Today is Saturday; 25th of the Iranian month of Aban 1398 solar hijri; corresponding to 18th of the Islamic month of Rabi al-Awwal 1441 lunar hijri; and November 16, 2019, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1441 lunar years ago, on this day, a few days after Hijra, work started for construction of the famous “Masjid an-Nabi” (Prophet's Mosque) in Medina after the entry of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) in this city which was then called Yathreb. The Prophet personally took part in the construction, and adjacent to it rooms or quarters were built for him, for his cousin, Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb (AS), and some of his companions. The Prophet used to hold the daily congregational prayers in this mosque, and would use it as a place for handling the various affairs of the Muslim society. The “Masjid an-Nabi”, in whose precincts, the Prophet reposes in eternal peace, is the second holiest mosque for the Islamic Ummah after the “Masjid al-Haraam” (Sacred Mosque) which houses God's symbolic house, the holy Ka'ba in Mecca. It is worth noting that on God’s commandment, the doors of the Sahaba opening into the courtyard of the “Masjid an-Nabi” were closed except for the doors of the houses of the Prophet and Imam Ali (AS).

1433 lunar years ago, on this day around 8 AH, Omm Kulthoum (SA), the second and youngest daughter of Imam Ali (AS) and Hazrat Fatema Zahra (SA) was born in Medina in the lifetime of her grandfather, Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). Like her elder sister, Hazrat Zainab (SA), and brothers, Imam Hasan (AS) and Imam Husain (AS), she was a picture of virtue, and on growing up married her paternal first cousin Awn ibn Ja’far at-Tayyar – who was martyred years later in 38 AH in the War of Siffeen – since as a member of the spotlessly pure Ahl al-Bayt no other man was worthy of her hand, except a faithful Hashemite. She was present in Karbala at history’s most heartrending tragedy; was taken in chains along with the rest of ladies and children of the Prophet’s blessed household to the court of the tyrant Yazid; delivered memorable sermons to unmask the hypocrisy of the Omayyad regime; and on return to Medina recited the famous elegy “Madinato Jaddona la taqbalina…” (O City of our Grandfather, don’t accept our coming).

779 solar years ago, on this day in 1240 AD, the famous Spanish Muslim philosopher and Gnostic, Mohi od-Din bin Mohammad Ibn al-Arabi passed away in Damascus, Syria at the age of 75. Born in Murcia, southern Spain, he was a child prodigy who after acquiring the sciences of the day in Seville, where his family had settled and where he met the famous philosopher, Ibn Rushd (Averroes). At the age of 30 he migrated to Fez in Morocco, from where after making several trips to Spain over the next five years to collect his works and other Islamic manuscripts in order to save them from the Christian vandals who were destroying the heritage of mankind, he finally left for the Levant through Egypt. The next half of his life was spent in Mecca (where he performed the Hajj), Medina (where he paid respects as the Prophet’s shrine), Palestine, Syria, Iraq and what is now Turkey, before he settled in Damascus. During the last twenty years of his life his close companion was the Iranian mystic, Awhad od-Din Hameed Kirmani, who transmitted to him teachings of many of the great spiritual masters of the Islamic East. Ibn Arabi, whose school of mystical thought had a profound impact for several centuries, was a prolific writer and the author of many books and treatises, including "Fusous al-Hekam" (Bezels of Wisdom), and "Futuhaat al-Makkiyya" (The Meccan Illuminations). In Chapter 366 of the voluminous "Futuhaat", he has described the characteristics of the Awaited Saviour of mankind, saying that Imam Mahdi (AS), the namesake and offspring of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), is from the direct line of descent of the Immaculate Hazrat Fatema Zahra (SA), and when he reappears the world will be filled with the global government of justice. His Gnostic school of thought has continued to have a profound impact over the centuries despite the senseless attacks on him by the pseudo scholar Ibn Taimiyya, who failed to taint Ibn Arabi’s saintly personality for elaborating the Qur’anic concepts of “wasila” (means of attaining the proximity of God) and “shafa’a” (power of intercession) that God has granted to Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) and the Infallible Imams.

487 solar years ago, on this day in 1532 AD, Francisco Pizarro and his Spanish marauders ambushed and captured Inca Emperor Atahualpa at the great plaza of Cajamarca in what is now Peru, killing counsellors, commanders and thousands of unarmed attendants, following months of espionage and subterfuge. Pizarro, who was born out of wedlock, treacherously executed Atahualpa despite receiving ransom for release of the Inca emperor that filled a room with gold and two rooms with silver, which he split amongst his closest associates after setting aside a share for the Spanish king. The Spaniards indulged in the mass rape of Inca women, and Pizzaro forced Atahualpa's wife to become his mistress, while distributing among his men women of the Incan nobility. Atahualpa’s death effectively ended the Inca resistance, empire and the flourishing native culture.

