Today is Tuesday; 15th of the Iranian month of Mordad 1398 solar hijri; corresponding to 4th of the Islamic month of Zil-Hijjah 1440 lunar hijri; and August 6, 2019, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

Over 3,300 lunar years ago, on this day, Prophet Moses (AS) triumphed over the magicians assembled by the Pharaoh of Egypt at a public square on a day of feast to try to humiliate him through sorcery and trickery in front of the masses. Before start of the contest, Moses, addressing the magicians and the Pharaoh, renewed the invitation to monotheism, and warned them of the consequences of polytheism. He told them that their acts of sorcery, in comparison to his miracles, are nothing but attempts to forge lies against God. Prophet Moses first invited them to the worship of the One and Only God and called on them to give up the sordid practice of idol-worship. Next, when the magicians asked him as to who would start the contest, he politely told them to begin first. The magicians resorted to their tricks by casting down their special sticks and ropes in such a mesmerizing way as to deceive the people and make them think that lifeless objects have suddenly become animated creatures moving on the ground. On God's command, Moses cast down his rod and it took the form of a huge python which swallowed the tools of magic. When the magicians saw this manifest miracle, they realized that this was not some trick to deceive the eyes but a reality and a divine miracle that turned a lifeless stick into an actual animal. They thus fell down before Moses recognizing him as a Prophet of God, and openly declared their faith in the One and Only God, despite the threats of the Pharaoh to cut off their hands and feet, and nail them on trees. The holy Qur'an has mentioned these facts, and other accounts of Prophet Moses, who is considered as one of the five great Prophets – the other four being: Noah, Abraham, Jesus, and the Last and Greatest of them all, Prophet Mohammad (blessings of God upon him and his progeny).

1269 solar years ago, on this day in 750 AD, the 13th and last self-styled caliph of the usurper Omayyad regime, Marwan II, titled “al-Hemar” or the Donkey, was caught and killed in Egypt at the age of 62 after a 6-year rule while fleeing through Syria, following defeat in the Battle of Zab on the banks of the river of the same name in northern Iraq at the hands of the Abbasids on January 25 the same year. Thus ended the Godless rule of the Omayyads established in 66 on the seizure of the Islamic realm by Mu’awiyah ibn Abu Sufyan through a dubious treaty imposed upon Imam Hasan Mojtaba (AS), the elder grandson of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). Prior to the decisive Battle of Zab, the hated Omayyads had suffered a series of defeats all the way from Iran to Iraq by the combined forces of the Abbasids, Shi’ite Muslims, and Iranians. At Zab, Marwan assembled a vast army made up of many veterans of earlier Omayyad campaigns against the Byzantine Empire, but the zeal of the opponents demoralized his forces and they fled in the face of determined attack. Marwan escaped the battlefield and was relentlessly pursued by the Abbasids, who cornered him in Abusir in Nile delta and executed him.

1022 lunar years ago, on this day in 418 AH, the Iranian Shafe’i scholar, Abu Ishaq Isfaraini, passed away at the age of 80 in Naishapur, where he was a teacher at its famous academy of Islamic sciences, and was buried in his hometown Isfarain in Northern Khorasan. His works include “al-Jame’ fi Osoul ad-Din” on the Fundamentals of Religion, and “Noor al-Ayn fi Mashhad al-Husain” on the martyrdom in Karbala of the grandson of Prophet Mohammad (blessings of God upon him and his progeny). Regarded as an authority by Sunni Muslims, Abu Ishaq Isfaraini has acknowledged in his works several hadith on the unsurpassed merits of the Ahl al-Bayt including the “Hadith al-Manzela” in which the Prophet likened Imam Ali’s position to him like that of Aaron to Prophet Moses.

740 lunar years ago, on this day in 710 AH, General Malik Kafur returned to Delhi from his victorious campaign in the Deccan (southern India) and presented Sultan Ala od-Din, the second and greatest king of the short-lived Khalji Turko-Persian Dynasty of Northern India 241 tonnes of gold, 20,000 horses, and 612 elephants laden with treasure, including the famous diamond "Koh-e Noor" (Mountain of Light), excavated at Golkandah. Originally a Hindu from Khambat in Gujarat, western India, he was known as "Hazar-Dinari" (Thousand Dinar – the price paid for him by the Sultan), and on embracing Islam, rapidly rose to become an able general, who brought south India into the fold of the Muslim World, when Islamic faith was fast spreading in all directions – Russia, eastern Europe, West Africa and southeast Asia.

513 solar years ago, on this day in 1506 AD, the army of the Crimean Khanate led by Fateh Giray Khan lost the Battle of Kletsk to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, led by Court Marshall Michael Glinski. Established in 1449 by Tatar Muslims in what is now southern Ukraine, southern Russia and Moldova, the Khanate of Crimea ruled the area for over three centuries till it fell to Russian expansionism in 1783. It was closely allied to the Ottoman Empire and became its vassal state in its last century of rule. The Crimean Khanate established a flourishing Islamic culture, used the Perso-Arabic script, and built splendid mosques, bazaars, public baths, fountains, palaces, and libraries. 

