{21}

sacred shrine of the Ka ba, the House built by Abraham and his son Ishmael, exclusively for the worship of the One True God, there were also household gods of every family and every house. And every individual had his own fancied favourite guardian deity which he held as his persona! favourite god. Before a man started on a journey, he would carry with him four stones, three to make the hearth, and the fourth to be worshipped, and sometimes only three stones were thought to suffice, for after the cooking was over, one of the stones of the hearth, could be worshipped.
Stepmothers were inherited by the issues of a dead father, to he wifed, and female babies were buried alive because of a fanciful shame against giving away one s daughter to another man to be his wife.
Heartless plunder of travellers and of the unprotected habi- tations had become a proud profession.
Use of all sorts of intoxieants had neither any restriction nor control.
Angels were hailed as the daughters of God. Famous an- cestors of the people were worshipped as the agents of gods. Fantastic superstitions had gained the strongest hold upon the minds of the people.
Internecine feuds were of the greatest concern to the people which engaged their whole attention for generations together. Human destiny was imagined to be determined and decided by ceriain stars.
A controlled and disciplined life was a mockery to the people. People led a nomadic life, wandering with their cattle and camping under the tents of camel-skin wherever they found water and shade and forage for their animals. A settled and a peaceful life which was essential for cultivation of the human society and culture, was not only unknown to the people but seemed to be impracticable. Petty groups of people lived in small villages and still smaller groups had settled down in small townships. The whole of the Peninsula was divided into independent petty habitations, each tribe and clan assuming itself into a separate political unit. Hosti- lities once started continued for generations together.


{22}

Women were treated as mere chattels, as objects to serve man, to satisfy his animal passions (i.e., his sexual lust), without any right to inherit their deceased fathers, husbands or other relatives. A woman could be teased and tortured to any extent at the un- controlled fancy of man. She could be left in suspense, neither being allowed to marry nor divorced. Woman's lot was very miserable. Besides poiyandry which was freely practised, prosti- tution was also rife as a recognized profession. The treatment meted out to womanhood was saturated with contempt.
The dreadful belief in the existence of genies and evil spirits, played havoc in the minds of the people and had found a solution in the use of fanciful charms and incantations. Peculiar and fanciful beliefs about the existence of the human soul after its leaving the corporeal body, were maintained by the people and the worship of the dead formed a part of their religion.
Nowhere on the earth were current the practices or original teachings of any of the apostles of God. Corruption ruled all over the earth, and vice and wickedness had darkened it altogether.

The Land of Advent of the Last Apostle of God

THE PEOPLES IN the various parts of the earth had been given guidance from God in their respective languages through the apostles. Yet man followed Satan and led a wild and brutal life. The people of the barren sandy desert of Arabia, led a nomadic life, roaming in the waterless plains with their herds of cattle and settl- ing down wherever they found water for themselves and pasture for their animals. Most of the land was not cuhivable for grains and the soil and the climate could grow only date palms on it. The staple diet of the people was dates and the milk of camel and sheep.
Owing to the scarcity of any other means of earning their livelihood, the people in groups preyed on each other for their own survival and thus got addicted to the worst of crimes such as plunder, piI- lage and carnage which had become their personal traits and profes- sion. Drinking and debauchery were a part of daily life. After the death of their fathers, the men possessed their stepmothers as their wives, and out of a fanciful shame against giving their daughters to be the wives of the others, they buried alive their own female babies. Individual selfishness and group interest had been so much ingrained in their blood and emotions that a mere trifle of an offence against any individual was sufficient to generate warfare


{23}

between the tribes for ages and generations together. There was no law for man to resort to, and might alone was considered to be right. The people were not only drowned in ignorance but were also most unyielding in nature.

The Darkness Demanded the Promised Light

THE HOPELESS SITUATION on the earth against which the infinite knowledge of the All-Knowing and the All-Merciful Creator Lord had already determined the panacea, had dawned. The darkness which shrouded the earth, demanded the dawn of the Brightest Light which had been promised by the Lord. At last dawned the heaven's Brightest Light in the arrival of MUHAMMAD the Last ApostIe of God who was caIIed by Buddha as Maetrea (i.e., the Mercy), by the Prophets preceding Jesus as The Prophet, and by Jesus with several glorious titles viz., 'The Spirit of Truth,' 'The Cottforter,' and 'The Holy Ghost' etc.

