In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds, and peace and greetings upon our Master and Prophet, Ab-al-Qassem Al-Mustafa Muhammad, and upon his immaculate and infallible household, especially the one remaining with Allah on earth. Greetings be upon you Fatima Masoumeh, our master, the daughter of Musa ibn Ja'far. Greeting of Allah and His angels and chosen servants be upon you and your immaculate ancestors.
The gathering of the dear basijis - who enjoy warm and enlightened hearts and firm determination - in this holy center in the presence of the holy soul of the great and pure lady, the daughter of Musa ibn Ja'far, is a sign and a flag to demonstrate the grandeur and progressiveness of the Islamic Republic.
The mere presence of millions of enthusiastic, faithful, sincere and insightful youth from across the country in the Basij is enough to prove that this government is dynamic, purposeful, determined and progressive. This presence is enough to show that this government and this great movement by the Iranian nation are immune to the most complex plots and the most dangerous moves of the enemy. Of course this is not a slogan - it is based on logical reasoning.
The idea to establish the Basij was a sign of divine power which was bestowed on that righteous servant of God, that great man and that unique figure in the history of Islam after the infallible Imams (a.s.). The idea to establish the Basij was proposed and practiced by our magnanimous Imam (r.a.). He stood up for this idea with all his power. He took care of this sapling until is became an immaculate tree which yields "its fruit in every season by the permission of its Lord". [The Holy Quran, 14: 25] The idea to establish the Basij was one of the blessings that God bestowed on that great man and that righteous and humble servant of God. The Imam's insightful eyes saw these signs of divine power. The problem with us is that we sometimes feel divine assistance but fail to see it appropriately. We fail to realize what great assistance is being bestowed on us. But the Imam saw that sign.
I have told this anecdote many times before. Once the Imam told me, "Since the beginning of the Revolution up until today, I have seen a powerful hand helping us everywhere." It was about 1365 when he said this. He used to see this powerful hand. The Imam's outlook on the Iranian nation was different from those of others. If we had decided to ask many religious and non-religious scientific elites to evaluate the Iranian nation at that time, we would have received weird evaluations. Some people did not consider this nation as faithful. Some others did not think the Iranian nation was sincere. Yet others had doubts about the power and loyalty of the people. I heard these things from many people. But in the year 1341, when there was no sign of massive public demonstrations, the Imam said in the city of Qom that the people would gather all over the plain around Qom and pledge their allegiance to him if he just asked them to. This was what he thought of the people. He knew the people. He discovered the valuable element in the hearts and souls of the people and made use of it. Therefore, the Islamic Revolution achieved victory in spite of the obstacles on its way. No analyst could believe such an event would take place in Iran. He trusted God and took action. He formed a bond with the hearts of the people and encouraged them to step into the arena. Then this great movement took place, and he proposed the idea of establishing the Basij later on.
You are the sweet fruits of that immaculate tree which was planted in this land by the Imam himself. The tree will continue producing fruits. "Have you not considered how Allah sets forth a parable of a good word (being) like an immaculate tree, whose root is firm and whose branches are in heaven, yielding its fruit in every season by the permission of its Lord? And Allah sets forth parables for men that they may be mindful." [The Holy Quran, 14: 24-25] When the land is fertile and prepared and when the seed is pure, the tree will never stop growing. That is to say, nothing will be able to harm it. The Basij is such an immaculate tree.
The Basij has been through a lot of tests. During the Sacred Defense Era, the young generation before you made a lot of achievements in the battlefield. I saw the talents of those youth blossoming. The youth who were only 23 or 24 years old used to act like experienced commanders. They used to mobilize soldiers and lead them appropriately to achieve victory. These things are extraordinary. The Basij played its role during the Sacred Defense Era. Both the Army and the Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution admitted that the Basij played a determining role in different stages of the long and difficult battle.
When the imposed war was over, some superficial people thought the Basij was over too. But the Basij continued its presence because there were other areas in which selfless efforts were needed. The Basij is present wherever there are selfless efforts - selfless efforts in the arena of knowledge, selfless efforts in the arena of politics, selfless efforts in the arena of social activities, selfless efforts in the vast international arena. These selfless efforts are being still being made, and they will continue in the future as well.
Basij means joining faith and action together - not just action, but selfless action. From an Islamic perspective, faith without action is the minimum requirement. Perfect and genuine faith is one that is accompanied by jihad in the arena of action. "Those who believed and left their homes and struggled for the cause of Allah, and those who took them in and helped them - these are the believers in truth." [The Holy Quran, 8: 74] A true believer is one whose faith is accompanied by jihad and assistance for other believers. This and many other Quranic verses reject the wrong and misguided idea that faith minus action and jihad is enough to get close to God. The Basij is based on the idea that faith must be accompanied by action - selfless action. Therefore, there are various arenas for jihad.
