In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
All praise is due to God, Lord of the Worlds, and peace and greetings be upon our Master, Muhammad, and upon his Pure Progeny, particularly the Vestige of God remaining on earth.
I had missed this meeting, and I had missed you, my dear friends and you dear poets. Praise God, the Almighty God has bestowed His grace upon us and we are able to see this gathering here once again. And we are able to benefit from and enjoy the valuable product of their minds, hearts, and souls — in the literal sense of the word. One of the greatest pleasures is the pleasure that comes from good poetry.
Fortunately, the scope of poetry has become more widespread in the country, both in terms of the increasing number of poets and also in the increasing number of listeners. This is an opportunity that should be taken advantage of. Poetry is a medium. It is an influential medium. There was a period in time when the only influential medium in the world — in the Islamic world as far as we know — was poetry.
The poet would recite a poem. If the poem was good, it would of course spread rapidly and people would hear it. Debel al-Khuzai recited his famous poem in Khorasan [Province], and Imam Reza (pbuh) rewarded him with a jubbah (a long outer garment). Well, he [Debel] left and went to Qom. The people in Qom told him, “We’ve heard that the Imam has given you a jubbah. Give it to us.” Debel said, “No.” They kept insisting and asking him to give them a piece of it, but he refused. He left Qom with a caravan. Along the way, bandits, those who attacked caravans in the desert, came up to their caravan, stopped them, and took all their belongings from them. The chief of the bandits sat on top of a large rock above them while the bandits were busy opening the bags of the caravan and taking their things one by one.
As he was looking at his agents, he recited this verse:
Aara fayyahum fay ghayrihim mutaqassimaan
Wa aydiyahum min fayyihim hasarat
(Kamal al-Din, vol. 2, 373)
The theme of the poem was that he was saying, “I see that I am losing what is mine and that which belongs to me.” [The chief of the thieves] was referring to the caravans. In other words, he was saying that they had lost their belongings. Their wealth was in someone else’s hands. This was a verse from the ode that Debel had recited. Debel told his caravan to go and ask him [the chief of the thieves] who that poem was from. One of the people in his caravan went to him and asked, “Who is this verse, this poem that you recited, from?” He said, “It is from Debel.” The person told him that Debel is here. “Where?” he asked. They showed him Debel. Debel went forward and said, “Yes, this is my poem. I am Debel.” And [the chief of the bandits] ordered them to return everything they had taken [from the caravan].
What I want to say is that this is the meaning of “media.” This poem, for example, was recited in the month of Rajab in Khorasan. A thief memorized it in the month of Shaban, and he recited a verse from it as an analogy. This is how poems were circulated and spread. It was a form of media. The media today is different, of course, but poetry has its own place. No other media has that special effect that poetry does. Of course, some forms of media, like the cinema, are probably more influential than poetry — visual media and the like. But they finish and are forgotten. You watch a movie once, you watch it twice, and it finishes. But poems remain. They remain for a thousand years. This is a characteristic of poetry. Therefore, poetry is an effective, long-lasting medium.
There is a point to consider about Persian poetry, and that point is that one of its features is that it produces understanding and spiritual capital. As far as I know, this doesn’t exist in other poetry to the same extent. If we look at the peaks of Persian poetry, we find that they are filled with wisdom — like the poetry of Nezami or Ferdowsi — from the sage. Ferdowsi was a sage, and his Shahnameh is truly a book of wisdom. Or the poets are scholars of knowledge, mysticism, and spirituality, or they are memorizers of the Quran. Or like Saadi, their book is full of wisdom and spiritual knowledge.
If you start from the top and go down, you will come to Saadi, Hafez, Jami, Saeb, and Bidel. You see, all of these poets were wise men. All of their poetry is filled with wisdom. So, our poetry, Persian poetry, has been the bearer of wisdom and knowledge throughout time. It has preserved our spiritual capital and increased it. That is to say, if you have a certain amount of knowledge, when you read, for example, Rumi’s Masnavi, your knowledge will increase. In other words, these poems produce more knowledge. They produce this capital instead of merely preserving it. This is a characteristic of Persian poetry.