The Lord's Covenant with Abraham Fulfilled

AT LAST ON the 17th of the Lunar Month Rabiul Awwal in the Year of the Elephant (Amul Feel) A.D. 587, Muhammad the Divine Light destined to expel once for all the darkness, and destined to abide in his law with mankind for ever, had his birth in this physical world, in the seed of Abraham through Ishmael, in the fulfilment of the Covenant which the Lord had established with Abraham.

Heaven's Announcement of the Advent of the Last Apostle of God

EVENTS RECORDED BY the historians relate that as the Holy Prophet Muhammad was born in Mecca, there were heavenly signs announc- ing the great advent of the Promised Mercy to the Worlds, the Last of the Apostles of God, and the deliverer of the Lord's Final Word to humanity, i.e., the Holy Qur'an, the Final Code of Discipline for Mankind.
I. The idols installed by the pagans in the Holy Ka'ba, themselves fell down striking their faces to the ground.
2. In the distant land of Persia, where Fire was wor- shipped, the fire burning continuously for a thousand years in the altar, got itself extinguished.


{24}

3. The palace of Naushirwan the Just, the Persian King was shaken to its foundation.
4. A quake shock shook the Earth.
5. There was an extraordinary issue of the shooting stars from heaven.
It is quite obvious that the above signs were given to awaken man from his slumber to know the arrival of the Promised Prophet with the Final Word of Guidance from the Lord, for mankind as a whole.

The Immediate or the Nearest Ancestry of Muhammad the Promised Prophet, the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, the Holy Ghost

THE QOREISHITES WERE the direct descendants of Abraham through Ishmael, and Abde Manaf had four sons, Hashim, Muttalib, Naufal and Abdush Shams. Hashim died, away from home in one of his trade expeditions and a young son of his was left in the Caravan. Muttalib the brother of Hashim went and fetched the son of his late brother and brought him up along with his own children, and thus the son of Hashim was known as Abdul Muttalib. The children of Hashim through his son Abdul Muttalib were called the Hashimites. Abdul Muttalib had three sons, Abdullah, Abu Taleb and Jafar.
Abdush Shams, the son of Abde Manaf, had a clever, crafty and active Roman slave boy Omayya whom Abde Manaf had pur- chased and presented to his son Abdush Shams. Omayya, a heathen by birth, had spent his childhood among the Roman Christians. He was not only of questionable birth but was also evil hearted, mean by nature and vicious in temperament. His master Abdush Shams owing to his close attachment, held him as an adopted son. Omayya in his pride, bore an inherent envy and enmity against Hashim and the Hashimites. Abde Manaf, before his death, had handed over the charge of his privileged hereditary duties of service to the Holy Ka ba to Hashim his eldest son who was very noble by nature and godly in temperament. This aggravated the hatred, jealousy and animosity of Omayya which tendency continued as a personality trait from generation to generation in his seed.
The recent inquiries by the famous scholar A1-Ameeni of Iraq, the author of the celebrated work 'A1-Ghadeer, and the other


{25}

great research scholar Imad Zadeh of Iran, in their great works, discount the story by Ibne Athir and others, of Abdush Shams and Hashim being the twin issues of Abde Manaf, born with their backs joined, which were separated by a lancet, and some fortune teller predicting everlasting enmity between the descendants of the twins; and Omayya being the son of Abdush Shams. How- ever, the issues of Omayya, the slave boy adopted by Abdush Shams, became known as the Ornayyads and their inherent envy and enmity against the Hashimites came to stay as their hereditary trait as the native endowment which further developed in the Omayyad blood. The enmity between the two groups went on increasing. The Hashimites were known for all kinds of virtues and goodness while the Omayyads became notorious for the opposite qualities. As day-by day the honour, reverence, regard and respect for the goodness of the Hashimites went on increasing more and more, the jealousy and enmity of the Qrnavyads was got further more aggravated against the Hashimites. In short, the Hashi- mites were good, noble and gentle, while the Qmavyads were wicked, mean and aggressive. The Hashimites held the Trusteeshi and the Custody of the Holy House of God, the Ka'ba, which was the most coveted and unique honour enjoyed exclusively by the Hashimites. The Omayyads envied this the most, and could not bear it. While the charitable disposition of the Hashimites could not allow the hoarding of any persongl wealth, the selfishness and niggardliness of the Omayyads had enabled them to store abundant wealth which had made the Omayyads ever more haughty and proud against the noble, the gentle and the meek ones of the Hashimites. Much fuel was added to the already burning fire of envy and enmity of the Oniayyads when Abdul Muttalib, son of Hashim, miraculously discovered the natural spring-well of 'Zam Zam' which lay hidden and unknown to any one, for ages together. This mysterious un- covering of the well by Abdul Muttalib which was nothing short of a miracle, enhanced the regard and the reverence of the people for him in the Arabian Peninsula as a whole. This odl veteran in the seed of Abraham, through Ishmael, was the grandfather of the 'Spirit of Truth', The Holy Prophet Muhammad and Ali.
Abdul Muttalib worshipped none but the One True God and was always resigned to the Divine Will. His faith in God was proved in the ready response he had to his prayers to Him, when the Abyssinian Christian Prince reached the outskirts of the


