Statements in Meeting with the Organizers of the Road to Light

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 chosen progeny, especially the Awaited One among the people of the earth.

Welcome, dear brothers and sisters, commanders, memorials of the Sacred Defense, warriors, enthusiastic youth, examples of the greatness of the Iranian nation. The nation must recognize your worth—both the worth of the youth who have embarked on this path and acquainted their hearts with the truths, and the worth of the veterans and those who have endured this path, who have traversed the fields, accomplished great deeds, and continue their services today, often awaiting martyrdom. The Iranian nation must know this. These are the children of the nation, and the nation appreciates them; officials and those in charge of the affairs of the country must recognize their worth and the significance of these words.

First, I thank the group responsible for the Road to Light, as General Baqeri mentioned, for the presence of the managers, organizers, activists, guides, and tour leaders in this group. I thank all of you. This is a great task, an important task, and a very impactful task.

One point is that we must not allow the memory of great days to be forgotten. The great days of any country and nation are those days when a divine event occurred through the people and by the hands of the people. "Remind them of the days of God"; God Almighty commands the Prophet in the Quran to remind them of the days of God. The days of God are these great, history-making days. Well, the eight years of the Sacred Defense—if we consider each day—are among these days of God; we must not allow these events to be forgotten. The Quran teaches us; these reminders mentioned in the Quran: "And mention in the Book Abraham"; "And mention in the Book Moses"; "And mention in the Book Idris"; "And mention in the Book Mary"; must not be forgotten. The Quran teaches us to remember these, to repeat them. You see how many times the story of Prophet Moses and the story of Prophet Abraham and other stories are repeated in the Quran; they must be remembered, they must not be allowed to be forgotten. Of course, we are witnessing efforts in this regard. I have great confidence in General Baqeri, and I trust him, and he said that we are doing or have done these works.

These works are of two types; some of these works are organizational and institutional; very well, we form an organization, a group, which is a good thing; a part of these works are dynamic, executive works. Executive works do not end with forming and launching; there must be constant vigilance, care, to ensure that, first, the work progresses, second, it progresses correctly and does not deviate, and third, it has elevation and is not uniform; this narration "Whoever's two days are the same is at a loss" applies completely in this case, meaning if our work today is like yesterday, we have certainly been deceived. Today, we must move one step higher than yesterday, better than yesterday; thus, my repeated emphasis to various managers—in military sectors, in governmental sectors, in judicial sectors, and so forth—to keep your eyes on the end of the human line behind you, to look, to be vigilant, is for this reason. First, the work must continue; because when we start a work, then during the work, we forget that we have taken on this task or given the order or intend to carry it out; the work is forgotten. Sometimes the work is not forgotten, it continues but in a deviant manner. We have seen cases where the work started "correctly" but ended up "deviantly"; whether cultural work, political work, economic work, or various managerial works of the country; it starts well but at some point, it deviates. The deviation, at first, does not make one sensitive because it is slight; then, as it continues, this deviation becomes wider and wider. Some works do not deviate, they continue but are uniform; today, if we look, they are done like five years ago, like ten years ago, like twenty years ago; no progress or elevation is observed. Elevation and progress cannot be achieved by mere words and statistics; one must observe the product on the ground; we must see what work is being done. My request is that the group involved in this matter pay attention that this work is a great work that I will briefly mention now.

Dear brothers and sisters! Every country has a wealth: some have climatic wealth; some have geographical wealth; some have underground wealth; some have human wealth—intelligent, outstanding people; some have oil; some have intellect but no money, some have money but no intellect; we have nations of this kind in the world. The strength of every country must be cherished and protected. We have many strengths; now we have many natural strengths—which are not the subject of this meeting; we have land, underground resources, surface resources, people, intelligence, we have everything—but one of our most important treasures is our cultural wealth; we have cultural wealth. What is cultural wealth? For example, the inclination towards jihad and belief in jihad is a cultural wealth; meaning when you move among the Iranian nation, except for a few, in the rest of our people, there is a motivation to move in the path of religion; now its measure varies; some have little, some have much. One has enough motivation that if he stands in front of a television camera, he shouts in favor of the country and in favor of the ideals of the revolution and Islam; very well, that motivation exists. One has more motivation, one has so much motivation that he is willing to give and sacrifice his life; this sense of striving and willingness to strive and belief in striving is a cultural wealth; this exists in our country, it does not exist in many other countries.

