Statements on the Occasion of Eid al-Mab'ath

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 among the people of the earth.

I congratulate the blessed and great Eid al-Mab'ath to the entire Iranian nation, to the entire Islamic Ummah, and to all the free people of the world. Eid al-Mab'ath is the holiday of all justice-seekers in the world and a warning to the Islamic Ummah. Today, I will discuss a matter regarding the event of the Mab'ath and will also make a brief remark about the issues of the Revolution.

The Mab'ath; the awakening of the Prophet and the mobilization of the people towards happiness On this day of the Mab'ath, the sacred heart of the greatest Prophet (peace be upon him and his family) became the repository of the most precious divine trust, which is divine revelation, and the heaviest responsibility of the universe was placed upon the strong shoulders of that great figure, which is the responsibility of guiding humanity until the end of time. Of course, this Mab'ath was also a great gift to all of humanity.

Mab'ath means awakening; that is, the awakening of the chosen human being of the Lord - who is the divine messenger - and this awakening is accompanied by his connection to the inexhaustible source of divine knowledge and power; this is the occurrence of the great phenomenon of prophethood and messengership. In the next stage, this awakening of the Prophet will lead to the awakening of human collectives; that is, the noble Prophet and the divine messenger in every era - each of the great divine prophets - after being sent and awakened, will awaken human collectives and guide them towards a new path, towards the happiness of humanity, and will place a path before humanity; this is the meaning of Mab'ath.

Tawhid; the greatest goal of the Mab'ath In the Mab'ath of all prophets, there have been divine goals, which naturally will also be the goal of the Prophet himself, in accordance with obedience to the Lord. Therefore, the Mab'aths have great goals, the foremost of which is Tawhid; Tawhid is the great goal of the Mab'ath: "And indeed, We have sent in every nation a messenger, [saying], 'Worship Allah and avoid Taghut.'" (2) Pure Tawhid, absolute Tawhid; this noble verse is in Surah An-Nahl. In Surah Al-A'raf and also in Surah Hud, it is stated by several great prophets like Noah, Hud, Salih, and others that "O my people, worship Allah; you have no deity other than Him." (3) This Tawhid is the first goal of the Mab'ath of the prophets. Of course, you know that Tawhid does not only mean that a person believes in his mind that God is one and not two; yes, this is also true, but Tawhid has a significant meaning that refers to the divine sovereignty; Tawhid means the absolute sovereignty of the Lord over the realms of legislation and existence - both - that divine command must be recognized as effective; both in the realm of existence - in all events of existence, "There is no power and no strength except by Allah" - and in the realm of legislation, all these events and all conditions stem from the singular power of the Lord. This is the main goal.

A good life; another goal of the prophets There are other goals as well: the purification of humanity, meaning the spiritual cleansing of humans from impurities and degrading attributes; educating humans and elevating their scientific status. Establishing justice, so that human society is governed by justice: "So that people may maintain [justice]." (4) Creating a good life: "We will surely give them a good life." (5) What does this good life mean? A good life means the growth and flourishing of human intellect and knowledge on one hand and the spiritual tranquility of humans, their material comfort, the security of their living environment, their welfare, their happiness, and above all, their spiritual perfection and ascension. This is what a good life means. These are the goals of the Mab'ath of the prophets. Of course, here the discussion is mostly about the great divine prophets, but there were also other prophets who were sent as messengers of these truths to various parts of the world.

Tools for achieving the goals of the Mab'ath: planning for social relations and having political power Well, you see that these goals are very great, difficult goals; how can these goals be achieved? This naturally requires, first of all, extensive planning for social relations; that is, if the Prophet of Islam, the Prophet of truth, the divine messenger in any era wants to realize these goals, he must necessarily create social relations in accordance with these goals. The second matter is political power; that is, these social relations cannot be established by an isolated person or a mere advisor who only advises people; political power is necessary. Therefore, the Mab'aths are accompanied by both a great political power and a wide-ranging plan to realize these goals.

