Alhassanain(p) Network for Heritage and Islamic Thought

Abraham Declered Truthful, But The Sacrifice, Postponed

Abraham repeatedly had visions of slaying his son ISMAEL. The Bible of the Christian church also mentions this with the change of the name of the son from ISMAEL to ISAAC, which change is obviously a Jewish tampering of the original event to suit their selfish ends, to shift the great sacrifice to ISAAC, the father of the Israelites. A vision to an apostle of God is deemed to be the Lord's directive to him, to act according to the direction given therein. Abraham related his vision to his son ISMAEL saying:

"O' Son, I see in vision that I slay thee" [HOLY QUR'AN 37:102]

ISMAEL, the dutiful son who was himself to be an apostle of God, submitted to his father saying:

"O' Father, Act as thou host been bidden (by the Lord) and thou will, if God Well, find me of the patient ones" [HOLY QUR'AN, 37:102] Abraham told his wife, HAGAR, the mother of ISMAEL that he was taking his son to his friend; and equipping himself with a knife and a rope, left for an altar on a nearby mountain. Abraham laid down his son ISMAEL and tied his hands and legs lest the boy should struggle while being slain, and blindfolded himself with a piece of cloth apprehending his failure due to his paternal love, to bear the sight of his son rolling in his own blood, and in compliance with the divine directive received through the dream, Abraham offering his son to God, passed the knife across, cutting the throat under it.

As soon as Abraham was sure that he had slain his son under the knife, he immediately uncovered his eyes to pray to the Lord to accept his sacrifice, but to his great surprise, he found ISMAEL standing aside and instead of ISMAEL a ram lay slain. My other father would have only rejoiced at he miraculous escape of his son, but Abraham with his ideal submission to His Will, stood sorrowful and disappointed thinking that his offering was not accepted by the Lord, but a heavenly voice immediately consoled Abraham saying:

"O' Abraham of course thou hast faithfully the dream, thou art of the truthful ones, but verily it is an open test, we have substituted it with a Great sacrifice. We have transferred it to later generation" [HOLY QUR'AN, 37:105-408] The substitute -sacrifice destined to take place instead of the one offered by Abraham, has been called by god as on Open Test and a Great Sacrifice from which one naturally infers that the one to be sacrificed would be greater than ISMAEL in his position with the Lord, and such a great sacrifice could naturally be offered by the one who would be superior to Abraham in his submission to God's Will. What Abraham was demanded to enact was only a test:

1- To make it known to mankind the degree of Abraham's love of God, and his submission to God's Will.

2- To make Abraham himself know that he was still lacking in resistance to witness the blood of his son when it had to flow in the fulfillment of the Will of the Lord.

3- To declare the ideal devotion of Abraham and his implicit submission of God, even to sacrifice his own son, when commanded by the Lord to do it.

4- To make id known to man that when it is demanded in obedience to God's command, man should sacrifice even his won son.

5- To make the children of Adam (Man) know that in obedience to their parents, they must surrender themselves as ISMAEL did.

6- To make it known to mankind that such an event is under the Divine Will and it is a Great Test which shall be enacted openly and it shall come to pass in the time to come, in the seed of Abraham.

Besides, the test, if it had to profit mankind, must be an open test, with its causes and events openly known, to earn the appreciation of its consequent effects. Abraham enacted the slaughter in obedience to God's command, but since the nature of the command was shrouded in a dream and every one could not know that the dream of an apostle of God is a revelation of God's Will, and with the ignorance of this mystic factor, people, instead of appreciating the unique submission of Abraham to the divine will of the Lord, would have condemned Abraham for having fanatically slaughtered his son, beguiled by his own fanciful interpretation of his dream. Thus, if Abraham had in those circumstances been allowed to slaughter ISMAEL, the value of the Great Sacrifice would have practically been wasted and its great purpose would not have been fully served.

