21st Anniversary of the Passing Away of Imam Khomeini in Beirut

The following is the translation of the full text of His Eminence's speech during the ceremony:

At the outset, on the anniversary of the departure of the late Imam Khomeini (may God honor his soul) I wish offer our deepest sympathy and condolences on the anniversary that cannot die, to his successor and guardian of his path the His Eminence the commander Sayyed Ali Khamenei (May he live long), to our learned scholars, to the brother and sisters in the Islamic Republic of Iran, as President, Government and people, and to all those who love and adore this great Imam, in Lebanon and all over the world, because just as His Eminence the Imam commander said "Imam Khomeini (may God honor his soul) is a living truth that is continuing, because it is connected to the source of righteousness and the fabric of compassion.

Dear Brothers and Sisters:

The Imam made enormous and great achievements, of the most important achievements of the imam I would like to talk about in the available time is to revive the Godly, prophetic, humanitarian and moral system of values in the life of man, the peoples and nations, especially in the minds and hearts of this nation. The effects of the revival of this great system of values has exceeded our Arab and Islamic nation to many places in this world; many were inspired by the revolution of this imam, and his movement and values in the face of their challenges, dictators and the difficult and harsh circumstances imposed by them.

He came at the time during which Allah, glory be to Him the exhaled, wished to send his mercy and enlighten his right guidance anew, at the stage in which there are various concepts and values dominating our people and nation which have no connection with our values or culture or civilization or history, such as the concept and culture of failure to upholding rightness for disparate and insubstantial excuses and pretexts, some veiled in religion and some in realism and some in wisdom, such as the culture of abandoning responsibilities towards major issues, or doing away with holding responsibilities... withdrawing from an issue on the level of humanity to attend to one on the level of the nation, then withdrawing from the nation's issue to the issue of the country, then withdrawing from the issue of the country to the issue of the group, be it sectarian or denominational or partisan or faction or group or leadership, to withdraw from the group to drown in our subjectivity and personal lives. The culture of abandoning responsibilities towards big issues is a culture of surrendering to the overwhelming material power, the culture of despair from any victory or accomplishment, the spread of the material culture which downs all moral and religious values from the equation such as relying on God and trusting in Him and His championship of mujahidiin and the oppressed revolutionists in defense of their legal rights, the culture of surrendering to the slogan of subordination at a certain time to either the east or west camps, that we cannot do anything and cannot but be with the western camp or eastern camp and to be here or there we must be followers, moving in the context of another project to realize some breadcrumbs of interests for our country and nation, the culture of powerlessness in achieving independence, the culture of not trusting ourselves and not trusting our people and not trusting the nation in all fields..... and therefore, we were always obliged to imitate and follow others and induce the compliance of others and to use others to save ourselves... the culture with which the correct criterions for identifying the enemy and friend was lost, i.e. what we call today as the organization of priorities...the loss of affiliation, the sense of contradiction between state affiliation and national affiliation, between the state affiliation and the fiducial religious affiliation.

The Imam, may God the Exalted be pleased with him, to present and revive and cement a different system of morals in complete contrast to what was prevalent, thus reviving in us and in this nation the culture of jihad and standing in the face of tyrants and oppressors. He revived in us the culture of a decent honorable life in which a person rejects degradation and servility and contending with some living and food and comfort. He revived in us the values of sacrifice and giving and sacrificing oneself and one's family and money to be martyred for the sake of the issues of our nation and for the sake of our sacred issues. He revived in us the culture of championing the oppressed and subjugated and not abandoning them. He revived in humanity all the moral and religious values relating to the relationship with God the Exalted, the Capable, the Protector, the Supporter, the Leader, the Guider, including confidence and trust and deriving from God. He revived in us the trust in ourselves after the trust of God, the Exalted, the Praised...the trust in people and peoples and in their intellect and knowledge and civilization and various powers as well as human and material capabilities and its capacity to change and create destiny and achieve independence and uproot tyranny and liberate sacred sites.

