Congratulations on the Birth Anniversary of Imam Zain al-Abedin (AS)
Poll: 70% of Iranians Don’t Trust U.S.
Army Stages Missile Drills
TEHRAN (Press TV) -- A recent opinion poll conducted by the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting Organization (IRIB) shows the majority of the Iranian people
do not trust the U.S. with regard to a possible final deal
between Iran and the P+1 group over Tehran’s nuclear program. Speaking in the northeastern province of
South Khorasan, IRIB President Muhammad Sarafraz
said some 70% of the Iranian people believe that the
U.S. will not remain committed to its undertakings in the
nuclear talks between Iran and the six global powers.
TEHRAN (Press TV) -- The Iranian army’s ground forces
on Saturday successfully staged major missile maneuvers
in central Iran, says a senior commander. The exercise
codenamed Beit-ul-Muqaddas 27 was held in a desert area
in the city of Kashan and saw the successful test-firing of
missiles which hit predetermined targets, army’s ground
forces commander Brigadier General Ahmad Reza Pourdastan told IRNA. “The M6, M10 and Fajr missiles were
fired in the drill,” he added. The exercises also involve
drone units of the Ground Forces, said the top commander.
VOL NO: LV 9764 TEHRAN / Est.1959
2
Viewpoint
By: Kayhan Int’l Staff Writer
The Death of Nuke-Free
Mideast Initiative
3
Sunday, May 24, 2015, Khordad 3, 1394, Sha’ban 5, 1436, Price 10000 Rials
6
Iran to
Boycott BookExpo
America
Piety Personified
By: Seyyed Ali Shahbaz
“In the Name of God, from Whom I hope for nothing but bounty, and from
whom I fear nothing but justice! I rely only upon His word, and I cling only to
His cord!
“In You I seek sanctuary – O Possessor of pardon and good pleasure
– from wrong and enmity, from the changes of time and the recurrence of sorrows, from the striking of mishaps, and from the expiration of my term before
preparation and readiness. From You I seek guidance to that wherein is righteousness and being set right… You I beseech for the garment of well-being and
its completion and for the covering of health and its permanence. I seek refuge
in You, my Lord, from the goadings of the satans, and I seek protection in Your
sovereignty from the injustice of the rulers.
“So accept my past prayers and fasting and make my tomorrow and what
is after better than my present hour and my today! For You are God, the Best
Guardian, and You are the Most Merciful of the merciful.
“So bless Muhammad and the progeny of Muhammad, the best of Your
reaction, the summoner to Your truth.”
What a wonderful way to beseech the Lord Most High, by putting all trust in
His All-Enveloping Mercy, and in seeking His formidable Protection in all affairs!
The person who bequeathed to us this gem of a supplication to be recited on
Sundays was not an ordinary man. He was a direct descendant of the Seal of Messengers. As a matter of fact, he was not just a great-grandson of Prophet Muhammad (SAWA) but his 4th Infallible Heir.
To be more precise he is none other than the Survivor of the Tragedy of
Karbala, who was born this day (5th of Sha’ban) in the year 38 AH during the
caliphate of his grandfather, the One and Only Commander of the Faithful, Imam
Ali ibn Abi Taleb (AS), and was named after him as “Ali” by his father Imam
Husain (AS).
It would be repetitive to say that his mother was the virtuous Princess of
Persia, Shahrbano (SA), and that his devotion to God was such that he is known
till this day as “Zain al-Abedin” (Ornament of the Worshippers) and “Seyyed osSajedin” (Chief of the Prostrators), or simply Sajjad.
It would also be tedious to describe the tragic events he witnessed as a
23-year old bedridden youth on the Day of Ashura (10th Muharram) in Karbala,
where his father, uncles, brothers, and cousins were martyred, while in its equally
tragic aftermath, despite his sickness, he was dragged in chains to the courts of the
tyrants in Kufa and Damascus – along with his wife, 4-year old son, aunts, and
sisters – and subjected to imprisonment in the Syrian capital.
