The following is the full text of the speech delivered on August 21, 2016 by Ayatollah Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution, in a meeting with the public prayer leaders of Tehran mosques.
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 Muhammad and upon his immaculate household, especially the one remaining with Allah on earth
I would like to welcome all you dear brothers and honorable colleagues. One of the things that we should consider as a professional achievement – I consider it as a professional achievement – is rendering services as a public prayer leader in a mosque. I share this achievement with you as well. You are quite welcome to this place.
As Mr. Hajj Ali Akbari mentioned, this meeting is really an important and special meeting, one that is significantly different from the other meetings that we hold in this place. I thank Mr. Hajj Ali Akbari for his meaningful statements which were both beneficial and comprehensive, and beautiful, eloquent and well-organized. I become happy to see that the eloquent tongues of the clergy thankfully enjoy lingual and intellectual prominence. He raised important points and he told us auspicious news which I was not aware of completely. I too would like to raise a few points about these issues:
The first issue is about the importance of mosques. This is an innovation that Islam introduced at its birth. It chose the people’s gathering place on the basis of dhikr, praying and attention to Allah the Exalted. Naturally, people’s gatherings exert some influence. Well, some people gather together and they speak and listen to one another, they make certain decisions, they establish intellectual relationships and they give and take intellectual lessons. Where does this happen? For example, it happens in aristocratic and rich clubs where different issues are discussed. This is common in the west. Another example is coffee houses. In ancient Rome, such gatherings used to be held in baths. The people used to gather in baths. Going to a public bath would provide them with an opportunity to speak and to listen to one another.
Such gatherings can also be held in those places where the main pivot is saying daily prayers. This is very different from the other cases. When gatherings are held on the basis of daily prayers and dhikr, then they take on a different meaning and a different direction. This draws hearts towards a different direction. This was Islam’s innovation.
Of course, places of worship exist in all religions. These are places where people sit and worship God. However, mosques are different from the Christian, Jewish, Buddhist and other religious temples that we have seen and heard about. The Holy Prophet (s.w.a.) did not just go to a mosque to say prayers and then leave. He used to speak about those issues which occurred to society and which were important. They used to call out, “Salaat gathers the people” [speaking in Arabic]. This call invited the people to gather in mosques. What for? For consulting and cooperating with one another about the issue of war, for gathering all the resources and for other purposes. You can witness in the history of Islam that mosques were places of teaching. We have heard and read in narrations that in the Masjid al-Haram and the Masjid al-Nabi, there were chains of classes taught by different personalities with different intellectual and religious orientations. This is completely different from churches and Jewish synagogues where the people go to worship God and then leave. Mosques are a base and this base pivots around dhikr and daily prayers.
Here, the significance of daily prayers becomes clear as well. Each and every one of us needs to adopt a different outlook towards daily prayers. Of course, all of you are men of thinking and reason and you are familiar with divine and religious teachings. I am saying this as a word of advice for myself. We – people in general – keep failing to appreciate the value of daily prayers the way we should. Daily prayers maintain the structure of religion in the real sense of the word. This means that if it were not for daily prayers, the ceiling of religion would cave in and the structure would lose its real form. This is what daily prayers are.
Therefore, the great structure of religion is founded on daily prayers. What kind of daily prayers can preserve this structure? Only the kind of daily prayers that enjoy ideal characteristics can preserve this structure: “Daily Prayers help every pious individual to get close to God” [al-Kafi, Vol.3, page 265]. Daily prayers should prevent us from doing evil deeds and they should be accompanied by dhikr [remembrance of God]: “And remembrance of Allah is the greatest” [The Holy Quran, 29: 45]. We should both act on and promote this dhikr.
In my opinion, one of the important tasks that the honorable public prayer leaders should do in mosques is to explain the issue of daily prayers for the people so that they appreciate their value. If this is done, then the quality of daily prayers will improve. The truth of the matter is that in many cases, either our daily prayers are of poor quality or they do not have the necessary quality. We should get to the depth of the dhikrs that exist in daily prayers. Well, our daily prayers should be immune from indecent maladies. They should be immune from the malady of negligence while praying, and from the malady of inattention to daily prayers concepts, and to the addressee of daily prayers Who is the Holy Being. This is one of the maladies of daily prayers.
