Statements of the Supreme Leader in the Gathering of Basijis on the Occasion of Basij Week

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

Thanks be to God, the Lord of the worlds, and peace and blessings upon our Master and Prophet, Abul Qasim Muhammad, and upon his pure, immaculate, chosen, guiding, and infallible family, especially the remainder of God on earth.

This year, the anniversary of the formation of the blessed twenty-million-strong army—by the command of our wise departed Imam—coincides with days that historically carry great memories. Today is the day of martyrdom of the seventh infallible Imam, Imam Musa ibn Ja'far (peace be upon him), and I offer my condolences to you, my dear Basiji children, on this sorrowful memory.

In the coming days, we also have the great and divine mission of the Seal of the Prophets, Muhammad Mustafa (peace be upon him and his family), and I extend my congratulations in advance on this great holiday to all the people of Iran, to all Muslims worldwide, and especially to you dear young Basijis across the country. I hope that the mission will play a primary and fundamental role in your hearts, souls, behavior, and major life orientations.

The Basij is one of the blessings of the revolution and one of the very astonishing and unique phenomena of this revolution; it is also one of those endless spiritual treasures that our great Imam, with his divine vision and the wisdom that God Almighty bestowed upon him, left as a legacy for our country, nation, and revolution.

If we want to introduce the Basij in a short definition, we must say: the Basij is a collection in which the purest people, the most self-sacrificing and ready-to-act youth of the country, have gathered for the high goals of this nation and to bring this country to perfection and happiness. The Basij is an organization in which scattered and solitary individuals transform into a vast and cohesive group, a committed, insightful, and aware group of the country's issues and the nation's needs; a collection that frightens the enemy and reassures friends. This is the meaning of the Basij.

The Basij is, in fact, the manifestation of a sacred unity among the people of the nation. All the fields in which the Basij has been present are national fields; fields related to the entire nation—such as the field of sacred defense, the field of construction, and public services. The country is never in need of a vast collection formed by the best children of the country with these characteristics.

The Basij is, in reality, the manifestation of love, faith, awareness, struggle, and complete readiness to elevate the country and the nation. You who are in the Basij, as faithful and aware forces, appreciate this characteristic. Today, the organization of the Basij across the country is about five million people; however, this organization will certainly expand beyond this. And with a broad view, all people who have these characteristics are, in fact, part of the Basij. In truth, all faithful, aware, insightful, loving, committed, interested, and ready-to-act people, in any field that is beneficial to the nation, are part of the Basij. Therefore, the Basij is a sacred name.

I tell you, my dear ones, that one of the most prominent characteristics we attribute to a Basiji individual is purity and sincerity. The sincerity and spirituality of the Basiji and the connection with God in the Basiji is a major characteristic. I take advantage of this great gathering of yours and tell all of you and all those who hear my voice—or will hear it later: My dear ones! Strengthen your relationship with God as much as you can; especially in these blessed months—Rajab and Sha'ban—which are months of supplication, seeking help, connecting with God, and whispering with the true beloved of every human being. In these months, prepare yourself to enter the divine banquet table—in the month of Ramadan.

In the month of Ramadan too—in all days and nights—illuminate your hearts as much as you can with the remembrance of God, so that you are ready to enter the sacred realm of Laylat al-Qadr, which: 'Laylat al-Qadr is better than a thousand months. The angels and the Spirit descend therein by permission of their Lord for every matter.' A night when the angels connect the earth to the heavens, illuminate hearts with light, and brighten the environment of life with the light of divine grace and favor. A night of spiritual peace—'Peace it is until the emergence of dawn'—a night of peace for hearts and souls, a night of healing for moral, spiritual, material, and social diseases that unfortunately today have afflicted many nations of the world, including Muslim nations! Health from all these is possible and achievable on the Night of Qadr, provided you enter the Night of Qadr with readiness.

Your supplication and attention, the remembrance of God in your pure and luminous hearts, dear young ones, perform miracles and works. Prepare yourself from now. It is not specific to these days; throughout your life, your relationship with God strengthens purity and sincerity in you, and purity and sincerity are the keys to solving all problems.