The address of the Imam, may God the Exalted be pleased with him, was fiducial and humanitarian. He didn't address only Muslins; the addressed by the Imam were all the oppressed, the tortured, and subjugated in this world. He would address them in these phrases: you the oppressed, you the tortured, you the subjugated. When he mentioned evidence of oppressed and tortured, he would not limit his speech to the Islamic and Arab peoples or Palestine. He talked about the peoples of Africa and Latin America and the Red Indians in the United States of America, and about many Asian peoples suffering from oppression and tyranny and despotism and dictatorship and whose wealth are robbed and are left to starvation and deprivation and neglect and to starve to death. In the conscience of the Imam, the Islamic nation was not present alone. In the Imam's conscience and address, all humanity was present, the tens and hundreds of millions starving to death in the world, the tens and hundreds of millions who didn't have access to education in the world... and he used to identify the reasons and hold the tyrants and oppressors responsible, the most prominent of which who he used to rightfully call the "great Satan", the government of the Unites States of America. He used to hold it responsible for all this oppression and tyranny and deprivation and despotism which our people and the oppressed and tyrannized people of the world suffer. His address was fiducial and humanitarian, and he used to infer in his speech not only from the Qur'aan and Sunna, but also from human intellect, mental reasoning, the mentally accepted, the mentally rejected, and he used to infer using the necessities of the comprehensive human nature which doesn't differ from one person to another, the nature which God created man on, "There is no changing to what God has created".

He used to address them with logic and nature just as he addressed them with the Quraan and the Sunna, while he searched and built on the common grounds between religions and the followers of religions. Therefore, we find in the words of Imam Khomeini and the literature of Imam Khomeini many examples taken from God's Prophets, and particularly from the father of Prophets and Sheikh of Prophets Ibrahim Al-Khalil (Abraham,the companion), may God's mercy be upon him, and on epithet of God, Moses, and on God's Spirit Issa (Jesus) as well as God's Messenger and the master of Prophets and Messengers Mohammad (PBUH).

Yet most prevalently, he cited God's Prophet Ibrahim. Rarely do we find an Islamic scholar or a follower of other religions that gives keen interest and attention and mentioning and quoting him as does the Imam Khomeini (may his secret be kept sacred), and this is due to the comprehensive unifying monotheism in the intellect and mind of Imam Khomeini (may his secret be kept sacred), because Ibrahim (PBUH) is the Prophet on which all missions and religions that are still present today meet.
Today, no monotheistic religion on earth that does not go back to prophet Ibrahim (peace be upon him). Ibrahim is the common point between Jews, Christians and Muslims. We all claim to follow and be lead by Ibrahim the Elder of all prophets peace be upon them all.
Imam Khomeini used to quote values and morals of the prophets and Ibrahim (pbuh).
He always talked about Ibrahim's lone stand in the face of Nimrod, and all those stone idols that were foolishly worshiped by people. Imam Khomeini often mentioned the stand by Moses (pbuh) in the Pharaoh's palace, with his Lord by him, his brother Aaron beside him and his staff in his hand. He also often talked about Jesus Christ (pbuh) the ‘Spirit of God', who alone with hardly any supporters entered the temple to face the robbers, thieves and misleaders, while they on the other hand were of enormous influence.

Whenever he talked about politics, Jihad, struggle, and standing up for the oppressed, he quoted the prophets.

The Imam (may God be pleased with his soul) did not revive such values, culture and concepts only through writing, speeches, rhetoric, statements and the like, but it was a major feature of the imam, through which he managed to distinct himself from reformers, writers, investigators and revivalists, since he revived all this culture and values through action in the field.
He did not spend his life only in writing, investigation, teaching, and learning and in the education of students; he rather went to the field with his blessed old grey hair, wearing his holy turban, armed with his jurisprudence, his great spirit and heritage, and with boundless hopes and trust in God Almighty.

He moved through the squares and behind him walked his students and the people. He's the one who, unarmed, initiated the challenge of tyrants, not even with a staff in his hand. He bore difficulties, made sacrifices, and achieved major accomplishments until he made his resounding victory against one of the most powerful kings and dictators in this age.

Through his presence in the field and jihad, he was able to establish a modern Islamic regime, which, based on its sound foundations, coherent establishments, well established foundations, and cord connected with God Almighty, managed to withstand all international, foreign and domestic plots.

Dear brothers and sisters,
All that mattered to the Imam was to spread these values and this culture of faith and humanity among the peoples and this is precisely what he meant when he talked about exporting the revolution.

The term "revolution' the Imam (may God be pleased with his soul) put forward, many with their ill-intentions tried to exploit, by raising it as part of Iranian imperial aims, and that the Imam will send his troops, Revolutionary Guards, armed forces and millions of volunteers to topple the regimes and to impose certain values, ideals and opinions on people.

A great deal of skepticism was raised in this area that was based on lies and illusions... The Imam (may God be pleased with his soul) quickly proceeded to interpret this stand and to clarify this vision. In a text written by the imam in a long interview with Ulama (scholars of jurisprudence) of the Hawza (religious high study institute), preachers and teachers, he would say to them ‘when we talk about exporting our revolution, it does not mean we want to do that with the sword, but through spreading the word.'

