Leader’s Speech to President and Cabinet Members

The following is the full text of the speech delivered on August 30, 2005 by Ayatollah Khamenei the Leader of the Islamic Revolution in a meeting with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his cabinet members.

In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful

I would like to thank Mr. Ahmadinejad for his valuable and informative statements. This is a good opportunity to commemorate the two honorable and great martyrs, Shahid Rajai and Shahid Bahonar. It is true that these two martyrs were examples of committed statesmen of the Islamic Republic. We hope that Allah the Exalted will treat them with His endless mercy, clemency and grace and that He will also make us successful in following their path.

The inauguration of this new administration has coincided with the blessed months of Rajab and Sha'ban and with the days and nights of divine remembrance and submission. This is a very important coincidence. Do not underestimate such things and start your work in the name of God. Make sure your hearts, minds and actions are never severed from divine remembrance throughout your term and throughout the opportunity that Allah the Exalted has provided for you. Developing a bond with God ensures proper action and steadfastness on the path. If we wish to follow this path appropriately, if we wish to avoid being sidetracked by the lure of passing attractions, if we wish to move directly towards our goals, we are definitely in need of divine remembrance, reliance on God and constant closeness to Him. We should always keep this in mind. "Blessed are those who are constantly engaged in prayer." The poet is not referring to those who pray all the time. What is meant is the spirit of prayer and divine remembrance at all times. We should constantly keep God in mind. In all our decisions, in all our actions, in all our statements - this is because statements that are made by people like us are far more significant than statements that are made by ordinary citizens - in all our choices and in all our appointments and dismissals, we should keep God and divine standards in mind. The criterion is to ensure that our actions are not based on our passions and personal motives. Anything that is based on human passions and personal motives is non-divine. If these factors are pushed aside, sense of responsibility will be the main factor. This is divine and godly. You should always keep this in mind.

The nature of your new responsibility is different from all your earlier services. All of you - except for a few people who have also served in the previous government - were serving in other positions previously and all of the efforts you made were valuable as well. However, the nature of your new responsibility is different. This responsibility involves teamwork on a vast national level. Therefore, you are in charge of the same task. You should constantly keep in mind that even though you are engaged in different tasks, what you are doing is one thing, and the manifestation of it is cabinet meetings that are attended by all members of the cabinet. The principal guide is the honorable president who creates harmony so that this joint responsibility can be carried out successfully. And this joint responsibility is progress and helping the country move towards the goals that we have defined for ourselves, which are the goals of the Islamic Revolution and have been specified in the Twenty-Year Strategic Plan. Make the best of the time that is available to you in order to fulfill this great responsibility.

You have four years' time. In other words, you have around 1450 days. With each passing day, this figure will decrease by one and will get closer to zero. You should appreciate the value of every single day. You have a vast amount of time and you can do many things in this relatively long period of time. Amir Kabir, who is an outstanding personality in the history of our country and who accomplished great achievements, was in power for only three years, which is one year less than the amount of time you will have in your new position of responsibility. Nevertheless, the achievements of Amir Kabir were so great, significant and valuable that his name went down in history. What is interesting is that he made no significant achievement before being appointed as the prime minister of the country and being exiled to Kashan subsequently. Whatever achievements he made were in those three years.

Therefore, this four years' time is not a short period of time. It is a vast amount of time. If you begin right now and if you keep your eyes focused on the vast horizons that are lying in front of you, it will be possible for you to do everything you want to do. There will be a day when you will realize that you do not have much time left. For example, you will realize that you have only three or six months, and you will not be able to do important things in those three or six months except for continuing on your earlier projects and completing them. So keep this in mind and appreciate the value of every single day. That is to say, not even one single day should be wasted. You should not think that you have four years and that you have enough time to do what you want to do. No, you should start working seriously from this first day and this first hour.

Because I know that your intentions are good and divine and that you have entered into this arena in order to render services, I am sure that if you preserve these intentions, Allah the Exalted will help you. Of course, you should remember that preserving divine blessings is far more difficult than gaining them. The Holy Quran says: "Indeed, those who say, ‘Our Lord is Allah' and then remain steadfast, the angels descend upon them." [The Holy Quran, 41: 30] It is not enough to declare "Our Lord is Allah." It is necessary to "remain steadfast" as well. And then the angels will descend upon us.

