Statements of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution in a meeting with a large group of members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps

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

First of all, I welcome you dear brothers and sisters, the self-sacrificing and sincere commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps who have come from all over the country, as well as the esteemed scholars who are engaged in educational and religious services within the units of the Guard. I also congratulate each of you and your respected families on the arrival of the blessed month of Rajab, which is the month of God's saints and contains auspicious occasions.

What primarily comes to mind in this rare and unique gathering is a feeling of gratitude and admiration. This is the same group that, alongside its martyred brothers, kept this country safe from the aggressive, oppressive, and invading attacks of the enemy for eight years and even longer. Our armed forces have this brilliant record in their files, and it will never fade. You, the Guards, as well as the Basij, the army, and all active forces, if you had no other shining point in your history apart from that eight-year presence, it would be enough for pride, dignity, and a sense of honor. What pure bodies, what enlightened souls, what praising tongues, what generous hands, and what noble and angelic individuals who, throughout these eight years, with all their being, preserved this country, this nation, and the historical honor of this nation, and they received their reward: they ascended to the highest realm; some attained the honor of martyrdom; many, thanks be to God, are present in our society today, and you and the other brothers who fought and struggled during the Sacred Defense are among them. This is the first feeling that comes to mind.

The point here is that honoring the Guard is not honoring a historical and museum-like object. Some want it this way. Some want to honor and respect the Guard, but as an object belonging to the past, kept in a museum. Such an honoring of the Guard is wrong upon wrong. The Guard is a living entity; it does not belong to a specific historical period. This is why, in a specific historical period when the test arose, the Guard passed the test well. This is a step on a ladder of spiritual evolution. Such events can always arise for a nation. There is never a time when a nation can be assured and confident that a difficult test will not come its way. A human being is the same. Humans should never be certain that they are not currently in a very sensitive and precise test. This is why one must always be vigilant. Piety (taqwa) means this; it means constant vigilance.

The Guard is the same. When we always advise you to maintain your readiness, it is not just military readiness. The more fundamental factor is the readiness that can serve military readiness: hearts, motivations, faith, knowledge, and love with which the entire being of a person moves. This must be kept ready. If this readiness exists, then military readiness will come into play. If these preparations are absent; neither weapons, nor equipment, nor discipline, nor other barracks and establishment readiness will be of any use. The essence is this, and this is the point that distinguished the Guard during that period, and thanks be to God, it has always maintained this distinction and, by God's grace, will continue to do so.

What you are safeguarding is what? The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The revolution is not a sudden word or movement; it is a continuous movement, and its requirements vary at different times. Those who oppose the revolution are not enemies of what happened in Bahman (February) 1357; that has passed and gone; they are enemies and opponents of a living, present entity. Thus, the revolution has continuity and presence.

When you open the revolution like a book, within it, there are chapters and lines of knowledge: religious knowledge, political knowledge, and moral knowledge. All of these exist under the word revolution. In the political arena, the revolution has the most recent and attractive discourse not only for the Iranian nation but for humanity. Some people think that the terms and expressions of knowledge that have emerged in the so-called liberal democracy of the West, which enter the country, are new gifts and fresh words that the revolution has not heard before and now the revolution and revolutionaries must listen to these words; this is a mistake. The revolution did not emerge in a vacuum. The Islamic revolution and this thick book of knowledge were compiled when all these words existed in the world; both the words and their embodiment and reality existed.

In addition to the Western camp and the camp whose head is America, and today people are realizing the essence of what is in that camp - the knowledge expressions and the knowledge school - there was another vast apparatus called Marxism, communism, and socialism, which claimed much more than the Western liberals. Whatever we said about the Islamic and political necessities, they would say: "What is necessity? We have no musts. Marxism is science; you say it must be? We say whether you want it or not, it will happen." Their expression of Marxist issues was such; they were so certain of it. For over a hundred years, they had been compiling word by word the things that must come together to create a socialist system and then a communist system in the world, and they said: "There is no alternative; this is how it is. Whether you want it or not; whether you say it must be, or you say it must not be; the course of Marxism will naturally proceed and take over the whole world!" Today, from that inevitable and unchangeable fate that the Marxists depicted, nothing remains in the world. It has gone, and its name, reputation, and credibility have also vanished. Today, the same musts and the same inevitable fate are repeated by the Westerners regarding their concepts: "There is no choice; globalization is the inevitable fate of humanity. Whether you want it or not, it will happen!" Of course, they had imprisoned the realities of their lives behind an iron curtain so that no one would see it and understand the essence of their work; thus, many young people were deceived by these words; however, their essence is also clear; yet they shamelessly claim that what we say is achievable and has no alternative! A number of unfortunate simple-minded individuals - which, in my opinion, is the most optimistic expression to say simple-minded - take these words, thinking that they are not subject to challenge or dispute. They bring these concepts into the intellectual and knowledge environment of both young and old and promote them; they beat their chests for them and exhaust themselves to implant these concepts in people's minds. The revolution was born on the day when all these words existed, and the revolution invalidated all these words.

