Today is Thursday; 18th of the Iranian month of Aban 1396 solar hijri; corresponding to 20th of the Islamic month of Safar 1439 lunar hijri; and November 9, 2017, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1378 lunar years ago, on this day in 61 AH, the Arba’een or the traditional 40th day of the martyrdom of Imam Husain (AS) was observed in Karbala, with the Prophet’s aged companion, Jaber ibn Abdullah al-Ansari visiting the graves of the martyrs of history’s most heartrending tragedy. Every year, the Arba’een anniversary is commemorated throughout the world, especially in Karbala, where millions of pilgrims from all over the globe assemble to pay allegiance to the ideals of faith, truth, freedom, justice, and virtue of the grandson of Prophet Mohammad (blessings of God upon him and his progeny. In Iran, Iraq, and in parts of many countries, the day is a public holiday, when mourning processions are taken out on the streets. The recitation of the special ziyarath (salutation) for Imam Husain (AS) on the Day of Arba'een is considered one of the 5 signs of a true believer. The other four signs are recitation in raised voice of the Qur'anic ayah Bismillah-ir-Rahman-ir-Raheem during the ritual prayers; performance of 51 raka'at of ritual prayers in a single day at different times (17 obligatory and 34 recommended); prostration on soil or clay; and wearing of ring in a finger of the right hand.

1323 solar years ago, on this day in 694 AD, Ergica, the Visigoth king of Spain, accusing Jews of collaborating with enemies for overthrowing Christian rulers, enacted a law declaring all Jewish-held lands forfeit, all Jews to be enslaved by Christians, all Jewish children over the age of seven to be taken from their homes and raised as Christians, and Jewish-owned Christian slaves to become owners of their masters’ property. Some 17 years later in 711, with the advent of Muslims in Spain and establishment of the glorious Islamic culture and civilization in this part of Europe when the rest of the continent was immersed in dark ages, the Jews were liberated, enjoyed all rights as citizens, along with the Christians, and produced statesmen and scholars, such as the philosopher-physician, Musa bin Maymoun of Cordoba, known by his Latinized name Maimonides, who flourished at the courts of the Muslim rulers of Spain, Morocco and Egypt.

1269 solar years ago, on this day in 748 AD, Nasr ibn Sayyar, the last Omayyad governor of Khorasan and killer of the Prophet’s venerable descendent, Yahya ibn Zaid, died in Saveh, southwest of Tehran at the age of 85, while fleeing the uprising of Abu Muslim Khorasani that replaced the Omayyads with the equally repressive Abbasid regime. For several decades, Nasr was in charge of northeastern Iran and Transoxiana, where, as an anti-Islamic Arab nationalist leading Syrian and north Arabian tribal forces, he terrorized the people, and as in other parts of the Omayyad Empire, prevented the masses from becoming Muslims, since this would deprive the self-styled caliphs in Damascus of the revenues they reaped by levying heavy taxes on non-Muslims. Yayha, the grandson of Imam Zain al-Abedin (AS), the 4th Infallible Successor of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), was brutally martyred in Jowzajan, which is currently in Afghanistan, and his head sent to Damascus.

1087 lunar years ago, on this day in 352 AH, the Arabic poet, Abu'l-Qassem Ali ibn Ishaq al-Baghdadi, passed away at the age of 42. Incidentally, he was born on this same day of 20th of Safar. Most of his poetry is on the unrivalled merits of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) and the Infallible Imams. He lived for some time at the court of Amir Saif ad-Dowlah Hamdani in Aleppo and has praised this gallant ruler for his love of the Ahl al-Bayt, as well as his exploits against the Byzantines.

525 solar years ago, on this day in 1492 AD, the prominent Persian poet and literary figure, Noor od-Din Abdur-Rahman Jami, passed away in Herat in Khorasan Province. He went to Samarqand to learn Islamic sciences, literature and history, and visited several other lands before settling in Herat. He has left behind a large number of works in prose and verse, including “Baharestan”. Jami, who died at the age of almost 80, has also composed beautiful odes in praise of Prophet of Islam and the Infallible the Ahl al-Bayt (peace upon him).

