Speech [Spiritual purification and focus on spirituality]

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

Reciprocally, I extend my felicitations on this auspicious feast to all the sirs that are present here and to all the oppressed nations of the world. I do not consider it impossible that after this blessed month in which the Muslims were invited to the Feast of God and have passed the period of the banquet, this Feast is for this very purpose- for the Feast of God.

It has been quoted from Sayyid Bin Tawous- may God be pleased with him- that when he reached the age of adolescence and was given permission to worship the Blessed and Almighty God, he celebrated the event. If it were not for the commandment of the Blessed and Almighty God, I do not know how we would have gathered the courage to eulogize God and praise Him.

You see, the daily mandatory prayers that are placed at the top of all worship, how is its circumstance. It begins with" Takbir" or expression of glorification of God and it ends with repeating it thrice; the contents of the mandatory prayer are also expression of glorification of God or" Takbir" and are eulogizing and praise. This is because that perhaps it wants us to understand, it wants all of humankind to understand that in the very first one that you want to enter the greatest worship of God, you be aware that the Blessed and Almighty God is greater than that you worship Him. In every verse of the verses, either He is praised or glorified. Praise is because God is more immaculate than you worship Him at the same time that you glorify and has permitted you to glorify Him and therefore, He is praised and He is glorified. You begin the mandatory prayer with His glorification; you begin the praise and you regard praise to be solely due to God. I do not think that the understanding of this subject and the passion of this subject that praise is exclusive to God has become apparent and that the essence of praise cannot occur for other than God. Even you that praises a flower, which praises an apple is praising God. The apple is nothing of its own. You that praises a perfect human being are in fact praising God.

The human being is nothing; not even the Prophets. The ultimate perfection of human beings has been to know that they are helpless, to understand that they are incapable of worshipping God. The one who was at the head of the lineage of Prophets and saints confesses that we have not understood You- and it is right- and have not worshipped You «2»- and that too is right- because worship is secondary to knowledge. This knowledge is to the extent of humans; to the amount that is the limit of humanity, they have knowledge and the biggest of them is the Honorable Prophet. However, knowledge of God is in excess of this amount which is the limit of humans; only He can grasp Himself, understand Himself and praise Himself. If human beings did not have the permission to enter worship, all worship then a human being would have felt ashamed to stand before God and want to praise God in front of Him. A human being is more insignificant than to stand before God and want to praise God, to glorify Him; this is a claim. Praise and glorification implies that I have come to know you while a human being is incapable of understanding but there is no alternative because He has said it Himself; He has commanded it Himself and because it is His command, all must obey even if they are to blame for praising God; for endorsing His infallibility. In the mandatory prayers, wherever a glorification is mentioned, it is followed by praise in this manner that," Glory is to God" and follows it with" God is the Greatest." First, it endorses God than it praises Him, next it glorifies so that the praising of God occurs between one endorsement of infallibility and one glorification. When you want to bow in" rukou`", you glorify Him by saying" Takbir". When you stand upright after bowing in" rukou`", you say" Takbir" while in the bowing position of" rukou`" you endorse His Infallibility. When you want to prostrate in" Sujoud" you again glorify Him by saying" Takbir"; in the prostrate" Sujoud" you endorse His Infallibility and after prostration you again you glorify Him and say the" Takbir". Next again you say the glorification of" Takbir" and prostrate in" Sujoud" and endorse His Infallibility. All of these are in order to make you understand that the subject is far higher than this. He is above guilt that you should glorify Him; you glorify Him; You endorse His infallibility in order to glorify Him. You endorse His infallibility: He glorifies the one that endorses His Infallibility. This is how the mandatory prayers are and other worshipping. If it was not for the command of God and the need to obey His commands, I must say that a human being with that weak knowledge that he has would not dare to stand in worship of God. However, He has given the courage.

