In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
First of all, I would like to welcome the dear brothers and sisters who are in charge of this great divine and popular movement and I ask Allah the Omniscient to accept and to reward your efforts and to bestow on you and on pilgrims the blessing to hold the hajj ritual as well as you can.
The opportunity of hajj is an exceptional opportunity. All acts of worship are an opportunity to redeem one’s self. As a result of negligence about Allah the Exalted – Who is the Spirit and the Truth of existence – human beings show negligence about themselves, their hearts and their reality: “And be you not like those who forgot Allah and He made them forget themselves” [The Holy Quran, 59: 19]. Today, this is the great pain of humanity. By forgetting Allah the Exalted, humans have forgotten themselves as well. Amid the wheel of materialistic apparatuses, the needs and the truth about humans and the goals behind their creation have completely been forgotten. What helps human beings to pay attention to God and – in the shade of attention to God – to themselves, to the truth about them and to their needs and their hearts is praying, worshipping and supplication. And hajj is the best act of worship in this regard.
This is because it is an exceptional act of worship because of the time and the place when it is performed and because of the succession of the moves that are available to hajj pilgrims. Therefore, the city of Makkah and the hajj ritual is a means for humans’ security. By supplicating, by paying attention and by plunging into divine remembrance, people feel secure – in their hearts – in that astonishing and great ritual. This is the greatest need of humans.
The inferno that material powers and motives have created around humans can be replaced with the safety of a paradise in that place and in that time when humans seek refuge in hajj. How ignorant are those people who undermine the hajj ritual and hajj obligations by attending to material affairs. The hajj ritual should be performed with complete attention, with concentration and by observing its codes of behavior. Apart from the hajj obligations and the acts that form the outward appearance of hajj, there are certain codes of behavior that constitute the spirit of hajj. Some people preserve the outward appearance of hajj, but they ignore its soul and its truth. A code of behavior in hajj is supplication, dhikr and attention. A code of behavior in hajj is a sense of presence before God at all moments. A code of behavior in hajj is seeking refuge in the safe haven that God has provided for believers and for those who rely on the Holy Essence of God. One should understand and enter this paradise. This is how we should understand hajj.
A code of behavior in hajj is peace and tolerance. Showing hostility towards believers, fighting against one’s brothers, violating divine rules and causing tension in hajj are forbidden. A code of behavior in hajj is plunging deep into the truth about the meaning of hajj and benefiting and feeding from it for all the stages of one’s life.
A code of behavior in hajj is acting in a brotherly manner and creating camaraderie and unity. The opportunity to create unity among Islamic nations and denominations is provided only in hajj. So many people make it there from throughout the world, all for the love of Ka’bah, the Holy Prophet’s (s.w.a.) shrine, divine dhikr, tawaf and endeavor. Therefore, this opportunity to behave in a brotherly manner is valuable. Today, one of the main goals of arrogance and America in the world of Islam is creating discord. And the best means is creating discord between Shia and Sunni. Notice what statements the students of arrogance in the world make because of the issues of Iraq, notice what poisons they spread and what seeds of discord – this is the notion that they have – they plant.
It is many years now that the power-hungry hands of arrogance and greedy western powers have been adopting this measure. Hajj is a good opportunity for them to make Shias angry at Sunnis and to make Sunnis angry at Shias. It is a good opportunity for them to provoke Shias into insulting the holy beliefs of Sunnis and to make Sunnis insult Shias’ holy and sacred beliefs. We should be vigilant.
This vigilance is not particular to hajj, rather we should be vigilant at all times and in all arenas. Waging a war between Shia and Sunni is America’s real goal. They want Shias and Sunnis to sit in front of one another after the passage of many centuries – like those who confront one another after a war – and to speak to one another with hearts full of grudge. They want them to curse one another. It is not unlikely at all for them to hire some people in the hajj ritual – particularly at this very sensitive time – so that they create this discord. You should be vigilant. The people should be vigilant. The honorable clergy in hajj caravans should completely be aware of this issue with a complete sense of responsibility towards this matter. They should know what the enemy wants.
It is a great mistake for one to defend the enemy’s plan and to work for the enemy thinking that they are defending the truth. Others receive money as mercenaries to carry out this task and they might provoke some ignorant and bigoted individuals against you and against your holy beliefs. If they are confronted with a reaction on your party, they have undoubtedly achieved their goal. This is what they want. They want us to fight against one another so that they can feel relieved.
One of the possible mistakes in hajj is that some people pursue pointless and absurd trifles and go to markets and shops instead of participating in public prayers, performing mustahab tawaf and showing their presence in the fragrant environment of Masjid al-Haraam and Masjid al-Nabi – in these two places, there are many memories about the glorious early Islamic era and the era of divine revelation and be’that – so that they can fill the pockets of those foreign governments that are indifferent to the interests of Muslims. This way, they are filling the pockets of their workers and investors with Iranian money and with our national wealth.