140 solar years ago, on this day in 1877 AD, the Poet of the East, Allamah Mohammad Iqbal Lahori, was born in Sialkot, Punjab in what is now Pakistan. After completing his studies, he went to Germany and Britain and stayed for four years to learn the philosophy of the West. He started composing poems in his teenage years in both Urdu and Persian. He was also active in politics to reform and unite the Muslims of undivided India. He believed in pan Islamism or the revival of Muslims worldwide, and used the medium of poetry, especially Persian poetry, to express his ideas and thoughts. Iqbal gave the concept of a separate homeland for the Muslims of northwest India, which several years after his death resulted in the birth of Pakistan. He has left behind a large number of poetical collections in Persian and Urdu. His poems include couplets, quatrains, odes, and lyrics, in several collections such as “Asraar-e Khudi” (Secrets of the Self), “Zabour-e Ajam” (Psalms of Persia), and the “Javid-Namah”, which he wrote as admonition and guidance for his young son, Javid. He passed away in 1938.

136 lunar years ago, on this day in 1303 AH, the prominent Iranian Islamic scholar, Sheikh Ja’far Shushtari, passed away. His power of speech, piety, and strong memory was known to all. He was an accomplished jurisprudent and spent all his life, guiding people and carrying out religious duties. He groomed a large number of students and has left behind numerous books, including “Usoul ad-Din” (Fundamentals of Religion).

124 lunar years ago, on this day in 1315 AH, the renowned Bibliophile and Source of Emulation, Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Shahab od-Din Mar’ashi Najafi, was born in holy Najaf to the Iranian jurisprudent, Seyyed Shams od-Din Mahmoud. He was educated at the famous Najaf Seminary, attending the classes of the Ayatollahs, Mirza Abu’l-Hassan Meshkini, Sheikh Mohammad Hussain Shirazi, Seyyed Habib od-Din Shahrestani and Seyyed Ibrahim Shafei Rafaei Baghdadi. He studied for some years at the seminaries of Samarra and Kazemayn as well. He mastered theology, hadith, jurisprudence, exegesis of the Holy Qur'an, philosophy, ethics, and biography of narrators. After attaining the status of Ijtehad, at the request of Grand Ayatollah Sheikh Abdul-Karim Ha'eri Yazdi, the revivalist of the Qom seminary, he came to this holy city where he lectured and carried out research for six decades until he passed away at the age of 96. For over fifty years he led the daily ritual prayers at the shrine of Hazrat Fatemah al-Ma’sumah in Qom. In his youth in Najaf, he had become growingly concerned with the immense wealth of Islamic knowledge that was being lost in the displacement and destruction of Islamic texts. He took it upon himself to purchase as many rare books and manuscripts that he could on his modest student stipend in order to preserve them. When his stipend was exhausted he took a job at a rice cleaning factory in Najaf, performed Qadha prayers and fasts on behalf of others, and ate only one meal a day in order to raise enough money to purchase these books. He continued to collect these rare manuscripts after migration to Iran, eventually laying the foundation before his death of the Grand Mar’ashi Najafi Library in Qom, which today contains the world’s largest collection of manuscripts of the School of the Prophet’s Ahl al-Bayt, among its more than 300,000 books. Earlier in 1965, he had presented 278 rare Arabic and Persian manuscripts to the College of Divinity and Theology of the University of Tehran. He also donated many such books to libraries across Iran, before formal establishment of his library. He was a supporter of the Father of the Islamic Revolution, late Imam Khomeini (RA), in the struggles against the Shah’s despotic regime.

