Today is Thursday; 2nd of the Iranian month of Khordad 1398 solar hijri; corresponding to 17th of the Islamic month of Ramadhan 1440 lunar hijri; and May 23, 2019, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1441 lunar years ago, on this day in the year before Hijra, the “Me'raj” or the Ascension to the heavens of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) took place from Mecca, as indicated by the opening ayah of Surah al-Isra'. It is indeed God's greatest favour to His Last and Greatest Messenger to physically lift him in a fraction of a night to the highest echelons of the ethereal heavens where no creature including Archangel Gabriel, can venture, and then return him to Planet Earth. The Unseen but Omnipresent Creator, whom no eye could perceive, showed Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) the mysteries of the heavens and the earth, and the fate of mankind in afterlife. God, Who is far Glorious to have shape, form, place, time or voice, spoke to him in the voice of his dear cousin, Imam Ali (AS), since this was the most soothing voice for the Prophet.

1438 lunar years ago, on this day in 2 AH, the pagan Arabs imposed the first ever armed encounter upon Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), near a well called Badr, some distance from Medina, but thanks to divine support, the poorly armed group of 313 Muslims emerged victorious over the fully equipped, almost 1000-strong armed-to-the teeth Arabs. For the first time, the Prophet's young cousin and defender, Imam Ali (AS), displayed his brilliant swordsmanship by disposing off several Arab champions.

1382 lunar years ago, on this day in 58 AH, Ayesha bint Abu Bakr died in Medina at the age of 65. She was one of the nine wives Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) had married out of social necessity in the last ten years of his life, following the passing away of the First Lady of Islam, Omm al-Momineen (Mother of True Believers), Hazrat Khadija (SA), with whom he spent 25 years of marital bliss and through her became the father of the noblest-ever lady, Hazrat Fatema Zahra (SA). Ayesha was actually killed by the Omayyad ruler Mua’wiyyah ibn Abu Sufyan who had usurped the caliphate and intended to pass it on to his lecherous son, Yazid. Thus, in order to remove a potential opponent to his plan, he devised the death of Ayesha by inviting her to a feast and seating her over a booby-trapped limestone well into which she fell and died. Mua’wiyyah had not forgotten Ayesha's rabble-rousing role decades earlier against his Omayyad kinsman the 3^rd caliph, Othman bin Affan, whom she branded an apostate and was eventually murdered. He was also well aware that she was the cause of the first armed fitna (or sedition) in Islam when she led an army of oath-breakers against the Prophet's rightful successor, Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb (AS) at Basra in Iraq, where she was soundly defeated, but magnanimously treated and allowed to go back respectfully to Medina.

1317 solar years ago, on this day in 702 AD, Kinich Kan Bahlam II, also known as Chan Bahlum II, ruler of the Maya city-state of Palenque in what is now southern Mexico, was born to Kinich Janaab Pakal I. He succeeded his father in 684 and died in 702 at the age of 67 after a reign of 18-years, during which he continued the ambitious project of adorning his dominion with fine arts and architecture. His most important addition to the city of Palenque was the Temple of the Cross which is the centre piece of the Temple of the Cross Complex, and the largest and most significant pyramid within a complex of temples in present state of Chiapas in Mexico. He was succeeded by his younger brother, Kinich Kan Joy Chitam I.

1316 lunar years ago, on this day in 124 AH, the scholar Mohammad Ibn Muslim Ibn Obaydullah Ibn Shihab az-Zuhri al-Madani, passed away. He studied for a time under Imam Ja’far as-Sadeq (AS), the 6^th Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). He was a central figure among the early collectors of Sirah (biographical accounts) of the Prophet, and played a role in standardizing Islamic jurisprudence in those dark and oppressive days of Omayyad rule, when the laws of the state functioned according to the Byzantine or Sassanid rules.

