The following is the full text of a televised speech delivered on March 1, 2022 by Imam Khamenei, the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, on the occasion of Mab'ath.
In the Name of God, the Beneficent, the Merciful
All praise is due to God, the Lord of the Worlds, and peace and greetings be upon our Master Muhammad, and upon his pure progeny, especially the one remaining with God on earth
I congratulate the entire great Islamic Ummah, the dear Iranian nation and all liberated individuals in the world on the occasion of the auspicious and grand Eid al-Mab’ath.
Bi’tha is the day when the greatest divine gift was bestowed on the Holy Prophet of Islam – God’s greatest servant. In Mab’ath Eve Prayer, bi’tha has been described as “the great light”. Of course, the Holy Prophet’s (greetings be upon him and his household) bi’tha is a gift to all of humanity as well.
If we only consider two values from among all Islamic values - the expansion of rationality and the cultivation of morality - of course, Islamic values are vast in scope, but these two values are outstanding, and if we wish to see what Islam has mentioned about these two values, we will confirm that Islam has given the best gift and the means for bliss to humanity.
The fact that Islam invites people to the expansion of rationality is very important. There are tens of and perhaps about hundred ayahs in which God the exalted invites people to thinking and deliberating with terminologies such as “thinking”, “learning”, “understanding” and the like.
As for the expansion and cultivation of morality, it would be enough to say that Islam has placed morality at the top of the goals of bi’tha. In several ayahs in the Holy Quran, morality has been highlighted, such as in this ayah: “It is He Who has sent amongst the unlettered an apostle from among themselves, to recite to them His signs, to purify them” [62: 2]. There are other ayahs in the Holy Quran in which morality has been mentioned as the goal of bi’tha. Morality is at the top of all goals. Therefore, Islam has given these two lofty values to humanity and has invited believers and all human beings to think, and to cultivate morality. This is the biggest gift that Islam could have given to humanity.
Well, I will raise a few points about bi’tha briefly, and then I will make a point about the current issues of the day. One thing about bi’tha is that it achieved something that seemed impossible. What was it? It was that bi’tha turned the people of the Arabian Peninsula of the pre-Islamic period – later on, I will explain how they were like before bi’tha – into a virtuous people like the Islamic Ummah of the Holy Prophet’s rule. Such a thing seems impossible with the ordinary and conventional viewpoint.
The people of Arabia in the period of ignorance, before the Holy Prophet’s bi’tha, had characteristics some of which are mentioned in Nahjul-Balaghah and in history. They were misguided people, wandering, aimless and extremely ignorant. They were suffering from great seditions caused by extreme rage and ignorance. At the same time, as well as all these attributes that I enumerated, they were suffering from illiteracy and lack of understanding, they were devoid of any morality, and they did not have any goal and purpose. Nonetheless, they were extremely arrogant and extremely violent, unreasonable and stubborn. These were the characteristics of the people of Arabia, the people of Makkah and the rest of the places that were there at that time and these qualities were shared by their elders and younger ones and their chiefs and subordinates.
The Holy Prophet, however, turned the same people into a united people and he did so in a short period of time. If we look at the Muslims of the Holy Prophet’s time – whether when they were confined to Madinah or when they advanced to Makkah, Taif and other places – we see that they were united, virtuous and altruistic and they enjoyed other lofty temperaments. He turned the same people into such individuals. That seemed impossible. No analysis would have found it possible to turn those people into such individuals in a short space of time. And later on, in less than 20 years, they received global recognition. The same people, with those characteristics, achieved worldwide fame in less than 20 years once they accepted Islam. They managed to promote their ideas in countries lying to their east and west. In modern language, they succeeded in progressing in software and hardware areas. This was what Islam did and this would have seemed impossible at first, but Islam and bi’tha achieved that.
Well, this is an event that has occurred in history, but we can benefit from it today. In this sense, it is a good sign for all Muslims throughout history, a sign showing that whenever the willpower of people lines up with the divine willpower and whenever it obeys the divine willpower, then people will be able to make things happen that seem impossible and achieve goals that seem unlikely according to human logic and human measurements. This is always the case. This prophetic experience can be repeated throughout history. If people tread on the divine line, they will be able to achieve lofty goals that seem impossible according to ordinary calculations.
This experience happened to the Iranian nation, of course with certain differences. God bestowed this experience on the Iranian nation. He bestowed the blessing of this experience on the Iranian nation. That blessing was the uprooting of monarchy in a country where absolute, oppressive and cruel monarchy based on material power and devoid of any spirituality had a very long history.
