Today is Sunday; 3rd of the Iranian month of Shahrivar 1398 solar hijri; corresponding to 23rd of the Islamic month of Zil-Hijjah 1440 lunar hijri; and August 25, 2019, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1694 solar years ago, on this day in 325 AD, the controversial Council of Nicaea (modern day Iznik in Turkey), convened by Roman Emperor Constantine I to remove all traces of monotheism from the teachings of Prophet Jesus (AS) and to impose upon the empire the creed of Christianity coined by Paul the Hellenized Jew, ended with formal adoption of the polytheist concept of Trinity which splits God into three entities – Godfather, Godson, and Holy Spirit. The Council ruled all other forms of Christianity, such as Arianism, Adoptionism, and Sabellianism, as heretical and liable to persecution. In violation of the natural human desire to have lawful and healthy relationship with the opposite gender, it also imposed celibacy upon priests. The few monotheist followers of Prophet Jesus took to remote areas of West Asia as hermits, to await the advent of the Last and Greatest Messenger of God, Prophet Mohammad (blessings of God upon him and progeny), foretold by the Virgin-born Messiah and the previously revealed heavenly scriptures, as the descendant of Prophet Abraham’s firstborn son, Prophet Ishmael.

1379 lunar years ago, on this day in 61 AH, the two pre-teen sons of Muslim Ibn Aqeel, were martyred in Kufa, Iraq, by the Godless Hareth Ibn Urwah. There are two different accounts of the tragic martyrdom of 12-year old Mohammad and 10-year Ibrahim, whose shrine is a site of pilgrimage near the town of Musayyeb. According to one version, they accompanied Muslim, who was sent as emissary to the people of Kufa by his cousin, Imam Husain (AS), the grandson of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). Following the martyrdom of their father, who had entrusted them to the care of the dubious judge, Shurray, they tried to return to Medina, were caught, jailed, escaped from prison with the help of sympathizers, then caught again and mercilessly killed by the riverside on this day in 60 AH, with their heads taken as trophies to Obaidullah Ibn Ziyad, the tyrannical Omayyad governor. The second version says the boys were with Imam Husain (AS) when he reached Karbala, and were witness to history’s most heartrending tragedy. They were made captive along with the rest of the household of the Prophet, fell behind the caravan of captives as it departed for Damascus, imprisoned for several months in Kufa, escaped from prison, wondered unknowingly into the house of their executioner, treated kindly by his wife on learning of their identity, snatched by her husband, taken to the riverside, and cruelly beheaded this day in 61 AH. Instead of the expected reward for their heads, Hareth was killed on the orders of Ibn Ziyad.

1095 lunar years ago, on this day in 345 AH, the Islamic historian, geographer, scientist, and traveller, Abu'l-Hassan Ali ibn al-Hussain al-Mas'udi, passed away at the age of 60 near the then Egyptian capital Fustat in what would later become the city of Cairo. He was born in Baghdad and traced his lineage to the Prophet's companion, Abdullah Ibn Mas'ud. In his homeland he mastered the sciences of the day including theology, history, philosophy, and geology, in addition to learning the Persian, Sanskrit, Greek, Latin and Syriac languages. In his mid-twenties, he embarked on voyages to many Islamic and other lands that lasted almost till the end of his life. His journeys took him to most of the Persian provinces, including Armenia, Azerbaijan and other regions of the Caspian Sea; as well as to Arabia, Syria and Egypt. He also travelled to the Indus Valley and other parts of India, especially the western coast; and he voyaged more than once to East Africa. He sailed the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian Ocean, visiting Sri Lanka, Southeast Asia and China. After careful observations, he wrote his works and was one of the first to combine history and scientific geography in a large-scale work. His surviving masterpiece, titled “Murouj az-Zahab wa Ma'aden al-Jowhar” (Meadows of Gold and Mines of Gems), is a universal geographical history. The titles of more than twenty books attributed to him are known, including several on Islamic beliefs, but most of his writings have been lost. His major work was “Akhbār az-Zamaan” (The History of Time) in 30 volumes. It was an encyclopedic world history, taking in not only political history but also many facets of human knowledge and activities.