The commandments and governance programs of the prophets based on the Book of God Thus, with the coming of the Prophet, a political system is established, meaning the goal is to establish a political system - now which prophet succeeded in doing this and which did not is another discussion, but the goal is to establish a political system - that can realize these goals by forming programs and social relations and various human interactions. In this political system, the principles of governance are derived from the Book of God and from what the Almighty God reveals to the Prophet, which states: "So Allah sent the prophets as bringers of good tidings and warners, and sent down with them the Book in truth to judge between the people in that in which they differed." (6) "To judge" means "to let the Book judge"; this Book judges between the people in what they must do, and it is the ruler in all social arrangements. This is in Surah Al-Baqarah, in Surah Al-Ma'idah it states: "And let the people of the Gospel judge by what Allah has revealed therein." (7) The Gospel is the ruler; that is, the governance command is derived from the Gospel for the people of the Gospel; and also regarding other prophets, in the verses "And whoever does not judge by what Allah has revealed - it is they who are the disbelievers" (8) and "It is they who are the wrongdoers" (9) and "It is they who are the transgressors" (10), in all of these, the source and origin of governance and the governance commandments and programs are derived from the divine Book that has been revealed to the Prophet; these principles and foundations are in that Book; and all human programs must be placed within the framework of these principles.

Leadership and management of the government and the implementation of divine commandments are the responsibility of the prophets Well, this is the governance command, but who will implement this governance command? Without the existence of a management and a leadership, this command will not be operational; thus, a management is necessary, and this fundamental leadership is related to the Prophet himself; that is, the noble Prophet and all the prophets - the honored Prophet of Islam and before him the other prophets - are managers and commanders who are obliged to implement the religious and divine governance in society, which is the product of the Mab'ath of the prophets and is presented with the divine Book.

Of course, this leadership and command is not uniform; in some cases, the Prophet himself, the person of the Prophet, is responsible for this command; like Prophet David, Prophet Solomon, the honored Prophet of Islam - who themselves took the lead in governance and were responsible for executing affairs - sometimes, in some cases, the Prophet appoints a ruler by divine command; like that prophet mentioned in the Quran in Surah Al-Baqarah, when they said to their prophet, "Appoint for us a king so that we may fight in the way of Allah." (11) The people, who were under pressure and facing difficulties, referred to the Prophet to appoint a ruler for them, and he appointed a ruler; their prophet said to them, "Indeed, Allah has appointed Talut as a king for you." (12) Talut became the commander. Therefore, the Prophet is the leader and the main commander, but the execution of the work is in the hands of someone other than that Prophet, who in this example is Talut, and such examples are certainly not rare in the history of prophethood. At another time, the Prophet does not appoint anyone, but he himself has a position in the government apparatus where his command is effective; like Prophet Joseph, whose command was also effective in that government - which gradually inclined towards the religion of Prophet Joseph - and he executed the affairs, while he was not the absolute ruler.

Religion; a comprehensive program and manager of the human life system Therefore, the situation of the Mab'ath is summarized as follows. Thus, the Mab'ath means the awakening of the Prophet, this awakening is accompanied by the sending of the divine Book and the divine governance command that is revealed to the Prophet, and the content of this governance is implemented and guided by the Prophet of God, the divine messenger, in various forms that we have mentioned. Perhaps there are other forms that, of course, we have not seen evidence of in the Quran; but they may exist; we are not aware of all historical events. Well, therefore, what is religion from this broad perspective? When we look at religion from this perspective, it is the manager of the entire human life; that is, a comprehensive program; not a personal program and merely individual and worship-related programs, which some think religion is responsible for personal programs and various social, political, economic matters, etc., are outside the realm of religion; no, this perspective shows that religion is comprehensive, it has comprehensiveness.