The attractive world that the Westerners depict - in which human rights, freedom, and voting exist - we experienced in our lives during the Pahlavi era. We understood the meaning of democracy and human rights of that day. The Americans themselves collaborated with the Pahlavi regime to create the terror apparatus of SAVAK and torture chambers and tools of torture and methods of hunting down the youth of the people and suppressing the nation! This is the liberal democracy that they promise the world today and their radios advertise, urging the third world nations to rush towards this; they tell us this too. We have tested and experienced this; it is not unseen for us. We have closely felt the black dictatorship of the Pahlavi regime, which shed blood from its claws and oozed corruption from its head and feet, and under the shadow of America and with America's help, relied on that country to commit all these crimes; these matters are not unseen for us. We have seen American human rights here - in the corners of prisons and in torture chambers - and we have felt it with our flesh and skin. Does the Iranian nation forget these things?

What the revolution presented as political knowledge in the world was in conditions where all these words existed, and the message of the revolution created an earthquake in the world. What has compelled them to take a stance against this revolution is that earthquake. All nations and intellectuals have questioned those hollow concepts. Today, all the words that so-called Western intellectuals affiliated with the State Department and CIA and various American apparatuses utter or write and publish in the press that claim to be free but are not free in that sense, have been completely questioned and doubted in the eyes of the young generation and intellectuals and keen observers around the world - both in the Islamic world and even outside it - and many of them have been decisively rejected. Of course, politicians do not openly acknowledge this and repeat these words from a political stance and with a powerful approach; however, Islam and the Islamic revolution did their work. The Islamic revolution, in the political knowledge it presented, opposed despotism. Despotism by vote, under any name and from any source, is forbidden in Islam. The Islamic revolution opposed global arrogance, encroachment, interference, and aggression against oppressed nations, and violent and brutal warfare, and seizing the interests of nations under seemingly pleasant names. These are concepts that sprang from the heart of Islam; they were presented as the political school of the Islamic system and the Islamic Republic in the world, and all bowed their heads in reverence before it.

The reason for the widespread name of Imam Khomeini (may his soul be sanctified) is these concepts. The fact that in every corner of the world, wherever you go, people bow in reverence to the name of Imam Khomeini is due to the existence of concepts that nations understood and felt with all their being that the only remedy for their pains is to follow this path. However, conditions were favorable for some nations, and they could act on this prescription; some could not and were suppressed. Many places in the world acted on this prescription and achieved results.

Today, the world's problem is the encroachment and dictatorial aggression of the great powers; is it anything other than this? The great powers decide to deprive one or two countries of all their economic activities within forty-eight hours and bring them to their knees; just as you saw a few years ago in Indonesia and Malaysia, they did these things. With the control they had over the money and economy of these countries, by withdrawing their money from these countries, within a few days, they lowered their economic rank by forty or fifty degrees. The people feel this oppressive dominance. In places like Afghanistan, Muslim regions of Europe, and elsewhere, people have seen that an arrogant and tyrannical power enters a country under some pretext and does whatever it wants. The people feel that the school and revolution that carries the message of opposing and containing such powers is indeed valid, and that is Islam, and its carrier is the Islamic Republic.

People in South Africa suffered from racial discrimination. Even during those days, although the regime of racial discrimination was still in power, South African intellectuals expressed their respect for the Imam and the fighters here and bowed before them. The same person who later became the president there was in prison at that time. I had gone to Zimbabwe for a visit; he sent me a message from inside the prison to convey his greetings to the Imam. Later, with the same method that they had learned from Imam Khomeini, they entered the field and were able to seize the government from the hands of the active agents of the racial discrimination regime. Their neighboring country and many other places in the world acted similarly. Therefore, the revolution is alive.

One of the things that began from the very first day of the revolution from the enemies was to deny the spread of the revolution's coin in the world; to say that the revolution is isolated and no one accepts it. They are still saying the same things they said twenty years ago. That day it was a lie, and today it is a lie. The concepts of the revolution are alive in the world. What we believe in - religious democracy, submission to the true religion and religious and moral values, hatred and opposition to tyrannical powers, recognizing rights for all humans and humanity - are concepts that all nations accept; they like and embrace them. Of course, the propaganda of the enemies is strong. I have often said: today, wealth, power, and deception are all in the hands of global arrogance, and their deception is through these propaganda horns.

