The following is the full text of the speech delivered on January 7, 2014 by Ayatollah Khamenei, the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, to officials of the Asgar-Oladi commemoration congress and his family members.
In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
The life and death of a believer is auspicious and blessed. And this is true about Mr. Asgar-Oladi as well. His life was a blessed one and even after his death, these blessings continued. In my opinion, the late Asgar-Oladi was an outstanding person in three areas:
One area was the religious area: the area of piety. He was a pious person in the real sense of the word. He was religious and committed to shar'i and religious issues in the real sense of the word. The motivation behind his revolutionary activities was piety. That is to say, he really had a sense of responsibility. He began his revolutionary activities from his youth and in the Motalefe Party. Later on, he continued these activities inside prison. He pursued his revolutionary activities even inside prison. After being released, he continued his activities until and after the victory of the Revolution.
Recently, his revolutionary activities were in the form of correspondence and other such tasks. All these things were a kind of fighting. Recently, he wrote a letter to me. I think the content of the letter was this: "At the end of my life, I am using all my power, I am trying as hard as I can and I am establishing these relations as a shar'i and religious responsibility".
It was really a religious motivation that made him work and engage in difficult activities during these long years: from the revolutionary era and - as I have heard - the era of Fadaeen and other such groups to the era of seminarian activities in the year 1341 and 1342 until the end of his life. His motivation was a religious one. This is one outstanding point which I think exerts great influence on one's character.
The second characteristic of Mr. Asgar-Oladi was his moral attributes. He was a person who enjoyed shar'i virtues. He was self-possessed, very patient and fair-minded. Well, these qualities constitute the soul of piety. Otherwise, if someone says prayers, performs nafelehs and says night prayers, but behaves in an unfair way towards the people, this is not piety. In terms of behavior and temperament, the late Asgar-Oladi was a moral and religious person. That is to say, he was a patient, very pious and completely fair-minded person.
We used to witness this in his behavior. He was very careful about such things. He used to take care of his behavior. He was careful about what he said. It is very important to avoid saying whatever comes to our mouths. He used to monitor himself. This is the second aspect which is a moral one.
This behavior is the spirit of religion. For any person, good behavior is the soul of piety: "I came as a prophet to complete moral virtues" [Bihar al-Anwar, Volume 67, page 372]. Moral virtues are these. They mean that we should be patient, fair-minded, good-tempered, well-intentioned towards the people, diligent, hard-working and innovative. They mean that we should play a leading role in all affairs and avoid laziness. These are all Islamic virtues and all these virtues existed in Mr. Asgar-Oladi. All of you know and have witnessed this.
The third characteristic of Mr. Asgar-Oladi was his intellectual characteristic. He was an intellectual person, one who had many good thoughts and opinions on political and social issues. He was by no means an ordinary person. He thought about all the matters that he was involved in. This is true both in economic and political issues. He was a person who was interested in thinking and understanding. He understood things.
Well, I did not know Mr. Asgar-Oladi in the beginning. I had not seen him up close because he was in prison. When he was released from prison, he came to our house in Mashhad with Mr. Heidari. It was the first time that I saw Mr. Asgar-Oladi up close. I had not met him before that. He began to give me a report about the issues in prison. In fact, he gave me an analysis and an image of the friends who were imprisoned together and who had some problems with one another.
I really became mesmerized. He described the condition of these people - who were munafeqeen - so perfectly, beautifully, realistically and reasonably that I said, "How perfectly this person understands things". He was an intellectual person. Whenever he met with me - sometimes, he used to come here - and whenever there was a discussion about different matters, he exhibited his intellectual aspect. He was a person who was interested in thinking, reason and logic. He was really broad-minded on different matters. He had a comprehensive mind.
May God bestow mercy on him. He carried out many tasks and I hope that God will reward him. We should learn a lesson from him. Each of the three characteristics that I spoke about is, in fact, a lesson for us: piety, good behavior and intellectualism. One should really be committed to religious principles and sharia. We should avoid divine moharramat. Divine moharramat vary for different people. For some people, divine moharramat are certain things and for us, divine moharramat are certain other things.
We backbite other individuals and we listen to other people's backbiting. We say untrue things, make wrong judgments, remain silent where we should speak and speak where we should remain silent. These are our shar'i violations. We should observe and be careful about these acts.
We should behave in a good way as well. Good behavior is the soul of piety in the real sense of the word. We should learn patience, fair-mindedness, equanimity, forgiveness, diligence and avoidance of laziness. These are characteristics that are necessary. At the age of eighty-something, Asgar-Oladi did not stop pursuing political activities. It is very important for one not to feel old in the arena of fighting and not to feel tired, lazy and isolated. These are very important.
I hope that God will treat him and us with His kindness and mercy.
Greetings be upon you and Allah's mercy and blessings