Speech in Meeting with Various People (Eleventh Day of the Blessed Month of Ramadan)

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, Abul-Qasim Muhammad, and his pure and chosen family, especially the remainder of God on earth.

Firstly, and secondly, among the nullifiers of fasting are eating and drinking, if done intentionally. Now, if saliva gathers, is swallowing it problematic and considered eating or drinking, which nullifies the fast? The answer is no, even if the saliva gathers due to the remembrance of food in the mouth. If phlegm from the chest or elsewhere enters the area called the mouth, swallowing it is problematic and nullifies the fast. If food particles remain between the teeth and then come onto your tongue and you intentionally swallow them, it nullifies the fast and is considered eating. Even if someone like a tailor who puts sewing thread in their mouth and moistens it with saliva, then takes it out and, out of habit, puts it back in their mouth, it is problematic. This is especially if the moisture attached to the sewing thread is significant enough that it cannot be said to have been lost and unfelt within the mouth's moisture.

The point is that during the day of Ramadan, when you are supposed to abstain from eating and drinking, utmost care and attention must be exercised so that this abstention is done correctly and with precision. This same care is necessary in all aspects of fasting, and regarding the other nullifiers of fasting, there are details that, God willing, the gentlemen will discuss in the coming days.

This year, our session started late. Every year from the first day of the month, we had this session, and this year, we are ten days behind. May God grant that we are not behind in understanding the meaning of the blessed month of Ramadan and benefiting from the divine banquet in this month.

The fundamental issue regarding Ramadan is that humanity, surrounded by various factors and causes of neglect from God and His path, and driven by diverse motivations towards decline and fall, finds an opportunity to direct the soul, which inclines towards ascension and elevation, towards ascension and elevation, to draw closer to God and to embody divine ethics. Ramadan is such an opportunity.

Of course, besides Ramadan, there are other opportunities. For example, the five daily prayers are opportunities that we can use to ascend, to reform ourselves, and to remove the rust, decay, neglect, and spiritual diseases from ourselves. Prayer is a very good opportunity. If you have not tried it—though you probably have, and God willing, your regular practice is like this—try it. Pay attention that during prayer, if you are aware of yourself and what you are doing, certainly after your prayer, you will be different from before your prayer. The condition is that you pay attention to what you are doing during prayer. It is better to understand the phrases of the prayer; it is very easy.

We should not say that we are Persian speakers and cannot understand Arabic phrases. The total phrases recited in prayer—from beginning to end—learning them for average people does not even take an hour; it is very easy. Books have been written that translate these. If you pay attention to the meanings and understand what the content of these words is and ponder them, it is certainly better. If even this is not possible, at least when you are in prostration, know that you are speaking with God; when you are in bowing, know that you are glorifying the Lord of the worlds; when you are in recitation and remembrance, know with whom you are speaking. This very attention is important.

If this attention is achieved and the remembrance of God is ensured in prayer—which "and the remembrance of God is greater"—this prayer will be "the ascension of the believer" for you and will elevate you. Ascension is that you feel more purity, delicacy, and illumination within yourself after prayer. Financial acts of worship are the same. Various acts of worship are opportunities for us; however, Ramadan is an exceptional opportunity during the year.

In these thirty or twenty-nine continuous days, besides the obligatory five daily prayers and the supererogatory prayers that one can always recite, there are supplications that, by paying attention to them and reciting them, grant a person additional illumination. These supplications have been provided to us. They have taught us how to speak and supplicate with God. They have specified what words can be said to God. Some of these phrases are from the transmitted supplications from the Imams (peace be upon them), which, if they did not exist, a person could not determine on their own that they could speak to God in this manner and ask and plead with God in this way.

In addition to these, the very fasting of Ramadan is a foundation of spirituality and illumination for the fasting person and prepares them to receive divine blessings. This is the collection of Ramadan, with prayer and with the always prescribed duties and with fasting and with its supplications, that if you pay attention to these and add the recitation of the Quran to it—which it is said that Ramadan is the spring of the Quran—it will be a period of reconstruction and recovery and salvation from decay and corruption and the like; it is a very valuable period.

The main issue is that we can undertake this journey towards God in Ramadan, and it is possible. As I mentioned, sometimes after the end of Ramadan, when I would meet Imam Khomeini (may his soul be sanctified), it was perceptible to me that he had become more illuminated, and his speech, gaze, gestures, and opinions were different from before Ramadan. The period of Ramadan is like this for a faithful and noble person. It grants so much illumination to him and to his heart and inner self that one senses this in his presence and understands from his speech that he has become more illuminated. Servants of God are like this. We must make great use of this opportunity.

I will mention one point in our practical life that, God willing, may be a means for better and more movement for myself and for all of you brothers and sisters. That point is that for closeness to God, the main issue is the abandonment of sins. Performing recommended acts and supererogatory prayers and supplications and other matters are secondary. The main issue is that a person prevents the occurrence of sin and wrongdoing from themselves. This requires piety. Piety and abstinence are the most important—or we can say the foremost—manifestation that a human being must have. This is what prevents a person from sin. Sin does not allow a person to even bring themselves to the edge of the vast sea of divine forgiveness and benefit from it. Sin does not allow us to find the state of supplication and attention. Sin does not allow us to think about reviewing and rebuilding ourselves. We must strive to distance ourselves from sin. This is the first condition of the matter.