In the same way that He has sent down all the teachings until it has reached to this stage; He has sent down the Qur'an, behind the camouflage are coverings one behind the other. He has sent down and sent down until it reaches to words that are agreeable with the comprehension of human beings; yet these words are not in agreement with the understanding of humankind. The Qur'an starts from the beginning with the" Fatihah al-Kitab" or" Opening of the Book." At the very beginning, it makes praise exclusive to Him; from the start, it makes a human being understand that you are helpless in understanding it. All praise belongs to Him and no one deserves to be praised; no one is praiseworthy. Some are of the opinion that," Your Creator has commanded you not to worship any beside Him" «3» implies that it is a verdict of God that no one should be worshipped other than Him. They imagine they are prostrating before the idol; they imagine they are eulogizing a human being; they imagine they are worshipping the sun whereas all praises are from Him; all are also praising Him and they perceive not. The problems that a person faces in the afterlife are because of this same foolishness and for this reason, there is a curtain between a human being and the truths. If a human being takes a look even if at this material world around, at this same instruments that are present in the material world, to the volume that his hand has reached it and the extent that his hand has not reached, there are billions that his hand has not reached.

See the language of the Qur'an when it commands," We have decorated the nearest heavens to the earth with the decoration of shining stars." «4» Opposite of the theory of Bartholomew «5» the heaven of the earth meaning that this galaxy that you see are all of the lower heaven; they are the heaven of the earth. Lower down, the heavens and these galaxies to the extent that is visible, meaning that it has been decorated contain millions of suns and more and beyond these, there are billions of galaxies and billions of other things that God alone knows. It is this material world that humankind has so far discovered; not at its peak but at its lowest level about the particles to the extent that he has discovered it is that with these instruments it can observe small particles. However, it has not been able to comprehend those smaller particles. The manifestation of the weakness of human being is in flaunting the self and worship of power; and how weak human beings are to think that in this world in which they are living and in this city that exists and in this country that exists, he must now flaunt himself. How ignorant must a person be to regard these as power and how weak a soul is he to regard these rules and regimes as authority. These authorities, whether spiritual or non-spiritual authorities, these that hold the positions of power, when we observe their prayers we notice that they are more helpless than we- because they have understood. When you read the Kumayl supplication, when you recite the Sha`baniyyah Supplication and other supplications that have been received from the Immaculate Imams- may God's peace be upon them- you will notice that their language is not the ordinary language that we use. Whereas when we come to know of a theological theme, we think it is a great achievement. If we subjugate a country, we think something great has been achieved; if we achieve a spiritual status we think we have reached to some great position. When one observes the words of those that attained those high positions, we notice helplessness through and through; they are helpless and they must also be. They shall not reach and they will never reach but the needy that supplicate have been commanded by Him to supplicate; have been commanded by Him to praise Him; has commanded us to eulogize Him; has commanded us to recite our daily mandatory prayers.

The Prophets that were appointed to Prophet ic missions were appointed in order to cause the spirituality of the people and those talents to bloom and that in that blossoming they would know that they were insignificant. In addition, it was to liberate the people from the control of the arrogant oppressors. From the start, the Prophets held these two jobs; the spiritual job to extricate the people from captivity of the carnal soul; from the captivity of the self- for Satan is great- and to liberate the people and the oppressed from the clutches of the oppressors. These two tasks are the jobs of the Prophets. When a person observes His Holiness Moses and His Holiness Abraham, and the things that have been quoted in the Qur'an from these two Prophets, he notices that they held these same two positions. One was to invite the people to monotheism and another was to rescue the people from under oppression. If in the teachings of His Holiness Christ- peace be upon him- this job is less noticeable, it is because His Holiness Christ did not live for long and had less contact with the people otherwise his style was the same as that of His Holiness Moses and all the Prophets. In the highest of them all who is the Prophet of God- may God's peace be upon him- we see these two tasks manifestly in the Qur'an and the practicing of the tradition of the Messenger of God himself. The Qur'an has invited the people to spirituality to the extent of the ability of humankind can attain and beyond and next is establishing justice and equality. The Prophet also as well as those that was the language of revelation also followed these two methods. The knowledge of the Prophet himself was such, that until the day he had not formed an administration, he would strengthen spirituality. As soon as he was able to establish a rule, he would establish justice in addition to spirituality; he formed a government and rescued the poor from under the yoke of tyrants to the extent that the era permitted. This is a common feature of the Prophets that those that are the followers of the Prophets must sustain this feature. Both from the aspect of spirituality that individuals acquainted with spirituality must strengthen and all the people- the people themselves- must also strengthen this spirituality and the second subject that is the establishing of justice. The rule of Islam must establish justice at the same time that it reforms and propagates spirituality. If we are the followers of Islam and followers of the Prophets then we should know that this was the permanent feature of the Prophets. If the Prophets arrive until eternity, again this holds true; again the spiritual aspects of humankind to the extent that humankind merits and the perpetuation of the establishment of justice among humankind and cutting off the hands of the oppressors holds true- and we must strengthen these two subjects.

