Sermons of the Eid al-Fitr Prayer

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

Thanks be to God, the Lord of the worlds, thanks be to God who created the heavens and the earth and made darkness and light; then those who disbelieved in their Lord equate (others with Him). And blessings and peace be upon our master, our prophet, and the beloved of our hearts, the intercessor for our sins, Abu al-Qasim al-Mustafa Muhammad, and upon his pure and chosen family, the guided and infallible ones. I thank God, seek His help, ask for His forgiveness, and place my trust in Him.

We convey our congratulations to all dear brothers and sisters on this blessed and honorable day, and we wish them a happy Eid. May God bestow His blessings upon you and accept your good deeds and devotional struggles that you performed during the hot days of the blessed month of Ramadan and its blessed nights.

Our people, thanks be to God, have gained blessings from the blessed month of Ramadan, through Quran recitation gatherings, prayer and remembrance sessions, communal meals, and the fervent gatherings of the nights of Qadr, which were widespread throughout the Islamic country. These attentions and supplications, and similar acts, are the grounds for divine mercy and the means for the descent of the Lord's grace. At the end of the month, there was the great movement of the Iranian nation on Quds Day, which loudly announced the anger and roar of this alive and aware nation to the world. These are the events of this great month from which, thanks be to God, our nation emerged with pride and reached the day of Eid.

Dear brothers and sisters! Each of these acts you performed in Ramadan was a righteous deed and a piece of paradise. When you ask the Almighty God in the supplications of the blessed month of Ramadan to grant you entry into Paradise, it means that you should be granted those deeds whose afterlife manifestation is the promised paradise of God; and thanks be to God, it has been granted. Recognize the value of what you learned in Ramadan and keep it for yourselves. What one observed in this Ramadan among these personal, public, and social acts was the communal feeding of people in a simple and general manner, which has thankfully become common among our people. Last year, our dear people were asked to reduce the formalities of iftar and increase the number of guests at iftar; this year, reports we received from public centers, sacred places, streets, and husseiniyyas across the country indicate that the people have made efforts and expanded this practice. My humble recommendation is to further develop such practices that influence the shaping of an Islamic lifestyle.

Quds Day was indeed a great day; in that warm weather, our people, with their mouths fasting, men, women, especially women and veiled ladies, came to this rally with children in their arms. When a nation wants to show its vitality, when it wants to demonstrate its public determination, which is not limited to a specific group but pertains to the entire nation, it shows it in such places, and our dear nation, thanks be to God, demonstrated this. May God bestow His blessings upon you, dear nation, and may He increase your dignity, honor, and progress day by day, and grant the officials of the country the success to serve you more and more.

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

Say, "He is God, the One. God, the Eternal Refuge. He neither begets nor is born. Nor is there to Him any equivalent."

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

Thanks be to God, the Lord of the worlds, and blessings and peace be upon our master, our prophet, Abu al-Qasim al-Mustafa Muhammad, and upon his pure and chosen family, especially the Awaited One on earth, and bless Ali, the Commander of the Faithful, and the pure and chaste Lady of the Women of the Worlds, and upon Hasan and Husayn, the two grandsons of mercy and Imams of guidance, and upon Ali ibn Husayn, and upon Muhammad ibn Ali, and upon Ja'far ibn Muhammad, and upon Musa ibn Ja'far, and upon Ali ibn Musa al-Ridha, and upon Muhammad ibn Ali, and upon Ali ibn Muhammad, and upon Hasan ibn Ali, and upon the Awaited Imam.

I recommend the praying brothers and sisters, and myself, and all the Iranian nation to observe piety (taqwa) of God. In all matters, this piety has an effect; including in the realm of judgment and action in important social and international issues and matters related to the Islamic world and humanity.

Today, the foremost issue in the Islamic world is the issue of Gaza; it may be said that the foremost issue in the world of humanity is the issue of Gaza. A rabid dog and a ferocious wolf have attacked the oppressed people; who is more oppressed than the innocent children who have lost their lives in these attacks? Who is more oppressed than the mothers who held their children in their arms and witnessed their death and suffering? The usurping, infidel Zionist regime has committed such atrocities today in front of the eyes of humanity; humanity must react.

Three points regarding the issue of Gaza need to be mentioned: The first point is that what the leaders of the Zionist regime are doing today is genocide; it is a great historical catastrophe, and the criminals and their supporters must be condemned and punished on a global scale. The punishment of these individuals is something that the spokespersons of nations, reformers of the world, and the compassionate must demand; the passage of time does not absolve them. They must be punished; whether they are in power or when they are removed from power and fall; both the perpetrators of these crimes and those who openly support them, as you hear and see in the news, this is the first point.

The second point is to observe the power of endurance and resistance of the people who stand firm for their rights. A people besieged from all sides, in a small and limited area: the sea is closed to them, the land is closed to them, all borders are closed to them; their drinking water, electricity, and resources are unreliable, all due to the enmity of the enemy and the attacks of the enemy, and no one helps them. These people are facing a cruel, armed enemy like the Zionist regime and its vile and filthy leaders, and they are pounding them day and night without any consideration; yet these people stand firm and resist; this is a lesson. This shows that the power of human resistance, the strength of a mother who sees her child killed before her eyes, or a woman who sees her husband or brother or father under pressure, is far beyond what we imagine. Let us recognize our own power. Humans are this powerful; they can resist like this; that a group of people - about one million eight hundred thousand individuals - in four hundred to five hundred square kilometers of besieged land, where their gardens are destroyed, their shops are destroyed, their homes are destroyed, their trade routes are blocked, and they are under attack, yet they stand firm; this demonstrates the extent and measure of a nation's power of resistance. And I tell you that ultimately, with God's grace and permission, they will triumph over the enemy. Just as until now, the invading enemy, like a dog, is regretting what it has done, stuck, not knowing what to do: to retreat would mean losing face; to continue would make things harder for them day by day; hence you see that America and Europe and all the criminals of the world have joined hands to impose this forced ceasefire on the people of Gaza to save them. Until now, they have been stuck, and after this, it will be the same. This is the second point.

And the third point is that the political leaders of global arrogance say that we must disarm Hamas and Jihad. What does it mean to disarm? It means that now they have a number of missiles that at least allow them to defend themselves against the relentless attacks of the enemy, yet they want to take that away from them; Palestine - including Gaza - must be such that whenever the Zionist enemy wishes, it can attack, it can ignite any fire, and they should not be able to defend themselves at all; this is what they want. The President of the United States has issued a fatwa that resistance must be disarmed! Yes, it is clear; they want disarmament so that even the slightest blow they can inflict in response to all these crimes cannot be inflicted; we say the opposite, the whole world, especially the Islamic world, is obliged to help equip the Palestinian nation as much as possible.

O God, grant victory to Islam and the Muslims, and support the armies of the Muslims, and defeat the infidels, the adversaries, and the hypocrites, and forgive me and you.

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

Say, "He is God, the One. God, the Eternal Refuge. He neither begets nor is born. Nor is there to Him any equivalent."

And peace be upon you and God's mercy and blessings.