Today is Saturday; 4th of the Iranian month of Aban 1398 solar hijri; corresponding to 27th of the Islamic month of Safar 1441 lunar hijri; and October 26, 2019, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1232 lunar years ago, on this day in 209 AH, the Iranian Sunni Muslim compiler of Hadith, Mohammad Ibn Majah al-Qazvini, was born in Qazvin. He travelled widely through Iran, Iraq, Syria, Hejaz, and Egypt, to gather hadith and compiled his book "Sunan", which contains 4000 hadith. Although later this compilation was included in the "Sihah as-Sitta" or the Six Primary Books of Hadith of Sunni Muslims, it is still regarded as the weakest one. Perhaps for fear of the Abbasid regime, Ibn Majah failed to collect genuine information about the Sunnah and Seerah of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) from the main sources of his time, that is, Imam Ali al-Hadi (AS) and Imam Hasan al-Askari (AS), the 10^th and 11^th Infallible Imams of the Ahl al-Bayt respectively. Like his Iranian compatriots before him, such as Bukhari, Muslim Naishapuri, Tirmizi, and Abu Dawoud Sijistani, he did not seek the company of the disciples and companions of the blessed progeny of the Prophet to ascertain whether the hadith he had gathered were really genuine. Ibn Majah died in 273 AH in his hometown Qazvin at the age of 64.

1094 solar years ago, on this day in 925 AD, the famous Iranian Islamic physician and chemist, Mohammad ibn Zakariyya Razi, passed away at the age of 60. Born in the city of Rayy, he initially followed his father's profession of goldsmith before turning to chemistry, in addition to honing his skills in other sciences, such as medicine, geometry, logic, and philosophy. He has compiled almost 250 works in different scientific courses, including “al-Hawi” al-Kabir, on ways of leading a sound and healthy life. This monumental medical encyclopedia in nine volumes is also known as “Jame’ al-Kabir". Razi also wrote “al-Mansouri”, and “Sayrat al-Falsafiyah” on philosophy. He also wrote a home medical (remedial) manual for the general public titled “Man La Yahzuruhu at-Ṭabeeb”, (He Who has no Physician to Attend Him).

463 solar years ago, on this day in 1556 AD, Ahmad Baba al-Massufi al-Timbukti, the greatest Islamic scholar of Sub-Saharan Africa was born to a Sanhaja Berber Aqit family in Araouane, Mali, then known as the Western Sudan. He moved to Timbuktu at an early age to study with his father. In 1594 he was deported to Morocco following the Pasha invasion of Songhai and until 1608 remained there. He wrote more than 40 books and is often noted as having been Timbuktu’s greatest scholar. His works remain the best sources for the study of al-Maghili and Mali’s legal history. The only public library in Timbuktu, the Ahmed Baba Institute (over 18,000 manuscripts) is named in his honour.

422 solar years ago, on this day in 1597 AD, during the Imjin War, Admiral Yi Sun-sin of Korea’s Joseon kingdom, with only 13 ships routed the powerful Japanese Navy consisting of 133 ships at the Battle of Myeongnyang in the strait of the same name near Jindo Island off the southwest corner of the Korean peninsula. With only 13 ships remaining from Admiral Won Gyun's disastrous defeat at the Battle of Chilchonryang on August 27, Admiral Yi held the strait as a "last stand" battle against the Japanese Navy, which was sailing to support its land army's advance towards the Joseon capital of Hanyang (modern day Seoul). This naval battle is regarded as one of the most humiliating defeats for the Japanese, who lost 31 ships while the rest fled. The conflict ended in 1598 with the withdrawal of the Japanese forces from the Korean Peninsula.

353 solar years ago, on this day in 1666 AD, the Safavid Emperor of Iran, Shah Abbas II, died in Khosrou-Abad near Damghan at the age of 34 after a reign of 24 years. His rule was relatively peaceful and was free of any Ottoman attack. In 1648 he managed to retake Qandahar in what is now Afghanistan, and hold it against attacks by Mughal India. The early death of this capable ruler was a great blow to Iran. He was succeeded by his inefficient and superstitious son, Shah Sulayman.

330 solar years ago, on this day in 1689 AD, General Enea Silvio Piccolomini of Austria, while leading an army against the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans, burned down the city of Skopje – presently the capital of the Republic of Macedonia – on the pretext of stopping the spread of cholera, but this did not prevent his own death soon from cholera affliction. The fire lasted for two days, burning much of the city; only stone-built structures, such as the fortress and some churches and mosques, were relatively undamaged. The fire had disastrous effect and the city's population fell from around 60,000 to around 10,000, and it also lost its importance as a trade centre.

