The following is the full text of the speech delivered on March 21, 2004 by Ayatollah Khamenei, the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, in a meeting with a large gathering of pilgrims at Imam Ridha's (a.s.) holy shrine in the city of Mashhad. The meeting was held on the second day of the year 1383.
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, Ab-al-Qassem al-Mustafa Muhammad, upon his immaculate, pure and chosen household and upon those who guide the guided, especially the one remaining with Allah on earth.
I thank Allah the Exalted for giving this weak and humble person the opportunity to once more meet with you brothers and sisters at the holy shrine of Hazrat Ali ibn Musa ar-Ridha (thousands of greetings and praise be upon him) and to discuss certain matters with you dear brothers and sisters, who are present in this meeting, and with all the people of Iran as well as congratulating you on the arrival of the new year.
Although the divine opportunity and the life that Allah the Exalted bestows on us servants of God is a great blessing, it makes our responsibility heavier. It also makes divine questioning more difficult for us. Each year that passes from our life and each day that we live in this world makes our responsibility heavier. Of course, this is a blessing, but like all other divine blessings, it is followed by a responsibility.
With the start of the new year and such historical days, all of us should pay attention that entering into any year, month and day of our life is a call and incentive for us to carry out our responsibilities. In the new year's message, I said to the people of Iran that in our opinion, this year is "The Year of the Responsiveness of Officials to the People". This is also being responsive to God and to oneself. Being responsive is, in fact, a kind of awareness about one's performance, like a student who reads - together with his parents - his performance sheet. This way, he identifies his weak and strong points. A satisfactory grade encourages him to keep up the good work and a poor and disappointing grade encourages him to make up for it.
The average of good and bad grades makes up the GPA of a student and the average GPA of all students in a class makes up the GPA of that class. It shows whether those who manage this class have been able to help students improve or not. Of course, the average GPA of all classes makes up the GPA of this school which makes it clear whether this school is a good one or not. The school GPA helps the sponsors of the school to think. It helps them to decide whether the managers of the school are doing good work or not and then, they make a decision.
In a social and political system - like the Islamic Republic - the performance sheet of organizations determines their GPA. The GPA of different organizations determines the GPA of the three branches of government and the main organizations of the country and the average GPA of the three branches of government makes up the system's GPA. The sponsors of the system are the people of Iran. The sponsors of the Islamic Republic are the people of Iran. You people of Iran are the owners of the Islamic Republic. You make a decision about the managers of the country by knowing the GPA of organizations and by deciding whether the managers of the country have managed to carry out their responsibilities or not. This is a healthy system. The Constitution also guides and helps us.
On the basis of the promise that the Holy Quran has given, the Islamic Republic moves the people towards the pure life. There is an ayah which says, "Whoever works righteousness, man or woman, and has faith, verily, to him will We give a new life, a life that is good and pure" [The Holy Quran, 16: 97]. A pure life means a pleasant life. A people can live this pleasant life when they feel and see that this world and the hereafter move towards their goals. This life is pleasant and it is not particular to this world. It is not particular to the hereafter either. Those peoples who have relied on this world and who have managed to live a perfect life in it are not necessarily happy. We can live a pleasant life when material welfare is accompanied by justice, spirituality and morality and this can only be provided by divine religions.
On the other hand, the pure and pleasant life is not particular to the hereafter either. Islam does not say, "I want to focus on the hereafter and I do not care how people's life in this world is". This is not Islam's logic. Islam's logic is that the Islamic Ummah's life should be full of divine blessings, but it believes that human beings should not lose the path of spirituality and they should move in the right direction by benefiting from material pleasures. If this life exists, oppression, injustice and discrimination will be uprooted from a society, transgression against the rights of people will be eliminated, there will be no more wars and fratricide, and maximum security will be ensured. Prophets fought for this. Throughout the history of mankind, those great personalities who were chosen by God laid down their lives for this.
We have set ourselves the goal of reaching a high and lofty peak which is living the ideal life of prophets and divine saints. All our efforts, determination and thoughts have been focused on getting close to this peak. Of course, the path is distant and difficult, but climbing further up is valuable and pleasant. We are after reaching this goal. In the Islamic Republic, what is the key to success in achieving this goal? The key to success is that, as this holy ayah says, the officials of the Islamic Republic enjoy faith and do good deeds.
Faith and good deeds does not only mean believing in God, saying daily prayers and fasting. Rather, it means having faith in God, in His promises and in the commands that He has sent down for mankind through his prophets. It means faith in one's path: "The Messenger believes in what has been revealed to him from his Lord, as do the men of faith" [The Holy Quran, 2: 285]. The Holy Prophet (s.w.a.) believed in his path. Following the Holy Prophet (s.w.a.), believers too believed in their path. Allah the Exalted has given us certain promises. We should have faith in his promises.
