By: Seyyed Ali Shahbaz
      "It is He who sent to the unlettered [people] the Messenger from among themselves, to recite to them His signs, to purify them, and to teach them the Book and wisdom, and earlier they had indeed been in manifest error.” (Holy Qur’an 62:2)
       We are on the threshold of a very tragic day. It is the eve of the day on which the Almighty’s Last and Greatest Messenger, who had been sent to purify and deliver from manifest error an unlettered, unschooled, uncouth, unprincipled and uncivilized people, departed from the mortal world at the age of 63 after molding them into monotheists during his 23 year mission.
       The path of Prophet Muhammad (SAWA) was not paved with roses. It was strewn with thorns, at times poisonous and fatal, as is evident by sufferings at the hands of the pagan Arabs, who refused to listen to his words of wisdom, mocked at him, derided him as insane, pelted him with stones, clamped a socio-economic boycott upon him, and plotted to murder him.
       When, by the Grace of God, he safely migrated from his hometown Mecca to Yathreb where the people welcomed him and helped him establish the first Islamic state, these hardcore pagans imposed wars upon him, ganged up with the equally treacherous Israelites to try to extinguish his mission, and on the failure of all their murderous plots, resorted to hypocrisy in paying lip service to Islam and claiming to be Muslims, although at heart, the majority of them had no faith in his mission.
       The question might arise: How come, a people whose hearts were devoid of the genuine teachings of Islam that he had endeavoured to inculcate in them, soon after his passing away, burst upon the Roman and Persian Empires to defeat the superpowers of the day and establish a caliphate that quickly spread over all of West and Central Asia, North Africa, and southwest Europe?
       The answer becomes obvious when we properly and rationally focus on the closing months of the mission of the Seal of Messengers.
       The books of hadith and history of all Muslim denominations unanimously testify that Prophet Muhammad (SAWA) had foretold about his death during his Farewell Hajj Pilgrimage, when on 9th Zil-Hijjah during his sermon from atop Mount Mercy (Jabal ar-Rahma) on the Plain of Arafah, he pronounced the famous words, known as Hadith Thaqalayn:
       "I have been informed (by God) about my imminent death, and I am leaving behind among you Two Weighty Things (Thaqalayn), the Book of Allah (holy Qur’an) and my progeny the Ahl al-Bayt. Hold fast to them and you will never go astray, for the two never separate from each other even when they return to me at the Fountain (of Kowthar on the Day of Judgement.”
        Again all books of hadith and history unanimously state that nine days later on the 18th of Zil-Hijjah, the Prophet halted the caravan of Hajj pilgrims at the pond (ghadeer) of Khom in the wilderness near Juhfa, ordering that those who had parted ways earlier for different routes should come to this place for he had an important announcement to make. Then in front of a huge gathering of 120,000, after delivering a memorable sermon and repeating the Hadith Thaqalayn, he lifted his dear cousin and son-in-law Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb (AS) and proclaimed:
       "For whomsoever I am Master this Ali is his Master.”
        Two months and ten days later on the 28th of Safar, Prophet Muhammad (SAWA) passed away in the house of his one and only daughter, the Immaculate Fatema Zahra (SA), with his head placed in the lap of Imam Ali (AS) and his grandsons, the future Imam Hasan (AS) and Imam Husain (AS) around him.
       Did he leave the world with peace of mind? No, he was not allowed to.
       A few days before his death, when he was not feeling well and had asked for a quill and paper to be brought for writing his Last Will, so that Muslims will not meet the fate of Israelites who used to tamper with the holy scriptures, or the fate of the mission of Prophet Jesus (AS), which was distorted by Paul the Hellenized Jew (founder of Christianity and the weird concept of trinity), a group of his supposedly senior companions refused to obey him, with one of them saying in an insolent tone: The man is sick and delirious; the Book of God is enough for us.
       This neo Muslim who had spent the greater part of his life in polytheism and sins, uttered these blasphemous words without bothering to read or understand the Book of God (Holy Qur’an), which explicitly says in the opening ayahs of the Surah Najm that Prophet Muhammad (SAWA) does not speak out of his desire, nor is he amiss, whatever he says is revelation revealed.
      History bears testimony that the Prophet expelled these persons from his presence, and none of them were near him in his last moments, nor were they involved in his last rites – performed by his divinely-designated heir, Imam Ali (AS).
       Where were these people? The answer is crystal clear. They had assembled at Saqifa Bani Sa’da, where they conspired to seize the right of political leadership of the Ummah from Imam Ali (AS) and to establish the scandalous system known as the caliphate, which would soon be usurped by the Godless Omayyads, including Mu’awiyya and Yazid, the killers of the Prophet’s beloved grandsons, Imam Hasan (AS) and Imam Husain (AS) – the Leaders of the Youths of Paradise.
         If today, cannibalistic terrorists are claiming to be revivers of the caliphate, and desecrating the holy shrines of the Prophet’s blessed Ahl al-Bayt, they are merely following the ways of the "Salaf” or the progenitors – the pagan Arabs who had hypocritically claimed to be Muslims in order to hijack the leadership of Muslims from the Prophet’s divinely-designated heirs.
       Alas, no sooner had the Prophet left the world calamities descended upon his Immaculate Ahl al-Bayt, and the first casualty was his Infallible Daughter, Hazrat Fatema Zahra (SA), who was mortally injured when a roguish group of her father’s companions battered the burning door of her house upon her, breaking her ribs, and demanding that Imam Ali (AS) give pledge of allegiance to the usurpers who now styled themselves caliphs.    
       This is the sad history of Islam, and the emergence of terrorism amongst Muslims. Safar 28 is thus a day of multiple grief, since it also happens to be the martyrdom anniversary of the Prophet’s elder grandson and 2nd Infallible Heir, Imam Hasan Mujtaba (AS), who was martyred through poisoning and his coffin showered with arrows in 50 AH by officials of the caliphate.  
     Incidentally, the last day of Safar happens to be the martyrdom anniversary of the Prophet’s 8th Infallible Heir, Imam Reza (AS), whose holy shrine in Mashhad, Khorasan, is flocked by millions of pilgrims from all over Iran and around the world, marking the end of the annual two-month mourning period for the Prophet’s younger grandson and 3rd Infallible Heir, Imam Husain (AS), who was slain in the most tragic manner at Karbala by the Godless Yazid.

Condolences on the Prophet’s (SAWA) Departure and Martyrdom of Imam Hasan (AS) & Imam Reza (AS)