His personality is larger than life. As the 4th divinely-designated Imam of
the Ummah – a position he held for 34 years from 61 AH till his own martyrdom
through poisoning in 95 AH – he has left an indelible mark on Islam and history.
He groomed several scholars such as the famous Abu Hamaza Thumali, who
for his devotion to the cause of the Ahl al-Bayt was known as “Salman of the Age”
– a reference to the Prophet’s great Iranian companion Salman Farsi, who was
firmly attached to Imam Ali (AS).
During the first decade of his imamate, Imam Zain al-Abedin (AS) patiently
endured the oppression of the rancorous Abdullah ibn Zubayr who had declared
himself caliph in Hijaz, and once plotted to burn alive all male members of the
Prophet’s Hashemite clan, but failed to do so, because of the timely arrival of a
force sent from Iraq by Mukhtar ibn Abu Obaidah, the Avenger of the Blood of
Imam Husain (AS).
The next two decades of the 4th Imam’s mission saw the resurgent power and
subsequently the tyranny of the Omayyads, who had been almost totally destroyed
but for the blunder of Abdullah ibn Zubayr to align with Mukhtar to deliver the
coup-de-grace in Damascus.
Through the medium of prayers and supplications (as manifested in the
“Sahifat-as-Sajjadiyyah”) and by expounding the pure and pristine Sunnah and
Seerah of the Prophet, he continued his mission to enlighten the seekers of truth,
while the self-styled caliphs, Abdul-Malik ibn Marwan and Walid, were on a spree
of state terrorism to plunder North Africa and Spain in the west, and what is now
Pakistan in the east, to give a bad name to Islam and its peaceful teachings.
Imam Zain al-Abedin (AS) was the harbinger of mercy to all, even to those
who had oppressed him, like the sacked Omayyad govrnors, Hisham bin Ismail,
whom he saved from likely execution by saying we never feel vengeful towards
our fallen foes.
In this way, the 4th Imam solidified in society the genuine teachings of Islam,
to the extent that the famous Arab poet, Farazdaq, braving imprisonment, proudly
recited the following verses when Hisham ibn Abdul-Malik, while governor of
Mecca, failed to reach the sacred black stone at the holy Ka’ba, but the same crowd
politely gave way whenever the great-grandson of the Prophet wished to touch it:
“It is the one whose footsteps are known by every place; And it is he who is
known to the Bayt in Mecca, the most frequented sanctuary; It is he who is the
son of the Best of all men of God and it is he who is the most pious and devout;
the purest and most unstained the most chaste and most righteous a symbol [of
Islam].
“This is Ali [son of Husain] whose forefather is the Prophet; This is the son
of Fatema, if you do not know who he is; Whosoever recognizes his God knows
also the primacy and superiority of this man, because the religion has reached
nations through his House.”
Iran Volleyball
Team Defeats Czech
Republic in Friendly
8
“Hezbollah May
Mobilize Public
Against Takfiris”
Ayatollah Khamenei:
Some Muslim Heads Mistake Enemies for Friends
Ayatollah Khamenei waves to participants of the 32nd International Holy Qur’an Competitions in Tehran.
TEHRAN (Press TV) -- Leader
of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah
Seyyed Ali Khamenei on Saturday
warned that enemies of Islam are
pursuing plots to sow discord among
Muslim nations.
“Some heads of Muslim states mistake enemies for friends,” Ayatollah
Khamenei said in a meeting with
participants at the 32nd International
Holy Qur’an Competitions here.
“Officials of certain Muslim coun-
tries have an optical illusion and
can’t tell friend and foe apart. These
countries will suffer a blow,” Ayatollah Khamenei stated.
Obedience to the Holy Qur’an
teachings, refusal to succumb to
whatever “modern ignorance”
wants to impose and resistance
against such impositions are the solution to the current problems facing the Muslim world, the Leader
said.
