The supreme leader’s statements in a video meeting with people of Qom on the anniversary of the January 9 uprising

In the name of Allah, The Most Compassionate, The Merciful

Praise be to God, the Lord of the worlds, and peace and blessings be upon our master Muhammad, and his pure family, and God’s curse be upon all of their enemies.

Peace be on you, O, Fatimah al-Masumah, O, daughter of Mūsā ibn Jaʿfar, May Allah confer His Mercy and blessing on you!

Meeting the passionate and dear people of Qom was always a magnificent opportunity for me; now it is two years that we are deprived of it, today we regather and greet and pay our respects to all the dear people of Qom.

Today’s talk is about the critical and historical incident of January 9, 1978. Some historical events that have strong themes and great messages for future generations must survive; they must be discussed and debated; we should not let them fade from our memories—the incident of January 9 was one of these events.

Of course, when we discuss the incident of January 9, in fact, this incident and the following incidents - [because] this incident originated a chain movement, which led to the victory of the revolution; Therefore, we do not see it merely limited to an incident in one or two days; we see this incident as a remarkable transformation - a sign of the depth of religious beliefs of the people; We rely on this point, we emphasize it; [This] is part of the revolution’s evident facts, but the propaganda of those who still have the hatred for the revolution in their hearts, slowly leads to doubting even the facts of the revolution. I emphasize that the incident of January 9 in Qom, as well as the following incidents, represent the depth of the religious beliefs of the people. The relation of this incident to a religious reference, to a religious authority (reference of imitation), created this incident; That is, if the departed Imam, as the authority and a spiritual leader and a wise warrior, had not been at the centre of this incident, it would not have happened.no other people, no other movement, could do such a thing and have a situation to force a city, then another city, then many other cities and eventually the whole nation to move.

You know in the Taghut (evil) regime, hundreds of elders and figures, whom some of them or most of them were fighters, left, right, Marxist or others, were threatened, imprisoned, tortured, executed, and insulted, and no one batted an eye; That is, it could not have any effect on the social environment of the people, but they wrote a few lines about the magnificent Imam in the newspaper, and this significant incident happened in Qom; This means that the incident is associated with the religious authority, with the spiritual leader, and religious issues.

And let me tell you, the most important events that have happened in our country over the past 150 years are of such; almost in all historical events, social events, the events that people entered the field and were able to achieve and do something, that is, as far as I can remember, a religious authority, a religious leader and a brave leader, fighter and politician was involved. For example, in the case of tobacco, There is Mirza Shirazi; In the constitutional, there are Najaf religious authorities, also the great scholars of Tehran and Tabriz and Isfahan and other places; In the important incident of the Goharshad mosque, there are the late Haj Agha Hossein Qomi (Rezvan Allah) and the scholars of Mashhad; In the July 21, 1952 uprising, there is the late Ayatollah Kashani is; On June 15 1963, the prominent Imam and some other elders and scholars; A brave cleric, militant and politician is present in all of these incidents, which it is his presence that starts the movement of the people. Of course, for example, a person, an influential person might be able to force a number of people in a place to make a reaction, or a slight movement, but to wave the great ocean of the nation is just the work of the religious scholars, only the work of the religious authorities; hence the secret of the deep enmity of the imperialists with religious scholars, political scholars, political jurisprudence and political laws can be understood from this, why they are such enemies; Because the presence of these is the presence of anti-imperialism and anti-colonial beliefs and that is what has created these significant events; They know this, so they oppose political scholars, oppose political authorities, opposed political jurisprudence, they are explicitly opposed to political religion and political Islam. And this is a fact that we should pay attention to.

Meanwhile, the enmity and a deep hatred of the US with the Islamic Republic of Iran can be understood here. The Islamic Republic system is the manifestation of the religious belief of the people and has arisen from a revolutionary view of religion to the current issues of the world and the country; For this reason, the head of the imperialism, which is The United States, as opposed to the Islamic Republic. Now that some people say why you are opposed to the United States, why do you say that “death on America”, it seems to be superficial, shallow; The depth of issue is that the nature of the imperialism is opposed to a phenomenon such as the Islamic Republic, where religion is everything, and it is associated with the interpretation of religious scholars and a religious movement. This was one thing and a point about the event of January 9.