This happened in our country during a time when the monarchic regime was being supported by the US and other superpowers in the world, the US, England and in the end, even the former Soviet Union. All these powers would support the Pahlavi regime, but the Iranian nation managed to uproot that regime, which would seem impossible, thanks to the sincere leadership of Imam (may God bestow paradise on him) and the determination and sacrifice of the people.
We were really in the middle of the arena and we were aware of the developments. If any of us had been told that such a thing was possible, we would not have believed it, but it happened. The Revolution liberated the Iranian nation from lethargy and it set the people to motion. Not only did the Revolution show its greatness to the world, but it also rendered the Iranian nation great and made the world see the greatness of Islamic Iran. This is the first point: if we move in the line of bi’tha, we will make impossibilities possible and we will be able to attain goals that seem unattainable.
The next point about the Holy Prophet’s (greetings be upon him and his household) bi’tha is that there are some people who believe that religion is separate from politics. They consider religion as completely separate from life, politics and government. There are many individuals who work to that end. There were such individuals in the past as well, but their efforts were counteracted with the revolutionary movement. In the present time, however, one sees that some people have resumed whispering such ideas with their words and writings.
Contrary to the opinion of such people, the peak of the prophetic movement was the establishment of government. It was the Holy Prophet himself who laid the groundwork for that. He spoke with the chiefs of Madinah who had heard about Islam and who had come to see what it was about. He reached an agreement with them and the great personalities of Yathrib – at that time, Madinah was called “Yathrib” – prepared the ground for that. Then the Holy Prophet began his astonishing migration to that city, followed by other Muslims. Little by little, the immigrants arrived in that city. Before the migration, the Holy Prophet sent an emissary to Yathrib. He sent Musab ibn A’amir as his representative so that he would recite Quranic verses for the people. So, he laid the groundwork. Later, Hazrat himself migrated to Yathrib and established the Islamic government. That was the pinnacle of the Holy Prophet’s movement.
And he was not satisfied with the mere formation of a government and the mere rule over the people. He also began to confront the enemies in a comprehensive manner because the enemies would not leave Muslims alone. He formed an army, prepared warfare and attacked the enemies. In certain places, he engaged in defense and in certain other places, he engaged in attack. He did both. Some people claim that the Holy Prophet’s wars had only a defensive nature, but this was not the case. Some had a defensive and some had an offensive nature according to the circumstances. Subsequently, he conquered the base of polytheism, which was Makkah. He conquered that city and God’s House became accessible to Islam and Muslims. So, he gave stability to the Islamic government. This is the most stimulating part of the Islamic movement. How do the promoters of this viewpoint want to separate Islam and religion from government?
The next point about bi’tha is that one of the most important slogans and positions of the Holy Prophet was confronting jahiliyyah [ignorance]. In the Holy Quran, ignorance has been censured many times. Jahiliyyah – whose meaning I will explain later – has been disparaged many times in the Holy Quran. In Sura al-Maedah, God says, “Do they then seek after a judgment of the days of ignorance?” [5: 50]. And In Sura Ahzab, God says, “And make not a dazzling display, like that of the former times of ignorance” [33: 33]. In Sura Fath, He says, “While the Unbelievers got up in their hearts heat and verbiage - the heat and verbiage of ignorance…” [48: 26] This has been mentioned in other Quranic ayahs as well, but I remember these three ayahs, which I have written down.
So, ignorance has been criticized in the Quran. What is this ignorance like? This form of ignorance does not only mean illiteracy and stupidity. Of course, illiteracy is part of it, but it has a broader meaning. Mean conducts and temperaments are part of it as well, some of which I referred to earlier. The people there used to behave in a brutish manner such as killing, stealing, raping, violating others’ rights and trampling on the weak. All of these were common among the people of the Arabian Peninsula. These are the constituents of jahiliyyah.
Sexual obscenity and chaos, moral decadence and the disappearance of modesty in people’s lives. These things were there and constituted the elements of jahiliyyah. Bi’tha confronted all these negative attributes. The kind of jahiliyyah that is mentioned in Sura Ahzab – the ayah is addressed to the Holy Prophet’s wives: “And make not a dazzling display, like that of the former times of ignorance” – was like this. It encompasses illiteracy, folly, stupidity, bad-temperedness, oppression, discrimination, violation of others’ rights, the trampling of the weak, sexual obscenity and decadence and moral chaos. All these were part of jahiliyyah.
