Khamenei.ir

In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds, and greetings be upon the Master of the Prophets and upon his immaculate household and his truthful companions.
The hajj season has arrived with its good spiritual tidings like the previous years, and it has provided the Islamic world with a precious opportunity. Although the eager hearts everywhere are enthralled by it, those who are fortunate enough to actually fulfill their dream are just a few out of many, and this is the very cause of the eternal continuity of this ever-flowing spring.
The yearly gathering of Muslim brethren at the house of the Beloved reconnects the hearts with the world's kiblah, on the one hand, and with the separated friends, on the other; it also imbues the Muslim Ummah with spiritual and political vitality and liveliness.
Deliverance from material impurities and feeling oneself in the presence of Almighty Allah everywhere and in whatever one does, even if only for a few days, is a great asset to the hajj pilgrims, and all the rites and rituals of the hajj are intended to help the hajj pilgrims attain this spiritual experience and feel this spiritual pleasure.
As far as the political aspect of the hajj is concerned, the main objective pursued by this pilgrimage is to display the unified identity of the Islamic Ummah. The separation of Muslim brethren from each other paves the way for those with malevolent intentions and helps the seeds of discord grow among Muslims.
The Islamic Ummah comprises various nations and races and followers of different Islamic schools of thought. This diversity, which is accompanied by geographical dispersion in a volatile and important region of the planet Earth, may be regarded as a strong point of this great community which makes its common heritage and culture and history more efficient in a vast expanse of land and puts a multiplicity of human and natural capabilities and potentials at its disposal.
Ever since their encroachment on the Islamic countries, Western colonial powers have been cognizant of this point, and they have been constantly engaged in divisive provocations. Colonial politicians knew well that if the unified identity of the Islamic world was formed, it would pose an obstacle to their political and economic domination.
Consequently, they sowed the seeds of discord among Muslims through long-term and intricate machinations and, in line with this wicked policy, took advantage of the negligence on the part of the ordinary people and the feeble will on the part of political officials and cultural authorities and achieved their goal of dominating the Islamic countries.
The suppression of liberation movements in the Islamic countries over the past century and the colonialists' domination of those countries and the establishment or the bolstering up of despotic regimes there and the plundering of their natural resources and the destruction of their human resources and the Muslim nations' lagging behind in science and technology all have taken place as a result of discord and division and alienation, which in some cases even resulted in enmity and altercation and fratricidal conflict.
With the emergence of the Islamic awakening, which culminated in the establishment of the Islamic Republic in Iran, the Western colonial camp faced a serious threat. The failure of political schools of thought in the East and the West and the collapse of the values which the colonialists had portrayed as the only path to the prosperity of mankind caused Islamic self-awareness to take root among masses of Muslims, and the repeated failures of arrogant powers in covering up and extinguishing this divine light caused the sapling of hope to grow in the hearts of Muslims.
A glance at the present condition of Palestine, in which a government adhering to the unalterable principle of "liberation from Zionist occupation" has taken office, and comparing it with the loneliness, isolation and weakness of the Palestinian nation in the past;
A glance at Lebanon, in which self-sacrificing Muslims managed to defeat the fully-equipped Israeli army despite all the assistance extended to it by the United States and the West and the hypocrites, and comparing it with the Lebanon in which the Zionists could advance unhindered whenever they desired to do so;
A glance at Iraq, whose zealous nation has wiped the floor with the arrogant United States and has caused U.S. army and American politicians, who boasted of their ownership of Iraq, to become bogged down in a quagmire of political, military and economic problems, and comparing it with the Iraq whose bloodthirsty ruler, relying on the United States, had silenced the Iraqi people;
A glance at Afghanistan, where all the promises made by the United States and the West have turned out to be lies and deceit, and where the large-scale military expedition of the Western united front has resulted in nothing but the destruction of the country and poverty and the carnage of the people and the increasing power of the narcotics mafia;
And, finally, a glance at the young generation in the Islamic countries, a thriving generation with an inclination toward Islamic values and with growing hatred of the United States and the West;
A glance at all this can make one quite aware of the ill fortune and defeated policies of the Western arrogant powers, especially the United States, and make one hopeful about the formation of a unified Islamic identity.
Presently, the U.S. administration and Western capitalists and malicious Zionist activists are feeling the live reality of the Islamic awakening and, admitting that arms and military power are not effective in the face of this reality, are now investing all their resources in political machinations and stratagems.
Today is the day when the Muslim Ummah, including both the political, cultural and religious elite and the ordinary people, should be more vigilant than ever and recognize and counter the enemy's tricks and stratagems; one of the most effective stratagems is to fan the flames of schism and discord.
