In a message expressing his heartfelt appreciation for the tens of millions of people from Iran and Iraq who attended the funeral procession of Iran’s Martyred Leader, Ayatollah Seyyed Mojtaba Hosseini Khamenei addressed the Martyred Imam of the Ummah, saying, “We pledge to take revenge for your pure blood and the blood of all the martyrs of these two wars on the criminal and disgraceful murderers.”
He noted, “This vengeance is our nation’s demand, and it must certainly be carried out. These criminals, a complete listing of whom is available from the top to the bottom, will take the wish for a peaceful death in bed to their graves.”
The text of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution's message is as follows:
In the Name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful
Peace be upon you, O Avenger of God, son of His Avenger, and the one left alone bereft of any helpers. Peace be upon you, and upon your grandfather, your father, your mother, your brother, and the Infallible Ones from among your descendants.
Peace be upon the Imam whose life-giving call to rise up carried a mighty and resounding echo of the Prophetic Mission into the farthest depths of history, giving rise to the Islamic Revolution of Iran. From its very foundation, that Revolution was Ḥusaynī. It was built and nurtured with the motto and rallying cry of Ḥusayn. Iran’s Martyred Leader was also formed with this same spirit. He was Ḥusaynī: he thought in a Ḥusaynī manner, he moved in a Ḥusaynī manner, he struggled and resisted in a Ḥusaynī manner, he lived in a Ḥusaynī manner, and, in a Ḥusaynī manner, he offered his blood in the path of the school of Ḥusayn and attained martyrdom. Among the followers of Ḥusayn are those whose blood, when unjustly spilt in the path of Ḥusayn and for the school and way of Ḥusayn (as), sets the Islamic Ummah in motion. At that moment it connects to Ashura, and that place to Karbala. Now, in the same way, that same Ḥusaynī fervour has awakened our nation and given fresh expression to the school of the great Khomeini and the martyred Khamenei. This is that life-giving upheaval, the echo of the cry of Ḥusayn’s (as) oppressed state and his call, “Is there helper to come to my aid?” that has been engendered in Iran and thereafter in Iraq and other countries. It makes falsehood shake to the core. And it is fitting on this occasion to sincerely thank the tens of millions of people who turned out in this astonishing, enemy-defying, and historic gathering in the cities and villages of Iran and Iraq, especially in Tehran, Qom, Najaf, Karbala, and Mashhad.
Our nation is the avenger of Ḥusayn’s blood. For years, this great nation sacrificed its children in the path of Ḥusayn and in the war against the enemies of Ḥusayn and the Ḥusaynī way. And now, it also demands vengeance for him and the Ḥusayni followers of this time.
I now address our martyred Leader: O you who were unjustly slain! O honoured victim of oppression! O righteous servant of God! Now that we bid farewell to your body with tearful eyes and broken hearts, we pledge to you that we will safeguard your school and steadfastly tread the straight path that you had charted. Like you, we will remain undaunted by the hardships upon this path and, like you, set our hearts upon the glad tidings and promises of God. We pledge to take revenge on the criminal and disgraced murderers for your pure blood and the blood of all the martyrs of these two wars. This revenge is the demand of our nation and must certainly be carried out. These criminals, a complete list of whom is available from the top to the bottom, will take the wish for a peaceful death in bed with them to their graves. They must know that this matter does not depend on my person or on any other official. Whether we are here or not, this will be realised, and soon, individual freedom seekers throughout the world will each carry out a part of this divine mission.
O martyred father of the Ummah, may the elixir of martyrdom, which you yearned for all your life, be sweet for you. May the garb of martyrdom be blessed for you. Blessed be your donning of the robe of martyrdom with a body bearing signs reminiscent of your mother, al-Zaḥrāʾ the Purest, your grandfather Abā ʿAbdillāh al-Ḥusayn and Abā al-Faḍl al-ʿAbbās, may prayers and peace be upon them. And you, his oppressed companions, who were taken unawares by the enemy’s assault and attained martyrdom: blessed are you, for you are now the guests of that Master whose compassion and kindness you may have experienced many times. That Master, who is the door of divine mercy for all, and especially for the people of this land, is now your host, and the safety of His proximity has become your home.
And you, O Exalted Master! O Magnanimous One! O Compassionate Imam! O Abā al-Ḥasan al-Riḍā al-Murtaḍā, may God’s finest blessings be upon you. Now, after years of earnest endeavour and unceasing struggle, the torn body of one of your servants and a servant of the Immaculate Progeny comes to rest in this pure soil, along with the bodies of martyrs from his family, each one reminiscent of one of the martyrs on the plain of Karbala. Here they will rest until the Day when, by God’s command, the world-illuminating Sun, his Eminence the Remaining Proof of Allah (Baqiyyat Allāh), may God the Exalted hasten his noble reappearance, emerges from behind the clouds of occultation and shines the light of divine mercy upon the people of the earth. On that day, which we hope will come very soon, stars from among the truthful, the martyrs, and the saints will accompany him. We hope that our martyred Leader will be among them, and once again display radiant and pure scenes of struggle and faithfulness to the covenant of Alast (the covenant that all human beings gave to God acknowledging that He is God before they were born). Perhaps these companions will accompany him on that day as well.
O Benevolent Master, we entrust our Leader, who devoted everything he had to Your path, and his martyred companions to You and to Your grace and care, just as they benefited from Your kindness during their earthly lives. May they continue to enjoy it from now on, indeed, to a far greater and more abundant degree.
Finally, we once again offer our condolences to our Master, the Remaining Proof of Allah (Imam Mahdi) on earth, may God hasten his noble reappearance. And we ask that gracious and noble personage to direct his pure supplications for Iran’s Martyred Leader, his martyred companions, and all the martyrs, and to ask Almighty God (glorified and exalted be He) to raise the stations of all the martyrs, to grant patience to and reward their survivors, and to bestow certain and imminent victory and divine aid upon the oppressed nation of Iran, God willing.
Seyyed Mojtaba Hosseini Khamenei
9th July 2026