{26}

town of Mecca with a huge army on elephants, with the determina- tion to destroy the Holy House of God, the Ka ba. History records the wonderful event that an aerial force of innumerable tiny birds, the Ababeel , appeared with small stones in their tiny beaks and dropped the stones on the soldiers mounted on the elephants, killing the soldiers and the huge animals on the spot. This routed the enemy totally and the Abvssinian Prince who had come to destroy the Holy House, had to experience the total destruction of his huge army, and was himself killed by a small stone dropped on him by a tiny bird. The year of this attack on Mecca by the Christian army on elephants, was such a historic and memorable event of import- ance that it gave birth to an Era of its own, called the AmuI Feel , i.e., the Year of the Elephant, for the people began to count the passage of time from that date. And this historic year of the mira- culous defeat and destruction of the enemy of God, and the mysterious heavenly rescue of the Holy House, the Ka ba, was to mark the birth of the Last Apostle of God, the Holy Prophet pro niised to Mankind through Jesus in the Middle East and by the great sages like Buddha in India who had foretold his people about the advent of the Last Buddha calling him in the Pall language as "Maetrea, and as regards the predictions in the Christian scriptures (see Deut 18:18, John 1:21, John 16:17) already given in the earlier pages.
To Abdul Muttalib, the great godly chief of the noble Hashimites, were born Hazrat Abdullah and Hazrat Abu Taleb and Jafar. Hazrat Abdullah was destined to be the father of the Holy Prophet Muhammad and Hazrat Abu-Taleb to be !he father of Ali who was to be the Divinely Commissioned Guide, immediately succeeding the Holy Prophet, as the First of the Twelve Holy Imams (i.e., the Twelve Princes promised in the seed of Ishmael vide Gen. 18 :20). Who was to be to the Holy Prophet Muhammad as was Aaron to Moses. Thus the Divine Light of Guidance to Humanity, which emanated from Abraham and Ishmael passed onto Abdul Muttalib, and got bifurcated to flow into the two channels of the seeds of Hazrat Abdullah and Hazrat Abu-Taleb, in the seed of the former, to manifest in the apostleship and in the latter in the Imamat or the Divine guidance. To Hazrat Abdullah was born Muhammad, the Holy Prophet, and throughHazrat Abu-Taleb came Ali, the Vicegerent of the Holy Prophet and the First Holy Imam (the divinely chosen Guide to Mankind). In the fulfilment


{27}

of the divine plan, the Holy Prophet Muhammad was gifted by God with a daughter Fatema Zahra, the Lady of Light, endowed with the maximum degree of purity and holiness ever had by any lady in the human race as a whole, destined to be the wife of All and the mother of the Eleven of the Twelve Imams, the Princes promised in the lineage of Ishmacl (Gen. 18:20)
God had chosen Abraham and his descendants:-
"Verily, God ,bath chosen Adam and Noah and the descen- dants of Abraham and Jmran above all the worlds."
"(Their) Offsprings, one of the other, and God is All - knowing." 3:32, 33. (H.Q)
This declaration of the Holy Qur'an is attested by the statement of the Old Testament: wherein God addressing Abraham says:
"And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generationsfor an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee and unto thy seed after thee,"
"And I willgive unto thee, and to thy seedafler thee, the iand wherein thou art a stranger, all tile land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession ; and I will be their God."
OT.(Gem 17-7,8)
Under the promise or the covenant which the Lord established with Abraham and his seed, Abraham was endowed with the Divine Light of guidance (Imamat) (see 2:124 H.Q) and to Abraham and his seed Ishmael, was given the land now called Mccci and the country surrounding it, in which Abraham was first a stranger, and which since its being inhabited by Abraham and his seed lshmael, had been uninterruptedly possessed by the descendants of lshmael or his followers, to remain with them for ever.
The Divine Light endowed in Abraham was bifurcated and passed into the two channels of the seed of Abraham viz., lshrnaei and Isaac. Through Isaac, it passed on till Jesus, and through Ishmael it descended down to Abdul Muttalib and ftoni Abdul Muttalib it was again bifurcated into the two channels, Abdullah and Abu-Talcb, and again it was bifurcated into the two channels of the seed of Au and Fatenia into Has3n and Husain, Hasan des- tined to be the Second Holy Imam and Husain to be the Third one and also the King of Martyrs. From Husain, it passed on to the