206 solar years ago, on this day in 1813 AD, Canadians and the native Mohawks joined together to defeat the Americans in the Battle of Chateauguay, when the US tried to invade and occupy Canada. The plan of US Secretary of War, John Armstrong, was to capture Montreal, which would have led to the conquest of all Upper Canada. But the resistance by the Canadians and Amerindian natives, coupled with British counterattacks defeated the Americans and forced them to abandon their expansionist designs, although they did succeed in sabotaging the prospect of an independent Amerindian state in the Midwest, called the First Nation in Canada. The war lasted from 1812 to 1815 during which the Americans conducted genocide of the Amerindian tribes, while the British captured and burned Washington, D.C. in addition to seizing New York, before defeat and withdrawal that led to the formal recognition of the USA by London.

146 solar years ago,  on this day in 1873 AD, the noted statesman of the Subcontinent, Abu’l-Qassem Fazl ul-Haq, known as Sher-e-Bangla (Tiger of Bengal), was born in what is now Bangladesh. He was a senior figure of the Congress Party, but as Muslim in the 1920s, he organised the Muslim League which was later led by Mohammad Ali Jinnah. He played a crucial role in drafting and presenting the Lahore Resolution and had active public position in British India advocating for the Pakistan Movement in the 1940s. After establishment of Pakistan, he was appointed as Chief Minister of East Pakistan in 1952, and in 1955 became the Interior Minister of Pakistan. In 1956, he was appointed Governor-General of East Pakistan and led the United Front and presided over the provisional state until 1958. Sher-e-Bangla founded several educational and technical institutions for Bengali Muslims, including Islamia College in Calcutta and Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University (SAU) in Dhaka. Today throughout Bangladesh, educational institutions (e.g., Barisal Sher-e Bangla Medical College), roads, neighborhoods (Sher-e Bangla Nagor), and stadiums (Sher-e Bangla Mirpur Stadium) have been named after him. In Islamabad, Pakistan, the Fazl ul-Haq Road is named after him. He passed away at the age of 89 in Dhaka.

107 solar years ago, on this day in 1912 AD, during the First Balkan War, the Turkish Muslim city of Selanik was surrendered to the Greek invaders by its Ottoman governor Tahsin Pasha, as assistance failed to arrive from Istanbul in the face of a twin aggression by the breakaway Turkish provinces of Yunanistan (Greece) and Bulgharistan (Bulgaria), which both wanted to seize more Muslim territories including this thriving port city. On the same day, troops of another breakaway Ottoman province, Servistan (Serbia), captured Skopje – currently the capital of the Republic of Macedonia. During almost five centuries of Ottoman rule, Selanik was a thriving Muslim city with flourishing bazaars, mosques, public baths, libraries, and other facilities. After the Second Balkan War (1913), Selanik and southeastern Macedonia were officially annexed to Greece, and the city was renamed Thessaloniki, while Bulgaria occupied northern Macedonia, and Serbia northwestern Macedonia. Muslims which were in majority throughout Macedonia soon became a minority in their divided homeland because of mass deportations by Greece and Bulgaria. Today, Muslims make up only 40 percent of the population of the Republic of Macedonia, while in the Greece-ruled Macedonia they number not more than 200,000.

126 lunar years ago, on this day in 1315 AH, the pious scholar, Abu’l-Ma’ali Kalbasi Isfahani passed away at the age of 68 in his native Isfahan. Son of the scholar Mohammad Ibrahim Karbasi, he attained higher degrees and wrote over seventy book and treatises.

82 solar years ago, on this day in 1947 AD, following the independence of the subcontinent from British colonial rule and its partition into India and Pakistan, the strategic Muslim land of Jammu and Kashmir was annexed by India against the wishes of the Kashmiri people, on the pretext that the British-installed Hindu minority ruler prefers to accede to India. This prompted Pakistan to send troops into Jammu and Kashmir and in the resulting war that ended through UN intervention calling for plebiscite, the land was split between the two neighbours, with two-thirds under Indian occupation, and the rest under Pakistan. Because of the refusal of New Delhi to honour its commitment to hold plebiscite under UN auspices, the Kashmir question has dragged on with disastrous results for the Kashmiri Muslim people, the overwhelming majority of whom prefer independence. India and Pakistan fought two more inconclusive wars over Kashmir in 1965 and 1971.

