The Battle of Yarmouk

On 20th of the Islamic month of Rajab in 13 AH, the Battle of Yarmouk broke out between the Arab army and the forces of Byzantine or the Eastern Roman Empire, ending six days later in a decisive victory for Muslims. The battle consisted of a series of seesaw engagements near the Yarmouk River, along what is today the border between Syria and Jordan, south-east of the Sea of Galilee, 65 km from the Golan Heights. It is regarded as one of the most decisive battles in military history, and it marked the first great wave of Muslim conquests, ending the long sway of the then superpowers, the Romans and the Persians.
In order to check the Muslim advance, Emperor Heraclius had entered into an alliance with Emperor Yazdegird III of Sassanid Iran, and sent a massive army made up of Slavs, Greeks, Franks, Georgians, Armenians and Christian Arabs. The Muslim tactic by sending a separate force to Iraq to confront the Sassanids, however, thwarted this alliance against Islam from taking practical shape. Thus the total defeat of the numerically superior Roman army by the lightly armed Muslims saw the fall of Damascus as well, and a year later led to the liberation of Bayt al-Moqaddas without bloodshed by the Muslims, who also rapidly took over Egypt and Libya.
The emergence of Muslims on the world scene came only six years after Heraclius had succeeded in reclaiming Egypt and the Levant from the Persians, in a series of see-saw battles fought for over two decades throughout West Asia, North Africa and Eastern Europe, including Mesopotamia, the Caucasus, Anatolia, and even before the walls of Constantinople itself. The advent of Islam completely changed the world map with the entire Sassanid Empire and more than half of the whole Roman Empire disappearing forever.
An important point to note is that the Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali (AS), who led the Muslims to victory in almost all the battles imposed upon Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) by the Arab and Israelite disbelievers, did not participate in the Roman and Persian campaigns, which were led by the neo Muslim hitherto pagan Arabs subdued by his flashing scimitar, the Dhu’l-Feqar.
Some 25 years later when these same arrogant victors of the wars against the Romans and the Persians, like Zubayr ibn Awam, Amr ibn Aas, Mu’awiyya ibn Abu Sufyan and others, tried to stir up sedition amongst Muslims in Iraq and Syria (the former Sassanid and Byzantine heartlands), Imam Ali (AS) personally assumed command and once again unsheathed the Dhu’l-Feqar to decisively defeat them. For instance, Amr ibn Aas, who used to boast of conquering Egypt, ignominiously denuded himself In Siffeen while fleeing in order to escape certain death at the hands of the Prophet’s righteous heir.

Blaming Others

Once a ship got caught in a violent storm. It wreaked havoc and the waves cast its wrecks on the sands of the shore. Among them was a sailor who lay senseless on the beach. When he came to his senses, he cursed the sea saying, "The Sea is a cheat indeed. It attracts people with its cool and calm waters and once they are in its grip, it turns furious and destroys them."
Hearing his reproach, the sea felt pinched. But it didn't want to trouble the sailor anymore. So, it came to the sailor in form of a damsel.
"Who are you, O lovely lady?" asked the sailor.
"I am the sea and am as lovely as you see me now. You are blaming me for the wreck but it isn't just." Surprised, the sailor asked, "Who is just then?"
The sea urged, "The wreck was caused by the cruel winds that blew into gusts and gales over me and created stormy waves in my calm waters."
The sailor had nothing to say except feeling sorry for blaming the sea.
Almost all unhappiness in life comes from the tendency to blame someone else. - Brian Tracey

Allamah Rasheed Turabi, the famous religious scholar, philosopher, poet and outstanding orator of the subcontinent

On July 9, 1908 AD, the famous religious scholar, philosopher, poet and outstanding orator of the subcontinent, Allamah Rasheed Turabi was born in Hyderabad, India. After obtaining BA from Osmania University in Hyderabad and MA in Philosophy from Allahbad University, he learned religious sciences, and mastered Urdu, Persian and Arabic literature.
His Persian teachers were Mohsin Shirazi, Ali Hyder Nazm Tabatabai, and Mohammed Kirmani, while his Arabic language teachers were Tahir bin Mohammad, and Mawlana Sadeq Hussain Majjan.
On the political side, he started his career as a member of the working committee of the Hyderabad Legislative Assembly. Later on, he was nominated by the founder of Pakistan, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, as a member of the working committee of All India Muslim League. In 1949, following the fall of Hyderabad-Deccan to Indian forces in 1948, a year after independence from British rule, he migrated to Pakistan, where he left active politics, and devoted himself to religious erudition, especially discourses on Imam Husain (AS) and the tragedy of Karbala.
His great knowledge of hadith, jurisprudence, and exegesis of the holy Qur’an brought him Ijaza from Ayatollah Shaikh Mohammed Mohsin Tehrani, Ayatollah Seyyed Mohsin al-Hakeem Tabatabai, Ayatollah Seyyed Hibbatuddin Shahristani, Ayatollah Seyyed Hadi Milani, and Ayatollah Borujerdi.
He delivered more than 5,000 religious lectures and speeches over a period of 57 years that he spent out of his 65 years of total life in the service of the Ahl al-Bayt, introducing many dimensions to the Art of Oratory. The most sought after Urdu public speaker of his times, he was indeed a persuasive and brilliant orator.
He was a prolific author as well, and among his works is the book, “Tibb e Ma’soomeen” which is a composition of antidotes from Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) and the 12 Infallible Imams. He also wrote the 2-volume book "The Forests of Hyderabad" on the jungles of the Deccan.
Another of his work is the idiomatic translation of Imam Ali’s (AS) famous Letter of Instructions to his governor of the then Christian-majority Egypt, Malik Ashtar. This epistle is a guiding light for just and fair governance.
Turabi’s masterpiece on “Ilm Rijal” or biographical evaluation of narrators of hadith, which he titled "Wasl-e Qawl" was published after his death in Karachi.