Before the revolution, when our group of fighters faced the group of, for example, Marxist fighters of that day—whether in collective discussions, individual discussions, in prison, or outside prison—I always said this to our own people; I said that the difference between us and them is that we have God, they do not have God; I feel sorry for them. In the corner of a cell, under torture, in very difficult conditions, we had a refuge, we had a God, we turned to Him, we sought help from Him; even if His will did not dictate that He would help us there, at least we were comforted that He sees that we are suffering for His sake, but that unfortunate Marxist did not have this. I said that this person who does not have God, as long as he is under the influence of excitement and emotions, he moves, he runs; if for a moment this excitement and these emotions are taken from him and he thinks for a moment, he will see that he is doing a futile act. [He says] I will be killed so that another lives? I will be killed so that someone else gets money or lives comfortably? Why? The characteristic of faith is that it keeps the sense of striving and the desire to strive alive in a person. This itself is a cultural value; a great cultural value. This is one.

Belief in standing against the oppressor is also a cultural value. The belief that if we stand firm, we will undoubtedly overcome the enemy is a cultural value and a cultural wealth. If we want to count our cultural treasures, we have a long list of values and cultural treasures that belong to us and empower us, and if we keep these alive, or bring back those that have been forgotten and bring them to the field—just as this happened during the revolution when the forgotten ones came to the field—then great works will be accomplished; just as in these thirty-some years, great works have been accomplished in our country. You young people did not see the period before the revolution and the period of the tyrant; we saw it then. If someone had said that a movement could take place in Iran where religion would prevail and someone like Imam Khomeini (may his soul be sanctified) would be at the helm, undoubtedly, any ordinary, rational person would have said such a thing is impossible; there was no doubt about it, because the conditions were like this, but this event occurred.

The imposed war is of this kind, the issue of the Sacred Defense is of this kind. Here I want to open a side note: the imposed war occurred because the enemy felt weakness in us. If the Ba'ath enemy and its instigators were confident that they would reach Tehran in a few days—they thought this way—this war would not have occurred; they felt weakness in us. Your feeling of weakness encourages the enemy to attack you; this is a general rule. If you want to dissuade the enemy from attacking you, try not to show weakness. I do not say we should lie and say we are strong, but I say we should reveal our strength. We have many strengths; we should reveal these strengths. The same goes for the economic field, the same goes for the cultural field.

The great mistake of some of us in the major economic challenge that the country is currently facing—which we are currently facing an economic challenge—was that weakness was shown in the economic field; the enemy saw that this was a place where pressure could be applied, thus they increased the pressure; [to the extent that] someone asks in an interview that this exercise you are conducting somewhere while negotiating with the Iranians, [at one point] the Iranians should not be upset by this exercise so that it does not harm our economic negotiations, he has the audacity to say, "No, these have no effect; the Iranians need these negotiations so much that such exercises do not harm our economic negotiations!" This showing of weakness in front of the enemy must not happen.

Well, [during the war], the enemy felt weakness in us, thus attacked. Now, were we really weak or not? Actually, yes, we were weak; our armed forces were scattered, disorganized, did not have systematic management, many of our equipment was not useful, many of it was unknown to us; we discovered some of the things in our warehouses a year or two after the war that we had and could use. We had no experience of war. During the tyrant's time, [only] a few show attacks occurred where they would enter from this side of the border of Iraq, go a few kilometers beyond the border. We had no experience of war. Our war experiences were those of World War II, when at that time the tyrant asked his commander how long our armed forces could resist against the enemy, he said, "Sir, they can resist for two hours"; then the Shah's mood soured; it was Reza Khan, after all, his mood soured; then when they came this way, someone told that commander, "You deserved it; you should have said it in a way that his mood would not sour, you should have said it a little better, more smoothly"; he said, "I said it more smoothly; when I said two hours, it is better; they can resist for ten minutes, I said two hours!" This was our experience of war.

The war started in this manner. You see, the enemy advanced to ten or twelve kilometers near Ahvaz in the first steps, meaning the enemy's 60mm mortar reached the outskirts of Ahvaz; it was like this. They crossed from the Naderi Bridge—in the area of Dezful—and entered this side of the Dez River; meaning both Dezful and Ahvaz and other important cities of Khuzestan were at risk; the enemy entered in the first attack like this, we were like this.

Then our Muslim and revolutionary forces, with the call of Imam Khomeini (may his soul be sanctified)—who himself was one of the miracles of the age, he was one of the great divine signs, the true Grand Ayatollah, he was—found themselves; the army in one way, the IRGC in another way, the Basij in another way; the forces found themselves, utilized their capabilities, used the strength that was hidden in them and had not been discovered; this strength was not only the strength of fighting and bravery and going to the field, one of them was this; the strength of management, organization, initiative, and these works, thus they transformed the battlefield. The war began in 1979—with the losses I mentioned—but in April 1981, in the Operation Fath al-Mubin, several thousand prisoners from the enemy fell into the hands of our forces; meaning see the distance! In a year and a half, the progress of the faithful and revolutionary forces was such that the retreat near Ahvaz and the retreat near Dezful turned into operations like the Operation Fath al-Mubin, where about ten thousand, twelve thousand [people] were captured from the enemy. Truly, one of the days of God, the days of the imposed war and the Sacred Defense is; this must be kept alive, this is a treasure.