Let me give you an example from our departed great Imam, who was the teacher, Imam, and beloved of the Basijis of the country, and indeed beloved of all pure-hearted people whose hearts beat for spirituality and truth anywhere in the world.

My dear ones! The work that the Imam did—and it was the greatest work we have seen in our contemporary and recent times—was due to sincerity; sincerity! If there was no sincerity, even the great personality and strong essence of the Imam would not have been enough to advance these works. To uproot a corrupt and deep-rooted government that all the powers of global arrogance supported from this land; to relieve the people from the evil of that government and establish a divine government! To eliminate all that corruption in society with this movement and cut off the influence of enemies and the domination of America, which for two centuries had strived to humiliate the Iranian nation and keep it backward! These are not small tasks. Even after victory, to end an eight-year war in which, in reality, all the armed powers of the world supported the opposing front with the victory of the Iranian nation and to neutralize all these conspiracies. This was only possible through the sincerity of the Imam. Even after he passed away, nine million people accompanied him in the streets of Tehran to lay him to rest in his eternal resting place! These were due to sincerity. Today too, thanks be to God, the name of the Imam is rising day by day in the world, and his admirers and devotees are increasing around the world.

What does sincerity mean? If the sincerity that the Imam had and its essence is in all of you—and I will briefly explain it—you also have it, we also have it, and those in charge also have it, today too all the enemy's conspiracies will be nullified! The weapon that no material enemy can confront is the weapon of sincere faith and sincere action. Sincerity means that a person does the work for God and out of love for fulfilling a duty. A person does not work for personal desires, for wealth, for position, for a good name, for the judgment of history, for selfish motives, for satisfying the vile traits of envy, greed, avarice, and excessive desire! Do the work for God and purely for fulfilling a duty. This is the meaning of sincerity. Such work progresses. Such work, like a sharp sword, removes any obstacle in its path. The Imam was equipped with this weapon. He repeatedly said that even towards his closest relatives, if they took a step against the truth, he would not overlook it, and it was so. In critical moments, he showed that what mattered to him was fulfilling a duty. In public, in private, in big tasks and small tasks, he showed this. This became a lesson for the disciples, children, and students of the Imam, who with this weapon created those miracles on the battlefields of war! Some of you were in those fields, you saw them up close, some of you heard about them. Today too, there is a need for the same.

My dear ones! Let no one think that the enemy's conspiracy ended with the passing of eighteen years since the victory of the revolution; no! The enemy will not reconcile with a system that has taken away the illegitimate interests of global arrogance in the region. Of course, they express things verbally, but their inner reality is something else!

The Islamic system, with the high efforts of the Iranian nation and that divine leadership, has been able to create a model in the world that today many Muslim nations look to. Do you think that global arrogance will easily pass over such a thing?! Today, in every part of Islamic countries and even some non-Islamic countries, every nation and every group that wants to protest against the excessive demands of global arrogance does so with your slogan, the Iranian nation—even by resorting to the name of the Iranian nation and the departed Imam! America and its arrogant agents and followers and its hirelings will not pass over this; they fight, they conspire, they deceive, and they plot. Just as they have done in these eighteen years. Of course, the enemy's deceit and plot, in the face of the awareness and vigilance and correct presence and activity of the nation and the government, will be neutralized and will have no effect; but one must be awake, one must be vigilant, one must strengthen the relationship with God, one must strengthen sincerity.

Let me tell you that the enemy's conspiracy in the past had a difference with today. In the past, the enemy's conspiracy was out of inexperience. That is, America, global arrogance, the big Zionist companies, and the like, who wanted to fight against the Iranian nation and revolution, used simpler methods that were obvious to everyone. For example, inciting military attack and starting a war was a conspiracy; but everyone recognized this. The conspiracy was revealed; the people rose up and confronted it. Or like the American attack on the Tabas desert and the like, what they did—economic blockade, propaganda attacks, and so on—were obvious actions. Gradually, they realized that the Iranian nation and the Islamic revolution could not be defeated with these conspiracies and actions. This experience has led them to make their methods more complex. To the extent that they make their methods more complex, the Iranian nation must also increase its vigilance. The youth must increase their readiness. Not military readiness; because today the discussion is not about military war. Of course, combat readiness is also necessary for an emergency day; but what is necessary for everyone is spiritual readiness; that is, intellectual readiness, spiritual readiness, political readiness, and maintaining unity, connection, and communication of forces with each other, strong and friendly connection between the nation and the government, and recognizing the enemy's face in any guise. The enemy presents itself in various forms to confront the revolution. It does not always come forward with a military uniform affiliated with a foreign government.

