By: Kayhan Int’l Staff Writer

We in Iran and all over the world, wherever Muslims are present, are celebrating the blessed birth anniversary of the Messenger of Mercy, Prophet Muhammad (SAWA).
Conferences, seminars, eulogy assemblies, and family gatherings are being held all over the globe, with preachers and poets shedding light on different aspects of the dynamic personality of the Last and Greatest Emissary of God to all mankind with the universal message of Islam, whom the Holy Qur’an describes as the Excellent Exemplar for the faithful.
The Islamic Republic of Iran, thanks to the foresight of the Father of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (RA), marks these blessed days as Islamic Unity Week to bridge the two days of the month of Rabi al-Awwal regarded as the Prophet’s birthday – 12th for Sunni Muslims on the basis of narrations of the Sahaba or those who became the Prophet’s companions on his proclamation of the message of Islam at the age of 40 and after, while 17th for Shi’a Muslims who consider family accounts of the Ahl al-Bayt to be more reliable.
This was indeed a vital step in cementing national solidarity in Iran where Sunni Muslims enjoy all Islamic rights and as per the national constitution are fairly represented in the Majlis or parliament through elections. This is in sharp contrast to minority regimes like the Aal-e Khalifa and Aal-e Saud where the much larger populations of Shi’a Muslims have no birthrights.
At any rate, Iran, as usual, is currently holding the 36th International Islamic Unity Confab on this blessed occasion with guests, including prominent Sunni Muslim figures and religious scholars from parts of Iran and different countries in attendance, with the aim of narrowing the trivial differences amongst the various schools of jurisprudence.
An important point to note is that Prophet Muhammad (SAWA) who was the most perfect person in every aspect and whose Sunnah and Seerah (practice and behaviour) is the basis, along with God Almighty’s Revealed Words, the Holy Qur’an, for the shari’ah or code of Islamic law for the administration of Muslim societies, set the practical precedent of establishing the first ever Islamic state.
Although throughout the millennium and four centuries since his passing away the Ummah has cherished the goal of emulating his model of government, none have ever succeeded except for the four-and-a-half year rule of social justice of the Prophet’s cousin, son-in-law, and Divinely-designated Vicegerent, Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb (AS).
The fragmented Muslim World and the dynasties that rose and fell throughout history in the various geographical regions paid only lip service to the Prophet’s legacy and never bothered to either emulate his rule or foster Islamic unity, which in today’s patchwork of nation-states influenced by the highly flawed western concept of democracy, have been completely relegated to the background.
In such a pathetic state of domination of Muslims and their resources by the secular and Godless West, Imam Khomeini generated a grassroots movement to deliver the Iranian people from darkness of a wayward society immersed in vices, by banning all anti-Islamic practices and establishing a truly Islamic state, which the late Egyptian scholar Hassanein Haykal had called the “Third instance in Islamic history after the ideal states of Prophet Muhammad (SAWA) in Medina and Imam Ali (AS) in Kufa.”
Of course, the Islamic Republic of Iran never claims that it can ever equal the Infallibles in building the ideal government, but by constitutionalizing the principle of Velayat-e Faqih (Governance of the Supreme Jurist) it strives to pave the way and groom the faithful for the eventual reappearance of the Prophet’s 12th and Last Legitimate Successor and his establishment of the global government of peace, prosperity, and justice.
This is essential through building of Islamic solidarity, since Rabi al-Awwal 17 also happens to be the birthday (136 years after the Prophet’s birth) of his 6th Infallible Heir, Imam Ja’far as-Sadeq (AS), who was the teacher of Abu Hanifa the principal jurist of the Sunni school, and the indirect teacher of the other three.
The spectacular progress of the Islamic Republic of Iran in almost all spheres of modernity, along with cultural, spiritual, and political fields that have had a profound influence on the faithful worldwide as well nations and movements in the neighbourhood, has become a nightmare to the US and other satanic powers.
Therefore, in a clumsy bid to tarnish the image of Iran and distract attention from the wide popularity amongst the Iranian people of the Islamic system of government, these devils in human form instigate a few thugs, terrorists, tricksters, traitors, and thoughtlessly characterless women to indulge in riots and sins in public, as had recently happened in some parts of Tehran and a few other cities.
It is obvious they cannot do anything, since Iran by treading the Prophet’s path and confronting the evil powers, has proven its devotion to the Mahdi (AS).