376 solar years ago, on this day in 1643 AD, Jean Chardin, French-English jeweler and traveler who frequented the courts of Iran and India, was born in Paris. A jeweler’s son with an excellent education, he traveled with a merchant to Iran and India in 1665. At Iṣfahan, he enjoyed the patronage of Shah Abbas II. He visited the Deccan or southern India by landing at Surat on the coast of Gujarat, before proceeding to the court of King Abdullah Qotb Shah in Golkandeh-Hyderabad, where famous diamond mines were situated. On returning to France via Iran in 1670, he published in 1671 his eyewitness account of the coronation of Shah Soleiman Safavi, titled “Le Couronnement de Soleiman Troisième”.  While in Isfahan, a learned nobleman, Mirza Safi, had taught him the Persian language, and assisted him in this work. Towards the end of 1671 he again set out for Iran by traveling through Turkey, Crimea, and the Caucasus. He reached Iṣfahan nearly two years later. He remained in Iran for four years, revisited India, and returned to France in 1677 via the Cape of Good Hope. Fleeing French persecution of the Huguenots in 1681, he settled in London, where he became court jeweler and was knighted by King Charles II. In 1683 he represented the East India Company in Holland. He mastered the Persian language and travelled all over Iran, selling jewels to the elites, besides the Safavid Emperor. He became an authority on Iran and the Persianate kingdoms of the Deccan, writing accounts of his travels, meeting with dignitaries, and adventurers. The complete account of his travels first appeared in 1711 in Journal du voyage du chevalier Chardin (“Journal of the Travel of Cavalier Chardin”). His ten-volume book in English “The Travels of Sir John Chardin” is regarded as one of the finest works of early Western scholarship on Iran and the Subcontinent in general. Chardin's style of writing is simple and graphic, and he gives a faithful account of what he saw and heard. His work received praise from a number of thinkers of his age, among them Montesquieu, Rousseau, Voltaire and Edward Gibbon. Latter-day scholars of Iran also vouch for his importance. According to John Emerson, "his information on Safavid Persia outranks that of all other Western writers in range, depth, accuracy, and judiciousness." He died in London at the age of 70.

172 lunar years ago, on this day in 1268 AH, the highly efficient Iranian Prime Minister, Mirza Taqi Khan Amir Kabir, was killed on the orders of the Qajarid king, Nasser od-Din Shah in the “hammam” (bathhouse) of the famous garden-pavilion of Feen in the city of Kashan, where he was exiled, after dismissal from his post, following court intrigues by local agents of foreign powers, on loss of their illegal interests, because of his political and administrative reforms. He had risen from the lower rungs of the society through hard work, honesty, and voracious appetite for knowledge and eagerness to learn new techniques. He became prime minister of Mohammad Shah and within three years carried out important reforms. On Mohammad Shah's death, when Naser od-Din Shah ascended the throne as a boy, Amir-e Kabir acted as his guardian and saved Iran from the colonial designs of the British and the Russians. His achievements include the vaccination of Iranians against smallpox; economic development of the fertile Khuzestan Province; foundation in Tehran of the Dar ol-Fonoun Academy (for teaching medicine, surgery, pharmacology, natural history, mathematics, geology, and natural sciences to train the civilian and military staff); cancellation of the one-sided treaties with the Russians and the British; launching of a newspaper; crackdown on the seditious Babi-Bahai plot against Islam and the country; and execution of the heretic Mohammad Ali Bab. With Amir Kabir died the prospects of an independent Iran led by meritocracy.

135 solar years ago, on this day in 1884 AD, William Wells Brown, African-American abolitionist lecturer, novelist, playwright, and historian, died in Massachusetts at the age of 70. His novel “Clotel”, published in 1853, is considered the first novel written by an Afro-American.

122 solar years ago, on this day in 1897 AD, Choudhry Rahmat Ali, who created the name Pakistan, was born in a Gujjar Muslim family in the Hoshiarpur district of Punjab, India. In 1933 AD, the name Pakistan was coined by him and accepted by the Muslims of the northwestern parts of the Indian Subcontinent who campaigned for a separate country. He is the author of the famous 1933 pamphlet titled "Now or Never; Are We to Live or Perish Forever," also known as the “Pakistan Declaration”. The pamphlet started with the famous statement:

"At this solemn hour in the history of India, when British and Indian statesmen are laying the foundations of a Federal Constitution for that land, we address this appeal to you, in the name of our common heritage, on behalf of our thirty million Muslim brethren who live in PAKSTAN – by which we mean the five Northern units of India, namely: Punjab, North-West Frontier Province, Kashmir, Sindh and Baluchistan."