Recently, in one of the gatherings about the revolution and the dangers of the revolution for arrogance, in one of the foreign countries, some of those who spoke there said that the Islamic revolution advanced through the clergy and with the support of the youth of the seminary and university, and in general, continued by relying on the young generation. To strike and crush the revolution, we must use the same means! We must go to the seminary, go to a turbaned person, and go to the seminary and university; perhaps through that, we can strike this revolution! Unaware that our seminary is awake, our university is awake, our elders are awake. Those who conspire have misunderstood the Iranian nation! In this conspiracy, the signs of which you recently observed—I do not wish to delve into the details of such matters—I do not wish to name individuals; but the Iranian nation must understand the essence of the conspiracy and know the depths of the conspiracy.

My dear ones! We will not make a mistake in recognizing the enemy; let the enemy know this! Do not think that if they came and made a few simple-minded and turbaned people say something, we would make a mistake and think that these are our enemies! These are nobody! The enemy hides behind the curtain. The enemy does not come forward and show itself. The enemy tries not to be recognized! The one who comes forward and thinks he is advancing is an agent; he may not even know he is an agent!

The great Imam repeatedly said that sometimes the enemy, with ten intermediaries, incites someone to say something or do something! If you want to recognize the enemy, you must go through ten intermediaries. The enemy of the revolution in Iran—that is, the agents of global arrogance—can easily find ten intermediaries and reach a poor person in the seminary of Qom and incite him to say something, to make a statement, and to take a wrong and naive stance! There are so many political bankrupts, those struck by the revolution, those slapped by this Basij, those struck by the revolutionary courts, former SAVAK agents, and those who hoped that the past oppressive mercenary system would remain and they would benefit from it and were deprived, who can become intermediaries to create those ten intermediaries and give false news and lies to a poor and miserable person and he thinks that the situation is such that he must now say something; he puts himself and others and his wife and children in trouble!

One must be vigilant. I hope that the Iranian nation will not make a mistake in recognizing the enemy and will recognize the enemy. The enemy is global arrogance and America. The enemy is the Zionists. The enemy has tried various methods to fight the revolution. This time they thought they would try a more effective method, which is targeting the leadership! Certainly, after much study and with knowledge of various situations—and of course, true and false news—they have been able to conclude that they must target the leadership! Why? Because they know that in the country, if there is a powerful leadership, all their conspiracies will be nullified; otherwise, they are not against the person! The person is not important to them; whoever it may be. Did not these same people who today speak with this harsh language and send such unjust torrents of slander and defamation, not confront the Imam?! These same individuals confronted the Imam; they filled the Imam's heart with blood, which the Imam referred to in that letter! They do the same with the leadership; because they know that leadership in the Islamic society and Islamic Iran is a problem solver.

Leadership means that point where whenever the government—any government in Iran—has a problem, its insoluble problems are solved by the leadership. Pay attention; wherever enemy propaganda tries to make people distrust the governments, this is where the leadership plays a role in clarifying the truth for the people and exposing the enemy's conspiracy. Did you not see in these past years what they did regarding governments, government officials, and how they tried to spread false propaganda and various tricks to make people despair!

Where they want to make people despair, it is the leadership that gives hope to the people. Where they want to create an international political conspiracy against the Iranian nation, it is the leadership that steps forward and places the entirety of the revolution against the conspiracy—like this recent European issue that you observed—and forces the enemy to retreat. Where they want to create division among the various factions of the people, it is the leadership that comes and becomes a source of unity and prevents division.

