Ayatollah Khamenei declares three days of national mourning following Mina mishap

Ayatollah Khamenei also declared three days of national mourning in the country.

The full text of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution’s message is as follows:

In the Name of Allah, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful

We are for Him and to Him shall we return

Today’s catastrophic disaster at Mina, in which a large number of the guests of the Compassionate God and the faithful [people] migrating toward Allah from different countries [were killed], has caused big grief in the Muslim world and turned their Eid (al-Adha) into mourning. In our dear country too, tens of families who were eagerly waiting for [the return of] their dear Hajj pilgrims are now mourning their [deaths]. With a heart filled with sorrow and [while] sympathizing with the victims [of this catastrophe], I offer my condolences to the pure soul of the Great Messenger [of Allah] (Peace Be Upon Him) and the sacred authority of the Master of the Time, Hazrat Saheb az-Zaman [the 12th Shia Imam] (shall we sacrifice our souls for him), who is the main party to this mourning, as well as to all bereft families and mourners across the Muslim world particularly in Iran, and pray to Beneficent and Merciful God to bestow His special mercy on this dear guests of Him and ask for rapid remedy for the injured and those wounded [in this incident], and [I would like to] remind [Muslims of] the following [points]:       

1. Officials of my representatives office and the Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization should push ahead with their exhausting effort for the identification of the dead and providing treatment to the injured and sending them [back] to the country and quick dissemination of information, as they were doing during the entire day today, and all those who are able to help them should do so.
2. Any possible assistance should be extended to Hajj pilgrims from other countries [by Iranian officials in Hajj] and [they must] fulfill their Islamic brotherhood obligations [in this regard].
3. The Saudi government is obligated to accept its heavy responsibility in this bitter incident and meet its obligations in compliance with the rule of righteousness and fairness. Mismanagement and improper measures that were behind this tragedy should not be overlooked.
4. Those who lost their lives in this incident will be included in this luminous verse of the Quran which says, “And he who gets out of his house migrating toward Allah and His Messenger and then death overtakes him, his reward is indeed with Allah.” That’s great consolation for the survivors. They rushed to meet their Creator after Tawaf [going around the Ka’aba] and Sa’i and after blissful hours of Arafat and Mash’ar and while performing the Hajj rituals, and God willing, they will benefit from special grace and compassion of God. Reiterating my condolences to the mourners, I declare three days of national mourning in the country.

And peace be unto those servants of God who do good

Seyyed Ali Khamenei

Mehr 2, 1394 [September 24, 2015]

Source: Leader.ir