The following is the full text of the speech delivered on October 20, 2011 by Ayatollah Khamenei, the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, in a meeting with the executive officials of Kermanshah province. The meeting was held on the 9th of the Leader's trip to Kermanshah.
In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds, and peace and greetings be upon our Master and Prophet, Abul-Qassem al-Mustafa Muhammad and upon his immaculate, pure and chosen household, especially the one remaining with Allah on earth.
This meeting and this friendly gathering with executive officials and managers at different levels and from the entire province of Kermanshah has a characteristic which did not exist in our previous meetings. The dear people of Kermanshah showed with the efforts that they made during past years, with the kindness that they showed to me on this trip and with their faithfulness towards the Revolution that the responsibility of officials towards these people is a heavy responsibility. This is the characteristic of this meeting.
Most of the officials who are engaged in different sectors and who have been entrusted with this heavy responsibility are present in this meeting. Therefore, each and every one of us who is sitting here should have a sense of responsibility towards these dear, diligent and faithful people and each of us should play their part in the best way possible. So, this heavy responsibility falls on the shoulders of you dear brothers and sisters.
First of all, I deem it necessary to express my gratitude to all the officials of Kermanshah - including high-ranking officials and all managers and officials who render services in different sectors - for the efforts that they made alongside the people on this trip, for their services and for the kindness that they showed, particularly on this trip.
We cannot properly thank the people because they showed at all stages of the Revolution that they are ahead of us. The preparedness of the people for being present in different arenas of the Revolution is astonishing. Although the people in the entire province of Kermanshah have certain legitimate expectations and although they have demands which have not been met for different reasons - by Allah's favor, these demands will be met in the future - they do not show that they have certain shortcomings and problems. As you witnessed, whenever the Revolution needs their presence in different arenas, they enter these arenas without any hesitation. Of course, officials made great efforts in different parts of Kermanshah - including the city of Kermanshah, the cities that we visited and the cities that I did not visit in person, but that our friends and representatives paid a visit to such as the cities located on the roads.
Despite these efforts, I have a small complaint to make. It is several days that I have been waiting to make this complaint. When I went to different streets of Kermanshah, I saw that big pictures of this humble person were put up on the streets in an unusual and excessive way. I think that when we were on the way to Paveh, I saw these pictures as well. Why should you put up all these pictures? This is wrong because of certain reasons. First, these pictures are costly and you have to incur unnecessary expenses. I know and I am aware of this. This is a measure which is completely unnecessary and which is very costly. Well, this cannot be justified. Second, these promotions and this way of putting up pictures are beneath our dignity, the dignity of the Islamic Republic and the dignity of seminarians. Such measures are usually adopted by other countries. Our measures should be adopted in a simple and ordinary way. Such flashy promotions are beneath our dignity. Even from a scholarly point of view, these are anti-values. If someone wants to show us their kindness, they should know that these measures are not very effective. Rather, they have the opposite effect.
Anyway, I became upset at this, but I did not know to whom I should make this complaint. I did not know which organization is in charge of such affairs and which organization has adopted this course of action. So I thought the best place to make this complaint is this meeting. During these days, I did not have the opportunity to express my complaint somewhere else. In any case, such courses of action are not good. All friends, officials and colleagues should know this. These methods and these promotions are not suitable for the Revolution and the Islamic Republic. Of course, both the people and officials really provided generous and lavish hospitality during the days that we were the guests of the dear people of Kermanshah and they showed their kindness and friendliness to us in the best way possible.
I would like to raise only two, three points among you dear brothers and sisters. One is that rendering services in the Islamic Republic is really a source of honor because such services are for the sake of gaining divine satisfaction, helping the people and strengthening the Islamic Republic. The more services you and I render and the better we work, the stronger the Islamic Republic will be. You and I can bring dignity to the Islamic Republic through the quality of our work. The opposite - God forbid - is possible as well. So, our actions are highly significant because they are not ordinary bureaucratic actions. Rather, our actions are related to the Islamic Republic, to the original Islam and to our slogans. Therefore, rendering services in the Islamic Republic is a source of honor.
When we are rendering services, we should feel that we are rendering services to religion and Islam. This feeling is more important than all other feelings and assumptions that we may have in this regard. It does not matter in which sector you work. Wherever you are, you should feel that you are rendering services to Islam. The pure intention that will be created in our hearts as a result of this feeling will increase the value of our work and will preserve our divine rewards. So, we should appreciate the value of rendering services in the Islamic Republic and we should consider it to be a blessing and a divine kindness.
The second point is that - as the gentlemen in this meeting pointed out and as I pointed out on the first day of my trip - this province enjoys many capacities for making progress, for developing and for reaching a high level of prosperity in terms of social and public welfare and the construction of the province. The officials of Kermanshah and those who formulate plans for the province are completely aware of this.
Well, the honorable executive officials passed certain good proposals on the basis of these capacities. The governor of Kermanshah briefly mentioned a number of these proposals and I deem it necessary to express my gratitude for these proposals. They are good, comprehensive and important and they can really transform and improve Kermanshah. However, there is an important condition for implementing these proposals: different organizations should properly carry out the responsibilities that they have towards these proposals because a proposal is a bill and a roadmap. Each and every part of this roadmap should be put into practice.
The responsibilities towards these proposals should be carried out in different sectors and managerial areas and there should be careful follow-up. This falls on your shoulders and the shoulders of managers in different sectors of the province.
Of course, government officials and managers in the capital have certain responsibilities as well. Last night, we spoke to the honorable gentlemen who took the trouble to come here from Tehran. They promised that they would follow up these tasks in a serious way and that they would prevent the public plans which have been formulated for this province from slowing down. These plans should enjoy acceleration so that things can be done in a proper way and in proper time and place.
