In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

I am very happy that, thank God, an opportunity has come about again [for me] to be able to meet with a group of you dear ones; though this [opportunity] is not enough. Some of these dear war veterans told me that ‘we have been waiting for twenty years, [or] thirty years for this meeting to take place’, [and] I told them that ‘I feel really ashamed that you had to wait twenty years  for an affair which is so trivial, but well, [due to] my [limited] abilities and my shortcomings and such issues, it is like this; I mean, one does not have more ability than this; otherwise, if I could, I wished to be with you much longer than this’. 

First of all, [the value of] your endeavors and your [spiritual] reward are both reserved with the Almighty God, and God willing, are on the rise day by day; because your work was not totally finished. This affliction and this test comes over you in a gradual manner, [which is quite] unlike [what happened to] martyrs. [During the war] martyrs were hit by a mortar [shell], [or] were hit by a bullet and went to Heaven, flied toward Heaven, [and] their job was done; [but] not you; every day that passes by, [and] every hour that passes by, you have a suffering, [and] have a problem, [and] although you have conceded to this problem and [only] the Almighty God knows [what is going on] in your hearts, which you are patient. However, every minute, every hour, [and] every day this very patience of yours entails a double reward; therefore, this is an accurate comment that the reward [considered] for war veterans [by God] is day by day on the rise. Every hour that you live more, to the same extent, your reward is going up. We have in [Islamic] traditions that sometimes one gives away a small thing - a dirham or, for example, a small amount of money - for the sake of God, [and] the Almighty God in [the Day of] Resurrection, returns that to him [while in terms of magnitude it looks] like the Mount Uhud; what you do is like this; [you] lost a limb, [and] accepted a loss, which of course, is very big and vey important and entails a lot of [spiritual] reward, but this reward is constantly on the rise and is increasing. [Therefore,] thank God for this increase in [your] reward.

Secondly, [the fact] that you are war veterans, [means that] you are right now fighting, [and] right now with this very disability of yours, you are, in fact, doing jihad; how? I don’t mean cultural jihad; I don’t mean that you deliver a speech somewhere or say something or do something, or to give money [to those in need for the sake of God], or to teach something - well, these are very good in their own place; [because] these are [all examples of] jihad - however, this [situation] that you are sitting on a wheelchair or are lying on a bed, or while being deprived or [your] eyesight, or [a] hand, or [a] foot [you] are [still] moving in alley and market, it is [a form of] combat; why? Because it is indicative of the affliction and great suffering of this nation in a difficult period. You, in fact, are like a picture, like a painting that are showing the war and the Sacred Defense to all those who see you; you are an image of that period of the great affliction of Iranian nation and the great test of Iranian nation; [therefore,] this very presence of you and this very existence of you, is [a form of] combat, an expression, and a publicity. Looking at you reveals the crimes of those powers, who supported and defended the regime of [former Iraqi dictator] Saddam [Hussein]; looking at you is sign of the grandeur and greatness of that Imam [Imam Khomeini] and that revolution that managed to raise you in this way and send you to battlefields.; looking at you retells the history of part of the life of this Iranian nation; therefore, a war veteran though his existence and through his presence among the people is a declaration of certain facts, even if he does not say a word, [and] even if he does not take part as a publicity agent or as the one who explains [something] in any ceremony; [however,] the mere existence of you is sign of [certain] facts; historical facts, cognitive facts, political facts, [and] international facts; [the effect of your presence] is like this. this, per se, also has its own reward with the Almighty God; this is the second point.

The third point is about these ladies, who are taking care of you as [your] wife and are accepting [the burden of] your suffering. Yes, just in the same way that this gentleman expressed in this beautiful poem, these ladies are sacrificing in the true sense of the word; this is sacrifice, [and] is a great sacrifice; their service has a very high value. The suffering of the one who takes care of a patient, if not more, is no less than the suffering of the patient. [The fact] that one would take care of a war veteran with [all] his problems, [and] with his physical limitation, serve him,  listen to him, [and] does not lose her patience in the face of natural short-temperedness that a war veteran may have, [this] has great reward with the Almighty God. To [these] ladies - the wives of you war veterans - I can say this that the Almighty God gives good tidings to you for the sake of the grandeur of what you are doing; this is really a jihad and an epic; [and] this is another point.

The last point is that both you dear war veterans, and your wives, and your children and your relatives and [all] those who have a share and [play a] role in taking care of you, must try to safeguard this huge spiritual wealth. Know that sometimes due to our negligence, great riches that are at our disposal are lost. If we become negligent, become inattentive, [and] do not act in the way that this spiritual and divine status calls for, whatever is at our disposal in the form of this spiritual wealth, would be lost; [therefore, we] must be careful. [I wish] the Almighty would enable all of us to, God willing, safeguard these divine bounties - which some bounties are material bounties, [and] some bounties are spiritual - and thank [God] for these [bounties].

Once again, I welcome you dear brethren and dear sisters for [coming to] this meeting today and for coming to [this] Hosseiniyeh [religious place] and thank you and ask the Almighty God for happiness in your hearts and progress in your works and granting of your demands and requests [from God]. May the Almighty God, God willing, keep your children [alive and healthy] for you and, God willing, enter sweetness into your lives and, God willing, grant you long lives along with total body health.

Peace be unto you and so may the mercy of Allah and His blessings