It is steadfastness that matters, otherwise even a person as physically weak as I am, could lift a heavy weight for a short moment, but he cannot hold it up for long and he will drop it. A person who is strong and capable should be able to hold up this weight for the required amount of time. Many of us have good intentions and we enter the arena with good intentions, but we cannot preserve these good intentions. Our intentions are undermined by the obstacles that lie on our path: they are weakened and they fade away. Our hearts - which contain our intentions - may be sidetracked by strong attractions that pull them in a different direction. And one day we realize that our original intentions have disappeared or changed beyond recognition. This is when one's path changes.

If you see some people who had initially declared "Our Lord is Allah" are now facing in the direction of idols rather than in the direction Ka'bah, and if you see that they have made a U-turn despite the good slogans they used to promote, it is because they failed to remain steadfast. Why did they fail? Because many attractions appear on the path.

You have probably heard the story of the person who had decided to live the life of an ascetic for forty days, but by the second, fifth or twentieth day, evil factors suddenly started interfering with his determination: he saw an attractive woman, food was placed in front of him, he was offered money, so he failed to resist and he surrendered, thereby ruining all the efforts he had made in the past twenty or thirty days. This could be a true story, but even if it is not true, the message it contains is a lesson for us.

Now let me make a point about Islamic government. One of the good slogans which was promoted by the honorable president - both during his electoral campaigns and afterwards - concerned the issue of Islamic government. I referred to this issue in my Friday prayer sermons. We need to analyze this issue more. The Islamic system was established after the Islamic Revolution. This revolutionary uprising and movement could have resulted in the establishment of a non-Islamic government. This has happened in many places, and Algeria is a case in point. The movement in Algeria was Islamic in nature. Basically, Muslims were the supporters of the movement and its leaders. However, after the victory of the movement, individuals who did not believe in the principles of Islamic thought seized power in Algeria. The same was about to happen in Iran. This is what was happening on Bahman 21st, 22nd and 23rd.

I was closely familiar with some of the things that were happening at that time. They were trying to label our popular movement as "labor movement" and to utilize the same formula that had been employed to establish socialist systems in certain parts of the world - namely, a revolt by the working class - after which only a few people would come and seize power. However, in their calculations they had not taken Imam Khomeini (r.a.) into consideration. That is to say, they had disregarded that indomitable and invincible man in their calculations. For this reason, they received a powerful blow. On the third day after the victory of the Revolution, they even staged a protest in front of Imam's residence at Alavi School, and they made certain so-called socialist and labor movement demands. Despite all of these things, an Islamic government was established in the country.

What was meant by an "Islamic system"? Establishing an Islamic system meant that a clear standard had to be specified for legislation, implementation and decision-making in the country. The main pillars of the government - the executive branch, the legislative branch, the Leader, the judiciary and other pillars - were built and all of them were consolidated through the Constitution. Thus, the basic pillars were built. This "Islamic system" is not just the form, rather it has a content as well. That is to say, there are certain things that have been done as far as social life of the people is concerned. The actualization of these goals in society calls for officials and pious individuals who have faith in these goals and who also have the necessary qualities and characteristics. This is what makes an Islamic government. An Islamic government includes all the officials and employees who work for it and not just the executive branch. That is to say, it includes all the statesmen and employees. All of them should coordinate their orientations and their social and personal behavior as well as their relationship with the people on the basis of Islamic standards in order to be able to achieve these goals. They should also keep these goals in mind and move towards them at an accelerated rate. This would be an Islamic government.

Right from the beginning, efforts were made to establish an Islamic government. Certain people ask: "Do you want to establish an Islamic government after twenty-seven years?" No, the efforts to establish an Islamic government began from the first day, but there were ups and downs. There was progress and regression. We were successful in certain areas and unsuccessful in certain other areas. Some of us slipped in the middle of way. Some of us started having doubts about our original goal. Some of us failed to control ourselves and were attracted to taghuti ways of behaving.