The late Mr. Meshkini said in this Hussainiyah, “If a device is invented which we can connect to our brains and which can record our memories from the beginning to the end of daily prayers, the result would be something strange and bizarre.” From the moment we begin to say daily prayers, which places our minds go to, which paths they take, which issues they solve and which matters they show interest in! This is one of those maladies which I referred to as indecent maladies. If we can protect ourselves from this malady and also if we can save ourselves from another malady which is hypocrisy – there is a narration which says, “And free my heart from hypocrisy, love of fame and doubts about Your religion” – then our daily prayers will become ordinary and regular prayers, but they still suffer from lack of depth.
When we say, “My Great God is free of any blemish and I praise Him”, what is this Greatness based on? What notion of greatness do we have in our hearts? What is this Greatness before which we prostrate ourselves and which we praise and worship? Where is that Mine of Greatness which is mentioned in this dua, “Bestow upon me the perfection to separate from everything and to join You… and to walk towards the Mine of Greatness” [Iqbal al-A’mal, Vol.2, page 687]? What is it? We read, “My Great God is free of any blemish. My Exalted God is free of any blemish. You do we worship, and Your aid we seek.” But do we pay any attention to these deep meanings and concepts, to the exclusive divinity of God, to the exclusive request for His assistance, to familiarizing our hearts with these concepts and to saying daily prayers with such quality? Well, we should practice so that we can reach these points.
Of course, the majority of the present participants are thankfully young and such tasks are very easy during youth. These tasks are very difficult for people at my age. If people want to begin these tasks when they reach my age, then it will become very difficult. However, these tasks are very easy during youth. Give this quality, this hue and this fragrance to daily prayers and then they will improve us from the inside. This will influence all those who are aware of our daily prayers and who perform them with us.
There are some narrations which say that the good and bad deeds of ma’mumin [those who say daily prayers under the leadership of a public prayer leader] fall on the shoulders of public prayer leaders. I do not mean the things that nullify daily prayers, rather I mean these lofty concepts. If these lofty concepts exist in the daily prayers of public prayer leaders, then they will overflow into the ma’mumin. In any case, daily prayers are these. If there are some people inside our own society – in our Islamic society – who are unfamiliar with daily prayers, this is a very big and important matter. Our society should be such a society that all individuals in it pursue daily prayers as a favorite and ideal task, not as an obligatory duty, one that we would like to get rid of as soon as possible. We should pursue daily prayers like something that is exciting, like something that is attractive.
Well, mosques are formed on the basis of such a pearl. A mosque is a gathering which pivots around this brilliant and shining truth. Therefore, mosques are significant and they are a base. As is common among the people, they are really a base. Mosques are not places only for such and such a social matter, rather mosques can be a base for all good deeds: they can be the base of edifying oneself, edifying others, repairing one’s heart and the whole world, confronting the enemy, preparing the ground for creating Islamic civilization, increasing individuals’ insight and other such things. Mosques are such a base.
Therefore, prayer leadership for the people is not the only responsibility of public prayer leaders. Prayer leadership is only one of their responsibilities. Leading prayers, administering justice, promoting religion and announcing religious rules are our responsibilities as public prayer leaders. This means that mosques pivot around public prayer leaders. Mosques pivot around public prayer leaders. So if this is the case, one should have a heavy sense of responsibility.
I believe that one of the major tasks is managing and leading the mosque. This is an important task. We should not look at it as a peripheral task. If we attend to our daily tasks and jobs and then rush towards the mosque in a great hurry because there is heavy traffic and other such problems and if we go there to lead public prayers while we are late half an hour, forty-five minutes, this is failing to do our duty towards the mosque. This should be considered as an important and fundamental occupation. I am not saying that we should abandon all other tasks when we become a public prayer leader. This is not what I am saying. We can attend to other scholarly and non-scholarly tasks within the scope of our capacity, but our duty towards the mosque should be fulfilled. Before it is time for daily prayers, we should go to the mosque with peace and tranquility. Then, we should prepare ourselves for saying daily prayers and lead the prayers with good quality.
After that, if we have a plan to deliver a speech, we should turn to the people and speak to them to clarify the issue. You thankfully have different programs in mosques. In our own time – during the time when I used to lead public prayers in Mashhad and go to the mosque – many tasks were not common. We and other public prayer leaders did not know these things. Whatever we did was considered as novel and new. Thankfully today, these tasks are common. Standing up or taking a minbar in order to speak to the people between or after the two prayers, using a blackboard in order to write hadiths on it and clarify the issue for the people, and forming an ideological chain with the youth of the mosque with the purpose of explaining different matters and answering their questions – these are tasks that are common these days on the basis of the feeling that we get from reading reports and from others’ opinions – were not common in those days.