Instead of participating in public prayers, they roam about in markets and shops and they look at their goods and products. One feels sorry when one hears that a magnificent number of people rush towards public prayers while a few number of Iranian pilgrims – men and women both – go to markets, hold bags and sacks in their hands and buy products whose counterparts are cheaper and better in their own cities.
“That is best for you if you but knew” [The Holy Quran, 62: 9]. It is better, more valuable and more important for one to attend to daily prayers, worshipping, supplication and presence in rallies and gatherings. These are the real achievements of hajj. The main souvenir is this. The main souvenir is the spirituality that you store in yourselves and that you bring with you. The main souvenir is the conduct and the disposition that you bring with you. We have seen certain individuals whose faces, behavior, words, appearance and inner selves influence and teach a lesson to us when they return from hajj. This is good and this is the real souvenir.
I should add that bitter events are taking place in our neighboring country – Iraq. The events that occurred yesterday in Najaf and Karbala – the explosion of bombs, the murder of tens of individuals and the injury of a larger number of people – should draw our attention to greater problems and issues. It is evident that the hands of arrogance are busy working in the world of Islam. It is either of these two ways: one is that the world of Islam will act in an intelligent manner. If this happens, arrogance will not be able to do a damn thing even if its hands turn into ten pairs of hands. However, if we deal with these issues in an ignorant manner, then our fate and the future of the Islamic Ummah will seriously be threatened.
Even if these bloody events that lead to the death of individuals were merely some terrorist incidents, they would be condemned. But they are beyond this. Now that elections are imminent, they want to make the people of Iraq so busy and they want to boost the market of slander, rumor and discord so vigorously that they can snatch the exceptional opportunity of elections away from their hands. I am sure that behind the scenes of these events, the hands of the intelligence services of Israel and America are busy working. Either they themselves have hatched this plot directly or they have deceived and forced some bigoted and ignorant individuals into doing this. But the plan belongs to them.
After the passage of many years and contrary to the arrogant wishes of arrogant powers, the people of Iraq want to choose and to elect on their own, but occupiers do not want this. They want the outward appearance of elections to exist, but they want to destroy its real essence. They do not want anyone who is from the people, who works for the people and who is trusted by the people to hold office in Iraq. They want to install individuals who are mercenaries and who obey their orders. On the face of it, they want a popular government to exist, but in reality, they want American and English agents to rule so that they can ensure their interests. In the present time, Iraq is in their hands and it is they who are governing it. This should make us very vigilant. This should make the Iraqi nation and the Islamic Ummah very vigilant.
These events exist throughout the world of Islam in different forms. The “Greater Middle East” project is one of these forms. In fact, this project is putting all the current interests in the region in one single bowl and pouring it into the insatiable and power-hungry stomach of American arrogance. They are not satisfied with the influence and the domination that they enjoy in the present time. They want absolute domination. They are after absolute power over the whole world – including over this region which is full of natural and human sources of wealth and which is a very sensitive and important region.
Nations should be very vigilant. Governments should be vigilant as well. The opportunity in hajj to cast light on these issues and to express one’s hatred of arrogance and America should not be missed. The world of Islam should know what issues it is faced with. These things should become a means for the enthusiasm and movement of the world of Islam. In their propaganda, it is pretended that whatever Muslims do, it is not of no avail, that arrogance will dominate and that nothing can be done about it: the story is about might and fight. But this is not the truth of the matter. The truth of the matter is that the Islamic Ummah is a living and powerful organism. Whenever it shows its willpower and determination and whenever it takes action, neither the power of America nor the power of others greater than America can hatch any plot and do anything against it.
We ask Allah the Exalted to help all of us succeed, to approve of what we do and to bestow His blessings on the honorable clergy in hajj caravans and on different officials – at different levels – in charge of hajj affairs. That they pointed out that the pivot of our promotions is the Holy Quran is a very great sign. The Holy Quran is the key to the success of Muslims. In all conditions, the Holy Quran should become the pivot of our promotions, our movement and our endeavors and the best condition for this task is hajj.
Qura and reciters of the Holy Quran should recite the Holy Quran in mosques - in the Two Holy Mosques in particular - in ba’tha [the Islamic Republic’s delegation in hajj] and in any area when the ground is prepared. They should convey Quranic ayahs to people so that in practice, they can show the people throughout the world the Iranian nation’s attention to the Holy Quran. I hope that by Allah’s favor, these promotions will continue throughout the year.
Greetings be upon you and Allah’s mercy and blessings
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