Another point is that the role of religious zeal of the people should not be ignored in this case. The reason why I insist on this is that people see the propaganda, and actually, there is a vast cultural effort to accuse things that are due to religious zeal, irrationality and senseless violence. I want to say that no, this is not the case; Religious zeal, in the places that shows itself and is effective, is accompanied with rationality; And religious zeal is essentially caused by insight, which is a branch of rationality and represents the depth of religiosity, and in most cases, this religious is when you look at it, you see that it comes with rationality. The character that has the most religious zeal, these often are very rational; a great example is the magnificent Imam; he had the highest level of religious zeal; indeed, we have not seen anyone, and we have not known anyone that in terms of zeal for the religion and religious culture and religious life, religious lifestyle and religious rules, is as such as Imam; and at the same time, is at the peak of intellectuality, wisdom, rationality and is a scholar. And it is appropriate in this occasion to remember the jurisprudence and philosopher of our contemplation, the late Ayatollah Mostyzadi, who were the same; he was the worthy disciple of Imam was also literally at the peak of both religious zeal and the rationality of philosopher. The 19th uprising is a brilliant combination of zeal and rationality.

Now I will briefly explain to make clear how much in the field of rationality, this uprising has gained success. The purpose of Taghut was this - that is, the incident of writing that article in Etela’at [Newspaper] was not an impulsive and spontaneous decision; This was pursuing a great goal - to break the validity of Imam; They saw the increasing influence of Imam in people’s thoughts, in people’s minds; they witnessed this; they wanted to degrade the position of Imam among people; So they began to do this And if the pungent punch of the people of Qom had not hit the chest of Taghut on January 9, 1978, they would have continued their movement in various forms.; it was not just that one article; Multiple articles, books, stories written, films, and so on, in order to degrade the Imam and the position of Imam in the eyes of the people, and actually destroy the centrality of the movement; Because Imam was the centre of this massive movement of the people that grew bigger every day. And the security authorities of Taghut witnessed and understood this fact, so they wanted to destroy the action and motivating centre of this movement.

Taghut relied on The United States; That is, they were assured that every move that is done in this area and the followings, they just accuse Imam of extreme violence, and if they put anyone who supports this great person under pressure, the United States supports them, and there will be no the global response, no international reaction and the like. You know that on the same day in January of that year, which is December 31, 1977, Carter was in Tehran, and they had their January celebration in Tehran with Shah (the king); There was a speech that he said that Iran - the Pahlavi – is the island of stability. One of the big mistakes he made, and it then became clear how much their calculations were wrong –the American’s calculations are still wrong - one was the saying that Iran is the island of stability. So, Taghut, Mohammadreza, felt that the situation is quite appropriate to quell the movement by knocking the prominent Imam [off]; though his body was far away from their reach, [because] Imam was in Najaf, but they could insult and damage Imam’s reputation, Imam’s memory, and the sanctity of Imam; They saw the opportunity and seized it and started this. So it was done with calculations; that is, they calculated the issue in a sitting and planned their strategy.

The people of Qom ruined this calculation; That is, in fact, this action of the people of Qom ruined the calculation of the enemy فَالَّذینَ کَفَروا هُمُ المَکیدون (3) They made a conspiracy, but this conspiracy fired back at them; That is, they wanted to break the Imam, [But] it led Imam becoming stronger and appear more astonishing on the scene; They wanted to weaken the Imam’s relationship with people, this relationship became stronger; They wanted to undermine the movement, this movement became stronger; In fact, the movement of people guaranteed such calculations. We are not saying that each of the people who came to the street had done the calculation, but behind this massive movement, which in fact God had inspired this movement to the people, was a necessary calculation that disrupted the enemy’s calculation, destroyed enemy’s plan; That is, the same person who on this day, December 31, 1977, called Iran the island of stability, that is, this Carter himself in the following year was forced to send Huyser to quell the movement in any method and way possible - with a coup, manslaughter, with a massacre of people, do this, which, of course by God’s grace, failed in this work, and failed to stop the revolution from happening.

This false calculation of the United States continues in their computational system; it is still the same; Even now, about various issues, they calculate something, [but they fail;] for example, the issue of keeping the martyrdom of our dear martyr, Martyr Soleimani in our memories; what did they expect, and what actually happened! They thought that with the elimination of Martyr Soleimani, the movement and the great school of thought he represented would go down and disappear; You see, it even grew further. This year, on the second anniversary of Martyr Soleimani’s testimony, who was responsible for this incredible movement? Who ordered it? Who can claim that I did this or we did this? It was nothing but the divine power and the divine will. In Iran, outside of Iran, this great movement, this expression of respect and public devotion towards martyr Soleimani, could not have been calculated by the enemy; the enemy’s computing system is rightly and fairly flawed; it is unable to find the facts about the Islamic Republic as they are. When the calculation of the existing situation is false, decisions will be incorrect as well; The wrong decision also causes failure, which has been the case so far, and it will be the same by God’s grace.