Besides, they have allocated a budget for this purpose. Of course, there are two points that should be taken into account on the issue of budgets and funds for different tasks. One point is about drawing up and allocating budgets. Another point is about utilizing budgets. Budgets should be utilized in a proper, reasonable and fair way. These are important and fundamental tasks. These are the tasks which can help the province move forward.
The issue of employment which was pointed out by the gentlemen in this meeting and which I asked the honorable officials to pay careful attention to is really a fundamental issue. Take the case of families throughout the province - including the city of Kermanshah and may other cities - which have young, highly-educated and wise children, but they are unemployed. Well, this is very difficult for them. These youth should be employed. This is the essence of the work.
When there are job opportunities, the kind of corruption which is the result of unemployment will be eliminated because unemployment leads to corruption - including moral, social, security and other kinds of corruption. When there are job opportunities, these kinds of corruption will automatically be eliminated and the government will not have to incur unnecessary expenses.
Well, if we want to create employment, the way the honorable officials have planned, we should work hard. The central government in Tehran - the friends which have come to this meeting from Tehran have heavy responsibilities in this regard - high-ranking officials in Kermanshah and different managerial organizations in the province should work hard. Therefore, if we want the province of Kermanshah to - by Allah's favor - move towards progress, this requires the determination of all the people and the efforts of all officials.
And you should know that Allah the Exalted will pay attention to all your efforts - including the small ones - and He will reward you for them. Your efforts will not pass unnoticed by Allah the Exalted. Imagine that you are in charge of a responsibility in a certain organization. You carry out this responsibility in a sympathetic and enthusiastic way, you remain in your office half an hour more, you pay more attention, you behave in an appropriate way towards the people who come to your office and you are more patient with them. And no one may thank you for this. No one - including your superiors and your colleagues - may notice that you have made this effort and no one may thank you for the trouble that you went through. But if people do not notice, God will notice. If officials and organizations in charge do not record these efforts, the divine angels who record our actions will record them. So therefore not even a single moment of your efforts will be wasted.
Divine rewards are much better than the worldly rewards that you receive when people thank you or that your superiors give you because of something that you have done. These rewards are not important. What is important is the divine reward and the divine approval. There is no piece of work and no effort for the sake of God that is not followed by the divine approval, kindness and reward. This is while other people may not notice your efforts. You should work and make efforts with such an outlook.
Another point is that despite all enmities - in fact, these enmities are against Islam and they want to take revenge on Islam - all malevolent acts and all the forces that the enemy has deployed against the people of Iran and the Islamic Republic in propaganda, political, security, economic and other areas, we are moving forward by Allah's favor. We are moving forward at an extraordinary speed. We are moving forward in a very efficient way.
In order to prove this, it is enough to say that the enemy is making all kinds of efforts to respond to our progress. Even if we do not have any other piece of evidence to prove our progress, this is enough. The measures that they adopt through propaganda and economic pressures and the plots which they hatch with different excuses are examples of this response. When the camp of arrogance - which is a strong materialistic enemy - enters the arena in such a way, this shows that you are succeeding. Otherwise, if you were inefficient, incompetent and backward and if you did not make any progress, the enemy would not persist in confronting you like this. The enemy sees that you are moving forward.
Fortunately, the discourse of Islam and the discourse of following Islamic teachings, Islamic obligations and Islamic sharia has become the dominant discourse today. In certain countries, a revolution has been carried out and the people have launched a movement and chanted certain slogans. In other countries, if these movements do not outwardly exist, the people have revolutionary orientations deep in their hearts. One can see the signs. It is your discourse and your movement which has made these countries launch such movements.
In the present time, the Islamic Republic and our dear country are well-known as a role model. As we said in the previous speech, they look at us and evaluate our actions. Today, nations pay attention to all the events that are taking place in our country. The enemy is trying to change the outlook of other nations towards these events. We should do our best to present these events in a well-organized and unified way.
I thank God that this province is imbued with the blessing of attention to spirituality, that the youth of Kermanshah are good youth, that parents are good parents and that the public environment of the province is full of human and Islamic feelings. These things are very important. By Allah's favor, different organizations should try to strengthen this moral and divine spirit among the people and in the public environment.
One of the issues which should certainly receive attention is the issue of mosques. The honorable officials should pay attention to this issue. Throughout Kermanshah - both in villages and cities - there is a serious shortage of mosques. This should be made up for.
Besides, there are certain centers which strengthen spirituality among the people. The holy grave of Ahmad ibn Ishaq, which has received little attention, should receive more attention on a daily basis. This outstanding and great personality was one of the best companions of the Imams (a.s.) - from Imam Javad (a.s.) to Imam Mahdi (a.s.). He was one of the best narrators and companions of the Imams (r.a.). This area and province is lucky that this outstanding personality has been buried here. The grave of this outstanding personality is in Sarpol-e Zahab. Paying attention to this grave and to the comings and goings of the people can create a spiritual center.
By Allah's favor, mosques, this holy grave and other graves which exist in different parts of Kermanshah should receive attention. You should attend to religious centers as much as possible. These centers are a source of support. These are things which can, by Allah's favor, facilitate the movement of the Islamic Republic towards progress.
I ask Allah the Exalted to bestow His mercy, grace and blessings on this province and the people of this province. Dear God, by the blessedness of Muhammad (s.w.a.) and his household (a.s.), shower Your kindness and blessings on these people. Dear God, bestow Your mercy and grace on the youth of this country and this province. Dear God, increase the worldly and otherworldly achievements of our people and associate the pure souls of the martyrs of our country with the Holy Prophet (s.w.a.).
Greetings be upon you and Allah's mercy and blessings