The following is the full text of the speech delivered on May 2, 2005 by Ayatollah Khamenei the Leader of the Islamic Revolution in a meeting with war veterans and families of martyrs of Kerman Province.
In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
First of all, I would like to express my greetings to all the esteemed families of our martyrs and war veterans as well as the families of those embodiments of honor and glory. Also, I extend my greetings to the dear soldiers who were disabled in the war and I sincerely express my respect to them, who are actually the living martyrs of the Revolution and our country. Also, I extend my greetings to our esteemed former prisoners of war and their families, who went through countless hardships.
In the contemporary era, many people in different parts of our country were blessed with the divine gift of martyrdom. There is not even one area in the country in which the aroma and light of martyrdom and the memories of heroic actions associated with martyrdom do not exist. However, certain parts of the country enjoy a privileged position and Kerman is one of those areas. With more than six thousand martyrs and around twenty-five thousand people who laid down their lives and were martyred, disabled or captured during the war, with its noble and well-known martyrs such as Shahid Bahonar, with unforgettable war veterans such as Shahid Mohammad Shahsavari whose memory and words still resonate in our minds and with villages and areas such as Rabar and Gonjan that are first in the country in terms of number of martyrs, Kerman is a province that stands out in our country.
These martyrdoms were not achieved easily. Martyrdom is a divine blessing, a divine gift. This gift is not easy to achieve. Why is martyrdom a gift from God? Because it is a kind of death - and death is inevitable - that brings glory on human beings in this world and in the next. Is this not a gift? Is it possible for anybody to escape death forever? When a person reaches the point of death, does it matter whether he has lived 90 years or 20 years? What is the biggest concern of any human being as far as death is concerned? Is it not the concern that they do not know when it will happen and what will happen afterwards? Try to put all of these things together. A human being faced with inevitable death and this unknown and disturbing future decides to turn his inevitable death into a glory, into something that stands out in this world and in the hereafter, into something that will bring honor for him before God and angels, into a source of peace and spiritual serenity. "They rejoice in the bounty provided by Allah. And with regard to those left behind, who have not yet joined them (in their bliss), the (martyrs) glory in the fact that on them is no fear, nor have they (cause to) grieve" [The Holy Quran, 3: 170]. For such people, there is no reason to fear or grieve. Is this not a divine gift? Is it not a divine blessing to lay down one's life for God? After all, death is inevitable and there is no way to escape it. Life will come to an end anyway and one might as well sell one's life to God and exchange it for paradise and eternal happiness. "Surely Allah has bought of the believers their persons and their property for this, that they shall have the garden. They fight in Allah's way, so they slay and are slain" [The Holy Quran, 9: 111]. This is a divine promise. God buys your life, which will inevitably come to an end, and He gives you paradise in return. This is not particular to Muslims only: the promise existed in the religions that were revealed before Islam. "A promise which is binding on Him in the Torah and the Gospel and the Quran" [The Holy Quran, 9: 111]. Allah the Exalted has promised the same thing in the Torah, the Gospel and the Holy Quran. Therefore, martyrdom is a divine gift.
Before the Revolution, I used to pray and deliver speeches to the people at a mosque in Mashhad. Young people would gather to listen to my speeches. At that time, unlike the era after the Islamic Revolution, martyrdom was not easy to achieve, but there were a few people who had been martyred. I would tell the youth, "Dear youth, dear brothers, martyrdom is the death of a businessman, the death of shrewd people. On whom does God bestow this gift? God does not give away this gift for a small price. He bestows this gift on those who struggle in His way." Your youth, your martyrs, the wives of our martyrs, your wives, the parents of our martyrs, your children, the children of our martyrs and your esteemed fathers did not achieve this divine gift for free. They did not achieve this gift easily. They made this achievement as a result of selfless struggle. They carried out jihad in the way of God. They selflessly laid down everything they had and God bestowed this gift on them.