The Basij has been growing until today. The progress of the Basij in various dimensions is the kind of progress that is expected by anybody who is familiar with the Basij. The Basij has had both quantitative and qualitative growth. It has also resisted in the face of the factors that can shake people's faith - namely, temptations. The Basij has emerged victorious out of all the tests it has faced.
Insight, sincerity and timely and proportional action are the three elements that should be taken into consideration by all dear basijis and all the youth who are active in different parts of this great arena. You should always keep these elements in mind and join them together. These three elements should be our standard.
Insight is what determines the path. The honorable commander who spoke in this meeting rightly pointed out that our basijis have managed to keep abreast of the complexities of new situations by making their thoughts and characters more sophisticated. The events that happened in the year 1388 bear testimony to this fact. The situation was confusing enough to cause many people to make a mistake - and many people did make a mistake. Although most of the people who had made a mistake rectified their mistake in a short period of time, the great Basij movement preserved the criterion and the flag of insight. The Basij did not make a mistake. As the Commander of the Faithful (a.s.) said, the truth cannot be identified through prominent figures. A dignified man is honorable and trustworthy, but he cannot be the standard for truth. Sometimes dignified men - like some companions of the Holy Prophet (s.w.a.) - make a mistake and follow the wrong path.
It is necessary to identify the truth. It is necessary to identify the path in order to be able to tell if somebody is righteous or not. Whoever treads the right path is righteous, and whoever does not tread the right path should be rejected. It is necessary to identify the truth. The young and faithful people who have gathered under the flag of the Basij showed that they enjoy this insight. They showed that they are insightful. Insight is the first element, and it should remain so in the future. It is necessary to develop the ability to think critically. As the founder of this great movement to whom our society owes a debt of gratitude, Imam Khomeini (r.a.) said, "If I strayed away from Islam, the people would turn their back on me." The standard is Islam, not individuals. This is what our Imam said. He taught us how to identify the right path and the right move. He taught us how to identify the enemy's plots so that we can realize which move is in line with its plans and which move is against its plans. Therefore, insight is the first element, and it should not be forgotten.
Sincerity is the second element. According to a narration, if somebody who is fighting for a divine cause goes after the spoils of war and gets killed as a result, he has not been martyred in the way of God. Following the divine path for the sake of God is the requirement for being considered a martyr and mujahid. That is to say, a martyr should have sincerity. If our movement is affected by our personal or familial motives and our friendships, then this sincerity becomes impure and leads to certain problems. Lack of sincerity shows its effects one way or another.
Timely and proportional action is the third element. It is necessary to identify the right time for action. If one does not know when to do what, one may make big mistakes. Our basiji youth - including boys and girls - are active in different sectors. They are making intellectual, scientific, political and social efforts. When efforts are made to further a divine cause and fulfill an obligation, these efforts are jihad in the way of God. A basiji is one who makes these efforts. When making these efforts, it is necessary to keep the clear and appropriate path in mind - namely, the path of the Revolution, the path of safeguarding the Islamic Republic, the path of reviving religion. If we want to take care of these three elements, we need to engage in a jihad against our inner self. This kind of jihad is called "the greater jihad". Jihad against our inner selves is what we all need today.
One of the main requirements for developing an appropriate understanding of events is to see what path the enemy is pursuing. Today distorting realities and different events is one of the main paths that the enemy is pursuing, and this is among the important elements of soft war. The propaganda efforts made by the enemy in this regard are indicative of its weakness. Whenever the enemy faces an overwhelming problem in the arena of realities, it steps up its propaganda efforts. Today if one takes a look at the enemy's efforts in the vast arena of methods of propaganda - from Internet tools to audio visual means and to mouthpieces they have in different places inside and outside the country - one would see that one of the main techniques is to distort the events that happen in the country and to present the situation of the country as disappointing and in decline. The fact that they are making so many efforts in this arena is indicative of their weakness in the arena of realities.
The enemy has been making these efforts throughout the past 30 years. Of course the efforts have increased today. The propaganda efforts have increased because the current government officials are shouting the slogans of the Revolution more seriously, because the path of the Imam, the path of the Revolution and the path of rendering services for the people are more prominent today, because our government officials are populist and the people can feel this. Today if you take a look at the enemies' propaganda, you will see that when they speak about economic matters, all they want to say is that we have reached a dead end, that the problems are insurmountable, that there are many problems and that bad things will happen in the future. And there are some people who believe what they say and repeat their comments inside the country. Before the elections and the fitna that followed, some people - who had successfully passed the test of fitna - used to come to me and say that the year 1388 would be a difficult time in terms of economic matters. They used to present the situation as gloomy, disappointing and overwhelming. They wanted to disappoint government officials in one way and the people in another. These propaganda efforts by the enemies show that they have not been able to keep pace with the great and accelerated movement by our people and government officials. Therefore, if one realizes that the enemy has such a position, one will have an appropriate and accurate view of reality.
