Sacrifice and Sacrificers from the Point of Imam Khomeini

The meaning of sacrifice Sacrifice verbally means choosing, offering, and preferring others’ interests to one’s interest. “Choosing,”? means giving priority to others’ interest rather than one’s own expedience that is the ultimate generosity. Considering someone else’s benefit and safety prior to one’s own is the ultimate of goodwill. Sacrifice from the point of morality is ranked as the second type of morals being classified under generosity. It means that a human ignores gentlemanly what he needs the most, and grants it to the one who is in need of it. Such granting and ignoring one’s right, i.e. preferring another one to one’s own, must become a habit for human.

The writer of “Akhlagh-e-Naseri”? wrote about sacrifice this way: “Sacrifice means giving and granting something, extra from someone’s family needs, to someone who deserves and requires it”?. Considering the meaning of sacrifice that is a general term and can be found in any school and culture, it’s meaning has a special supremacy in Islam. In Islam, not every effort, altruism, grant, and preferring is called sacrifice, but sacrifice has a background of purity in action and doing for the sake of God in our religion. Sacrifice expresses a human maturity and knowledge and it is actualizes when a human reaches a kind of spiritual perfection.
The value and importance of sacrifice In Islam, sacrifice does not have a value itself, but what give it value are the direction and goal of sacrifice to specify its direction and goal. It is important to determine the essence and content of the action, not its surface. Imam says, “You sacrifice your lives. Many people do that in diversionary ways too. The surface of an action is just one surface; but, the meaning is two and the content is two too. The criterion is the action itself, not the surface of the action.”? Sacrifice is always together with recognition. Without recognition, sacrifice has no meaning. Since the final goal is reaching God and it will be significant when human knows God and tries to reach it, sacrifice becomes a factor of approaching God and makes human remove veils and approach to the boundaries of God’s manifestation. Then, he rides on the horse go honor like light-hearted lovers to the ascent of blood and stands on the top of martyrdom. In Islam, sacrifice is not aimless effort and bewilderment, but it is a rise whose first step is breaking oneself and removing internal veil. It happens when everything is in the line of God. “We are veils between ourselves and God.
If someone removed this veil for the sake of God and offered what he had such as his life, he would remove all these veils. Because he did jihad for the sake of God, he defended for the sake of God, and he put whatever he had in between and offered them, he would offered himself and this veil would be removed.”? When the veil is removed, the light of God will be shinning. Under such light, sacrifice appears. We witnessed some manifestations of it in the Islamic revolution and after that, especially in the fronts of the sacred defense.
All of these sacrifices and braveries are a ray of migration and the value of sacrifice should be found only in migrating to God. Such migration gives meaning to these sacrifices and braveries. God may bless and salute reverenced martyrs and devotees, these migrants to God and his prophet, who offered God the most valuable belonging, loaned by God, for the sake of the most valuable and superb idea. They were the ones who guarded the most precious system tooth and nail and expelled God’s enemies from the Islamic country.
Which migration to God and his prophet is higher and more than this migration, and which sacrifice and support is more than this sacrifice? However, true recognition of sacrifice value is very hard for earthly people like us. “We have to pave a long way to realize our martyrs’ merits and way completely and find them in the passage of time, revolution’s history, and the coming generation.”? The manifestation of sacrifice The manifestation of sacrifice is equal to manifestation of faith in behavior and action of a sacrificer. He is the one who purifies his spirit and soul to reach God by chanting “Allah-o-Akbar.”? He does this to reach the great position and is called by God,”? If you become a member of my believers, you will enter my paradise.”?
Whatever is seen right now in our society from the manifestation of sacrifice is all a manifestation of love breeze from the group of people who passed this world and went to the place of security and the high-grade heaven. Attacking ruffians and making them fall from power, defending oppressed people, and attacking oppressors are all an excuse for breaking the cage of body and flying to freedom and God. We must see the manifestation of sacrifice through the eyes and soul of sacrificers’ teacher.
By which pen and expression can we praise the beloved ones who turned war shelters to mosque altars and a place of ascending to God? Supposing that artist writers can visualize fields of courage and bravery as well as their power and boldness under the fire of machine guns, canon balls, and tanks, and painters and actors can draw and play their artistic victories in those dark nights against enemy missiles and bombers, passing through twisted high mountains and barbed wires, and pulling out God’s enemies from concrete shelters equipped with state-of-art armament, who can visualize that mystical aspect and spiritual manifestation of God that absorbs souls as well as those melted souls in divine manifestations? Truly, how these westerns, eastern, and nationalists analyze such sacrifices with such spiritual dimension, divine spirit, and divine love? Here, action and boldness is not important, but the intention and spirit of God seeking.
What is important here is the love to the true lover who fades everything and burns every intention other than its love. In which war, movement, revolution, and uprising throughout the history and all creation have you known sacrificing soldiers like Iranian soldiers, but the ones who had been grown by divine missioners of whom children of this land imitate? Where do you see, through the history, mothers, fathers, husbands, sisters, brothers, and other relatives like them who volunteer for death even after giving many martyrs from their families? This is the Quran and true Islam’s school, and they are children of this Islam and this Quran. This is our school and they are owners of our school. Knowing sacrificers’ goals Sacrificers were standard-bearer of God who carried the flag of guarding the basis of the Islamic revolution on their shoulders. Knowing their goals is one of the most important cultural debates in our society that can be a model and standard for cultural organization.
