Today is Monday; 16th of the Iranian month of Esfand 1395 solar hijri; corresponding to 7th of the Islamic month of Jamadi as-Sani 1437 lunar hijri; and March 6, 2017, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1385 solar years ago, on this day in 632 AD, which was 9^th of Zi’l-Hijjah in the year 10 AH, Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), during his Farewell Hajj Pilgrimage (Hajjat-al-Weda) delivered a historic sermon on the plain of Arafat from Jabal ar-Rahma (Mount Mercy), exhorting Muslims to adhere to the principles of Islam he had expounded to them in the course of his 23-year universal mission, and to hold fast to the holy Qur’an and his progeny the Ahl al-Bayt. In his sermon which over a hundred thousand pilgrims listened, he directed his speech to all humanity for all time, as is evident by his use of the terms “O People” and “O Mankind”, rather than “O Muslims” or “O Believers”. His intention was to address all people, regardless of their creed, colour of skin, class distinction, languages spoken, eras, and geographical locations around the world (until the Day of Judgement). The Prophet The sermon, recorded in all reliable books of hadith and history by all denominations of Islam, consists of a series of general exhortations to be followed after him, especially his emphasis on the “Hadith Thaqalayn”. He said in clear words:

"O People! I have been summoned (to God’s presence from the mortal world) and am leaving behind among you the Thaqalayn (Two Weighty Things); the Book of Allah (holy Qur’an) and my progeny the Ahl al-Bayt. Hold fast to them and you will never go astray, for you will be questioned regarding your attitude to them, since the two never part with each other even when they return to me at the Fountain (of Kowsar on the Day of Judgement)."

1056 solar years ago, on this day in 961 AD, Byzantine Greek forces occupied the Muslim island of Crete in the Aegean Sea, thus ending the nearly 135-year rule of the Islamic emirate founded by Spanish Muslim migrants under Abu Hafs after their eviction in 827 from the Egyptian port city of Alexandria by the Abbasid Iranian general, Abdullah ibn Taher Khorasani, who equipped them with ships and supplies for the expedition to Iqritish – as the island was called in Arabic. The Greek invaders led by Nikephoros Phokas pillaged the cities, destroying mosques, libraries, baths, bazaars, and irrigation canals. The capital Rabz al-Khandaq, where currently the city of Heraklion stands, was totally destroyed. Cretan Muslims were either killed or carried off into slavery, while the emir, Abdul-Aziz ibn Shu’ayb, and his son Nu’man were taken captive to Constantinople and forced to become Christians. The survival of numerous gold, silver and copper coins, of almost constant weight and composition, testifies to a strong economy and a high living standard among the population of the Emirate of Crete, which had extensive trade ties with the rest of the Muslim world. The Muslims developed a flourishing agriculture, introducing a variety of crops including sugarcane. It was in 654 that Islam made its first advent in Crete, the 5^th largest island of the Mediterranean, where Muslims have seen fluctuating fortunes for the past millennium. The last period of Muslim rule – 252 years – ended in 1898 when West European powers seized Crete from the Ottoman Empire and merged it with Greece. The more than 60-percent Cretan Muslims, many of whom followers of the Bektashi Sufi order founded in the 13^th century in Khorasan by Iranian mystic of the school of the Prophet’s Ahl al-Bayt, Haji Bektash Vali of Neishapour,  were expelled and the island was Christianized. The Cretan Muslim Diaspora today lives in Turkey, Syria and Lebanon. It is worth noting that the Hussainid Dynasty (1705-1957) of Tunisia was Cretan Muslim and originally governors of the Ottoman Empire.

913 lunar years ago, on this day in 525 AH, the Iranian mystic, jurist, and Persian poet, Abdullah bin Mohammad Mayaneji, known popularly as “Ain ul-Qozzat Hamedani”, was hanged in the western Iranian city of Hamedan at the relatively young age of 33. His forefathers were judges in Hamedan, and he himself attained this position at the age of 30. However, while in Baghdad, because of his outspoken views he fell afoul of al-Mustarshed, the 29^th self-styled caliph of the usurper Abbasid regime, and was arrested and imprisoned on the orders of the vizier of the Seljuqid Sultan. He was transferred to Hamedan and hanged next to his school. As a follower of the Sufi master, Ahmad Ghazali, he wrote many books. His important works are “Tamhidaat” (Preludes) and “Zubdat al-Haqaʾeq fi Kashf al-Khalaʾeq” (Essence of Truth).