Secondly, the object of the sacrifice was, to associate it with the life of the great Apostle, so that humanity in its sympathy towards the tragic event may give due admiration to the Apostle, but there, in this case, admiration would have gone only to ISMAEL as being the victim of Abraham's personal interpretation of his dream, which the people could have mistaken to be fantastic, and Abraham would have been condemned for his conduct, which in fact was a unique instance of perfect submission of God's will.

And over and above the other reasons, the sacrifice, if it had been left to be enacted by Abraham, would have been a sheer waste, for no universal religion had yet been regulated and enforced for the human race ad a whole, for mankind as a whole to be drawn to it, through its sympathy towards the event. Moses had yet to present the Ten Commandments and Jesus had to revive the teachings of Moses after they had been corrupted, and yet when the teachings of all the apostles from God got corrupted, Muhammad the Last Apostle of God, the 'MAETREA' foretold by BUDDHA, the 'Comforter' the 'Holy Ghost' and the 'Spirit of Truth' prophesied by Jesus,

to abide with mankind for ever, had yet to come. And the Great Sacrifice was then to be offered for only then the human sympathy, for the hear ending sufferings of the Great Divine and his faithful comrades, would lead mankind as a whole towards the universal religion. Islam is the only divinely revealed and perfectly regulated code for human discipline cumulative of the teachings of all the apostles of God and which contains the Truth which exposed piecemeal by the other prophets in different ages, to different people, in different languages. The Greatest of the Sacrifices ever offered by any man, would naturally be for the sake of a religion meant for the man race as a whole, and it could be offered by the one whose live would be, not for himself but for the fulfillment of the Mercy of the Lord unto the whole of Mankind.

The Failure Of Judasim and Christianity

The purely monotheistic faith preached and practiced by the great Israelite prophets Moses and Jesus, had totally failed to exercise any more of its correct influence on the minds of the Jews and the Christians who had gradually sunk deep in all sorts of idolatrous beliefs and pagan practices. The followers of Jesus, the most recent of the apostles of God, preceding the Holy Prophet Muhammad, had become polytheists in worshipping three gods instead of the One Whom they were commanded to serve:

"Unto thee it was shown that thow mightiest know that Lord is God; there is none else besides Him"

"I am the First and I am the Last and besides Me there is no God". (Isaiah 44:6)

"Hear O' Israel, the Lord thy God is One Lord". (Deut. 6:4)

"I am God, and there is none else; I am God, there is none like Me". (Isaiah 46:9)

"I am the Lord that is My Name, and glory will I not give to another, neither My praises to graven images…" (Isaiah 42:8)

The New Testament:

"And Jesus answered him, the First of all Commandments is, O' Israel, the Lord our God is One Lord" (Mark 12:29) "then said Jesus unto him, get thee hence Satan, for it is written thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and Him only shalt thou serve" (Math 4:10, Luke 4:8)

"Man idol is nothing in the world, and there is none other God but One". (Corin 8:6) "But to us there is but One God the Father". (Corin 8:6)

In-spite of the definite Commandments from God conveyed to the people by the holy prophets Moses and Jesus, the Israelites and the Christians had started deifying their prophets and their saints, worshipping them. Among the Christians had sprung up schools worshipping the idols of Mary, Jesus and also the other saints of their own fancy. The Christians condemned the Israelites as being meaningless in their faith and the Israelites criticized the Christians similarly in return, while both of them were on the wrong track, diametrically opposed to what they had been preached by their respective teachers, Moses and Jesus.

