In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
All praise is due to God, Lord of the Worlds, and may peace and greetings be upon our Master and our Prophet, Abul-Qasim al-Mustafa Muhammad, and upon his untainted, pure, chosen, guiding and well-guided Progeny, particularly the Remnant of God on earth.
I would like to thank all of you for the significant work you have undertaken, the work of organizing the Commemoration of the Martyred Aid Workers for many years, both during the Sacred Defense and after. It is a much needed, important task. I hope, God willing, it will have the desired impact.
The initiatives that Mr. Kolivand mentioned in the beautiful text he read about the work that has been done, these things must find an audience and listeners. It’s not enough to merely have initiative and create a good game, write a good book, or produce a good film. The things you mentioned are truly inspiring and excellent, but you must ensure that in a country of 80 million people, they reach an audience of 20 million. In other words, you must genuinely promote it. This is very important. Find a way to do this, and you are capable of doing it. If our youth, in areas where the infrastructure already exists — I’m not talking about areas lacking that infrastructure — can sit down, find the time to think, and be after solutions and innovation, they will undoubtedly achieve remarkable results. We’ve tested this in industry, in literature and art, in politics, and in construction. We’ve tested this in various sectors.
If young people work with motivation and determination, persist and pursue that work, there’s nothing that cannot be done. Even in areas where the country lacks the infrastructure, that infrastructure can gradually be built. The progress we see today in various sectors had no national infrastructure to begin with. We now have thousands of captivating books about martyrs that are truly worth reading. When one finds the time to look at and read every one of them, they’re captivating. It’s truly like this. But before the Revolution, we had no groundwork for artistic endeavors, especially in the field of storytelling. It was extremely rare, and whatever did exist was of a low level. Today, the quality of work is high. This foundation was created by our youth and our artists. So, you can move forward and achieve these things, God willing.
Not much has been said about aid workers and their great virtues. God willing, with the establishment of your secretariat and the work you do, this will begin to change. I’d like to share just a few words on this topic. A combatant needs training and weapons, but the person who provides that training or supplies those weapons typically does so from behind the battlefield.
A combatant [also] requires aid — dressing their wounds, bandages, their bleeding needs to be stopped, and they may need to be transferred to a medical center or a hospital. The person who does all this and provides this kind of support is in the middle of the battlefield. There is an extremely important difference between these two types of support. Under a shower of bullets and shrapnel, the aid worker is thinking about saving someone else. Our combatant has two tasks: one is pushing back the enemy and the other is protecting himself. However, our aid workers don’t think about protecting themselves. They only think about saving others, and they step into the field for that purpose. The accounts that are sometimes found in parts of the combatants’ memoirs describing what these aid workers did are truly incredible. Their sacrifices and actions in the middle of all the hardships and difficulties must be explained to people so they can know and learn about these.
Another point is that our aid workers have been the embodiment of humanitarian values and humanitarianism. We have witnessed instances where [our] aid workers even helped enemy captives who had been wounded. This is a very significant matter. In the battlefield, the enemy has come to kill you. The retaliation may dictate that you seek to kill them in return. However, when you have the aid worker’s kit on your back or you go behind the frontlines to set up a field hospital and provide aid, you are behaving and acting in direct contrast to the inhumane conduct of a world that has become estranged from humanity. You demonstrate true human compassion.
I myself saw near the frontlines — though I don’t recall exactly how many kilometers away it was, but it was very close — doctors and nurses working in a field hospital where they had set up an operating room, which was quite astonishing. The enemy’s bullets and short-range mortar shells could easily reach that area. Nevertheless, they had established an operating room under enemy fire! This is very important. During the Sacred Defense, there were doctors who always had their medical bags ready. The moment a military operation was about to begin and they were informed, they would call home and say, "We’re going!" They’d grab their bags and set out. These truly aren’t things that words alone can describe. They can only be preserved, explained, and expressed using the tools of art.
Today, our nation needs to know about these great movements and the significant efforts that have arisen from within this nation and carried out by the children of this nation. [Our nation] needs this, and we have fallen short in this area. Many people are unaware of these matters. Furthermore, our shortcoming is even greater in reflecting these achievements to the world. You can see how in some countries, they have an average semi-hero, but they make such a great deal out of them and write books and stories about them. Some countries even lack heroes altogether, but they create them. They lack history, but they create it.
We have the heroes, we have the history, and we have the proud past. We must communicate and reflect this. This is a great task and one of the essential duties. This is the second task — that is, we must recognize, introduce, and change it into a part of the public culture. It must be made clear that aid and assistance are Islamic, human duties. And this should be ongoing across generations and continue constantly. These tasks are the work of your organizations. We are hopeful, God willing, that this congress and this commemoration will serve as a good beginning for advancing and implementing these efforts.
Now compare this to those human-faced wild beasts who bomb ambulances, bomb hospitals, and bomb patients and kill them. They mercilessly take the lives of innocent, defenseless children! Today, the world is in their hands. Today, the Islamic Republic’s movement, the firm resistance of the Islamic Republic, and the "new civilization" that the Islamic Republic continuously speaks of are to oppose this oppressive global state.
Who could make such a claim and truly believe that a person has no duty in the face of such savagery and bloodthirstiness? Who could say such a thing? We all have a duty. Today, those who claim to have authority over the world or who rule over certain countries around the world behave in this way that they kill children and patients, destroy hospitals, and mercilessly bomb civilians. If you’re fighting a war, have soldiers fight soldiers.
Now, even that [soldiers fighting soldiers] is sometimes unjust and is oppressive. That is, the action is an oppressive one and the one who started it [the occupation] is a sinner. Nevertheless, the war is between military forces. Why are they killing civilians now? Why are they being bombed? Why are they destroying homes? Today, the world is in the hands of these people.
This is the great duty that is on our shoulders. It’s this sense of duty that drives us to act. It’s this sense of duty that prevents the flame of hope from becoming extinguished in our hearts. And it’s this very sense of duty that pushes enemies like these well-groomed, perfumed Western savages with their ties to stand against and oppose the Islamic Republic.
This is their problem. So if you don’t object to this savagery, you get along with them, and you even praise them instead, they will show no enmity toward you. Their problem is that you reject the very foundation of that invalid civilization, and you are very right to do so and must continue to do so.
God willing, this falsehood will perish. Falsehood isn’t something that can remain. Falsehood will perish without a doubt, but action is needed. It doesn’t mean we should just sit back and watch until falsehood disappears on its own. No, when Almighty God declares that falsehood will perish, this means that if you stand firmly against it, fight it, and work against it, it won’t remain. It doesn’t have the strength to resist. "If those who disbelieve fight you, they will turn their backs [to flee]. Then they will not find any protector or helper" (Quran 48:22). If you are resolute and stand firmly against [falsehood], it will undoubtedly retreat. But if you sit idly, are friendly, smile, flee, or praise its actions, then no, it won’t perish. [Rather], it will become bolder day by day.
We are hopeful, God willing, that Almighty God will grant you success, make us aware of our duties, and bless us with the ability to fulfill them.
May God’s greetings, mercy, and blessings be upon you.
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