At that time, public prayer leaders were satisfied with saying daily prayers and then leaving the mosque. Meanwhile, they would possibly answer one, two religious questions if there were any. But there was nothing more than that. Thankfully today, these things are very common. Therefore, the quality of such tasks should be enhanced on a daily basis.
Therefore, one issue is the issue of people’s gathering on the basis of daily prayers and dhikr from the viewpoint of Islam. This is important. Even if a social task is carried out in the process – for example, if they decide to establish a cooperative for the poor or to cooperate with one another in a good deed – this is based on daily prayers and dhikr. Such tasks are carried out in the way of God and they pivot around daily prayers. If people gather together in the mosque in order to confront the enemy, this signifies a movement for engaging in jihad in the way of God and it is based on God and on divine dhikr. If they are entrusted with the task of attending to civic and neighborhood matters – for example, ensuring security – this is based on divine dhikr again.
One of the important innovations and great achievements of our magnanimous Imam (r.a.) was that from the beginning of the Revolution, he gave a pivotal role to mosques. Those who remember those days know that in the first days of the Revolution, everything was in turmoil: certain people used to gather and move weapons from this place to that and dangerous hands used to do certain things. There was a need for a center and a central nucleus. In the first day – even before the victory of the Revolution was announced – Imam appointed this center without any delay: mosques. It was decided that anyone who finds a weapon from anywhere should take it to mosques. After that, a great systematic task was carried out in mosques, which was establishing “revolutionary committees”. These committees used to carry out all the affairs of the Revolution for a very long time. In fact, all the affairs of the country were carried out by them. So, mosques have such a characteristic. They are based on divine dhikr, orientation, attention and the like. Therefore, this is one point which is the fact that the people’s gathering in mosques is on the basis of divine dhikr and other such concepts.
The second point is that mosques are a base for all sorts of social activities. In other words, when we gather the people around this pivot, what do we want with them? One of the things that we want them to do is to engage in social activities. In an Islamic society, all the people are responsible. All the people have certain duties and they should carry out certain tasks. These tasks should be carried out for the progress of society and for the nation. Therefore, mosques are places for getting ideas, for distributing different responsibilities and for drawing the people towards various tasks. Mosques are built with the purpose of doing social activities. They are a base for social activities.
Another issue about mosques is that they are a resistance nucleus. When the word “resistance” is mentioned, one’s mind immediately thinks of military and security resistance and other such forms of resistance. Of course, this is definitely resistance, but a higher form of resistance is cultural resistance. If the cultural rampart and the cultural trench in the country is shaky and frail, everything will be lost. I will tell you that today – after the passage of 37, 38 years from the victory of the Revolution – the enemies’ motivation for infiltrating the cultural rampart of the country is more than the first day. Not only has it not been decreased, but it has also increased, without a doubt. You can witness what methods they are using: these cyber methods, different promotional means, satellites and the like. This means that their motivation has increased.
And the target of this movement is what has become the main ingredient and nucleus of the Islamic Republic: religious faith. This is their target. They are opposed to the Islamic government, to the Islamic Republic and to the policies of the Islamic Republic because of their opposition towards religious faith. This is because they know that if it had not been for religious faith, this Revolution would not have achieved victory, the Islamic Republic would not have been established and this big earthquake and vibration would not have shaken the structure of global arrogance. The movement of Islam and the Islamic Revolution created a fierce quake in the structure of global arrogance.
Of course, there were two poles of power which were opposed to one another. In the present time, there is the same situation. Big powers are like marauding wolves which are ready to rip their rivals to pieces. There is no doubt about this. But all of them used to share and continue to share the viewpoint that they should seize power and bully weak nations and governments and different societies in the world, that they should loot their financial and economic resources and that they should gain power for themselves on a daily basis. This is their goal. However, this goal - which is the goal of global arrogance - was jeopardized after the emergence of the Islamic Revolution.
Notice that today, first-tier materialistic powers in the world have become paralyzed in West Asia which they refer to as the Middle East. Today, America has been paralyzed in West Asia. In the present time, they have certain goals, plots and plans in this region. One part of these goals is strengthening the arrogant base of the Zionist regime in the region. Another part of it is seizing all sources of power in the region so that governments stand under their umbrella. They want to use the resources of these countries and to rule over the region, but they have failed in the present time.
