The following is the full text of the speech delivered on April 4, 2011 by Ayatollah Khamenei, the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, in a meeting with President Ahmadinejad, cabinet members and the members of the presiding board of the Majlis. The meeting was held on the occasion of the month of Sha'ban.
In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
Remembering God should not be forgotten. Whatever we have has been achieved because of relying on and paying attention to God. It is He Who attracts hearts towards lofty goals. It is He Who makes hearts strong and He Who unites them. Human beings cannot attract and unite hearts by any means. This is in the hands of divine power. This is God's work. Thankfully, the people understand this.
We should appreciate the value of opportunities. Allah the Exalted has given us an opportunity. This life and the opportunity to have a responsibility will finally come to an end. Each of us has a mission in this government for a specific period of time. We should appreciate the value of the opportunity that has been offered to us and we should make maximum use of it because when we leave this world, all gates of movement and dynamism will be locked to us. Of course, it is possible that others ask for God's forgiveness on our behalf and they may donate charity in our memory. We may benefit from such things, but we ourselves will no longer be able to do anything because our hands will be tied there.
As long as we are in this world, our hands are open and we can carry out many tasks. You can do as many good deeds as the size of heaven and earth with one single look, smile, word, move and writing. This world is like this and we have the capability to do these things. However, when we leave this world, our hands will be tied and we will no longer be able to do anything. If some people remember us by donating charity in our memory and asking for God's forgiveness on our behalf, we will gain something, but it will not at all replace what we ourselves could have done. Therefore, we should appreciate the value of this opportunity.
If we want to appreciate the value of this opportunity in the real sense of the word, we shall bring all our power to the arena. We should really enter the arena while we are completely prepared and we shall look at ourselves to find our flaws. Each of us has certain flaws and they are not few in number. The flaws of us humans are usually more than our strengths, but we are not aware of them. If it had not been so, a great person like the Holy Prophet (s.w.a.) - who was pure light and who did not have any darkness in him - would not have not repented. Even the Holy Prophet (s.w.a.) used to repent: "I ask for God's forgiveness 70 times a day" [Bihar al-Anwar, Volume 17, page 44]. The Prophet (s.w.a.) said that he repented repeatedly during the day because "a cloud of dust has covered my heart". This is the nature of human beings. We humans are weak, but Allah the Exalted has also given us the power to make progress and to do limitless good. So, we can overcome these weaknesses. We can turn zeros into numbers and negatives into positives one after another.
God does not oppress us. We can turn all negatives into positives. Whatever we have done has helped us to move forward. We should only pay attention to unfinished tasks and our shortcomings. If we do not pay attention to our weaknesses and shortcomings, we will remain backward. This is an advantage of competition. In a competition, we can find our weaknesses because we have to compete with a rival. When we are running alone, we may stop to get some rest and we do not know that we fall behind to a great extent. But when someone is running with us who does not stop even for two, three seconds, we realize that we can progress a lot more.
In our work, we may miss seconds, minutes and hours. We should see this so that we can make up for it. If we cannot make up for it, we should at least admit it before Allah the Exalted: "If I am about to die while my actions have not helped me to get close to you, I use confession of my sins as a means to do so" [Iqbal al-A'mal, page 685]. This is one of the ways to get close to God: confessing to sins, shortcomings, flaws and dark spots in our hearts and souls. We should pay attention to this matter. By Allah's favor, all these things are possible.
We live in good times. We should thank God for living in such good times. Allah the Exalted has given us the great blessing and opportunity to render services to our society, to our country, to dear Islam and to history. There was one day when we could not do so. Those individuals who were motivated, determined and willing could not render services, but today such individuals can do so. We should appreciate the value of this and we should thank God. Let us pray for the immaculate soul of our magnanimous Imam (r.a.) and for the souls of our dear martyrs and the mujahids of the path of truth. It was they who opened this path for us.
Greetings be upon you and Allah's mercy and blessings