You people of Kerman have offered many martyrs to the Revolution. The majority of your martyrs belonged to the 41st Sarallah Army. Do you know the 41st Sarallah Army? A mighty, courageous, self-sacrificing and glorious army. Some of your children, who were martyred as part of the Sarallah Army, swam 1300 meters underwater across the turbulent Arvand River on the night of Operation Valfajr 8. They did this in order to cross from one side of the river to the other side and approach the enemy's position. The Arvand River is fed by both a spring and the water that comes from rising sea levels. Arvand is a special passageway. Your youth put on diving suits without the enemy finding out and they swam nine, ten, twenty, one hundred and even one thousand three hundred meters across the widest part of the Arvand and reached the other side. They managed to capture the other side of the river and give rise to that victory of victories and they surprised the world.
In that operation, the boats of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps were transferred to the banks of the Arvand, but the enemy did not notice it. All those forces and all those arms were brought to the banks of the Arvand, but the enemy - despite all his military equipment and despite the help he was receiving from American, English and Soviet satellites - did not notice the massive transfer of forces by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, which managed to bring all those forces from different armies to the banks of the Arvand. It was members of the Sarallah Army who had the responsibility of transferring the boats to the banks of the Arvand.
One of the well-known martyrs of the Sarallah Army did not get a chance to rest during the twenty days that the boats were being transferred secretly. His esteemed commander - who has thankfully been kept alive for us by Allah the Exalted and is very dear to us - has been quoted as saying, "The young man did not sleep at all for three days and nights. After three days and nights, when he was sleeping in a shelter, another mission was assigned. I went to the shelter to wake him up and we went on that mission together." That was how they used to engage in jihad.
Allah the Exalted bestowed two great blessings on those people. One was martyrdom, which belongs to themselves, and the other was the opportunity to save our country and safeguard the honor of the Iranian nation and Imam Khomeini (r.a.). This is no light matter. In an era that materialism had dominated the world, a spiritual man rose up, a faithful, sincere and enthusiastic people started a movement under his flag, millions of hearts and millions of determined people came together and created the Islamic Republic, which has been standing up singlehandedly against the arrogant powers. This was while a wretched enemy and an autocratic and blood-thirsty government like Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath Party was supported by America, the Soviet Union, Europe and reactionary elements of the region to overpower our government, our nation and our country, to invade the borders of our country, to occupy our soil and to dishonor our nation. Allah the Exalted did not let them. Was this insignificant? God's hand of assistance appeared out of the sleeves of your children and Islam was aided. Thousands and thousands of people went to the front lines and fought. They did everything in their power. They gave up food and sleep. They gave up the warmth of their homes in the cold winter days. They gave up lying down in front of coolers and drinking cold water from the fridge in hot summer days. They embraced the hardships. Some of them gave up their lives. Some others gave up their health and you see them living among yourselves, namely our dear disabled war veterans. Yet others were captured by the enemy. Allah the Exalted blessed those sincere efforts. "And yet another (blessing) that you love: help from Allah and a victory near at hand. And give good news to the believers" [The Holy Quran, 61: 13]. God bestowed assistance on our people. God does not assist lazy people who make no efforts. God does not support idle, lazy, carefree and unprincipled people even if they are believers.
Muslims were living in negligence for one thousand years. Colonialism dominated and ruled Islamic territories for two hundred years and today it is the arrogant powers that have dominated certain parts of the Islamic world. Are those Muslims not faithful? They are faithful and they pray, but this is not enough. In order to achieve victory and success, it is not enough to be faithful, to pray and to fast. There is a need for selfless struggle. It is in the shade of selfless struggle that a people can safeguard themselves, their identity, their honor, their achievements, their history, their culture, their independence and their freedom. Our people did this and your youth were the pioneers on this path. You should be proud of your selfless struggle.
