Today is Wednesday; 3rd of the Iranian month of Mehr 1398 solar hijri; corresponding to 25th of the Islamic month of Muharram 1441 lunar hijri; and September 25, 2019, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1346 lunar years ago, on this day in 95 AH, Imam Ali Zain al-Abedin (AS), the 4^th Infallible Successor of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), attained martyrdom at the age of 57 as a result of a fatal dose of poison administered on the orders of Waleed I, the 6^th self-styled caliph of the usurper Omayyad regime. The 4^th Imam, who was born in Medina in 38 AH, was the son of the Immortal Martyr of Karbala, Imam Husain (AS). His mother was Princess Shahrbano (SA) of Iran, the daughter of the last Sassanid Emperor, Yazdgerd III. Following the tragedy of Karbala, the 23-year old Imam Zain al-Abedin (AS) was made a prisoner along with the womenfolk and children of the Prophet’s blessed household, and taken to the courts of the tyrants in Kufa and Damascus. He waged a unique jihad in this state of captivity and despite being in chain and fetters, rocked the court of Yazid through his eloquent sermons that exposed the hypocrisy and Godlessness of the Omayyads. During the 34 years of his imamate (divinely-decreed authority), he revived the genuine teachings of Islam and groomed a large number of scholars at the fledgling academy of Medina which was to blossom under his son, Imam Mohammad al-Baqer (AS) and later under his grandson Imam as-Ja’far as-Sadeq (AS), at whose feet 4,000 scholars used to study various branches of science. The 4^th Imam was also known as “Seyyed os-Sajedin” or simply “Sajjad”, because of his long hours of prostration to God Almighty. Among his immortal legacy is the Treatise on Rights (Risalat-al-Hoqouq), which is more perfect than the UN Charter of Human Rights. He also bequeathed to humanity the brilliant collection of supplications known as “Sahifat as-Sajjadiyah” that not only covers morals and fundamentals of faith, but also scientific issues, including the weight of light.

1275 solar years ago, on this day in 744 AD, Yazid Ibn al-Waleed or Yazid III, the 12^th ruler of the Omayyad usurper regime, died of a brain tumour, less than six months after seizing the caliphate through a coup against his immoral, drunkard and debauched cousin, Waleed II the son of Yazid II, who was killed. The mother of Yazid III was an Iranian concubine and he was known as “an-Naqqes” (the Diminisher) for his austerity measures in contrast to the profligacy and sinning habits of the Omayyads. It is worth noting that in 6 years from 126 to 132 AH, six Omayyad caliphs died one after another as this tyrannical dynasty came to its end.

1257 solar years ago, on this day in 762 AD, Mohammad Ibn Abdullah al-Mahaz Ibn Hassan al-Muthanna, entered Medina and proclaimed his uprising against Abbasid misrule. Known as Nafs az-Zakiyya (the Pure Soul), he was a great-grandson of Imam Hasan al-Mujtaba (AS), the elder grandson and 2nd Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). Of impressive build, amiable demeanour, and gifted with oratory skills, he soon took Mecca and Yemen. He freed prisoners, changed judiciary and administrative posts, appointed governors in all parts of Arabia, and sent his brother Ibrahim to Basra to take charge of affairs in Iraq. He sent a letter to the usurper caliph, Mansour Dawaniqi, in Hirah near Kufa, demanding surrender by reminding him of the pledge of allegiance he had made as a persecuted fugitive in the days of the Omayyad regime, to the rule of the Prophet’s descendants. Mansour instead sent an army against him, composed mainly of units from Khorasan that were deceived by Abbasid propaganda. On December 6, the same year, Nafs az-Zakiyya was martyred in battle near Medina when his followers deserted him. His uprising did not have uniform support from all. Although some important figures of Hijaz and Iraq, like Malek Ibn Anas, Sufyan Thawri, and Abu Hanifa, backed him, the Prophet’s 6th Infallible Heir, Imam Ja’far as-Sadeq (AS) refrained from publicly supporting the uprising, but at the same time refused to sign a pledge of loyalty as demanded by the Abbasids. Mansour tried in vain to implicate Imam Sadeq (AS) in the uprising, confiscated his properties, and three years later martyred him through poisoning.

1136 solar years ago, on this day in 813 AD, Amin, the 6^th ruler of the usurper Abbasid regime, was killed in Baghdad after a reign of four years, and his head sent to his brother Ma’mun who had dispatched an army from Khorasan to attack and kill his profligate elder step-brother. The two were the sons of the tyrant Haroun Rasheed through different mothers.

1087 lunar years ago, on this day in 354 AH, the Imami scholar Muhassin Ibn Ali Qazi Tanukhi passed away. He was a master of Arabic literature and wrote a fitting reply on the God-endowed merits of the Prophet’s Ahl al-Bayt by rejecting the superficial eulogy composed by Ibn Mo’tazz on the forged superiority of the Abbasids.

725 solar years ago, on this day in 1294 AD, English philosopher, chemist and Franciscan friar, Roger Bacon, died. His access to Latin translations of the Arabic works of Islamic scholars opened his mind, and he became greatly influenced in the field of optics by the monumental book “Kitab al-Manazer” of Abul-Hassan Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen to medieval Europe). His writings also show the impact of the Arab philosopher Ya’qub Ibn Ishaq al-Kindi. Bacon's discussions of the properties of the magnifying glass show the clear influence of the Iranian scientist Ala Ibn Sahl in dioptric.         