106 solar years ago, on this day in 1911 AD, the renowned Urdu poet, Mas’ood ul-Hassan “Tabish Dehlvi”, was born in Delhi. Great-grandson of the prominent Persian poet of India, Nizam od-Din Nizami, he had a flair for languages, and mastered Urdu, Persian, Arabic and English. Educated at Dar ul-Uloom in Haiderabad-Deccan where he became a disciple of the famous Urdu poet, Fani Badayuni, he composed ghazals (lyrics), na’at (eulogies), marsiya (elegies), free verse and national songs, besides writing essays and establishing himself as an authority in all spheres of Urdu literature. Endowed with a rich voice, he started his career at the All India Radio (AIR) in Delhi as announcer/newsreader in 1941. On the partition of the Subcontinent, he migrated to Pakistan and was a newscaster par excellence whose voice ruled over the skies for several decades. The masses would be glued to their radio sets in order to hear his sonorous voice presenting Urdu news bulletins. He could justifiably claim that he had announced many breaking news events. His collection of poetry includes: “Nimroz” (1963), “Chiragh-e Sahra” (1982), “Ghobar-e Anjum” (1984), and “Mah-e Shikasta” (1993). He passed away in Karachi at the age of 93 in 2004.

99 solar years ago, on this day in 1918 AD, following the defeats of the German army in World War I, and breakout of unrest in the country, Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated and Germany was proclaimed a republic.

64 solar years ago, on this day in 1953 AD, Abdul-Aziz Aal-e Saud, who was installed by the British as King of the artificial country they created for him named Saudi Arabia, died at the age of 73. Born in Najd in a Wahhabi clan, he was a salaried servant of the British crown for destabilizing Ottoman rule in Arabia. When he invaded the Hejaz and ousted another British agent, Sharif Hussein, after massacring tens of thousands of Muslims in the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, in addition to occupying parts of Yemen and seizing the oil-rich lands of Sh’ite Muslim tribal chiefs on the Persian Gulf areas of the Arabian Peninsula, the British decided to gift him with a kingdom. His most criminal act was the blasphemous destruction of the sacred cemeteries of Jannat al-Mo’alla in Mecca that housed the holy tombs of family members of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) and of Jannat al-Baqie in Medina that housed the holy shrines of four of the twelve Infallible Successors of the Prophet’s Ahl al-Bayt – Imam Hasan Mojtaba, Imam Zain al-Abedin, Imam Mohammad Baqer, and Imam Ja’far as-Sadeq (peace upon them).

64 solar years ago, on this day in 1953 AD, Cambodia in Southeast Asia gained independence from France after 86 years of colonialist rule. In 1975, power was seized by communist general Pol Pot, who installed the Khmer Rouge regime, changed the name of the country to Kampuchea and launched a bloodbath, killing at least three million people by 1976, including the ethnic Cham Muslims. Cambodia has the famous Angkor Vat ruins, regarded as the world’s largest religious monument, which was first a Hindu, and later a Buddhist temple. Buddhism is the official religion of the country, while Muslims number around 3 percent.

64 solar years ago, on this day in 1953 AD, Welsh author-poet Dylan Thomas, who wrote exclusively in English, died in New York at age of 39 during a poetry-reading blitz of the US. He has been acknowledged as one of the most important English poets of the 20th century and noted for his original, rhythmic and ingenious use of words and imagery. Some of his famous poems are “Do not go gentle into that good night” and “And death shall have no dominion”. His books include “The Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas” and “Under Milk Wood”.

47 solar years ago, on this day in 1970 AD, Charles Andre Joseph de Gaulle, French general, writer and statesman died in Paris at the age of 80. He was leader of Free France (1940–44) during World War 2, and headed the Provisional Government of the French Republic (1944–46). In 1958, he founded the Fifth Republic and was elected as the 18th President of France, until his resignation in 1969. He gauged the seriousness of the Algerian people’s struggle for freedom and granted Algeria independence in 1962 against the wishes of the army which favoured annexing of this Arab Muslim North African country to France. He later gradually granted independence to other French colonies. As a military officer who saw action in both the First and Second World Wars, later as president of France during the Cold War Era, de Gaulle initiated his "Politics of Grandeur", asserting that France as a major power should not rely on other countries, such as the United States, for its national security and prosperity. To this end, he pursued a policy of "national independence" which led him to withdraw from NATO's military integrated command and to launch an independent nuclear development program that made France the fourth nuclear power. He restored cordial Franco-German relations in order to create a European counterweight between the "Anglo-Saxon" (American and British) and Soviet spheres of influence. He used to say that the Anglo-Saxons have always exploited France and the rest of Europe for their own vested interests, and twice he vetoed Britain's entry into the European Community. He also openly criticised the US intervention in Vietnam and the "exorbitant privilege" of the US dollar, in addition to supporting an independent Quebec, which should not be part of English-speaking Canada. Many French political parties and figures continue to claim the Gaullist Legacy.