Where they want to empty the ballot boxes and make people despair from participating in the elections and voting, it is the leadership that sets an example for the people and says that elections are a duty. Then the people trust, enter, and create a great epic. Where the place for expressing the people's opinion on the issues of the revolution is, the people's eyes are on the mouth of the leadership.

In the time of the departed Imam, they experienced this many times and, by the grace of God, they were slapped in the face. After the departure of the departed Imam, with the help of the people, with effort and cooperation of the people, dozens of times with this quality and this method, the strong and firm bond between the people and the leadership has been able to deliver a strong punch to the mouth of the enemies. Therefore, it is very natural that they are hostile to the leadership and have deep resentment; there is no surprise in this. Of course, a powerful leadership; if there is a weak, lifeless, and absent leadership—that is not aware of anything and can easily have its mind changed; can easily be misled—such a weak leadership is not of much importance to them. But if there is to be a powerful leadership that Islam says, the people want, the revolution demands, and the constitution dictates, they are opposed to it! They have the right to be opposed! I am not surprised that they target the leadership!

Of course, the nation is awake. The scholars, the elders, and the officials of the country, by the grace of God, acted with utmost vigilance as always and as soon as they saw that it was a conspiracy, they acted. Of course, there are many speeches in the world, there are many pamphlets in the world, there are many false words, slander, and defamation; but not every slander and lie is a conspiracy, not every rumor is by the enemy. The rumor that is the enemy's conspiracy is recognized by knowledgeable and insightful people.

The first person who entered the field and spoke against these words in these few days—this one or two weeks—was our dear President, Mr. Khatami. In his interview, in a very precise and intelligent manner, he cleared from the people's minds what they wanted to instill in them, stood against this conspiracy; they were very angry too.

After this year's presidential election, which was a sweet event for the people—thirty million people participated in an election, elected a president with twenty million votes, then the government was formed, the Islamic Consultative Assembly gave a vote of confidence to all ministers, the ministers started their work across the country without any concern and reported on time; these are not small tasks. These are sweet events for the people—to the same extent, it was bitter for the enemy. They could not bear it. They realized that this cohesion, this correct and public movement, has a center. The center of it is the unity of the nation; the center of it is cohesion; the center of it is belief. They wanted to destroy this belief, this faith, and this unity of the people and make it seem that there is division in the Islamic Republic system!

Today, those who listen to foreign radios—most of these false analyses are also from foreign radios—realize that unfortunately, simple-minded people accept exactly what the enemy instills and spends money to convey to the minds of their listeners! If someone listens to these radios, they will see that they make a fuss to prove that now in the Islamic Republic system, there is division, duality, two currents, and they do not tolerate each other!

Poor people! You neither understood the Iranian nation, nor the revolution, nor the clergy, nor the officials! It was with this ignorance and lack of awareness that you were defeated in the revolution! It was with this ignorance and wrong analysis that you have been defeated for eighteen years! By the grace of God, with this mistake you are making, this time too you were defeated by the people and you will always be defeated until the end!

The enemy tried to say there are two currents that are opposed to each other and have disagreements over powers. No; he explained and clarified beautifully in the interview. It became clear that the relationships are completely defined and specified. Everyone knows what their duty and responsibility are and they advance their work with cooperation and affection. The enemy failed here! Then the great scholars and grand authorities of Qom stood up. One of the important divine blessings for this country is the existence of aware authorities. An aware authority is a greater blessing for the people than any other. An aware authority, an authority that is not deceived, an authority whose mind is not shaped by enemy propaganda, an authority that does not take its political analysis from Israeli radio, is very valuable. You saw how the authorities stood against these enemy-made whispers and rumors; then the seminary and clergy of Qom, then the important and various cities of the country, clarified their position. It became clear that the Iranian nation is awake. Indeed, both the nation, the officials, and the clergy showed a very good position. I thank each and every one of them; not for the sake of the person. My dear ones! Here the issue is not personal. I, like one of you, must defend the Islamic system, the Islamic leadership, and the Guardianship of the Islamic Jurist as the backbone of this system. It is my duty. It is a religious obligation; it is not a personal matter. Due to the heavy responsibility I have, I sincerely thank all those who stepped into the field at this juncture to choke the enemy's words in their throat and punch the enemy in the mouth.