To Mu'awiya (2)

A letter to Mu'awiya, on receiving letters from him based on hypocritical advice and false accusations.

"After praising Allah and invoking His Blessings and Peace on the Holy Prophet (s), I write to inform you that I am in receipt of many of your letters which appear to consist of various pieces of advice to me. You have very cunningly tried to couch them in flowery words and phrases. You have done this because of your natural evil-mindedness and because of the envy, enmity and malice you bear against me.
(These kinds of letters show that they have been written from a person who has no inner-light and no benevolent guide to show him the true path. Avarice, self-aggrandizement and lust of power prompted him to do so and he jumped at the suggestion. It is a letter from a person, whom selfishness has led astray and who has lost his sense of proportion and therefore, it contains no sense and no real worth. Some commentators consider the following passage as a part of the letter above.)
Remember that the allegiance and fidelity sworn to me is such that it does not require reconsideration on the part of those who have sworn it nor are they at liberty (from a religious point of view) to go back upon it. Therefore, those who belittle it, scoff at it, or go back upon it are hypocrites and traitors."

The creation in living things is a source of inspiration for technology

Power of Prayer

A poorly dressed Muslim lady with a look of defeat on her face, walked into a grocery store. She approached the owner of the store in a most humble manner and asked if he would let her charge a few groceries. She softly explained that her husband was very ill and unable to work, they had seven children and they needed food. The grocer scoffed at her and requested that she leave his store.
Visualizing the family needs, she said: "Please, sir! I will bring you the money just as soon as I can." He told her he could not give her credit, as she did not have a charge account at his store.
Standing beside the counter was a customer who overheard the conversation between the two. The customer walked forward and told the grocer that he would stand good for whatever she needed for her family.
The grocer said in a very reluctant voice, "Do you have a grocery list?"
Muslim lady replied, "Yes sir"
"OK" he said, "put your grocery list on the scales and whatever your grocery list weighs, I will give you that amount in groceries." She hesitated a moment with a bowed head, then she reached into her purse and took out a piece of paper and scribbled something on it. She then laid the piece of paper on the scale carefully with her head still bowed.
The eyes of the grocer and the customer showed amazement when the scales went down and stayed down. The grocer, staring at the scales, turned slowly to the customer and said begrudgingly, "I can't believe it."
The customer smiled and the grocer started putting the groceries on the other side of the scales. The scale did not balance so he continued to put more and more groceries on them until the scales would hold no more.
The grocer stood there in utter disgust. Finally, he grabbed the piece of paper from the scales and looked at it with greater amazement. It was not a grocery list; it was a prayer, which said: "Ya Allah (SWT), you know my needs and I am leaving this in your hands."
The grocer gave her the groceries that he had gathered and stood in stunned silence. The Muslim lady thanked him and left the store. The customer handed a fifty dollar bill to the grocer and said, "It was worth every penny of it." Only Allah (SWT) knows how much a prayer weighs.

Why do we read Noble Qur'an, even we can't understand Arabic?

An old Muslim lived on a farm with his young grandson. Each morning Grandpa was up early sitting at the kitchen table reading his Noble Qur'an.
His grandson wanted to be just like him and tried to imitate him in every way he could.
One day the grandson asked, "Grandpa, I try to read the Noble Qur'an just like you but I don't understand it, and what I do understand I forget as soon as I close the book. What good does reading the Noble Qur'an do?"
The Grandfather quietly turned from putting coal in the stove and replied, "Take this coal basket down to the river and bring me back a basket of water."
The boy did as he was told, but all the water leaked out before he got back to the house. The grandfather laughed and said, "You'll have to move a little faster next time," and sent him back to the river with the basket to try again.
This time the boy ran faster, but again the basket was empty before he returned home.
Out of breath, he told his grandfather that it was impossible to carry water in a basket, and he went to get a bucket instead.
The Grandfather said, "I don't want a bucket of water; I want a basket of water. You're just not trying hard enough," and he went out the door to watch the boy try again.
At this point, the boy knew it was impossible, but he wanted to show his grandfather that even if he ran as fast as he could, the water would leak out before he got back to the house.
The boy again dipped the basket into river and ran hard, but when he reached his grandfather the basket was again empty.
Out of breath, he said, "See Grandpa, it's useless!"
"So you think it is useless?" The Grandfather said, "Look at the basket."
The boy looked at the basket and for the first time realized that the basket was different. It had been transformed from a dirty old coal basket and was now clean, inside and out.
"Son, that's what happens when you read the Noble Qur'an. You might not understand or remember everything, but when you read the Noble Qur'an, you will be changed, inside and out. That is the work of Allah (SWT) in our lives."
The best way to learn is to share what you have learned and practice it in your life