"Political spirituality and source of inspiration";The discourse of sacred defense from the perspective of Imam Khomeini and Ayatollah Khamenei

The imposed war as one of the turning points of the contemporary history of Iran is a topic that can be researched and studied from different perspectives.The subject of this article is to identify the discourse of Iranian leaders about the Iran-Iraq war. In a situation where diverse and sometimes conflicting narratives of the Iran-Iraq war are published in different media, it becomes important to identify the discourse system of Imam Khomeini and the supreme leader of the revolution.These discourse systems can be a guide for how to understand war and its different dimensions. In order to achieve this purpose, the statements of Imam Khomeini and Ayatollah Khamenei were extracted from speeches and oral and written messages. Then the primary themes were identified and at the end the main signifiers were identified and the way of articulation was explained. In Imam Khomeini's speech, the main signs are: "confrontation of truth against falsehood", "standing against arrogance", "avoiding treacherous and imposed peace", "material and spiritual progress" and " martyrdom". These signs are articulated around the nodal point of "political spirituality".In Ayatollah Khamenei's speech, the main signs are: "war to destroy the Islamic Revolution", "flourishing of talents and spiritual growth", "Iran against the world", "faith and sacrifice", "restraining power" and "narrative of beauty". These signs are articulated around the nodal point of "Source of inspiration".