In the Name of God, the Beneficent, the Merciful

All praise is due to God, Lord of the Worlds, and peace and greetings be upon our Master, Muhammad, and upon his pure Household, especially the remnant of God on earth.

I welcome you, dear brothers and sisters, dear and honorable nomadic people from all over the country. I congratulate all of you on the anniversary of the birth of Hazrat Thamin al-Hujaj [Imam Reza] (peace be upon him), and I sincerely thank you for conducting this Commemoration Congress. This is a very good, correct endeavor. This Commemoration Congress of yours and this meeting of ours is an opportunity to attract the attention of the people in the country to the nomadic people. Imam stated that nomadic people are one of the resources of the Revolution and the country. The people should not forget that we have valuable groups of nomadic people who are one of the country’s resources. The people should be constantly reminded of this. One of the advantages of today’s meeting and the meeting that you will hold in due time is that they familiarize the Iranian nation with nomadic people and their value.

I wish to speak briefly about nomadic people, but before that, I would like to refer to the statements of the brothers who spoke here. They spoke about some good things. The activities mentioned by both brothers about this Commemoration Congress and the ones held over the past 20 years are valuable activities. In the corridor, I looked carefully at the images and photos of the activities that have been carried out. Good work has been done. All three viewpoints mentioned by one of the brothers are important, but there is one other point here. That is that when you provide a dowry for a family, they receive and use it. You know that they have used it since this is easy to see. Even when the result of something is not easy to see, such as planting a sapling – I saw some photos in the corridor – well, you plant saplings and after two, five or ten years, they grow tall, creating a forest, orchard and a green environment. You can see the results of your work. How about cultural work? Well, you have published books and made films. What is the result of your books and films? This is important. This is not so easy to see. Such is the difficulty of doing cultural work. The problem with cultural work is that you cannot estimate the quantity of results it has brought about. You publish a book and it might be read by 100 or 10,000 people. The first edition might not even sell out, or we might even witness the 100th edition of the book. What do you do about this? What do you do so that your cultural work produces the desired results?

Today, we need cultural work more than anything else throughout the whole Iranian nation, including among the nomadic people. The enemy of the Iranian nation, of Islam, of the country and of the Islamic Republic is relying on a soft war today – I may expand on this later. The point I want to make is that the friends who are in charge of such Commemoration Congresses and who pay attention to cultural work, must think about the results and output of their work and the effects of their endeavors on the nomadic community of the country.

The nomadic people of Iran are one of the most loyal groups of Iranian people. When I say “one of the most loyal,” this is not based on my personal viewpoint or on conjecture. I am saying this based on the events that have taken place in the country, which I am aware of. In our contemporary history and in the history of the past two or three centuries, there are many stories about the efforts made by foreigners, in particular by the English, to infiltrate the nomadic people of the country. They have done strange things in this regard. If we had enough time, it wouldn’t have been bad to recount the things they have done, but you must read about these things in books. Foreigners tried to infiltrate the nomadic people in order to somehow entice them into betraying their country in different ways – for instance by dividing the country, by waging civil wars and by doing all sorts of things. But they failed to draw them toward the direction they wanted. When I say the nomadic people are “the most loyal” and “one of the most loyal,” this is why.

In recent history – during the Revolution, the Sacred Defense and after that – nomadic people emerged victorious in different tests. The fact that more than 11,000 nomadic people were martyred is very important in itself. It was not the case that all of our nomadic people resided in border areas and that they were threatened. Some lived in border areas, and thus they were being threatened directly during the Sacred Defense. But some lived in the center of the country without any direct threat. However, they rushed to the Sacred Defense battlefields and defended, made serious effort and worked for the country.

What factor caused the nomadic people of our country to stand together to serve Islam and the country despite their differences in tribes and languages? What was holding them together? It was religion and piety. Religion is an important factor in unity, progress, sacrifice and altruism. The element of religion is what encouraged nomadic people to stand together in various arenas. It prevented tribal and other differences from dividing them and from creating discord among them. Religion has such an effect.

Our late Imam too was able to carry out this great Revolution and help it achieve victory by benefitting from this factor. After the victory of the Revolution too, he was able to preserve the country with the help of this factor. Had it not been for religion, the Revolution would not have achieved victory. You can be sure about this. No other factor would have been able to bring the youth, who would come to the streets empty-handed and would stand up to bullets and guns, into that difficult arena. No other factor could have done this. It was religious faith that brought them into the arena. Imam benefitted from this factor to achieve the victory of this Revolution. Subsequently, he depended on the people’s faith to immunize the country.

After the Revolution, the country faced the avarice of the enemies. It was not the case that all of a sudden, the idea flashed through Saddam’s brain to attack Iran. No, they provoked and enticed him, gave him promises and fulfilled their promises. They gave him money, weapons and war strategies for attacking Iran. Their goal was not for him to come and divide a part of the country. Their goal was to destroy the Islamic Revolution by means of dividing the country and by other means. That was their goal. The US, England, France, reactionary regimes and everyone who followed them stood behind him and wanted to tear the country into pieces. They wanted to reinstate US domination of the country. They wanted to take the Iranian nation captive, but Imam did not let them. With what? With religion. Such is the role of religion and religious faith.

