and blessings