Right here, I want to ask everyone to stop these marches; it is enough. There is plenty of time for presence in the scene and in the field, for marches for issues and cases that this nation always faces; there is no need for these marches to continue. In every part of the country, I ask that they no longer march. Of course, speakers and writers must enlighten minds. The duty of guiding the people is a divine duty. In this matter, some may think that injustice was done to the person. If in this matter, any injustice has been done to me personally and someone has wronged, I completely forgive my personal right and have no complaint against anyone.

Of course, the great Imam had many words during the ten years, some of which he told the people, and many he did not tell the people! We also have words that if God Almighty allows us to speak in His presence, we will share with Him. There is no need for a person to say everything! I have no personal issue in this matter; but I will not overlook the people's right at all.

Those who wanted to disturb the people's minds, ruin the people's minds, and disrupt the people's security, who thought they wanted to put the people against each other and separate the ranks. They betrayed the people, they betrayed the revolution and the country, and of course, they must be dealt with within the framework of the law. I ask that no illegal action or movement be made. No one from the people should try to go and punish someone on their own; no, it is up to the law. Of course, there should be no revenge; revenge is not something that belongs here. Revenge should be taken from arrogant enemies, in its place. Those who act out of ignorance, misunderstanding, fleeting personal desires, human desires arising from vile and bad traits, envy, and so on, are not worthy of anyone thinking of taking revenge on them; but the law must be enforced. If these actions that some have done and want to continue doing—I know they still have plans for the future—are illegal and if they are a betrayal to the people—which they are—the executive and judicial officials must perform their duties regarding them. Of course, I know they will do so and there will be no laxity in this regard.

My dear ones! What is important is that all the people, especially the youth, especially the members of the Basij—student Basij, university Basij, worker Basij, guild Basij, and tribal Basij, various units of the Basij—and those who are not part of the Basij organization and are in fact part of the Basij, all and all be present and ready to fulfill their duty; prepare themselves to defend Islam and the revolution.

Defense is not always with coercive tools; it is not with fists, it is not with guns. Sometimes defense is with understanding. Sometimes defense is with language. Sometimes defense of the truth is with presence in a place. Perhaps one of the greatest services that the revolution did for the Iranian nation was to open minds, politicize minds, open eyes, and familiarize everyone with the country's issues. This familiarity and this insight must increase day by day. If this happens, the enemy can do nothing. You should know that the country's officials are all ready to perform their duties in the best possible way.

Today, the officials of the judiciary, the officials of the legislative branch, the officials of the executive branch, the members of the cabinet, the honorable President himself, all those involved, the military and law enforcement forces, those responsible in various sectors, are all ready to do what is their divine and Islamic duty and there is no laxity or negligence. All are moving in one direction.

The enemy should not look at the difference of opinion on a particular political issue and think that there is a difference between them; no. Regarding the main issues of society, regarding the honor of the revolution and the fundamental issues of Islam, there is no difference between them. They are united and the esteemed clergy and the elders of the seminaries are also, as always, at the forefront and moving.

I have asked God Almighty that my insignificant body and soul also be placed in this path and in the service of Islam and the Iranian nation. Whatever is in my possession and God Almighty has entrusted to me—body and soul and all forces—by the grace of God will be in the service of this path and in confronting the enemy. Let the enemy know that this Islamic revolution is the same revolution that shook the throne of the empire of arrogance and with the same power, with the same grandeur, with the same majesty and by the grace of God with the same victories and progress. Thanks be to God, the great force of the youth is also present in the scene.

May God protect all of you and illuminate your luminous hearts with the lights of His knowledge. God willing, may He grant all of you His grace and favor and may the existence of the noble Imam Mahdi (may our souls be sacrificed for him and may God hasten his reappearance) be pleased with all of you and may the sacred soul of the great Imam include you in his prayers.

Peace be upon you and God's mercy and blessings