Supreme Leader’s Address During Eid ul-Fitr Prayers

Supreme Leader’s Address During Eid ul-Fitr Prayers
31/08/2011

The following is the full text of the speech delivered on August 31, 2011 by Ayatollah Khamenei the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution during Eid ul-Fitr prayers in Tehran.

First sermon

In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful

All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds, and peace and greetings upon the Holy Prophet, the most noble descendant of Adam, our Master and Prophet, Ab-al-Qassem Al-Mustafa Muhammad, and upon his immaculate and infallible household, especially the one remaining with Allah on earth.

I would like to congratulate all you praying brothers and sisters, the entire Iranian nation and the members of the Islamic Ummah who live across the world on auspicious Eid ul-Fitr. I pray to God on this Eid to bestow His blessings on all our Muslim brothers and sisters throughout the world. I pray to God to accept their month-long worship and to make today a genuine Eid for the Islamic Ummah.

Many people were lucky and successful enough to make the best of the month of Ramadan, which will be beneficial to them for an entire year or even an entire lifetime in some cases. Some people got close to the Holy Quran, benefitted from Quranic teachings and engaged in reflection. Some people routinely engaged in worship in the month of Ramadan and they enlightened their hearts. People fasted and they purified their soul by doing so. And this spiritual purity and enlightenment is the source of many blessings in the individual and social life of people. This spiritual purity creates spiritual peace and sense of security in society. It makes hearts get closer to one another. It makes believers kinder to one another. It increases mercy in a religious community. All these things are the blessings of the holy month of Ramadan for those who succeed in making the best of Ramadan.

Another major blessing of this month is piety. "O you who believe, fasting is prescribed for you, as it was prescribed for those before you, so that you may learn self-restraint." [The Holy Quran, 2: 183] Piety means self-restraint. Sometimes we can restrain others well. But if we manage to restrain ourselves and avoid overstepping divine red lines, we have made a great accomplishment. Piety means practicing self-restraint in order to move ahead on the straight divine path. It means acquiring knowledge and insight and moving forward on the basis of this knowledge and insight. Fortunately there were many people in our society who managed to benefit from these blessings. Thankfully we can say that this was the case with the majority of our people. In different religious meetings - in meetings arranged for dhikr, dua and reciting the Holy Quran and during Laylat al-Qadr meetings - our youth, our men and women, people from different social backgrounds and different social groups benefited from the holy Month of Ramadan in different ways.

In our times, the people who can restrain themselves are not few. Our young population and our dynamic youth who have been put in charge are moving on the right path. They practice piety. This is good news for the future of this country and even the future of the Islamic Ummah.

We need to preserve our accomplishments. We must not let our achievements be destroyed by the lightening of sins. We must keep open the path of God, the path of remembering God, the path of spiritual sincerity, the path of closeness to the Holy Quran, the path of continuing our relationship with God and the path of speaking to Him. If you speak to God, He will respond. "Remember Me and I will remember you." [The Holy Quran, 2: 152]

Dear God, by the blessedness of Muhammad (s.w.a.) and his household, make our society Quranic and sincere and fill it with love, justice, harmony and solidarity. Dear God, help this nation and these dear youth achieve their valuable wishes and ideals. Help them overcome their enemies. Dear God, make the holy heart of the Imam of the Age satisfied with us and help us benefit from his prayers. Dear God, make the immaculate soul of our magnanimous Imam and the pure souls of our martyrs satisfied with us.

"In the Allah, the Beneficent the Merciful
I swear by the time,
Most surely man is in loss,
Except those who believe and do good, and enjoin on each other truth, and enjoin on each other patience." [The Holy Quran, 103]

Second Sermon

In the Allah, the Beneficent the Merciful

All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of the Two Worlds, Whom we praise, from Whom we seek help, Whom we trust, from Whom we seek grace, and to Whom we repent, and peace and greetings be upon His beloved and noble one, our Master and Prophet, Ab-al-Qassem al-Mustafa Muhammad, and upon his immaculate and infallible household, especially upon the Commander of the Faithful, Seddiqat al-Tahera, Hassan, Hussein, Ali ibn al-Hussein, Muhammad ibn Ali, Ja'far ibn Muhammad, Musa ibn Ja'far, Ali ibn Musa, Muhammad ibn Ali, Ali ibn Muhammad, Hassan ibn Ali and Hujjat al-Qaem al-Mahdi. And greetings be upon the Imams of Muslims, supporters of the oppressed, and those who guide the faithful

In the second sermon, I would like to briefly speak about the situation of our country and the world. First of all, I deem it necessary to thank and praise our dear people for their valuable and glorious presence in Quds Day rallies. Of course our great nation does not need appreciation or praise from somebody like me and the credit of what our people did belongs to themselves, not me. They did it for themselves. It is just necessary to thank God for the insight, determination and motivation that are prevalent in the hearts of our faithful men and women. Quds Day rallies were extremely glorious this year. The events that have happened in the region caused certain other Muslim nations to participate in this great test and in this impressive anti-arrogance movement more than previous years. I hope Allah the Exalted will help the Palestinians and the entire region get rid of the existence of the oppressive and blood-thirsty Zionists.