894 lunar years ago, on this day in 544 AH, the Islamic scholar and judge, Abu’l-Fazl Qazi Ayyadh ibn Amir ibn Musa al-Yahsubi as-Sabti, was executed at the age of 68 and his body cut to pieces for his refusal to acknowledge Ibn Tumart, the leader of the al-Muwahidin, as the Mahdi – a false claim since the Awaited Mahdi is none other than Prophet Mohammad’s (SAWA) 12^th Infallible Heir (AS) who will reappear in end times, along with Prophet Jesus (AS), to establish the global government of peace, prosperity and justice. Born in Ceuta, during the rule of the al-Moravid Empire of Maghreb and Islamic Spain, he was the leading scholar of his times and later became a chief judge in Gharnata (Granada) in Islamic Spain. He led an uprising when the al-Muwahidin seized Ceuta, but was defeated and banished to Tadla and later to Marrakesh where he was finally killed. A student of Abu’l-Hassan ibn Siraj, he was the teacher of such famous scholars as the Spanish Muslim philosopher, scientist and jurist, Ibn Rushd (Averroes), and the polymath and Arabic grammarian, Ibn Madha. Qazi Ayyadh, who is revered as one of the seven saints of Marrakesh, wrote commentaries in far off North Africa on the hadith compendiums of the Iranian Sunni Muslim compilers, such as Ismael Bukhari and Muslim Naishapuri.

748 lunar years ago, on this day in 690 AH, the 8^th Mamluk Sultan of Egypt, al-Ashraf Khalil ibn al-Mansour Qalawoon, succeeded in expelling remnants of the European Crusader invaders from Palestine by ending their last stronghold in Akka – or Acre as it is also called – when the Christians broke the truce to indiscriminately slaughter Muslims.

542 solar years ago, on this day in 1475 AD, Italian painter, sculptor, architect, and poet, Michelangelo, was born in Caprese near Arezzo, Tuscany. He created several works of art. The huge statues which he named Moses and David (not to be confused with the Prophets as he wrongly claimed), and the painting of the so-called Last Judgment are considered as his most important works.

465 solar years ago, on this day in 1552 AD, the second major battle between the Christian sects of Catholics and Protestants in Europe ended with another failure for the latter, following their defeat six years earlier. In this battle which took place in Austria, the Spanish, Prussian, and Austrian Emperors, led the Catholics against the French-backed troops of the princes of the Protestant cities of Prussia and Austria. The motives behind these battles were sectarian disputes that flared up when Martin Luther broke away from the Catholic Church in protest.

258 solar years ago, on this day in1759 AD, the British, led by Colonel Francis Forde, laid siege to Machli-Bandar, and a month later captured this port city on the Bay of Bengal coast of the Deccan through treachery, before the forces of Nizam ul-Mulk Salabat Jang could arrive from Aurangabad and Haiderabad. This was part of the struggle for supremacy by the British against the French allies of the Asef Jahi Dynasty during the 7-year-war. Colonel Forde was later drowned in the Mozambique Channel off the coast of Africa. Machli-Bandar (literally “Fishing-Port”), which the British briefly returned to the Nizam, is also called Masulipatam. It was the fiefdom of the Iranian family of Najm-e Sani, who were appointed governors – first by the Mughal Emperors and later by the Asaf Jahi Persianate Dynasty. It was a thriving port and conduit to Iran, of the Qutb-Shahi dynasty of Iranian origin of Golkandah, before falling to the Mughals and subsequently becoming part of the Asaf Jahi Dynasty of Haiderabad, which finally lost it, along with the rest of the Northern Sarcars (present day Andhra) to the British colonialists in 1823.

238 solar years ago, on this day in 1779 AD, Karim Khan Zand, the founder of the Zand Dynasty of Iran, passed away in his capital Shiraz at the age of 74 after a reign of 29 years, during which he restored stability to the country in the chaotic aftermath of Nader Shah Afshar’s assassination in 1747, ruling almost all of Iran, along with Basra and parts of the Caucasus, except for Greater Khorasan. To legitimize his rule, he placed the Safavid prince, Ismail III, as a figurehead, and never took the title of Shah, contenting himself with the honourary epithet “Wakil ar-Re’aya” (Representative of the People). As a general of Nader Shah, he had taken active parts in most of the military campaigns, and on assuming rule of the country, he devoted himself to the rebuilding of the economy and administration based on social justice. To this day, Karim Khan Zand has a reputation as one of the most just and able rulers in Iranian history. On his death, civil war broke out once more, his sons died in mysterious circumstances, and none of his successors were able to rule the country as effectively as he had. The last of his heirs, Lotf Ali Khan Zand, was treacherously killed by Agha Mohammad Khan, who founded the Qajar dynasty in 1794.

117 solar years ago, on this day in 1900 AD, German inventor, Gottlieb Daimler, died at the age of 64. His profession was making guns. His industrial activities led to invention of the motorcycle. He set up the auto industry and built a type of bus.

113 lunar years ago, on this day in 1325 AH, the Iranian religious scholar Mirza Yahya bin Mirza Mohammad Shafee’ Isfahani passed away at the age of 75. He was a student of the famous Ayatollah Sheikh Morteza Ansari Dezfuli. He wrote a large number of books, including “Tafzil al-A’imma ala'l-Malaeka” on the superiority of the Infallible Imams of the household of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) over the angels and the other prophets.

