Statements in Meeting with Thousands of People from Qom

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 and prophet, Abu al-Qasim al-Mustafa Muhammad, and upon his pure and infallible progeny, especially the Awaited Savior, may God hasten his reappearance, and may our souls be sacrificed for him.

Welcome, dear brothers and sisters, beloved people of Qom, the memorial of the epic struggles of this city of uprising, the city of knowledge, the city of jihad. We thank the Almighty God for granting us the opportunity and life to once again witness the Nineteenth of Dey and to express a few words regarding the great event of the Nineteenth of Dey.

In the event of the Nineteenth of Dey in 1978, during this spontaneous popular uprising in the city of Qom, there are numerous points that we have discussed extensively, as have others; we do not wish to repeat those issues, but there are some points that are always relevant to our nation and country, which are current and not outdated, thus repeating them is beneficial.

One of the matters I will discuss today is the power of the people's role in major events. We must not forget this; we have experienced it in our lives, and we must not only remember it ourselves but also reflect this experience to others. Today, observe Gaza; the role of the people's presence and steadfastness in a great event; a small group, a limited population—say two million—on a tiny piece of land, has rendered the mighty America and the Zionist regime, which is dependent on America, powerless; this is the power of the people's presence. Well, the event in Qom is far greater than this; why? Because on the Nineteenth of Dey, the people of Qom came into the streets, they sacrificed martyrs, they were beaten, some went to prison, but they became the beginning of a movement that was able to overthrow a dependent, arrogant, oppressive regime ruling this country within about a year. From the Nineteenth of Dey 1978 to the Twenty-Second of Bahman 1979, how much time is that? The presence of the people in various scenes is like this; I want to express something about this; we must not forget it. When such power exists in the hands of a nation, why should it not be valued? Why should it not be utilized? Why should it not be brought into play in the face of major events? This is my point.

Imam Khomeini (may his soul be sanctified) taught us this; without any exaggeration or embellishment, without any doubt, the esteemed Imam—who has many specific works; one of them is this—showed the people, taught the people that their presence in the scene is miraculous; we did not know this, others did not know it either; the Imam, in 1961 and 1962, demonstrated this to the entire nation of Iran through action, words, logic, and reasoning; he made them understand that if they want to progress, if they want to achieve the results they desire, they must be present in the field; retreating, relying on this or that, and withdrawing into isolation is of no benefit; they must come into the middle of the field. He himself also came into the middle of the field; instead of mingling with the political parties and groups and the prominent political figures of that time, he sat with the people. Let me share a memory. I was going to a city—I do not want to mention the name of that city—there was a great cleric in that city; the Imam told me to tell that gentleman to come to Qom; his place is here; he should come here, but the condition is that he must cut ties with a certain political group—the Imam mentioned a well-known political group of that time—and come to Qom, but cut ties with that group. I went to that gentleman and conveyed the Imam's message. Of course, he did not like it and did not come to Qom; he said he had no ties with that group and such things. The Imam's logic was this: a religious scholar, as a religious scholar, as a reference, as a center of knowledge and thought, must come among the people.

He himself came among the people; on Ashura, in the Feyziyeh School of Qom, the Imam sat there and spoke clearly and openly with the people. Dear brothers and sisters! This speech of the Imam on Ashura is a historical event. He came with all his being into the middle of the field; he sat in the Feyziyeh School, which was filled with people, and delivered that unparalleled speech there. He practically brought the people into the scene; instead of speaking to a political group or a political figure, he spoke to the people and practically brought them into the field; the people entered the field, they responded, they answered. From the day the Imam delivered this speech until the fifteenth of Khordad 1963, there was a three-day gap; that is, within three days, people in Qom, Tehran, and Varamin were martyred. Of course, the number of martyrs is not known; many statistics have been mentioned, but no accurate research has been conducted in this regard, which I wish would be done to determine how many young and old, men and women were martyred on the fifteenth of Khordad in Tehran, Qom, Varamin, and some other cities. He brought the people into the field; this was the Imam's work; he handed the banner of struggle to the people.

Well, the people accepted it and paid the price. Of course, on the fifteenth of Khordad 1963, the people were suppressed, and the Imam was arrested—they stormed the Imam's house at night, arrested him, and brought him to Tehran, and you know the rest of the story—but the people did not forget the lesson. The Nineteenth of Dey in Qom is a continuation of that event; here too, the people spontaneously came into the field. On the Nineteenth of Dey, who was the leader of the people to say, "People, come out"? It was the hearts of the people, the awareness of the people, the lesson they learned from the Imam; they understood they had to come out. They came out on the fifteenth of Khordad because of the Imam's arrest, and they came out on the Nineteenth of Dey because of the insult to the Imam. They entered the field, began the struggle, and this was blessed; the Almighty God blessed this struggle; Qom, Tabriz, Yazd, Shiraz, and everywhere, the Iranian nation rose up, and the event of the Twenty-Second of Bahman occurred. This is what the presence of the people means.