623 solar years ago, on this day in 1396 AD, Ottoman Emperor Bayezid I defeated a united Christian army of Hungarian, French, German, Serb, Italian, Burgundian, and Wallachian troops, at the Battle of Nicopolis, resulting in the end of Bulgaria as a country. Seven years earlier, after the victory and subsequent death of his father, Murad I, at the Battle of Kosovo in 1389, he had conquered most of the Balkans, and reduced the Byzantine Empire to the area immediately surrounding Constantinople. This made European powers to form an alliance to try to drive out the victorious Turks. In 1394, Pope Boniface IX proclaimed a new crusade against Muslims. The huge Christian force that numbered over 200,000 was decisively defeated by Bayezid – who six years later in 1402 was defeated in the Battle of Ankara by the Central Asian conqueror, Amir Timur, and taken as a prisoner to Samarqand, where he died in captivity.

426 solar years ago, on this day in 1593 AD, the 3rd Moghul Emperor of the Northern Subcontinent, Jalal od-Din Akbar sent Shaikh Farid Bashir ul-Mulk to conquer the Siwalik Hills region of the outer range of the Himalayas. Jammu fort surrendered and the country was settled under Qazi Hasan. As a result, the Mughal Empire was consolidated over all Hindustan or north of the Vindhya Range, from Bengal in the east to as far as Kabul and Qandahar in the west.

188 lunar years ago, on this day in 1253 AH, the first Iranian monthly newspaper: “Kaghazi Akhbar” was published by Mirza Saleh Shirazi in two pages in Tabriz. Its articles were about Tehran and other Iranian cities, as well as Arab countries, Turkey, and the Subcontinent. A copy of this monthly is kept in the British Museum.

77 solar years ago, on this day in 1942 AD, the Iranian literary figure and poet, Mohammad Yousefzadeh Hamedani passed away. He was a polymath in logic, Islamic philosophy, and literature, especially Persian poems. He was active in the Constitutionalist Movement, but when colonialist agents infiltrated and diverted it from its goals he left politics and devoted himself to social and literary activities. He has left behind a diwan of poetry.

57 solar years ago, on this day in 1962 AD, the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria was formally proclaimed with Ferhat Abbas as the elected President of the provisional government. Abbas had acted in a provisional capacity during the years 1958 to 1961, while Algeria was fighting the French occupiers. Algeria’s independence on July 5, 1962, followed the 8-year war that led to the death of a million and a half Algerian Muslims. For almost a year till September 15, 1963 Ferhat Abbas was president of the constitutional assembly that was rapidly sidelined by Ahmad Bin Bella on being elected to the presidency. He resigned in protest to Bin Bella’s decision to establish a one-party state, and was placed under house arrest from 1964 until the latter’s overthrow in 1965. From 1976 to 1979, he was put under house arrest, after signing a statement opposing the powerful military-backed President, Colonel Houari Boumedienne. He died in 1985.

50 solar years ago, on this day in 1969 AD, the charter establishing the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC) was signed. OIC, which was set up following the arson attack on al-Aqsa Mosque in the Zionist occupied Islamic city of Bayt al-Moqaddas, now has 57 Muslim states as members.

37 solar years ago, on this day in 1982 AD, Iranian artist and calligrapher, Reza Ma'afi, passed away. Born in the holy city of Mashhad, he learned this art under the prominent calligrapher, E’tesami. He created more than 800 works and held a number of exhibitions of his works in Iran and overseas. His last exhibition was in Tehran in 1979 in memory of martyrs of the Islamic Revolution.

16 solar years ago, on this day in 2003 AD, Palestinian author and thinker, Edward Sa’eed, passed away in the US at the age of 68 after a long battle with cancer. Born in a Christian family in the city of Bayt al-Moqaddas, he left for the US at the age of 17 for higher studies and obtained a PhD in Comparative Literature from Harvard University. A relentless supporter of the Palestinian cause, he enlightened the international community about the oppression of the Palestinian people by the illegal Zionist entity. He was elected to the Palestine National Parliament in 1977, but resigned in 1991 in protest to the compromise with Israel by the Palestine Liberation Organization. Among his books mention can be made of “Culture and Imperialism”, “The Politics of Dispossession”, and “Covering Islam”. His most important book is “Orientalism”, published in 1978. In this book, he describes how the Oriental scholars have turned into tools of Western colonialists to justify the looting of the wealth of Eastern nations by Western colonial states.

14 solar years ago, on this day 2005 AD, the Subcontinent’s Urdu and Persian author, linguist, researcher and critic, Dr. Ghulam Mustafa Khan, passed away in Hyderabad, Sindh, Pakistan at the age of 93. Born in Jabalpur, India, in a religious family of the Naqshbandi Sufi order, he was a product of the famous Aligarh Muslim University and did his MA in Urdu & Persian literature, followed by PhD on the eminent Persian poet, Hassan Ghaznavi. He migrated to Pakistan, and took up service at the Urdu College, Karachi. Later he was head of the Department of Urdu in Sindh University, Hyderabad. His book on the famous philosopher-poet “Iqbal Lahori and the holy Qur’an”, was awarded as the best book ever written on this subject. Dr Ghulam Mustafa became a famous religious and spiritual leader. He trained a large number of students and was author of more than 100 books in Arabic, Persian, Urdu and English.

AS/SS