Sermons of 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). I praise Him, seek His help, and ask for His victory. I seek His guidance and turn to Him in repentance. I send blessings and peace upon His beloved and chosen one, the master of His creation, our master and prophet, Abu al-Qasim al-Mustafa Muhammad, and upon his pure and chosen progeny, the guided, the Mahdi, the infallible, especially the remainder of God on the earth.

I congratulate the blessed Eid al-Fitr to all the honorable attendees of this prayer, to the entire nation of Iran, and to the entire Islamic Ummah. I also congratulate the New Year, Nowruz, and the twelfth of Farvardin, the day of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which is a great holiday for the Iranian nation.

This year, the month of Ramadan has passed, and our dear nation has successfully experienced this precious divine opportunity, thanks be to God. Ramadan is a unifying phenomenon; it brings hearts and people closer to the Almighty God. Ramadan is a time for drawing closer to God, a place for renewing spiritual life; that is, the Almighty God has granted us the opportunity through the observance of fasting in Ramadan to cleanse our hearts, purify ourselves, and, if possible, rid ourselves of impurities and become unified. The fast of Ramadan, the companionship with the Quran during Ramadan, the Night of Decree (Laylat al-Qadr) in Ramadan, the supplications and prayers during Ramadan, all of these are formative for humanity. Ramadan is truly one of the greatest divine blessings. Whoever observes the etiquette of Ramadan and acts upon it, to that extent their heart, soul, and inner self will be shaped and unified. God said: "That you may attain piety"; this Ramadan is for piety, for the hearts and souls of humans to become God-conscious.

This year, thanks be to God, we had a rich and spiritually abundant Ramadan; the propagation of the Quran was clearly felt during this Ramadan; the recitation of the Quran, the reading of parts of the Quran, contemplation of the verses of the Quran; the prevalence of charity and iftar tables in mosques, in holy shrines, in streets, in public centers; the enthusiastic presence of people, especially the youth, in prayer and supplication gatherings was fully evident this Ramadan; all segments of society participated in these ceremonies, benefited, prayed, spoke with the Almighty God, asked from God, relied on the Almighty God, and gained much benefit; "Blessed are the owners of blessings"; those who benefited, God willing, will use this benefit from Ramadan throughout the year and keep their hearts pure until the next Ramadan, God willing, they will advance one degree higher and further.

The end of Ramadan was marked by this enthusiastic and meaningful march; the people—the nation of Iran—carried out a great movement on the last Friday of Ramadan, and many messages from this great gathering of people were reflected to the world; those who need to understand, those who need to recognize the Iranian nation received many messages from this great gathering of you dear people in Tehran and in various cities—large and small. The people were able to convey this message, and a very important task was accomplished. The growth of hearts accompanied by political effort and faith-driven movement was the achievement of this past Ramadan; let us preserve this.

Today is a day of celebration; ask the Almighty God on this blessed day to help you so that, God willing, you can preserve these valuable achievements for yourselves, for your country, and for your future.

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, and thanks be to God, the Lord of the worlds, and blessings and peace upon our master and prophet, Abu al-Qasim al-Mustafa Muhammad, and upon his pure and chosen progeny, especially Ali, the Commander of the Faithful, and the pure and chaste Fatimah, and Hasan and Husayn, the masters of the youth of Paradise, and Ali ibn Husayn, Zain al-Abidin, and Muhammad ibn Ali, the Baqir of the knowledge of the first and the last, and Ja'far ibn Muhammad al-Sadiq, and Musa ibn Ja'far al-Kazim, and Ali ibn Musa al-Ridha, and Muhammad ibn Ali al-Jawad, and Ali ibn Muhammad al-Hadi, and Hasan ibn Ali al-Zaki al-Askari, and the awaited Mahdi, may God's blessings be upon them all, and peace be upon the leaders of the believers and the guides of the oppressed.

In this second sermon, I will present another aspect of this past Ramadan. The sweetness of Ramadan was tasted by the Iranian nation and other nations, but the bitterness of this Ramadan also soured the experience of all fasting people in the Islamic world, and that was the bloody events in Gaza, Lebanon, and Palestine. Once again, genocide, once again, the killing of children, once again, America's support for the atrocities of the corrupt usurping Zionist regime, once again, assistance to the wickedness of this group of murderers and terrorists who have usurped Palestine and govern over Palestine and the Palestinian people; they have supported these actions.

In the political statements made by the West, you have repeatedly heard them mention proxy forces; they accuse the brave nations of the region, the valiant youth of the region of being proxies. I want to say that in this region, there is only one proxy force, and that is the corrupt usurping Zionist regime. The Zionist regime acts as a proxy for the colonialists, igniting fires, committing genocide, and perpetrating crimes; if it can, it invades other countries, just as it is currently invading Syria. It has entered Syrian territory and has advanced several kilometers towards Damascus; it does this on behalf of the colonialists; those who, after World War II, laid claim to this region and shaped it in this way; now the Zionist regime is pursuing and completing their work on their behalf.

In the statements of the colonialists, these same people who govern the world and countries with their money and media, terrorism is considered a crime and is referred to as such, but [the actions] of this wicked criminal regime are permissible and allowed! If others defend their rights, if they defend their own land, they are called terrorists, but the wicked Zionist regime openly commits genocide, kills children, strikes a large number of people, especially targets individuals for assassination, and openly admits to it, yet the eyes of the Western colonialists are closed to these actions; they smile at it, assist it, and support it. For years, in addition to the mass killings in the cities and villages of Palestine that the Zionist regime began from the very beginning and continues to this day, one of their common practices is the assassination of personalities; they assassinate "Abu Jihad" in Tunisia, "Fathi Shaqaqi" in Cyprus, "Ahmed Yassin" in Gaza, "Imad Mughniyeh" in Syria, and many Iraqi scientists in Baghdad—after the Americans entered Iraq twenty years ago—they assassinate the martyrs of the nuclear scientists in Tehran; their actions are clearly terrorist movements, and America supports them, some Western governments support them, and the rest just watch and observe. In this recent period, in less than two years, the Zionist regime has martyred about twenty thousand children and left their fathers and mothers grieving, yet those who shout about human rights are watching and taking no action against them. The nations of the world are angry, upset, to the extent that they are informed; the nations of the world are unaware of many issues and crimes. The protests you see in the streets of Europe and even America against the Zionist regime are due to their limited information; if they had more information, they would protest even more.

The conclusion of what I am saying is that this criminal group must be uprooted from Palestine, and by God's grace, it will be uprooted. Here, the effort for this cause and in the path of this cause is a duty; it is both a religious duty and a moral and human duty. Everyone has a responsibility to work in this path, to strive to remove this wicked and criminal entity from this region.

Let everyone know! Our positions are the same as they have always been, and the enmity of America and the Zionist regime is the same as it has always been. They threaten that they will commit wickedness. Of course, we are not very confident and do not expect that any wickedness will occur from outside, but if any wickedness occurs, they will certainly receive a strong counter-strike. And if they think of creating sedition inside the country, like some years before when they did, the Iranian nation will respond to them, just as they did in the past. May God grant you success and support.

In the Name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful * By time * Indeed, mankind is in loss * Except for those who have believed and done righteous deeds and advised one another to truth and advised one another to patience.

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