By spending money and making incessant efforts, they are trying to make Muslims busy with their own differences and once again pit them against one another by capitalizing on some cases of negligence, unsound understanding and prejudice.
Today, any divisive move in the Islamic world is a historic sin. Those who are obstinately excommunicating large groups of Muslims on ill-founded pretexts; those with wrong presumptions who are insulting the sanctities of some Islamic sects; those who are stabbing the self-sacrificing Lebanese youngsters in the back, the youngsters who brought honor to the Islamic Ummah; those who are talking about an imaginary threat called the Shia Crescent in order to please the United States and the Zionists; those who are exacerbating the insecurity and fratricidal conflict in Iraq in order to topple the Islamic popular government in that country; those who are exerting intense pressure on the Hamas government, a popular government elected by the Palestinian nation, whether they know it or not, are culprits who will be remembered in the history of Islam and by future generations with hatred and who will be regarded as the mercenaries of the perfidious enemy.
The Muslims throughout the world should realize that the era of humiliation and backwardness of the Islamic world is over, and that a new era has commenced. The false belief that the Islamic countries should be under Western cultural and political domination forever and imitate the Westerners in their thoughts and deeds and individual and collective behavior has been wiped off the minds of the Muslim masses by the Westerners themselves as a result of the Westerners' transgression, immoderation and haughtiness.
The West, because of its flagrant atrocities and illogical behavior and excessive arrogance and haughtiness, has turned into an anti-value in the Islamic world, especially ever since it has been led by the United States. The Western countries' treatment of the Palestinian people, as compared with their attitude toward the bloodthirsty Zionist regime; their position with respect to the Zionist regime's admission of possessing nuclear weapons, as compared with their stance on Iran's utilization of nuclear energy for civilian purposes; their support for the military aggression against Lebanon and their arms and political aid to the aggressor, as compared with their hostility toward the self-sacrificing defenders of Lebanon; their constant intimidation and blackmail of Arab governments, as compared with their incessant submission to the Zionist regime; their support for those affronting Islamic sanctities, and even the explicit accusations against and insults to this divine religion on the part of high-ranking Western authorities, including the Pope, as compared with their criminalizing investigations into and reservations about the Holocaust and the Zionist entity; their military operations and massacre and destruction in Iraq and Afghanistan in the name of democracy, as compared with their plots and conspiracies against the elected and democratic governments in Palestine and Iraq and Latin America and, in general, wherever the U.S. and Zionist agents have not taken power; their claims of fighting terrorism, as compared with their clandestine talks with and even assistance to belligerent terrorists in Iraq and elsewhere.
These irrational and spiteful acts have provided conclusive evidence for Muslim nations and contributed to their Islamic awakening. Today, whether they like it or not, a deep-rooted movement has begun in the Islamic world, and this movement will culminate in the independence, dignity and revival of the Muslim Ummah in due course.
The present stage is a historic and decisive era. The Islamic elite, scholars and intellectuals are shouldering a momentous responsibility at the present stage. Any weakness of purpose, unprincipledness, ill-will and neglect of duty on their part may lead to a tragedy. The Islamic Ulema should not remain silent in the face of measures that are aimed at fomenting religious schism and discord. Muslim intellectuals are expected to imbue youngsters with hopes and aspirations. Islamic politicians and statesmen should call for the public presence on the scene and rely on their nations. Islamic governments are expected to consolidate their solidarity with one another and utilize this genuine power in the face of the threats posed by the hegemonic countries.
Today, the U.S. and British espionage services are making every effort to spread the virus of religious discord in Iraq, Lebanon, some countries in Northern Africa and wherever else they can. The hajj congress should immunize us against this deadly disease and constantly bring before our eyes this holy verse: "And obey Allah and His Messenger; and fall into no disputes, for then you will be weak in hearts and your power will depart; and be patient and persevering, for Allah is with those who patiently persevere." (The Holy Qur'an, 8: 46)
Today, the disavowal of the infidels is the cordial and innate call of all Muslim nations. The hajj season is the only time when this call can be loudly voiced by all these nations.
Make the most of this opportunity; pray for the Islamic Ummah, and pray to Almighty Allah to hasten the reappearance of His Holiness the Promised Mahdi (greetings be upon him); and wash yourselves in this great ocean from every shore.
I pray for the success and prosperity and an accepted hajj pilgrimage of you all.
Sayyid Ali Khamenei
Zilhajjah 3, 1427 (3.10.1385)