It is not enough to be an Islamic government in name only. After all, there are already many such governments in our region, in Africa and in other places. Before the Revolution, such a government was established in a certain country, and we would jokingly refer to it as the American Islamic Republic of such and such a country. That government too carried the name of "Islamic Republic". Therefore, it is not enough for us to be Islamic in name only. Our actions and our orientations should also be Islamic. If any problems appear in these areas, they will cause a setback in the continuous, constant and dynamic movement that is needed for the establishment of an Islamic government, and things would naturally be delayed. However, we need to keep in mind that a truly perfect Islamic government will only be established during the time of the Perfect Man. How fortunate are those who will be present on that day! All of us are imperfect human beings. We are only trying to the best of our capabilities to help all government officials of the country - including ourselves - to reach a point that would meet the minimum standards of the Islamic Republic. We want to move closer to the minimum standards. When an administration declares that its goal is to reach this objective, this should be regarded as very good and auspicious.

Let me repeat what I said around four, five years ago in a meeting with government officials in this Hussayniyyah. I said in that meeting that first there was the Islamic Revolution, then an Islamic system, then an Islamic government and then an Islamic country. If our government becomes Islamic, only then will our country become Islamic. If we fail to achieve the minimum Islamic standards in our interactions, in our actions, in our financial matters and in our struggles and efforts, how can we expect Islamic behavior from our students, from our young businessmen, from our lower level government employees, from our laborers, from our villagers or our urban population? Why do we blame the people? We should not blame them. If there are any shortcomings, we should blame ourselves: "Blame yourselves." [The Holy Quran, 14: 22]

First, we should become Islamic, and once we have become Islamic, we should "call people to religious faith, but not just with your tongues." Once we become Islamic, our actions will make people become true Muslims and our country will become an Islamic country. Both our laws and the way we implement them will be Islamic. Both our statesmen and our people will become Islamic in terms of their behavior. However, Satan will not die. He will remain alive. There are always groups, currents and organizations that surrender to Satan, but in general things will be Islamic.

The slogan of "Islamic government" means that we want to bring our individual actions, our behavior towards each other and towards the people, and our interaction with international systems and with the domineering powers of today's world closer to Islamic standards and principles. This is a very valuable slogan. By Allah's favor, you will remain committed to this slogan and you will make your efforts more serious and more impeccable. This is because this will be a major step towards those goals and - as I pointed out earlier - achieving those goals requires particular kinds of men. Of course, by "men" I do not mean the same thing that is meant in the Constitution and it includes women as well. In other words, this work requires particular types of people, elements and officials. As they say, they should have what it takes.

The second point is that one of the slogans of this government is justice. Justice was certainly the pivot of the Revolution and there is no doubt in this regard. No government openly declares that its actions will be based on something other than justice. I must thank Mr. Ahmadinejad for his innovation and for announcing focus on justice as his slogan. This was a great innovation. While watching his election campaigns, I used to tell my family members that even if Mr. Ahmadinejad would not win the elections, he would have rendered great services to the Revolution by promoting the slogan of focusing on justice. He did not let negligence of this slogan become an established tradition. This slogan was proposed and it attracted everyone's attention. Fortunately, the people understood and appreciated the message and they voted for it. This was an important achievement. Therefore, this administration's focus on justice is an important point. Proposing this slogan as the pivot of the administration's work was an innovation and a new development. You should remain committed to this slogan.

A lot of efforts have been made for establishment of justice. From the beginning of the Revolution, all the innumerable efforts which were focused on helping underprivileged people - namely, distributing welfare, educational and medical facilities in different parts of the country - have all been steps towards establishment of justice. These services have truly changed the conditions. Those who had seen the conditions of underprivileged people under the previous regime notice the difference. I was present in underprivileged areas of the country and I saw the conditions of those areas at that time. I visit those areas on a regular basis: the conditions have been truly transformed. The purpose of the massive infrastructure, which has been created for everybody to use, is to promote justice. There is no doubt in this regard. However, care should be taken to prevent justice from being given second priority and from being forgotten gradually as a result of focusing on other values. This has been a threat in our system. Other values - such as progress and development, construction of the country, freedom and democracy - are also very important. Promoting the slogan of justice does not at all mean rejecting other values. However, when we highlight these other values and sideline the issue of justice, fighting discrimination and addressing the needs of underprivileged people in society, we are likely face a great danger, but this danger is eliminated or minimized when the government focuses on justice.