1175 solar years ago, on this day in 844 AD is the spurious date of the fictional Battle of Clavijo in northern Spain between Muslims and Christian that never took place. Stories invented centuries later claimed it saw the victory of Ramiro I of Asturias over the Emir of Cordoba. In this myth, Saint James Matamoros, suddenly appeared and helped a vastly outnumbered Christian army to gain victory. Aspects of the historical Battle of Monte Laturce (in 859) were incorporated into this fiction. The myth, as it survives, was first fabricated about 300 years after the supposed battle on a spurious charter. A forged grant to the Church of Santiago de Compostela by which Ramiro reportedly surrendered a part of the annual tribute owed him by all the Christians of Spain also dates from the mid-twelfth century. The history of the cult of Saint James is rich in such frauds. Such myths were coined to instill a false sense of religiosity amongst the Spanish Christians to make them rise against Spanish Muslims. Modern Spanish scholarship has noted the heavy borrowings from the historical Battle of Monte Laturce that led to the defeat of Musa Ibn Musa, of the Islamicized Bani Qasi (descendants of the Hispano-Visigoth nobleman Cassius). After Monte Laturce, which was the result of family feud between Spanish Christians and Spanish Muslims, Musa was forced to fully submit to the Emir of Cordoba, who taking advantage of his weakness, removed him as Wali or Governor of the Upper March, initiating a decade-long eclipse of the Banu Qasi.

596 lunar years ago, on this day in 844 AH, Amir Ali Shir Navai, the acclaimed Central Asian politician, mystic, linguist, painter, and poet, was born in the Khorasani capital, Herat, which is currently in western Afghanistan. He is considered the Father of Chaghatai Turkic literature, and was a prolific author. He also wrote and composed poems in Persian under the penname “Fani”, and has excellent compilations in this language as well. He studied in Mashhad, Herat and Samarqand, and when his childhood friend, Sultan Hussain Bayqarah became the principal Timurid ruler of Khorasan, he joined his service and for almost 40 years devoted his efforts to cultural developments, including fine arts and the building of public utility works like schools, mosques, caravanserais and hospitals. In Mashhad, he carried out extensions in the holy shrine of Imam Reza (AS), the 8^th Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), and on his death in Herat at the age of 63 his body was brought to this holy city and laid to rest in the Aivan (porch) of the grand mausoleum of the 8^th Imam. He is regarded as a national hero in the modern republic of Uzbekistan, and in addition to his popularity in the Persian speaking countries of Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan, he is famous all over the Turkic-speaking world.

495 solar years ago, on this day in 1524 AD, Shah Ismail I, the founder of the Safavid Dynasty of Iran, passed away at the age of 37 after a reign of 24 years, and was succeeded by his young son, Shah Tahmasp I. To Ismail and the Safavids goes the credit of giving Iran its present political, cultural, religious, and national identity, although in terms of geography many of the areas of the Safavid Empire were lost to the aggressors and colonialists by the subsequent dynasties. Ismail I was devoted to the teachings of the Ahl al-Bayt of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). Born in Ardabil to the head of the Safaviyya Sufi order, Shah Haidar, and his wife Martha, the daughter of the Aq Qoyounlu ruler, Uzun Hassan, by his Greek wife Theodora, better known as Despina Khatun, he was the direct descendant of the famous mystic, Safi od-Din Ardabeli, and hence traced lineage to the Prophet’s 7th Infallible Heir, Imam Musa Kazem (AS). At the age of 13, Ismail launched his campaign in Erzinjan (presently in Turkey), and with the help of a 7,000 force of Qizl-Bash (literally ‘Red-Heads’ from the colour of their caps) Turkic tribes of Rumlu, Shamlu, Ustajlu, Qajar, Afshar, Zul-Qadr, Tekulu, and Varsak, he defeated the Shirvan-Shah, took control of Baku (presently in the Republic of Azerbaijan) and crowned himself as King of Azarbaijan in Tabriz. By 1509, he unified all of Iran, Iraq, the Caucasus, parts of Central Asia, and western Afghanistan, and took the title of Shah of Persia. He was an adventurous personality and the dynasty founded by him lasted 235 years, reviving Iran's Islamic glories in science, art, architecture, philosophy, culture, and literature. Hence he wielded spiritual influence outside Iran as well amongst the followers of the Ahl al-Bayt in Iraq, Syria, Anatolia (modern Turkey), the Caucasus, Central Asia and the Deccan Plateau of India. The Timurid prince, Babar, who later founded the Mughal Empire in northern India, regarded Shah Ismail as his suzerain, and so did the Deccan Sultanates of Yusuf Adil Shah of Bijapur and Sultan Quli Qutb Shah of Golconda. For this reason, the Ottomans and Uzbeks were his mortal enemies, whose political ambitions, he decisively checked despite the setback he suffered in the Battle of Chaldiran against the former. Shah Ismail I was an accomplished poet in both Persian and his native Azeri Turkish, and wrote under the penname of "Khatai".

