Today is Monday; 19th of the Iranian month of Mehr 1395 solar hijri; corresponding to 8th of the Islamic month of Muharram 1437 lunar hijri; and October 10, 2016, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1377 lunar years ago, on this day in 61 AH, following the Omayyad forces’ cutting of all access to the River Euphrates the day before in Karbala and exhaustion of whatever water had been stored in the encampment of Imam Husain (PuH) through the valiant efforts of his brother Hazrat Abbas in procuring this precious elixir of life overnight by virtue of a daring raid on the Euphrates, thirst became acute, especially among the children and womenfolk. The Prophet’s grandson ordered the digging of a well some 19 steps from the encampment, and out gushed sweet water from the ground which enabled all to quench their thirst and store some water before the well ran dry. On hearing this news in Kufa, Obaidullah ibn Ziyad, the tyrannical governor of Iraq who was an avowed enemy of the household of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) wrote to the commander of his forces, Omar ibn Sa’d, to make sure that Imam Husain (PuH) should not have access to any source of water and should be reduced to acute thirst, until he acknowledges the illegal rule of the libertine Yazid over the Muslim ummah.

1346 solar years ago, on this day in 680 AD (as per the Georgian Calendar), occurred the fateful Day of Ashura or the 10th of Moharram in the year 61 AH, on which the heartrending tragedy of Karbala took place in Iraq, resulting in the martyrdom of Imam Husain (AS), the younger grandson and 3rd Infallible Successor of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). The Immortal Saga of Imam Husain (AS) continues to inspire Muslims and all conscientious people in every age and place, and throughout history has been the catalyst for reform and revolutionary movements against tyranny and injustice.

1288 solar years ago, on this day in 728 AD, the Iranian ascetic, Hassan al-Basri, passed away at the age of 86 in the Iraqi port city of Basra, where he lived most of his life. He is considered a progenitor by the Sufis, as well as by the Sunni sect, although neither the term “Sufi” existed in his times, nor the sect which the 2nd Abbasid caliph, Mansour Dawaniqi, created as “Ahl as-Sunnah wa’l-Jama’ah” sometime around 150 AH (around 765 AD) to divide the general public from Shi’ite Muslims (staunch followers of Prophet Mohammad’s (SAWA) Ahl al-Bayt), had yet evolved. Born in Medina to Peroz, a freed Persian captive and his wife Khaira – a Persian maid of Omm Salama, one of the wives of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) – he was a controversial character, who gave rise to dubious narrations. He grew up in Omm Salama’s house, knew the status of the Prophet’s Ahl al-Bayt, and held Imam Ali (AS) in high esteem, but erred in differing with him by following his own deviant opinion. Despite respect for the Prophet’s grandsons, Imam Hasan (AS) and Imam Husain (AS), he failed to support them, and in the next generation was rebuked by the Prophet’s 4th Infallible Heir, Imam Zain al-Abedin (AS), for his confusion to discern between free will and compulsion. During the era of Imam Mohammad Baqer (AS), he showed inclination towards the tyrannical Omayyad regime and gathered followers around him. In short, unsupported statements of the law make up the greater bulk of quotations from him, and proved troublesome for even the Sunni jurists that emerged a generation later. The famous biographer Ibn Sa’d in his book “Tabaqaat” quotes Hassan Basri as acknowledging that only some of what he told people was based on what he had really heard from the Prophet’s companions, as opposed to his own opinions. This suggests he had less information available to him about the norms laid down by the Prophet. Ibn Sa’d, himself a Sunni, states that what Hasan Basri expressly related from the Prophet through a named Companion is reliable, whereas what he related directly from the Prophet (considerably more) is unreliable. The “Tabaqaat” notes that he paraphrased hadith rather than repeat them verbatim, lengthening or shortening them as per his whim. He is thus an example of an ascetic, a worshipper, and a scholar gone off the track.

1284 solar years ago, on this day in 732 AD, the Battle of Tours, near Poitiers in France, southwest of Paris, ended in the defeat of the Omayyad forces and killing of their commander, Abdur-Rahman al-Ghafiqi, the governor of the Spanish region of Cordoba, by a huge army of Franks and Germans. The Christians were led by Charles Martel (an illegitimate son of the German chief, Pepin), whose barbaric nature as marauder of the frontiers of the Roman Empire, the Muslims failed to properly estimate. Another reason for defeat of the Arabs was preoccupation with war booty, as well as squabbles between various ethnic and tribal factions. Al-Ghafiqi, who had been appointed by the Omayyad tyrant of Damascus, Hisham Ibn Abdul-Malik, as commander in France in 730, after the death of Samh Ibn Malik in the Battle of Toulouse in 721 and of Anbasa Ibn Suhaym in the Battle of Gaul in 726, crossed the Pyrenees mountain range with 50,000 cavalry. He swiftly took Bordeaux and Aquitaine and poised for a decisive victory when Tours turned out to be a debacle that also claimed his life. This Battle is considered a strategic win for the Christians, since their defeat would have led to the conquest of all France and Germany by the Muslims and the possibility of their crossing the English Channel for subjugation of the British Isles. The debacle at Tours did not stop the Muslim advance elsewhere in Europe. Muslim presence continued in southern France for over a century. In 734, the Muslims took Arles, St. Remy, Avignon, and retook Lyons and Burgundy. Successful raids were conducted on the western (Atlantic) coast of France throughout the 8th and 9th centuries. In 889 the Muslims established a presence in western Switzerland, which lasted almost two centuries. During the reign of Abdur-Rahman III of Spain, Fraxinetum, Valais, Geneva, Toulon and Great St. Bernard were taken by Muslim armies who then swung around Lake Geneva in 956 and established themselves in the mountain passes leading into northern Italy. At the same time, Sicily and parts of southern Italy were firmly in the hands of the Fatemid Ismaili Shi’ite Dynasty of North Africa. Thereafter, Muslim military power began to decline, not because of the superiority of Europeans but due to infighting. Taking advantage of this chaos, Christian armies ejected the Muslims from southern France, Italy and the Mediterranean islands during the early Crusades (in 1050), persecuting, massacring and enslaving the population.