Well, my dearests! Those days have passed; January 9 will not be forgotten; by God’s mercy, it is alive until today, and it will not be forgotten. After the 9th incident in Qom, the movement peaked; God blessed the movement of people of Qom, this movement peaked, led to the revolution, led to the great days of the revolution, the Magnificent Imam victoriously returned to the country, the revolution succeeded, and the Islamic Republic-which is the religious democratic system, came to existence.

Forty-three years have passed since that day, and these 43 years has been accompanied by jihad, ups and downs, and all kinds of movements. These events are our past events that we should consider and learn from, but a living nation does not just look at the past; A living nation, at any given era of its history, considers what is needed in the current time and its duty at the moment and the next step - what should be done -, and the perspective. We must know the present moment’s task; we must plan our steps for the future, we have to clarify the perspective, to focus on it, and we must move towards it with all power and might; this is how this movement will literally succeed, it will achieve the ultimate victory, which is the pure life of the Iranian nation in the first place – if the others learn as well, that is another thing; it becomes an example, that is another thing – we want to, by God’s grace, achieve the prosperity and Islamic life, which is the pure life, and it includes, the world, also the religion, also welfare, also the body, and the soul and all of these. We are in the middle of the way now. Of course, we have passed some of the methods so far, the Iranian nation has worked and tried hard, and we have developed a little, but we need to know our duty and the task at hand for tomorrow and also our perspective.

Now sometimes one sees, for example, imagine the polls expressing the opinions of the people, [but] these do not show the truth of the Iranian people; The truth of the Iranian nation is shown at Martyr Soleimani’s funeral; These are the events that show what the Iranian people are doing, how they spend day and time, what are their feelings, what is going on inside of them; a medium, as big as Iran and the nation of Iran is needed to be able to show the inside and out the truth of this nation. These polls that some are specially designed, and some are not and are held around the corners, cannot be the criterion.

Fortunately, today, the thought of Hezbollahian youth has spread all over the country. Fortunately, we are accompanied by a revolutionary and believer and productive ideas of a large number of young people. Therefore, on this basis, I will point out some important matters. Of course, there are many points, [but] it is not appropriate to elaborate much in this meeting; [Thus] I just point out a few.

The first point is my dearests, those who are hearing this from me! Protect the religious zeal; protect the religious zeal. In different crucial times, the country’s rescue factor has been the religious zeal of the Iranian nation, a religious zeal that converts threats into opportunities. An example of this is the imposed war. The eight-year defence that was a significant threat, [but] the religious zeal of the people, the religious zeal of the youth, the religious zeal of the fathers and mothers and wives led our young people to go to the front-line and in this war, in fact, international conflict, that the United States on one side, the Soviet Union in another, NATO back in the day, the reaction of the area on that day, all were united to defeat Iran and bring Imam to his knees and destroy the movement, the zeal defeated all this and was able to win. The origin of this was religious zeal. Now, this was only the holy defence; There were also many events in the following year.

In the current time, the martyrdom of our dear martyr, martyr Soleimani. The martyrdom of martyr Soleimani really turned out to be a historical and strange incident; No one thought, even our friends did not believe it would turn out to be of this magnitude, and the almighty God bless the incident in a way that can put the religious and revolutionary identity of the Iranian nation on display for everyone to see. The nation of Iran, below Martyr Soleimani’s coffin, literally showed its own identity, showed its unity. Well, in Tehran, in Kerman, in Tabriz, in Mashhad, in different cities [Iran] were funerals. In Iraq, that magnificent funeral, and if that holy body had gone to Syria, Lebanon, the same thing would have happened. In Pakistan as well, the same thing would have occurred in the same way. It showed the great movement of Muslim nations. This incident was a huge one. The martyrdom of a great character like martyr Soleimani was considered a threat by the enemy and everyone, but the Muslim nation’s zeal, the Iranian nation, turned the threat to the opportunity, and it was an opportunity.

