In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
I was very willing to listen to the poems of each and every poet who is present in this meeting and to benefit from each and every religious singer and panegyrist today. Unfortunately, just as always, our heartfelt cravings are not satisfied in reality. Nonetheless, I really benefitted from the number of poems that I listened to and that made me happy. I really became happy to see that numerous gifts, poetic delicacies and beautiful literal subtleties continue to exist in Mashhad and that such poetic gifts are much better than the past.
Thankfully, there are many velvety, delicate and sweet throats in Mashhad. I became very happy to see this reality in Mashhad. Well, this was more or less the same in the past. In terms of poetry, Mashhad was always ahead of the other cities that we knew – of course, within the scope of our information. During our youth, Mashhad was ahead of many other places, generally speaking. However, this was not the case in terms of eulogy, panegyric and religious singing. In our time, Mashhad was not at the level that we see today. There were a limited number of poets – perhaps, it can be said that they were as many as the number of one’s fingers – who could sing a good poem in a rhythmic manner and in a good voice. Therefore, it is necessary for us to thank God. I thank Allah the Exalted for this blessing.
On the basis of what we witnessed in the poems of our dear poets and in some of the poems that our dear panegyrists recited, what I would like to stress is that today, the world of Islam has certain needs. Today, the world of Islam is at a sensitive historical stage. The events that you are witnessing – the events related to the Saudi regime, Yemen, Iraq and Syria, all in different ways, and the events related to America, the Zionist regime and the plots that they hatch in the region, the decisions that they make and the pressures that they exert on the Islamic Republic – are a combination of different tasks through which a certain goal is being pursued.
In such circumstances that the world of Islam is in fact making a historical turn, we have certain responsibilities and obligations, each of us in different ways. Therefore, we cannot ignore the needs of the world of Islam in the present time. And the needs of the Islamic Republic are at the top of these needs. This is because the Islamic Republic is the manager and director of this great event. Of course, the players are many. The doers, agents and activists in the world of Islam are many, but the manager is the Islamic Republic.
Without a doubt, if it were not for the Islamic Republic, our magnanimous Imam (r.a.) and that spiritual cry which is reliant on divine traditions and which exists in our country, all these events would not have taken place in the world of Islam, arrogance would pursue his plans without any obstacle, he would not need all these challenges and all these problems would not exist for him. Therefore, the Islamic Republic has certain needs today which should be satisfied by us.
In my opinion, the most important needs are needs related to clarifying, increasing insight and strengthening revolutionary and Islamic teachings. These needs exist at the top of all these needs. Thankfully, we have the instruments for satisfying these needs. One of these instruments which is available to us and which others in the world are usually deprived of is panegyric, rowza-khani, minbars and popular ceremonies. These things are not common in the world. It is not common in the world to invite someone somewhere so that he goes and takes a minbar for one, two, five thousand participants. And this is while such participants show their presence without any invitation and because of their own enthusiasm. They go there and listen to him for an hour. Such a thing is not common in the world.
In other countries, they usually draw individuals to ceremonies with propaganda tools, and with sexual and various other attractions. When you hear that they publish announcements saying that the people rush towards a certain person’s panegyric so that they listen and benefit from it, this is particular to us. Others do not have this. This is a blessing. We should appreciate the value of this blessing and benefit from this opportunity.
The same is true of poetry. Today, such needs are thankfully satisfied, to a large extent, through the poems of our dear poets and the panegyrics and eulogies that our dear panegyrists sing in a good voice. Thankfully today, the poems of our dear poets were very good. The poems that our friends recited – particularly, some of them – were very good. They were exactly in line with the needs and with the things that our society needs to know and understand in the present time. They were in line with insight enhancement.
However, I would like to offer a permanent word of advice. You should really think of this: when you recite a poem or sing a panegyric so that the people perform sine-zani for example in a noha, you should say something to increase the knowledge of the people who are performing sine-zani. You can make them shed tears and perform nohas without any insight. This is another stage. Without a doubt, this is a stage of virtue, but the better virtue, the loftier goal and the ideal form is that we increase our insight about the Imams (a.s.), about the Holy Quran, about Islam, and about the future of the global community. These are the main goals. By Allah’s favor, these points should be included in our poems, in our singing, and in our panegyrics.
In any case, I thank you very much for participating in today’s meeting. I also thank the brothers who have organized this meeting. It is two, three years now that Hajj Agha Akbarzadeh has been saying to me – two, three times – that we should hold this meeting. I had the intention of doing so, but this could not be done. I could not do so in my trips to Mashhad. We are often very busy in Mashhad. My trips to Mashhad are not recreational trips in that sense. This had not been done until today. Thankfully, we managed to do so this year and today.
I apologize to those dear poets whose poems we could not listen to and benefit from. Of course, if I am the one who should apologize, if it is Mr. Vaezi [the presenter of the program] who should apologize, then he should apologize. [Supreme Leader and audience laugh]
In any case, I hope that all of you will be successful and victorious, God willing. I hope that Allah the Exalted will give us another opportunity and let us live longer so that we can listen to you once more.
Greetings be upon you and Allah’s mercy and blessings
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