Today is Thursday; 10th of the Iranian month of Farvardin 1396 solar hijri; corresponding to 1st of the Islamic month of Rajab 1438 lunar hijri; and March 30, 2017, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

Today starts sacred Rajab, the month that opens the gates of Divine Mercy for the seekers of good and virtue, and the month in which fasting, along with certain other wonderful acts of worship, has been recommended. Rajab, in addition to the next two months of Sha’ban and Ramadhan, is a period of self-reform, self-consciousness, and self-development for progress on the path towards perfection for attaining the proximity of the Almighty Creator. It is the month of special acceptance of repentance in the Divine Court. In Rajab certain very significant events took place in the history of mankind, such as the day of the formal entrustment by God of the universal mission of Islam to Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), and the auspicious birth in the holy Ka’ba of the Prophet's First Infallible Successor, Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb (AS).

2256 solar years ago, on this day in 239 BC, the first recorded perihelion passage of what later became known as Halley's Comet, was carried out by Chinese astronomers in the Shih Chi and Wen Hsien Thung Khao chronicles. It was the first comet that was recognized as being periodic. Its highly elliptical, 75-year orbit, carries it out well beyond the orbit of Neptune and well inside the orbits of Earth and Venus when it swings in around the Sun, travelling in the opposite direction from the revolution of the planets. In Babylonian and later in Islamic scientific chronicles, references exist about this comet, which in 1705 was first noted in Europe by Englishman, Edmond Halley, after whom the West named it posthumously.

1381 lunar years ago, on this day in 57 AH, was born in the holy city of Medina, Imam Mohammad Baqer (AS), the 5^th Infallible Successor of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). He is acknowledged as “Baqer al-Uloum” or the “Splitter and Spreader of Sciences”, and during his fruitful life of 57 years, of which 19 years were as the divinely-decreed leader of mankind, he spared no efforts to enlighten minds and souls in those days of Omayyad tyranny, before bequeathing the legacy of his ancestor, the Prophet, to his son and successor, Imam Ja'far Sadeq (AS). Later in our programme, you will listen to a special feature on the 5^th Imam.

1075 lunar years ago, on this day in 363 AH, Nu’maan ibn Mohammad at-Tamimi, known as Qazi Nu’maan, the Ismaili jurist and official historian of the Fatemid Shi’a Muslim caliphate of Egypt-North Africa-Syria, passed away in Cairo. Born in what is now Tunis, he began his career in Ifriqiya (modern-day Tunisia, western Libya and eastern Algeria) under Mahdi Billah, the Founder of the Fatemid Dynasty, quickly rising to become the most prominent judge. In his fifty years of service, he wrote a vast number of books on history, biography, jurisprudence and exegesis of the holy Qur’an. After the Fatemid conquest of Egypt and Syria, he came to and settled in the newly founded city of Qahera (Cairo), the new capital of the empire. Nu’maan's most prominent work, the “Da’em al-Islam” (دعائم الاسلام) or 'The Pillars of Islam', which took nearly thirty years to complete, was the official code of the Fatemid state, and serves to this day as the primary source of shar’ia  law for some Musta’ali Ismaili communities, especially the Tayyibis, in Yemen and India. Another of his famous books is “Sharh al-Akhbar” in which he has reproduced in details the statements and sermons of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) and the Ahl al-Bayt till Imam Reza (AS), the 8^th Infallible Leader – although the Fatemids had parted ways with the mainstream Shi’ite Muslims after Imam Ja’far as-Sadeq (AS), the 6^th Infallible Leader.

975 lunar years ago, on this day in 463 AH, the Spanish Muslim poet Abul-Waleed Ahmad bin Abdullah, Ibn Zaidoun, died. Born in Qortoba (present day Cordova) into the Arab tribe of al-Makhzoum, he brought into Spanish Arabic poetry the rhetorical command, the passionate power, and grandeur of style that marked contemporary poetry in the Islamic east. He was also involved in politics and was opposed to the ruling Omayyad regime.

799 lunar years ago, on this day in 639 AH, the Muslim botanist and physician, Rashid od-Din Souri, died. As his surname Souri suggests, he was from the region of Sour or Tyre in what is now Lebanon, and is considered the founder of modern botany. His most important compilation is an illustrated encyclopedic book on herbs and plants.