Those who think that either the name of the war should not be mentioned, or if it is mentioned, it should be spoken against it; they hold meetings for the effects and literature of the war, and then read anti-war poetry in that meeting; these are making mistakes. These are like those who would burn and destroy the precious handwritten books left by a nation—unique copies; they are like those who would extract the oil of a country and pour it into the sea and destroy it; they are destroying a national treasure—which can build history, build the future, and their mention, like the mention of "And remind them of the days of God," can be the foundation for building the present and future of the country. They make films, they make anti-war films; care must be taken. [They] confuse two issues; one issue is whether war is inherently good or bad? Well, it is clear that war is a harsh thing; war involves killing, destruction, injury, it is clear; this is one issue. Another issue is that a nation that is attacked from various directions, if it does not bring its strength, its power to the field and stand against the enemy, what will happen? They confuse this issue with that issue. The Sacred Defense was a vital movement, a breath for this nation; if we did not breathe, we would die; this must be kept alive.

Well, [therefore] the memories of the eight years of the Sacred Defense became a great national treasure. These memories are so numerous, diverse, rich, and eloquent that no eloquent tongue—not now my tongue, which is limited—can express them all. The reason is this: nearly thirty years have passed since the end of the war, today [about the war] books are being written, [when] I, the humble one—who was present, was a witness, and knew many of the events—read that book, I find a world of information from that book; I can recognize people, personalities, words, wisdoms. This statement that he quoted from me is not my statement; it is the statement of a Hamadani warrior that if you want to pass through barbed wire, you must first pass your breath through the barbed wire. When we are caught up in ourselves, we cannot do anything; this was taught to us by that 20-year-old or 25-year-old warrior; we learned from them; this is a great treasure.

Well, if you want to utilize this treasure, you must know its technology; I say this Road to Light is a technology; this is a technology for utilizing this great treasure. This immense golden mine that is at our disposal can either be left without technology, or it can be passed on like many of our mines—unfortunately, without creating added value, just handed over to this and that—it can be passed on, or it can be made valuable with technology; this Road to Light is a technology, it is such a great movement. This must be greatly appreciated; this Road to Light is a very great and important task; strive to do this work correctly.

Thanks be to God, it has been done well so far, but this is not enough; as I mentioned, the continuation of the path and the persistence of the movement alone is not enough. The persistence of the movement must be accompanied by renewal of the advancements of this movement; each time and each year, more benefits must be gained than the previous year. Today, we are facing enemies who are using their most advanced equipment and their vast amounts of money against us; we may not have as much money, or that many weapons—well, yes, they have nuclear weapons, we do not have—but we have something they do not have; that is our culture; that is our faith; that is our efficient and skilled human force; we have these; we must utilize them. Who should utilize them? All the pillars of the country must utilize them. When we say that the Road to Light is a new technology for utilizing the inexhaustible mine of the years of the Sacred Defense, it means that the whole country must benefit from this and appreciate it; it must come into our books, into our art, into our high schools and elementary schools, into our universities. The officials of the universities and the officials of the governmental sectors present here must consider themselves obligated to this work. Merely placing a center in a corner where anyone who wants to go—[for example] a student—can come, register, and set off is not enough; more work is needed. Look at it as a treasure, as a huge, profitable mine; see what must be done in return. Work must be done, thought must be given, planning must be done, a map must be drawn.

Those who come to these Road to Light trips and return must have gained something; there must be an unbreakable bond and connection between them and the important event of the Sacred Defense; they must gain new knowledge. They must gain new information. In these areas, I believe we have been somewhat negligent over the years; we have done little work. Now many books have been written, several films have been made; these are good; the works that have been done are good and valuable; but in my opinion, compared to what should have been done, they are few. The books we look at and utilize are good, but their scope is limited. The scope of their impact is limited; now, for example, suppose they say that from a certain best-selling and high-circulation book, five hundred thousand, six hundred thousand copies have been printed; well, now six hundred thousand copies of a book in such a large country, if we assume that each copy of the book has been read by ten people, it becomes five million, six million; from our eighty million population, if five million [people] read one book and become familiar with its teachings, is that enough? It must be promoted; both the book must be promoted, and the concepts must be promoted, and it must be presented in the form of art, and the best of it must be included in textbooks, and a chapter must be opened in universities for issues related to the Sacred Defense. Let us not allow this matter to easily slip away. Every disabled veteran remaining from the Sacred Defense is a memento; let us honor these memorials of the Sacred Defense, let us honor the commanders of the Sacred Defense. They must also recognize their worth and preserve themselves and keep those values within themselves. This path will be secured and advanced with steadfastness.

