Today is Monday; 13th of the Iranian month of Farvardin 1397 solar hijri; corresponding to 15th of the Islamic month of Rajab 1439 lunar hijri; and April 2, 2018, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1446 lunar years ago, on this day, 7 years before his migration from Mecca to Medina, Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) instructed a group of early Muslims, suffering from the persecution of pagan Arabs, to migrate to Abyssinia (present-day Ethiopia), across the Red Sea, where the ruler, King Negus (Najashi) was a justice-loving monotheist. The 15-member group made up of 11 men and 4 women was led by the Prophet’s trustworthy companion Othman bin Madh’oun. A year later, the second migration of Muslims to Abyssinia took place when the Prophet instructed his paternal cousin, Ja’far ibn Abi Taleb (AS) to lead a group of some 88 persons. The pagan Arabs, alarmed at the hospitality accorded to the Muslims in Abyssinia, and resenting the spread of Islam, sent a delegation to King Negus, led by the notorious heathen, Amr ibn Aas, to extradite the believers. It is a well-known, how Hazrat Ja’far at-Tayyar refuted the accusations of the pagan Arabs at the Abyssinian court and by providing proof from the holy Qur’an of the prime position in Islam of Prophet Jesus (AS) and his virgin-mother, Mary (SA), convinced King Negus of the righteousness of Prophet Mohammad’s (SAWA) universal mission. Hazrat Ja’far (AS) returned to Arabia for good thirteen years later in 7 AH, incidentally on the day the impregnable Jewish fortress of Khayber was single-handedly conquered by his younger brother, the Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali (AS). He attained martyrdom a year later in the Battle of Mu’ta against a joint force of the Byzantine Empire and its Christian Arab allies, the Ghassanids, in what is now Jordan. His elder son, Abdullah was married to Imam Ali’s (AS) elder daughter, the Prophet’s granddaughter, Hazrat Zainab (SA).

1437 lunar years ago, on this day in 2 AH, upon God’s command, the “qibla” or focal point of worship for Muslims changed from the direction of Bayt al-Moqaddqas in Palestine to the holy Ka'ba in Mecca. The change of direction happened when Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) was leading the prayers in Medina in the mosque known till this day as “Zu-Qiblatayn” or Mosque of the Two Qiblahs.

1376 lunar years ago, on this day in 63 AH, Hazrat Zainab (SA), the venerable granddaughter of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), was martyred in a garden outside Damascus by an enemy of the Ahl al-Bayt who struck a fatal blow on her head with a pickaxe. The Heroine of Karbala who bequeathed to posterity the life-inspiring mourning ceremonies of Moharram and Safar for her brother, Imam Husain (AS), needs no introduction. We offer condolences to all listeners, and later in our programme, we will present you a special feature on her life and times.

1348 solar years ago, on this day in 670 AD, Imam Hassan Mojtaba (AS), the elder grandson and 2nd Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), was martyred at the age of 47 through a fatal dose of poison, given on the orders of the usurper Mu'awiyyah Ibn Abu Sufyan. The lunar hijri date of this tragic event is 28^th Safar, 50 AH. Born in Medina, Imam Hasan (AS) was over seven years at the passing away of the Prophet, who hailed him along with his younger brother, Imam Husain (AS), as Leaders of the Youth of Paradise. At the age of 37, the mantle of Imamate came to rest on his shoulders, following the martyrdom of his father, Imam Ali (AS). Seven months later, because of the treachery of those who claimed to be his followers, but had succumbed to threats and bribes of the enemies of humanity, he relinquished the caliphate and retired to his hometown Medina, after stipulating certain conditions for the next ruler. The Omayyad rebel Mu'awiyyah seized the caliphate, broke all accords, violated the laws of Islam, and finally administered poison to Imam Hasan (AS).

1276 solar years ago, on this day in 742 AD, the king of the Franks, Charlemagne, was born in either Aachen in modern-day Germany or Liege (Herstal) in present-day Belgium. Son of Pepin the Short, following the death of his father in 768, he was co-ruler with his brother Carloman I, whose sudden and mysterious death in 771 made the sole ruler of the Frankish Kingdom. On his conquest of Italy and central Europe he was crowned the first Roman Emperor in Western Europe by Pope Leo III – after a 3-century gap. During his 45-year reign, he was brutal in his suppression of opposition to his rule, but his attempts to expand his dominion into Muslim Spain met with defeat and a historical retreat that resulted in the complete destruction of his rearguard by the Basques in the Pyrenees. When a clock was sent to him from Baghdad by the scientifically advanced Muslims, Charlemagne and the Europeans who were living in the dark ages were for long suspicious of the mechanical object and thought that a genie was inside it, showing the time of the day and the passing hours.