Similarly, in the area of foreign policy, you noticed the same thing in some of our newspapers or in the comments made last year by some elements of the fitna. They used to repeatedly say, "We have been humiliated in the world" and "The Islamic Republic has lost its honor and value in the world" and other such things. Today when we look at the realities, we see that the Islamic Republic's honor has been increasing among different Muslim and non-Muslim nations in the world on a daily basis. The enemies of the Iranian nation know, understand and feel this truth. Of course they deny this.
For example, why should we underestimate the President's trip to Lebanon? It was an important event. If the same thing had happened to any other country, especially the leaders of arrogance, they would have opened a big chapter for it in political propaganda and analyses. Lebanon is not our neighbor, and its people are not all Muslims. The population is a mixture of Muslims and Christians, and the Muslim population consists of Shia and Sunni Muslims. A nation with such diversity welcomes the President of the Iranian nation and expresses its emotions in such a unified manner. This is something unique. No such thing would happen to another country in the world. Which country's president would be welcomed like that in another country? And this is not particular to Lebanon. Today if our prominent government officials go to Egypt and no restrictions are imposed, the same things would happen there too. The same is true of Sudan and all other Muslim countries. This shows the greatness of the Iranian nation. This is an achievement that you made. The honor belongs to you. Such a thing would not have happened if the government had been isolated from the people and had not enjoyed the support of millions of motivated youth. The honor belongs to you dear youth. Yet, look at the enemy's propaganda - it shows exactly the opposite of this. Whenever they have to speak the truth, they distort it trough their analyses. And whenever they do not have to tell the truth, they simply deny and hide it.
The same is true of the Basij itself. At a certain stage, the enemy focused its global propaganda efforts on the Basij, and these efforts are partially continued even today. They said whatever they could. They bombarded the Basij with negative propaganda in order to ruin its reputation in the eyes of the people, but they failed. "And Allah will show the truth to be the truth by His words." [The Holy Quran, 10: 82] Allah the Exalted will not let this obvious truth stay hidden. Therefore, the Basij has acquired increasing honor in our country on a daily basis. Across the country, the youth who are active in different sectors consider the Basij as a great and brilliant identity and as the symbol of determination. You dear basijis should strengthen this. You should try to strengthen this by keeping the three elements - insight, sincerity and timely and proportional action - in mind. It is necessary to avoid extremism. Going to extremes is harmful, no matter what the direction is. You should be careful. Revolutionary enthusiasm should not be diminished at all. Revolutionary motivation should be increased in our hearts on a daily basis. These different mountains of problems that oppressed people across the world are faced with will not be eliminated unless through the willpower and firm determination of believers. The goal is not just to improve the situation of the country. The world of Islam and even humanity is in need of assistance from Islam and the Islamic Ummah.
There will be many problems on your path. It is necessary to have a firm determination. It is necessary to have long-term plans. This firm determination should be preserved. This revolutionary enthusiasm should be increased on a daily basis. It is necessary to pay attention to God and rely on Him and His representatives. The path of worship, the path of humility and the path of thinking should always remain open to us. We should strengthen ourselves through these things. This revolutionary enthusiasm should be preserved, but you should take care not to use it in the wrong way, and this requires careful thinking, awareness and insight.
There is no doubt that the future of the Iranian nation and the Islamic Ummah is far better than its present conditions. For example, notice how much progress the Iranian nation has made in all political, scientific and social areas over the past 30 years - that is to say, since the beginning of the Revolution. You should know that our future progress will be even more than the amount of progress we have made so far. Our nation will make progress on a daily basis. The movement of the Iranian nation in all arenas is unstoppable. By Allah's favor, our nation will move on an appropriate path and on the straight path of divine, Islamic and Quranic guidance. There are bright prospects for the Iranian nation. And this will affect the world of Islam and the Islamic Ummah. By Allah's favor, Muslim nations will become more vigilant on a daily basis.
I hope Allah the Exalted will hasten the re-appearance of the Imam of the Age (may our souls be sacrificed for his sake). I hope He will place us among his supporters both during his absence and after his re-appearance. I hope Allah the Exalted will make the holy heart of the Imam of the Age satisfied with us. Dear God, make all Iranian people, especially our dear basijis, benefit from the prayers of that Imam.
Greetings be upon you and Allah's mercy and blessings.