924 solar years ago, on this day in 1095 AD, the first batch of European invaders landed in Syria to start the brutal Crusader wars against Muslims. They occupied Antioch (handed over to Turkey in 1937 by the French occupiers despite the Syrian people's protests). Using Antioch as a base, they took advantage of the disunity and weakness of Muslim rulers, to advance towards Tripoli in what is now Lebanon. It seems that neither the Seljuq Sunni Turks who were dominant in Syria, nor the Fatemid Ismaili Shi’a dynasty of Egypt-North Africa that controlled Bayt al-Moqaddas, were able to properly assess the intricate plots of the crusaders. They dismissed them as ragtag Byzantine mercenaries. This underestimation of the evil plots of the enemy, coupled with the lethargy of Muslim rulers, enabled the European invaders to attack and occupy the coastal belt of Syria, before advancing upon the Islamic city of Bayt al-Moqaddas, which fell in 1099 AD, and where Sunni and Shi’a Muslims, as well as Arab Christians were massacred. Some 70,000 men, women and children made up of Arabs, Turks, and Iranians, were slaughtered by the Crusaders. After 88 years of occupation, Bayt al-Moqaddas was liberated in 1188 by the Kurdish ruler, Salah od-Din Ayyoubi who led an army of Kurds, Turks, Arabs and Iranians to end the illegal existence of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. The Crusaders were finally expelled from Palestine by 1270 AD.

489 solar years ago, on this day in 1530 AD, Ivan the Terrible, the first Tsar of Russia, was born in Moscow. At the age of 3, following his father’s death, he was proclaimed Prince Ivan IV of Moscow, with his mother as regent. In 1547, he crowned himself Tsar of Russia – the first Russian ruler to assume the title. He next launched brutal attacks to conquer the Muslim Khanates of Kazan, Astrakhan, and later Siberia, thereby transforming the expanding Christian Russian Empire into a multiethnic and multi-confessional state. In 1552 AD, Kazan, the capital of Tataristan, was occupied after a long siege by Ivan the Terrible, who massacred as many as 110,000 Tartar Muslims and forcibly converted to Christianity many others, after destroying mosques or turning them into churches. His anti-Muslim policies brought retaliation from a joint army of Crimean Tatars and Ottoman Turks that attacked Moscow in 1571 and set it on fire, resulting in 80,000 casualties. The next year, Ivan managed to defeat another Tatar-Ottoman invasion around Moscow in the Battle of Molodi. He then turned attention to the region beyond the Ural Mountains in the east, and through military expeditions, treachery and deceit, took control of vast tracts of Siberia from its Muslim Khans, and styled himself Tsar of Siberia in 1580. In a fit of rage in 1581 he killed his own son Prince Ivan. In 1584, Ivan died at the age of 54.

389 solar years ago, on this day in 1630 AD, Portuguese forces were defeated by the Kingdom of Kandy in the Battle of Randeniwela in Sri Lanka, during the Sinhalese-Portuguese War. It was fought by Prince Mahastana (later King Rajasimha II), against the Portuguese forces commanded by Constantino de Sa de Noronha. It was fought near Wellawaya, a place close to the town of Badulla.

243 solar years ago, on this day in 1776 AD, David Hume, Scottish economist, historian, and philosopher, died at the age of 65 in his hometown, Edinburgh. He is known for his highly controversial system of radical philosophical empiricism, skepticism, and naturalism.

200 solar years ago, on this day in 1819 AD, James Watt, Scottish-English engineer, died at the age of 83. He discovered steam power, which led to a revolution in industry, especially in the land and sea transportation network. Steam ships and locomotives were the result of his discoveries.

194 solar years ago, on this day in 1825 AD, Uruguay declared independence from Brazil. Uruguay was under the domination of the Portuguese and Spanish colonialists since its occupation by Europeans in 1516. As a result of uprisings that started in 1810 and lasted till 1814, it gained relative independence. In 1820 Brazil occupied it. Five years later, at the peak of the independence-seeking movements in Latin America, Uruguay gained complete independence.

152 solar years ago, on this day in 1867 AD, British physicist, Michael Faraday, died at the age of 76. He initially worked in a bookshop, where he studied scientific works. A few years later, he became a laboratory assistant to the physicist, Humphrey Davy at the Royal Institution. His most important work was in electromagnetism, in which field he demonstrated electromagnetic rotation and discovered electromagnetic induction (the key to the development of the electric dynamo and motor). With this discovery in 1831, a huge step was taken in the scientific field. His inventions of electromagnetic rotary devices formed the foundation of electric motor technology, and it was largely due to his efforts that electricity became practical for use in technology. He made valuable experiments in the fields of chemistry, metallurgy, and development of electrical lamps. One of the important rules of physics, the SI unit of capacitance is named in his honour: the farad. He was one of the first scientists who managed to liquefy many gases, including chlorine.

119 solar years ago, on this day in 1900 AD, controversial German philosopher, Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, died in Weimar, Germany at the age of 55 after having lost his mental balance in the last years of his life. He was an agnostic and did not believe in ethical principles. He was unable to grasp facts and realities. His idea of a perfect person is the one that is devoid of the concept of good and evil.