We must- all people must, all human beings must- strengthen the Islamic government in order to establish justice. The government must also consider the spiritual aspects meaning that because it follows Islam, it must be styled in the manner of Islam. Styled in the manner of Islam implies these two objectives; the same two paths that Islam has which is safeguarding spirituality and strengthening spirituality of the people and the establishment of justice among them and the salvation of the oppressed from the hands of the oppressors. Now it makes no difference whether they are the oppressed that are being oppressed by governments or the oppressed that are being oppressed by the masters. Islam has arrived for these two reasons and we are followers of Islam and must safeguard these two reasons. The Islamic regulations must be safeguarded to their highest level for if the Islamic regulations are safeguarded to their highest level, then these two objectives that are the objectives of all the Prophets shall be- the objective of spirituality of the people and the objective of the establishment of justice in the society. From the one who is at the top to the individuals that compose the three powers and on to those that are outside these but are devoted to Islam, all must lift this burden and there should be no differences among them. The objective is one and all must participate in this singular objective. The nation must participate in this objective; the government must participate in this objective; the Parliament and the Judiciary must participate in this objective; all must participate in this objective; the theologians of the land wherever they are must participate towards realization of this objective.

The objective is that Islam should get moving; the objective is not that I should implement it. Of the things, that a person suffers from is these internal evil, which urges him to take charge of the affairs. If the job is performed in a better way by means of another person, makes him unhappy and he says that it is good that he stays. This arises from the internal mischief of a person. A person with a holy attitude prepares a plan to attain such a reward. If he calculates with himself that a greater reward would be given to him should he assist the person who is in charge and does a better job, he will not accept. The question is not that he wants the reward; the question is that he wants the material world. If difference arise among individuals, seek it within the individuals themselves to discover the issue; is the issue the interest of Islam and the interest of the Muslim or the issue is his own interest? Is the carnal soul involved or is God involved? If a person can do a better job than me, will I be happy if he takes charge of the affair or will I be unhappy? If one minister can do a better job than another minister and assists him, will his carnal soul permit? If it is for the sake of God then it must give him permission. If it is for the sake of God then there must not be discrimination among the various strata and thank God, there is no discrimination. We must be a singular hand as interpreted by Islam. We should be united in the face of strangers. A single hand; not even two; one hand; do one task; again if it had stated two hands, sometimes this one hand does not agree and do the same thing as the other hand. We must be one hand; a single hand means that you should repress your carnal soul; repress your aspirations, which you think are important. Think who we are and what this solar system is and what are these galaxies in relation to the greatness of God so that you understand that you are involved with a dirty evil and not an evil that is something worthwhile. We suffer from certain evils within ourselves that is dirty and mean. Save yourselves and save ourselves. If you rescue yourselves from this chain, what follows becomes easy; unity becomes easy provided you save yourself from these constraints; from this constraint of selfishness, that wants everything for the self; self-centeredness, me and no one else. This is present in all souls except those that are purified. This matter is present in all souls because it is the nature of Allah; the nature of Allah is to focus on the absolute perfection and until absolute perfection is flawed, it wants everything for the self. It wants power for the self because it is flawed; but it is in pursuit of the power of Allah and is not aware that its nature is devoted to God. It is the essence of monotheism that all people incorporate in them this nature of monotheism. Perhaps one of the biggest reasons for monotheism is this same essence. It is impossible foe a person to attain a position of power and not want the higher position; he is always seeking what he does not have.