Also, I deem it necessary to thank God for the spiritual presence of our people in the ceremonies of the month of Ramadan. As was reported, this year our people had a very significant and widespread presence in different ceremonies of the month of Ramadan. This is the sign of God's mercy and grace. Whenever you find an opportunity to engage in righteous deeds, thank God because it is a sign that Allah the Exalted is paying attention to you. Whenever we do not find such opportunities, we must feel worried and seek refuge in God. We must see what sin we have committed to deserve this. Thankfully there were many divine blessings this year. We should make the best of this spiritual atmosphere.

I have repeatedly told our honorable people that we have several needs today. First, we need unity and solidarity among our people, among our government officials and between our people and government officials. This is an essential need in the country. Today the world is going through an important stage of its history. We need to remain extremely vigilant and cautious at this stage. We need to know what we are doing. If there are grievances, malevolence and disagreements among our people and government officials, we will not manage to fulfill our great responsibilities. This is an important recommendation. This is a major necessity.

The next necessity is the sense of responsibility and dynamism. All our people and government officials should be dynamic and active. We must avoid laziness and lethargy. We need hard work today. We need scientific, economic, political and social endeavors. Everybody can specify a work plan for themselves, no matter where they are. This is one of the necessities and I hope Allah the Exalted will help us do this.

We have an election at the end of this year. Elections are always relatively challenging in our country. Thankfully we do not have the kinds of malevolence, treachery, conflicts and even killings that take place in certain countries - including the so-called advanced countries as well as other countries - but elections are still a challenge in our country. They make the people aware. Take care not to let this challenge undermine national security. As the manifestation of religious democracy and the presence of the people, elections should be an asset to our security. We must not allow this asset to work against our national security. You saw how the enemies tried to use our election to undermine our national security. Everybody should be vigilant. All our people, government officials, political speakers and all those who can speak to the people should be vigilant and cautious and they should safeguard elections as a divine blessing. Of course I have different things to say about the election and I will say them to our people when the time is right.

Over the recent months, the world of Islam has been going through great events. The world of Islam proved the importance of people's presence on the scene to the people of the world and to the history of humanity. The Iranian nation showed this greatness and power 32 years ago. Our people laid down their lives and took to the streets and they managed to give rise to a transformation that changed the course of history in the region and even in the world in a sense. Today the people are present on the scene once again. The presence of the people on the scene resolved insoluble problems and removed insurmountable obstacles. Who would have thought the puppets of America and Zionism would fall one after the other in the region? Who would have thought these idols would be broken? But this happened and it was done by the people of the nations. This is how everybody should look at the Islamic Ummah. This is how powerful the Islamic Ummah is. The Islamic Ummah managed to gain this power and dynamism by relying on remembrance of God and shouts of "Allahu Akbar". This is an impressive accomplishment.

Of course this is not the end of the movement. This is just the beginning, the beginning of a long path. Nations should be vigilant. We have had this experience. When a government was established after our impressive and glorious Revolution, they got prepared to come, hoping that they would manage to take control of our affairs through their methods and machinations. They were hoping that they would manage to ride the waves and take advantage of the new situation. But the vigilance of our nation and the prophet-like leadership of our magnanimous Imam did not let this happen. Muslim people in Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Yemen and other countries are in need of this vigilance today. They must not let the enemies hijack the victories they have gained. They must not forget that those who are present in Libya and consider themselves in charge of everything are the same people who used to cooperate with those who oppressed the people of Libya a few months ago. Today they have come to Libya and they want to take advantage of the situation. The people of these nations should be vigilant.

Of course I am extremely concerned about the situation of Bahrain. The people of Bahrain are being oppressed. Certain promises are made to them but these promises are not kept. The Bahraini nation is an innocent and oppressed nation. Of course any movement that is carried out for the sake of God and is driven by determination, will definitely achieve victory. This is true everywhere and Bahrain is not an exception.

The last point is about Somalia. The sufferings of the people of Somalia make us extremely sad. Fortunately our people stepped into the arena very well. They offered good aid. However, our people and government officials should try to help them as much as possible so that Allah the Exalted resolves this problem as well.

Dear God, by the blessedness of Muhammad (s.w.a.) and his household, bestow increasing dignity and power on Muslim nations on a daily basis.

"In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
When there comes the help of Allah and the victory,
And you see men entering the religion of Allah in companies,
Then celebrate the praise of your Lord, and ask His forgiveness. Surely He is oft-returning (to mercy)." [The Holy Quran, 110]

Greetings be upon you and Allah's mercy and blessings

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