Today is Wednesday; 15th of the Iranian month of Khordad 1397 solar hijri; corresponding to 1st of the Islamic month of Shawwal 1440 lunar hijri; and June 5, 2019, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

2489 solar years ago, on this day in 470 BC, according to calculations of modern-day scientists, the famous Greek philosopher Socrates was born in Athens. He served as an infantryman during the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta. A sophist or teacher of philosophy, he claimed not to know anything for certain and used the interrogatory method for teaching. He left no written works. He was a major critic of popular belief in Athens and was the protagonist of Plato’s dialogues. Besides Plato, another of his famous students was Xenophon. Socrates was imprisoned by the ruling authorities for his criticism of their mismanagement and sentenced to death by drinking poison at the age of over seventy years.

Today is Eid-e Fitr, one of the major Islamic festivals. After the month-long fasting of Ramadhan, Muslims celebrate this day as thanksgiving to the Almighty Lord. The day starts with the special congregational Eid Prayer, which is indeed a glorious sight with rows upon rows of believers bowing and prostrating in unison. In order to further purify hearts and souls, each individual sets aside for the poor and needy of the society, three kilograms of one of the main forms of diets, such as wheat, barley, rice or dates, or its equivalent in money as the Zakat-e Fitr. The Eid is celebrated with exchange of visits among families and friends.

1397 lunar years ago, on this day in 43 AH, the Omayyad governor of Egypt, Amr Ibn al-Aas, died at the age of 93 in acute mental agony while admitting his crimes against Islam, including how he had tried to cheat Imam Ali (AS) of the caliphate by declaring Mu'awiyya ibn Abu Sufyan as the caliph. He felt as if Mount Redhwa was hanging upon his neck and he was being dragged through the eye of a needle. Born out of wedlock in Mecca to a morally-loose bondwoman, named Layla bint Harmalah and called "Nabigha", his paternity was open to doubt in the freewheeling Jahiliyya days because of his mother’s promiscuous affair with at least five persons at the same time, including Abu Sufyan and Aas ibn Wa'el. Although Amr greatly resembled the stingy miser Abu Sufyan in appearance, his mother by citing the issue of maintenance claimed that the rather generous Aas had fathered her child. With the advent of Islam, Amr showed bitter hostility toward Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), and when the latter migrated to Medina, he was involved in almost all the battles imposed upon Muslims by the pagan Arabs of Mecca. Earlier, when a group of persecuted Muslims led by the Prophet's cousin, Ja'far Ibn Abu Taleb, sought asylum in Abyssinia he led an unsuccessful mission to the court of the Christian king, Negus, for the handover of the refugees. In 8 AH, two years before the passing away of the Prophet and on the eve of the surrender of Mecca to the Muslims, Amr, sensing the end of paganism, came to Medina, along with that other avowed enemy of Islam, Khaled ibn Waleed, claiming conversion to Islam, though none of his deeds ever supports his claim to be a Muslim. After the Prophet, when the neo-Muslim Arab armies swept across Syria and Palestine, he led the attack on the Roman province of Egypt. When Mu'awiyyah built his power base in Syria, he joined him as advisor in Damascus and was the evil mind in most of the plots against Imam Ali (AS) including the raising of copies of the holy Qur'an on spear-points during the War of Siffeen in order to deceive Muslims and avoid a definite defeat. Earlier during the battle, to escape certain death from the flashing blade of Imam Ali (AS), Amr while fleeing, shamelessly disrobed himself, making the Imam turn away from an abhorred sight. In 38 AH he again attacked Egypt and martyred its legal governor, Mohammad Ibn Abu Bakr.