THE DARKENED EARTH

Every nation had a guide in an apostle from God and there was not left any place on the Earth which had not a Warner or a guide (10:47, 16:36, 35:24) to fight the satanic of evil and wickedness which effectively ruled over the thoughts and actions of the human race. Satan had beguiled every nation of the world and had taken every nation far away from goodness in thought and action Corruption ruled all over the world:

"Mischief had appeared in the land and the sea, of what was wrought by the hands of mankind…" [30:41 H.Q.] Asia, which was the birthplace of the religious guides and the apostles of God, had become the seat of all sorts of idolatry and heinous crimes were committed in the name of religion. People in India worshipped not only their own gods and goddesses but also animals, the serpents, the trees, the mountains, the rivers, the sun, the moon, and the stars. Many such objects were invoked as demigods or the agents of God, who were believed to be able to grant the prayers of man. To appease the anger or to gain the pleasure of the deities, all kind of rituals and offerings, including human sacrifices were offered. The teachings of sacred Vedas in India had created sects and sub-sects and had instituted communal hatred and caste distinctions as a part of the religious observances. Woman had been deprived of any place in the human society and denied the right of inheritance.

Woman was not only freely used by man in the licentious satisfaction of the sexual urge in him, in the uncontrolled and the unrestricted polygamy but was subjected to the disgraceful system of Polyandry. In India a woman had no right to live after her husband but to burn herself to death, in the same fire in which her husband's body was cremated.

Persia was worshipping fire as god and the people believed in two independent gods of virtue and vice, i.e. MAZDA and AHRIMAN. The countries towards the Pacific were also buried deep under similar fantastic beliefs. Buddha had come to create the spirit of self-annihilation or self-denial in the day-to-day life of man but he was misunderstood and quite a new and most impracticable creed became innovated in his name, demanding humanity to tear itself away from the human society and to resort to wilderness and to live on begging as the 'BHIKSHUS'.

The countries professing the religion of the church founded in the name of Christ, had started preaching the belief in three gods: Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. This peculiar phenomena of three in one and one in three, had created diverse schisms and conflicting sects which vied with one another in exploiting their brand in the riddle, how the man Jesus could also be God and how one could be three, and the same three could remain one. The most impracticable ideals were preached, i.e., turning the other cheek when one is smitten and surrendering the coast also when the cloak is taken away.

"And unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek, offer also the other, and him that taketh away thy cloak forbid not to take thy coat also". "Give to every man that asketh thee, and of him that taketh away thy goods ask them not" (Luke 6:29-30) Such horrible excesses were committed by the Christians in their heartless persecution of even the monotheistic Jews, that the records of their barbarous atrocities are absolutely unsurpassed in the history of the world.

Not to uproot any evil but in their madness to swell the ranks of the followers of their own established churches, the inhuman atrocities and the brutal conduct of the Christian authorities would need volumes to relate them in all their details. Gibbon has pictured their character and conduct in his famous 'The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire:

"At MINOREA", says Gibbon, "The clerics of St. Stephen converted in eight days five hundred and forty Jews; with the help, indeed, of some wholesome severities, such as burning the synagogues, driving the obstinate infidels to strave among the rocks etc". in Alexandria the Jews were "expelled from the city, their houses plundered and their synagogues appropriated to the use of the church. The account of the Jews who were plundered, sent away naked, banished, starved, tortured, left perish in prison, hanged and burnt by the Christians would fill many volumes". Gibbon further reports: "In almost every province of the Roman world, an army of fanatics without authority and without discipline, invaded the peaceful inhabitants; and the ruins of the fairest structures of antiquity still display the ravages of those barbarians who alone had time and inclination to execute such laborious destruction".

Why go far to explore the ancient history of Christianity? Let us take into account the recent atrocious and inhuman attack of Rome (Italy), the seat of the supreme head of the Christian Religion, the Pope, on anther poor Christian country, Abyssinia in World War II: Italy played havoc upon the poor, helpless, ill-armed Abyssinians, merely for some territorial lust. Should not the intelligent ones and the free-thinkers among our Christian brethren question their church authorities? What happened to the commandment referred to in Luke 6:29-30?.