41 solar years ago, on this day in 1976 AD, Hojjat al-Islam Nosratollah Ansari achieved martyrdom after six months of intense torture by the notorious SAVAK in the prison of the British-installed and US-backed Pahlavi regime. Born in Bo’en Zahra near Qazvin, besides his religious activities, he was politically active in the Islamic movement.

28 solar years ago, on this day in 1989 AD, Communist-controlled East Germany opened checkpoints in the Berlin Wall allowing its citizens to travel to West Germany. This key event led to the eventual reunification of East and West Germany, and fall of communism in Eastern Europe including Russia.

20 solar years ago, on this day in 1997 AD, Ayatollah Shaikh Mohammad Hussain Kalbasi Isfahani, passed away at the age of 92. Born in Isfahan, at the age of 18 he went to Iraq to study at the famous seminary of holy Najaf, where he attended the classes of such prominent ulema as Ayatollah Seyyed Abu’l-Hassan Isfahani, Ayatollah Ziya od-Din Iraqi, and Ayatollah Shaikh Mohammad Kazem Shirazi. After thirty years stay in Najaf during which he achieved the status of Ijtehad, he returned to Iran and busied himself with teaching at the seminary of holy Qom. He authored several books including one on the merits of Prophet Mohammad’s (SAWA) Blessed Progeny, titled “Faza’el Ahl al-Bayt”.

11 solar years ago, on this day in 2006 AD, Iraq estimated the civilian death toll in the first three-and-a-half years of the US occupation around 600,000. The US withdrew in 2011 and was responsible for the death of over a 1.2 million Iraqis.

7 lunar years ago, on this day in 1432 AH, Ayatollah Shaykh Mohammad Ali al-Amri, the leading religious scholar of Hijaz and Source of Emulation for many Muslims of Arabia, passed away in his hometown holy Medina, at the ripe old age of 105 years, and was laid to rest in the sacred Jannat-al-Baqi Cemetery. His lineage goes back to the 12^th Infallible Imam’s First and Second Special Deputies, Othman bin Sa’eed al-Amri and Mohammad bin Othman al-Amri, who were descended from the ancient Khazraj tribe of Yathreb or Medina. At the age of 16 he left for Iraq to study at the famous seminary of holy Najaf, which means he was not present in his hometown when it was seized with massive bloodshed and desecration of Islamic sanctities by the Wahhabi brigand of Najd, Abdul-Aziz ibn Saud, for whom the crafty British created the spurious entity called Saudi Arabia. Some 27 years later after attaining ijtehad in holy Najaf and having studied for a while in the holy cities of Qom and Mashhad in Iran, Shaykh al-Amri returned to his homeland. He involved himself in religious-social activities by building mosques, seminaries and hussainiyyas – the most famous of which is located in the middle of a large farm in Medina, where Islamic rituals are freely observed and which also has a guest house for Shi’a Muslim pilgrims in honour of the Prophet’s elder grandson and 2^nd Infallible Heir, Imam Hasan al-Mujtaba (AS). As a result, he was arrested and imprisoned several times by the heretical Wahhabi regime, which also sentenced him to death many times, but he was fortunate to survive. The last time his execution was almost carried out, and in his own words: When I was brought up to the gibbet I quietly made tawassul (or entreaty) to the Prophet’s Immaculate Daughter Hazrat Fatema Zahra (peace upon her), and miraculously the rope round my neck snapped and I survived.

AS/ME