Statements at the Gathering with the Holy Quran

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 and prophet, Abu al-Qasim al-Mustafa Muhammad, and upon his pure and chosen progeny, especially the Awaited One on earth, and God's curse be upon all their enemies.

This was a very sweet, desirable, blessed, and, God willing, fruitful session. Ramadan is blessed for all of you, for all Quranic followers; God willing. Today, we witnessed the beginning of this blessed month — one of the most important characteristics of this blessed month is the revelation of the Quran, the connection with the Quran, and the recitation of the Quran — and we truly benefited from the recitation of the noble verses of the Quran here; we really made use of it. I thank the brothers who worked hard to arrange this session and this planning; it was very good.

Thanks be to God, the Quranic flowers from all over this great garden called Iran are blooming one by one and showing themselves. The blessed seed of the Quran has been sown in this land; this is the art of the Revolution, this is the art of the Islamic system. It was not like this in the past; during our childhood and youth, the Quran was truly neglected in this country; [of course] there were corners where some were passionately and diligently pursuing the learning or teaching of the Quran or connecting with the Quran, but the general atmosphere was completely alien to the Quran; there was no news of it. Today, thanks be to God, the general atmosphere of the country is familiar with the Quran; you see young people, teenagers, and children of various ages from different parts of the country, who are connected with the Quran, dealing with the Quran; they recite, reflect, and contemplate.

The progress of Quran recitation in the country has also been very good. Well, since the beginning of the Revolution, we have witnessed good recitations from our reciters; one can noticeably observe the progress. The aspirations we had for the reciters of the Quran to perform in this way, to contemplate in this way, to understand the verse in this way, to convey the verse in this way — these were aspirations we always had — thanks be to God, one by one these aspirations are being fulfilled; good teachers, good readers, good young people, good teenagers; thank God; but this is just the beginning. Our backwardness in the area of connecting with the Quran and benefiting from the Quran is very great. These are the initial steps that must be taken. I have said many times, and I repeat again that these sessions and these gatherings and these recommendations and the activities that are being carried out are all a prelude for the country’s atmosphere and the public mindset of our people to become Quranic, and for the mindset to connect with the Quran and for [the people] to connect with Quranic concepts; this is what is important.

If we connect with the Quran, then this opportunity and this space will arise for thinkers from various strata to contemplate on Quranic points, to derive things from the Quran, to understand, and to answer various questions. By questions, I do not mean doubts; I mean questions about life, living. Right now, there are millions of questions before us. When a society, with a government, is moving towards ideals, it faces thousands of questions; in the type of relationships, in the type of behaviors, in the type of positions, in the type of enmity and friendships, in the type of dealings with wealth, in the type of dealings with worldly matters; all these are questions that are raised; all these questions have answers. Humanity has become misguided and unfortunate because it did not find the correct answers to these questions. The misfortune of today’s world — and humanity — is because it did not learn the correct answers to these questions; it received wrong, deviant, misleading answers, which came to its mind, it acted upon them, [thus] today it has reached this point; the world lacks security, lacks tranquility, lacks spirituality, lacks inner peace, and the hearts of individuals in society are not at peace with one another; this is the situation of today’s world, the whole world is like this.

Humans were created for connection; hearts must be connected, they must love one another, help one another. Humans must be like a single body in the world; indeed, humanity is created this way, it is managed this way; but today, look around and see that everywhere there is war, everywhere there is insecurity, everywhere there is fear, everywhere there is misguidance, everywhere there is distance between hearts; families are disintegrating; there is a glaring class disparity; some are affluent and benefiting, while others are deprived; all this is because the questions of life have not been answered correctly, they have been misunderstood; then these crooked economic and political systems have emerged in the world, and humanity is afflicted; billions of people are afflicted by this situation; even those who are affluent are afflicted. It is not the case that when we say there is class disparity, it means that someone who is, for example, part of the so-called one percent of American society is very comfortable and happy; no, they also have misfortunes, troubles, problems — spiritual, psychological — in their lives that are sometimes greater than the troubles of a poor person; that is, everyone is afflicted. A society that does not recognize the right path, does not recognize the straight path, is not connected to God, is like this. Unfortunately, these human societies today are suffering from such misguidance and error. The reason you repeat so much and have been told to repeat “Guide us on the straight path,” is because of this. The straight path means the path where these calamities, these problems do not exist; this is the meaning of the straight path. Continuously ask the Almighty God to guide you; this guidance is in the Quran. If we connect with the Quran, if we understand the Quran correctly, if we contemplate in the Quran, then the correct answers to the questions of life will be given to us; we must pursue this, this is something important. Dear youth, now, God willing, the more you connect with the Quran, the more these truths will be revealed to you; the more you drink from this refreshing drink, the more eager you will become, the more thirsty you will be; the Quran is like this.