We have had such events in our past history; The incident of December 30, 2009, is the same. There was also a significant threat, and it lasted a few months, but on the 30th, the zeal of the people came into action and not only eliminated the incident but also destroyed the effects, turning the threat into an opportunity. This is a point that the leading cause of these victories, these successes, the becoming of threats into opportunities, is the people’s religious zeal; This should be protected. Speakers, writers, and influential people in society’s mental and intellectual spaces should pay attention to this. Of course, it is evident that the opposition and enemies also do their work in this regard; they will even try to find faults in my statements. They will talk about it, but that is the truth; The truth is that this religious zeal should be protected in people and will be protected by God’s grace.

The second point is this: Notice that one of the things that today is highly developed in the plans of The Revolution and The Islamic Republic enemies is the desensitization of the principles and foundations of the revolution. Well, people are sensitive; People are sensitive about the basic principles of the revolution; if someone harasses these principles, people will take a stand. They want to slowly decrease this sensitivity through extensive propaganda that are these days in cyberspace and in foreign social media, and other various ways. Occasionally, the words of some people which are not very valuable - neither their words nor their thoughts - are highlighted and aggrandized. And these are the words of low-minded and pretentious people who question the principles of this very revolution.

Principles of the revolution in the first place, such as the sovereignty of religion, the Islamic Republic, the Islamic Revolution is formed merely for the sovereignty of God’s religion; It is for the society to live and regulate with religious geometry and form. For the government to adjust with religious geometry and move and go forward and take action; This was among the facts of the revolution. People died, sacrificed their blood, handed it (their blood) to make this happen; This is one of the principles of the revolution; they are weakening this. Or, for example, not surrendering against the imperialistic enemy; This is one of the principles of revolution. It should not be abandoned; The enemy’s bullying should not be tolerated; to, for example, in a time to negotiate with the enemy, talk, or interact, that is something else. The revolution tells us that in the face of bullying and the enemy's force, we should not surrender. And so far, by God’s grace, we have not, and we never will. This is one of the principles. They are weakening this, (saying) for example: why? What is the problem? Why should not we? That means dimming such a prominent principle. Or the independence of the country, or fighting corruption, struggling with injustice and so on; These are the principles of revolution.

They are part of a vast and diverse enemy’s cold war plans that follow this. It should be noted, and we should stand against this desensitization. The people of thought, people who write, people who speak, or people who are active in social activities, or engaged in cyberspace, those who can and are free, they are responsible. They must not let enemies gradually reduce this sensitivity and popularity among people.

We should also mention that assuming these principles for the people, for the country, and the future is not beneficial, is wrong and in contrast with the truth. It is absolutely unfair. In our country, in these 43 years, where ever we have made progress, had a successful action, had the good cards in the game, was when the revolutionary and high-spirited people have become active and made an effort, entered the field, worked and moved forward. In the field of scientific progress, in the field of industrial advances, technical advances, political advances, different sectors, where believers and wise, revolutionary people have entered we have been able to make progress; [But] Wherever we were not able to finish the work, if one looks closely, sees that opportunism, corruption, aristocracy and non-revolutionary views and non-revolutionary actions are involved. These are that things stop work from getting done and not making progress. Therefore, adherence to the principles of the revolution is, of course, one of the most essential tools for the country’s progress and the nation's progress; This is also a point that should be noted.

The next point, which I think is also very important, is the issue of preserving unity in the country. We should reduce division factors much as possible. Of course, there are differences in opinions; there are disagreements, differences between methods and manners; we have these, but we should not let these result in standing in front of each other; That general coherence of should not be eliminated with these; We should not let these differences peak.

Of course, naturally, there are some who oppose the revolution, the revolution has no choice but to stand against them; But if the discussion is about the difference in opinions, the difference in taste and the difference in the perspectives, [if] there are these differences in society, they should not cause the elimination of national cohesion; That is, a collective decision should be made to defend the country, for the progress of the country, to inspire hope to the youth in the country, and things such as this.

This should always be kept in mind that in the front-line of our war with the world, there are enemies whose specialization is to create differences; Their expertise is “divide and rule and is the lord”; This is one of the old things that relate to some of these; they know how to do these, and it can be seen that whenever they could have done it, they have done it. Including religious differences, Shiite and Sunni disputes; We should not let these things occur in the country or peak. Well, in the country, Shiite and Sunni have lived together for centuries, many years they have lived, they have not had a problem. We have occasionally had differences among groups of people, conflict between different ethnic groups, [but] we have not had disputes between Shiite and Sunni; so, there should be no excuse for the differences, which fortunately has not been the case, but we should not let it happen, we need to take care. Now someone says something wrong, and someone feels responsible for that person, but these issues should not be continued. Therefore, everyone should maintain this cohesion.