If we have done cultural work in the field of the Sacred Defense, if we have produced culture, this production will enrich the country, will enrich and strengthen our human forces, and they will become strong against the plots of the enemies. We need strength for the economy, we need strength for culture, we need good strength for the management of the country; it is culture that strengthens people and creates strong individuals. The source of cultural strength, among other things, is this abundant source of the forces of the Sacred Defense. If we can utilize this, the culture of the country will be strong; this is cultural production. In culture, just like in economic matters, if we do not produce, we will need imports. It is like economic matters that if you do not have domestic production, imports will take the place of domestic production. When imports come and replace it, the result is that later domestic production cannot stand up; one of our current problems is this: excessive imports—perhaps to a large extent unaccounted for—in various sectors, against which there is incomplete production; culture is the same. If you do not produce culture, cultural imports—whether officially or smuggled—will enter the country. Now cultural imports are abundant; I have extensive information in this regard and sometimes warn the officials; God willing, they will pay attention, some do pay attention.

[The enemies] are thinking; in the same groups that they call think tanks, they are sitting and thinking about how they can infiltrate the culture of the Iranian nation, how they can change the youth. Their wish is that you young people who today breathe for the love of Imam, for the love of the revolution, and for the love of high religious and Islamic and revolutionary values become devoid of all these values, become empty, turn into a dependent element of Western culture and Western thought, a useless element for the country and for themselves and for their future; that is their wish. They are plotting for this, they are working for this, they are active for this. This is different from security work, different from security plots, different from threats of military action; this, in my opinion, is more dangerous than them. A military movement, if carried out by the enemy, motivates the nation more, strengthens the nation’s fist against them; this is the nature of military action; but cultural attack is the opposite; if the enemy can carry out a cultural attack, it makes [a person] lethargic, takes away their decision, weakens their will, takes the youth of the country away from the country; it makes the useful forces useless; this is the nature of cultural attack. The way to counter this is to produce culture. One of the cultural productions is this thing that relates to you and relates to the Road to Light, which was truly an innovation, a good tradition that our dear brothers in the IRGC and in various sectors established and initiated; it is very good. In any case, we hope that this work will be done in the best way possible.

Also, pay attention, these reporters who go to these groups and guide the individuals must know what things should be said in this reporting. This reporting is different from—so to speak—reporting for tourists or foreign tourists who come to see, for example, a certain building; this is something else, this must not be confused with that; there, a certain kind of desirable report is needed, here a different kind of report. Here, the content of the report must be full of explanation, full of knowledge, full of the expression of truths, full of the outstanding and positive points of the period of the Sacred Defense and the values of the Sacred Defense; it must be like this. Of course, I do not say exaggerate. I do not support exaggeration and hyperbole and such things; on the contrary, we had successful attacks during the eight-year period, we had unsuccessful attacks. Suppose in the Ramadan attack—as an example—or Karbala Four, we had an unsuccessful attack; we also had successful attacks, suppose in Operation Valfajr Eight, our youth went across the Arvand River; but even those successful attacks were attacks that were accompanied by hundreds of problems. Not all people are the same, there were many difficulties; some would turn back from the way, some would regret, some would not advance, some were more concerned about what would be said about us than about fulfilling their duty; we had this too; these must also be mentioned, there is no problem. Among [the expression of] all this collection is that extraordinary brilliance: those pure individuals, those dear martyrs, their worth, their greatness show themselves. Therefore, there is no need to exaggerate, to hyperbolize, or to speak in a way that they were some different kind of people; no, they were of the same kind as us, but they recognized the path better than us, understood life better than us, had more fortune, had more reliance, and God Almighty paid more attention to them and quenched them from the fountain of His grace and favor.

Each of these five provinces of Khuzestan, Ilam, Kermanshah, Kurdistan, and West Azerbaijan—this western border strip of the country—has an issue, has a value, has a position; the people there must be paid attention to, must be loved; all of these supported. In all these sectors that you observe, if it were not for the support of the people, the work would not have progressed; it was the support of the people that enabled the warriors to accomplish the work. Of course, I myself, in that brief period when I was present in those arenas, saw with my own eyes the help of the people, the support of the people, the special attentions of the people to the warriors, which compelled the warriors to be able to accomplish great works and carry out these movements. We hope, God willing, that God Almighty grants you success, supports you, and makes this work blessed so that the blessings of this work, God willing, will encompass the country for today and the future of the country.

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