Well, today the Islamic community is also facing problems like other communities. Look and see what is happening in the Islamic world. In the Islamic world, a number of worthless, incompetent, and lowly individuals have taken the fate of some Islamic communities into their hands; like these governments you see; Saudi Arabia and others like it. This is due to their distance from the Quran, this is due to their lack of familiarity with Quranic truths. Of course, there is some lack of familiarity, and some lack of faith. They appear to be believers in the Quran; sometimes they print millions of copies of the Quran and distribute them for free here and there, but they have no belief in the content of the Quran, in the meaning of the Quran, in the essence of the Quran; the Quran says, “They are harsh against the disbelievers, merciful among themselves,” [but] these are “harsh against the believers, merciful with the disbelievers.” You observe how their situation is; they are familiar with the disbelievers, [they are] fond of them, they spend the wealth of their nation [on them]; because they themselves have no wealth; this wealth that they have, which is accumulated in their bank accounts, this legendary wealth, whose is it, where did it come from? This is not inherited from their fathers; this is the money from oil, the money from underground resources, the money from national wealth; instead of being spent on improving the lives of the people, it accumulates in their accounts, and they use it for personal and private purposes; they give the people’s money to the disbelievers, to the enemies of the people. And they have taken gods besides God to be their honor; no, they will soon deny their worship and become adversaries to them; fools think that by giving money and helping and these things, they can win the affection of the enemies of Islam, [while] there is no affection; just as they themselves said, they are like a milking cow; they milk it, and when it no longer has milk, they slaughter it. This is the situation of today’s Islamic world; treating people like this, while treating the people of Yemen like that, the people of Bahrain like this; behaviors against religion. Of course, these will be destroyed. Do not let appearances deceive you; these appearances should not fool anyone; they will go, they will be toppled and destroyed. Indeed, falsehood is bound to perish; these are false and will certainly face decline, downfall, misfortune, and collapse; there is no doubt about this. Of course, it may happen a few days earlier or later; it depends on how the believers, the believing community, act; if they act correctly, this event will happen sooner; if they do not act correctly, this event will happen a few days later; but certainly, this event will happen. Both these and those who have placed their hopes in them will all be toppled.

What has a future is Islam, what has a future is the Quran, what has a future is you believing youth; what has a future is you believing youth. Now they recited, “And who is more truthful than God in speech?”; who is more truthful than God? Who is more knowledgeable about the future than God? And the Almighty God has said that the future belongs to the believers, belongs to the righteous, belongs to those who strive in the way of God; there is no doubt about this; this is a divine promise. But if someone falls into doubt and hesitation, and the divine promise does not calm their heart, experiences should calm their heart. I repeatedly express this and believe in this with all my being. Even if no promise had been given to us, with the experiences that the Iranian nation has had over the past thirty or forty years, one should be certain that the future belongs to them; one should be certain that victory belongs to them. We are those who had a government in our country that was engaged in the same flirtation and dalliance that you see the rulers of America doing with those unfortunate ones — the intellectually and morally backward — they were doing the same flirtation with the Iranian government; much more, much better. They explicitly said, “You are our gendarme in the Persian Gulf,” they said this to our tyrannical government. They had more intelligence than these, their capabilities were greater, their reliance on these tyrants was greater, and their connections were stronger; yet, despite having such a government in power, the Iranian nation was able, with the power of faith, with struggle, with sacrifice, to topple that government, despite all the global support it received, and to establish something that the arrogant powers cannot bear to see; that is the Islamic Republic system; this is one experience. What better experience is there? And do not weaken and do not grieve, for you are the uppermost if you are believers; if faith is achieved, you are superior. Be strong in the path of faith, be clear, be steadfast; I insist that in mentioning Islamic principles, all the people of Iran and the officials of the country should be clear. These very verses that this happy reciter recently recited; “Indeed, there is for you a good example in Abraham and those with him when they said to their people, ‘Indeed, we are disassociated from you and from whatever you worship besides God; we have disbelieved in you, and there has appeared between us and you animosity and hatred forever until you believe in God alone;” this is it; it clearly states “we have disbelieved in you.” There is no contradiction; now some are thinking and are concerned that a government and a state must have global connections; I also completely believe in and support this inclination; but it does not contradict; one can clearly state their principles and foundations and still move forward, and also achieve success in all various aspects of life, including international relations; these things can be done. They should enter, step into the field, trust in God, and they will see that it can be done. This is the experience.