{28}

Nine Holy Imams in his seed until the Twelfth or the Last one in the line of the Imamat, i.e., Muhammad-al-Mahdi, who is kept alive to re-appear before the end of the world. As Jesus the last one in the seed of Abraham through Isaac is kept alive, this Holy Imam, the last one in the seed of Abraham through Ishmael, is also kept alive, and both these two manifestations of the Divine Light endowed in the seed of Abraham will meet before the end of the world, to fulfil the divine plan of cleaning the earth of falsehood once for all, and establishing peace and harmony on it, in the place of aggression, iniquity, enmity and hatred which will be ruling the earth prior;o their Final advent, and this will be the conclusion of the world.
The object of this work is only to present with extreme brevity the great historic event of the matchless sacrifice of the King of Martyrs the Holy Imam Husain, in the seed of Abraham through the Holy Prophet Muhammad, offered to save the Truth and humanity from getting lost to falsehood for ever, for the apostle- ship had been concluded with the revelation of the Holy Qur'an, the Final Word of God. If anything had to be done or could be done,, to save the Truth, it was only through the Imamat which was destined to do it, and Husain was the divinely chosen one for it. Both All and Fatema were martyred. Ali was assassinated while in prayer in the Mosque at Kufa and Fatema was killed by the fall of the door of her own house, caused by a tyrant.
From Ali and Fatetna, were born Hasan and Husairi, the second and the third Imams Hasan was martyred by being secretly poisoned at the instance of Ma aviah, and Husain was the victim of the brutal massacre, enacted by Yazeed the son of Ma'aviah. Thus the Hashimites were the family of nobles and martyrs in the way of the Lord, while the Omayyads were the clan of tyrants and assassins.
The fact is that the Holy Five viz.,
1. Muhammad .. .. The Holy Prophet
2. Ali .. .. The First Holy Imam
3. Fatema .. .. The Lady of Light, the Holy Mother of the Eleven Imams
4. Hasan .. .. The Second Holy Imam
5. Husain .. .. The Third Holy Imam


{29}

were the embodiment of the Divine Light or the models of the ideal godly life on Earth, the presentations of the models of whose divine purity and Holiness in the practical life was the fulfilment of the Divine Plan and the realisation of the object of the ceation of the Universe.



{30}


The Last Apostle of God

If ANYONE GOES through the life of the Holy Prophet Muhammad, he will not be able to resist shedding tears for the tortures, the miseries and calamities which the great godly soul suffered at the hands of the people. Any intelligent reader would find that all the sufferings which every one of the preceding apostles of God had suffered, had been inflicted on the Last Apostle of the Lord, along with other additional tortures and miseries which none else had ever experienced and he suffered all the calamities with ideal patience, matchless fortitude, unparalleled steadfastness and unshakable determination to fulfil the covenant established with the Lord.
23. Nude dances were stopped, graceful dresstng was prescribed.
24. Seeking of knowledge was made compulsory, both for man and woman, scholarship was encouraged and scholars honoured.
25. Gambling and all games of chance were declared as crimes.
26. Adultery was declared as the most abhorred and the most severely punishable crime.
27. Slavery was abolished in the most practical and a peaceful way, enjoining equal treatment to the slaves as compulsory, if slaves had to be main- tained.
28. The law of Maktabah to facilitate slaves get liberated was enforced.
29. Usury was strictly prohibited, loan without interest highly commended.
30. Socialistic pattern of society was established through a commonwealth called ' Bait- ul- maL.'
31. Accumulation of wealth was controlled through the Laws of inheritance, and the annual taxattons, with the prescribed rates.
32. Hoarding of foodgrains and other foodstuffs were declared as punishable crimes.