Nowruz Message on the Occasion of the Beginning of the Year 1376

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

O Transformer of hearts and eyes. O Director of night and day. O Changer of conditions and states. Change our condition to the best of conditions (1)

This year's Nowruz coincides with another great and honorable celebration, which is the blessed birth of the Eighth Imam, peace be upon him. The noble people of Iran, due to their proximity, have a special attachment to this great figure, and Shiites all over the world, indeed all Muslims, envy the people of Iran for this reason and consider Iran—especially the holy city of Mashhad—as their ultimate destination.

I extend my congratulations on both great celebrations—both Nowruz, which is the celebration of freshness, vitality, and joy of the earth and time, and this great birth, which is a religious, ethical, spiritual, and historical celebration—to all our noble and dear nation and to Iranians living abroad; especially to the esteemed families of the honorable martyrs, the dear veterans, the freed captives, and the missing and their families—hoping, God willing, that news of our dear missing will soon reach their families. I also extend Nowruz greetings to other nations that consider this celebration and the beginning of spring important and count it as a holiday—such as the Central Asian countries and some other countries.

I hope this new year, which begins with such a day, will be a blessed year for our nation and, in the true sense of the word, a good year. Of course, the blessing of a year for a nation is not only in its material aspects; sometimes spiritual aspects are more important. If a nation can bring about a moral transformation within itself; if it can cleanse itself of moral vices and adorn itself with moral virtues, it is truly a celebration for that nation. Perhaps the establishment of celebrations—whether national or religious and spiritual celebrations—is fundamentally for creating such transformations within humans.

Fortunately, in recent years, our nation has made significant spiritual progress. The inclination towards spirituality, religion, worship, attention to remembrance, presence, humility, prayer, fasting, obedience to God, and closeness to the Lord has become prevalent among our people, especially our youth; but moral transformation is not just this. It might be said that moral transformation is even more difficult for a nation, and for this reason, the primary audience and the first responsible are the youth, for whom everything is easier and more comfortable. The hearts of the youth are luminous, and their natures are intact and untouched. Their contamination with the adornments and pollutions of the world; with the heavy chains that love of money, wealth, ambition, and power-seeking place on a person, is much less; therefore, moral transformation is easier among the youth. Of course, middle-aged people, and even younger ones, should not despair of the possibility of moral transformation within themselves. Moral transformation means that a person sets aside every moral vice—every ugly morality, every bad and undesirable spirit that causes harm to others or one's own backwardness—and adorns oneself with moral virtues and beauties. In a society where there is no malice, ill-will, or hatred, if people have thoughts, they do not use them to conspire against others, deceive others, or trick others; if people have knowledge and information, they do not use it to harm people and help the enemies of the people; rather, all individuals in a society are benevolent towards each other, do not harbor hatred towards each other, do not have malice and envy towards each other, do not organize their lives at the expense of others' destruction, and do not desire to obtain everything. This is moral transformation and is the minimum issue.

In a society where acting badly towards the deprived is not accompanied by indifference towards them; where consuming people's wealth does not exist; if Islamic morals—the same things that in Islam are virtues for a person, the same things that, according to narrations, are the soldiers of reason (2)—become prevalent; where people are patient and steadfast; where they are reliant on God, humble, and forbearing; where they are not suspicious of each other; where they are not indifferent to each other's conditions; where there is contentment regarding the fate of society; where there is no excessiveness, extravagance, and wastefulness, and no sign of greed and material excessiveness, this society turns into a paradise and a garden. The affliction of today's world, even wealthy and advanced countries, is these things. The poverty of morals is what has distressed humanity today in the world.

Our nation, by the blessing of Islam, by the blessing of its ancient traditions, and by the blessing of the moral virtues that exist within it, thanks be to God, has remained somewhat apart from this global distress, and most Muslim nations also have advantages by the blessing of Islam. Of course, this does not mean that we have moral perfection; no. There are many deficiencies in us, many shortcomings that we must compensate for and eliminate. Laziness, despair, impatience, finding fault with others, and the same undesirable traits I mentioned earlier, each of which exists in us, must be discarded. This is a struggle and a jihad.

The youth, naturally, are inclined towards challenge. Very well; the challenge we want the youth to grapple with is the commanding self that invites a person to baseness and ugliness and prevents them from ascending and perfecting. The youth must resist their desires and whims and all the motivations that call them to such vices. The youth are in the first place, and non-youth are the same. It is obligatory for everyone, for people like me as well; rather, it is more obligatory for those who are responsible; those who have taken on a great mission and whose decisions, actions, and behaviors are not just the behavior of one person; rather, it is the behavior of a group, the behavior of a society, and sometimes, in the eyes of others, the behavior of a country, must be very careful. They are more addressed by the divine address and are obliged to realize the noble prayer "Change our condition to the best of conditions" within themselves.

