Speech [Necessity for a spiritual change and its preservation]

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

I congratulate this happy feast to the nation of Iran particularly to the army of guards and the other security forces. Today is the birthday of our Lord Imam `Ali. It is the birthday of justice and absolute justice, and the mercy of God. I present my congratulations to all of you. I hope that the divine justice that was resplendent in the face of `Ali may brighten the faces of our people and particularly the faces of our security forces. You are the guards of Islamic Republic, guards of Islam and Qur'an. You should follow our Lord Imam `Ali, who was a personification of divine justice. You should treat people with justice and be just among yourselves too. Besides, you should be merciful. God says:" They (the believers) are hard against pagans and merciful between themselves «2». If we want to know that we are believers and followers of the teachings of Islam, we should see in us this gage and scale. Are we a crushing force against pagans and kind and merciful between ourselves? «3» I hope that the justice under the blessed existence of Islam and the saints has hailed upon humanity we may practice thereon and disseminate it in the world at large. Our nation has had enough of tyranny since 2, 500 years and since then we have had fifty years of treason and betrayal and theft.

You, brothers, should know that every person should start from himself for whatever quality desired to attain perfection. If you want to continue the Islamic Revolution or a cultural revolution, it should originate from yourselves. Your spirit should change. Thanks God, in this upraising and revolution, the spirit of our nation and in particular our youths, guards and soldiers has changed. It is something miraculous. The spirit which was not possible to reform into a human one, even with the labor of yours long inner fight and self-contradiction as though it happened within a night. Our youths throughout the history, particularly recently, were dragged to the centers of debauch and corruption. They had planned to spoil the youths by drawing them to incontinency and latitude to purge them. In their absence, tyrants could do their looting. The miracle of this revolution is that the youths were dragged back form those centers to the field of campaign. A great number of people all of a sudden changed to persons who spurn the past regime and all those alliances that the regime had created. They embraced Qur'an and found shelter in Islam. In the past they did not mind any thing except their own lasciviousness. May this great change be a blessing for you. But hereafter, we need the permanency and preservation of this change. This is a need for all of us. This is a need of Islam and its high teachings. This change that occurred in the early days of the revolution should be preserved to last long. Always think ahead. Be in an effort to advance. Don't think to retreat back. It will be a backward advance if there is a levity or lassitude in conduct or conjecture. You should make progress ahead with the same spirit you had in the campaign and the same tendency that tied you in the early stage of the revolution. If you maintain the same change, you can wipe out the tyranny altogether. God willing, you will be heading towards Qur'an and Islam and thereby towards God.

This is the very same way. The straight path is only this. This is the straight path, which you ask God in your daily prayers." Guide us to the straight path. The path you blessed on them and not the path which leads to your wrath and strays. The straight path is the path of Islam, the path of perfection. This path leads to God. There are three paths: one is straight. One is to East- `upon them is God's wrath'. One is to West- `the strays'. You proceed in the way which is the way of perfection, justice, mankind, and a straight path, path of sacrifice for Islam and the justice of Islam. Without going astray either this side or that side and to the corrupt schools it will be the right one ending to God. If you pace the way straight in this world, you will avoid the way that leads to hell. Hell is hidden in this world itself. If you take a straight path in this world and do not lean either side, which leads to hell, in that world too you will take the path, which is directly straight. The path of God is straight, the path upon which God has bestowed bounties.

Here the bounty is Islam. The greatest bounty is humanity. You should stick to this path, the path you came from which is for Islam and to guard Islam. All of us, and the nation too, should be guards of Islam and Qur'an. This is the straight path. To fight for the sake of Islam and God, is the right path. This is the same path which you pray for. You should care not to go astray because on one side is the wrath of God and at its other side the strays. They have missed the way and gone the wrong way. God has sent His wrath upon them. Both ways at either side lead to hell. So far you have done well. May God support you that hereafter too you may go on the right pass. You make covenant with God that you will pace the way till its end and that you will be its guards. God willing, you may cut short the hands of the `strays' and `those on whom is the God's anger from this country. I am sincerely all yours and a well-wisher.