What is important is that this formation and protection of capital took place under the most difficult conditions, for example, during the onslaught of the Mongols. You see, during the Mongol invasion, we had poets such as Attar, Rumi, Saadi, and Hafez. They all lived during the Mongol and Timurid periods. So when the country was under harsh conditions due to the invasion of foreigners, everything in the country was affected by this, but knowledge, poetry, and spirituality did not cease to exist. This is a characteristic of Persian poetry, and we need to know this about our poetry.
Our poets, the distinguished poets, some of whom I have mentioned, like Naser Khosrow, Nezami Ganjavi, Khaqani, Rumi, and Saadi, are truly examples of the last verse in Surah al-Shuara, “Except those who have faith, do righteous deeds, and remember Allah very much” (Quran 26:227). [The place where God states], “As for the poets, [only] the perverse follow them. Have you not regarded that they rove in every valley, and that they say what they do not do? Except those who have faith, do righteous deeds, and remember Allah very much, and aid each other after they have been wronged” (Quran 26:224-27). They are examples of this verse. Our great poets are truly examples of this. This is our past.
I believe that the onslaught that took place during the time of the Mongols is being repeated today. Of course, the onslaught by these new Mongols, the smartly-dressed, perfumed ones, is different from the type of those Mongols. But it is an onslaught. It is an onslaught against us. What kind of onslaught? Well, we have felt it ourselves. There is no need for us to read about it in history. Of course, if anyone reads about the 300 or 400-year long history of colonialism, they will realize what colonialism has done to the world. They will realize what the colonialists have done to Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the entire American continent! That is another matter. They equipped a rabid dog like Saddam Hussein during our time. They also gave him planes so that he could drop bombs on us. I won’t forget that, because using planes was both difficult and dangerous, it was more efficient for him to attack using cannonballs. But where did he want to attack? Well, Dezful and places like that were already being hit. He wanted to bomb Tehran. So the French came and made these long cannon tubes for him so that his cannonballs could reach Tehran. This is how they helped him. German chemical factories were put at the service of Saddam Hussein to make Halabja, Sardasht, and the opposing battlefields the center of his crimes by killing thousands of people. This is what they did in Iran. This is their onslaught. This onslaught is diverse. It is not always the same. This was just one type.
Sanctions are also part of their onslaught, [like] the pharmaceutical sanctions. If Western countries could do something to deprive a country like Islamic Iran — which is pursuing the path of independence, stability, and perseverance — of the food they need, they would do it, in the same way that they banned essential pharmaceuticals. Back when we were in need of vaccines, they took the money for them, but did not deliver the vaccines to us. In 2020, they took the money for vaccines, but they did not deliver them to us under various pretexts. If they could do something to prevent the people’s food and bread from coming into the country or if they could stop the production of these inside the country, they would definitely do it. That is how they are. Now, about the famine of the century, that was something that should be discussed separately. That was another form of onslaught.
Furthermore, they used thousands of different forms of media to promote lies, rumors, deviations, and things of that sort. There is currently a diverse set of attacks and onslaughts going on, including military attacks and economic attacks, and they are using hard warfare and soft warfare. Their attacks are in all shapes and forms. So, what is the role of a poet here? This is what I am trying to say. Our poets have shined in periods of time. They did what they needed to do.
The enemy’s goal today is to take away our strengths in thought and understanding. We seek independence, [so] they aim to weaken our spirit. We want to stand up to Western tyranny, so they aim to weaken our spirit. They want us to waver. They wish to weaken our Islamic thought and the Islamic knowledge that we have. They want to weaken our Islamic practices, our national unity, and our women’s religiosity and modesty. All of these things are a part of the spiritual needs of a nation and a country. These are what they are pursuing. Now, one of the women here read [a poem] regarding women and it was very good. We need to see more of these things. There should be much of this.