All sacrificers’ goals in divine school are nothing but reaching God. Things that are important right now in the society as sacrificers’ goals are all tools and means, not the goals. Toppling ruffians down, forming Islamic governments, reaching freedom, executing Islamic rules, and many others are all means of reaching higher goals, i.e. reaching the mere perfection and eternal magnificence.
Knowing such a goal cannot be done by natural observations, wisdom, and human experiences, which are used by material human. Such a thing is not discovered but with religious love, knowledge, and recognition. Sacrificers have been taught in a kind of school in which they have not seen anything but God’s image. Their all effort has been ascending to the true ascent, climbing up to the martyrdom top, and being hosted by God. What we can reach is manifestations of sacrifice, not their goals. Imam says about this matter, “We cannot understand the high position of a martyr, who has been killed for the sake of God and divine goals, by a material view. Realizing his great value needs a divine insight. Not only we, earthly people, but also heavenly creatures are unable to understand the true meaning of it. Since they are perfect human and heavenly creatures are many miles away from their mysterious position.”? Knowing sacrificers, devotees, martyrs, and MIAs’ who granted their only big asset, which were their lives for the sake of God and in order to defend the righteousness and dear Islam as well as freemen who spent their valuable lives in horrible prisons of the enemy can be a guiding light for the present generation who is being slapped by the western culture and is bewildered in the limbo of non-description. All loyal people to Islam and revolution must try not to let this guiding light and spiritual knowledge turn off. Preserving and servicing sacrificers The manifestation of Islam’s culture can be found in sacrifice, which is nowadays appeared in the society’s value model and human behavior and brought the Islamic republic of Iran.
The sacrifice culture has brought the spiritual background of the Islamic republic of Iran’s system. These sacrificers and martyrs were the ones who fought in the fronts when enemy invasion was going to disable our revolution and system. They fought tooth and nail to the very last drop of blood in order to save Islam. The manifestation of sacrifice, altruism, devotion, and martyrdom was apparent in every part of battlefields where our combatants were defending the values and products of the revolution against an enemy that was willing to destroy whatever we had gathered. Undoubtedly, it was their sacrifice that blocked the enemy’s attack and preserved this revolution, which was very weak in those days and required more attention and guarding. It is really the spiritual back of the Islamic republic of Iran. Then, to preserve the system, which is the result of their efforts, we must preserve sacrificers who are creators of the sacrifice culture in different fields.
One of enemy’s penetrating ways is the cultural invasion. By destroying the culture, palisades are collapsed and the society’s real security is destroyed in different fields. Human beings, especially the young generation, lose their spiritual power in the cultural nowhere. Thus, to fortify the society’s culture and preventing different damages, we must think of fortifying spiritual backs. One back of the society’s culture is the martyrdom and sacrifice culture that has been created from the Islamic life-giving breeze. The sacrifice culture is not a culture of aggression, but it is the culture of compassion, kindness, and benevolence. Sacrificers lost their lives in lieu of kindness and bought the aggression of defense for the society’s peace. They secured the boundaries of their society from enemy invasion in order to providing growth, benevolence, and kindness. Today, the ones who want to fight the aggression have no way other than guarding the martyrdom and sacrifice culture. The presence of sacrificers is equal to the presence of the faith scent. To remove depression, disappointment, and uprising of wandering souls, their presence, and cooperation is necessary in every different aspect. Sacrifice and martyrdom is something that can create hope and spirit in the society.
Then, we should let them participate in the society’s changes and construction in order to let them be models and guardians of the society. To do that, we should provide their presence facilities in the society. Today, servicing sacrificers, combatants, devotees, and martyrs’ families is not servicing persons, but it is servicing the culture and cultural values. Sacrificers’ imam says, “They have serviced Islam when God wanted them and they hurried to him. It is important for us that we do our assignment, i.e. what God have ordered us to do. The martyrdom of beloved ones is not that important for the ones who have a strong connection with God, but their service is of a great importance. They have serviced their country and have been such as lost assets for this nation. Now, we must follow their way consciously.”? “Now, it is time to rise for we who are inheritors of martyrs’ blood and survivors of passed youths to make their sacrifice fruitful for the society.”? “Revolutionary people should know that it is necessary to preserve martyrs’ blood in order to guarding Islam and the revolution.”? “The memory of sacrificed martyrs to whom the Islamic republic and our victories owe must stay alive. We must gratify dear disabled people and evacuees who are resistant for the sake of establishment of God’s rule. We must mollify martyrs’ survivors and give them hope.”? “Whether I am among you or not, I advise you not to let the revolution be captured by strangers. Don not let deans of martyrdom be forgotten in routine of your lives.”? We hope that we can guard the God’s loan by modeling the martyrdom and sacrifice culture and do our task toward sacrifice creators.

Writer: Sayed Mohammad Hashemi Teroojeni, the member of scientific board of the University Jihad