Statements to the Employees of the Ministry of Information

The month of Sha'ban is unfortunately coming to an end. Sha'ban is the month of supplication and worship. In the supplications prescribed in Mafatih, it is stated: "The one who was the Messenger of God (peace be upon him and his family) would strive in his fasting and standing in its nights and days, humbling himself before You in honoring and revering You to the place of Your mercy." The Prophet honored the month of Sha'ban until the moment of his death, and he humbled himself before it, accustomed himself to fasting and standing in the month of Sha'ban. Following this supplication, it is said: "O God, help us to follow his tradition in it"; we ask God to grant us success in adhering to the same tradition of the Prophet in the month of Sha'ban. This month of Sha'ban - you surely know - is the corridor and passageway to the month of Ramadan. The month of Ramadan is the hall of divine hospitality; a grand hall that if someone enters it and takes the opportunity and strives to benefit from what God the Almighty has prepared there, they will gain a great benefit that is not found in the month of Shawwal or other months of the year; it is exclusive to the month of Ramadan. Various divine banquets: divine mercy, divine honor, divine success, divine proximity, the self-sufficiency arising from divine grace, material sustenance, spiritual sustenance, all are in the month of Ramadan; these are placed on the table of Ramadan. Some come and do not look at this table and pass through the middle of it and leave without gaining anything; some take a little something; we take a small morsel, a little something; but some, no, they sit properly at this table and fill their bags with divine mercy; they seek honor, they seek the world, they seek the hereafter; they seek relief from difficulties, they seek ease in life, they seek self-sufficiency, they seek good traits and morals; whatever they want, they take for themselves and for others.

In order for a person to be able to enter this hall with their eyes open, not to be heedless, not to become confused and dazed, lowering their head and entering through one door and exiting through another; to look around and benefit, and for this readiness to arise in you and me, these months of Rajab and Sha'ban have been designated; Rajab in one way, Sha'ban in another way. Rajab is more the month of prayer; Sha'ban is more the month of supplication and fasting; look at the Sha'ban supplications. Once, I asked Imam Khomeini (may his soul be sanctified) which of the supplications in the available traditions he liked the most. He said: the supplication of Kumayl and the Sha'ban supplication. Incidentally, both supplications belong to the month of Sha'ban; the supplication of Kumayl, which you know is primarily associated with the night of the middle of Sha'ban, and the Sha'ban supplication, which has been narrated from the Imams, is related to the month of Sha'ban. The tone of these two supplications is similar; both are passionate. In the Sha'ban supplication: "And if You cast me into the fire, I will cry out to You that I love You." And in the supplication of Kumayl: "If You allow me to speak in hell and do not take away my speech, I will cry out; I will cry out the cries of the hopeful, the cries of the lovers, and the cries of the infatuated."

We must become familiar with these and soften our hearts a little. The heart is a strange thing; sometimes, through something that elevates a person to the heights of the heavens and spirituality, it transforms; sometimes, conversely, it becomes a heavy stone that is tied to a person's foot and sinks them to the depths of the water, to the depths of the valley; it drowns them; it takes them away from their father. If you give your heart to money, to sexual desire, to status, and to these things, that is the heavy stone; it is no longer a heart. In that case:

That was not a heart, but rather a place where you see cows and donkeys and lands and properties.

That heart that is filled with the desire for a certain type of car is not a heart; it is a garage! It is a trading house! That heart that is constantly filled with sexual desire is no longer a heart; it is a house of pleasure. The poet, at a time when lands and properties and cows and donkeys played a role in life, mentioned these and said that a heart that contains these is a stable! It is a village! The heart is not; the heart is the place of God; the place of light.