The basic question is: what is justice? On the face of it, justice is a simple concept which everybody speaks about. However, it is very difficult to achieve justice in practice. This is the same point that the Commander of the Faithful (a.s.) refers to when he says: "Truth is very vast in description but very narrow in equitability of action." The same is true of justice because justice is truth and the two cannot be separated from one another. In one sense, truth is the same as justice and justice is the same as truth. Justice is simple to describe but very difficult to achieve in practice. Sometimes it is very difficult to even identify manifestations of justice. Sometimes it is very difficult to tell what is just and what is unjust. I do not want to define justice in this meeting. Certain general definitions of justice have been presented, including equitable distribution of facilities, all of which are correct and require careful analysis and consideration. In other words, you need to define justice in your area of responsibility and you need to find ways of achieving it.

I would like to discuss one more point: if we are determined to establish justice in society in the real sense of word, we need to pay attention to the fact that justice is intertwined with two other concepts. One is the concept of rationality and the other is the concept of spirituality. If justice is separated from rationality and spirituality, it will no longer be the kind of justice that you are after. In fact, it will not be justice at all. Rationality is important because if human wisdom is not employed in identifying the manifestations of justice, it leads to deviation and error. One may end up believing that certain things are just whereas they are not. Similarly, one may fail to recognize what is just. Therefore, rationality and evaluation are a necessary precondition for achieving justice.

When rationality and evaluation are mentioned, you should not immediately jump to the conclusion that rationality and evaluation have been used in the sense of conservatism and intellectual or intellect-driven approach. There is a difference between conservatism and rationality or wisdom. A conservative person is a supporter of preserving the status quo and he is afraid of any kind of change. A conservative person cannot tolerate any sort of change and is terrified of change. However, this is not the case with rationality. Sometimes rational calculations give rise to massive changes.

Our great Islamic Revolution was the result of rationality. It was not the case that the people took to the streets without any calculations and succeeded in overthrowing that powerful regime. Everything was the result of rational calculations and intellectual work. For many years, a discourse that was driven by truth, justice and freedom had developed among the people and this finally resulted in deploying popular forces and bringing them into the great arena of jihad, which gave rise to a victory against the enemy. Therefore, rationality can sometimes result in such great developments. The same is true today. Currently, there are certain developments in our system which have resulted from a rational and careful outlook on the existing situation and global conditions. I can see this happening in the case of different issues. Passive acceptance of the existing political and economic currents in the world is a great danger for our society and if one thinks carefully, one would realize that these conditions have to be changed through a movement - both in the area of economic issues and in the area of political matters. Therefore, rationality is different from conservatism. Never confuse rational calculations with conservative calculations: they are two different things.

The moment we mention rationality and rational calculations, some people say: "Be careful. Act cautiously. Pay attention to wisdom. Do not say anything that may provoke the world. Do not do anything that may result in a confrontation with the world." This is conservative rationalism, and I do not at all believe in it. If you want to administer justice in the right way, you need to make rational calculations and utilize wisdom and knowledge in different areas in order to find out what can ensure establishment of justice and what can lead to the kind of moderation which we believe is the basis of everything in creation and which reveals itself in our lives in the form of social justice.

If we separated justice from spirituality - that is to say, if we established a kind of justice that is not accompanied by spirituality - we would not have true justice. The kind of justice that is not accompanied by spirituality and attention to spiritual aspects of creation will only result in hypocrisy, lies, deviation and pretension, just like in communist systems whose slogan was justice. We used to promote the slogan of justice as well as freedom, but freedom was not at all among their slogans. All the countries in which communist movements had achieved victory in one way or another - for example, through a revolution or a coup d'état - had announced that justice was their main slogan. However, in reality their lives did not at all exhibit justice, rather their lives exhibited the opposite of justice. Those who came to power in the name of labor movements were in fact the same aristocrats of overthrown taghuti regimes. There was no difference between them. This was the way leaders of socialist countries used to live.

