Today is Saturday; 17th of the Iranian month of Farvardin 1398 solar hijri; corresponding to 30th of the Islamic month of Rajab 1440 lunar hijri; and April 6, 2019, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1236 lunar years ago, on this day in 204 AH, the jurisprudent, Mohammad bin Idris ash-Shafe’i, who founded the Shafe’i School, passed away in Fustat, Egypt at the age of 54, as a result of injuries sustained from an attack by supporters of a scholar named Fityan, who was follower of the Maleki School of Jurisprudence. Born near Asqalan in Gaza, in the Banu Muttalib clan – a sister clan of the famous Banu Hashem – he lost his father in childhood and grew up in poverty. His Yemeni mother moved to Mecca where he had his basic education, before shifting to Medina to learn about Islam. He became a student of Malek ibn Anas, who had studied for sometime under Imam Ja’far as-Sadeq (AS), the 6^th Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), before deviating and founding the Maleki School. He was taken in chains to the tyrant Haroun Rashid in Raqqa in Syria on charges of supporting the Alawis or descendants of Imam Ali (AS).The Chief Judge, Shaybani, used his influence to acquit him. He settled in Baghdad, where he set up his own school of jurisprudence in opposition to the schools of Abu Hanifa and Malek. Under pressure from the Hanafis, he left Baghdad for Egypt in 198 AH. Perhaps, because of fear of the repressive Abbasid regime, Shafe’i failed to establish direct contact with Imam Musa al-Kazem (AS) and Imam Ali ar-Reza (AS), respectively the Prophet’s 7^th and 8^th Infallible Heirs, and thus could not ascertain the authenticity of the legal code he had learned and collected. Nonetheless, in obedience to the Prophet’s famous Hadith Thaqalayn, he was deeply influenced by the blessed Ahl al-Bayt, and has explicitly stated that the daily ritual prayer is invalid if salawaat or blessings are not sent on the Prophet’s progeny in the tashahhud. He says in this regard in a quatrain:

"O Ahl Bayt of the Prophet of Allah! Allah has decreed your love obligatory for us in the revealed Qur'an; It is sufficient for your dignity (that); His (ritual) prayer is invalid, if there is no blessings sent upon you."

In many of his Arabic poems, Shafe’i has shown his devotion to the Prophet’s divinely-decreed vicegerent Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb (AS),

“They say: You are a Rafedhi (heretic), I say: No; Never did I reject my religion or my belief; But in my heart without the least doubt; There is much love (and respect) for the Greatest Leader (Imam Ali); If loving the Wali of Allah (Friend of God) is Rafdh; Then I am the foremost Rafedhi!

He has also said:

“When I saw different creeds and jurisprudential schools steering towards ignorance and misguidance; I embarked in the Name of God on the Ark of Salvation; That is the progeny of Mustafa the Seal of Prophets; And got hold of the Divine Rope which is the very love of them; Indeed, God commands us to hold fast to the (Divine) Rope.

Today, the Shafe’i School of jurisprudence is followed in Indonesia, Malaysia, Egypt, Somalia, Yemen, Sri Lanka, southern parts of India, and the Kurds of Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Syria.

769 solar years ago, on this day in 1250 AD, Egypt defeated the 7^th Crusade of European powers and captured King Louis IX of France in the Battle of Fareskur. The Christian invaders suffered a resounding defeat as thirty thousand French and other European soldiers fell on the battlefield while thousands of others were taken prisoner, along with King Louis IX who was captured in the nearby village of Moniat Abdullah (now Meniat an-Nasr), while trying to escape. He, along with his brothers Charles d'Anjou and Alphonse de Poitiers as well as some French nobles, was chained and confined in the house of Ibrahim Ibn Loqman, under care of the eunuch, Sobih. Louis was ransomed for 400,000 dinars, after pledging not to return to Egypt, and left with his brothers and 12,000 war prisoners whom the Egyptians released. The Battle became a source of inspiration for Muslim writers and poets. One poem ended with the verses: "If they (the Franks) decide to return to take revenge or to commit a wicked deed, tell them: The house of Ibn Loqman is intact, the chains still there as well as the eunuch Sobih".

699 solar years ago, on this day in 1320 AD, Scotland announced its independence in the Declaration of Arbroath. The letter to the Pope read: “As long as only one hundred of us remain alive we will never on any conditions be brought under English rule.”

566 solar years ago, on this day in 1453 AD Ottoman Sultan Mohammad II began his siege of Constantinople, capital of Byzantine, which fell on May 29 to the Muslims and was renamed Islambol. It is known as Istanbul today and is Turkey's largest city.

499 solar years ago, on this day in 1520 AD, Italian painter, Raphael Sanzio, who painted the “The Sistine Madonna” in the Vatican, died on his 37^th birthday. His works include "The Veiled Lady" and a set of cartoons that were woven into 10 tapestries as "Acts of the Apostles".