Arabia presented a consolidated view of all kinds of vices and crimes which were current in the different countries around it. Along with all barbaric inhuman character and the brutal conduct found elsewhere in the world, Arabia had added something grievous and further heinous in nature. Idolatry had been so much ingrained in the nation people that besides the three hundred and sixty idols on sacred shrine of the KA'BA, the House built by Abraham and his son ISMAEL, 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 favorite guardian deity which he held as his personal favorite 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 be wife, 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 travelers and of the unprotected habitations had become a proud profession.

Use of all sorts of intoxicants had neither any restriction nor control. Angels were hailed as the daughters of God. Famous ancestors 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 certain 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 clan assuming itself into a separate political unit. Hostilities once started continued for generations together.

Women were treated as mere chattels, as objects to serve man, to satisfy his animal passions (i.e., his sexual lust), without right to inherit their deceased fathers, husbands or other relatives. A woman could be teased and tortured to any extent at the uncontrolled fancy of man. She could be left in suspense, neither being allowed to marry nor divorced. Woman's lot was very miserable. Besides polyandry which was freely practiced, prostitution 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 teachings of any of 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 settling down wherever they found water of themselves and pasture for their animals. Most of the land was not cultivable for grains and the soil and the climate 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 live-hood, the people in groups preyed on each other for their own survival and thus got addicted to the worst of crimes such as plunder, pillage and carnage which had become their personal traits and profession. 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 such ingrained in their blood and emotions that a mere trifle of an offence against any individual was sufficient to generate warfare 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 Apostle of God who was called 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 Comforter', and 'The Holy Ghost' etc.

THE LORD'S COVENANT WITH ABRAHAM FULFILLED

At last on the 17th of ht Lunar Month RABIUL-AWWAL in the Year of 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 ISMAEL, in the fulfillment 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 announcing 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.

1- The idols installed by the pagans, in the Holy KA'BA themselves fell down striding their faces to the ground.

2- In the distant land of Persia, where Fire was worshipped, the fire burning continuously for a thousands years in the altar, got itself extinguished.

3- The palace of NAUSHIRWAN of 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 Final Word of Guidance from the Lord, for mankind as a whole.

THE IMMEDIATE OR THE NEAREST ANCESTRY OF MUHAMMAD THE EPROMISED PROPHET, THE COMFORTER, THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH, THE HOLY GHOST

The QOREISHITES were the direct descendants of Abraham through ISMAEL, 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'. ABUDL MUTTALIB had three sons, ABDULLAH, ABU TALEB and JA'FAR ABDUSH SHAMS, the son of ABDE MANAF, had a clever, crafty and active Roman slave boy OMAYYA whom ABDE MANAF had purchased 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 AL-AMEENI of Iraq, the author of the celebrated work 'AL-GHADEER', and the other 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.

However, the issues of OMAYYA, the slave boy adopted by ABDUSH SHAMS, became known as the OMAYYADS 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 honor, severance, regard and respect for the goodness of the HASHIMITES went on increasing more and more, the jealousy and enmity of the OMAYYADS was got further more aggravated against the HASHIMITES. In short, the HASHIMITES were good, noble and gentle, while the OMAYYADS were wicked, mean and aggressive. The HASHIMITES held the Trusteeship and the Custody of the Holy House of God, the KA'BA, which was the most coveted and unique honor 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 personal 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 OMAYYADS when ABDUL MUTTALIB, son of HASHIM, miraculously discovered the natural spring-well of 'ZAMZAM' which lay hidden and unknown to any one, for ages together. This mysterious uncovering 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 godly veteran in the seed of Abraham, through ISMAEL, 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 town of Mecca with a huge army on elephants, with the determination 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 Abyssinian 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 importance that it gave birth to an Era of its own called the 'AMUL 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 miraculous 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 Last Apostle of God, the Holy Prophet promised 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 PALI 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 JA'FAR. HAZRAT ABDULLAH was destined to be the father of the Holy Prophet Muhammad and HAZRAT ABU TALEB to be the 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 ISMAEL vide Gen. 18:20). Who was to be the Holy Prophet Muhammad as was Aaron to Moses.