What I want to say is that the West feels no pity for Iranian women, nor do they respect their rights. Rather, they hold a grudge against Iranian women. The Revolution would definitely not have been victorious had it not been for the presence of women. I say this with certainty. I was there at the heart of the Revolutionary issues. If women had not participated in the massive demonstrations, the Revolution would not have been victorious. If the women had stopped their husbands, children, or sons [from participating] in this cause, everything would have turned out differently. It was the same during the [Sacred Defense] war. When one reads the biographies of these mothers and wives, it is truly very moving. They were the ones who revived bravery and making sacrifices in the hearts of these young people and these men. They [the West] hold a grudge against Iranian women. They pretend to be supporters of women’s rights, human rights, and freedom. All of these things are [examples of] the enemy’s onslaught.
Now, about human rights, it is truly surprising. The West is definitely not in a position to talk about human rights. Just as one of the gentlemen said in his poem, “I am not worthy,” the West is truly not worthy of being the ones to talk about human rights. Women in Western countries are faced with the most important problems right now, more so than other countries. They are definitely not supporters of human rights. They are not worthy of talking about the term “human rights” at all. They are the enemies of humankind! We saw their human rights in the DAESH, when they burned people alive or sunk them in water and drowned them before everyone’s eyes. We saw [their human rights] in their support of the MEK terrorists and in their support of Saddam Hussein. We are seeing it in Gaza and in Palestine. This is how their human rights are. We are seeing it in their acts of terror and in the way they kill young people. Here, in the streets of Tehran, our most virtuous youth, like the ones whose names were mentioned such as Arman Aliverdi and Ruhollah Ajamian — they were truly some of our purest, most untainted, most virtuous youth — were tortured to death. But they [the Western world] did not object at all. I mean it didn’t matter to them. Rather, they provoke people and train them [to do these things]. Their radio stations and their agents teach these kinds of things. These are [examples of] their human rights.
All of us must know the enemy today. Everyone should know the points the enemy uses as targets for its attacks. Everyone should know the strategies employed by the enemies. Everyone should know where the enemy is positioned, just like in a military war. Military warfare is the same. If you don’t know where the enemy is going to attack from, you will be deceived. If you don’t know which area they plan on occupying and if they succeed in tricking you, you will be deceived. You need to know these things. It is the same in soft warfare. You must know what the enemy wants to do, where their target is, what their goals are, and what their strategies are. Everyone should know these and fight against these, especially the artistic and cultural circles. Poets, artists, novelists, cinematographers, architects, and those involved in various cultural fields should know that we are currently facing this plundering and onslaught of the enemy. They should pay attention to this. They need to understand what is happening, and they must also show what’s happening to other people. They need to raise awareness about this, and they shouldn’t be passive. Fortunately, we have a number of good poets today who are pious, kindhearted, and believers in the religion and the Revolution. Well, you are all examples of this.
Fortunately, one of the good things that has been done by various organizations, those that are active in the field of art and also some other organizations is that they have helped to expand this kind of work throughout the country. Today, the opportunity exists for poets from all over the country, even those from villages and small towns, to introduce themselves and to go to centers where they can present their poetry. Poets [naturally] are emotional, flexible, empathetic people. They should refrain from becoming emotional. They shouldn’t get emotional when facing issues. They need to think and correctly identify the issue at hand, and they should feel a sense of duty toward what is before them. They need to fulfill this duty with their art. If they fail to do this, you cannot place any value on their art no matter how talented they are.
He said, “You are fine wine, but if do not leave the cask to enter the wine glass, what is the point?” (Saeb Tabrizi)
As one of the gentlemen here said, “You need to enter the glass in order to bring happiness.”
God willing, may God grant success to all of you and give us all the success of being able to use our country’s and our system’s valuable, irreplaceable resources, including art and poetry. God willing, may you all be successful. I would like to thank all of you again, including Mr. Amiri Esfandaqeh and Mr. Qazveh because of their presentations, even though they didn’t recite any poems themselves. God willing, we will hear their poetry in the future as well.
May God’s greetings and mercy be upon you.
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