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.
First of all, outstanding personalities and youth – particularly, outstanding youth – are valuable divine gifts for a people and a country. Not all countries have such gifts in such large volumes, with such extensiveness and in such large numbers. One of the characteristics of our country is that there are numerous human talents with good quality and quantity. This is one of the unique characteristics of our country. This is a divine gift, a very valuable and precious one.
The result is that the officials of the country should appreciate the value of these trusts and they should preserve them. This is because these gifts are a trust in officials’ hands– officials ranging from the Elite Foundation and Dr. Sattari and the Supreme Council of Cultural Revolution to Ministry of Science, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education and other government organizations that are in contact with manpower and the youth force of the country. These gifts are a trust in their hands. Your precious trust should be attended to in a very careful way so that you can preserve it. And when that trust is able to grow and to duplicate, you should have a great sense of responsibility for growing and duplicating it.
The reflection of divine lights in the enlightened and sincere hearts of youth illuminates and brightens up the environment. The likes of this humble person benefit from the sincerity of your hearts and from the reflection of divine lights in your pure hearts...
The Day of Fighting Against Arrogance—in my opinion—is the day of youth. It is the day of pious, revolutionary, courageous, bold and innovative youth. It is the day of those youth who do everything possible to prevent the enemy from making new moves and from moving forward….
My advice to you youth is that you should look with open eyes and with insight. You should not accept all remarks by any speaker. The starting point for the movement and for the Revolution was our magnanimous Imam (r.a.). You should consider his words as hujjat [standard for determining the correctness of an action]. You should look and see what Imam (r.a.) was saying.They should not say that even if Imam (r.a.) had been present today, he would have acted in the same way. This is not the case. This is wrong. We spent many years with Imam (r.a.) and we know him better than they do. If Imam (r.a.) had been present today, he would have let out the same Ibrahimi and idol-shattering cry in the present time. This is the same cry that awakened the people and helped them to achieve the Revolution [audience chants “Death to America”]. Well, when you say, “Death to America” I agree with this and I do not have any objections to it.
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.