Of course, sins are varied; different individual and social sins, sins that occur through the hand or eye or tongue and through various means. For Muslims, perhaps sins are not hidden, and they know what is a sin. The one who also recites supplications, performs recommended acts, fulfills their religious duties, but alongside them does not avoid sin, is like someone who, while having a cold and fever, takes medicines that are anti-cold and healing, and also consumes foods that are harmful for a cold. It is clear that those medicines will not have an effect. It is clear that if a sick person consumes food that is harmful to them, performs actions that are detrimental to them, those medicines will not have an effect.

The ground for benefiting from divine mercy and forgiveness and spiritual blessings must be prepared, and that is through the abandonment of sin. Therefore, you see in the supplication of Kumayl that the Commander of the Faithful (peace be upon him) says: "O God, forgive me the sins that withhold supplication." That is, O God! Forgive those sins that will withhold my supplication. Sins prevent the acceptance of supplication. In these nights and dawns, in the noble supplication of Abu Hamza, you read: "Separate me from my sin that prevents me from adhering to Your obedience": O God! Place a distance between me and my sin; that sin which prevents me from fulfilling my duties and causes me not to be able to draw near to You. The main issue is the matter of abandoning sin.

The most important virtue of an Islamic system and government is that it does not make the atmosphere sin-laden. In tyrannical systems, the atmosphere is sin-laden. Even if a person wants not to sin, it seems impossible for them, and everything drives a person towards sin. In an Islamic system, it is not like this. In an Islamic system, the atmosphere is not sin-laden. There are sinners, at various levels and in multiple occupations, with different authorities—it's not that there aren't—but sin may only have personal attraction; that is, a person's desires and whims draw them towards sin. This system is different from a tyrannical and satanic system where sin is also a criterion for social advancement! In an Islamic system, sin is not only not a criterion for advancement, but it is against advancement and is a criterion for decline.

Sin, from whoever it issues, should not be said that because this person does it, then it must not be problematic, or it must not be problematic. No, sin must be recognized, and the sinner must be recognized by the sin. Whoever commits the sin is a sinner; whoever they may be. This wrong perception is that we say because so-and-so does this, it must not be problematic that they do it; if it were problematic, they wouldn't do it. Of course, assuming correctness is not objectionable; rather, it is good and commendable. In the actions of all believers, one must assume correctness. As far as possible, one should not assume corruption; but when a clear and obvious wrongdoing is committed by someone, it makes no difference who this person is. Whoever it is, sin is sin; rather, when distinguished individuals commit sin, the crime of sin in those individuals is even greater.

Therefore, the main issue is the avoidance of sin, which we must strive to, God willing, with practice and self-reflection and discipline, distance sin from ourselves in this Ramadan. If sin is distanced from us, then the way for ascension and flight in the celestial realms will be possible, and a person will be able to undertake that spiritual and divine journey and that flight designated for humans; but with the weight of sin, such a thing is not possible. This Ramadan is a good opportunity to distance oneself from sin.

We hope that, God willing, God grants both you brothers and sisters present here and all Muslims and believers throughout the country and all over the world this success to benefit from this Ramadan and to embody divine ethics. At least start this journey, for with human progress in this journey, all of humanity's problems will also be reduced and eliminated.

I will not prolong the talk more than this. Our program this year, like previous years, is prayer and speech, and the speakers who, God willing, will come, we have obligated and committed them all not to prolong their speech, so that we can all benefit. Brothers and sisters who attend and are present, strive to use the essence of the speakers' words—which will last about half an hour—and do not consider listening to the speaker's words merely as an occupation; rather, in Ramadan, consider it a duty and an obligation. One of the obligations is this obligation of teaching and learning, which, God willing, will also be fulfilled in this month.

We ask You, O God, and we call upon You by Your great, greatest, most honorable, most glorious, most generous name, O God, O God, O God. O God, O Praiseworthy, by the right of Muhammad, and O Exalted, by the right of Ali, and O Creator, by the right of Fatimah, and O Benefactor, by the right of Hasan, and O Ancient of Goodness, by the right of Husayn. O God, by the right of Your Proof, the Mahdi, send blessings upon Muhammad and the family of Muhammad.

O Lord! We beseech You by Muhammad and the family of Muhammad to bring us closer to You day by day and closer to human and spiritual perfections. O Lord! Grant us the success of self-building completely; grant us the success of fulfilling the duty of building others as well. O Lord! Bestow upon us the success of understanding Islamic teachings; grant us the success of avoiding sins; grant us the success of performing obligatory and recommended acts—especially in this blessed month. O Lord! Bring us closer to the Quran. O Lord! Make our society a truly Islamic society in the complete sense of the word. O Lord! Increase the honor and glory of the Islamic Republic day by day. O Lord! Subject the enemies of this revolution and this sacred system to Your wrath and anger. O Lord! By the right of Muhammad and the family of Muhammad, immerse our dear and departed Imam and our late leader—who has a right to life over this system and this country and all conscientious Muslims in the world—in the seas of Your mercy and grace. O Lord! By the right of Muhammad and the family of Muhammad, send down the lights of Your grace and mercy upon the soul of that great one. O Lord! Make his pure soul pleased with us. O Lord! Make what we said and heard and did for Your sake and in Your path; by Your grace and generosity, accept it from us. O Lord! Make our life a pure life; make our death a pure death. And hasten the reappearance of our Master, the Owner of the Age.

Peace be upon you and God's mercy and blessings