What has prevented them from achieving their goals? Revolutionary Islam or the Islamic Revolution – both phrases are correct: both revolutionary Islam and the Islamic Revolution are correct. Today, this has been manifested in the Islamic Republic. This has prevented them from achieving their goals. If it had not been for Islam, faith in God and in Islamic teachings, and commitment to religious obligations, the Islamic Republic would have stood under the umbrella of global arrogance and American and non-American power, just like others. This is what others did. Therefore, the target of their attacks is what has created this Islamic structure, namely “faith”.
If it had not been for Islamic faith, then it would not have been possible for the country that we had seen and the regime that we had experienced with our flesh, blood and bones- to change. This was because of Islamic faith. With divine approval and guidance and with his knowledge about how to fight and how to work, a marja taqlid entered the arena and drew the people’s faith towards this lofty goal and the people entered the arena. When the people enter the arena, no material power can do anything! The main thing is the presence of the people. Our magnanimous Imam (r.a.) carried out this task in the shade of and by relying on the people’s faith. This is why the target of the enemy’s attacks is the faith of the people and the youth.
The reason why I have repeated many times that today’s youth are not behind, if not ahead of and better than, the youth of the early revolutionary era and the youth during wartime - and I believe that they are ahead of them – is that despite all these propaganda tools and all these methods of various kinds that exist in the present time for destroying the foundations of faith, revolutionary youth have stood firm. We have many pious youth in the arena of culture and politics and in social and artistic arenas. Of course, there are some youth who do not believe in and who are not committed to the Revolution. We know of this. We are not ignorant about this fact, but this large number of pious youth is among the miracles of the Revolution. This is today’s youth.
They are such youth that they write letters to me – and these letters are not one, two, ten in number, rather they are many – and they beseechingly cry that we should allow them to go and defend the holy shrines of Ahlul Bayt (a.s.). They are prepared to abandon their comfortable lives and their wife and children. They write letters – and their letters are really imbued with tears – saying that they have gained the permission of their parents and that we should allow them to go and fight. This is the condition of today’s youth. Well, they want to destroy the faith of such youth. The purpose of this cultural rampart is to preserve this faith.
Mosques are a great base of cultural Basij and cultural movement. It is in the mosque that we should learn what we should do. First of all, I should say to you that what you say to your ma’mumin and mosque companions is far more efficient and influential than your TV speeches and other such media. I have said many times that eye contact and direct meetings in which the speaker is very close to the audience is something else. This is only tangible in our gatherings. Of course, this exists throughout Islam in Friday prayers and other such ceremonies, but it is more tangible and evident in Shia.
These rowza-khani and preaching ceremonies are very important ceremonies and they should not be underestimated. They are much more efficient than cyberspace and the IRIB. However, their scope is limited. If this great chain and this great system works well and if it works everywhere in the country, its influence will overcome all other means of mass communications and then you can immunize youth and your audience in the real sense of the word and you can vaccinate them against the microbes and viruses that are constantly flowing into our country and our system. Therefore, mosques are a resistance nucleus, but resistance with all its forms and kinds including cultural, political and – in its right place – security and military resistance, as was the case in the past.
The figures that Mr. Hajj Ali Akbari mentioned are very important figures. He said that 97 percent of our martyrs were men of the mosque. If this is researched, it is a very important claim. Martyrs from each and every guild were men of the mosque. If they were students, businesspeople, and high school students, they were men of the mosque. They began their journey from the mosque and they went to the arenas of war to lay down their lives. It is easy to say that one is prepared to lay down one’s life: “You did indeed wish for death before you met him. Now you have seen him with your own eyes and you flinch!” [The Holy Quran, 3: 143]. Well, we say that we are prepared to lay down our lives, however when we face death in the arena of action, this will be different. It will be very difficult. These youth began their journey from the mosque and they laid down their lives in the way of God. The departure point was the mosque. This is a very great and important issue.
So, mosques are both a resistance base and a base for growing cultural activities, cultural guidance and cultural insight. There is politics at the heart of culture. I should say that politics does not mean that we support such and such a person and oppose another person or vice versa. Politics means looking at the general movement of society to see where we are going and to see if we are moving towards the goals or we are veering off course and moving away from the goals. This is the real meaning of politics. Then amid this look, it becomes clear what path individuals, groups, parties and orientations are taking. It becomes clear if we are moving towards social justice and real religious independence or not. It becomes clear if we are moving towards the creation of an Islamic civilization or towards becoming dependent on the west and on America. It becomes clear if we are being influenced by meaningless fabrications and findings of the west or not.
