Message on Lady Zaynab’s Birthday and Nurses’ Day

This is a translation of the original Persian text. Original text in Persian

بسم الله الرحمن الرحیم
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

The fifth of Jumada al-Ula each year recalls the blessed birth of a lady who grew up under the love, upbringing, and companionship of the Five Pure Ones (may God’s blessings and peace be upon her and upon them), who are regarded as the most excellent of God’s creation. The upbringing and growth of Zaynab al-Kubra (peace be upon her) in this luminous school over more than fifty years brought forth in this shining star of the ages such a many-hued manifestation of the elements of nobility and excellence that she has always been a source of praise, admiration, and pride for the friends of God. The peak of this brilliance came in the epic of Ashura: on the one hand, a boundless outpouring of compassion, benevolence, and patient sympathy toward the oppressed of the plain of Karbala; and on the other, standing among the most venerable symbols of firmness and courage.

The history of the Islamic movement and Revolution has, from the beginning, been filled with scenes of the Zaynab-like presence of Iran’s women and girls. In the period of the nation’s unparalleled awakening, which unfolded in the third Sacred Defense, this presence acquired an astonishing quality and scale. Today, the Zaynab-like women of Islamic Iran, through their strong presence in various arenas, especially in the public squares of cities and villages, are the pioneers of practical elucidation and resistance behind the front lines of hard warfare, such that the tyrants of the age, who always seek the suffering, pain, and repression of this nation, find themselves powerless to confront this vast army.

The people of a land devoted to the Pure Progeny (may God’s blessings and peace be upon them all), mindful of her kindness, her empathy with those in pain, and her self-sacrifice for them, have rightly regarded the birthday of Zaynab al-Kubra as the day for honoring the status of the nurse. For many of these moral qualities and human values are evident in the hardworking and valuable community of nurses. The role of the nurse, like that of certain other groups such as physicians, teachers and educators, clerics, and relief workers, is a life-giving and hope-inspiring role. Hence the nurse is at times regarded as an angel of mercy — and that is when, in the face of the ill temper and restlessness of those in pain and suffering, they bring about calm, hope, recovery, and healing for patients and, consequently, the descent of divine mercy. Of course, unlike that of physicians, the role of nurses in treating patients requires a prolonged, persistent, and patient presence. The effect of such a presence goes beyond physical matters; it is a balm for psychological and spiritual pains and in many cases prevents despair from prevailing. In this way, what lies beyond the capacity of physicians is accomplished through the fulfillment of this compassionate role.

At a time when the malicious network of global arrogance spares no effort to inflict all kinds of oppression and crime on free and resisting nations, especially the Iranian nation, and seeks, among other things, to impose suffering on the great Iranian nation by creating all manner of restrictions on medical treatment and medicine, attention to nurses, strengthening the nursing community, and preserving and enhancing the knowledge, skills, capability, vitality, motivation, and dignity of nurses — especially those who have devoted themselves to working in non-private institutions — have an important effect on the health and the physical and mental security of society. It is therefore expected that officials in the field of health, continuing their committed conduct, will regard these important matters as a priority.

I congratulate the dear nation, the dutiful and strong-willed women of the Islamic homeland, and in particular our nursing sisters and brothers on these two occasions.

In conclusion, I ask for divine mercy for the oppressed and self-sacrificing martyrs of the nursing community, especially the nurse martyrs of the second and third imposed wars and of the sedition of Dey 1404, and I hope that, through the prayers of our Master (may God the Exalted hasten his noble reappearance), Almighty God will grant the Iranian nation ever greater dignity and power, and all that befits followers of the school of Zaynab (peace be upon her).

Sayyid Mojtaba Hosseini Khamenei
Mehr 24, 1405