This lesson, of course, is the lesson of Amir al-Mu'minin. I have noted a phrase from Amir al-Mu'minin (peace be upon him); we must emphasize these sentences from Nahj al-Balagha; we must learn a lot from Nahj al-Balagha. This is in the Imam's letter to Malik al-Ashtar, which is mistakenly referred to as a "treaty"; it is not a treaty, it is a governmental command; the Imam's command to Malik al-Ashtar. There is much to say there; there is a sea of pearls in this command of the Imam, one piece of which is that he said: وَ اِنَّما عِمادُ الدّینِ وَ جِماعُ المُسلِمینَ وَ العُدَّةُ لِلاَعداءِ العامَّةُ مِنَ الاُمَّة. "The foundation of religion" means the support of religion. You are an Islamic community; Amir al-Mu'minin says this to his nation, and it is addressed to us as well. Very well, you are an Islamic community; the support of your Islam is the ummah, the body of the people. "The gathering of Muslims" means the main body of the community, the main body of this Muslim society. وَ العُدَّةُ لِلاَعداء; "The provision" means the reserve for a rainy day; what we keep for a rainy day. وَ العُدَّةُ لِلاَعداء; this reserve against the enemy, who are they? اَلعامَّةُ مِنَ الاُمَّة; that is, the masses of the people. Some years ago, I presented some parts of this letter to the officials (that is, the statements made in the meeting with the President and members of the government). The Imam compares between the elite and the masses; "the elite" means the favored ones, "the masses" means the general public. He mentions extraordinary statements about the elite and extraordinary statements about the masses—the general public. The emphasis of the Imam is that you should rely on the masses. When a president becomes close to the masses, speaks to them, works with them, and goes into the hearts of the people, some rise up and say, "This is populism!" They insult him. No, this is being people-oriented; this is recognizing the main point. The masses are everything. Of course, the quality of working with the masses is a great art; that is a matter in itself.

Well, there is a fundamental point here; this people's presence in the scene and in the middle of the field that I mentioned has a fundamental point alongside it; what is that point? It is that bringing the people into the scene of struggle must be with precise direction and with knowledge empowerment. A few days ago, I also spoke here, and I mentioned this point. That is, just as your missiles are precise and accurate—this is what incapacitates the opponent; they select the precise target, hitting a point from a distance of a thousand kilometers or fifteen hundred kilometers—you, who are standing in the middle of the field and inviting the people, must have a clear and precise goal. The Imam specified the goal: to remove the corrupt, dependent monarchy and establish Islamic governance; the goal was specified. Today, if we invite the people into the middle of the field, what is the goal? This must be clarified. Secondary goals, peripheral goals, are not of concern. The goal is the establishment of Islam, national dignity, the complete welfare of the Iranian nation, the elevation of the Iranian nation, and confrontation with global arrogance; these are the goals. Of course, these are general expressions, but they have clear and specific meanings. The work of the Imam and his companions in these fifteen years between the Feyziyeh incident and the Twenty-Second of Bahman was to clarify this; those who spoke to the people, those who educated the youth and guided them—like Motahhari and others—were to clarify the goal and provide the necessary knowledge to the people. Knowledge empowerment is very important; this is the main task. Our clerics, our scholars, our intellectuals, our university professors must move in this direction; they must provide knowledge, empower knowledge.

The regime that was removed by the Iranian people on the Twenty-Second of Bahman was a dependent and coup regime; some today do not want to believe this after forty years. The Americans and their affiliates, and those dependent on the Americans, are employing the utmost naivety—it's strange; they are politicians, diplomats, but in this matter, they are employing the utmost naivety!—with incorrect calculations, they are justifying the face of a regime that was kicked out of this country by the people forty-five years ago. [The Pahlavi regime] was a dependent and coup regime. In 1920, the coup of Reza Khan was carried out at the instigation of the British and with the help of the British. After three or four years, Reza Khan's rise to the throne and his transformation into Reza Shah was with the help of the British, by the hands of the British. A few years later, the cultural transformation of the Iranian nation into Western civilization began, such as unveiling and closing seminaries and halting mourning ceremonies and congregational prayers, and so on, by the well-known agents of the British in Iran surrounding Reza Khan, whose names I do not want to mention; prominent political and cultural figures who some of their true faces are still not clear to our people, they have books, they have writings; around Reza Khan, their job was to transform the culture of the Iranian nation and absorb it into Western culture. Look at the issue of unveiling through this lens; it was the work of the British. Then, in 1941, when Reza Khan was expelled from the country, the ascension of Mohammad Reza to the throne was by the British; the British ambassador directly intervened in this matter, and it was their will. In 1953, after Mohammad Reza could not withstand the national oil movement and fled the country, his return was a joint operation of the British and Americans. Then the continuation of the disgraceful rule of Mohammad Reza until the Twenty-Second of Bahman 1979 was with the help of the Americans. [The Pahlavi regime] was such a government; from the beginning, middle, and end, there was British intervention, American intervention, British assistance, American assistance, dependence on them, and selling the country to them; not only selling the economic assets of the country, [but] they gave the nation's oil to them, they sold the dignity of the nation to them, they sold the religion of the nation to them, they sold the honor of the nation to them; such was that regime. The Iranian nation expelled this regime from the country; the Imam set this goal before the Iranian nation. Well, this is the strategic policy of the esteemed Imam: bringing the people into the scene, handing the banner of struggle to the people.