The enmity of the wicked towards religion due to the perspective on religion and its scope And naturally, this religion with this perspective is also subject to enmity; at all times, the wicked of the world have opposed such a religion; now either by trying to reduce this vast area and scope to personal matters or by openly standing against religion; as it is stated: "And thus We have made for every prophet an enemy from among the criminals." (13) This is in Surah Al-Furqan; every prophet has had enemies from among the criminals, the sinners, the wicked of the world. In Surah Al-An'am, it is also stated: "And thus We have made for every prophet an enemy, devils among men and jinn, inspiring to one another, adorned speech by way of deception." (14) Therefore, when the Mab'ath of the Prophet occurs and the mechanism for implementing divine command is introduced, the corrupt and arrogant powers, the imperialists, and the disruptors of human life will naturally oppose him, the plunderers will oppose him, the oppressors will oppose him. Because it is against oppression, against the plundering of human wealth, against the unjust domination over individuals; those who are considered the wicked of the world will naturally stand against the Prophet. You can observe today that in the propaganda of the enemies, they mention something called "political Islam"; political Islam is precisely what has been realized in the Islamic system of Iran - which I will later refer to the great movement that our Imam Khomeini (may his soul be sanctified) undertook - and their attacks are aimed at political Islam. Political Islam means the Islam that has been able to establish a government, various institutions, economic, social, political, military systems, etc., and create a religious and Islamic identity for a nation; this is what can be said about religion. Therefore, the Quran's definition of religion is such; it cannot be reduced to small acts, to mere worship acts. Therefore, the Mab'ath is a great movement that provides a comprehensive and salvific program for humanity and prepares them for a great movement.

The awakening and movement of humans, the result of the movement of the prophets Of course, it is not the case that the awakening of the Prophet and his leadership will prevent people from being active in this field; it is not like that. As we mentioned, the awakening of the Prophet leads to the awakening of humans and mobilizes society; humans move. Hence, Amir al-Mu'minin (peace be upon him) in that famous sermon states: "And He sent His messengers among them to remind them of the covenant of their innate nature and to remind them of the blessings they have forgotten and to awaken the buried treasures of intellect." (15) They awaken the dormant nature within humans and mobilize them. And again, in another sermon of Nahj al-Balagha about the Prophet, it is stated that "He is a wandering physician with his medicine, who has perfected his remedies and heated his cauteries." He has both remedies and cauteries - previously, when the wounds could not heal with remedies, a heated rod was placed on the wounds to heal them; in Arabic, this heated rod is called "mawsim" or "maysam" - he says that "He has perfected his remedies"; the Prophet of Islam has prepared the remedies, "and heated his cauteries"; he has also prepared the necessary rods to place where needed and where beneficial; these limits that you see in Islam - limits and punishments and the like - are those heated rods that are placed on wounds to heal them; this is regarding the matters related to the Mab'ath.

Our Islamic Revolution; the continuation of the theme of the prophetic Mab'ath And now regarding the issues of the Revolution. The great Islamic Revolution in Iran renewed the theme of the Mab'ath in contemporary times; that is, the Almighty God granted our Imam Khomeini (may his soul be sanctified) the success to highlight and manifest the continuous line of the prophetic Mab'ath in this era, with his innovation, courage, lofty thought, and self-sacrifice; this is the same line of Mab'ath that, over time, had faded, and the great Imam was able to highlight it and demonstrate the comprehensiveness of Islam in practice, showing that Islam is a comprehensive religion that encompasses all aspects of human life; the great Imam emphasized this; he revived the social and political dimensions of religion that had been forgotten and reminded people: "And to remind them of the blessings they have forgotten"; and he became a manifestation of this sentence. Well, this revolution, following the prophetic Mab'ath, was against oppression, against despotism, and against global arrogance; it supported the oppressed from every creed, from every religion - the oppressed in the true sense of the word - it supported the deprived, it supported the oppressed from every nation and with every religion and sect, and at all times, this revolution invited all of humanity to the straight path of Islam, and the fundamental movement of the revolution is this.

