In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate
Great people of Iraq,
High-minded men of our valiant armed forces,
Masses of our glorious Arab nation,
Honourable people everywhere in the world,
Having set it as their eternal National Day, Iraqis annually celebrate the 17-30 July Revolution.
What is this July Revolution?
What have its repercussions been up to this day and all days to come?
It is not possible to describe the effect of the act accomplished between 3o'clock at the dawn of July 17, 1968 and 3 o'clock in the afternoon of July 30 without describing the state as it was and without recalling the aspirations of the freedom-fighters and the revolutionaries-- both those who are still alive and those who passed away.
The reality of that act is present before our eyes. Its minute details have been extensively researched. Many writers have already written about it, for occasions like this one have become a common and well-trodden road. It can be taken by anyone who may like to talk about the occasion and its direct circumstances, or describe its condition in the narrower or wider horizon.
But the July Revolution is not a common course chosen from among many possible courses. Rather, it is a state of evolution and ascent towards what is deemed to be almost impossible. I am not referring to the circumstances surrounding the early days in the life and time of the revolution. What I am referring to is its spirit, its ability to guide life and renew it along the best path there is. And I am referring to the intent of faith in the hearts of the men who caused the noble fount to gush out and who mustered up all the potencies in the hearts and minds of the people so that they may plant all that is useful and healthy in the womb of life.
The July Revolution has not been a traditional course taken with the intention of weaving for the people an overall to cover blemishes that show through their tattered dress. It has been the sowing of healthy seeds where they should be sown before irrigating them with the water of life so that they grow green and blooming and fruitful. Its yield of fruit will spread the zeal rendered in sowing the healthy seeds. It will thus spread and extend the cultivation of life to a vast homeland-- the Arab Homeland, and will activate the zeal that lies idle-- the zeal of the Arabs-- to be companion to that of the Iraqis.
The July Revolution has acquired the experience of the road and has developed eyes that never miss the target. It has cherished a heart that has never known anything but faith as the base and regulator of its beats. It has nourished a mind that has invoked the great history of a nation made thirsty and a people who were on the verge of starving and standing naked after vicissitudes of time have torn their dress to tatters.
Before the July Revolution, the condition in Iraq can be described as follows: It was a wasteland that had no agriculture to be taken into account and no livestock to be proud of although it had much water. Is it possible that life and land suffer from thirst while water exists?
The Iraqis knew that they had the potential, but they did not know how to muster up that potential. Their rulers did not take the responsibility on the basis of that potential. The leader and the guide who was able to put that potential on its right course had not yet emerged from amongst them. Even when some had discovered that potential, they did not know how to deal with it. Nor did they direct it where it should be directed so as to enable it to evolve into an effective act that could make life pulsate and fill hearts with happiness.
Each thing and each element in Iraq then stood isolated in its properties and characteristics from other things and elements. No reaction between them took place, since that reaction required first the presence of a catalyst to enable the principal elements to release the sparks of life. That reaction would have purged souls, revived zeal, removed the veil from eyes and hearts and sent life flowing into limbs that had gone dry and paralyzed.
That was how Iraq was then.
But a breeze blew on it. It was like indignation voiced by a gentle patient man. It was like the smile of a baby whispering to its mother, or playing with itself in celebration of life. It was like a prayer of a hermit giving God the adoration of great love. That breeze dipped out of the Great Sea of Omnipotence, after the Great Master of Omnipotence, the Merciful, the Compassionate had permitted that.
And there was rain!
It was clement rain, filling the sky of Iraq and falling abundantly on its parched land. The idle wells filled their beds and water overflowed all around. The immortal Tigris brimmed and so did the Euphrates. The main flow filled its tributaries. Life crept into every living thing and every dead thing was removed from the field. Together with that relieving rain, their blew pollinating winds. They speeded up the shaking of the date-palm trunks. Pollen was strewn over the heads of palm trees. Similar pollen was sent to every tree and every plant.
And there was life!
Life streamed after it had revived all veins and crept into everything that could harbour it. Does not pollen pollinate palm trees so that dates will later fall fresh and ripe?
That is how the July Revolution has been: lightning which God meant to be the pollen for everything capable of being.
And there was birth!
It was birth that came after calm, though prolonged pregnancy. The newborn baby could have lost the power to be, had not the revolutionaries made it possible for it to be.
We, our people, our comrades and Iraq have reached the state you know us to be in, after we had been in the state which we were honest in describing to you-- or which you already know.
Is it possible that he who stands at the bank of a river gets thirsty?
Is it not strange that he who spends the night in a temple does not pray?
Is it acceptable that he who has the ability to benefit his family, himself and his fellow countrymen does not do so?
Can he who lives with his date palms starve?
Can this happen while the land of Iraq is rich in oil and while it has the Euphrates and the Tigris?
Can the womb be barren while it is well and healthy? Or is it that the loins are barren?
Thus connected were each thing and each element after they had been isolated. With their connection, and with the presence of the right catalyst, the great reaction took place. It goes on to enable life to go on along the lines we aspire for so that, God permitting, building towers up, health is restored and birth takes place under favourable conditions.
Thus, too, the people and the nation achieve victory and the evil ones meet defeat.
And thus the free, exalted men and women win victory over the invaders.
Long live the July Revolution!
Long live July, the Seed of Life!
God is Great!
May God have mercy upon the souls of those who were martyred or those who died!
Long live our glorious Arab nation, and long live its Eternal Message!
Long live Palestine, free and Arab from the sea to the river!
Down with the Zionists in their usurper hateful entity!
Peace be with you, brothers!
God is Great!
God is Great!
And let the debased be despised!