589 lunar years ago, on this day in 849 AH, the famous Egyptian hadith scholar, lexicographer, and exegete of the holy Qur'an, Abdur-Rahman Jalal od-Din Suyuti, was born in Asyut in a family of Persian origin that had migrated from Iran during the Mamluk period and settled in Upper Egypt from where it derived the family name as-Suyuti. A follower of the Shafe’i School, he was an expert in hadith, history, jurisprudence, exegesis of the Holy Qur'an, and Arabic grammar and literature. His learning and knowledge earned him the title “Ibn al-Kutub” (Son of Books). His books are still taught today in Islamic seminaries. In his exegesis titled "ad-Dur al-Manthour" (Scattered Pearls), he has pointed to the ayahs revealed by God Almighty on the outstanding merits of the Ahl al-Bayt or Blessed Household of Prophet Mohammad (blessings of God upon him and his progeny), i.e. Hazrat Fatema Zahra, Imam Ali, Imam Hasan and Imam Husain (peace upon them). He also wrote a separate book on the Merits of the Ahl al-Bayt. Suyuti traveled to Syria, Hijaz, Yemen, India and Morocco, and settled down towards the end of his life in his homeland Egypt. Among his works mention are “al-Itqaan fi Uloum al-Qur’an” which means The Perfect Guide to the Sciences of the Qur’an, the two books on hadith titled “al-Jaame' al-Kabeer” and “al-Jaame' as-Sagheer” and the “Tarikh al-Khulafa” (History of the Caliphs), in which he has exposed the true nature of many of the tyrannical caliphs of the Omayyad and Abbasid regimes.

585 solar years ago, on this day in 1432 AD, Sultan Mohammad II, the Ottoman Emperor, who conquered Constantinople and ended Byzantine or the Eastern Roman Empire, was born in Edirne, then the capital city of the Ottoman Turks. His father was Sultan Murad II. In 1453 at the age of 21 – two years after becoming Sultan – he conquered Constantinople, which was renamed Islambol (modern Istanbul). It is said that when he entered the Byzantine capital and stepped into the ruins of the Boukoleon, known to the Ottomans and Iranians as the Palace of the Caesars, which was built over a thousand years before by Theodosius II, he recited the Persian couplet of the famous Iranian poet, Sheikh Mosleh od-Din Sa’di:

“The spider weaves the curtains in the palace of the Caesars;

The owl calls the watches in the towers of Afrasiyab.”

Sultan Mohammad, who reigned for 30 years, did not persecute the Christians and even allowed the Greek Orthodox Church to maintain its headquarters in Constantinople. On 1 June 1453, just three days after the fall of the city, the procession of the new Patriarch, Gennadius, passed through the streets where the Sultan received the Head of the Christian Church graciously and himself invested him with the signs of his office. This ceremonial investiture would be repeated by all Sultans and Patriarchs thereafter until the end of Ottoman rule in 1923. The Ottomans divided their Empire into millets or subject nations, of which the Greek Christians were the largest, known as Millet-e Roum. Sadly, when Greeks, revolted against Ottoman rule with the support of Britain, France and Russia, during the 1820s-30s, they launched a general massacre of Muslims in what is now Greece, destroyed centuries of Islamic culture, and converted mosques into churches.

458 solar years ago, on this day in 1559 AD, German mathematician, Adam Riese, died at the age of 67. He is considered in the West as the "father of modern calculating" for his recognition that Roman numerals are unwieldy in practice and their replacement by the considerably more structured Arabic numerals. In his book “Rechnung auff der Linihen und Federn” (written in 1522 and published 114 times till this day), besides calculating on the calculating board, he describes numerical calculations with Arabic digits. Over five centuries earlier, Gerbert d'Aurillac of France, who later became Pope Sylvester II, had introduced to Europe for the first time the Arabic numerals of the famous Iranian Islamic scientist, Mohammad ibn Musa Khwarezmi. Inspired by Latin translations of Islamic scientific works, he had extensively utilized Islamic scientific works to build for the first time in Europe clocks, the hydraulic organ, astronomical instruments, and the abacus for use in mathematical calculations. Christian Europe came out of the Dark Ages, thanks to his study of Islamic sciences.

340 lunar years ago, on this day in 1098 AH, the prominent Iranian Islamic scholar of the Safavid era, Hussain ibn Mohammad, popularly known as “Mohaqqiq Khwansari” passed away. He was an expert in jurisprudence, theology, and other Islamic sciences. He groomed numerous students. Among his valuable works, mention could be made of a translation of the Holy Qur'an into Persian along with annotations. In the field of jurisprudence, he wrote "Mashareq ash-Shomous", which is in fact a splendid elucidation of the book titled “Durou" written by the First Martyr.

197 solar years ago, on this day in 1820 AD, British author, Anna Sewell, was born in Yarmouth. She is best known as the author of the classic novel “Black Beauty” which is a story about a horse, and has been made into a children’s movie.