The more capital the capitalist has, he nevertheless seeks to add to it and a regime however extensive seeks to add to its expanse. You notice these big powers are like this; all are in this manner except that they are on a vast scale while others are on a smaller scale. Otherwise this nature is present in everyone so that if the whole world is brought under your hegemony meaning that all powers of the world bow down before you and then you are told that there is a power beyond here and would you like to have that also, it is impossible for you to say `no'; you will say `yes'. Unless you have reached to the source of perfection, unless you have torn away the coverings and reached the source of perfection- and those are very few.

We must strive to strengthen this spirituality and to crush this carnality as much as we can. If this is resolved then everything will be solved. The differences are based on this subject. No difference occurs in the world except that it originates from this. On the very first day, Satan said that," Thou hath created me from fire and created Him from mud." «6» I am better than him; he violated the command of God and told God that he was better; and this satanic inheritance is for all of us. We see everything in ourselves to be superior to others. If that same subject is present in others, he sees it small while if it is present in him he sees it big; we disregard our own flaws while regard the minor flaws of others to be big. These are the same essence- the Divine nature that we have diverted it on the wrong path." Every person is born on the basis of pure essence." «7» Unless that," Except that their father and mother are of the Jews or the Christians or the Magi." Likewise, everything is based on the essence of monotheism but when Satan lays his hands on human beings, he causes them to deviate.

If this Islamic government were for example, in the hands of someone else, they would say that it was very good but now that it is not in their hands, they say it is very bad. If this Judiciary that has rendered so much service was in the hands of some other group they would say that they had rendered a lot of service; now that it is not in their control, they say that this is not a Judiciary system; that it is injustice and not justice. This is because of the same reason that the inner essence of a person has not been purified so that it wants justice for its own sake and not for himself. If we want justice, we want it for ourselves- we should not deceive ourselves. Whatever we want is for our own selves. We want justice not for its justice; if this justice is meted out to us and is opposed to us, we become the enemy of that justice. If some injustice is in our favor, we become the friends of that injustice. All of these are rooted in the person himself. If this root is eradicated or at least weakened, the matters shall be solved; all will become friends of one another; they will not find fault with one another and they will also become helpful. If a person does something, others will help him out when they see that he wants to do something. If an organization takes a positive decision and others see that it is a good one, they will pursue it. If that corrupt root is present in the heart of a person and he regards an issue to be one-hundred percent fair, he will say that it is not right. That corrupt root cause a person to deviate.

The nation of Iran must take note that it is placed in an era in which deviation has overtaken the entire world. This deviation has also always existed but in the way that it has increased at present, it had not spread in the rest of the eras because there were not so many instruments, so many tools to work with. Now the tools have increased to such an extent that if it was not for the fear of one another, the powers can set the world on fire; and this is a fire that has been lit and must be extinguished with the blessings of the nations. Nations must take note that the superpowers want them for their own interests. The big powers look upon those that present their all to them as something to be thrown away after use. They do not understand that they are not interested in their welfare; they want to secure their own interests. The one that wants the good of all is Islam. The one that wants good to be realized in the world is Islam and that righteous doctrine of the Prophets- a doctrine that has not been corrupted. For this reason, they are deceived; either because of the carnal soul that exists in them or for the few days that they want to reign or the few days that they want to build palaces- they surrender their all for these few days of worldly existence. They become the dishonorable servants of some person in order to impose themselves on their nations and bully them- and this is a mistake that they commit. If all of them return to the embrace of Islam, Islam is for the good of all of them. Islam both trains the inner self and safeguards the worldly interests. If only they become friends with their own nations, this enmity that they have with their nations, no person has with another. Worse than enmity is the fact that they are giving away their resources to their enemies and they place the destructive tools of repression with their crude oil at the disposal of the enemies. This is the highest form of enmity that humankind is faced with at present and the oppressed nations are suffering from it; and unless the nations awaken and become alert, the task shall not be performed.

