Today is Wednesday; 9th of the Iranian month of Aban 1397 solar hijri; corresponding to 21st of the Islamic month of Safar 1440 lunar hijri; and October 31, 2018, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

1335 solar years ago, on this day in 683 AD, during the Siege of Mecca by the forces of the Godless Yazid Ibn Mu’awiyyah, the holy Ka’ba was attacked with flaming projectiles, caught fire, and was damaged. The Omayyad forces were led by Haseen Ibn Numayr, one of the notorious culprits of the tragedy of Karbala who desecrated the sanctity of the sacred Ka'ba. A month earlier on the 28th of Zil-Hijja, this very same Omayyad army led by the blasphemous general, Muslim bin Uqba al-Marri, had pillaged Medina, desecrated the Prophet's shrine, massacred some 10,000 persons in the Battle of Harrah including several hundred companions of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), and for three days mass-raped the women of the city, resulting in the birth of thousands of illegitimate children who had no clue about their fathers. Ibn Numayr took command of the ungodly Omayyad army when while proceeding for the attack on Mecca Muslim bin Uqba suddenly died and ended up in the bowels of hell. The siege of Mecca ended and bloodshed in the sacred precincts of Masjid al-Haraam halted, over a month-and-a-half later when news reached of the ignominious death in Syria of the tyrant Yazid. Thus, during his 3-and-a-half-year reign the ungodly Yazid committed three of the most sacrilegious acts – the killing of the Prophet's grandson Imam Husain (AS) at Karbala, the sack of Medina, and the storming of the holy Ka'ba.

1086 solar years ago, on this day in 932 AD, Muqtader Billah, the 18th self-styled caliph of the usurper Abbasid Dynasty, was killed by his slave guard after 25 years of misrule that bankrupted the state and increased the people's misery, while the Byzantines felt emboldened to attack at will and occupy large territories in Asia Minor or what is now Turkey. The killing of this caliph, who spent all his time drinking wine with musicians and dancers in the harem, had been foretold by the Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali (AS).

417 lunar years ago, on this day in 1023 AH, Jahan Ara Begum, the eldest daughter of Emperor Shah Jahan and his Iranian wife, Empress Mumtaz Mahal, was born. She was highly educated and well versed in Persian and Arabic, and was a writer, painter and poet. She was active in state affairs and favoured her brother, Dara Shikoh, the heir-designate, who was killed by her younger brother, the future Emperor Aurangzeb. On her father's imprisonment in the fort of Agra by Aurangzeb, she devotedly served him and after his death was reluctantly reconciled with Aurangzeb. She remained a spinster and died at the age of 68 in Delhi.

389 lunar years ago, on this day in 1051 AH, the prominent Muslim scientist and theologian, Baha od-Din Mohammad Ibn Hussain al-Ameli, known popularly as Shaikh Bahai, completed the writing of the book “Miftah al-Falah” (Keys to Welfare). This excellent manual of prayers and supplications has been translated several times into Persian. The best translation is the one undertaken over three centuries ago by the migrant Iranian scholar to the court of the Qutb Shahi dynasty of Haiderabad-Deccan in India, Ali bin Tayfour Bastami, and recently printed in Iran. Among the translations in Iran mention could be made of the one done by Sadra-e Tabrizi. The Arabic text of “Miftah al-Falah” has been published several times in Iran, Lebanon, and Egypt.

238 solar years ago, on this day in 1780 AD, the Muslim principality of Arcot in southern India was overrun by the army of Nawab Haidar Ali Khan of Mysore and the fort surrendered on November 3. Haidar’s attack was provoked by British seditions in the Deccan, as well as the breach of promise by the Nawab of the Carnatic to handover Trichinopoly to him. Nawab Mohammad Ali Khan Walajah of Carnatic, whose mother was a niece of Seyyed Ali Khan Safavi Musawi of Iran, allied himself with the Nizam of Haiderabad and with British help, regained control of his dominions.

155 solar years ago, on this day in 1863 AD, the Maori Wars resumed as British forces in New Zealand led by General Duncan Cameron invaded Waikato on North Island. The British killed over 40,000 Maoris in the 19th century during which period, because of diseases spread by the European invaders, more than 40 percent of the native population died and their lands were seized by the white occupiers, who forcibly Christianized the survivors.

142 solar years ago, on this day in 1876 AD, a monster cyclone from the Bay of Bengal ravaged India, over the delta of the Ganges and Brahmaputra Rivers in what is now Bangladesh. At least 220,000 people were killed and immense loss of crops and property was inflicted.

104 solar years ago, on this day in 1914 AD, during World War I, the Iranian government announced neutrality. The political fragility of the Qajarid dynasty and the chaotic state of internal affairs, coupled with the bellicose and expansionist policies of world powers, however, dragged Iran into the war. It was invaded by the British, Russian, and Ottoman forces, and major damages were inflicted.