That day, I told the group that was here, the Prophet Abraham, with that greatness, says to the Almighty God, ‘I want to see the resurrection of the dead;’ God Almighty says: ‘Did you not believe?’ He says: ‘Yes, I believe; I completely accept, I have faith from the bottom of my heart; but I want my heart to be at ease.’ Then God Almighty said, ‘Very well, do these things, so that you can see with your own eyes how God Almighty brings the dead to life.’ Well, we have seen with our own eyes; we have seen with our own eyes that a nation with empty hands triumphed in the imposed war; a nation, with being new to political and international matters, triumphed over the plots of the enemies; a nation, despite facing a powerful material front that stabs from behind and draws swords from the front, makes noise, and shouts, has been continuously plotting against us for forty years, and for forty years their plots have been thwarted; do we not see these? These are our experiences; let us consider these experiences and know that the path to strong, dignified, and successful progress is through connection with the Quran; the mother of all goodness is this dear divine book that, thanks be to God, you are familiar with, you are connected with, some of you have memorized it, some are reciters and readers, some are listeners, some are teachers. [So] the main work is this Quran.

Well, now increase Quranic sessions, increase the teaching and learning of the Quran as much as you can; revive the meanings of the Quran, the concepts of the Quran. I say this to our dear reciters — who fortunately some of the gentlemen who recited today adhered to this direction very well — that in the quality of recitation, embody the meaning of the Quranic verses; just as a good and eloquent speaker, for example, when reciting a poem, articulates the words in such a way that all the meaning of that speech comes alive for the listener — like our eloquent presenter today — when they speak well, recite poetry well, and speak well, the words are articulated with their appropriate tone, all that exists in the meaning of this word is conveyed to the listener, and the listener receives it; the recitation of the Quran should be like this; all that exists in the meaning of this word, through loud reading and soft reading, rising and falling, changing voice and manner of articulation, must be presented to the audience; of course, for those who understand the meaning of the Quran. Therefore, the language of the Quran must be learned. The more you can, connect more with the language of the Quran. Many of those who are connected with the Quran have not read Arabic in a formal or educational way, but when they read the Quran, they understand its meanings. We have often seen individuals who have not studied Arabic in a formal or educational way, but because they have connected with the Quran and repeated and read the Quranic verses, when they open the Quran and read a verse, they understand the meaning of the verse. With much connection, the meaning of the verse can be understood. Our connection with the Quran must increase.

O Lord, by Muhammad and the family of Muhammad, increase our connection — our heartfelt connection, our daily connection — with the Quran day by day; grant us the blessings of the Quran and the bounties of the Quran and the sustenance of the Quran; do not make us among those who only learn the words of the Quran and suffice with that. O Lord! Complete your grace and favor upon this country, upon this nation by bringing this nation to its ideals and by granting it victory over its enemies; unite the pure soul of Imam Khomeini (may his soul be sanctified) with his saints; unite the pure souls of our dear martyrs with their saints; wherever there are believers in the path of struggle and jihad in the way of God — in any form of jihad — grant them victory over their enemies.

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