Children of our martyrs should be proud of their fathers. Our martyrs changed the course of history. They were the ones who brought the most powerful and the most savage arrogant powers in the world to their knees. They made their people proud and they promoted Islam. Today Iran has made a lot of progress in economic, political, scientific and technological areas as well as in the area of international activities. I would tell you that our progress has been far more than our neighbors. We have made a lot of progress, but the progress we have made is due to those selfless efforts to fight and protect the country. The Iranian nation is truly indebted to the effort and selfless struggle of those self-sacrificing people - including people like yourselves who offered martyrs to the Revolution, people who were disabled in the war, self-sacrificing parents and wives who tolerated the pain of seeing their loved ones leading a hard life as disabled war veterans, those who were captured by the brutal enemy and whose parents had to suffer every minute of the time their children spent in captivity, the former POWs who were never released and passed away in captivity, and the ones who went to the front lines, laid down their lives and did everything in their power to protect the country but were allowed by Allah the Exalted to remain alive and continue benefiting their country and the world of Islam. For example, Commander Soleimani is a self-sacrificing person - he is also a martyr. The same is true of Commander Raufi and Commander Ahmadian. These commanders are living martyrs, on condition that they continue this path. Of course, this condition is for everybody.
As long as you continue on the path of God, you are among the righteous. If you deviate from this path, everything will be over. The same is true of all of us, including myself. If we step in the wrong direction and deviate from the path, we cannot say, "I am the same person who did this or that in the past." Those who carried out jihad in the way of God, their jihad has been recorded and Allah the Exalted will take their jihad into account in the hereafter. The Holy Prophet (s.w.a.) has been quoted as saying, "Anybody who says ‘glorious is Allah, praise be to Allah, there is no god except Allah and Allah is great', Allah the Exalted will plant a tree for them in paradise for every time they repeat this dhikr." A man responded, "Holy Prophet (s.w.a.), so I have many trees in paradise because I have repeated this dhikr many times." The Holy Prophet (s.w.a.) said, "Yes, on condition that you have not sent thunderbolts to burn down your trees." Sometimes we create thunderbolts that burn down our trees. Sometimes we break our clay pitcher like the proverbial daydreaming dervish and spill our oil. Sometimes one single sin leads to our downfall. Sometimes with one single misstep we fall from grace. We must be careful.
The families of our martyrs are reminders and manifestations of our nation's glory. There is something else as well: the families of our martyrs will always refresh our memories of the hostilities that our nation has faced. We must not forget the enemy. We must not ignore the enemy's enmity. The Commander of the Faithful (a.s.) says in Nahjul Balaghah, "And whoever is careless about his cause, his enemy will not sleep over this advantage." If you fall asleep in the battlefield, it does not mean that the soldier who is fighting for other side has also fallen asleep. No, he is awake. He is waiting for you to fall asleep so that he can attack you. In a battlefield, the battle is not always military in nature. Sometimes it is political and some other times it is cultural. The enemy will try to infiltrate. We must keep our eyes open. We must identify the holes that the enemy uses to infiltrate and we must take care not to let those holes become bigger. We must prevent the creation of cultural and political holes.
Today the policy of the arrogant powers is ultra-neocolonialism. That is to say, the policy is one step ahead of neocolonialism that existed for decades in the past century. What is ultra-neocolonialism? It is a way to encourage members of a nation, which is targeted for domination by the arrogant powers, to help the arrogant powers without realizing what they are doing. The enemy considers your faith as a solid wall that has to be destroyed. There might be people among ourselves who try to undermine this wall and make holes in it. Although they are members of our own society, such people are working for the enemy. And the enemy capitalizes on them. As you have heard, the Americans even passed a law in the Congress to give money to certain elements inside our country and hire them. They did this in such an open way. This is ultra-neocolonialism. It is analogous to a runner who cannot defeat his rival, so he gets his rival to defeat himself - for example, by making him addicted to drugs. When his rival is addicted to drugs, he will not have the energy to run and this will automatically benefit him. When his rival does not have the energy to run, he will win. This is how they go about doing their work in ultra-neocolonialism. Our youth must be very careful. Our young girls must be extremely careful. Our male and female teachers and our parents must be vigilant and cautious. This is particularly true of those who are in a position that they can influence public opinion by delivering speeches, writing articles, producing artistic works and other such things.
I do not have anything else to add. I would only like to pray for you and ask the officials in charge of the Foundation of Martyrs - and thankfully Mr. Dehghan is present in this meeting - to do whatever they can to resolve the problems facing the esteemed families of our war veterans, including our martyrs, our disabled war veterans and our former POWs.
Greetings be upon you and Allah's mercy and blessings