93 solar years ago, on this day in 1925 AD, Iran’s parliament, under influence of the British and their illiterate agent Reza Khan, dethroned Ahmad Shah and announced dissolution of the 135-year old Qajarid dynasty. Ahmad Shah was in Europe at the time, having been reduced to mere figure-head four years earlier by Reza Khan, an illiterate military officer, who imposed himself, with British help, as the prime minister. A month after the dissolution of the Qajarid dynasty, the British instructed the Iranian parliament to declare Reza Khan as king of the new Pahlavi dynasty, which set the stage for further plunder of the national wealth and suppression of the Iranian people by Britain and the US.

62 solar years ago, on this day in 1956 AD, Britain and France joined together to bomb Egypt two days after the illegal Zionist entity had invaded Sinai, in a bid to force the reopening of the Suez Canal which President Jamal Abdun-Nassher had nationalized. On November 5, Britain and France landed paratroopers along the Suez Canal. The Egyptian forces were defeated, but they did block the canal to all shipping. It became clear that the Israeli invasion and the subsequent Anglo-French attack had been planned beforehand by the three countries. The Canal was now useless to shipping, and heavy pressure from the United States and the USSR forced the three countries to withdraw after a ten-day aggression.

56 solar years ago, on this day in 1962 AD, French Orientalist, Louis Massignon, died at the age of 79. He was profoundly influenced by Arabic and Islamic culture as a result of his sojourn in Algeria and later obtained a PhD in Arabic literature. As a fluent speaker of Arabic, from 1922 till 1954 he was entitled the Chair of Muslim Sociology created in 1902 at the College de France. He conducted valuable researches and concluded that in view of their common origin in Prophet Abraham (AS), Christians should always approach Muslims as brothers "united by the same spirit of faith and sacrifice". He opposed colonial policies such as oppression of the Algerians by France, and the displacement of Palestinians from their ancestral homeland by the influx of European Jews, considering the Balfour Declaration as a betrayal of Palestinians. Influenced by Sufism, his major works include “Annuaire du Monde Musulman” and the 4-volume “La passion de Hussayn Ibn Mansur al-Hallaj” – the last one on the Iranian mystic Hallaj who was executed by the Abbasid caliph in Baghdad on charges of heresy. Among his students were many scholarly luminaries, such as Professor Henry Corbin, whom he directed towards his major study of the Iranian Islamic Philosopher of Illumination, Shehab od-Din Suhrawardi (Shaikh al-Ishraq), and Eva de Vitray-Meyerovitch, who converted to Islam and became an authority on the Iranian Islamic Gnostic Poet, Mowlana Jalal od- Din Balkhi Roumi. Other students included Abdur-Rahman Badawi, the Egyptian scholar of Islamic philosophy and Abdul-Halim Mahmud, the Grand Shaikh of Cairo’s al-Azhar University. The Late Iranian sociologist, Dr. Ali Shari’ati, who met Massignon many times, was also highly influenced by him.

34 solar years ago, on this day in 1984 AD, Prime Minister Mrs. Indira Gandhi of India was assassinated by two of her Sikh bodyguards at the age of 67. She was killed in revenge for launching of Operation Blue Star on the Sikh Golden Temple in Amritsar, Punjab State, to clear it of US-British-backed armed separatists calling for formation of an independent Sikh state called Khalistan. She was the daughter of India's first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, and was elected premier in 1966, two years after her father’s demise, following the sudden death of Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri during India-Pakistan peace talks in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. She was an independent-minded and staunchly nationalist politician who strongly resisted the US bid to interfere in India's affairs. Her surname should not be confused with that of M.K. Gandhi, the leader of India’s freedom struggle against British rule, but was adopted when she married Feroze Gandhi, a Parsi or Zoroastrian Indian citizen of Iranian ancestry. Her son, Rajiv Gandhi, was elected prime minister after her, before losing the next elections, and was assassinated by a Tamil separatist of Sri Lanka during re-election bid. His widow, Italian born Sonia, is president of the Congress Party and the power behind the present government.

32 solar years ago, on this day in 1986 AD, Iranian poet, Salman Qanbar Herati, died in a road accident at the young age of 27. Born in Marzdasht near Tonekabon in Mazandaran, he was a religious and committed revolutionary poet. He worked as a teacher. His poems written in simple language have a special appeal for the young generation. He focused on social issues, on the natural environment, and on the bond between God and mankind. He composed beautiful odes, elegies, couplets, and quatrains. He left behind three collections of poems for teenagers, titled "A Gateway to the Sun's House", “Green Sky” (Aseman-e Sabz), and “From this Star to that Star” (Az een Sitareh ta an Sitareh). 

25 solar years ago, on this day in 1992 AD, Vatican, the seat of the Catholic sect of Christianity, admitted its erring of over 359 years in condemning Italian scientist Galileo Galilei for disclosing scientific truths discovered centuries earlier by Islamic scientists, such as Iran’s Abu Rayhan Berouni that the Earth revolves around the sun. After 13 years of inquiry, the Pope's commission of historic, scientific and theological scholars admitted that Galileo was unjustly condemned and persecuted by the Church. In 1633, at the age 69, Galileo was forced by the Inquisition to repent and spent the last eight years of his life under house arrest.

7 solar years ago, on this day in 2011 AD, the global population of human beings reached seven billion. The United Nations calls it the “Seven Billion Day”.

AS/SS