There is a narration which says when people commit a sin, a dark spot appears in their hearts and when they commit another sin, the dark spot grows bigger. Of course, the language is figurative. The more sins you commit, the more dark spots will appear in your heart and after a while your heart will grow completely dark. In ordinary language, this is exactly what I explained earlier. That is to say, currently your heart and soul are pure, but over time sins and the numerous problems that people are faced with throughout their life - in politics, in economic areas, in earning a living - make the heart completely dark if one has no practice in confronting these problems. This is my first point. I consider you as my own children. If I wanted to give my own children the best pieces of advice, I would tell them exactly what I told you.
Pay attention to the fact that most of the slips - if not all of them - that happen in different areas are due to failing to take into consideration the essential point that I mentioned, which is even true of jihad.
In the Battle of Uhud, a number of people neglected their duties and brought about the tragedy of the martyrdom of Hamza ibn Abd al-Muttalib (as). There is no need to recount the events that took place in the Battle of Uhud because you are familiar with the events, but if you have not studied the events, you can read the history books that have been written in this regard.
Speaking about the people who neglected their duties, the Holy Quran says: "Those of you who turned back on the day when the two armies met, only Satan sought to cause them to make a slip on account of some deeds they had done." [The Holy Quran, 3: 155] Satan had prepared the ground for their slip by encouraging them to commit sins long before the battle. We have many such ayahs in the Holy Quran. If we fail to avoid committing sins, the consequences will reveal themselves in the management of our national affairs, in the management of a particular sector that we are in charge of, in the battle that we are fighting, in the financial and economic test that we are involved in.
In short, this is the main point that I would like to make in this meeting: do not take your youth for granted. This means that you should appreciate the value of your pure hearts and develop a closer relationship with God the Exalted. The trick is to stop committing sins and to pay attention to prayers. Besides the obligatory prayers and the attentiveness that I spoke about, do whatever else you can, including dua (supplications) and the non-obligatory deeds that have been recommended. And hopefully God the Exalted will open up the paths.
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