“Regretfully, the Muslim world is
presently suffering severely from
weakness, poverty, discord and civil wars triggered as a result of pressure by ignorant systems,” Ayatollah Khamenei said.
He added that the Iranian nation
has managed to raise its capabilities
and hope by standing up to bullying.
One of the key schemes of the enemies is to provoke divisions and
rifts among Muslim nations, the
Leader said, stressing the importance of remaining vigilant to the
enemies’ divisive plots.
Ayatollah Khamenei said that illwishers of Muslim nations seek to
sow sectarian, religious and ethnic
divisions, urging “wisdom” and
“determination” to counter such .
(Continued on Page 7)
Iran Aid Flight Not Allowed in Djibouti
TEHRAN (Dispatches) -- An Iranian Red Crescent plane carrying
20 tonnes of food for war-torn Yemen was prevented from landing in
Djibouti, where the UN has a relief
hub, official media said Saturday.
“Despite coordination with the
United Nations and the World
Food Program, the plane was not
granted permission to land in Djibouti,” the IRNA news agency
said quoting a Red Crescent offi-
cial.
The unnamed official said the
plane was now in Chabahar, in
southeastern Iran, awaiting “the
authorization of the foreign affairs
ministry” of Djibouti.
National television said Saudi
Arabia pressured Djibouti into not
allowing the plane to land.
Djiboutian authorities said the
Iranian cargo ship arrived on Friday night in port.
U.S., UK, Canada Wreck
NPT Conference
UNITED NATIONS (Dispatches)
-- A month-long review conference
on the 1970 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty ended in failure after its
members were unable to overcome
disagreements on an atomic weapons
ban for the Middle East.
After four weeks of negotiations
at the United Nations on ways to
improve compliance with the pact,
there was no consensus among its
191 signatories. U.S. Under Secretary of State Rose Gottemoeller announced there was “no agreement”
and accused some countries of undermining the negotiations.
Gottemoeller did not specify any
nations but diplomats said she was
referring to Egypt.
“We have made clear throughout
the process that we will not accept
the efforts by some to cynically manipulate the (conference) or try to
leverage the negotiation to advance
their narrow objectives,” she told
attendees.
Egypt denied trying to wreck the
conference.
The U.S. concerns were echoed by
Canada and Britain. Cairo’s top delegate, Assistant Foreign Minister
Hashim Badr, blamed Washington,
London and Ottawa for the failure
(Continued on Page 7)
An Iranian boat carrying 2,500
tonnes of aid for Yemen docked
late Friday in the Horn of Africa
port of Djibouti.
The cargo had been handed over
to the WFP in Djibouti and was
currently being offloaded, WFP
spokeswoman Abeer Etefa said on
Saturday.
“The ship carries 2,500 tonnes of
humanitarian aid and that includes
mainly rice and wheat flour, as
well as medicine, water, tents and
blankets,” she said.
The Red Crescent official told
IRNA the vessel was being
offloaded in Djibouti.
The ship had initially been heading for the Yemeni port of Hodeida but had to change course after
warnings from the United States
and Saudi Arabia has been pounding Yemen.
(Continued on Page 7)
Iranian Gas to Flow to
Iraq Next Month
TEHRAN (Press TV) -- Iran will begin exporting natural gas to Iraq in a month’s
time, Managing Director of the National Iranian Gas Company Hamid Reza Araqi
said on Saturday.
The gas flow will begin with a one-month delay after final tests on the pipeline
are completed, he said.
Exports were planned to begin this month but “the two sides were not technically ready” for that, the official told reporters, stressing that the delay was not
linked to political issues.
Iran is expected to initially deliver 4 million cubic meters of gas per day
(mcm/d) and raise it to 35 mcm/d later to feed three power plants in Iraq.
Araqi said there are a series of contractual issues about the Iraqi payment
which the two sides are discussing to clarify.
“Given that we are currently under sanctions, the mode of receiving the money
for the exported gas is very important to us,” he said.
“If sanctions are abolished, we will easily receive money upon the presentation
(Continued on Page 7)