When I was president, I witnessed living conditions of the lower classes in a number of socialist countries. In those countries, there was absolutely no trace of what is commonly considered justice. A new aristocratic class had taken over in those countries and had established their own partisan and political standards. They had seized all the facilities while the people were living in poverty and misery. These conditions could be witnessed even in top socialist countries. Therefore, such pursuit of justice will be short-lived, deviated, hypocritical and fake.

Justice should always be accompanied by spirituality. In other words, you should pursue justice for the sake of God and divine reward. Only then will you be able to confront the enemies of justice. Of course, spirituality that is not accompanied by a tendency towards justice is one-dimensional. Some people are inclined towards spirituality, they completely disregard justice. This is not good. Islam does not support the kind of spirituality that is not concerned with social issues and the destiny of human beings: "One who spends a day without caring about the affairs of Muslims, is not a Muslim." What kind of "spiritual" person can put up with oppression, taghut, oppressive governments and hegemony? We cannot understand what this kind of spirituality is. Therefore, spirituality and justice are inseparable.

Let me discuss one more point regarding justice. Some people say that justice is distribution of poverty. No, those who are concerned with the issue of justice do not at all consider justice as distribution of poverty. On the contrary, justice is equitable distribution of the existing facilities. Those who claim that justice is distribution of poverty, the essence of their argument is that it is not advisable to go after justice and that one should go after production of wealth so that wealth can be distributed instead of poverty. However, going after production of wealth without keeping justice in view would only result in what can be witnessed today in capitalist countries. In the wealthiest country in the world - namely, America - there are people who die of hunger, cold and heat. These are not false claims: they are realities that we are witnessing today. There are people who make efforts for years, hoping to get an apartment with three, four rooms, yet once they fail, they engage in treacherous acts in order to reach their goal.

Two, three years ago, a senior CIA official was arrested on charges of spying for the former Soviet Union and subsequently for Russia. He was asked in an interview: "Why did you do this?" I read the text of the interview in a newspaper. The official had replied that he wanted a three-bedroom villa and that he would never have been able to get such a villa considering his salary and so he had to work for the Soviet Union in spite of the hostility that existed between the two countries at that time. When production of wealth is devoid of a concern for justice, it causes such conditions that smarter individuals in society make massive amounts of money overnight while the majority of people live an ordinary and unfulfilling life and others live in extremely difficult conditions. Therefore, it would be senseless to say that we should sideline justice and highlight production of wealth, arguing that we will go after justice once production of wealth has been taken care of. This is not possible. Justice means that the resources which exist in a country should be distributed in an equitable and rational way, and not in an equitable yet irrational way. And we should also try to increase these resources so that everybody - and not particular groups or social classes - gets a bigger share. This is one of the responsibilities of an Islamic government and you have already raised this issue in your slogans. This was a very good move and you should follow it up. You should remain committed to this slogan and you should consider it as the basis of your work.

You should make justice the pivot of all your plans and you should try to find ways of ensuring justice in different areas. The Organization for Management and Planning can play a crucial role in this regard. Apart from the Organization for Management and Planning, financial and economic organizations of the government as well as service and other sectors also play a crucial role.

Another unquestionable responsibility of an Islamic government is to promote knowledge. This is because an Islamic government will not be able to achieve its goals without promoting knowledge. The same is true of freedom of thought. Human beings truly need to be able to think in a free atmosphere. Freedom of expression is a byproduct of freedom of thought. When there is freedom of thought, naturally there is freedom of expression as well. The main priority is freedom of thought and enabling human beings to think freely. In the absence of a free intellectual atmosphere, there can be no opportunity for growth. In the absence of such an atmosphere, there would be no room for thinking, knowledge and other prerequisites for human progress. All the progress that we have made in such fields as theology and philosophy has been achieved thanks to debates and discussions and thanks to the existence of conflicting ideas. The complaint that I have voiced against our cultural organizations is that they are not playing their role in intellectual battles in an appropriate way. Intellectual challenges are necessary, but we should not - as Sa'di puts it - "let the dog loose and tie up the stone." We should not restrict promoters of truth and give a free rein to promoters of falsehood to do whatever they want with our young generation. No, let them say what they have to say and you too say what you have to say, and in this way, promote thinking in society. We have learnt through experience that whenever a truth is put forth in a sufficiently logical and eloquent way, no falsehood will be powerful enough to stand up against it and challenge it.