Well, the Holy Prophet fought against jahiliyyah. The important point is that many of the moral vices that were common in Makkah and the Arabian Peninsula and which the Holy Prophet combatted exist in the so-called western civilization of the present time in a more organized and serious way and in much broader scopes. The same moral vices exist in broader scopes and with increasing intensity.
Well, today, life in the western civilization is based on greed and avarice. The basis of life in western civilization is greed and avarice. Today, the basis of all western values is money. Everything is measured with money. The foundation of all western values rests on money at present. Morality, spirituality and everything else is measured with money. The common policy among governments moves in the direction of discrimination and the fattening of companies and cartels. This is how things are today. Science is at the service of killing people. Science and technology are at the service of killing people. Sometimes, one uses money to produce such and such a vaccine and medicine to save a number of people and sometimes, one uses it to build weapons of mass destruction and chemical and atomic weapons which kill a hundred-fold amount of people. This has already happened and it continues to happen in the world.
I can equally mention the plunder of weak countries, extreme moral decadence and chaos, homosexuality and the like that one is ashamed even mentioning them. Today, a strange sexual chaos exists in the world. These are things that existed in those days and in the present time. However, in those days, such things were limited in scope, but today, they are very large in scope and are done in a systematic way.
For many of these forms of corruption and vices, fake rationalizations has been fabricated. They have fabricated an intellectual basis and source of support for it and they present it to humanity. So, this modern ignorance is there in the world today. Therefore, if someone refers to today’s western civilization as modern ignorance, as some people have already done, they are right because it is the same ignorance, but it is showing itself in a modern and modernized way.
So, what should we do? We should review the lessons of bi’tha. We should treat today’s ignorance in the same way the Holy Prophet (God’s greetings be upon him and his household) treated those days’ ignorance. This is our responsibility. We should primarily strengthen faith. An important duty for us and for all those who love humanity throughout the world is to strengthen religious faith and to develop pious and resistant groups all over the globe, people who are religiously motivated, who have faith, who are resistant and who work hard. These groups should be expanded.
Another responsibility is to strengthen the Islamic government. An Islamic government, with and under the flag of Islam, has been established in the Islamic Republic by God’s favor. Therefore, we must strengthen it, solidify its bases and expand its products as much as possible.
We must have an intelligent and smart plan. This arena is not one where we can simply launch an attack with our heads down [without thinking]. It requires planning and careful study. An intelligent plan must be prepared and we must deal with this matter in a wise way. This plan must be reliant on a thorough understanding of the characteristics of modern ignorance. If we have misunderstandings about the characteristic of this form of ignorance, we cannot confront and fight against it.
We cannot claim that we have attained our goals in these big endeavors. No, we are in the middle of the path in all these lofty causes. There is no doubt about this. Of course, work has been done and we have thankfully moved forward to some extent, but we are in the middle of the way in all these endeavors and there is a long way for us to reach the goal, but despite the fact that we are in the middle of the way and that we are far away from reaching the goal, the Islamic Revolution and the Islamic Republic model is an attractive model for people all over the world – at least for Muslims.
Notice that thousands of kilometers away from Tehran, if someone in another country insults the photograph of our dear Martyr Soleimani, the people in that country react in a way that the policeman who has perpetrated the insult is forced to apologize and accompany the people when they are putting up the photograph in the city. This model is an attractive model. This shows that this model has great potential. Even the half-finished form of it has great potential and is attractive. If we can continue the path in a satisfactory and meticulous way, there will be a very attractive and resourceful model, one that will draw nations towards it. This is how it is. We are faced with such form of ignorance.
Of course, this modern ignorance is not the same everywhere in the world. In my opinion, one clear and complete example of modern ignorance is the US. This form of ignorance is more serious and severe than anywhere else in the world. This is the case in the true sense of the word. The US is a regime which promotes indecent conduct, in which discrimination is exacerbating on a daily basis and in which national wealth is increasingly flowing towards the wealthy and rich.
A country as rich as the US is in a situation that people die on the streets if the weather becomes cold. And when it becomes hot, people also lose their lives on the street. Why? What does this mean? Today, the embodiment of modern ignorance, discrimination, oppression and generation of crisis in the world is the US. Basically, the United States regime is a crisis-making and crisis-feeding regime. They feed off crises. They nourish off the various crises that occur in the world. It is such a regime.