Thus the Divine Light of Guidance to Humanity, which emanated from Abraham and ISMAEL passed on to 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 Imamate or the Divine guidance. To HAZRAT ABDULLAH was born Muhammad, the Holy Prophet, and through HAZRAT ABU TALEB came Ali, the Vicegerent of the Holy Prophet and the First Holy Imam (the divinely chosen Guide to Mankind). In the fulfillment 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 Ali and the mother of the Eleven of the Twelve Imams, the Princes promised in the lineage of ISMAEL (Gen. 18:20)

God has chosen Abraham and his descendants:

"Verily, god hath chosen Adam and Noah and the descendants of Abraham and IMRAN above all the world". "(Their) Off-springs, one of the other, and God is All-Knowing [3:33-34 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 generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee and unto thy seed after thee".

And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God". OT (Gen. 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 (Imamate) (see 2:124 H.Q) and to Abraham and his seed ISMAEL, was given the land now called Mecca and the country surrounding it, in which Abraham was first a stranger, and which since its being inhabited by Abraham and his seed ISMAEL, had been uninterruptedly possessed by the descendants of ISMAEL 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., ISMAEL and ISAAC. Through ISAAC, it passed on till Jesus, and through ISMAEL it descended down to ABDUL MUTTALIB, and from ABDUL MUTTALIB it was again bifurcated into the two channels, ANDULLAH and ABU TALIB, and again it was bifurcated into the two channels of the seed of Ali and FATEMA into HASSAN and HUSSAIN, HASSAN destined to be the Second Holy Imam and HUSSAIN to be the Third one and also the King of Martyrs.

From HUSSAIN, it passed on to the Nine Holy Imams in his seed until the Twelfth or the Last one in the line of the Imamate, i.e., MUHAMMAD AL-MAHDI, who is kept alive to reappear 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 ISMAEL, 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 fulfill 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 to 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 HUSSAIN, 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 apostleship had been concluded with 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 Imamate which was destined to do it, and HUSSAIN was the divinely chosen one for it. Both ALI 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 FATEMA, were born HASSAN and HUSSAIN, the second and the third Imams. HASSAN was martyred by being secretly poisoned at the instance of MU'AYIAH, and HUSSAIN was the victim of the brutal massacre, enacted by YAZZID the son of MU'AYIAH. 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- MUHAMAD The Holy Prophet

2- ALI The First Holy Imam

3- FATEMA The Lady of Light, the Holy Mother of the Eleven Imams

4- HASSAN The Second Holy Imam

5- HUSSAIN The Third Holy Imam

Were the embodiment of the Divine Light or the models of the ideal godly life on earth, the presentation of the models of whose divine purity and Holiness in the practical life was the fulfillment of the Divine Plan and the realization of the object of creation of the Universe. The Genealogy of the Holy Prophet Muhammad from Abraham:

ABRAHAM ISAAC -------------------------------l---------------------------- ISHMAEL l l JACOB MALIK SABAT l l l MOSES MURRA FIHR YASHAB l l l l JESUS KILAAB GHALIB BA'RAB l l l KOSSAY LOVVAI NAKOR l l l ABD-MUNAF KAAB ADNAN l l l HASHIM MA'D l ABDULM MUTTALIB NAZAR --------------l----------------- l ABDULLAH ABU TALIB NASAR l l l MUHAMMAD ALI ILYAS The Last Apostle The First of The l Of God Divinely KANANA Commissioned l Imams or Guides NAFAR

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 Apostles 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 fulfill the covenant established with the Lord.

23- Nude dances were stopped, graceful dressing was prescribed.

24- Seeking of knowledge was made compulsory, both for man and woman, scholarship was encouraged and scholars honored.

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 peaceful way, enjoining equal treatment to the slaves as compulsory, if slaves had to be maintained.

28- The law of 'Muhammad' 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 taxations, with the prescribed rates.