Your martyrs are a beautiful, magnificent manifestation of religious faith. The 11,000 martyrs that you offered are in fact showing the effects of religious faith. Those young people could have stayed home, lived their lives in their own environment beside their parents, their spouses and their children and enjoyed the comforts of life as much as was possible, but they did not do that. They abandoned all of that, they left their dear children, dear spouses and loving parents and they departed. Why? What was their motive? Their motive was religion. They were soldiers who returned, became disabled or were martyred. As for their parents, it was also because of religion that they were able to endure this loss and hardship and to calm the burning flames of their hearts.

A friend of mine lost his son in an accident and was saddened. The father of three martyrs was there. I said, “You lost one son. This man has lost three.” He answered, “His sons were martyred. That is not a cause for sadness.” Notice that what he said was true. Of course, it truly troubles the heart to endure the loss of one’s dear ones and this cannot be denied. But the families of martyrs feel consoled and show patience knowing that their young child is with God and living in Heaven. Martyrs deal with God, “Indeed God has bought from the believers their souls and their possessions for Paradise to be theirs – they fight for the cause of God, kill and are killed.’” [Holy Qur’an, 9:111] There is a reward for them either way, for inflicting casualties on the enemy and for being killed at the hands of the enemy. They have made a deal with God. Those youth, their parents and their spouses made a deal with God. So, the element of religion should not be forgotten in this regard.

In the analyses that some people make, they say that those young people went to protect the borders of their country and to ensure security. Yes, this is evident. The security and protection of the country comes from these sacrifices, martyrdoms, their disabilities and the fighting. There is no doubt that such actions ensure the security of the country, but their main motive was religion and God. Their motive should not be considered to be anything less than religion. They indeed moved and worked for God, and this is what brings the dignity of martyrs. There are some individuals who are not religious. They cannot deny these martyrdoms. Therefore, they try to tamper with the motive of martyrs. One of the most important aspects of the enemy’s soft war is to eliminate and weaken the people’s religious motive, which is the most important, highest motive.

Today, there is a political motive behind every action that is carried out against religious traditions and beliefs. The people taking such actions may not realize this themselves, but this is the case, and they have been pulled onto this path. Undermining religion, weakening religious traditions, slogans and principles, questioning these things and portraying them as unreasonable are weapons that the enemy uses. The individuals who take these actions may not realize it. Some people do an action out of ignorance.

Today, the enemy is trying to undermine religious faith, hope and optimism about the future and the management of the country. These are things that they are planning for. They think about finding ways to make the people believe that they have no future, that the future is a dead end, and that they are stuck in an impasse. They are making plans for this. In the internet and sometimes in our own official media, they promote these ideas so as to cause the people to come to the conclusion that all paths lead to a dead end, that all paths are wrong and that the officials and managers in the country do not know how to run the country.

So much effort is being made and so much work is being done, but there are such actions being taken against these efforts. For example, the Police Force of the country arrests a number of thieves in the space of 48 hours. Well, they should be applauded for that. But in our own national media, they speak as if they should be blamed instead of being applauded. Of course, this is not done on purpose. It is evident that they do not do this intentionally. This is due to their negligence, but it is to the advantage of the enemy. Anyone who undermines the people’s hope in the future is working for the enemy, whether they do this knowingly or unknowingly. Anyone who undermines the people’s faith is working to the advantage of the enemy, whether they do this knowingly or unknowingly. Anyone who causes the people to lose their belief in the actions, efforts and plans of the officials of the country and causes them to become pessimistic is working to the advantage of the enemy, whether they do this knowingly or unknowingly.

The Basij officials who work on nomadic issues are doing valuable work. The work spoken about by the friends here, the examples of which I saw in the pictures, should continue because this work is valuable. However, it is not just the Basij that is responsible for this. The Basij have some limitations. They have limited resources and can only work within the scope of their resources. All of the officials in the country must make an effort. The officials in charge must identify the problems of the nomadic people and eliminate these problems. As I mentioned earlier, they must think, work and plan for solving cultural problems. Planning must be carried out correctly, God willing.

I hope that God, the Exalted, will bless you and raise the position of your dear martyrs. Your martyrs and all the martyrs of the country taught us to be hopeful. Our soldiers entered the battlefield under circumstances where there was no hope of victory according to worldly estimates. There was truly no hope of victory. It was the third or fourth day after Saddam’s attack when we kept receiving (bad) news, one after another, from Dezful, Ahwaz and other cities.

I went to Imam and obtained his permission. I told myself, “I will go there [to the frontlines]. Perhaps I can gather some forces.” I was almost sure that there would be no return. I went there with the false notion that there wasn’t anything that could be done. However, you witnessed how the Islamic Republic, our young people and our magnanimous Imam acted in such a way that the Sacred Defense brought only dignity to the Islamic Republic. The enemy was crushed and humiliated. This hope was given to us by our soldiers. Under all circumstances, even under circumstances such as the beginning of a war, one must be hopeful about God’s assistance and one’s own determination. I hope that God, the Exalted, will deal with you on the basis of your hope, that He will bestow success on you, and that He will help you to achieve the desired results from your efforts. Send my greetings to all the nomadic people of the country as you are their representatives.

May God’s greetings, mercy and blessings be upon you.