Another crucial responsibility is fighting corruption. I have spoken so much about the subject of fighting corruption - both in public and private meetings - that I think whatever I say will be repetitive. Of course, thankfully there are organizations and individuals in this administration that are paying due attention to this issue.

The next point concerns the issue of preserving national honor and dignity. If a nation feels proud, it will be able to make progress. However, if it feels humiliated, its potential will be suppressed. We should strengthen the sense of national dignity or what is commonly referred to as "national pride" - which although widely used, is not very expressive - so that our nation feels proud and competent. What fosters honor and dignity in a people - such as intellectual, cultural and scholarly heritage - appears in front of their eyes, and it includes their outstanding personalities, their brilliant past and their high capacities.

Another responsibility of an Islamic government is to fight domination. A domineering system is like a millstone around the neck of human communities and it destroys them. There are two sides to this system: a domineering side and a dominated side. It is necessary to fight this system, and this battle is not fought with swords, rather is it fought with wisdom, professional political work and courage in necessary and appropriate areas.

An Islamic government has certain enemies. Basically, an Islamic government is faced with two kinds of enemies. One group of enemies are the ones who have been identified and are well-known. All hegemons and dictators in the world are the enemies of Islamic governments for obvious reasons. This is because an Islamic government is opposed to the nature of domination and dictatorship. There are people who do not believe in religion or its involvement in matters relating to daily life - namely, secular people - and they too are opposed to Islamic governments. They say that religion should be kept apart from economic matters, from politics, from social life and from popular movements. This opposition manifests itself in different ways, ranging from verbal opposition to taking action and serious confrontations. International centers of wealth - or extremely wealthy people in the world who wish to spread their domination over oil and other natural resources throughout the world and who are putting in every effort to achieve this goal - are also among the external enemies of Islamic governments. As I mentioned earlier, not all the enemies are actively hostile. Some of them are just opposed to us on an ideological level. Some others express their enmity verbally. Yet others take action and cause actual conflicts. Therefore, there are different groups of enemies and each of them has to be dealt with differently.

The second group of enemies are the internal enemies, namely internal issues and problems. What is more lethal to us than the external enemies is the conflicts that develop among ourselves. The majority of deaths are caused by factors that are internal to individuals - factors such as viruses, germs, diseases and cancerous cells. The number of such deaths is larger than murders by other people. The same is true of an Islamic government. It should guard against its internal enemies: they are more dangerous.

Let me discuss a couple of such issues and problems. I spoke about some of these problems at the beginning of my speech. One of the problems relating to negligence and deviation occurs when we highlight religious recommendations without actually doing anything in practice. This would drag us into hypocrisy and it would also encourage hypocrisy among the people. I am not at all opposed to strengthening the religious discourse, but the discourse should result in action. We should not make things more Islamic than they really are through our statements and through pretension.

Attaching more importance to form than to content is one of the problems. It is necessary to make content Islamic. If we want to become truly Islamic, we should transform our methods of management. One of the good slogans of our president in his election campaigns - which I believe attracted a large number of people - was the need for a transformation in management. Who is responsible for bringing about this transformation in management? It is we ourselves who have to do this. The first step towards transformation is to make sure that our behavior, the quality of our work, our appointments and dismissals, our management techniques, our authority, our flexibility and our interaction with our clients, are Islamic.