64 solar years ago, on this day in 1955 AD, following the plots hatched by Western regimes, Vietnam, which was struggling for liberation from French colonial rule, was divided into two parts. The goal was the American bid to gain foothold in the region on the pretext of stopping the spread of communism. The brutal war imposed by the US on the pretext of the fabricated incident of the Gulf of Tonkin, ended after over a decade in 1975, with the collapse of the artificial state of South Vietnam and the unity of the country, which was savagely bombed by the Americans.

55 solar years ago, on this day in 1964 AD, the Father of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (RA), on release from prison delivered a keynote speech strongly denouncing the judicial immunity granted to US nationals in Iran by the Pahlavi regime. He also condemned Washington and its illegitimate surrogate, Israel. The remarks of the beloved Imam enlightened the people and angered the despotic regime, to the extent that it again detained him and a few days later sent him into exile.

39 solar years ago, on this day in 1980 AD, the port city of Khorramshahr was occupied by the invading forces of Baghdad’s repressive Ba’th minority regime, after 34 days of brave resistance by Iranian civilians, following Saddam’s unprovoked invasion of the Islamic Republic on the orders of the US, thus starting the 8-year imposed war. The Muslim combatants of Iran liberated Khorramshahr 19 months later during the heroic Bayt al-Moqaddas operations.

27 lunar years ago, on this day in 1414 AH, the Source of Emulation, Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Abdul-‘Ala Musawi Sabzevari, passed away at the age of 86 in Najaf – said to be poisoned by the repressive Ba’th minority regime of Baghdad. Born in Sabzevar in Khorasan, northeastern Iran, until the age of 14, he continued his education in Islamic studies and Arabic literature, under his father and uncle, Ayatollah Seyyed Abdullah Burhan, before moving to holy Mashhad where for 8 years he benefited from prominent scholars such as Abdul-Jawad Adib Nayshapuri, Mirza Askar Shahidi (known as Aqa Buzurg Hakim), Seyyed Mohammad Assar Lavasani and Ali Akbar Nahavandi. At the age of 22, he went to Iraq for higher studies at the famous seminary of holy Najaf, where he completed courses in jurisprudence, theology, philosophy, exegesis of the holy Qur’an, and other Islamic sciences, under leading Ayatollahs such as Mirza Hussain Na’ini, Aqa Ziya Iraqi, Mohammad Hussain Gharavi Isfahani, Seyyed Abu’l-Hassan Isfahani, Seyyed Hussain Badkube'i and others. He learned exegesis of the Qur'an, way of debating and theology through participating in the sessions of Allamah Mohammad Jawad al-Balaghi. He also received permission for hadith transmission and accreditation for Ijtihad from Allamah Mamaqani, Shaikh Abbas Qomi, and while he was only 36 year old, he began teaching advanced jurisprudence courses. At the age of 85 he became head of the Najaf Seminary and Marja’ of world Shi’a Muslims, following the death of Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Abu’l-Qasim Khoei, but passed away after a year. He had memorized the holy Qur’an, and was active in political and social spheres in both Iran and Iraq, firmly supporting the Father of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini. In March 1979, he issued a message hailing the victory of the Islamic Revolution in Iran. In 1991, he issued a fatwa in support of the uprisings of the Iraqi people, and never compromised with Ba'th regime, as a result of which his house was besieged several times. He also sent expert delegations to Europe, North America, and Asian and Arab countries. His major work is the exegesis in 30 volumes titled “Mawahib al-Rahman fi tafsir al-Qur’an”.

25 solar years ago, on this day in 1994 AD, Jordan’s King Hussein, and Zionist premier, Yitzhak Rabin, signed a scandalous treaty, brokered by Israel's godfather, the US, in order to weaken the Arab front against Israel. The so-called peace process had started as of the Madrid Conference, convened in 1991 in the Spanish capital. The US had promised to waive Jordan's debts and to provide financial aid on condition that Amman enter into trade with the usurper Zionist entity. The US never fully honoured its word, thereby further humiliating the Jordanian ruler, who for long years had been in secret contact with Israel in the vain hope that compromise would boost his country's economy. This never happened and on the contrary the Jordanian people became more infuriated towards the regime and the US.

24 solar years ago, on this day in 1995 AD, Dr. Fathhi Shaqaqi, the Secretary-General of Palestine's Islamic Jihad, and an active combatant against the illegal Zionist entity, was martyred by Mossad agents on the Mediterranean island state of Malta at the age of 44 years. He was born in a Palestinian refugee camp in Gaza, and studied medicine at Cairo University.

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