He has firmly said, "Fulfill your covenant with Me and I fulfill My Covenant with you" [The Holy Quran, 2: 40]. You should fulfill your covenant with God so that He will fulfill his. The characteristic of faith is that it smoothes the path of a responsible person. It eases difficulties for him, it increases his determination, it prevents him from being contaminated by the mean desires of materialistic individuals, it makes him love and render services to people and it makes him resistant against the threats of strong enemies, problems and heavy responsibilities.
The good deed that Islam wants the officials of a political system to do is related to religious behavior. Religious behavior means promoting justice in society and rendering services to all the people. In Islam, rendering services to all people - even non-religious individuals - is necessary. Islam's horizons are very broad.
Officials should render services and avoid practicing discrimination, taking advantage of public funds, violating the people's rights and abusing their positions and responsibilities. An official who has a responsibility has gained a position which - like public funds - belongs to the people. An official who has the key to public funds cannot spend it for himself. In the same way, he does not have the right to use his position and power and the opportunities which are available to him to further his own personal interests.
Religious behavior means showing diligence, doing hard work, utilizing reason, knowledge, expertise and experience, and employing all the capacities of one's organization for reaching the ideals of the Islamic government. If an official is very religious but does not use his expertise and experience, his religious behavior is flawed. If he does not seize opportunities and utilize his mind, wisdom, acumen, knowledge, expertise and experience, his religious behavior is flawed. Our Islamic teachings are full of such lofty and noble concepts. Our Holy Quran and hadiths are full of such concepts. A pious official is a person who pays attention to these criteria as definite and inviolable principles. If the officials of the Islamic Republic are committed to these criteria, the Islamic Republic will move forward step by step and on a daily basis.
I personally believe that with its 25-year experience, the Islamic Republic can continue this path with complete power, provided that primarily officials in different organizations prepare their own performance sheet and take a look at their good and bad grades and secondly, they should inform the people - who are the owners of the Revolution and the sponsors of this great government and system, namely the Islamic Republic - of their performance.
The executive branch - which consists of many organizations - should show, in detail, its performance sheet to the people. I believe that if it does so, the people will undoubtedly become happy because its performance sheet contains many good and brilliant grades. The judiciary branch too should present its performance sheet to the people. Without a doubt, their performance sheet contains good and brilliant grades as well. The legislative branch should do the same because its performance sheet contains satisfactory grades as well.
However, the performance sheets of all these organizations contain negative and saddening grades for both organizations themselves and the people. Officials themselves should see what their weak points are and then they should try to eliminate them by showing diligence. Of course, the people's awareness and demands are the source of support for this task. If these tasks are carried out, this will be the same Revolution reform which I discussed with the people of Iran two, three years ago during my Friday prayer sermons in Tehran.
Reforms are necessary for any political system. For any society, reforms are among the most urgent needs. We need reforms as well. Reform means making a list of our positive and negative points and turning negatives into positives. This is a task whose primary step was taken by the Revolution. The Revolution succeeded in taking this step. Pure and sincere individuals in different organizations of the Revolution made all their efforts during the past 25 years and they have made great achievements. These are Revolutionary and Islamic reforms. Of course, the enemies of the Islamic Republic and the Revolution focused their efforts on exerting a change in the main structure of the system. From their viewpoint, reform means changing the Islamic Republic into a dependent system which bows to arrogant enemies.
Reforms include all the organizations of the country in the real sense of the word. No organization should consider itself to be immune from criticism and to be free of flaws. All the organizations of the country should welcome fair criticism and all of them should correct their behavior within the framework of the system's goals. This general principle - accepting fair criticism, carrying out reforms and being responsive - includes everyone. This is the real meaning of reform from the viewpoint of Islam: "I desire nothing but reform as far as I am able" [The Holy Quran, 11: 88]. All prophets used to say this. In sum, prophets' duty was to carry out reforms - that is to say, they wanted to combat corruption. This is the meaning of real reform.
Responsiveness should exist in the real sense of the word. The cultural organizations of the country - whether those which are affiliated with the administration or those which are not such as the IRIB - should make it clear what measures they have adopted to confront the vast cultural invasion of the enemies, to improve and develop the Islamic and revolutionary culture and to promote the important aspects of this culture among the public.
Economic organizations too should announce what efforts they have made to fertilize the economy of the country, to rectify class inequalities, to eliminate poverty from the lives of underprivileged classes and to build all the areas of this blessed and resourceful country.
