Today is Friday; 17th of the Iranian month of Farvardin 1397 solar hijri; corresponding to 19th of the Islamic month of Rajab 1439 lunar hijri; and April 6, 2018, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1430 lunar years ago, on this day in 9 AH, the Expedition to Tabouk occurred, when Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) on hearing reports of plans by the Roman Empire to attack Muslims, led a force of 30,000 to Arabia’s frontiers with Syria but no encounter took place as the Romans and their Arab Christian allies did not turn up. It is the only expedition in which the Prophet did not take along with him his brave cousin and son-in-law, Imam Ali (AS), who was left in Medina as vicegerent since his presence was more important in the capital, where hypocrites lingered waiting to strike at the roots of Islam. While leaving Medina, the Prophet expressed the famous statement: “The position of Ali to me is like that of Aaron to Moses”, which is a reference to Prophet Moses’ leaving behind Aaron as his deputy amongst the Israelites, during his seclusion on Mount Sinai. An important event during the Tabouk expedition was the unmasking of the plot of the hypocrites from among the companions of the Prophet, when they plotted to assassinate him in a ravine at night. God Almighty, however, sent a streak of lightning that illuminated the sky and stayed for quite a while instead of a brief flash in order to expose the hypocrites lying in ambush and to identify them to the Prophet’s loyal companions, such as Hudhayfa al-Yamani.

965 lunar years ago, on this day in 474 AH, Spanish Muslim scholar Abul-Waleed Suleiman ibn Khalaf Maleki passed away in Spain. A skilled memorizer and exegete of the Holy Qur'an, as well as a poet, he taught in Andalusia and later in Mecca and Baghdad. Among his works are “Tafsir al-Qur’an” and “al-Ishara”.

821 lunar years ago, on this day in 618 AH, Egyptian forces liberated the port city of Damietta after the Crusader invaders of Europe retreated and surrendered it following their defeat by the Ayyubid sultan, al-Kamel, who thwarted their intended march upon Cairo. The goal of the 5^th Crusade was to seize Egypt and use it as a base for attacking Palestine and Bayt al-Moqaddas.

768 solar years ago, on this day in 1250 AD, Egypt defeated the 7^th Crusade of European powers and captured King Louis IX of France in the Battle of Fareskur. The Christian invaders suffered a resounding defeat as thirty thousand French and other European soldiers fell on the battlefield while thousands of others were taken prisoner, along with King Louis IX who was captured in the nearby village of Moniat Abdullah (now Meniat an-Nasr), while trying to escape. He, along with his brothers Charles d'Anjou and Alphonse de Poitiers as well as some French nobles, was chained and confined in the house of Ibrahim Ibn Loqman, under care of the eunuch, Sobih. Louis was ransomed for 400,000 dinars, after pledging not to return to Egypt, and left with his brothers and 12,000 war prisoners whom the Egyptians released. The Battle became a source of inspiration for Muslim writers and poets. One poem ended with the verses: "If they (the Franks) decide to return to take revenge or to commit a wicked deed, tell them: The house of Ibn Loqman is intact, the chains still there as well as the eunuch Sobih".

698 solar years ago, on this day in 1320 AD, Scotland announced its independence in the Declaration of Arbroath. The letter to the Pope read: “As long as only one hundred of us remain alive we will never on any conditions be brought under English rule.”

565 solar years ago, on this day in 1453 AD Ottoman Sultan Mohammad II began his siege of Constantinople, capital of Byzantine, which fell on May 29 to the Muslims and was renamed Islambol. It is known as Istanbul today and is Turkey's largest city.