1184 lunar years ago, on this day in 256 AH, the famous Iranian Sunni Muslim compiler of hadith, Mohammad Ibn Ismail ibn Ibrahim ibn Bardizbah Bukhari, passed away at the age of 62 while on a visit to Khartank, a village near Samarqand in what is now Uzbekistan. Born in Bukhara in a family which before conversion to Islam was either Zoroastrian or Jewish, he started collecting hadith from anyone who could relate. In his late teens, along with his brother and mother, he travelled to Mecca for pilgrimage. After visiting the centres of learning, exchanging information on hadith from over 1,000 persons, and recording more than 600,000 narrations, he returned to his hometown after a 16-year absence. Here he compiled his "al-Jame' as-Sahih", which is revered as "Sahih Bukhari" by Sunni Muslims, and contains 7,275 hadith selected as per his inclination. Although he has acknowledged some of the unparalleled merits of the Ahl al-Bayt, he did not visit the rightful heirs of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) or met their disciples for precise information on authentic hadith. It is claimed that it was fear of the wrath of the Abbasid regime that made him omit any hadith related from such an outstanding authority as the Prophet's 6th Infallible Heir, Imam Ja'far Sadeq (AS), but he felt no inhibitions to include in his so-called "Sahih" narrations from dubious persons – even avowed enemies of the Prophet's Household. In 250 AH he settled in Naishapur in Khorasan, following his expulsion from Bukhara for issuing a weird fatwa against the letter and spirit of the shari'ah that persons drinking the milk of the same cow, goat or donkey, are foster siblings and hence ineligible for marriage with each other. Here he met another Iranian with Sunni inclinations, named Muslim Ibn Hajjaj, who became his student, and eventually collector of a separate book on hadith, known as "Sahih Muslim".

1140 solar years ago, on this day in 879 AD, Iranian adventurer and founder of the short-lived Saffarid Dynasty, Yaqoub Ibn Layth Saffar, died in Jondi Shapour in Khuzestan at the age of 39, due to severe stomachache, and was succeeded by his brother Amr. A coppersmith by profession, he led an ascetic life and gradually started gathering fighting men around him in Sistan in the town of Zaranj, which is currently in Afghanistan, to annihilate the “khwarej” (renegades) in the region. This earned him fame, and he soon brought the whole of Sistan under his control. He turned to the east and after taking Bost, captured Kabul, before turning west to seize Herat from the fellow Iranian dynasty of Tahirids, who ruled Khorasan. In 868 he set out for Kerman, and soon wrested Shiraz from the control of the Abbasids, but continued to call himself a vassal of the caliph. In 869, he returned to Zaranj, his capital, and in 871, during the caliphate of Mo’tamid, he again descended on Shiraz and advanced towards Khuzestan. The caliph was able to prevent him from invading Iraq by appointing him the Abbasid governor of Balkh, Fars, Kerman, Sistan and Sind. In 873, Yaqoub bin Layth brought all of Khorasan under his control by seizing its capital, Neishabour, from where he marched to Gorgan and Tabarestan (present-day Mazandaran) and then as far as Chalous, before withdrawing to Rayy after collecting taxes of the Caspian region. This brought him offers from Caliph Mo’tamid of the governorship of Khorasan, Tabaristan, Gorgan, Rayy, and also the position of security-chief in Baghdad. Proud of his victories, Yaqoub bin Layth rejected the offer and invaded Khuzestan, but at Dayr al-Aqoul, some seventy km from Baghdad, he was defeated by the Abbasid forces and returned to Khuzestan, to prepare for another attack, when he died. There are conflicting reports about Yaqoub’s religious beliefs, with claims that he had Ismaili Shi’ite tendencies.

1047 lunar years ago, on this day in 393 AH  at-Ta'i-Lillah, the 24th caliph of the usurper Abbasid regime, died twelve years after he was deposed and replaced by his cousin, al-Qader-Billah, by the Iranian Buwayhid ruler, Baha od-Dowlah Daylami. The Buwayhids had installed him as caliph on the death of his father, al-Muti-Lillah, who also owed his caliphate to this powerful dynasty ruling Iraq and Iran. During the caliphate of at-Ta’i, the Abbasid dominions further shrunk in size, with the Hijaz and over half of Syria falling to the Fatemid Shi’ite Ismaili Dynasty of Egypt, while the Turkic chieftains vied for power in the rest of Syria.