In a subsequent book, Rahmat Ali discussed the etymology in further detail, saying:

“PAKISTAN is both a Persian and an Urdu word. It is composed of letters taken from the names of all our South Asia homelands; that is, Punjab, Afghania (or Pashtun-speaking areas of the Subcontinent), Kashmir, Sindh and Balochistan. It means the land of the Pak – or the spiritually pure and clean.”

In 1947, at the birth of the country he had envisaged, he was unhappy over a Smaller Pakistan than the one he had conceived in his pamphlet.

106 solar years ago, on this day in 1913 AD, Sattar Khan, one of the leading activists of Iran’s Constitutional Movement, who earned the title “Sardar-e Melli” (National Commander), passed away. During his youth, he was forced to leave his hometown, Tabriz, northwestern Iran, due to harassment by agents of the despotic Qajarid regime. On the start of the freedom-struggle he returned to Tabriz and joined the uprising. He was one of the leaders of the revolutionaries who marched upon Tehran and forced Mohammad Ali Shah Qajar to abdicate. His warm reception by the people of Tehran alarmed the colonialist powers, Britain and Russia. After a short while, intense clashes erupted between the revolutionaries and agents of the foreign-backed regime. As a consequence, a number of freedom-seekers were killed. Sattar Khan, who was severely wounded, succumbed to his injuries on this day.

74 solar years ago, on this day in 1945 AD, in the wake of French colonial troops' bid to reoccupy Vietnam after the Japanese defeat in World War 2, the struggle for independence of the Vietnamese people began under Ho Chi Minh, who went on to inflict a major defeat on the French forces in 1954. Later the US interfered and messed up matters in Vietnam, until it was defeated and driven out in 1976, after massacring hundreds of thousands of innocent people and ruining the country.

73 solar years ago, on this day in 1946 AD, artificial rain was invented by American meteorologist, Dr. Craig by impregnating clouds with chemical components. However, due to its high costs, it has never become common in any part of the world.

39 solar years ago, on this day in 1980 AD, Iran's southwestern border town of Susangerd witnessed the courageous resistance of the Muslim combatants against the invading forces of Saddam. The defence operations were conducted only by two hundred personnel of the Islamic Revolution's Guards Corps (IRGC), led by Defence Minister Mostafa Chamran and assisted by the lightly-armed local Basijis. The brave Iranian combatants held back enemy tanks and liberated Susangerd from the Ba'thist forces. The victory was achieved despite virtual deprivation of water, food, and ammunitions for almost three days.

21 solar years ago, on this day in 1998 AD, the philosopher and theologian, Allamah Mohammad-Taqi Ja'fari, passed away at the age of 75. Born in Tabriz, northwestern Iran, after elementary school, he studied at the Talebieh seminary, and then moved to Tehran and later to holy Qom, where he studied under some of the leading religious scholars of his time, before leaving for the holy Najaf seminary in Iraq, where he spent 11 years attending the classes of great ulema. Of sharp and inquisitive mind, he had attained ijtehad at the young age of 23. On returning to Iran, he continued to study the new waves of thought and intellectualism that were rapidly spreading throughout the world. This dominated his 60-year academic career, and he entered into lively discussions and debates with leading European intellectuals such as Bertrand Russell and Jean Paul Sartre. Allamah Mohammad Taqi Ja’fari wrote many books on a vast variety of fields, the most prominent of which are his 15-volume “Interpretation and Criticism of Mathnavi”, of the famous Iranian Poet Mowlana Jalal od-Din Roumi's poetical masterpiece, and his unfinished, 27-volume “Translation and Interpretation of the Nahj al-Balagha”. These two major works contain his most important thoughts and ideas in fields like anthropology, sociology, moral ethics, philosophy and mysticism.

19 solar years ago, on this day in 2000 AD, the prominent researcher and writer, Hojjat al-Islam Dr. Mohammad Hadi al-Amini, passed away at the age of 69. Born in Tabriz, he migrated to Iraq in his childhood along with his celebrated father, Allamah Abdul-Hussain Amini, the author of the famous book “al-Ghadeer”. He studied at the seminary of holy Najaf, before graduating from Baghdad University, and went on to obtain PhD from Egypt’s al-Azhar University in Arabic literature. In 1971, he returned to his homeland Iran where he taught at the university, in addition to research and writing of books. Works authored by him include “E’laam Nahj al-Balagha”, “Mu’jam Rijal Fikr wa’l-Adab”, “Itrat dar Qur’an”, and a highly researched work on Hazrat Fatema Zahra (SA), the Immaculate Daughter of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA).

AS/SS