509 lunar years ago, on this day in 930 AH, Shah Ismail I, the founder of the Safavid Empire of Iran, passed away at the age of 37 after a 24-year reign and was succeeded by his young son, Shah Tahmasp I. To Ismail and the Safavids goes the credit of giving Iran its present political, cultural, religious, and national identity, although in terms of geography many of the areas were lost to the aggressors and colonialists by the subsequent dynasties. Ismail was devoted to the teachings of the Ahl al-Bayt of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). Born in Ardebil to the head of the Safaviyya order, Shah Haidar, and his wife Martha, the daughter of the Aq Qoyounlu ruler, Uzun Hassan by his Greek wife Theodora – better known as Despina Khatun – he was the direct descendant of the famous mystic, Safi od-Din Ardabeli, and hence traced lineage to the Prophet’s 7th Infallible Heir, Imam Musa Kazem (AS). At the age of 13, Ismail launched his campaign in Erzinjan (presently in Turkey), and with the help of a 7,000 force of Qizl-Bash (literally ‘Red-Heads’ from the colour of their caps) Turkic tribes of Rumlu, Shamlu, Ustajlu, Qajar, Afshar, Zu’l-Qadr, Tekulu, and Varsak, he defeated the Shirvan-Shah, took control of Baku (presently in the Republic of Azerbaijan) and crowned himself as King of Azarbaijan in Tabriz. By 1509, he unified all of Iran, Iraq, the Caucasus, parts of Central Asia, and western Afghanistan, and took the title of Shah of Persia. An adventurous personality, the dynasty founded by him lasted 235 years, reviving Iran's Islamic glories in science, art, architecture, philosophy, culture, and literature. Hence he wielded spiritual influence outside Iran as well amongst the followers of the Ahl al-Bayt in Iraq, Syria, Anatolia (modern Turkey), the Caucasus, Central Asia and the Deccan Plateau of India. The Timurid prince, Babar, who later founded the Moghal Empire in northern India, regarded Shah Ismail as his suzerain, and so did the Deccan Sultanates of Yusuf Adel Shah of Bijapur and Sultan Qoli Qotb Shah of Golconda. For this reason, the Ottomans and Uzbeks were his mortal enemies, whose political ambitions, he decisively checked despite the setback he suffered in the Battle of Chaldiran against the former. Shah Ismail I was an accomplished poet in both Persian and his native Azeri Turkish, and wrote under the penname of "Khatai".

498 solar years ago, on this day in 1520 AD, Italian painter, Raphael Sanzio, who painted the “The Sistine Madonna” in the Vatican, died on his 37^th birthday. His works include "The Veiled Lady" and a set of cartoons that were woven into 10 tapestries as "Acts of the Apostles".

438 solar years ago, on this day in 1580 AD, Portugal was annexed by its Iberian rival Spain, mainly because of Portuguese colonial gains in South America and sub-Saharan Africa. Most of Portugal’s colonies were seized by Spain and its subsidiary, Holland. In 1640 the Portuguese people drove out the Spanish to regain independence. For several centuries both Spain and Portugal formed part of the Islamic world, until their seizure by European Christians, who converted mosques into churches, and forced almost entire populations to become Christians, leave the country, or be killed.

306 solar years ago, on this day in 1712 AD, the Slave Revolt began in New York near Broadway, when black people from Africa forced into slavery in North America, rose against the oppression by the whites. The uprising was brutally crushed. Over a hundred black persons were captured, jailed and tortured, while 21 were executed.

204 lunar years ago, on this day in 1235 AH, prominent Islamic scholar of the Subcontinent, Ayatollah Seyyed Dildar Ali Naqavi Naseerabadi, known as “Ghufraan-Ma'ab”, passed away in Lucknow at the age of 69. Son of Seyyed Mo’in ibn Seyyed Abdul-Hadi, he came from a family of scholars hailing from Naishapur in Khorasan, Iran, which had settled in the village of Naseerabad, in what is now India’s Uttar Pradesh state. He completed studies under various scholars, including Gholam Ali Dakani (of Deccan, southern India where the school of the Ahl al-Bayt was the state religion of the Qotb Shahi dynasty of Golconda-Haiderabad for almost two centuries, and which model was later adopted by the Nawabs of Oudh). He then left for the famous seminary of holy Najaf in Iraq, where his teachers included the jurisprudents Shaikh Ja'far Kashef al-Gheta and Wahid Behbahani. The ulema of Najaf bestowed title "Ghufraan-Ma'ab” on him for his scholarly activities that included writing of books and promoting of Islamic teachings in society.  Later, he travelled to holy Mashhad in northeastern Iran for further studies. Initially of Akhbari persuasion, Dildar Ali became a Usuli, and on his return to India, was hailed as a Marja’. He revived the Friday Prayers in Lucknow and wrote prolifically in Arabic, Persian, and Urdu. He authored several books including “Imdad al-Islam” on theology, which is a refutation of the allegations of Fakhr od-Din ar-Razi. His detailed work in jurisprudence is “Muntah-il-Afkaar”.

132 solar years ago, on this day in 1886 AD, Osman Ali Khan, Asef Jah VII, the Last Muslim ruler of the Deccan in southern India was born in Hyderabad. He became king in 1911 and transformed the realm into a centre of learning. He ruled for 37 years, until his surrender to the Indian forces in September 1948 following a three-pronged attack to end the last independent Muslim state in India. A patron of learning, beside building libraries, hospitals, universities, and religious centres, he was an accomplished poet in Persian, Urdu, and Turkish. He died in 1967.