I said that one of the problems is strengthening religious discourse without taking action, but this should not be confused with the efforts by some people to remove all the Islamic signs and manifestations from among the people. No, this is not what I have in mind. Islamic manifestations must never be undermined. "Indeed, those who revere the rites decreed by God demonstrate the righteousness of their hearts." [The Holy Quran, 22: 32] Basically, religious rites are meant to be demonstrated and put on display for everybody to see. They must never be undermined. Some people eliminate Islamic rites, signs, appearances, behaviors and manifestations from their lives and from the lives of other people under the pretext that they want to avoid pretension and hypocrisy. I certainly do not recommend such a thing. On the contrary, I advise you to preserve these signs and manifestations. However, if you want to carry your prayer mat around with you, you should make sure you pray on it, otherwise it is no use carrying it around with you if you do not even pray.

At the same time, if they accuse you of rigidity and Taliban-like actions, do not pay much attention to what they say. There have always been such accusations and they will not stop in the future either. We are opposed to the essence of any Taliban-like actions and tendencies. Basically, they are opposed to thinking and reasoning. They are rigid and dogmatic. As it happens, those who confront the pious side are in a sense closer to rigidity and Talibanism because they are rigid and dogmatic about Western teachings. Is it not dogmatism to completely and unquestioningly accept whatever is dictated by the West? This is the same as dogmatism and rigidity. More importantly, we normally do not find out about the latest Western comments and ideas. Obsolete and outdated ideas from the 19th century are promoted in society by Westerners. They act in a dogmatic and biased way in the area of politics, in the area of ethics, in the area of religious tendencies and in areas relating to government and economics. Their behavior is closer to Talibanism. Basically, rigidity is the manifestation of Talibanism. It is the manifestation of dogmatism and irrationality. We advocate rationality and thinking. The Holy Quran was revealed on the basis of rationality.

The next point that I would like to discuss is that you should make sure your services are tangible to the people. In some cases, certain administrations made investments which were not really large-scale, yet the outcomes were visible to the people. Sometimes we make much larger investments and we advertise them on many occasions, but our investments do not produce any visible results in the lives of the people. Try to make sure your services produce tangible outcomes. In other words, try to give rise to true transformation in all sectors and in all ministries as far as rendering services is concerned.

Apart from this, you should build a system in which you are accountable. Ministers in their areas of responsibility, directors of different ministries in their areas of responsibility and all advisors in their own areas of responsibility should be truly answerable. That is to say, they should be truly answerable when mistakes happen and they should also be answerable whenever they fail to do what they were supposed to. In many cases, no legal offense is committed, but the fact that a lot more should have been done, can be regarded as an offense. Failing to work as much as necessary is a kind of offense.

The next recommendation concerns teamwork and coordination. Maintaining cooperation in different sectors and at sensitive times is among the recommendations which I have repeatedly made over the past years. This recommendation has not been heeded yet and until recently I have received complaints from our government officials in this regard. One example is the lack of cooperation between our economic sectors and our Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Both under Dr. Velayati and under Dr. Kharrazi, officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs would always complain to me that there were certain political problems with particular countries and that the problems could be resolved through carefully calculated economic initiatives. They would complain that they did not have the necessary means to resolve the problems. They would say that sometimes economic sectors of the country had done certain things without informing the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and that they would have been able to resolve those problems through their work if they had been informed of what was going to be done. The honorable foreign ministers whose names I mentioned have repeatedly told me that sometimes the officials in charge of economic sectors of the country made certain deals outside the country, without reporting anything to our ambassadors and our Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Such things are instances of lack of coordination. As I said at the beginning of my speech, you are all doing the same thing. All of you are building parts of the same structure. Some of you may be building a wall while others may be laying the beams for the ceiling. Some of you may be preparing concrete while others may be bringing water for you. Each of you is doing your responsibility so that the structure can be built. If you do not work in coordination, you will never be able to achieve good results.

