Pledge Fulfilled

By: Seyyed Ali Shahbaz

"Among the Believers are men who fulfil what they pledge unto Allah; of them some have fulfilled their pledge, and of them are some who still wait; and they have not changed in the least." (Holy Qur'an 33:23)
Once, during his discourse from the pulpit of the Grand Mosque of Kufa, when Imam Ali (AS) was asked to explain the above ayah, he replied: "This ayah was revealed in my honour, and that of my uncle Hamzah, and my cousin Ubaydah ibn al­Hareth ibn Abd al­Muttalib."
He went on to say to say how the two had fulfilled their pledge with Allah by attaining martyrdom -- Ubaydah in the Battle of Badr and Hamzah in the Battle of Ohad.
"As for myself," added the Commander of the Faithful, "I am awaiting a most painful death, when this (pointing to his beard) shall be drenched from the blood of this (pointing to his head)… and have never changed the least."
He said his source of information on the manner of fulfilment of his own pledge to Allah, or in other words, martyrdom, was his cousin and father-in-law, Prophet Muhammad (SAWA), in whose lap he had been raised ever since a child. (For further details refer to the works of both Sunni and Shi'ite Muslim scholars – Mustadrik as-Sahihayn of Hakem and Majma' al-Bayan of Tabarsi).
We are commemorating these days the anniversary of the tragic event that ended the only instance in history of the model administration of justice. Imam Ali (AS), true to his pledge to Allah, attained immortal martyrdom on the 21st of the month of fasting in 40 AH in the very manner that a weeping Prophet Muhammad (SAWA) had prophesied decades earlier at the onset of a fasting Ramadhan.
“O Ali, I weep for that which will befall you in this month. (visualising) to be in your place when you will be praying to your Lord, and the most wicked person of all times, like the one who chopped off the feet of the camel of Thamoud (that was proof of Prophet Saleh's divine mission) will strike you on your head and your beard will be dyed in blood.”
So fatal was the blow from the poisoned sword of that ashq al-ashqiya (most wicked of the wicked), Abdur-Rahman ibn al-Muljam, on the 19th of Ramadhan that the Islamic ummah has still not recovered till this day from its disastrous effect, despite the passing of over a millennium and almost four centuries.
The Muslims are still in a state of bewilderment because of their failure to heed the words of the person regarding whom the Prophet had said: "I am the City of Knowledge and Ali is its Gateway."
In other words, in order to properly understand the sunnah, seerah and the genuine Islamic message of the Almighty's Last Messenger to mankind, we have no other choice but to approach him through the proper channel, that is, through Imam Ali (AS), regarding whose pivotal position in Islam, the Prophet had also said: "If there was no Ali (AS), it would have been impossible to identify true believers after me."
The martyrdom anniversary of the Leader of the Pious, who on being struck the fatal blow that fulfilled his pledge to Allah, said in a calm and composed manner: Fuzto wa Rabb'il-Ka'ba (By the Lord of the Ka'ba I have succeeded), ought to awaken our conscience to these facts.
There are immortal lessons to be learnt, not just from the Imam's discourses, but from all his actions and deeds spread over 63 glorious years, since the day he was born in the holiest of holies – God's symbolic house, the Ka'ba – and departed from the world after being struck the fatal blow on his head while in prostration to the Almighty in the Grand Mosque of Kufa (also a house of God).
The bezels of wisdom bequeathed to humanity by the man who transcends history and historical developments are outside the scope of this brief column, which I would like to end with the following two passages from his Last Will on his deathbed, as food for thought:
“I advise you to fear Allah. Do not go after this vicious world though it may try to entice you. Do not seek it though it may seek you and do not grieve over and pine for things which this world refuses you. Let the eternal Reward and Blessings of Allah be the prompting factors for all that you say and do. Be an enemy of tyrants and oppressors and be a friend and helper of those who are oppressed and tyrannized.
“Develop mutual liking, friendship and love, and help one another. Take care that you do not spurn and treat one another badly and unsympathetically. Exhort people to do good and abstain them from evil, otherwise the vicious and the wicked will be your overlords and if you willingly allow such persons to be your rulers then your prayers will not be heard by Allah." (Letter 47 – Nahj al-Balagha)
Condolences on the Martyrdom Anniversary of the Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali (AS)