In contrast to this policy, there is another strategic policy; the opposite of this. What is that policy? To remove the people from the scene, to draw the people out of the field of confrontation and struggle. Whose policy is this? It is the policy of the enemies of the revolution; the policy of America, the policy of the world's powerful, the policy of the Zionists, the policy of the exploitative Zionist companies around the world. This policy has continued in the country for forty years. Today, this policy is operating with utmost malice; pay attention to this. They are trying to remove the people from the scene. When you see discussions about whether to participate in elections or not, [some say] "No, what is the benefit?" this is not a simple matter; this is the very strategic policy of America, this is the very strategic policy of the enemies of the revolution. The absence of the people in the political scene, the absence of the people in the cultural scene, the absence of the people in economic matters, the absence of the people in religious matters, is the strategic policy of the enemy. The Arbaeen march is mocked; the grand celebration [related to] Amir al-Mu'minin or the half of Sha'ban in the streets of Tehran, with all its grandeur, is questioned as to why [it is held]; respect for the great commander of Iran and the region, martyr Soleimani, is questioned. Did they not tear up martyr Soleimani's picture in Tehran, next to a certain university? One is incited to come and tear up this picture; eight million people attended the funeral of martyr Soleimani, then a careless young man, a worthless young man—who either was paid or had been worked on mentally—comes in front of millions of the Iranian nation and tears up martyr Soleimani's picture! What do these actions mean? This indicates the very strategic policy of the enemy.

The enemy is very active and industrious in this regard; they have understood that the reason for Iran's progress, the reason for Iran's gaining dignity, the reason for Iran's emergence as a prominent power in this region, the reason for the emergence of all this strategic depth for the country—these resistance forces across the region are the strategic depth of the Islamic Republic—are all due to the presence of the Iranian people in the scene. If they impose a war, the enemy fails in war; if they carry out a coup attack, they fail; if they conduct a security attack, they fail; the reason is that the people are present in the scene. Wherever they managed to prevent the people's presence in the scene, the enemy has succeeded; this is the case in many economic sectors. We have communicated the policies of Article 44, we have repeatedly advised a certain government, they said yes, we will do it, we will not do it, we will do it, we will not do it; they did a few cases, and from those few, half turned out to be corrupt! This is how economic problems arise. There, the enemy is pleased, there the enemy supports. The enemy is active in this area, completely industrious.

To remove the people from the scene, one of their strategies is to instill despair about the future. You see how much in these enemy-affiliated media—either explicitly or implicitly; some of these media are explicitly enemy-affiliated, some are not explicitly affiliated but are inherently affiliated—they are trying to instill despair in the people about the future. They find a negative point, generalize it, and exaggerate it so that the people become despondent, especially the youth; [they want] to discourage the youth. They promote the idea that "What is the benefit of participating in political activities? What is the benefit of participating in elections?" and work on this.

[Another thing] is to highlight the shortages and difficulties in economic matters. Yes, we have economic problems, there is no doubt; there have been various weaknesses, they have continued; these economic weaknesses exist, there is no doubt about it; they highlight these, while if attention is paid in a certain case, most of these economic weaknesses are due to the absence of the people; in places where the people have been present, these weaknesses are less.

Frightening people about powers is one of the ways to remove the people from the scene; frightening them about America, frightening them about the Zionist regime, frightening them about this and that, while the Iranian nation has experienced not fearing powers itself. If we were to fear a certain power, there would be no Islamic Republic at all. Today, many of the powers that claimed dominance and divinity over this region are afraid of the Iranian nation.

One of the factors they employ to remove the people from the scene is to make the people disbelieve and disregard the factors of presence, courage, and power, at the head of which is religious faith, at the head of which is piety. They are trying, they are propagandizing, they are working; the enemy is busy at work. Our officials must strive as much as they can in these areas, they must work as much as they can. Look at the issue of hijab and these hijab matters through this lens. The issue is not merely that some do not know or do not observe the hijab; no, there are some who have motives—of course, a small number—for opposition and resistance.