The alignment of the wicked of the world against the Islamic Revolution Well, when this revolution was formed and established a system based on it, which is the Islamic Republic system, the same event that occurred for the prophets was repeated; that is, the wicked of the world aligned against this revolution just as they aligned against the prophets; "And thus We have made for every prophet an enemy from among the criminals." (17) The criminals of the world and the wicked of the world, the arrogant powers of the world aligned against the revolution and engaged in confrontation. This, of course, was not unexpected for us; we did not expect that they would show compatibility with the revolution from the beginning; it was clear from the outset that such an event would occur: "This is what Allah and His Messenger promised us, and Allah and His Messenger spoke the truth." (18) It was clear that with a revolution of these characteristics, figures like America and the arrogant powers and the Soviet Union of that day would confront and stand against it, and so it happened.

The struggle and confrontation of the Islamic system with the enemies of God and the Islamic community, not everyone Well, this confrontation certainly exists, but they have also spread distortion and lies in this matter of confrontation with the Islamic Republic; they said that the Islamic Republic is at odds with the whole world and is confrontational; this is not true, this is false. We have learned from the Quran that we should treat those who do not oppose the Islamic system kindly. In Surah Al-Mumtahana, it states: "Allah does not forbid you from those who do not fight you because of religion and do not expel you from your homes from being righteous toward them and acting justly toward them." (19) These disbelievers who do not have a quarrel with you, do not have a war with you, do not actively oppose you, you should do good to them, and act with justice and fairness toward them; indeed, Allah loves those who act justly. "Allah only forbids you from taking as allies those who fight you because of religion and expel you from your homes and support others in your expulsion." (20) Therefore, the verse of the Quran states this. It is not the case that they say the Islamic Republic is at odds with everyone; no, we have no problem with those who do not oppose us - from any religion, from any sect - we do good to them as well. Islam emphasizes confrontation with enemies, those who engage in enmity, not those whose religion is not the same as yours.

Inside the country, a group of these pseudo-intellectuals - of course, this was years ago; and it has recently been repeated sometimes - placed the title of dissenters against the Islamic Republic. I said in a speech that for us, dissenters are not an issue; (21) your thought is different, well, let it be, what is the problem? We have no issue with your thought [but] enmity should not be shown. The Quran emphasizes enmity and enmity. In Surah Al-Mumtahana, it states: "O you who have believed, do not take My enemy and your enemy as allies, extending to them affection." (22) Do not befriend those who are enemies of me and your enemy - they are enemies of God and enemies of the Islamic community - do not befriend them, do not take them as companions and allies. Or the famous verse "And prepare against them whatever you are able of power and of tethered horses" which is in Surah Al-Anfal, then it states that "to frighten thereby the enemy of Allah and your enemy." (23) This empowerment, this strength, this weapon production, and this self-empowerment is for the purpose of "to frighten thereby the enemy of Allah"; the discussion is not about non-enemies. Therefore, Islam emphasizes confrontation with active enemies. Well, we have tested these enemies from the very beginning of the revolution and have experienced them. From the very first day of the revolution, although the Islamic Republic made many concessions to foreigners and others, conspiracies against the Islamic Republic began; more than anyone, America, and then others; and it continues until now.

Important elements for confronting enmity: Two important elements are necessary for confronting these enmities - which I have always recommended, and I recommend again - two qualities are necessary in all people: one is insight, and the second is patience and perseverance; if these two elements exist, the enemy cannot do anything, cannot inflict any harm, cannot achieve any success in confronting and opposing the Islamic system; insight and patience. This is what Amir al-Mu'minin said: "And only those who have insight and patience and knowledge of the places of truth will carry this banner." This is in sermon 173 of Nahj al-Balagha.