1163 lunar years ago, on this day in 276 AH, Iranian philologist of Arabic, Abu Mohammad Abdullah bin Muslim ibn Qutaybah ad-Dinawari, passed away in Baghdad. Born in Kufa in Iraq to a father from the Khorasani city of Merv (in what is now Turkmenistan), he studied hadith and philology. He was appointed qazi or judge in Dinawar, near Hamedan in western Iran, before settling in Baghdad as a leading teacher. He was the first representative of the eclectic school of Baghdad philologists that succeeded the schools of Kufa and Basra. He is regarded by Sunni Muslims as an authority on hadith. Among his works are "Gharib al-Qur'an" on its lexical issues, "al-Imama wa al-Siyasa" in which he has exposed the deviation of the caliphate from its goals, and "ash-She'r wa'sh-Shu'ara" on poetry and poets.

1146 solar years ago, on this day in 872 AD, the Abbasid Turkic general, Mufleh at-Turki, died a day after an arrow struck his temple during the battle with the Zanj or rebellious black people near Basra. He was a close associate of the Turkic general, Musa ibn Bugha al-Kabir, served as his chief lieutenant, and was part of the army that besieged Baghdad during the civil war of 865–866. After the war, he followed Musa who was appointed governor of al-Jibal or the region of Iran extending from the Zagros to the Alborz Mountains, with Rayy (presently the southernmost suburb of modern Tehran) as its capital. He led military expeditions against the local rulers of Hamedan and Karaj. In 868, he attacked Qom, and killed several of his inhabitants for not paying taxes. The next year he invaded Tabaristan (Mazandaran) and occupied Amol and Sari, before being recalled to Iraq. Braving Musleh’s atrocities, some of the devotees of Imam Hasan Askari (AS) – the 11^th Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) – moved to Qom, including the Imam’s representative, Ahmad bin Ishaq.

727 lunar years ago, on this day in 712 AH, Iranian mystic and poet, Najm od-Din Zarkoub Tabrizi, passed away. He is the author in Persian of the “Futuwwat-Namah” on the rites of “Jawan-mardi” or chivalry into which Sufis used to be initiated for serving the cause of God and humanity.

404 solar years ago, on this day in 1614 AD, Jahan-Ara Begum, the highly influential daughter of Shah Jahan, the 5^th Grand Moghal Emperor of most of the Subcontinent and eastern Afghanistan, was born. Her mother, Arjmand Ara Bano Momtaz Mahal, was the beloved Iranian wife of her father, for whom he built the famous white marble mausoleum, the Taj Mahal, which is one of the wonders of the world. Jahan-Ara, besides being a powerful stateswoman who was often consulted by her father, was highly educated and well versed in Persian and Arabic. A poet of repute, she also wrote at least two highly acclaimed books in Persian prose, titled “Mo’nis al-Arwaḥ”, and “Risala-e Sahebiyah”. The first book is a biography of Khwaja Seyyed Moin od-Din Cheshti, the prominent Iranian Sufi and founder of the Cheshtiyah order of the Subcontinent, who wrote the Persian quatrain on the great sacrifice of the Martyr of Karbala, Imam Husain (AS). She was very kind and helped poor people, in addition to building mosques and gardens. She died on September 16, 1681 in the reign of her brother, Aurangzeb, whom she used to call the “White Serpent” for his dethroning of their father, Shah Jahan, and the killing of brothers in the war of succession.

263 solar years ago, on this day in 1755 AD, British Commodore William James captured the fortress of Suvarnadurg off the west coast of India which the Maratha pirates were using as base to attack commercial shipping. Built on an island by the Adel-Shahi sultanate of Iranian origin, it was seized by the Marathas. 

213 solar years ago, on this day in 1805 AD, Danish fairy tale author, and poet, who is noted for his children’s stories, Hans Christian Andersen, was born. He is regarded as one of the best authors of fairly tales, penning stories such as “The Red Shoes”, and “The Ugly Duckling”. He wrote 150 stories for children. Andersen’s birthday is marked as the Global Day of Children’s Books. He died in 1875.