The next point is about the need to pay attention to simple lifestyle. One of the good slogans that were promoted by Mr. Ahmadinejad was the issue of simple lifestyle. This is a very important slogan. It should not be treated lightly. Sometimes we spend extravagantly in our personal life, which is a matter between ourselves and God and it may be haraam, makruh or mubah in Islam. However, sometimes government officials spend extravagantly in front of the people which is undoubtedly haraam, and not makruh or mubah. This is because such moves and actions promote aristocracy and extravagance. By spending extravagantly in front of other people, we encourage such things, first among our subordinates and then among the people. We must not encourage the people to do such things. There might be wealthy people in our society who live an extravagant life, which is of course bad, but it does not concern others. However, any extravagance by government officials is unacceptable because first of all, we are not spending out of our own pockets but from what belongs to the people and second, our extravagance will encourage others to be extravagant. Indeed, it is true that "the people follow the religion of their rulers." Here, the term "rulers" does not just refer to kings and so cannot claim that we do not have kings and that it does not apply to our society. No, "rulers" refers to us government officials: the people imitate what we do.

I read in a history book that when Walid ibn Abd al-Malik had become caliph, considering the fact that he was a big fan of accumulating wealth, jewelry and valuable objects, whenever ordinary people met each other in the streets and marketplaces, their small talk would be like this: "They have started selling this beautiful clothes. Have you bought any?" or "This jeweler is selling beautiful gem stones. Have you bought any?" In other words, the people were always speaking about the buying and selling of expensive and decorative objects and other such things. After Walid, Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik became caliph. He was fond of construction and loved building palaces and other buildings. According to the historian who wrote the book, during his reign, even when ordinary people went to mosque, they would ask each other questions like: "Have you completed the construction of your house?" or "Did you buy that house or piece of land?" or "Have you added those two rooms to your house?" All their conversations revolved around such issues. After these two caliphs, Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz came to power. He was a man of worship. The same historian reports that during his reign, when ordinary people met each other, their conversations would be like this: "Did you recite the Rajab prayer yesterday?" or "Did you perform that two-rikaat prayer?" Therefore, our actions have a direct impact on the way the people behave. Simple lifestyle is a very good thing.

Dear brothers and sisters, you have a heavy responsibility to shoulder. If you carry out your responsibilities well, Allah the Exalted will reward you doubly, and if you, God forbid, fail to do so, your punishment will be equally severe. You will need to preserve your relationship with God in order to be able to traverse this path safely and to make the most of the 1450 days that lie ahead of you. Do not forget to recite the Holy Quran every day. Make sure that you recite the Holy Quran every day, as much as you can. Those of you who know Arabic should contemplate on the verses and those of you who do not know Arabic should have a well-translated version of the Holy Quran so that you can consult the translation. Thankfully, today there are many good translations of the Holy Quran. You may be able to recite only one or two pages in ten minutes, but make sure you continue reciting every day. Make this a part of your life. Use bookmarks so that every day you can pick up where you left off the previous day. Try your best to attach as much importance as you can to praying and staying attentive during prayer and to performing recommended prayers. Allah the Exalted told His Holy Prophet (s.w.a.): "Stand (to prayer) by night, but not all night, half of it, or a little less or a little more. And recite the Quran in slow, measured rhythmic tones. Soon shall We send down to you a weighty Message." [The Holy Quran, 73: 2-5] The Holy Prophet (s.w.a.) was commanded to "stay awake for half or two-thirds of the night and worship God." However, this would be too difficult for people like us. Why was the Holy Prophet (s.w.a.) commanded to do that? The reason is: "Soon shall We send down to you a weighty Message." In other words, the reason is that God wanted to teach the Holy Prophet (s.w.a.) a difficult and great concept and so he was commanded to prepare himself.

Shouldering a heavy responsibility requires spiritual preparedness, which is not achieved easily. It is commonly recommended that we should purify our hearts. Yes, purifying one's heart is the main pillar, but this purification can only be achieved through praying and developing a relationship with God and through remembering and paying attention to God.

It is a mistake to think that it is possible to purify one's heart and soul without these things. The heart is purified through midnight tears for God, through reciting the Holy Quran in a careful way and through reading Sahifa al-Sajjadiyya. Otherwise, it is very easy to tell people to go and purify their hearts without specifying how they should do this!

May God cause these words to affect the hearts of you dear brothers and sisters as well as my heart so that I can improve a little. May God be satisfied with you. I hope God makes you successful in fulfilling your divine responsibilities during your term so that you feel satisfied and happy at the end of your term.

Greetings be upon you and Allah's mercy