The following is the full text of the speech delivered on October 13, 2012 by Ayatollah Khamenei, the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, in a meeting with the families of martyrs and war veterans of North Khorasan province.
In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds, and peace and greetings be upon our Master and Prophet, Abul-Qassem al-Mustafa Muhammad and upon his immaculate, pure and chosen household, especially the one remaining with Allah on earth.
Today, our meeting is a very enlightened and spiritual meeting. Wherever the dear families of martyrs - including the fathers, mothers, wives, children and other relatives of martyrs - gather, they imbue the environment with revolutionary and jihadi enthusiasm. Of course, this is the case with all the gatherings of the dear families of martyrs. Besides this intrinsic characteristic, this meeting has been a very useful and meaningful meeting. The speeches that were delivered and the poems that were recited enjoyed deep and valuable points. I listened carefully to what these dear people said. I paid attention to these speeches with a critical eye and I found very valuable points in them. In fact, I myself am preoccupied with a number of the issues that they discussed.
First of all, I would like to say a few things about the dear martyrs of this province. I was familiar with a number of the martyrs of this province and I became familiar with many of them through their biographies. Your province is one of the outstanding provinces in this regard. This province is far away from the war zone. But from the first days of the victory of the Revolution, the youth of this area entered the arena of jihad in the way of God.
Even after the war, the chain of jihad - the kind of jihad which leads to martyrdom in the way of God - did not break in this province. It was many years after the end of the war that Shahid Rajab Ali Mohammadzade, the late honorable martyr of this area, received from Allah the Exalted the rewards of his jihad during the Sacred Defense Era and his resistance in those difficult arenas. Allah the Exalted completed his services with martyrdom. He was a martyr of services and unity. These are the values of an environment where religious people live. These are the values of a province and a city.
We should respect the families of war veterans and martyrs of this province and we should respect the dear war veterans themselves who endured injuries over the course of many years and who did not lose their great faith, determination and the spirit of resistance and who continue to show resistance. As well as the fathers, mothers, wives and children of our dear martyrs, I deem it necessary to express my sincere gratitude to the families of the dear war veterans and their wives, who take the trouble to look after them. These efforts are ones that are considered by God to be the best values. These efforts keep a society and a people alive and they prepare them for self-edification.
There is an important point about our dear martyrs. Dear brothers, dear ones, my deep and sincere belief is that all of us are benefitting from the banquet that martyrs provided. The survival of this Revolution is because of the blood of martyrs. This is one of the points that the dear people who delivered a speech and recited a poem in this meeting placed great emphasis on. What they said is correct. It is martyrdom which puts its signature to the survival and permanence of values. The greatest reward offered to martyrs in this world is the permanence of those truths for which they laid down their lives. By the blessedness of the martyrs' blood, Allah the Exalted preserves those truths. The reasons for this are clear. When a society sacrifices its life, its wealth and its comfort for the sake of a value, it will manage to assert its legitimate rights in the world. It is truth and rights, which remain and which survive. This is the divine tradition.
Our dear martyrs and war veterans are people who abandoned all their personal desires. It is easy to say this, but it is very difficult to do it. It was not only money and wealth that they forgot about. They forgot about their feelings as well. A martyr first forgets about the kindness of his mother, the support of his father, the smile of his children and the love of his wife and then he moves towards carrying out his responsibilities.
War veterans are, in fact, martyrs. Wherever they are, war veterans have - in fact - stepped on the path of martyrdom. Allah the Exalted chose a number of people. Some left us and some stayed with us for future tests. Although war veterans were not martyred, they enjoy the position of martyrdom.
I would like to add another point to what our dear friends said in this meeting. They said that those who entered the arena of war in southern and western fronts during the Sacred Jihad and Defense Era and who were prepared to be martyred are divided into three groups: some feel regretful about what they did, some become indifferent and some stay committed. These dear friends said that those who stay committed should die of grief. I do not agree with this last statement. Those who stay committed witness the blossoming of this sapling [of the Revolution].
It is not the case that this great and solid foundation is shaken because certain people turn their backs on the Revolution. Because certain people turn their backs on this great caravan, it will not fail to take its path: "Whoever from among you turns back from his religion, then Allah will bring a people, He shall love them and they shall love Him" [The Holy Quran, 5: 54]. Allah the Exalted has said this in the Holy Quran, addressing Muslims during the early Islamic era and those who fought and laid down their lives by the Holy Prophet's (s.w.a.) side. So, the Holy Quran is reflecting the same truth.