105 solar years ago, on this day in 1914 AD, during World War I, the library of the Catholic University of Leuven was deliberately destroyed by the German Army, resulting in the loss of hundreds of thousands of irreplaceable volumes and Gothic and Renaissance manuscripts.

81 lunar years ago, on this day in 1359 AH, the erudite scholar, Shaikh Abbas Qommi, popular as Muhaddith Qommi, because of his mastery over Hadith literature, passed away in Najaf at the age of 64 and was laid to reside beside his teacher, Mirza Hussain “Muhaddith” Noori, in the courtyard of the holy shrine of the Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb (AS). Born in holy Qom, after completion of preliminary studies, he left for Iraq at the age of 20 for higher studies at the famous seminary of holy Najaf, where fellow students included the well-known scholars Aqa Bozorg-e Tehrani, Ayatollah Shaikh Mohammad Hassan Kashef al-Gheta, and Seyyed Abdul-Husain Sharaf od-Din Musawi (of Lebanon). He returned to Iran after six years and engaged himself in the writing and compiling Islamic books in his hometown, having acquired valuable expertise in this field in Najaf, where he assisted his teacher Muhaddith Noori in the compilation of books. At the age of 39 he shifted to holy Mashhad and later left for Iraq. Abbas Qommi was second to none in the training of oneself, and considered it unjust to advise other people to perform supplications without having first performed himself. Thus, before delivery of manuscript to the publisher, of his famous prayer/supplication manual “Mafatih al-Jinan” (Keys of Paradise), he had not only gone through the book afresh over a year-long period, but also performed every supplication for each day that was recommended therein in order to observe “practice what you preach”. That is why this book is considered one of the best concerning supplications and “Ziyaraat” (pilgrimages). In addition to the famous “Mafatih” which is present in almost every Shi’a Muslim household in Iran and throughout the world, he authored several well-researched books in Arabic and Persian. Of these, mention could be made of “Safinat-al-Behaar wa Madinat-al-Hekam wa’l-Aasaar” (Guide to study of Allamah Majlisi’s famous encyclopedia “Behar al-Anwaar”), “al-Fawa’ed ar-Razawiyyah fi Taraajam Ulama al-Ja’fariyah” (Biography of Shi’a scholars), “Muntahi-al-Aamaal fi Tarikh an-Nabi wa’l-Aal” (History of the Prophet, Imams and their descendants), “Bayt al-Ahzaan fi Mas’aeb Seyyedat-an-Niswaan” (Martyrdom of Hazrat Fatema Zahra – SA), “Manazel al-Aakherah” (Stages of Afterlife), “Nafas ul-Mahmoom” (Tragedy of Karbala), and “Waqa’e al-Ayyam” (Islamic Chronology).

28 solar years ago, on this day in 1991 AD, Belarus became independent on the collapse of the USSR. After World War I; Belarus was divided between Poland and the Soviet Union. At the end of World War 2 it had come under total Soviet control.

21 solar years ago, on this day in 1998 AD, the scholar Ayatollah Mohammad Jawad Najafi Khomeini passed away at the age of 75. No relation of the Father of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (RA), he was born in the city of Khomein (hence his surname), and completed his higher studies in Tehran where he was active in missionary work and writing books. Among the books authored by him is “Tafsir-e Asaan” – an exegesis of the holy Qur’an in Persian, which as suggested by its title is written in simple and easy-to-understand language for the common man. His other works are “Lata’ef as-Salaat” on the spiritual delights of the daily ritual prayers, “Biography of Seyyed Abdul-Azim Hassani”, and “Misbah ash-Shi’a”. 

13 solar years ago, on this day in 2006 AD, Noor Mohammad Hassan-Ali, the former president of the Republic of Trinidad & Tobago in the Caribbean Sea died, nine years after serving two 5-year terms. A retired High Court judge, he was the first Indo-Trinidadian to hold the office of President and was the first Muslim head of state in the Americas. He never allowed alcoholic beverages at the President's House.

11 solar years ago, on this day in 2008 AD, Iran launched production of a domestically built submarine capable of firing missiles and torpedoes. Two other submarines, which began production in 2005, have been delivered to Iran's navy, as part of self-sufficiency efforts to strengthen the country’s defences.

7 solar years ago, on this day in 2012 AD, Neil Armstrong, American pilot, engineer, and astronaut, who was the first man to land on the Moon, along with Edwin Aldrin, died at the age of 72. In 1969 AD, Apollo XI landed on the Moon’s surface and the two men made history by walking on the Moon. On stepping on the lunar surface, he had proclaimed, "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." Years later, while on a trip to Egypt, when Armstrong heard the “Adhaan” (Call to Prayer), he was astounded and admitted that this was exactly the tone he had heard on the moon, although he could not understand it then.

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