1) Insight, meaning sharp vision and recognizing the right path What does insight mean? Insight means being sharp-sighted and recognizing the right path. Sometimes a person makes mistakes; now the likelihood of mistakes by novice and inexperienced individuals is greater, even experienced and seasoned individuals sometimes make mistakes in recognizing the right path; one must be careful not to make mistakes in recognizing the right path; in the fog of seditions, one must be able to find the path and understand what the right path is; insight means this.

2) Patience, meaning perseverance on the right path What does patience mean? Patience means perseverance on this path, not deviating from this straight path and insisting on moving along this straight path; this is the meaning of patience. Patience should not be misunderstood; patience should not be interpreted differently. Of course, often enemies or those who do not have a proper understanding misinterpret patience; patience means that a person perseveres, insists, stands firm, continues on the path, and does not stop; this is the meaning of the patience that is used in confronting enemies.

Tawasi; one of the ways to preserve society against enemies Well, if these two qualities exist, the enemy will not prevail. One of the ways to maintain these two qualities in society is "tawasi", the same as in Surah Al-Asr: "And encourage one another to truth and encourage one another to patience." People should encourage one another; this chain of tawasi and advising one another [should be established]; both advising to truth and emphasizing the path of truth, and also advising to patience; this keeps everyone intact. If there is tawasi to patience and tawasi to truth and insight in society, this society will not easily fall prey to enemy movements; but if this tawasi chain, which is the protective chain of the believers, is cut off, it will certainly incur losses: "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." (24) If this tawasi does not exist, losses will occur. Well, the enemy targets this important factor.

The enemy's goals in soft warfare: 1) Cutting off the tawasi chain in the country The enemy pursues two goals in soft warfare - now there are open military wars and harsh and violent ones that have their own rulings, but soft warfare is treated more difficultly and in a sense is even more dangerous than hard warfare - the enemy carries out two movements in this soft warfare: one is to cut off this chain of tawasi to truth and to patience; the second is to distort the truths, which they have extensive propaganda to easily distort and falsely present the realities of the world. However, cutting off the tawasi chain to truth and patience among the believers is a dangerous thing; [that is] to make it so that believers do not advise one another, do not protect one another, do not give each other hope; if the cutting of this chain, the severing of the tawasi flow in society occurs, it is very dangerous. This causes people to feel lonely, to feel hopeless, to weaken their will, to dim their hopes, and to lose the courage to act. When there is no tawasi, these events occur; and naturally, when this happens, hopes diminish, courage diminishes, and wills weaken, the lofty and sublime goals gradually become distant and dim and seem unattainable and are forgotten; this is what our soft warfare officers must not allow to happen. I once said that our youth are our soft warfare officers. The youth must not allow such an event to occur and must create hope, must advise to stand firm, advise not to become lazy, advise not to become tired; these are the tasks that our youth, whom we said are the soft warfare officers, have to undertake.

Of course, today, the virtual space is an opportunity for this work. Now, the enemies use the virtual space differently, but you dear youth should use it this way: use the virtual space for creating hope, for advising to patience, for advising to truth, for creating insight, for advising not to become tired, not to become lazy, not to remain idle, and so on. Well, this is regarding the first task of the enemy, which is to cut off the tawasi chain and protect one another.

2) Distorting the truths Their second task, as we said, is to distort the truth, to lie about the truth. They speak this lie with such audacity and decisiveness that anyone who listens thinks they are telling the truth. They present the truth 180 degrees distorted with great calmness and firmness. For example, suppose that for six years, the Arab accomplice of America has been bombing the oppressed people of Yemen in their homes, in their streets, in their hospitals, in their schools, they have besieged them economically, preventing food from reaching them, preventing medicine from reaching them, preventing oil from reaching them; this has been happening for six years, and this, of course, occurred with the green light of the American government, and at that time, the Democratic government was in power; they gave the green light [to this] and this cruel, hard-hearted, and oppressive Arab government unfortunately behaves this way with the people of Yemen. Well, this is the reality of the matter. Now, the Yemenis, who are very talented people - the people of Yemen are very talented - have managed to create some defensive tools for themselves - either to procure them or to build them themselves - and as soon as the Yemenis take action, the propaganda cries out that "Oh, an attack occurred, oh, a terror occurred"! They all say this, the United Nations also says this, and the ugliness of the United Nations' actions in this regard is worse than that of America. Well, America is an oppressive arrogant government, but why the United Nations? They do not condemn that [government] for six years of bombing [but] they criticize this for having defended itself at times and this defense has been effective, they attack and criticize it. This is one example of lying.