122 lunar years ago, on this day in 1317 AH, Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Abu’l-Qasim Musavi Khoei, was born in Khoy in Iran’s West Azarbaijan Province. After initial studies in Tabriz, he left for holy Najaf in Iraq at the age of 13 to continue his studies. Here, his piety and knowledge attracted the attention of the India-based Iranian religious scholar, Mirza Ahmad Najafi-Tabrizi, who gave his daughter in marriage to him and lodged him in his own house. Mirza Ahmad used to frequent the semi-independent state of Banganapalle in south India, ruled by a Seyyed family of Iranian origin, who were patrons of scholars and learning. Soon Ayatollah Khoei mastered logic, rhetoric, theology, jurisprudence and philosophy, and in the process attained the status of Ijtehad. In 1971, he succeeded Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Mohsin al-Hakim as the leading Marja’ of the Islamic world and thereafter groomed a large number of scholars from Iran, Iraq, the Subcontinent, Bahrain and Lebanon. Among his valuable books are “Lectures in the Principles of Jurisprudence”, in 10 volumes, “Islamic Law” in 18 volumes, and "Mu'jam Rijal al-Hadith" in 24 volumes. The last named is an authoritative work on evaluation of narrators of hadith. During the 8-year war imposed on Iran in the 1980s by the US through Saddam, he refused to yield to the Ba’th minority regime’s pressures to denounce the Islamic Republic, even though his house was frequently subjected to water and electricity cuts. He passed away in Kufa at the age of 96, a year and some five months after Saddam brutally crushed the uprising of the Iraqi people. It is said the regime martyred him through poison.

101 solar years ago, on this day in 1917 AD, while three years had passed since the break out of World War I, the US entered the war in favor of France and Britain. The US pretext for war was the alleged attack of German submarines on US commercial ships. The US entry I played a major role in the victory of Allied forces.

100 solar years ago, on this day in 1918 AD, over 12,000 Azeri Muslims were massacred in Baku in four days of indiscriminate slaughter, beginning from March 30, by allied armed groups of Armenians and Russian Bolsheviks, following a failed bid to reassert independence in the aftermath of the communist seizure of power in Moscow in October 1917. Baku and what is now known today as the Republic of Azerbaijan, was, along with Armenia and the southern Caucasus, an integral part of Iran for over two millenniums, until occupied by the Russians in the 19^th century.

36 solar years ago, on this day in 1982 AD, Argentina liberated the Malvinas off its southern coast from British occupation, but soon lost them when Britain launched a savage naval attack to reoccupy what it calls Falkland Islands, which it had seized in 1832. Argentina and its allies do not recognize British sovereignty over these islands.

27 solar years ago, on this day in 1991 AD, mercenaries of Saddam’s repressive Ba’th minority regime violated the sanctity of the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala, in a bid to crush the uprising of Iraq’s long-suppressed Shi’ite Muslim majority. The Ba’thists desecrated the shrine of the Prophet’s First Infallible Heir, Imam Ali (AS) in Najaf, and that of his two sons, Imam Husain (AS) and Hazrat Abbas (AS) in Karbala. The holy shrines were riddled with machinegun fire and people mercilessly slaughtered inside the sacred precincts. The Iraqi people had risen for their rights while Saddam’s occupation forces were fleeing from Kuwait during the attack by the US and the coalition army it had assembled. But the US forces suddenly stopped their offensive and gave Saddam the green signal to brutally massacre hundreds of thousands of Iraqi Shi’ite Muslims and to desecrate the holy shrines.

12 solar years ago, on this day in 2006 AD, Iran announced its second major new missile test within days, successfully firing a high-speed torpedo called “Hooth” (whale), which is capable of destroying large warships and submarines.

11 lunar years ago, on this day in 2007 AD, Chairman of Iran’s Assembly of Experts, Ayatollah Ali Akbar Faiz Meshkini, passed away at the age of 86. Born in Meshkin Shahr in Ardabil Province, he studied at the Qom Seminary under Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Hussain Borujerdi and the Father of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (RA). He joined the movement against the despotic rule of the Shah, and as a result suffered imprisonment and banishment to the remote parts of the country. He was Friday Prayer Leader of Qom for several years, and his sermons were eagerly listened for their religious and political analyses.

The 13^th of the Iranian month of Farvardin, is marked as Iran’s National Day of Nature, with families visiting parks and enjoying the fresh air of spring in open spaces and countryside, as thanksgiving to God Almighty, the Creator of the Universe Who has mentioned the in holy Qur’an the bounties of nature for mankind. The Islamic Republic of Iran strives to instill in the people the worth and value of nature, and how to keep the atmosphere clean by taking steps to avoid polluting pastures and water resources, which are the lifeline for the nation and the entire human race.

AS/ME