He then said to them to write, explain and talk to the people, form committees to oversee what is written and what is being published, because not all of what is written or published is of our values and culture. We want to present our ideas and opinions to the people of the world, and that it would be up to the individual will, decision and determination of any people wishing to be inspired by these ideas, or wishing to take advantage of this experience.

So the idea of exporting the revolution as put forward by Imam Khomeini in the early years, was not at all about exporting armies or invasion and conquest in the sense they raised, but export and transfer of these values, culture and ideas.

Indeed, today when for example we talk of Lebanon, we can say the resistance that began in Lebanon, though it is a wide national and comprehensive resistance, as far as the Islamic Resistance is concerned, and in relation to the overall mood and general atmosphere, we base our movement on these values of jihad, sacrifice, giving, generosity, martyrdom, pride, dignity and in the revival, steadfastness, patience, hope, confidence and trust. This is the meaning of exporting these values to Lebanon and to every place in this world.

It is not important to stamp these values as ‘Made in Iran' or that it was written with the ink of Imam Khomeini. Imam Khomeini did not see for himself an independent existence or presence at all, because to him this is the culture and values of the great prophets, the culture and values of Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon them all).

The important is to spread this culture in Arab and Islamic countries and all the peoples of this world, especially the oppressed, tormented and vulnerable peoples.

Of the most important values spurred by the Imam is the culture of resistance and of the major issues he gave a strong and historical impetus to in 1978 - 1979, after it appeared to be going down the path of collapse, siege and abandonment, is the cause of Palestine, Al-Quds (Jerusalem) and Baitul-Maqdis (the first "Qibla" to which Muslims turned in prayer).

Dear brothers and sisters,
after these decades of the Imam's revolution and two decades after his passing away, these values, concepts and culture are still strongly present, but let me say that today they have stronger presence and influence than ever. All the developments in our region and our nation, especially the issue of the conflict with the "Israeli" enemy, prove the credibility of this culture and the correctness of the options presented by it.

Today, based in this understanding, these values, this culture and in this spirit, we stand before a refined humanitarian scene of faith and jihad, the scene of Freedom Flotilla Fleet- one of courage, fortitude, honesty, sacrifice and high sense of responsibility, as expressed by all participants in the freedom fleet that was heading to break the inhumane blockade on Gaza.

I find our duty, based on logic of reason, common sense, faith and values, Jihad and resistance to pay tribute to all those participants and all who stand behind them, to bow to them in tribute and in recognition of their courage, dedication, humanness, and their readiness to die in order to save an entire people, who are besieged, starved and killed.

This diversity in the Freedom Fleet highlights this great humanitarian value, from the resistant Sheikh, to the resistant Bishop, to the resistant men and women, Muslims and Christians, the religious and secular, Arabs, Turks and foreigners from more than thirty-five countries, side by side, shoulder to shoulder facing the sea, wind, danger, fear and the challenge. Furthermore, the abuse, piracy and criminality, murder, detention and punishment they suffered, and all the patience, steadfastness and firm belief they confronted these hardships with, based on their belief in the justness of the cause and their stand.

All this reveals a side of the most important elements of strength the Imam long talked about.

What happened my brothers and sisters, ladies and gentlemen with the Freedom Fleet question has major connotations and very important indications that require stands be taken, very important actions and a follow-up on more than one level.

Due to time constraints, our invitation is extended here to you all across the screen, and to all the Lebanese and Palestinians, Arab and Muslim communities in Lebanon, to all our loved ones and to our families and dear ones to take part tomorrow in a festival of solidarity, honor, pride and support of the besieged Palestinian people in Gaza and all the heroes of the Freedom Flotilla Fleet, all those who returned alive and especially the martyrs who seem to be all Turks...in solidarity with these martyrs, with those who participated in the fleet of freedom, and as an expression of the stand we ought to all take and continue to work in, within its framework, we invite you to participate in the public mass attendance to be held at 8:30 P.M. tomorrow in al-Rayah stadium.

Hence, what I prepared for a stand and a reading into the events, and the path is kept till tomorrow, God willing.

Our covenant and pledge to our imam, leader, and source of inspiration God's spirit Imam Khomeini is to preserve his way and plan, to continue on his path and achieve its objectives, to be loyal to his directed and supported successor, and to pray where he liked to pray in al-Quds, in Baitul-Maqdis.
God's peace and mercy and blessings be upon you all.