The revered source of emulation continued, “But the names of the dead have been buried but when Arba’in al-Husayn occurs, twenty million pilgrims march barefoot toward Karbala. This is a celestial court – this is another account! Did Husayn ibn Ali fight for the world? He fought for eternity – not for a year, a month, history, geography, sky nor earth – what he fought for was above all if this.”
Ayatollah Javadi-Amoli added, “When you investigate the Umayyad movement before the incident of Karbala, this movement – meaning Mu’awiyah, as well as his father Abu Sufyan – were disbelievers until the conquering of Makkah and then they became hypocrites. There is a luminous expression of Imam Ali wherein he said ‘[outwardly they became Muslims but] they didn’t accept Islam but rather they surrendered out of fear.’ They stood against the school of thought [of Imam Ali] in every sense, sometimes they put the Quran on the top of spears, sometimes they accused the Quran of distortion, banned the writing of hadiths, and their efforts led to plots such that hadiths were not narrated and they distributed prizes on false occasions in order to buy people’s religion.”
His Eminence emphasized, “When the movement of Karbala becomes clear and when our duty is known is when we know to what extent the Umayyads were working. Now, to what extent are the foreigners and arrogant powers trying to harm the Islamic system? The duty of all of us is not to surrender due to this oppression because Imam al-Husayn said ‘Like me, don’t surrender to this oppression.’”
He added, “This worthy country [Iran] has been suffering for a long time under pressure and oppression and was oppressed. Now, due to divine blessings, it’s growing. It doesn’t interfere in the affairs of others nor doesn’t it have any intention of attacking others and no one has the power to attack Iran.”
Ayatollah Javadi-Amoli noted, “In Surah al-Tawbah, God says ‘and let them find severity in you’ [9:123]. We must live in such a manner that the enemies know that they cannot attack us. This is obligatory on all of us, whether through missiles or through another method, except through forbidden weapons. We must live in such a manner that the foreigners don’t sense an attack and even if you don’t intent to attack, but they must not sense the power which exists in you.”