78 lunar years ago, on this day in 1360 AH, the prominent Islamic scholar and poet, Ayatollah Mirza Abu-Abdullah Shaikh al-Islam Zanjani, passed away at the age of 51 in his hometown Zanjan. Son of the prominent scholar, Shaikh ol-Islam Mirza Nasrollah Zanjani, he completed his religious studies, including philosophy, in his hometown. At the age of 21, along with his brother, Mirza Fazlollah Zanjani, he left for Iraq for higher studies at the famous seminary of holy Najaf, where his teachers included Ayatollah Seyyed Hassan as-Sadr Ameli, Ayatollah Seyyed Mohammad Kazem Yazdi, Grand Ayatollah Shaikh osh-Shari’a Isfahani, Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Abu’l-Hassan Isfahani, Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Mohammad Firouzabadi, Grand Ayatollah Shaikh Abdul-Karim Ha’iri Yazdi, and Grand Ayatollah Mirza Mohammad Hussain Nai’ni. After 8 years he returned to Iran on attaining the status of Ijtehad and settled in his hometown Zanjan. Five years later he went on a year-long journey through Iraq, Syria, Palestine and Egypt, and after performing the Hajj pilgrimage in Mecca he returned to Zanjan where for the next ten years he busied himself in grooming students and writing books and articles in both Persian and Arabic. He again visited Egypt, where he held discussions in Cairo with university professors and the ulema of the famous al-Azhar Academy, which appreciated his scholarship and printed some of his works on the holy Qur'an in Arabic. On his return he became professor of ethics, rational sciences and religious studies at Tehran University, where after a year of teaching he returned to Zanjan because of heart problems and spent the rest of his life. Abu Abdullah Zanjani was a member of several academies in Iran, Iraq, Egypt and Syria. He authored several books including “Tarikh al-Qur’an”, commentary in Arabic on the famous Iranian polymath Khwaja Naseer od-Din Tusi’s “Baqa an-Nafs ba’d Fana al-Jasad” (Immortality of the Soul after Perishing of the Body), “Farhang-e Iran Pish az-Islam” (Iran’s Pre-Islamic Culture), “Azamath-e Husain ibn Ali” (Greatness of Imam Husain) and “Life and Works of the Great Iranian Philosopher Mullah Sadr od-Din Shirazi” – written in Arabic and published in Egypt and Syria.

66 solar years ago, on this day in 1951 AD, British agent, Ali Razmara, whom the British-installed Mohammad Reza Pahlavi had appointed prime minister for his anti-Islamic views, was executed in a revolutionary manner by Khalil Tahmasebi, a carpenter by profession and member of the Fedaeen-e Islam organization. Tahmasebi was arrested by the regime and sentenced to death, but the parliament, during the premiership of Dr. Mohammad Mosaddeq, quashed the verdict and ordered his release as a “soldier of Islam”. Following the overthrow of Prime Minister Mosaddeq in 1953 through a British-American coup, Tahmasebi was re-arrested, tried by a kangaroo court and again sentenced to death. He attained martyrdom in 1955 on execution by a firing squad.

60 solar years ago, on this day in 1957 AD, Ghana became the first sub-Saharan country to gain independence. At a time when Islam was fast spreading in West Africa, Ghana was occupied by the Portuguese, who named it the Gold Coast, plundered its rich resources, and imposed Christianity on its people. The British next seized it and carried on the plunder. In the mid-20^th century, freedom movements emerged, resulting in uprisings against colonial rule and forcing the British to hold in 1952 the first legislative elections in which Dr. Kwame Nkrumah was elected prime minister. In 1957, he declared the independence of Ghana which three years later adopted a republican system of government. In 1966, Nkrumah was overthrown in a coup master-minded by the US, Britain and France, while he was on a state visit abroad. Thereafter, the country has seen several coups. Ghana covers an area of more than 238,000 sq km. It has a coastline on the Atlantic Ocean and shares borders with Togo, Burkina Faso, and Ivory Coast. Of its fast growing 20-percent plus Muslim population, many are followers of the School of the Ahl al-Bayt of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA).

53 solar years ago, on this day in 1964 AD, Afro-American boxing champion, Cassius Clay, embraced Islam, and officially changed his name to Muhammad Ali. His spectacular winning of numerous world titles and his refusal, as a Muslim, to be drafted by the US regime in the Vietnam War made constant headlines.

42 solar years ago, on this day in 1975 AD, the Algiers Accord was inked in the Algerian capital for resolution of the Iran-Iraq border dispute regarding the Shatt al-Arab/Arvand Roud waterway. The agreement ended the Shah’s support for Iraqi Kurds, while Baghdad agreed to fix the southern border of the two countries in the middle of the waterway. In Algiers, the signatory was the then vice president of the Ba’th minority regime, Saddam, who five years later in September 1980, tore the accord  in front of TV cameras to launch his invasion of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Saddam’s US-supported 8-year war ended in 1988 without any victory for him, and two years later in 1990, he had to eat the humble pie and officially admit the validity of the Algiers Accord.

10 solar years ago, on this day in 2007 AD, Saudi-backed Takfiri terrorists blew up through remote control two unsuspecting persons to whom they had given bag full explosives in the midst of pilgrims converging on a shrine in Hillah, southern Iraq, resulting in the martyrdom of some 150 Shi’a Muslim men, women, and children, and wounding of over 200 others.

AS/SS