There are networks of mafia power in the US and these networks feed off and take advantage of the crises that occur throughout the world. The US is basically a mafia regime. The United States is a mafia regime: political, economic and weapons-manufacturing mafia. There are all sorts of mafias which control and manipulate the policies of that country. Behind the scenes of governments, they bring individuals to power and oust some from power. Such mafias install presidents.
These mafia cartels and this mafia regime need crises to exist throughout the world. Therefore, they create centers of crisis. Notice how many crises they created in West Asia. The Americans even felt the need to give birth to a creature called DAESH which was their trained dog. This creature was trained to publicly film the beheading, burning and drowning of individuals. It was the US that created this creature. They themselves acknowledged that they created that creature. They are the generators of crisis. If they fail to generate crisis, then their weapons-manufacturing factories will not be able to reap maximum benefits. Therefore, they have to create crisis in the world in order to maximize the profit of these mafias.
Today, in my opinion, Ukraine is a victim of this policy as well. Ukraine’s situation at present stems from this American policy. It was the US that dragged Ukraine to this point. Naturally, interfering in the domestic affairs of Ukraine, organizing rallies against governments, launching velvet revolutions and color coup d’etats, American senators being present in demonstrations, and replacing a government with another, leads to these crises.
Of course, we are opposed to war and destruction, wherever it is in the world. This is our unchanging opinion. We do not approve of killing the people and destroying a nations’ infrastructure, wherever it may occur in the world. This is our unchanging opinion. We are not like westerners who claim that dropping bombs on a wedding ceremony in Afghanistan and turning their ceremony into a funeral is “fighting against terrorism”. According to their logic, this is not a crime! Such is their logic in Afghanistan and in Iraq.
What is the US doing in eastern Syria? Why is it stealing Syria’s oil? Why do the Americans steal Afghanistan’s money? Why do they usurp Afghanistan’s national wealth? Why do they defend the round-the-clock crimes committed by the Zionists in West Asia? These are instances of creating crisis. These are the things that they do, all of which are done in the name of human rights and the like.
We are not like them who express a positive opinion of an incident in an area, but who express a different opinion when it happens elsewhere! It is eight years now that the people of Yemen have been under bombardment. Westerners do not condemn this, on the contrary, they even support it – verbal, promotional, media and practical support. They are like this. We advocate the end of the war in Ukraine. However, every crisis can only be cured when the root of the crisis is identified. The root of the Ukraine crisis is the US and western policies. These roots must be recognized and then we must act and make judgments according to them. If we are men of action, we will take action.
Now that we have talked about Ukraine, we must know that there are certain lessons about it that one can see. Different people have also mentioned these lessons in their speeches and writings. I wish to highlight two of these lessons. One is that western powers’ support for the countries and governments that they themselves have installed is a mirage. It is not real. All government should know this. The governments that rely on the US and Europe should take a look at the condition of Ukraine in the present time and the condition of Afghanistan in the recent past.
The Ukrainian president said this a few days ago. The runaway president of Afghanistan expressed the same opinion a while ago as well. He said that they trusted the US and western governments, but they abandoned them. They cannot be trusted. This is the first lesson. Of course, the Islamic Republic’s cry of independence and dignity has been heard by the whole world, but those who rely on the US should learn a lesson from this. They should understand this. This is one lesson.
The second lesson is that the people are the most important source of support for governments. If the people had entered the field in Ukraine, then the Ukrainian government and people would not be in this situation today. The people did not enter the field because they did not believe in the government. The same thing happened exactly when the US attacked Iraq during the Saddam era. The people did not defend and stepped aside and consequently, the US took over. However, when DAESH launched an attack, the same people entered the arena and managed to repel and overcome DAESH, which was a grave danger. The people are the main factor in the independence of countries. We have experienced this.
In the Sacred Defense Era, the people entered the field while all powers were supporting and helping Saddam. With the people’s assistance, the Islamic Republic managed to overcome and frustrate the enemy. So, this is another lesson.
I hope that all of us open our eyes and ears, think and act correctly and learn these great lessons. I hope that God will raise the position of our late magnanimous Imam. It was he who taught us these lessons. It was he who set us in motion onto this path. And I hope that God will associate the pure souls of martyrs with the immaculate soul of the Holy Prophet, as it was they who brought us honor in this world.
Once more, I wish to congratulate you on the Holy Prophet’s bi’tha and I send greetings to the Imam of the Age (may our souls be sacrificed for his sake).
Greetings be upon you and God’s mercy and blessings
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