32- Hoarding of food-grains and other food-stuffs were declared as punishable crimes.

33- Just and correct use of Weights and Measures, was ordered.

34- Cleanliness of body, thought, conduct and character was made compulsory.

35- Varieties of food and drinks and the limits of eating and drinking fixed.

36- Strictly regulated fasting was prescribed and declared compulsory.

37- Protection of travelers and helping them as mush as possible, made obligatory and highly commendable.

38- Patronage of orphans and the destitute declared as one of the great virtues and a strongly commended quality.

39- Compulsion in faith strongly depreciated and strictly prohibited.

40- Man was given the liberty in the choice of his faith, with personal responsibility for a correct decision.

41- Reformation through many other characteristics and exclusively distinctive commandments was enforced through which human society was revolutionized and greatly profited.

The above facts justly, warrant every intelligent and impartial reader with his scholarship, logical reasoning and the sense of justice, to fearlessly declare that the Man who could bring about such a wonderful revolution in the ideology of the people totally lost in the barbaric paganism, and effected such a miraculous transformation in every sphere of the practical life of mankind, which for the greatest statesmen, or even for the strongest of the dictatorial monarchs, could have been nothing short of an impossibility, within the short span of only 23 years, must be the Wonder-man, the Greatest Benefactor of Humanity;

and he could be none else other than the Greatest of the Apostles of the Almighty Lord. In fact, it was God's will, which none could ever resist that was done on the earth, to finally guide mankind for all times, which He had mercifully promised to do. This is what the Last Prophet of God, gave effect to, and if this godly service is undone, he who does it, will be none but Satan, even, if the individual appears in human frame. And one who fights such a devil will naturally and necessarily be the greatest hero of humanity with the maximum divinity endowed in him, though he may not be a prophet, he must necessarily be a Deputy of an apostle of God. This is the point to be remembered in judging the personality of HUSSAIN, the King of Martyrs.

ISLAM THE UNIVERSAL RELIGION FOR MANKIND

The conception of God in Islam is unique in its strict Unitarian aspect. The jurisdiction of God, is not restricted or limited to any section of humanity or to any part of the world. God according to Islam is the 'RABBUL-ALAMEEN' (i.e., The Lord of the Worlds i.e., the Absolute Monarch of the whole Universe)

Prophets sent before the Holy Prophet Muhammad, were not for human race as a whole, they were for particular peoples in various parts of the earth. Even Jesus, the immediate predecessor of the Holy Prophet Muhammad, about his own self, had said:

"I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the House of Israel" (Math 15-22-26) But Muhammad the Holy Prophet, the Last Apostle of God was not to guide any particular tribe, community or any part of the human race, but for mankind as a whole, and the religion Islam was revealed to be current for all times until the Day of Judgment.

The Holy Prophet Muhammad had been sent as the RAHMATUN-LIL AALAMEEN' (i.e. the Mercy unto the World or the Universe)

"…We have sent thee an Apostle for mankind.." [4:79]

"Say O' ye people, I am the Apostle of God unto you all.." [7:158]

"We sent thee not but a Mercy unto the Worlds" [21:107]

"We sent thee but unto mankind as a whole" [34:28]

No creed preached by any religious leader or apostle prior to the Holy Prophet, was ever given any name. since the religion preached by the Holy Prophet, was the divinely perfected code of discipline for human life on earth, it was the named Islam and was prescribed for the human race for all times till the end of the world.