871 lunar years ago, on this day in 569 AH, the exegete of the Holy Qur'an, Arabic grammarian and poet, Sa'eed Ibn Mubarak Ibn Dahhan, passed away in Mosul at the age of 74 during a visit to the vizier, Jamal od-Din Isfahani, shortly after losing his eyesight, while trying chemical experiments to preserve some of his books from his flooded library in Baghdad after the Tigris overflowed its banks. His remaining works include "Fosoul" on the art of prosody, and one "Qasida".

439 solar years ago, on this day in 1580 AD, Ibrahim Quli Qutb Shah, the 3rd king of the Qara Qoyunlu Dynasty of Iranian origin of Golkandah in the Deccan (southern India), passed away at the age of 62 after 30-year reign. In 1543 on the suspicious death of his father and founder of the dynasty, Sultan Quli Qutb Shah – originally from Hamedan, Iran – when his brother Jamshid seized the throne, he fled to Vijayanagar kingdom. Seven years later, on the death of Jamshid he returned to Golkandah, and was welcomed by the nobles, who deposed his young nephew Subhan and placed him on the throne. He maintained very cordial relations with the Safavid Emperors of Iran, as is evident by his correspondence with them. Ibrahim was a patron of arts, and promoted Arabic and Persian in the kingdom, where scholars and artisans from Iran used to flock, such as the historian Khurshah bin Qubad al-Hussaini, and Mullah Hussain Tabasi. His wife was Bhagirati, a princess of the Viyajnagar who embraced the truth of Islam, and he also patronized Telugu poets, such as Singanacharyudu and Kandukuru Rudrakavi. He took keen interest in the welfare of the people, repaired and fortified Golconda as the world's largest fort, developed the Hussain Sagar Lake (still a landmark in the city of Haiderabad, built by his son and successor, Mohammad Quli Qutb Shah), and undertook various other projects such as mosques and bridges. He sent to the holy shrine of Prophet Mohammad's 8th Infallible Heir, Imam Reza (AS), a beautifully embellished holy Qur'an, which is still on display at the shrine's museum in Mashhad. In 1565, he joined the Sultans of Bijapur and Ahmadnagar in the historic Battle of Talikota to conquer the Vijaynagar whose ruler Ramraya was encroaching upon the territories of the sultanates.

285 lunar years ago, on this day in 1155 AH, the prominent gnostic and source of emulation (marja’), Seyyed Mohammad Mahdi Tabatabaie Bahr al-Uloum, was born in the holy city of Karbala, before the dawn of Eid al-Fitr, in a family related to the celebrated Allamah Majlisi. Initially taught by his scholarly father Seyyed Morteza ibn Mohammad Boroujerdi, he later studied under Shaikh Yousuf Bahrani (writer of the book of “Hada’eq an-Nasera”), before enrolling at the famous seminary of holy Najaf, where he studied under the famous Waheed Behbahani. At the age of 31 he went to Mashhad in Khorasan, Iran, where he lived for seven years, learning different sciences, as well as philosophy from Mirza Mahdi Shahid Khorasani. His teacher, because of his extensive knowledge, called him “Baḥr al-Uloum” (or Ocean of Knowledge). His sons, grandsons, and direct descendants continue to use this title as family name. Baḥr al-Uloum returned to Najaf to teach. He performed the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca in 193 AH, and also taught there. Among his students were: Seyyed Sadr od-Din Ameli, Shaikh Ja’far Najafi, Seyyed Jawad Ameli, Shaikh Abu Ali Haeri, Mulla Ahmad Naraqi, Seyyed Muhammad Mojahed, Seyyed Abu’l-Qasem Khwansari, Seyyed Dildar Ali Lakhnavi (of India). On the passing away of Waheed Behbahani, he became the Source of Emulation. On his authority, in view of his contacts with the Lord of the Age, Imam Mahdi (may God hasten his reappearance), he determined the exact spots in the Grand Mosque of Kufa and the Sahla Mosque, associated with the Prophets and the Imams. He wrote many works in diverse religious sciences including jurisprudence and hadith, such as “al-Masabih”, “ad-Durra-an-Najafiyyah”, “al-Fawa’ed ar-Rejaliyyah” and “Tuhfat al-Keraam” (on history of Mecca and Masjid al-Haraam). He passed away at the age of 57 in Najaf, and was laid to rest next to the grave of the founder of the thousand-year old Najaf Seminary, Shaikh at-Ta’efa Abu Ja’far at-Tusi.