Or the largest nuclear arsenal in the world is in America; the largest nuclear arsenal! Now, they may have thousands - I do not know - of nuclear bombs in their warehouses, and they have also used it, meaning the only government that has used nuclear bombs so far is the American government. America has massacred 220,000 people in one hour, in one day; (26) they did this, and then they shout that we are against the development of nuclear weapons! This is how it is; they claim that they are against weapons of mass destruction! They lie; the worst and most dangerous weapons of mass destruction are in their hands; they have used it, they have also employed it, and at the same time, they say we are against weapons of mass destruction.

America supports a criminal who dismembers his opponent with a saw - everyone in the world has understood this; the Saudis caught a dissident and dismembered him with a saw (27) - and then they say that I am a supporter of human rights; this is how far they distort the truth! America created ISIS - this has been admitted by the Americans themselves; we do not say this; both the one who created it said so, and the one who was its rival said so, they all said and admitted that America created ISIS - then under the pretext of the existence of ISIS, they establish military bases in Iraq and Syria, claiming that we want to fight ISIS! They provide modern media facilities to ISIS, they provide money to it, they allow it to destroy and sell Syrian oil and use the profits, while at the same time, they say we are fighting ISIS; these are the actions they take; this is how they distort the reality.

They speak with bitterness and hatred about Iran's presence in the region, asking why Iran is present in the region; that is, why Iran is in Syria, in Iraq, in some places; while our presence is not military; and where our military personnel were present, it was advisory presence; in some places where there are no military personnel at all, it is merely political presence, they exaggerate this with hatred and as a major problem that causes instability and so on, while the region is our region, and wherever we have entered, it has been to defend the legitimate government there; whether in Iraq or Syria, our goal has been to defend the legitimate government, and we have entered with the consent and will of those governments; they exaggerate this while they themselves, oppressively, without permission, enter Syria, occupy a region, establish military bases, or establish several military bases in Iraq. Distorting the truth is among their actions; and this is the case in all areas. And of course, the Americans must evacuate Iraq, which is the demand of the Iraqis and their law; they must evacuate Syria as soon as possible; the sooner, the better. Therefore, this is their work.

Our duties regarding the Islamic Revolution We must know that with this heavy burden of trust that the Islamic Revolution has placed on us, on the Iranian nation, and the path of happiness that it has opened before them, we have duties; among these duties is the tawasi to truth and patience, and recognizing the enemy and standing firm against the enemy, and not submitting to the treacherous enemy. This is my statement today.

The necessity of honoring everyone regarding the efforts of the medical staff In conclusion, I would like to say one more thing regarding the issues of this pandemic. The year has come to an end, and the efforts and struggles of the medical staff of the country against the calamity of COVID-19 have lasted for more than a year, and it is necessary for both myself and all people to express our heartfelt gratitude to this group; we pray for them and thank them, and I recommend that everyone defend them.

We hope that God willing, the Almighty God will bestow His attention, mercy, and grace upon the nation, and grant a blessed Eid to the Iranian nation and to all believers in the world and to the Islamic Ummah, and grant us all the success to fulfill our duties and to receive the satisfaction of the Awaited Imam (may our souls be sacrificed for him) and the prayers of that great figure, and may the pure soul of Imam Khomeini (may his soul be sanctified) and the pure souls of the great martyrs be pleased and satisfied with us, God willing.

Peace be upon you and God's mercy and blessings.