It is a very important issue to know which way our lifestyle is drawing us towards. This is a political outlook that originates from culture. Therefore, there is politics at the heart of culture. We should take a look at the events of society with this outlook. Some people behave in a short-sighted and narrow-minded way by confining everything to enmity towards or friendship with a particular person. But what is the significance of one person or one orientation? We should look at the bigger picture. Most of those who slip up behave like this.
During the time of the fitna – in the year 1388 when it had just begun – I summoned one of the heads of fitna and I said to him, “What you have begun and what you are doing right now will fall in the hands of foreigners in the future and the enemy will take advantage of it. Apparently, you are inside and with the system and you think that you are holding a civil protest – for example, against the elections – but what you are doing will be used by the enemies of the system.” However, he did not listen. In other words, he did not understand what I was saying. Of course, when I say that he did not understand it, this is an optimistic outlook. Some people might think otherwise. They entered the arena and then you witnessed what came out of it. They said, “The elections are an excuse. The essence of the system is the main target.” Now, we can say that they were a bunch of youth and that they said some nonsensical thing. But this is not the case. If someone gets under my aba [cloak] and says something that I disagree with, I should get him out of my aba and announce that I disagree with him, otherwise, this will be attributed to me. All the weight that the owner of the aba carries will become a source of support for that statement. This is what I am saying.
Notice that one’s outlook towards the current issues of the country should be like this. When we speak about political insight, it means this. We should understand who is leading us and where he is leading and inviting us to. We should know if we are moving towards Islamic goals or not. We should know if we are moving towards piety that increases on a daily basis or we are moving towards increasing self-indulgence and infatuation with the orientations that oppose religion, just the way the enemy wishes. The political insight that we have spoken about is this. If we understand this, then it will become clear if we should advocate and support this or that. This should be understood in the shade of this fundamental outlook. This is one issue.
A point that I have raised many times is that mosques should be active all the time. Of course, according to the statistics that they have given to me, this has thankfully been done to some extent, but it should be completed. During prayer time, mosques should be open. Public prayers should be held in mosques during the three times [morning, afternoon and evening]. This should be the basis. Now, it is possible that I do not have the capability to lead public prayers during all the three times, but I have to put someone else there so that public prayers are performed during all the three times. Mosques’ door should be open from sometime before noon – when they open the door for noon and afternoon prayers – to sometime after night prayers. It should not be the case that they close the mosques’ doors. I have heard some people saying, “We arrived in Tehran in the afternoon. We wanted to say noon and afternoon prayers, but every mosque that we went to was closed.” Of course, I heard this a few years ago. This should not be the case. Mosques should be open.
Another point is that contrary to what I said, some people would like to completely eliminate mosques from political matters. They say to those who go to the mosque, “You should not enter politics. You should do your own job.” What does “do your own job” mean? It means that they should lead daily prayers and then leave: mere prayer leadership. This is the same as secularism. Secularism does not mean irreligiousness, rather it means that religion should not show its presence in any non-personal course of action. On the basis of secularism, the social system has nothing to do with religion. Of course, in the various social systems in the west and east, individuals can establish a relationship with God for themselves, in their own hearts and in their own actions. Secularism means this. This is what the enemies want. The enemies want the same thing.
The kind of religion that they are opposed to and the kind of faith that they are fighting against is one that leads to the creation of the Islamic government and that empowers Islam. This is what they are opposing. They are afraid of Islam, but which kind of Islam? The kind of Islam that is powerful, that has a system, a government, an army, politics and armed forces, and that enjoys scientific and international capabilities. They are afraid of this kind of Islam, otherwise they are not afraid of the kind of Islam that has no power although it might have one million advocates who are members of such and such a party and orientation in the country or throughout the world. They do not do anything against this kind of Islam. It is powerful Islam that they are confronting, that they are opposed to, that they show enmity towards and that they bear a grudge against. So, under these circumstances, should we completely eliminate Islam from our main centers – mosques – from the issues of society, from politics, and from the path and fate of society? This is a great injustice against mosques.
