Speech [Dimensions of Imam `Ali's (`a) personality]

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

Before embarking on my talk, I would like to thank the Construction Jihad. Prayer is what I can do and I do pray. I pray for you who are devoting your lives for Islam and the Muslims. You should expect no reward from anybody except God. Nobody can give the reward you deserve except God Almighty. On this auspicious day, I beseech the Almighty God to grant felicity to all those who are serving this Islamic Republic and all those who are spending their lives and properties and support them.

I convey my felicitations to all the Muslims and downtrodden of the world, especially the oppressed Iranian nation. Concerning Imam `Ali, I do not really know from where to start; the issue is intricate. It is not a problem that man could understand all the lamentations he had; he used to lament wherever he went. What are those lamentations in the supplications recorded from him? Is it because Imam `Ali (`a) pays attention to this world and has come from the stage of unity to multiplicity that he used to have such cries? Is attention to multiplicity the cause of all these cries of him? In all those nights of lamentations and in all those wells where he used to lament and in all those cases for which he used to supplicate to God silently has it been related to this point?" O God! Make us return from Your Proximity to the world of multiplicity!" The words uttered by the Noble Messenger (s):" Sometimes, there is vexation in my heart for which I ask forgiveness to Allah seventy times a day." «1» Does he here mean a real vexation in the heart or return to multiplicity?

Attention to the world of nature which is one of the divine manifestations has prevented them from apprehending the spiritual and divine realms. On account of it, he used to lament. It is an issue we cannot comprehend. We imagine that these things that the philosophers are saying, these things that the theoretical mystics and these things that the theosophists are saying are an example of these issues that have emerged for the noble Friend Allah and the great saints of God. These are all issues of theoretical mysticism, theoretical philosophy and theoretical theosophy. They are theoretical- not the ones they are supposed to be. Comprehension is another issue while immersing in those issues is higher; effacement in all issues is a higher stage while the unconsciousness that has happened to him is among the higher ones, and coming back from there has been difficult for him; it has been painful; there has been nothing more painful than this. From that stage of the unseen where they could met God and where there was no" self" returning to this world becomes very difficult for them. This issue has been true for all the saints of God from Hadrat Adam to the Messenger of God. And this is an issue that we cannot comprehend. Except these very things that are related to this world; all of them are natural; even mysticism is natural. Even theosophy is natural and so with philosophy. All these are natural affairs to that extent. That is the very end of the works of mystics; theoretical mystics are different from those who used to comprehend. What can we say about it?

Of course, once they returned to the plurality, afflictions would be experienced by them and the Muslims, which were backbreaking ones. They had all those afflictions but their spiritual afflictions surpassed all those things. Their return from the world of unconsciousness, from the world of effacement to the world of consciousness has been hard for them, painful for them. But once they returned, since they were manifestation of mercy, they want all the people to become felicitous. As they see that the people are such that they are heading toward the hellfire in multitude; that they are jointly constructing the hell for themselves, they experience suffering on this account; even for the fact that an infidel will go to hell, they suffer. They are mercy. On the other hand, once he observed that the government of justice was about to be established, then on account of that government of justice he used to suffer a lot and he used to receive a blow! This also involves suffering; not on account of himself; it is because he wanted the people to hold fast to justice and not to submit. This is a thing that has been there from the beginning of creation till the end.

Everyone who rose up for implementation of justice received a blow. Since Abraham, the Friend of Allah, rose up for justice, he received a blow and they threw him into a blazing fire. From the beginning of the world till now there has been harm for those that are for justice, for the government of justice; they have tasted this" penalty" as they were supposed to taste it- each time in a different form. Let us suppose that what has been said about the prophets- most of which is wrong and contrary to the reality- is right and tat they did not rise up for the implementation of justice. Let us assume that the statement," They did not wage a war" is correct, you would notice nevertheless the most sacred things for the infidels was the idols. If a certain person without any fear- God forbid- would come here and behave rudely against God, is he not waging a war against the Muslims? If he would insult God, if he would insult the Messenger of God, is he not waging a war against the Muslims? Actually, this person has risen up against all Muslims. If Abraham the friend of God, let us assume, did not do anything except that he has drawn his stuff and broke the idols, the most sacred things for the idol-worshippers, is it not an uprising against them? Is this not an armed uprising? Is it not higher than the armed uprising? If armed divisions would rise up against you, which one would you regard as worse, they or the one who would rise up without any weapon but he would come any openly curse the things you deemed sacred? Without any doubt the Muslims would consider the latter as worse; that was also true with them.

Therefore, it is wrong to say that as Jesus Christ (`a) only engaged in preaching and working miracles or that prophet Moses did trivial things. Well, some of them rose up. Yet, it is true that anyone who has, from the beginning until now, has risen up to establish justice and the government of justice, has received a blow. So, we have nothing to complain of receiving slap because we rose up for implementation of justice, for the government of justice, for the Islamic government, we would receive a blow. We should receive more blows. That time it was in one form and now in another form. Yet, that we should receive" penalty" is the same. Prophet Abraham the friend of God received penalty; Moses the Interlocutor of Allah did so, the Messenger of God did so, and the Commander of the Faithful experienced the same while our Imams also suffered a lot. It is because all of them intended to establish the government of justice. If prophet Abraham would just come and do his supplications and remembrance of God, they would not have thrown him into fire.

If Prophet Muhammad (s) had only prayed when he was in Mecca, there would have been nothing beyond this. But he used to resist the things they deemed noble and grandiose. For this reason, they used to oppose him. If anyone would just sit down and pray, nobody would do anything against him. Even if the Muslims would sit down and stretch their hands toward God, saying:" O God! Be merciful to so-and-so; curse so-and-so and this-and-that," nobody would ever mind them. This is repugnant, however, to the conduct of the prophets. All received a blow; we are receiving a blow and this blow that is being received by Islam is not received by us. This is the blow that has been struck to the sanctities of the prophets from the beginning of the world till now. It has not been directed at any single person. The issue has not been a personal one; the issue has been the school- they struck a blow to their school. And now, as the world has become interconnected, everywhere is the same like now. Now, perhaps my words can be heard in many places; everybody could hear. Now, the world has become like this. For this reason, once you rise up now and they see that you have risen up against all their sanctities that is worldly attachments, they will slap you in the face. You have risen up against their sanctities. They want to accumulate wealth; you have risen up against them. you should receive a blow; there is no choice. All of us have to receive a blow. It is the blow that is being struck against Islam.

Thank God, the spark of these issues has now manifested everywhere in the world. Whatever the mass media and America want to cry and any other damn thing they want to do everywhere is of no avail. That violation they did in Mecca has not produced waves everywhere in the world. Radio Israel is expected to oppose us. The tyrannical governments are expected to oppose us. The propaganda launched by the global mass media is supposed to oppose us. If they do not act so, we should consider them as going against their nature and contradicting themselves. If they want to disgrace me, they should praise me. If they speak ill against me, people become more attentive. If they touch the sea, it would become filthy. If they praise me, all the people will oppose me. But God Almighty has willed for them to be inimical so that people would become equipped.

I hope that God Almighty would give us all the opportunity to become familiar with the teachings of Islam, to comprehend supplications of the Imams, to understated what they say and to realize their ideals. May God

familiarize us with those issues. May God strengthen Islam, and as He has promised He will fulfill His promise.

May God's peace and mercy be upon you.