401 solar years ago, on this day in 1618 AD, the 30-year sectarian war started in Europe between the Catholic and Protestant sects, and involved almost all major countries. Europe has a history of gory sectarian and ethnic wars among the various sects that make up Christianity. These senseless wars have claimed millions of life.

187 solar years ago, on this day in 1832 AD, Samuel Sharpe, of black African origin, was hanged in Jamaica by the British colonialists at the young age of 27 years for leading what they called a ‘slave rebellion’. His last words were: “I would rather die upon yonder gallows than live in slavery.” Born in a family of Africans enslaved and Christianized by the white men, he managed to educate himself and advocated freedom from forced labour for the so-called slaves. In the mistaken belief that the British parliament in London had initiated emancipation, Sharpe organised a peaceful general strike on 27 December 1831 in Kensington to protest working conditions that soon spread across western Jamaica. As this was harvest time at the sugarcane plantations, the owners forced the black men and women to work overtime, resulting in the burning of the crops by the enslaved people. Sharpe's peaceful protest turned into Jamaica’s largest slave rebellion, and the British used the military forces to suppress it within two weeks, by massacring more than 200 black people. They arrested Sharpe and hundreds of others, and in the months that followed executed over 400 on trumped up charges including allegations of theft. In 1975, the government of independent Jamaica proclaimed Sharpe a National Hero. His image is used on the modern Jamaican $50 bill, and his statues have been erected in various cities.

122 lunar years ago, on this day in 1318 AH, the prominent Islamic scholar and Source of Emulation, Mirza Mohammad Hashem Khwansari, passed away in Isfahan. He was an authority in theology, jurisprudence, hadith, and exegesis of the Holy Qur'an. He groomed many students and compiled several valuable books, including “Jawaher al-Uloum”.

118 lunar years ago, on this day in 1322 AH, the well-known Source of Emulation, especially in Azerbaijan and the Caucasus, Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Fazel Sharbiani, passed away. Born in northwestern Iran, he became a unique lecturer of Islamic sciences, and besides mastery over Hadith and its sources, was a prominent exegete of the Holy Qur'an. He has left behind a nine-volume book on the treatises of the celebrated Iranian head of the Najaf Seminary, Ayatollah Shaikh Morteza Ansari.

74 solar years ago, on this day in 1945 AD, Heinrich Himmler, Chief of Nazi Germany's notorious intelligence agency, Gestapo, committed suicide while being held in prison by the Allied Powers, a few hours prior to his execution.

61 solar years ago, on this day in 1958 AD, Chairman Mao Zedong of the People’s Republic of China launched his “Great Leap Forward” to modernize the economy by forcing factories and farms to meet impossible production targets.  The result of the four-year campaign was the shrinking of the economy and the Great Famine of 1960 that killed an estimated 30 million people. The Great Leap also led to the greatest destruction of real estate in human history, outstripping any of the bombing campaigns of World War II, as private ownership was banned, religion prohibited, and people mercilessly prosecuted and killed, while their homes and hearths razed to the ground for resisting against communism. This proves the futility of any economic plan that fails to take into account the spiritual values, religious beliefs, and the cultural aspects of the people, and the right to own property by any individual. 

28 solar years ago, on this day in 1991 AD, almost worldwide demonstrations were staged by Muslims against Saddam of the repressive Ba’th minority regime of Baghdad, in protest to his desecration of the holy shrines in Karbala and Najaf, coupled with the massacre of hundreds of thousands of Shi’a Muslims, on the orders of the US and Arab regimes, when the popular uprising of the people of Iraq was about to topple him.

22 solar years ago, on this day in 1997, Iranian botanist, Ahmad Parsa, died at the age of 90 in California, US. Born in Tafresh in central Iran, after completing his studies he left for France where he obtained his doctorate. In 1933 he returned to Iran and became the first modern professor of Botany at Tehran Unversity. He helped establish a natural history museum with a herbarium in Tehran in 1954. He wrote eight volumes on the flora of Iran published in the 1950s and 60s, in which he described over 250 new species.

8 solar years ago, on this day in 2011 AD, the Islamic Republic of Iran successfully test-fired and started mass production of the new surface-to-surface missile, Qiyam, as part of the country’s defence needs to safeguard peace in the region.

7 solar years ago, on this day in 2012 AD, Iran's navy, as a humanitarian gesture and efforts to safeguard international waters, saved the US-flagged Maersk Texas cargo ship that was being attacked by pirates in the Gulf of Oman.

AS/SS