All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of all sentient beings, and greetings be upon our Master, Muhammad Al-Mustafa, and upon his immaculate household and select companions.
The Ka’bah, the secret behind unity and dignity and the symbol of monotheism and spirituality, is host to enthusiastic and hopeful hearts in the hajj season who have responded to and accepted the call of Allah the Exalted and have rushed towards the birthplace of Islam. The Islamic Ummah can now see a condensed picture of its vastness and variety and the depth of religious faith that rules the hearts of this righteous religion with the eyes of its representatives who have gathered here from the four corners of the world. Now the Islamic Ummah can appropriately understand this great and unique asset.
This re-acquaintance with ourselves helps us Muslims to realize the position we deserve in today’s and tomorrow’s world and helps us move towards it.
The spread of the wave of Islamic Awakening in today’s world is a fact that promises a good future for the Islamic Ummah. Since three decades ago when this powerful movement started with the victory of the Islamic Revolution and the establishment of the Islamic Republic, our great Ummah has moved forward steadily, removed obstacles from its path and conquered certain strongholds. The increased complexity of the methods through which the arrogant powers show their enmity and the costly efforts that they make to oppose Islam are also due to these advances. The widespread propaganda of the enemy to promote fear of Islam, the hasty efforts that it makes to foment discord among Islamic sects and provoke sectarian prejudice, its efforts to make Shia and Sunni appear to be enemies of each other, fomenting discord among Muslim governments, making efforts to exacerbate disagreements and turn them into irremediable enmities and disputes, using intelligence and espionage organizations in order to promote corruption and prostitution among the youth – these are all frantic and confused reactions to the steady movement and firm progress of the Islamic Ummah towards awakening, dignity and liberation.
Unlike 30 years ago, today the Zionist regime is no longer an invincible monster. Unlike two decades ago, America and the west are not unquestionable decision-makers in the Middle East. Unlike 10 years ago, nuclear technology and other complex technologies are not considered unattainable and fantastical for the Muslim nations of the region. Today the Palestinian nation is the champion of resistance. The Lebanese nation broke the phony awe of the Zionist regime on its own and won the 33-day war. And the Iranian nation is the standard-bearer and vanguard of the movement which is moving towards the peaks.
Today arrogant America – the self-installed commander of the Islamic region and the main supporter of the Zionist regime – is caught up in a quagmire in Afghanistan, a quagmire which was created by America itself. It is being isolated in Iraq because of all the crimes that it has committed against the people of that country. It is hated more than ever before in tragedy-stricken Pakistan. Today the anti-Islam camp, which oppressively ruled Muslim governments and peoples for two centuries and plundered their resources, is now witness to its decline and to the valorous resistance of Muslim peoples.
Conversely, the Islamic Awakening is spreading and deepening on a daily basis.
This promising situation which bears good news should on the one hand, push us Muslim nations towards a favorable future more steadily than before and on the other hand, teach us to maintain our vigilance more than ever before. This public call undoubtedly makes religious scholars, political leaders, intellectuals and youth more committed than others and demands selfless efforts and a pioneering role from them.
The Holy Quran addresses us in a resonating and dynamic manner, “You are the best of the nations raised up for (the benefit of) men. You enjoin what is right and forbid the wrong and believe in Allah.” [Sura Al-e Imran, ayah 110] According to this dignified ayah, the Islamic Ummah is created for humanity. The purpose behind the creation of this Ummah is to save and benefit humanity.
And the great duty is counseling people to do good, advising them against evil and having firm faith in God. No good deed is better than delivering nations from the evil claws of the arrogant powers, and no evil is more unacceptable than dependence on the arrogant powers and serving them. Helping the Palestinian nation and the besieged people of Gaza, sympathy toward and cooperation with the people of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and Kashmir, selfless efforts and resistance against the aggression of America and the Zionist regime, safeguarding the unity of Muslims, fighting evil hands and mercenary tongues that undermine this unity, and spreading awakening and sense of commitment and responsibility among Muslim youth in all Islamic lands – these are great responsibilities that currently lie on the shoulders of prominent figures of the Islamic Ummah.
The magnificent hajj ceremony shows us the appropriate grounds for fulfilling these responsibilities and it calls us to intensified effort and labor.
Wa salaam alaykum wa rahmat Allah
Sayyid Ali Hosseini Khamenei
Dhul-Hijjah1, 1431
Aban 17, 1389