One of the issues is creating division; polarizing the people. You see, division is of two kinds: sometimes two people have differences of opinion on a political issue, on a certain affection or animosity; they are still friends, they are still companions, they sit together for tea, they sit together at the table, and they have differences of opinion; sometimes, however, the difference of opinion is such that whatever comes from one side—whatever it may be: thought, action, good, bad—is condemned by the other side; this is called "polarization." They create polarization in society. Whatever the opposing side does, this side condemns it, even if it is good. These are among the actions that today the opponents of the Iranian nation and the enemies of the Iranian nation are engaged in.

The way to counter this is the presence of the people. The people must engage in economic matters, they must engage in political matters, they must seriously participate in elections, even in security matters they must engage. The enemy's security agents are present among the people, in neighborhoods, here and there; the people can identify them. In many security problems, the people have come to the aid of the security apparatus and resolved the issue; we have the news, they provide us with the news. Many actions they wanted to take, similar to the tragedy that occurred in Kerman, the people became aware, they paid attention, the apparatus became aware, and they prevented it. It can be said that tens of times more than what happens, the enemy wants to do and is neutralized; of course, much of it is with the help of the people.

This issue I mentioned, the issue of the people's presence in the scene—which is one of the essential requirements for the proper administration of the country, the advancement of the revolution, achieving the goals of the revolution—must be promoted; everyone who has a voice, everyone who has an eloquent tongue, everyone who has an audience, everyone who can make an impact, must work on this: وَ تَواصَوا بِالحَقّ; this is the truth. Advising each other to the truth is the duty of all; whether it be a cleric, a university professor, a speaker, the media, a political official, a manager of a certain apparatus, a scholar, a reference, whoever it may be, it is a duty. The people must be encouraged to be present in the field, to stand firm in the field, to be familiar with the requirements of the field. Of course, government officials must know that the people are ready, thus their duty is heavy; both government officials and active individuals in political and cultural arenas must prepare the ground. God willing, this readiness will continue and increase day by day.

Well, I mentioned that the people are ready. What is the evidence? The evidence is this massive gathering of people in the fourth year of martyr Soleimani's martyrdom; this is one of the evidences. The presence of the people on the Twenty-Second of Bahman, the presence of the people on the last Friday of Ramadan, the presence of the people on the Ninth of Dey, the presence of the people on various occasions, and now the presence of the people on the anniversary of martyr Soleimani's martyrdom; people travel from far away to visit his grave, this tragic and sorrowful event occurs, yet the next day the gathering of the people continues with the same intensity, with the same power, with the same motivation. So the people are ready; it is we who must organize, we must assist, we must clear the way, we must prepare the ground.

In this tragic and sorrowful incident that occurred in Kerman and truly afflicted the nation, we do not insist on accusing this or that, but we insist on finding the real factors and behind-the-scenes of this incident and suppressing them. God willing, the respected officials—who are genuinely busy working, and I am aware from close observation that they are working well and are doing good work—will be able to bring those who were involved in this incident and behind this incident to justice.

Regarding Gaza—just a word—we are gradually seeing the predictions manifesting themselves. From the beginning, the clear predictions of the world's insightful observers, both here and elsewhere, were that in this matter, the one who will prevail is the resistance of Palestine, and the one who will be defeated is the wicked, accursed Zionist regime; this is happening, and everyone sees it. For three months, the Zionist regime has been committing atrocities. Firstly, these atrocities will remain in history; even after the Zionist regime is eliminated and, by God's grace, wiped off the face of the earth, these atrocities will not be forgotten; even on that day, they will be written in books that one day a group came to power in this region and committed such atrocities, killing thousands of children and women in just a few weeks! This will be written and said, and it will not be forgotten; everyone will understand that the patience of those people and the steadfastness of the Palestinian resistance forced this regime to retreat. Well, after nearly a hundred days of atrocities, the Zionist regime has not achieved any of its goals. What does defeat mean? Defeat means this. They said they would eliminate Hamas, but they could not; they said they would transfer the people of Gaza, but they could not; they said they would stop the actions of the resistance, but they could not. The resistance is alive, vibrant, and ready; that regime is exhausted, humiliated, regretful, and branded with the label of "criminal" on its forehead; this is the situation that exists today.

This is a lesson. This line must continue: the line of standing against oppression, against force, against global arrogance, against usurpation; this line must continue. The resistance must maintain its power and be prepared and not be oblivious to the enemy's tricks, and by God's grace, wherever it can, it must strike. God willing, this will happen, and this day, God willing, will come, and the Iranian nation and the Muslim nations and the faithful groups around the world will witness the triumph of steadfastness, power, patience, and reliance on God over enemies and enmities and the devils of the world.

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