509 solar years ago, on this day in 1510 AD, Da’ud Khan of the Faruqi Dynasty of Khandesh in Central India, died after a 7-year reign during which he was dependent on his two brothers, Hussain Ali and Yar Ali, with the former serving as vizier. Because of ill advice, Da’ud attacked the Nizamshahi Dynasty of Ahmadnagar, but the latter’s army marched into Khandesh, almost making him lose his kingdom which was only saved by his pleas of help to the Sultan of Malwa, who forced him to become his subordinate. His son and successor, Ghazni Khan, was killed by poisoning within ten days of his death, prompting the kingdoms of Berar and Ahmadnagar to install his cousin, Alam Khan, as ruler, a move that was opposed by Mahmoud Shah, the powerful sultan of Gujarat, who instead sent an army to crown another member of the Faruqi Dynasty as Adil Khan III. Founded in 1382 by Malik Ahmad Raja Faruqi, the son of a Rajput convert to Islam who served Sultan Feroze Shah Tughlaq of Delhi, Khandesh and its capital Burhanpur, were annexed by the Mughal Emperor Jalal od-Din Akbar in 1601. The Sultanate was a Persianate society, and made rich contribution to Persian literature, art and architecture. Islam was also promoted through peaceful means, as is evident today by the large number of Tadvi Bhils, and Raj Gonds, who are Muslims.

210 solar years ago, on this day in 1809 AD, Alfred Tennyson, British Poet Laureate during much of Queen Victoria's reign, was born. He excelled in penning short lyrics, such as “Break, Break, Break”, “Tears Idle Tears” and “The Charge of the Light Brigade” – the last one pertaining to the abortive charge of the British Light Brigade in the Battle of Balaklava during the Crimean War. He also wrote some notable blank verse including “Idylls of the King” and “Ulysses”. A number of phrases from Tennyson's work have become commonplaces of the English language, including “Nature, red in tooth and claw”, “Tis better to have loved and lost/Than never to have loved at all”, “Theirs not to reason why/ Theirs but to do and die”, “To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield”, “Knowledge comes, but Wisdom lingers”, and “The old order changeth, yielding place to new”. He is the ninth most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations. Tennyson died in 1892 at the age of 83.

194 solar years ago, on this day in 1825 AD, Bolivia was liberated from Spanish colonial rule after sixteen years of seesaw struggle following the revolution launched in 1809 by the famous South American freedom-fighter, Simon Bolivar. Bolivia covers an area of 1.1 million sq km, and shares borders with Peru, Chile, Argentina, and Brazil. In the 2006 general elections, for the first time in its history, Bolivia saw the emergence of a member of the long-suppressed indigenous Amerindian majority population, as president. President Juan Evo Morales, ever since his victory, has been the target of propaganda and ridicule, by the US and West Europe for his independent policies.

138 solar years ago, on this day in 1881 AD, Scottish physician Alexander Fleming, was born. In the company of two other scientists, Florey and Chain, he discovered Penicillin. The three scientists were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1945.

74 solar years ago, on this day in 1945 AD, when World War II was almost over, the US, in a blatant act of state terrorism, dropped an atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima, far away from any warfront. The lethal bomb named "Little Boy" by the sadistic Americans, instantly killed over 90,000 men, women and children, and left almost a hundred thousand others injured. In addition, some tens of thousands of Japanese were to die in subsequent years from burns and radiation poisoning from the bomb whose destructive power was equivalent to 20,000 tons of TNT explosives. The destructive effects of this dastardly US atomic bombardment of Hiroshima remain to this day. A few days later, the US again resorted to yet another crime against humanity by dropping a second atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Nagasaki. Despite calls worldwide for disarmament, the US and its dangerously armed accomplices refuse to oblige, and are testing still more lethal weapons of mass destruction including nuclear weapons.

57 solar years ago, on this day in 1962 AD, the island state of Jamaica in the Caribbean Sea, gained independence from British colonial rule. European invaders, starting with the Spanish and followed by the French, in one of the most blatant acts of genocide, exterminated the island’s indigenous people. Later, in view of the agriculture potential of Jamaica, especially in sugarcane cultivation, they kidnapped thousands of black people from Africa and forced them to work as slaves.

54 solar years ago, on this day in 1965 AD, Indian troops crossed into Pakistan, and fighting spread to Punjab and the disputed Muslim-populated Himalayan land of Kashmir as Pakistanis crossed into Indian-controlled areas. The 2nd Indo-Pakistani military conflict thus started without a formal declaration of war, which was formally announced belatedly towards the end of August. The war ended in early September, with both sides suffering heavy casualties and unable to defeat the other. The Tashkent Declaration of January 1966 under the auspices of the Soviet Union resulted in a peace meeting between Pakistan’s President Field-Marshal Mohammad Ayoub Khan and India’s Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri, who after talks died due to a massive heart attack.

42 solar years ago, on this day in the year 1977 AD, in a bid to avert the Iranian people's growing anger, the Pahlavi Shah dismissed his longtime Prime Minister, Amir Abbas Hovaida, who for thirteen years had carried on the US dictated repressive policies against the Muslim people of Iran. A year and a half later, following the triumph of the Islamic Revolution, Hovaida was put on trial, and executed for treason against the Iranian nation.

32 solar years ago, on this day in 1987 AD, Deputy Commander of Islamic Republic of Iran Army’s Air Force Major General Abbas Babai, was martyred at the age of 37 while on a sortie during the 8-year Iraqi imposed war. He was a committed and courageous pilot. Born in the city of Qazvin, he joined the army and graduated as a pilot. Following the victory of the Islamic Revolution, he pledged allegiance to Imam Khomeini. When the US through Saddam imposed the 8-year war on the Islamic Republic of Iran, he flew on some of the most difficult missions with great skill and success.

14 solar years ago, on this day in 2005 AD, President Dr. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a day after taking oath of allegiance as president, made it clear that the European Union’s proposal for ending the West’s politicizing of Iran’s peaceful nuclear programme was "unacceptable" because it did not give the country the right to enrich uranium as per the NPT and IAEA rules. After over a decade of illegal sanctions, assassination of Iranian scientists, and other lawless measures, the US and its two West European accomplices – France and Britain – finally acknowledged in Geneva in 2015 – Iran’s inalienable right to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes. The US has now breached its own commitments by withdrawing from the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan Of Action) and re-imposing its illegal economic sanctions.

AS/SS