President: Regional Resistance Will Defeat Enemies

TEHRAN (Dispatches) -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad strongly criticized U.S. relief aid to the people in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
"While the Americans drop thousands of bombs on civilians in these countries on a daily basis, they avoid (providing them with) humanitarian aid," Ahmadinejad said.
Referring to the problems in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan, the Iranian president went on to criticize the U.S. and its allies for not playing a larger role in aid efforts aimed at easing the humanitarian crises in flood-stricken Pakistan.
"In the U.S., plans to allocate $50 billion to healthcare for the poor caused a lot of media hype and uproar, while the U.S. military budget for 2010 of over $860 billion, which is eight times more than Iran's total spending budget did not receive media attention," he added.
"The result of this type of governance is either an invasion or the massacre of people," the president said.
Ahmadinejad further said the rising wave of awareness, vigilance and resistance among the regional nations will eventually force all enemies of the region to accept their defeat and surrender.
"The unprecedented awareness among the resistance fronts of the regional nations from Lebanon to Iran will cause the defeat of all enemies," Ahmadinejad said in a meeting with a delegation of the Lebanese Amal movement.
He stated that the Iranian and Lebanese nations have common responsibilities and missions in the confrontation against arrogant powers and enemies of mankind, and stressed that Lebanon and Iran are parts of a single body.
The president further said the enemies are seeking to impair the existing security, unity and empathy among the Lebanese people, but meantime expressed confidence that officials and resistance groups of the country would foil all enemy plots and conspiracies by reinvigorating their solidarity, wisdom and thoughtfulness.
During the meeting, the Lebanese delegation briefed Ahmadinejad on the latest developments in the region, and said all the Lebanese people and resistance groups are integrated and united against the Zionist regime and will not allow any aggression by the regime against their territory.
The comments came after Iran warned of the regional states' harsh response to any possible Israeli invasion of Lebanon.
The warnings followed clashes between Zionist troops and the Lebanese army earlier this month.
Ahmadinejad said the Iranian and Lebanese nations shoulder a common and heavy responsibility against arrogant powers and enemies of humanity.
The president said, "The materialistic systems and the global hegemony have reached a stalemate, and the world is in dire need of justice."
President Ahmadinejad also touched on the 31st anniversary of Imam Moussa al-Sadr's abduction and his role in fighting the occupying regime of Israel, stressing the importance of going ahead with wise efforts to determine the cleric's fate.
Imam Moussa al-Sadr was kidnapped during an official visit to Tripoli to meet with authorities from the government of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in August 1978.
In 2008, the Beirut government issued an arrest warrant for Gaddafi over Sadr's disappearance.

 
Iran Wants Turkey, Brazil Included in Talks

TEHRAN (Dispatches) – Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki has reiterated the need for Turkey and Brazil to be included in nuclear talks with the West.
Mottaki said in an interview with the Hamburg-based weekly news magazine Der
Spiegel on Monday, "We want to talk to the so-called Vienna Group about the exchange of fuel: We deliver low enriched uranium in return for 20% enriched fuel for our research reactor in Tehran."'
"The negotiating partners are France, Russia, the United States, Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna. There are also proposals to include Turkey and Brazil in these talks," he added.
Asked about Iran's willingness for a compromise on the dispute over uranium enrichment, he replied, "We want to talk, but first the structure of the group, which consists of the five permanent members of the Security Council plus Germany, must be changed. Other countries must be added to the group. The talks can then be resumed with this new structure."
Turkey and Brazil had successfully negotiated a uranium swap with Iran in May which was immediately snubbed by the U.S. and the European Union.
Iran's top diplomat stressed his country could not be forced to make a compromise.
"You cannot disregard a country's rights and force it to make compromises. We are determined to defend our right,"' Mottaki reaffirmed.
"'We don't want more than what is our right. We have created this right without outside assistance. And I think the best thing now would be to recognize this right, within the framework of the appropriate provisions and regulations," he added.
Mottaki made clear unilateral U.S. and European Union sanctions against Iran were futile.
"Europe will undoubtedly suffer more under the new sanctions than we will. Europe will be the big loser in relation to this policy. We already reduced our trade relations with Europe considerably in recent years," he said.
Separately, Mottaki said the UN measure of imposing anti-Iran sanctions demonstrates the lack of logic in the current international order.
"The Iranian nation does not need atomic bombs," Mottaki said, adding that Iran's "the weapon of logic" is more powerful than any nuclear weapon.
"They (Western countries) however, assert that Iran may have the intention of making nuclear weapons, and punished our nation based on the claim that Iran has such intentions," Fars News Agency quoted Mottaki as saying.
"This is an order of coercion and this is the logic of power," he noted.
Mottaki added, "Those who used nuclear weapons 65 years ago and continue to produce new weapons everyday… had to confess four months ago in a New York summit that there are 5,000 nuclear weapons in the U.S. possession."
Ahead of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) review conference in May, the Pentagon announced that Washington currently has over 5,000 nuclear warheads.
Referring to the death of thousands of people in Nagasaki and Hiroshima, Mottaki said "They make even more modern weapons today and continue to arm their agents in the region with nuclear weapons."
On June 9, the UN Security Council (UNSC) adopted a resolution imposing a fourth round of sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program.
Iran has criticized the UNSC sanctions arguing that as a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) it has the right to use nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.
Tehran has opened its nuclear facilities to intrusive inspections and round-the-clock supervision by the IAEA. The nuclear agency has repeatedly reported that it has found no evidence of any diversion of nuclear material from civilian to military applications in Iran.
 

