Statements in Meeting with the Minister of Awqaf and a Group of Scholars from Syria

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

Thanks be to God, Lord of the worlds, and peace and blessings be upon our master Muhammad, his family, and his pure companions, and upon those who follow them until the Day of Judgment.

First, I extend my welcome to all the esteemed attendees, to the honorable Minister of Awqaf, to the respected scholars, and to all the dear participants. I also thank the honorable minister for his very useful and eloquent remarks; I thank this group of reciters, both for their recitation of the Quran and their chanting; both the content was good and the form was beautiful, and they performed well.

We stand by Syria; today Syria is at the forefront; it is our duty to support Syria's steadfastness. Mr. Bashar al-Assad, the honorable President of Syria, has appeared as a great fighter and resister; there has been no doubt about him, and he has stood firm; this is very important for a nation. These Muslim nations that you see living in humiliation are not humiliated; their leaders are humiliated. If a nation has leaders who feel dignity in Islam and in their identity, that nation will become honored, and the enemy cannot do anything against such a nation.

We have entered the fortieth year of the revolution; from the very first day, all the first-rate powers of the world united against us and acted; both America, the Soviet Union, NATO, the Arab reaction, and the region, all came together; however, we did not perish and we grew. What does this mean? The first meaning of this statement is that what the great powers want is not necessarily achievable; that is, everyone decided that we should perish, and we did not perish. It is clear that what America wants, what Europe wants, what the world's nuclear powers want, is not necessarily going to be realized. Well, this understanding, this perception, this knowledge gives hope and power to nations. Therefore, if we, you, and the other elements of resistance in the region have a firm decision, the enemy cannot do anything.

This is one point. The other point is that Islam has promised us that victory belongs to the believing fighter; if there is no faith, victory will not be fully achieved; if there is faith but no struggle and effort, the result will not be achieved. Our duty is to support and defend Islam and the Islamic movement; one of the prerequisites for this is to set aside these sectarian and factional differences. Well, if we want to set aside these differences, there are those who oppose this and do not want to allow it; some are incited by us, some are incited by our brothers, and they are compelled to speak and act against the movement of unity. Those who play this role, if they are not dependent on global and arrogant policies, that is, if they do not arise from these policies, we should ignore them; we should not pay attention to them; however, if, like the Saudis and some others, this incitement arises from arrogant policies, we must confront them, we must face them firmly. The Shia that London supports, we do not accept that Shia. The Sunni that America and Israel support, we do not consider that Sunni to be a Muslim; that is, we do not consider him a Muslim at all. Islam is that which opposes disbelief, oppression, and arrogance; our commonalities are these; our commonalities are monotheism, our commonalities are the Kaaba, our commonalities are the sacred existence of the Prophet, our commonalities are love for the Ahl al-Bayt, and many other commonalities. Our obligations are all from the commonalities; that I recite Qunoot in prayer and you do not, this is not something that creates division. The essence of the matter is that we believe in the One God, the Unique, and we believe in Prophethood and in divine assistance and in the Day of Resurrection; these are the essence of the matter.

I hope that, God willing, you will see the day when you pray in congregation in Quds, and we will see it, God willing; we believe that this day will come. It is possible that I, this humble person, or others like us may not be here, but this day will come and it will not be delayed. A few years ago, this same Zionist government neighboring you said that we will do such and such to Iran in 25 years; I said that you will not comprehend the 25 years to be able to do that! God willing, this day will come.