164 solar years ago, on this day in 1853 AD, famous Post-Impressionist Dutch painter, Vincent van Gogh, was born in Zundert. His works had a far-reaching influence on 20^th-century art. His output includes portraits, self portraits, landscapes and still life. He produced more than 2,100 artworks, including 860 oil paintings and more than 1,300 watercolors, drawings, sketches and prints, during his short life of 37, which ended in a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Although he failed to sell any of his paintings, today his works are priced in millions of dollars. 

161 solar years ago, on this day in 1856 AD, the Treaty of Paris was signed, ending the 3-year long Crimean War, between expansionist Russia, on one side, and France, Britain, the Ottoman Empire, Austria, and Prussia, on the other side. The war was part of a long-running contest between the major European powers for influence over territories of the declining Ottoman Empire. Most of the battles took place on the Crimean Peninsula, but there were smaller campaigns in western Anatolia and the Caucasus.

150 solar years ago, on this day in 1867 AD, Russia sold the rich land of Alaska, situated northeast of Canada and on the coastlines of Pacific Ocean and near the Arctic circle, to the US for a paltry $7.2 million, due to its financial needs. Alaska covers an area of over 1.5 million sq km. It is now the 49^th US state and is rich in natural resources, especially oil and gold, in addition to fishing. The deal was conducted by US Secretary of State, William Seward for about 2 cent per acre, and was long derided by Americans as Seward’s Folly for Alaska’s remoteness.

92 solar years ago, on this day in 1925 AD, Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner, the Austrian philosopher, social reformer, architect, and esotericist, died. He gained initial recognition at the end of the 19^th century as a literary critic and published philosophical works including “The Philosophy of Freedom”. He founded a spiritual movement, anthroposophy, with roots in German idealist philosophy and theosophy. He based his epistemology on Johann Wolfgang Goethe's world view.

56 solar years ago, on this day in 1961 AD, Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Hussain Tabatabaei Boroujerdi, passed away in holy Qom. After studying preliminary Islamic sciences in his hometown, Boroujerd, he left for the Najaf Seminary in Iraq, acquiring knowledge under the prominent Ulema of his time. On returning to Iran he engaged in scholarly and social activities. In 1945, he went to holy Mashhad and thereafter Qom, and soon became a Source of Emulation. Under his supervision, the Qom Seminary vastly expanded. Grand Ayatollah Boroujerdi took the opportunity to introduce the rich Islamic culture globally and to take positive steps for the proximity and unity of Muslim denominations with the cooperation of other thinkers of the World of Islam. His important measures include revival of important and valuable works of Ulema; compilation of numerous scientific and religious books; construction of mosques in Iranian cities; development of the Hamburg Mosque in Germany; and grooming of prominent students, such as the Father of Islamic Revolution, late Imam Khomeini (RA).

41 solar years ago, on this day in 1976 AD, the major demonstrations of Land Day started in the Zionist usurped land of Palestine. In response to Israel’s announcement of a plan to expropriate thousands of acres of Muslim land for so-called "security and settlement purposes", a general strike and marches were organized in Arab towns from the Galilee to the Naqab Desert. In the ensuing confrontations, the Zionist army killed six Palestinians, injured over a hundred others, and arrested several hundreds. Every year on this day, the people of Palestine and other Muslim countries hold rallies denouncing the expansionist policies of the illegal Zionist entity.

39 solar years ago, on this day in 1978 AD, the grassroots movement of the Muslim people of Iran started gathering momentum as the masses in the central city of Yazd and the holy city of Mashhad in the northeast, staged demonstrations against the British-installed and US-backed Pahlavi regime, on the 40^th day of the martyrdom of scores of people in Tabriz, northwestern Iran, by the security forces. They called for return home from exile of the Father of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (RA). At the same time, merchants in Tehran and other big cities closed down the main markets in protest against the oppression of the people by the Shah’s regime.

38 solar years ago, on this day in 1979 AD, following the victory of Islamic Revolution and ouster of the Pahlavi regime, a nationwide referendum was held for determination of the type of system governing Iran. It lasted two days due to wide scale participation. Finally, 98.2% of the participants voted for the Islamic system.

10 solar years ago, on this day in 2008 AD, the Earth Hour worldwide movement for the planet, organized by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), went international, in a global effort to raise awareness about climate change that will even be monitored from space – a year after it was started as a lights-off event in Sydney, Australia. The event is held worldwide annually encouraging individuals, communities, households and businesses to turn off their non-essential lights for one hour, from 8:30 to 9:30 p.m. on the last Saturday in March, as a symbol for their commitment to the planet. Earth Hour 2015 was on Saturday, March 28, from 8:30 pm to 9:30 pm, with more than 7000 cities and towns worldwide, observing it. In Iran, lights were switched off during the prescribed hour at Tehran’s Milad Tower, and at Isfahan’s Siosepol (or 33-span) Bridge and the Naqsh-e Jahan Square.

AS/ME