1109 lunar years ago, on this day in 329 AH, the prominent Iranian mathematician, physicist, and astronomer, Abu Sahl Wayjan ibn Rustam al-Kouhi was born, in Mazandaran. He spent most of his life in Baghdad and was the leader of the astronomers working at the observatory built by the Buwayhid ruler, Sharaf od-Dowla Daylami. For thirty years he studied the stars and their positions. He devoted his attention to those Archimedean and Apollonian problems leading to equations higher than the second degree. He solved some of them and discussed the conditions of solvability.

436 solar years ago, on this day in 1580 AD, after a three-day siege, the English Army brutally beheaded over 600 Irish and Papal soldiers and civilians at Dún an Óir, Ireland.

285 solar years ago, on this day in 1731 AD, the English philosopher and biologist, Henry Cavendish, was born in the French city of Nice. He turned into an authority on physics, chemistry, and biology. He was the first European to prove that hydrogen is lighter than air and the objects that are filled with hydrogen can ascend. He died in 1810.

236 solar years ago, on this day in 1780 AD, the Great Hurricane swept across the Caribbean islands killing 20,000-to-30,000 people. It is probably the deadliest Atlantic hurricane on record, with winds possibly exceeding 320 km per hour or 200 miles per hour.

114 solar years ago, on this day in 1902 AD the first session of International Arbitration Court was held in Hague, Netherlands. Founded in 1899 upon the demand of Russian Emperor, Nicholas II, this court is one of the oldest international judicial bodies and operates under UN supervision.

105 solar years ago, on this day in 1911 AD, the Wuchang Uprising led to the fall of the Qing Dynasty and founding of the Republic of China, following a railway crisis that resulted in the Xinhai Revolution. On this day, 17 years later in 1928, Chiang Kai-Shek became Chairman of the Republic of China, but lost the country to the communist leader, Mao Zedong in 1949.

103 solar years ago, on this day in 1913 AD, the waters of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans commingled in the Panama Canal after US engineers blew up the Gamboa Dam and water began to fill the Culebra Cut. By the summer of 1913, the locks and the Culebra Cut (culebra means snake) had been finished. The struggle to dig the Culebra Cut had lasted seven years. On 26 September water was first turned into the locks. This act also marked the final stage in the creation of Lake Gatun, 85 ft above sea level, the largest man-made lake at that time.

72 solar years ago, on this day in 1944 AD, 800 Gypsy children were murdered at the Auschwitz concentration camp by Nazi German soldiers, who during World War 2 killed tens of millions of European Christians in the holocaust, which the Zionists and their backers in the West today wrongly claim to be directed against the negligible minority of European Jews.

46 solar years ago, on this day in 1970, Fiji gained independence from 90 years of British rule, and was declared a republic. The Fiji Archipelago covers an area of 18274 sq km and is situated in the Pacific Ocean. Almost 40 percent of the 850,000 population is made up of descendants of Indians brought by the British as contract labourers in the 19th century. Muslims number 85,000 or 10 percent of the national population, while Shi’ites or followers of the Prophet’s Ahl al-Bayt are estimated around 30,000.

32 solar years ago, on this day in 1984 AD, Iranian poet and researcher, Abdul-Karim Amiri Firouzkouhi, passed away at the age of 75. Born in a village near the northern city of Firouzkouh, he started writing poetry since his youth, while acquiring Islamic sciences. His poems have a religious theme and he composed poetry in the different genres including odes and lyrics. He has left behind a 2-volume Diwan. Among his other works, is a comprehensive introduction to the Diwan of the renowned poet, Sa’eb Tabrizi.

32 solar years ago, on this day in 1984 AD, the exegete of Holy Qur'an, and university lecturer, Ayatollah Mirza Khalil Kamarai, passed away. He was a product of the Qom Seminary, and due to his opposition to the irreligious and despotic policies of the ruling regime, was detained and incarcerated in 1962 by the British-installed and US-backed Shah. Following the victory of the Islamic Revolution in 1979, he started theology lectures at Tehran University. He has left behind several compilations in Persian and Arabic, including a complete exegesis of Holy Qur'an, and the book: "Onsor-e Shuja'at" (Element of Valour) on the exemplary life of Imam Husain (AS) and the Immortal Martyrs of Karbala.

26 solar years ago, on this day 1990 AD, the Assembly for Proximity among Islamic Schools of Jurisprudence was established in Tehran on the orders of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, in order to focus on the commonalities between Sunni and Shi’a Muslims for promoting the solidarity of the Ummah and preventing discord and misunderstandings. Earlier, in the 1950s a similar body was set up by Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Hussain Borourjerdi who sent a delegation of scholars to Egypt’s al-Azhar for exploring common views and points, resulting in the acceptance of the Ja’fari School of Jurisprudence as one of the legal systems that Muslims could follow. Presently, the Assembly for Proximity among Islamic Schools is quite active in the fields of various Islamic sciences shared by Muslims of all denominations.

AS/MG