122 solar years ago, on this day in 1896 AD, in Athens, the first modern Olympic Games were inaugurated 1,503 years after the ancient pagan Greek games were banned in 393 AD, by Roman Emperor Theodosius I, who earlier in 380, along with co-emperors Gratian and Valentinian II, had issued the Edict of Thessalonica, forcing all Roman citizens to convert to the Trinitarian form of Christianity, or else be branded as heretics, subject to punishment. This weird concept of ‘godfather’, ‘godson’ and the ‘holy ghost’ – an invention of Paul the Hellenized Jew who was a staunch opponent of Prophet Jesus (AS) during his mission on earth and after him feigned to be his follower – was designed to suit the polytheist beliefs of European pagans, in opposition to the monotheist message of the Virgin-born Messiah.

101 solar years ago, on this day in 1917 AD, the US Congress approved a declaration of war against Germany and entered World War I on the Allied side.

88 solar years ago, on this day in 1930 AD, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the leader of India's independent struggle, raised a lump of mud and salt in Gujarat, in protest to the British ban on Indians producing salt, and declared, "With this, I am shaking the foundations of the British Empire." He said he adopted his non-violent struggle by studying the life of Imam Husain (AS), the Martyr of Karbala and the grandson of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA).

73 solar years ago, on this day in 1945 AD during World War 2, the attack of Japanese suicide pilots, known as Kamikazes, began on US warships, following Japan’s retreat from southeast Asia. Although the Japanese warplanes inflicted heavy damages on American warships, the US forced Japan into surrendering by criminally dropping atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, resulting in the massacre of hundreds of thousands of civilians.

56 lunar years ago, on this day in 1383 AH, Ayatollah Sheikh Mohammad Khalesi, known as “Khalesizadeh”, passed away in Baghdad. Parallel to his cultural and religious activities, he struggled against the infiltration of colonialists in Muslim lands and was one of the religious leaders who inspired the people of Iraq in the uprising of the 1920s, which the British brutally crushed and imposed upon them an unwanted king – Faisal, a son of the British agent, Sharif Hussain of Mecca. Khalesizadeh, along with Ayatollah Sheikh Kashef al-Gheta, was exiled to Iran, while the British martyred through poisoning, Ayatollah Mirza Mohammad Taqi Shirazi. The books he wrote include “Injustices of Britain in Mesopotamia” and “God in the Nature”. 

24 solar years ago, on this day in 1994 AD, the Rwandan Genocide began when an aircraft carrying Rwandan president Juvénal Habyarimana and Burundian President Cyprien Ntaryamira was shot down. The gory battle between the two major tribes of Hutu and Tutsi led to the massacre of more than 800,000 people in three months, while more than two million people became homeless. The dispute was fanned by West European powers.

18 solar years ago, on this day in 2000 AD, Tunisian politician Habib Bourqiba, who in 1957 a year after the country’s independence from France overthrew the Hussainid monarchy to become president, and ruled with an iron fist for the next three decades, died under house arrest, 13 years after his overthrow by his own protégé, Zain al-Abedin bin Ali. Though born in a Muslim family he was anti-Islamic.

13 solar years ago, on this day in 2005 AD, in India police beat up hundreds of people protesting against the razing of their homes in the country's financial hub, Bombay. Authorities flattened an estimated 90,000 shanties in the city early in January. The slum clearance drive has left more than 300,000 people homeless.

7 solar years ago, on this day in 2011 AD, noted Pakistani scholar of Urdu, Persian, Sindhi and Arabic, Nabi Baksh Khan Baloch, passed away at the age of 94. He wrote many books on Sindh's History and 42 volumes on Sindhi Folklore. In addition, he compiled a 5-volume Sindhi dictionary. He wrote books in Sindhi, Urdu, English and Persian. These include the editing of the ancient text of “Chach-Namah” and its translation into English, “Baqiyaat az Kalhora” in Persian, “Beglar-Namah” of the Persian poet Idraaki Beglari, and “Takmilat-ut-Takmilah”, which is an addendum to the Persian books of Qania's “Maqalat -ush-Shu’ara” and Mohammad Ibrahim Khalil’s “Takmila”.

6 solar years ago, on this day in 2012 AD, thousands of protesters in the Persian Gulf island of Bahrain demanded release of ailing human rights activist, Abdul-Hadi al-Khwajah, but the repressive Aal-e Khalifa minority regime, used force to crush them.

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