Speech [The value and importance of ruling over hearts]

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

I feel it is important for me to offer some advice to you gentlemen who are leaders of some Muslim countries. Remember that it is very important for you to strive to rule over the hearts of the people of your countries instead of ruling over their bodies while their hearts are turned away from you. If the Muslims wish to succeed in liberating themselves from foreign domination, their governments should strive to win the hearts of their people. It is beautiful to be able to rule over hearts instead of merely ruling over bodies without the hearts. You have seen for yourself how the people of Iran, in spite of it being a lowly populated country, strive to support their government and to further its goals simply because their hearts were and are with the government.

Even in this war that was unexpectedly imposed upon us with the belief that they were merely going to confront an army, and that too a weak and disorganized one as per their calculations, you saw how they had made mistakes and miscalculations because neither had they taken the strength of our current army into consideration nor had they taken into consideration the national support that is enjoyed here. Our current army as well as the rest of our armed forces are not the same as they used to be during the reign of the taghout. During the days of the taghout, the hearts of the people did not support the government and the people were literally forced to cooperate with them. Today, however, the hearts support the government and the rule is over the hearts of the people. Our President, our Prime Minister, and our parliament all rule over the hearts of the people. That is why, today, as our army is occupied at the warfronts in the defense of the nation, the entire nation is united in war and is giving its full cooperation to the army and the armed forces. Almost everyday or at least on most days, we find youth coming here tearfully pleading for permission to go to the warfronts for attaining martyrdom. Even weak old people and children hold this wish in their hearts. This is because it is Islam that is governing this country and the government of this country is not over bodies. It is a government over the hearts of the masses and the hearts of the people are with those who are governing this country. We could even say that it is the peoples who are actually governing the country.

All of you leaders should strive and should also advise the other leaders to strive, like Iran, to rule over the hearts of their people. The problem of the Muslims is that in many of their governments, the rule is over the bodies of the people; and that too with pressure, because of which they are unsuccessful. If we and all the leaders of the Muslim countries rule over the spirits and win the hearts of the people, we will become invincible with all our vast human and natural resources and shall be able to withstand the attempts of the nations that seek to violate us and no country will be able to win against our peoples. Foreign powers can only gain success in countries and governments that do not enjoy a popular support.

You should make all efforts and should advise all your friends to strive to win the hearts of their peoples in the same manner in which the hearts of the people were with the government in the early days of Islam. Islam ruled over the hearts of the peoples in its early days and that is why it was possible to gain victory over major empires even though the Muslims were not too many in number during those times. Today, with God's grace, the total population of the Muslims is close to one billion. And yet, how come in spite of being such a large nation, the Zionists have managed to take over our Quds and are also dictating terms to the other governments. All this is true in spite of the fact that if only we were to unite together, we would be able to form a large nation. Of course, each country would still remain independent in its own territory but they could all stand together under the banner of Islam.

I hope that you will, God willing, accept my advice because it is certainly in your and our best interests in this world and in the hereafter and it is in the best interests of all the Muslims.

May God's peace, mercy and blessings be upon you.