236 solar years ago, on this day in 1783 AD, the first hot-air balloon ascent - unmanned - flew for ten minutes. It was made by the French brothers Joseph-Michel and Jacques-Étienne Montgolfier at their home town of Annonay, France. The history of aviation is as old as Man’s quest to fly since antiquity. In the heyday of Islamic science and civilization, there are records pertaining to the Spanish Muslim polymath, Abbas ibn Firnas, who flew from Jabal al-Arous Hill by employing a rudimentary glider in the 9th century AD.

157 solar years ago, on this day in 1862 AD, the Treaty of Saigon was signed, ceding parts of southern Vietnam to France, but guerrilla leader Trương Định decided to defy Emperor Tự Đức of Vietnam and fight on against the Europeans. In the next century it was Ho Chi Minh who in 1945 declared independence from France, following Japan's defeat in World War 2 and its retreat from Southeast Asia. The French, however, attacked Vietnam in 1946 in a bid to re-impose their colonial rule, but after eight years of fighting were forced to withdraw. The US then interfered and occupied southern Vietnam and set up a puppet regime in Saigon for terrorizing the country on the pretext of stopping the spread of communism. In 1975 after their failure to crush the resistance of the Vietnamese people, despite massive bombing and use of internationally banned chemical weapons, US forces humiliatingly fled Vietnam. Vietnam was united once again. It covers an area of 329,566 sq km, sharing borders with China, Laos, and Cambodia.

136 solar years ago, on this day in 1883 AD British economist, John Maynard Keynes, was born in Cambridge. His ideas profoundly affected the theory and practice of modern macroeconomics and shaped the economic policies of western governments. His ideas are the basis for the school of thought known as Keynesian economics and its various offshoots. He explained the mass murder during the first years of the communist era in Russia on a racial basis as part of the “Russian and Jewish nature”. Writing in his "Short View of Russia" published after a trip to Russia that there is "beastliness on the Russian and Jewish natures when, as now, they are allied together." Later in life he became a supporter of Zionism.

134 lunar years ago, on this day in 1306 AH, Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Mohsin al-Hakeem Tabatabaie was born in a scholarly family in holy Najaf Iraq. He was a child prodigy, who after memorizing the holy Qur'an, strove to acquire higher degrees of knowledge and attained the status of Ijtehad. He taught jurisprudence and soon emerged as the leading scholar of the Najaf Seminary. Following the passing away of Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Hussain Boroujerdi in Qom, Iran, he became the sole Marja or Supreme Religious Authority with worldwide following. The hawza of Najaf grew immensely under his leadership. His historic opinion branding communism as kufr or atheism proved the beginning of the end of communism in Iraq. When the Father of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (RA), was exiled from Iran by the Shah’s regime and took up residence in Iraq, he welcomed him in holy Najaf and provided support to him. Grand Ayatollah Hakeem’s suggestions and advices on political and social issues were valued by the Muslim Ummah. In 1967 AD, following the defeat of Arab armies in the six-day war he wrote to the heads of Muslim states to put aside their differences and unite against the illegal Zionist entity. During the last year of his life, following the coup that brought to power the tyrannical Ba’th minority regime in Baghdad, he was subjected to persecution and passed away at the age of 84. His sons and grandsons also emerged as leading scholars and were active on the political and social scenes. Many of them were martyred in a cowardly manner by Saddam and his henchmen, including son, Ayatollah Seyyed Mahdi in Khartoum, during an international conference in Sudan. Another of his sons, Ayatollah Seyyed Baqer al-Hakeem was the Leader of the Supreme Assembly for the Islamic Revolution of Iraq (SAIRI) and was martyred in a terrorist bomb blast after leading the Friday Prayer in the holy shrine of Imam Ali (AS) in Najaf. The present leader of the Iraqi Islamic Assembly, Hojjat al-Islam Seyyed Ammar al-Hakeem, is the grandson of the Late Grand Ayatollah al-Hakeem.