Our hearts should be preserved and protected. Some hearts shake and they cannot maintain their balance and continue their path when they are on the edge of the precipice. The Holy Quran has described them as "Whoever from among you turns back from his religion". "Ertedad" does not only mean turning back from one's religion. It means turning back from the path that one used to take. There were such people in our Revolution. There were such people during the early Islamic era as well. They did not continue to take the path which they used to take alongside the Holy Prophet (s.w.a.). But was the path blocked? Is the path blocked now? Does the caravan stand still? No, the caravan continues to move forward: "Allah will bring a people, He shall love them and they shall love Him". In place of those who turn back, certain saplings will grow. You youth are among these saplings. You did not experience the war, you did not see Imam (r.a.) and you were not present in the arena of war. However, our entire Islamic and revolutionary country is imbued with the spirit of resistance, stability, honor and dignity today.
One day, battalions in your province - North Khorasan - were breaking enemy lines. Today too, your resistance against the greed, avarice and transgression of global imperialist powers is a kind of breaking lines. Today, the people of Iran are breaking lines. Compare the revolutions which became victorious in the region as a result of Islamic Awakening - of course, we respect all these revolutions and we appreciate their value - with the Islamic Republic and the Islamic Revolution. In these revolutions, can you find the same resistance, power and self-confidence that the people of Iran showed? These are examples of breaking lines.
Global powers and imperialists have gotten used to speaking for all the people in the world. They do this to the advantage of their own mean interests and the interests of their capitalists. They have gotten used to interfering in the affairs of all countries, to the advantage of their greedy and arrogant interests. Nations sometimes let out a moan and a faint shout, but in the face of superpowers' yell, who can resist? Except the Iranian nation, which nation can show in a reasonable and strong way that it can stand up against the greed of arrogance? Whatever other people do, it is not up to the level with what the people of Iran do.
I hope that they will overtake us on this path. This is alright with us. If Muslim nations and other people step forward and overtake us, then so much the better. But this is not the truth of the matter. Today, the people of Iran are ahead of other people. The people of Iran are line breakers.
If today's youth were not present in the arena of war, they are present in other arenas now. This is good news and this is a good sign. They are interested in thinking and deliberating. Our youth should put great emphasis on this astonishing phenomenon: despite all the deviations which are witnessed here and there in the Islamic Republic, the motivation, resistance, awareness and firm determination of our today's youth are not less - if not more - than the youth during the Sacred Defense Era.
How can those leaves which fall be more than those which grow? There are individuals who turn their backs on their people. There are people who turn back from their path. There are people who feel tired and who begin to doubt their past. There are people who deviate from the path with the smile of the enemies and with the deception of deceitful people. However, there are courageous men and women in our society as well who are familiar with the requirements of the time and who know about many different political issues. Such a thing did not exist in the past. These are the new people who have joined the Revolution. Today, we are in such conditions.
A number of people look at the appearances and they make wrong judgments. They wrongly think that our youth have turned their backs on religion. This is not the case. Youth are interested in this path. They are interested in what they firmly believe in and most youth in our country are like this thanks to the blood of martyrs. This has been achieved in the shade of the self-sacrifice that your dear ones and your dear youth made.
You took the trouble to raise and build your children. You offered them to society while they were like a bundle of flowers. They went to war and were martyred in the way of God. All the people of Iran should express their gratitude to you. Everyone should respect martyrs. The children of martyrs should be proud of their fathers. The children of martyrs should bequeath the legacy of their fathers to future generations. The people of Iran are proud of their martyrs.
We are proud of the fact that we express our sincere gratitude to the families of martyrs. We believe that martyrs were on the front lines while their fathers, mothers and wives were directly behind them. They showed resistance and made great sacrifices. Today, thanks to these sacrifices, the great revolutionary movement of our people is standing firm and by Allah's favor, it will be stronger and more stable on a daily basis.
I ask Allah the Exalted to bestow His mercy, blessings and grace on our dear martyrs and war wounded, on their families and on all liberated prisoners of war and veterans. I hope that the holy heart of the Imam of the Age is satisfied with all of you.
Greetings be upon you and Allah's mercy and blessings