However, we must start from ourselves. If we reform ourselves then surely that objective that we have in mind shall be realized in the world also- as it has been realized. If God forbid, our carnalities result in grievances to become complaints and complaints to end in oppositions, on that day we must mourn the entire country and we are to blame for not having crushed our carnalities. All be together; the entire world is opposed to you except a very few. If all of you are not united and decay from inside, then have no doubt that those same issues of before will occur in a much worse form; that same Islam of aristocracy shall return once again. They know that they must talk Islam; America also sympathizes with Islam; but American brand of Islam existed during the monarchy. It was American Islam; no one had the right to interfere in any affair. American Islam was such that the clergy must go to study theology; what had they got to do with politics? They would say this openly. This had been brainwashed to such an extent that we had come to the conclusion that we must go to the seminaries to study; why should we bother about what was happening to the nation; the affairs of the people is the responsibility of the king and was none of our business. The theory of yet another group was that allow immorality to increase so that His Holiness the Messiah would arrive. For what purpose should His holiness the Messiah arrive? His Holiness the Messiah should come in order to eliminate immorality, should we commit sin so that he comes? Do away with these crookedness. Do away with these factionalisms for God's sake if you are Muslims and for your country if you are nationalists; do away with these factionalisms and ride on this wave that is now carrying this nation forward; do not swim against the tide for your hands and feet will be broken.

Thank God, at the same time that it is faced with all oppositions, both locally and externally, Iran is traversing its path vigorously. The government is doing the job that is for the cause of God with all in its power. The Judiciary is reforming the judicial machinery with all in its power. The Parliament is fulfilling its responsibilities with all its power. The nation must also strengthen all of them.

To support the Parliament, to support the Judiciary, to support the government is to support Islam because they are serving Islam. At the time of the Commander of the Faithful- may God's peace be upon him- also there were deviations but they were minor. At the time of the Honorable Prophet, also, there were deviations; if you refer to the Qur'an you will notice that how much it complains about those people. Differences meaning deviations are not something that is exclusive to this era but we must compare between the deviations before the Islamic Republic and the deviations of the present. They say that it is good that it is not in the name of Islam. If it were not in the name of Islam then they would throw out everybody with a single kick. Why should it not be in the name of Islam? Does Islam want other than to have a good Judiciary; that also implements the Islamic laws? They are toiling for this reason. Now an infringement does occur somewhere so what would it not occur during the time of the Prophet? During the time of Hadrat `Ali? What did the people do with Imam Hasan? What did those same companions do with him? Are the people of Iran better or were they better? Is Islam better off now or when they were torturing the Prophet in the name of Islam; and were slaying the offspring of the Prophet in that fashion, in the name of Islam? Why must they cause the inner feelings of a person to deviate and carnalities to push aside everything and only focus on the shortcomings? That too when they come across a shortcoming they raise a hue and cry and say the entire world has been destroyed; that Islam is finished. If a judge shows some deviation in some place, they say that no, Islam is finished and that this Islam is useless. Is that Islam is useful in which there is prostitution all over the streets; that too open prostitution?! You are satisfied with that; you are dissatisfied with this. If God had given them respite, God alone knows what they wanted to do to Islam; in what manner they wanted to introduce Islam. An Islam that is not opposed to alcoholic drinks; an Islam that had nothing to do with the prescribed religious punishments; that it must not be enforced; an Islam that must also not interfere with centers of vice; this after all was the Islam of the aristocracy. There was Islam but the centers of prostitution was filled throughout Iran; there was Islam but the centers of vice abounded throughout Iran; there was Islam but they would abuse Islam; they would abuse the Prophet of Islam. In those days during the damned reign of Rida Shah, no one asked why and it was even worse in this time. They were more demonic than him; and if they had been given a respite, God alone knows where they would have taken this nation to and where they would have taken our youth. Thank God, today everything is proper. The government is working hard; there are shortages but these shortages are all over the world. With all the pressures that has been brought on this nation and on this government; and with all these disruptions that are occurring against Iran from all over, nevertheless, Iran is standing on its own two feet, is advancing vigorously, and is solving the problems. The nation should know that they must be patient in times of hardships and should help. If you want to be honorable; if you do not want to be subordinated; if you want that an America should not come and rule over you and if you want to safeguard your honor and Islam, you must tolerate some of those hardships that the Prophet of Islam tolerated. Tolerate a little of the hardships that Hadrat `Ali Bin Abitalib tolerated; you, too, should tolerate. You are his Shi`ite followers and are his nation. Help this government and help this country and the Islam that has set its blessed foot in your country. God grant success to all of you and we all surrender humbly to the will of the Blessed and Almighty God and act upon His commandments.

May God's peace and mercy be upon you.