Minister Reiterates Readiness to Equip Lebanon Army

TEHRAN (Fars) -- Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi on Monday renewed Tehran's preparedness to equip the Lebanese army with all the weapons and other warfare they need.
"If they (the Lebanese) make a request, the Islamic Republic of Iran is ready to provide the country with their needed arms for defending Lebanon's borders," Vahidi said in an interview with the Arabic-language Al-Alam network.
"The army of Lebanon is our friend and is in a region that is under the Zionist regime's pressure and threat," Vahidi noted.
Last week, Iranian Ambassador to Beirut Qazanfar Roknabadi said that Tehran is ready to arm the Lebanese army. "If Lebanon officially calls for Iran's help to equip its army, Iran will feel honored to help Lebanon's army."
The Iranian ambassador to Beirut also said that the issue will be brought up during President Ahmadinejad's upcoming visit to Lebanon on the invitation of his Lebanese counterpart Michel Sulayman.
The remarks by the Iranian officials came after Lebanese President Michel Sulayman officially asked Iran to equip and modernize the Lebanese Army.
Meantime, Secretary-General of Hezbollah Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah on Tuesday welcomed the Lebanese government's decision to ask for Tehran's cooperation in equipping the country's Army.
Nasrallah urged the Lebanese cabinet to ask Iran and Arab states to provide equipment for Lebanon's army, stressing that "Hezbollah will work hard through its friendship with Iran to equip the Lebanese army".
Nasrallah said Beirut should seek an alternative source for its military needs, and stressed, "Lebanon must ask for help from countries that are willing to sell arms to Beirut without any conditions."
The U.S. Congress decided to block its $100 million military aid to Lebanon shortly after a deadly border clash between Lebanese and Zionist soldiers in early August.


U.S. Afghan Deaths Jump

KABUL (AFP) -- Seven US troops were killed in two Taliban-style bomb attacks Monday in southern Afghanistan, the area hardest hit by the insurgency nearing the end of its ninth and most deadly year, NATO told AFP.
One attack killed five soldiers, NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said in a statement.
With the latest deaths, 478 foreign soldiers, including 315 Americans, have been killed in the Afghan war so far this year, according to a tally based on that kept by the icasualties.org website. Seven U.S. soldiers were killed in a wave of attacks at the weekend.
The war is dragging towards its 10th year since the toppling of the Taliban regime in late 2001, with almost 150,000 United States and NATO troops in the country.
A total of 2,046 foreign troops have died in the conflict, 1,262 of them Americans.
The Taliban leadership has said that anyone associated with the foreign forces, with foreign organizations or the government of President Hamid Karzai is a legitimate target.
Officials are regular victims, with a bomb blast in the eastern city of Jalalabad Monday killing a district chief and wounding up to five others.
"The explosion targeted the vehicle of La'al Poor district chief Sayed Mohammad Pahlawan at 9:15am this morning," said Ahmad Zia Abdulzai, spokesman for Nangahar province, of which Jalalabad is the capital.
"He was on his way to the office of the provincial governor," he told AFP.
He said the explosives had been placed in Pahlawan's car and detonated by remote control, adding that the wounded included three of his bodyguards.
The vehicle exploded just 15 meters (yards) from the governor's office, he said.
The interior ministry condemned the killing of Pahlawan as an "un-Islamic and inhumane act by insurgents". It said five other people were wounded in the blast.
Jalalabad, more than two hours drive east of Kabul, has seen a recent escalation in violent incidents as Taliban-led insurgents spread their footprint in reaction to an increased presence of foreign forces.
The insurgency is at its most intense in the southern provinces of Kandahar and Helmand, but it has rapidly spread to other regions in the past year.
NATO is struggling to turn the tide on the Taliban but officials say that the arrival of 30,000 extra troops, as part of U.S. President Barack Obama's surge aimed at speeding an end to the war, is having an impact.
Officials in southern Zabul province, neighboring Kandahar, said 24 insurgents, including two Taliban commanders, were captured in a joint Afghan-coalition operation Sunday while trying to cross into Pakistan.
ISAF said Monday it was investigating reports that one of its convoys had been hit in a bombing in Kandahar province. An AFP reporter at the scene on the Kandahar-Herat highway said one of the ISAF armored vehicles was on fire.
Separately, Afghan intelligence agency the National Directorate of Security (NDS) said it had seized "a large amount of military equipment including arms and munitions" from a private security firm.
It said the materiel was "being illegally transferred by a private security company from Kabul city to the airport and then to unknown destination".
The NDS statement named the security firm as Blue Hackle, a member of the British Association of Private Security Companies.
"The weapons were provided to this company by arm smugglers," it said, adding that they had been confiscated amid an investigation.
President Karzai has ordered that all 52 private security companies operating in the country disband by the end of the year, sparking fears of a security crisis as they are contracted by most foreign entities and the military.