The revolution is alive and dynamic. The guardian of the revolution is the guardian of such a living, dynamic, moving, and progressive entity. If this were not the case, the Islamic revolution and the Islamic system should have been buried long ago. But a living entity cannot be buried and prevented from moving; it is alive and will remain alive. Our nation also accepts these concepts; the discerning and fair-minded elites also accept these concepts. With these characteristics, this revolution and this system have the power to stand firm; the enemies have understood this. Their only hope is that these concepts and foundations will create doubt and temptation in the hearts of the people and, before them, in the hearts of the officials. They try to create these doubts and temptations in the hearts of those who have a hand in some corner of this system. Doubt is a very bad trait and a dangerous element. They do not instill this doubt through reasoning; there is no reasoning. Today, the system that claims to lead the world - with America at its head - shows nothing but oppression, bloodshed, unparalleled violence, violation of rights, and discrimination, and it cannot instill any confidence in anyone's heart; therefore, they have no reasoning. They try to create disruption within the Islamic system through propaganda, buying individuals, and sweet-talking this and that. We must be vigilant about this. Not only you but all of us must be vigilant about this danger. Everyone must first be vigilant about their own heart and then about the hearts of the collective and their associates. Hearts filled with faith, knowledge, and insight will never be subdued or intimidated. To be intimidated, subdued, surrendered, and defeated, one must first create doubt in the hearts. These doubts do not always enter through the mind; sometimes they enter through the body as well. Material desires, the desire for wealth - which is mentioned in part of the supplication of Sahifa Sajjadiyya; the same supplication that many of our youth read during the days of the front: "And protect the borders of the Muslims" - the wealth of temptation, the desire for status, the desire for comfort, the desire for pleasure, and the desire for luxury are things that bring doubt into the heart and mind of a person through the body and desires. Be vigilant about these.

I do not want to invite anyone to the asceticism of Ali (peace be upon him); the asceticism of Ali is greater than our mouths and minds (and I must not forget; at the beginning of the talk, I wanted to say. The comparisons that my dear sisters made truly humble me; do not do these things. Do not compare me to those great figures in the kingdom and the kingdom of the heavens - the noble Prophet of Islam and Amir al-Mu'minin - thanks be to God, we cannot believe it, but even mentioning it is not good). However, I invite you to contentment and to not let greed and excessive desire attack you. These require vigilance. The desire for comfort, the desire for luxury, and the desire for pleasure are things that gradually have a bad effect on a person, and the person does not realize it at first. At one point, they want to move, and they find they cannot; they want to soar, and they find they cannot. Be vigilant to preserve the collective; keep the minds, hearts, thoughts, and faith under precise guardianship; this is my constant advice. Know that in this case, no force or power exists under this sky that can overcome you. The words they say, the invasions and threats they make, are not things that can force a believing nation - which has such a solid collective among itself - to retreat and defeat it. The impact of destructive weapons is evident; however, no defeat for a nation arises from this way. Defeats first arise in the hearts, and that is what causes people to be defeated.

At the beginning of the war, with the logistical weakness we had, some said that against a hundred tanks, a hundred tanks are needed; without that, one cannot fight. You young people and you showed that no, against a hundred tanks, a hundred hearts and a hundred self-sacrificing individuals are needed who take their lives in their hands. Hundreds of tanks were repelled by hundreds of devoted youths who either advanced with an RPG or a similar weapon - this happened repeatedly - and in the end, the enemy was left unsuccessful. The enemy that came with all its equipment and international support - which today they are gradually admitting - was forced to retreat from these borders in disgrace. This success was due to these acts of bravery and faith; these must be kept alive.

Thanks be to God, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is a living, active, faithful entity that is vigilant about its spirituality and values; appreciate this. They tempt a lot; some insult; some insult with the language of praise; some deny virtues. These cannot change the realities and the true value of a collective that has been gathered and crystallized through struggles. This has not been achieved in one day that they can destroy it by writing a few lines. It is a reality that has been accumulated and crystallized and cannot be destroyed; however, you must preserve it and be vigilant about it.

Maintain your unity. One of the things that is coveted by enemies and semi-enemies is the disruption of unity among the elements of the Guard. Preserve your unity and solidarity and camaraderie. If there are minor disagreements somewhere, they must be set aside. Adjust the direction of movement and proceed with courage, strength, and reliance on God; this is your main duty, and the safeguarding of the revolution is secured through this path.

We hope that God Almighty, God willing, will bestow His special grace and attention upon you and include us all in the great wish of ours - which is striving in the way of God and in the company of the Imam of the Age (may our souls be sacrificed for him).

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