The following is the full text of an interview with Ayatollah Khamenei, the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, conducted on February 26, 2016 after His Eminence voted in Parliamentary and Assembly of Experts Elections.
Interviewer: Salamun alaikum
Leader: Salam, Mr. Hayati
Interviewer: I would like to greet Your Eminence on behalf of the media community of the country, particularly the national media.
Leader: Salamun alaikum and God’s mercy be upon you.
Interviewer: Just like the previous terms and all the previous elections, you showed your presence at ballot boxes in the first minutes of voting and cast your ballot. Please tell us what your message for the people of Iran is.
Leader:
In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
I would like to greet Mr. Hayati and all our journalist friends and journalist brothers and sisters. In Islamic teachings and edicts, people have been advised to hurry and act promptly when doing good deeds: “Therefore hasten to do good works” [The Holy Quran, 2: 148]. This means that we should take a leading role in doing good deeds. We wanted to participate in this good deed and this great task – the issue of elections which is both our responsibility and our right – in the first possible hours.
Elections are always of great significance and at some points in time, they are even of more significance. My first advice to our dear people is that, as I said before, everyone should participate in elections: everyone. Anyone who loves Iran, anyone who loves the Islamic Republic and anyone who loves national glory, dignity and magnificence should participate in these elections.
Second, I advise all our dear people to try to hurry and act promptly in carrying out this duty and asserting this right. This prompt action is not rashness and hastiness, rather it is taking a leading role in doing good deeds. They should not delay it to the last hours. The first reason for this is what I just said: the sooner one does a good deed, the better it will be. Second, something bad might – God forbid – come up. One does not know what might happen in one hour. Now that we are well, now that we are able and now that we do not have an important business that prevents us from doing this, we should enter the arena and do our job. Some people delay it until the last hour, but a problem might come up. Why should we not consider the possibility that a problem might come up? This is my second word of advice.
My third word of advice is that the people should really have an intention to do a good and divine deed. They should participate in the elections with the intention of creating increasing dignity and achieving complete independence for the country. And the results of this good deed are the same things. They should respond to national dignity and national independence. This is a response to this great need.
We have certain enemies who have cast their greedy eyes on us. Our choice should be made in a way that the enemies will become disappointed and hopeless. They should take care to vote with insight and with open eyes. And Allah the Exalted will reward them, God willing. This is among those good deeds that will bring about an otherworldly reward as well as a short-term and long-term worldly reward. What is better than this?
I hope that by Allah’s favor, all of you will be successful and victorious and I hope that God willing, all the people of Iran will have the opportunity to participate in these elections- like previous elections- so that they will become a source of progress and dignity for the country.
Greetings be upon you and Allah’s mercy
Interviewer: Your Eminence, I thank very much for your message to the people of Iran.
Leader: May you live a long life and may God protect you.
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