439 solar years ago, on this day in 1580 AD, Portugal was annexed by its Iberian rival Spain, mainly because of Portuguese colonial gains in South America and sub-Saharan Africa. Most of Portugal’s colonies were seized by Spain and its subsidiary, Holland. In 1640 the Portuguese people drove out the Spanish to regain independence. For several centuries both Spain and Portugal formed part of the Islamic world, until their seizure by European Christians, who converted mosques into churches, and forced almost entire populations to become Christians, leave the country, or be killed.

307 solar years ago, on this day in 1712 AD, the Slave Revolt began in New York near Broadway, when black people from Africa forced into slavery in North America, rose against the oppression by the whites. The uprising was brutally crushed. Over a hundred black persons were captured, jailed and tortured, while 21 were executed.

133 solar years ago, on this day in 1886 AD, Osman Ali Khan, Asef Jah VII, the Last Muslim ruler of the Deccan in southern India was born in Hyderabad. He became king in 1911 and transformed the realm into a centre of learning. He ruled for 37 years, until his surrender to the Indian forces in September 1948 following a three-pronged attack to end the last independent Muslim state in India. A patron of learning, beside building libraries, hospitals, universities, and religious centres, he was an accomplished poet in Persian, Urdu, and Turkish. He died in 1967.

123 solar years ago, on this day in 1896 AD, in Athens, the first modern Olympic Games were inaugurated 1,503 years after the ancient pagan Greek games were banned in 393 AD, by Roman Emperor Theodosius I, who earlier in 380, along with co-emperors Gratian and Valentinian II, had issued the Edict of Thessalonica, forcing all Roman citizens to convert to the Trinitarian form of Christianity, or else be branded as heretics, subject to punishment. This weird concept of ‘godfather’, ‘godson’ and the ‘holy ghost’ – an invention of Paul the Hellenized Jew who was a staunch opponent of Prophet Jesus (AS) during his mission on earth and after him feigned to be his follower – was designed to suit the polytheist beliefs of European pagans, in opposition to the monotheist message of the Virgin-born Messiah.

102 solar years ago, on this day in 1917 AD, the US Congress approved a declaration of war against Germany and entered World War I on the Allied side.

89 solar years ago, on this day in 1930 AD, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the leader of India's independent struggle, raised a lump of mud and salt in Gujarat, in protest to the British ban on Indians producing salt, and declared, "With this, I am shaking the foundations of the British Empire." He said he adopted his non-violent struggle by studying the life of Imam Husain (AS), the Martyr of Karbala and the grandson of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA).

74 solar years ago, on this day in 1945 AD during World War 2, the attack of Japanese suicide pilots, known as Kamikazes, began on US warships, following Japan’s retreat from southeast Asia. Although the Japanese warplanes inflicted heavy damages on American warships, the US forced Japan into surrendering by criminally dropping atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, resulting in the massacre of hundreds of thousands of civilians.

25 solar years ago, on this day in 1994 AD, the Rwandan Genocide began when an aircraft carrying Rwandan president Juvénal Habyarimana and Burundian President Cyprien Ntaryamira was shot down. The gory battle between the two major tribes of Hutu and Tutsi led to the massacre of more than 800,000 people in three months, while more than two million people became homeless. The dispute was fanned by West European powers.

19 solar years ago, on this day in 2000 AD, Tunisian politician Habib Bourqiba, who in 1957 a year after the country’s independence from France overthrew the Hussainid monarchy to become president, and ruled with an iron fist for the next three decades, died under house arrest, 13 years after his overthrow by his own protégé, Zain al-Abedin bin Ali. Though born in a Muslim family he was anti-Islamic.

14 solar years ago, on this day in 2005 AD, in India police beat up hundreds of people protesting against the razing of their homes in the country's financial hub, Bombay. Authorities flattened an estimated 90,000 shanties in the city early in January. The slum clearance drive has left more than 300,000 people homeless.

8 solar years ago, on this day in 2011 AD, noted Pakistani scholar of Urdu, Persian, Sindhi and Arabic, Nabi Baksh Khan Baloch, passed away at the age of 94. He wrote many books on Sindh's History and 42 volumes on Sindhi Folklore. In addition, he compiled a 5-volume Sindhi dictionary. He wrote books in Sindhi, Urdu, English and Persian. These include the editing of the ancient text of “Chach-Namah” and its translation into English, “Baqiyaat az Kalhora” in Persian, “Beglar-Namah” of the Persian poet Idraaki Beglari, and “Takmilat-ut-Takmilah”, which is an addendum to the Persian books of Qania's “Maqalat -ush-Shu’ara” and Mohammad Ibrahim Khalil’s “Takmila”.

7 solar years ago, on this day in 2012 AD, thousands of protesters in the Persian Gulf island of Bahrain demanded release of ailing human rights activist, Abdul-Hadi al-Khwajah, but the repressive Aal-e Khalifa minority regime, used force to crush them.

AS/SS