Another point is that youth should be given a special position in mosques. There should be planning to attract youth to mosques in the real sense of the word. This does not mean that we are opposed to the presence of middle-aged individuals and the elderly. This is not what I am saying. All believers should go to the mosque and benefit from it, but we should attract youth to mosques as well. If youth consider the mosque to be their home and their place, if they get attached to it, and if they come and go all the time, this will bring about many blessings. It is youth who carry out tasks in society. It is youth who pioneer social movements. It is they who work and who endeavor.
Unlike what some people think, putting a ping pong table is not a good way of attracting youth. Some people think that in order to attract youth to mosques, we should provide entertainment facilities for them, just like what a church did in America. An Egyptian writer says, “I saw that a bulletin board was set up on a church door saying that the following programs are going to be performed in the hall next to the church at nighttime: a dancing program accompanied by singing, music and a light dinner so that youth can hang out with one another and the like.” He continues, “I became curious, I went there and found out that this was really the case. There was a church hall and there was another hall next to it which was like a bar where girls, boys, men, and middle-aged individuals came and watched the events. And girls and boys were in the middle of the arena. There was music, dancing and singing. At the end of the program, the priest came and turned the lights down so that the atmosphere… “[Audience laugh]. He continues, “I went out and I came back the following day. I found the priest and I said to him, ‘I was present in your program last night. What does this mean?’ He answered, ‘Sir, we want to attract youth this way! We want to attract youth!’ Then I said, ‘If they are supposed to be attracted through dancing, singing, music and the like, they can go to a bar. Why should they come here?’”
The way to attract youth is to conquer their hearts. The hearts of youth are in motion! Their orientation towards spirituality is one of the greatest divine mysteries. If they discuss a spiritual point for the likes of me, well we listen. We are touched to a little extent, but if they say the same thing to a youth, he is deeply moved and touched. The hearts of youth cherish the truth. Their hearts are close to divine nature: “Establish Allah's handiwork according to the pattern on which He has made mankind” [The Holy Quran, 30: 30].
The hearts of youth establish a close relationship with spiritual and mystical words of advice and concepts. Their hearts establish a close relationship with such concepts very soon. They become smitten with such concepts very soon. This is what attracts youth. Combine your words, statements and actions with spirituality and with real mysticism – not with delusional, imaginary and fabricated mysticism – and then you will see how youth are attracted to you. This is what attracts youth to mosques. Now, we can put some entertainment facilities there, but if they come to the mosque in order to play, they can go to the gym instead.
I would like to raise another point. Our mosques – the ones that fortunately exist in the Islamic Republic and that are mostly 30, 40 years old – have an interesting and beautiful history. Most of them are like this. Certain ulama and public prayer leaders have appeared in these mosques, they have behaved in certain ways and certain things have happened to them. Certain believers have come to these mosques, some youth have been trained there, some movements have been launched, certain individuals have been martyred and the bodies of some martyrs have returned there. These are history. These are the interesting events that have occurred to a mosque. So, these events should be preserved. Each of these mosques can have a real, interesting and instructive lesson for those who are present there today and for those who will come in the future. These lessons can be turned into different molds – books, articles, photos and clips. These lessons can be clarified. There are so many mosques in which well-known martyrs were trained. These martyrs went and were martyred in the way of God. We should preserve this history.
We should not forget that “Mosque Day” is basically a revolutionary day. The formation and appointment of this day, which was at the request of the Islamic Republic and which was ratified in the Organization of Islamic Conference as “Mosque Day”, was because of the act of burning Masjid al-Aqsa and because of confronting the Zionist enemy. This is the reason behind appointing such a day. You should adopt such an outlook towards “Mosque Day” and you should channel your movement towards this direction.
I will tell you that this good word, namely the Islamic Republic – “Have you not considered how Allah sets forth a parable of a good word being like a good tree, whose root is firm and whose branches are in heaven” [The Holy Quran, 14: 24] – is becoming stronger on a daily basis. This is the case despite all the enmities that are being shown today. Naturally, we have ample information about what is being done today. Many things are being done against the Islamic Republic and in different ways, whether in hard, semi-hard or soft areas and whether in overt and covert areas. Thankfully, Allah the Exalted has completed His blessings on us. We should be thankful. We should appreciate the value of divine blessings and we should move forward on this path with hope.
When I take a look at the gathering of you dear brothers who are present here, I feel that by Allah’s favor, the future of our mosques will be much better than their past. I hope that God will bestow His grace, guidance and mercy on you.
Greetings be upon you and Allah’s mercy and blessings
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