You see, well, the Islamic Republic is an Islamic system, and its flag is the flag of Shiism, but now in all the Islamic countries in which Sunni people live, sometimes we see from them towards the Islamic Republic strongly expressions of interest and fondness and bias and support; In many countries from East Asia to West Africa, there are who treat the Islamic Republic like this, and they are not even Shiites. Therefore, in the Islamic world today, the Islamic Republic is the embodiment of Islam; the manifestation of the Islamic Ummah is the manifestation of the sovereignty of the Islamic Ummah. As I said, you saw that on this very anniversary of Martyr Soleimani, in different countries, many of whom were Sunni, they created massive demonstrations and such. We should not assume that we have the right to treat this national coherence with neglect today.

Of course, there are other points that have repeatedly been said: Strengthening hope and overlooking the future; This is one of our most important issues today. There are those who try to weaken hope in the youth and disappoint the youth of the future and ruin their trust so that there is no perspective in front of them; This is our duty to strengthen the hope in their hearts. [Strengthening] This hope is not just talking about; By trying, by moving [there must be]. And officials of the country, the country’s statesmen, who are by God’s grace working and working hard, they must pay attention to the fact that many of their positive work can make the hearts of the youth full of hope overflow with hope and make them hopeful. When the youth has hope, they work well in different fields; they try well, study well, research well. One thing is not to let some with their temptations in cyberspace and non-cyberspace move in the opposite direction of hoping for the youth.

Another point, another reminder is that we should not let the success of the Islamic Republic remain concealed; This is one of the critical issues. Well, we have problems today in economic matters; Suppose the inflation problem, the issue of some products being expensive, livelihood problems, especially for the poor and issues such as banking and tax problems, and so on; So, these are our problems. Some suggest these problems like there has been no success in the Islamic Republic and they conceal [them]. There are dozens of achievements in the various parts of the Islamic Republic system that I have referred to some of these in a statement of the second step. We must tell these outstanding achievements of the Islamic Republic and remind people and those who neglected them. So, this is also a point that should be considered.

Another point is the issue of being popular. Well, by God’s grace, the government that is working today is good with people; It goes among the people, and is present among them; A movement from people is a tangible motivation from people that should be completed; First, it should be continued. Now, there are those who question even these, as they should not be considered. It’s really tiring to be among people even for the statement - this is a hard job, it is not easy - but it is very effective, it is terrific, and this will continue. Secondly, promises given to the people must be kept; they must be kept on time. So, people know they are serious. When the fulfilment of the promises is not possible – a promise happens to be given, but in practice, it cannot be kept – then, they must go to the same people who were promised something, and explicitly explain, and say that we could not do this because of this but we will in the future by God’s grace. This was about keeping our promises.

Another thing is that sometimes experts and specialists who are one of the people, suggest ideas and methods in different sectors to the statement, [authorities] should take a mechanism that can use these comments that actually make people participate in decision-making for the country; that is one. And also, on how to use popular capacities in practice, they should make a mechanism that involves people in action. There are many people who want to help the government in a part of the work; the path should be specified, the way to connect help from the people to a particular sector, is for example, like this. These should be thought; These require thinking, studying and so on.

And use popular capacity for general oversight. In the corners of the country, there are cases where corruption is involved, which may be far away from the relevant authorities, hidden; People witness this; see this. The capacity of the people in this area must be used. So, being with the people is one of the most fundamental things, and the statesmen should follow this in the way as it was briefly said.

And in general, for these recommendations we offer to our beloved people, the respectable authorities of the country must also be obliged to actually work with all their might. Of course, today, what I see is that by God’s grace, the honourable authorities, from the smallest to the top, are working and trying, really working. As far as we are able to see, they are trying, really putting in the work; These efforts will be blessed by God. They should continue these efforts, work for the people, make their intentions pure for God so that this action will also be great worship. I will finish up my statements.

I ask God Almighty to make Iran’s nation succeed in all areas and scenes; may it achieve victory over its enemies; may Imam’s soul rest in peace and happiness and accompanied by his elders and may he be satisfied and pleased with us, so we may not be ashamed in front of our great Imam; may the souls of the martyrs be satisfied with us and may they be accompanied with their families and may we not be ashamed in front of them.

Again, I send my greetings and respect to my dear people, and I hope that God bless you with his mercy and blessings.

May peace, mercy and blessings of God be upon you.