Ayatollah Seyyed Mojtaba Hosseini Khamenei, Leader of the Islamic Revolution, issued a message on the start of the school and university academic year. While paying tribute to the martyred high school and university students, teachers, and professors in the recently Imposed War, he also described the reopening of schools and universities as a harbinger of vitality, hope, and the nation's rapid movement toward a bright future.
He advised students to equip themselves with knowledge, piety, awareness, and competence. He urged them to regard the school and university as their second homes and safeguard their sanctities. He said that by continually raising their awareness and insight, and excelling in noble conduct and character, they could make the high school and university cradles for advancing the homeland.
He also strongly urged officials to plan wisely and act effectively to improve the livelihoods of teachers and academic staff.
The full text of the Leader's message is as follows:
In the Name of Allah, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful
"Allah will raise in rank those of you who believe and those who have been granted knowledge." (Qur'an 58:11)
The dawning of the new academic year and the reopening of the houses of knowledge and cultivation in high schools and universities herald vitality, hope, and the nation's rapid progress towards a bright and glorious future. A future whose realisation rests in the capable hands of the beloved children of Iran, nurtured in the school of Islam and the Islamic Revolution. This is the very generation in which Imam Khomeini and the great martyr Khamenei (may God elevate their noble stations) repeatedly expressed their hope.
As the gates of a new academic year open to the vast multitude of schoolchildren and university students, these seekers of knowledge and wisdom begin a new stage in the pursuit of learning, understanding and skills. At this auspicious moment, and in the hope of divine success, it is fitting that we once again honour the cherished memory of the schoolchildren martyred in the recent Imposed War, and stand with their bereaved mothers and fathers in remembrance. This year, as we recall the cherished beginnings of past school years, we renew our grief for the separation from our departed children. In schools and universities, the absence of certain students, professors and teachers will be deeply felt. This sorrow will guide our minds towards a proper understanding of the struggle between good and evil, the war of truth against falsehood.
The responsibility of high school and university students today is to equip themselves with knowledge and piety, hope and morality, awareness and competence, and to dispel the veils of ignorance and darkness. Thus, by breaking through the frontiers of knowledge and conquering its challenging summits of progress, they will fulfil their historic mission of elevating Islamic Iran. This important undertaking takes place in what we consider your second home. Therefore, I say to you, my beloved students. You must always protect its sanctity in the best possible way. Deepen your awareness and insight, refine your character, and make these institutions the very heart of your homeland’s progress.
Make the most of the opportunities these years afford within these sanctuaries of learning, culture, hope, and vitality to develop yourselves as fully as possible. Develop yourselves in the most important aspect of human life, namely your relationship with the Exalted Creator. Develop yourselves in your relationships with your fellow human beings, fellow countrymen, and family. And develop yourselves by acquiring knowledge and mastering various skills.
During this time, cultivate clear thinking and nurture resourcefulness. Always preserve the roots of your national identity, your cultural dignity and independence, your mother tongue, the sacred flag of the Islamic system and its other symbols. Soon, the time will come for you to find your proper role in society. By fulfilling that role in the best possible way, you will bring honour to yourselves and your country. Today, at a time when the savagery of the system of domination, particularly the criminal American government and the illegitimate Zionist regime, is running rampant, the power of knowledge, accompanied by piety and morality, is like a shield of steel and a sharp sword that will put an end to their aggression against humanity. You now sit in classrooms where, not long ago, generations who sat on those beloved benches before you are now bringing honour and strength to Islamic Iran on various fronts in defence of their homeland and dignity. They will serve as your role models and guiding lights, just as those who occupied these same classrooms before them have become exemplars of self-sacrifice, symbols of the country's greatness and legendary figures of nobility and magnanimity.
My final words concern teachers and university professors. We are all indebted to our teachers at every stage of our education. These cherished and beloved members of society, who often receive the purest expressions of affection from their students, deserve to be honoured by everyone at every gathering and at all times. The resilience and contentment generally observed among them must not lead those in authority to settle for the status quo. God willing, through wise planning, they will make effective efforts to improve those conditions. This is particularly significant because it is not merely a legal duty but a heartfelt obligation.
May Allah's peace, mercy and blessings be upon the professors, teachers, university students and schoolchildren martyred in the Third Imposed War, foremost among them our wise Leader and illustrious martyred mentor (may Allah exalt his noble station), who did so much to advance science in this country. My gratitude goes to all educators, teachers and professors in the fields of science and religion. My warmest congratulations and welcome to each and every one of you, the schoolchildren and university students of the Iranian nation, for whom I pray for a blessed future. I hope that, with the blessed intercession of our Master (ajfs), you will scale ever higher peaks of knowledge, culture and progress, God willing.
Seyyed Mojtaba Hosseini Khamenei
22nd September 2026
31 Shahrivar / 1405