I would like to congratulate you on the auspicious birthday anniversary of the Holy Prophet, the Master of the universe and the Master of all creatures in the world – Hazrat Muhammad ibn Abdullah [audience recites salawat] – and also on the blessed birthday anniversary of Hazrat Abi Abdullah al-Sadiq, the Holy Prophet’s (s.w.a.) grandson and God’s Hujjat on earth during the time of His Imamate.
I hope that God bestows on us, on all Muslims and on all broad-minded individuals in the world the blessing to understand and appreciate the value of these blessings and these great phenomena and to try to move forward on the same straight path that these pillars of the world showed us.
The holy existence of the Great Prophet is so significant that Allah the Exalted considers it as a great blessing to humans: “God conferred a great favor on the believers when He sent among them a prophet from among themselves” [The Holy Quran, 3: 164]. In Sahifa al-Sajjadiyyah, Imam Sajjad (peace and greetings be upon him) addresses Allah the Exalted and says, “Allah praise is due to the God Who conferred upon us – not upon former generations and previous nations - a great favor by sending Muhammad, His Messenger” [Sahifa al-Sajjadiyyah, Dua 2].
The Holy Quran and the statements of the infallible Imams (a.s.) acknowledge that God has given us a huge favor by sending this great gift. This is very significant. “A mercy for all creation” is a description that Allah the Exalted uses in reference to the Holy Prophet (s.w.a.). He does not say that the Holy Prophet (s.w.a.) is a mercy for a group of people or for a particular nation in the world. He says that he is “a mercy for all creation”. He is a mercy for everyone. He gave the message that he had received from Allah the Exalted to humans as a gift. He provided this path for all peoples in the world.
Of course, there are some people who are the owners of power, of money, and of gold. They are not willing to let peoples benefit from this large banquet of divine mercy. They are opposed to the power of peoples. That is why they stand up against this divine movement. Under such circumstances, Allah the Exalted says, “Oh Prophet, fear God, and hearken not to the unbelievers and the hypocrites” [The Holy Quran, 33: 1]. God says to him that he should not follow them and that he should beware of them. Elsewhere He says, “Oh Prophet, fight hard against the unbelievers and the hypocrites, and be firm against them” [The Holy Quran, 9: 73]. He says to the Holy Prophet that he should fight against the unbelievers and the hypocrites. He says to him that he should “fight against”, not “kill” them. He does not say, “Kill the unbelievers and the hypocrites”. It is not always necessary to “kill”, but jihad is always necessary.
Sometimes, jihad is political, sometimes it is cultural, sometimes, it is soft jihad, sometimes it is hard jihad, sometimes it is done with weapons, and sometimes it is done with knowledge. All these things are jihad, but in all these forms of jihad, we should pay attention that jihad is done against an enemy, an enemy of humanity. It is done against enemies who impose their heavy existence and their greedy interests on humanity with reliance on their power, their money and their bullying. Compromising with them does not make any sense: “Fear God, and hearken not to the unbelievers and the hypocrites.”
The ayahs of the Holy Quran about the Holy Prophet (s.w.a.) and about the teachings that God gives to him – God teaches him, step by step and word for word, how to build the new Islamic community – are many. My advice to myself, to our youth, to the promoters of religious affairs and to all those who have the affairs of the people in their hands is to pay attention to all these ayahs and to see all these concepts in the Holy Quran. These concepts form a collection, a complete collection. Our problem is that we ignore this complete collection of divine teachings to the Holy Prophet (s.w.a.) and the description that God makes about him. If we keep this complete collection within sight, then that correct behavior and that straight path which the Holy Prophet took will emerge before our feet: “Verily, you are on a straight path” [The Holy Quran, 43: 43]. This straight path should be found.
Because our dear brothers and sisters from our country, and from other countries as well as the dear guests of the “Unity Conference”, and the honorable ambassadors of Islamic countries from various Islamic denominations – including various denominations of Shia and Sunni with various philosophies – are present at this meeting and because these statements will be heard later on, what I deem necessary to say in this meeting is this: dear brothers and sisters, today the world of Islam is suffering from grave maladies and the solution for those maladies is Islamic unity. What the world of Islam needs is unity, collaboration, assistance and passage through denominational and intellectual differences.
Today, the outlook of arrogance and imperialism towards the world of Islam is that they are trying to make the world of Islam drift away from its unity as much as possible. This is a threat to them. The existence of a billion and a half Muslims and the existence of all these Islamic countries with all these resources and with such extraordinary manpower is a threat to them! If they are united and if they move towards their Islamic goals with unity, then global powers will not be able to beat the drum of their power anymore. If this happens, America will not be able to impose its willpower on countries, governments and nations and the malignant and malevolent Zionist network will no longer be able to take different governments and powers in the claws of its own power and to use them in the direction of its own path and goals. If Muslims are united, this will be the case.
Ayatollah Khamenei, Dec 17, 2016
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