Statements in Meeting with Families of Shahcheragh Martyrs

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 Muhammad and his pure family, especially the Awaited One on earth.

Welcome. The bitter yet glorious incident at the holy shrine of Ahmad ibn Musa Shahcheragh is a lasting event in history. Firstly, it is very meaningful; secondly, it is enduring; it is not an incident that will soon be forgotten in the history of Iran. Well, they also martyred Ahmad ibn Musa himself. His esteemed brother, Imam Ali ibn Musa al-Ridha (peace be upon him), was also martyred. They martyred them so that their names and memories would be forgotten; has that happened? Has the memory of Imam Ridha been forgotten? Has the memory of Shahcheragh been forgotten? To the chagrin of the enemies, the memory of these figures, their value, their status, and the greatness of divine mercy towards them will become clearer day by day.

Of course, the families are grieving; we fully understand this. Their loved ones, their children, even their little ones, their fathers and mothers have been lost; there is no doubt about that. They grieve; hearts burn, our hearts also burned; our hearts were very pained by this incident, but in the face of this loss, there is a greatness, and that is the divine grace towards them and towards you who are their survivors. The greatness of this divine grace towards you is that the Almighty God says in the Quran: "Those are upon whom are blessings from their Lord"; (1) "Those are" refers to you; "upon them are blessings from their Lord." God sends blessings upon you, upon the survivors, upon the mourners of these martyrs. Their status is indeed high.

The condemnation of the enemy in this matter is different from many other terrorist incidents in other countries. Sometimes they strike a military group, sometimes they strike a political group; well, that is one thing; but sometimes they strike a group of pilgrims, which is neither a political gathering nor a place of combat and conflict; it is a place of pilgrimage, a place of communion with God. People have come from Tehran, Hamadan, Gilan, from Shiraz itself, from Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad, from various places to express their needs, to have solitude with God, to have solitude with the friends of God, and they have fallen victim to this oppression. The enemy is very disgraced in this matter. Who is this enemy? Is the one who committed this crime the only enemy? It is clear that he is the enemy; he is a murderer, a traitor, a criminal, but he is not the only one; there are those behind him. They say "ISIS"; well, yes, but who created ISIS? Who produced this dangerous entity? America explicitly said we created ISIS; they said this explicitly—not now, [but] seven or eight years ago they said we created ISIS—they are guilty; those who now wave the banner of human rights. May God's curse be upon these lying mouths, upon these black and wretched hearts! They act this way, they speak that way. Regarding human rights, regarding women's rights, regarding various human issues, their words are one thing, their actions are another; they are complete hypocrites! And a hypocrite is a disbeliever, and a disbeliever is an enemy of God, an enemy of God; these are both disbelievers, hypocrites, and enemies of God. They have been disgraced in this Shahcheragh incident.

This matter should not be allowed to be forgotten. Of course, it will not be forgotten, but our cultural institutions, our media institutions, our artistic elements must preserve this matter like the events of Ashura, like various historical events, keep it alive, depict it, so that future generations understand. We have shortcomings in these areas; we have shortcomings in media, propaganda, and depicting realities. Many of our young people do not know the events of twenty years ago, do not know the events of the Mojahedin. In Shiraz, on the day of Ramadan, at the time of iftar, the Mojahedin entered the house of that esteemed doctor and opened fire on him; (2) on a day of Ramadan in Shiraz! Later, I went to that house. Unfortunately, our young generation does not know much about these events; we have shortcomings in this regard; our artistic elements must work. Now you young people who are here, each of you who has a hand in art, in media, in propaganda, in writing, remember that these are among our essential duties.

In any case, I once again express my condolences to all of you, the dear survivors of these great martyrs; both condolences and congratulations; there is also congratulations. They have attained high ranks; whether they were young, old—among them were children, adults, young men, women, men, urban dwellers, rural dwellers—they have reached high ranks; this is truly worthy of congratulations, and of course, we also express our condolences. God willing, may God grant you patience and reward you.

(1) Surah Al-Baqarah, part of verse 157 (2) On the 9th of Mordad in the year 1360, the terrorist group Mojahedin attacked the house of Dr. Mohammad Hassan Taheri to assassinate central members of the Islamic Republic Party of Fars Province, just minutes after iftar. Due to the Mojahedin's attack on Dr. Taheri's office the night before, the council meeting was moved to another location, and only a few family members and relatives of Dr. Taheri were present for iftar, during which four of his family members were martyred and three were severely injured.