My dear ones; noble people of Iran! It is true that transformation is truly brought about by God, and therefore in this prayer, we ask God to "Change our condition to the best of conditions"; meaning, transform our condition to the best of conditions; but in all prayers, it is such that effort, movement, and determination are required from the human side. Everyone must strive in action, in practice, and in improving themselves. The same is true in the field of social issues. Today, our era is the era of the new construction of our Islamic country. We must rebuild Iran anew; in the way that befits the great nation of Iran; in the way that Islam has asked us to build our home, country, and society; so that the destructions inflicted upon it—the destructions of war, the destructions of the era of the oppressive monarchy, and the era of the dominance of corrupt and dependent rulers—are eliminated. We must rebuild the destructions of the country. We must rebuild our country anew; but the construction of Iran is not just about repairing destructions; rather, we must revive everything that the Almighty God has entrusted in this country and place it at the disposal of the current and future generations. Natural resources, human resources, social facilities, the good nature that is at our disposal, the great heritage that our predecessors have left us, and many other facilities that exist, must be revived and, in fact, extract divine blessings. Hopefully, the new year will be a blessed year for such endeavors.

At the beginning of this year, an important issue is before our people, which is the presidential election. I ask all the people of Iran to look at this issue with insight, intelligence, and sharpness as a national and historical issue and not to underestimate it. Of course, at the start of the elections, especially in the campaigns, everyone and every group has a candidate; they want to choose someone and prefer him over others. This is a dangerous place and a field for bad traits to appear in a person, God forbid. This is a danger on the path of elections, which is considered a great experience. Everyone should face this issue with determination; but with good manners, insight, hope, a pleasant face, and a happy heart; cast many votes into the ballot boxes and, God willing, elect the president with a high vote so that the future government and president have open hands and can build the country with the great support of the people's votes, and those outside the borders who are always waiting to see a small defect in our nation and magnify it many times over, they too will be disappointed in being able to do this.

This year, I want to make a recommendation to all the people, as I have in previous years. Thanks be to God, the recommendations that have been made have been heeded. Both the people have paid attention and the officials, and my expectation is from both; both from the people and the officials. I want to tell our dear people that this year everyone should try to set aside extravagance. Unfortunately, extravagance exists in our lives. Extravagance means wasting divine blessings; it means not recognizing the value of divine blessings. Of course, our main audience in this speech is the affluent individuals. It seems that those who are poor or middle-class waste less; although there is some extravagance among them too. Setting aside extravagance in things that seem small; like extravagance in the excessive use of water, is necessary. This year, there has been a little less rainfall, which requires more saving. Of course, thanks be to God, there is no bad future awaiting us. Everything, thanks be to God and by divine grace, will proceed according to the interests of the Iranian nation; but we are obliged to organize our lives according to what religion has asked of us and what sound reason demands of us. Extravagance in water, extravagance in bread, extravagance in foodstuffs, extravagance in living facilities, excessiveness, buying too much, consuming too much, throwing away things that are usable, these are wasting God's blessings.

In statistics, we read, and surely all of you are aware, that a large portion of this wheat, which is produced with so much effort and hardship by the Iranian farmer and is purchased and then turned into flour and bread, is unfortunately thrown away. I do not want to specify a percentage; but officials mention very high and frightening figures of the amount of bread that, for example, is thrown away.

This is just one example; but in all matters, we must get used to saving. Saving means not throwing away what is usable and can be used. We should not act with whims regarding facilities. Constantly renewing durable things and throwing away things that are not perishable is not a correct method. In my opinion, the country's officials should teach the people the way of saving and avoiding extravagance. I am saying this in a general sense. The government officials themselves should not be extravagant. The extravagance of government officials is more harmful than the extravagance of ordinary people; because this extravagance is in the public treasury. Therefore, officials should list examples of saving and avoiding extravagance and tell the people and teach them how to save.

The year we passed was a year of hard work and effort and a year of honor for both the nation and the government. Despite the fact that last year, all the apparatuses of global arrogance and all the propaganda horns, campaigned and threatened against the Iranian nation; they spoke and expressed the confused dreams they had seen for the Iranian nation, thanks be to God, with your strength and steadfastness and presence and with your great marches in Ramadan and the twenty-second of Bahman and in various other ceremonies and your support for the system and the officials, all these plans were thwarted. The presence of the nation is miraculous and its effects are miraculous and truly have positive impacts.

It was a year of hard work and effort. In the field of construction, work was progressing. There was a large volume of work for the nation. The same was true for the officials. Thanks be to God, it was a good year; a year of great progress, a year of international honor, a year of people's hope, a year of people's unity and solidarity that was evident in their great gatherings. We hope that this year, too, will be like last year in these respects; rather, we will have progress as well.

Last year, unfortunately, we had the earthquake incident, which was bitter not only for the earthquake-stricken areas—such as Ardabil and Bojnourd—but for all the Iranian nation, for whom the pains of their compatriots and the pains of Muslims are a source of distress and discomfort. I hope that the Almighty God has willed good for this part of our country that was afflicted by the earthquake and grants good to its inhabitants. I want to ask our dear nation, just as they have acted well so far, thanks be to God, in helping the earthquake victims and the afflicted, to continue these aids. This is sympathy and is necessary. We hope that the Almighty God will make the holy soul of our dear and honorable departed Imam, who taught us this path and these lessons, happy and place the ranks of that great figure in the highest levels with His saints.

I once again entrust all of you, dear nation, to God and ask the great God for joy, prosperity, happiness, and progress in all your endeavors—both material and spiritual.

Peace be upon you and God's mercy and blessings

1) Zad al-Ma'ad, p. 531

2) Tuhaf al-Uqul, p. 401