103 solar years ago, on this day in 1916 AD, during the First World War, Britain instigated the Arab Revolt through its agent Sharif Hussein of Hijaz against the Turkish Ottoman Empire, on promises of making him ‘sultan’ of a single unified state stretching from Aleppo in Syria to Aden in Yemen. The infamous Colonel Lawrence was the architect of this conspiracy to defeat the Turks and deceive the Arabs. After dismembering the Ottoman Empire and creating the secular republic of Turkey, Britain, which in 1919 at the Treaty of Versailles in Paris, took pledge from Sharif Hussein’s son, Sharif Ali, of implementing the scandalous Balfour Declaration of 1917 for setting up a state for European Jews in Palestine, reneged on its promises of a single unified Arab sultanate. Although the British installed two of Sharif Hussein’s sons, Abdullah and Faisal, as kings of two new states called Jordan and Iraq, London conspired with another of its local agents, the desert brigand Abdul-Aziz Aal-e Saud of Najd to attack and occupy Hijaz, including the holy cities of Mecca and Medina in 1925, and after ending the several centuries-long rule of the Sharifs of Hijaz, created the spurious entity called Saudi Arabia in 1932.

78 solar years ago, on this day in 1941 AD, during World War II, four thousand men, women, and children of Chongqing in China, were asphyxiated in a bomb shelter during the Bombing of Chongqing, part of an operation of state terrorism conducted by Japan. A total of 268 air raids were conducted against Chongqing, with more than 11,500 bombs dropped, mainly incendiary bombs. The targets were usually residential areas, business areas, schools, and hospitals – all non-military targets. These bombings were aimed at cowing the Chinese government,

56 solar years ago, on this day in 1963 AD, the Iranian people staged massive demonstrations against the British-installed and US-backed Shah, following news of detention of the Father of Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (RA) in the aftermath of his bold exposure to the public of the evil nature of the Pahlavi regime. The regime attacked the people and brutally suppressed them, martyring and wounding a large number of Iranian Muslims. The historical uprising known as "15th of Khordad" marked the starting point of the Islamic movement which was to change Iran's destiny. Though Imam Khomeini was exiled a year later, the movement culminated in his eventual return home and the triumph of Islamic Revolution on February 11, 1979.

52 solar years ago, on this day in 1967 AD, the third major war was launched by the usurper state of Israel on Egypt, Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon. In the 6-day war, helped by the US and the UK, the illegal Zionist entity occupied the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt, the Golan Heights of Syria, the West of River Jordan, parts of southern Lebanon, and the whole of the Islamic city of Bayt al-Moqaddas. Although they have left the Sinai and driven out from southern Lebanon, the Zionists are refusing to leave the Golarn Heights and the West Bank despite the passing of several UN Security Council Resolutions.

47 solar years ago, on this day in 1972 AD, the first international conference on environment was held in the Swedish Capital, Stockholm with representatives from 113 countries in attendance, under the motto “There is only one Earth”. The outcome was formation of a new international organization for protection of environment and prevention of discharge of pollutants in oceans and seas; in addition to restriction of production and usage of chemicals. It marked the starting point of internationalization of the process of protection of environment. Thereafter, different countries have studied different plans to reduce environmental pollution.

6 solar years ago, on this day in 2013 AD, the Syrian army triumphantly announced liberation of the strategic town of Qusair on the Lebanese border, after a three week battle with Takfiri terrorists financed by reactionary Arab regimes, and supported by the US, Turkey and the illegal Zionist entity called Israel. The Syrian army was assisted by Lebanon’s legendry anti-terrorist movement, Hezbollah. The government in Damascus called the liberation of Qusair as "a message" to Syria's enemies everywhere.

AS/SS