The scientific and scholarly organizations of the country - whose managers work in universities and Islamic seminaries - should announce what efforts they have made and what measures they have adopted to produce knowledge and to promote scientific debates - we asked universities and Islamic seminaries to pursue such matters. They should announce how far they have moved forward and what other tasks they should carry out. Industrial and agricultural organizations should provide explanations in this regard as well.
The judiciary branch of the country should explain what efforts it has made to assert the rights of the oppressed and to make them consider the judiciary branch to be their shelter and source of reliance. The legislative branch - which is in charge of two important responsibilities: legislation and supervision - should explain what laws it has passed to facilitate the process of bringing about real reform. It should also make it clear what efforts it has made to supervise organizations and watch their actions.
Those candidates who want to go to the Majlis should know that the people - whose kindness, intelligence and sense of responsibility were witnessed in the recent elections - have not entered into a brotherhood alliance with them. The people expect work, innovative plans and involvement in important bills from MPs. The people expect their representatives in the Majlis, the administration and all other organizations to use all their power and capacity so that they can bring them what they want - those things which are on the basis of Islamic goals.
What I want to say at the end of my statements is a responsibility that falls on the shoulders of both officials and the people. In my opinion, this responsibility is of primary importance. I believe that showing vigilance and awareness is a responsibility. They should put aside destructive differences and hostilities, they should turn negative competitions into positive ones and they should consider the stability of the Islamic Republic to be a great opportunity. My dear ones, the stability of the country and the Islamic Republic is the greatest opportunity that is available to the people of Iran and officials in the present time.
The enemies want the country to lose its stability. In an unstable country, it is not possible to carry out scientific, economic and cultural tasks. In such a country, it is not possible to defend the rights of the people, nor is it possible to preserve their national dignity in the world. The stability that exists in the country is in the shade of the national power that the people of Iran enjoy at different stages. The fact that you participate in rallies and go to ballot boxes in such a powerful and sincere way - despite the efforts that the enemies makes and the uproar that foreign propaganda creates - indicates national power and national power is a source of support for the stability of the country and the Islamic Republic.
Of course, arrogant centers in the world do not like our country to enjoy stability. They want to cause turmoil in it. You should know - of course, you know - that they are making all their efforts to create uproar and to cause turmoil as they did in the past. In the summer of the year 1382, all those intelligence services which were dependent on Zionism and America joined hands to cause turmoil in our country, but the awareness and vigilance of the people and the jihadi efforts of their servants foiled all their plots and prevented them from being hatched.
I have said many times that the enemy will not stop showing enmity unless he feels that enmity is of no avail. In the eyes of global arrogance, you people of Iran are a people who show signs of national power in the right time and in the right place. They have understood this. Your awareness, vigilance and preparedness foiled the cultural and political plots that the enemy had hatched for several years. They had certain dreams and they had hatched certain plots, but your vigilance foiled all their plots. The goal of the enemies of the people of Iran was to create uproar and turmoil in the country. Their goal was to make brothers kill one another. Their goal was to wage a war and create discord between officials. But today, they have reached a dead end.
They have reached a dead end in Iraq and Palestine as well. It was because of the self-sacrificing jihad of the people of Palestine that the enemy reached a dead end. As for Iraq, last year in such days, they used to think that by occupying and dominating Iraq, they could hunt and kill an easy prey. But today, they have gotten stuck into a quagmire of problems and they have reached a dead end. Of course, the enemy may make crazy decisions because of these dead ends, but whatever decision he makes against a people like the liberated people of Iran, it will be of no use because our people are awake.
I do not want to keep you dear brothers and sisters in this cold weather any longer.
Dear God, by the blessedness of Muhammad (s.w.a.) and his household (a.s.), make our life and death benefit from Your kindness, mercy and blessings. Help the people of Iran to live a pure life. Dear God, facilitate - on a daily basis - the success of the people of Iran in moving towards lofty goals. Bestow Your assistance, guidance and kindness on the diligent officials of the Islamic Republic.
Dear God, familiarize our hearts with divine and Islamic teachings on a daily basis. Dear God, frustrate the enemies of the people of Iran and their enmities. Dear God, by the blessedness of Muhammad (s.w.a.) and his household, make the holy heart of the Imam of the Age (may our souls be sacrificed for his sake) satisfied and pleased with us. Help all of us to benefit from the pure prayers of that great Imam.
Dear God, bestow Your mercy and kindness on our dear martyrs on a daily basis. Associate the Imam of Martyrs with his saints and bestow your forgiveness on our forefathers.
Greetings be upon you and Allah's mercy and blessings