"This day have I perfected for you your religion and completed My bounties on you and pleased Islam to be your religion" [5:3] "Verily the religion with God is Islam and whosoever seeketh a religion other than Islam, it shall never be accepted of him" [3:85, 4:125, 2:112]

THE HOLY QUR'AN - THE WORD OF GOD

The code of control, regulation and the discipline of the human life on the earth, called the HOLY QUR'AN, is not a Book edited by any mortal. It does not contain legends and stories or any collection of folklore on the life of the Holy Prophet or about the faith Islam. It is the very Word of God which was recorded then and there as it was revealed to the Holy Prophet through the Messenger Angel Gabriel, which is a complete Book, sent down for the use of the pious ones in the human race as a whole, for all times, in all parts of the world. "This is the Book there is doubt therein, a guide for the pious ones" [2:2]

TO DESTROY Islam IS TO DESTROY HUMANITY

When Islam is the divinely revealed religion for the human race as a whole, as the only religion acceptable to God (3:84), none but the Devil alone would aim to destroy or corrupt it, and the one who aims to do it, would be the worst enemy of mankind. He would naturally be the devil in human form. And the one who saves the religion from being destroyed or getting corrupted, would undoubtedly be the Greatest Benefactor and the Savior of Truth and humanity as a whole. It has been clearly announced by the Lord in the HOLY QUR'AN that the one who saves a single human life, has saved humanity as a whole.

"Whosoever killeth a person without its being in return for killing a man, it is as though he hath killed mankind as whole, and whosoever saveth a life, it is as though he saved the life of mankind as a whole" [5:32]

THE FATE OF THE APOSTOLIC MISSIONS, PREVIOUS TO THE HOLY PROPHET MUHAMMAD

Although the All-Merciful Lord sent His apostles to guide humanity in the various parts of the earth, but ht satanic resistance against every such godly mission was also counteracting against any lasting effect. Most of the apostles were killed. The sacred heavenly scriptures which were given to those apostles were either corrupted or made totally extinct. Fabricated stories from the folklore of the various people, were used as sacred scriptures and mankind was misled by imposters.

DIVINE MEASURES TO SECURE THE FINAL WORD OF GOD FOR EVER

The All-Knowing Creator Lord of the Universe, with His infinite knowledge, knew about the utter darkness which would Stroud the human world, and had also determined the panacea for it, in the mission of the Last of His apostles about whom Jesus had declared that "The Comforter who would come after him will abide for ever" (John 14:16)

As all the previously revealed scriptures had been either corrupted or were made extinct, the Almighty Lord willed that the HOLY QUR'AN, His Final Word, shall be preserved for ever, beyond the reach of nay satanic hands with any questionable intention to meddle with it. The Lord has declared: "Verily We sent down the Reminder (the QUR'AN) and Verily, We (Ourselves) shall be its Guardian" [H.Q. 15:9]

To preserve the HOLY QUR'AN in its original purity both in its verbal form as well as its meaning, and to keep the divine guidance always current and ever available to every seeker after truth, the Holy Prophet Muhammad was not sent alone into the world. As Aaron was given to Moses to assist him and to succeed him, along with the Holy Prophet, his cousin Ali, son of ABU TALEB, from the same holy family of Abraham, was given his advent, to be his Vicegerent and his Successor. Thus was started the line of the Holy Imams (i.e. the Divinely commissioned Guides) who were destined to be the authentic custodians of the HOLY QUR'AN and as the fountainheads of the correct knowledge of the Word of God, to guide mankind towards the correct belief and the proper practice of the Faith.

If these guides, the Holy Imams, had been from any family other than the family of Muhammad, it would have been misconstrued as another authority parallel to that of the Holy Prophet. The grace of the Lord, avoided this confusion and established single authority of the Last of His apostles, as the unique one, with the unity of purpose. Hence it was divinely destined that the line of the Divine Guides called the Imams, to succeed the Last Apostle, also to be from the same stock of the Holy Family of Abraham, and this was also the covenant with Abraham. "And as for ISMAEL, I have heard thee; Behold I have blessed him and will make him fruitful and I will multiply him exceedingly, Twelve Princes shall he beget and I will make him a great nation". (Gen. 18:20)

Both the Holy Prophet and his Vicegerent Ali were brought into the world from one and the same family, with whom the Lord had established an Everlasting Covenant (Gen. 17:7-8). Muhammad to be the Promised Last Apostle, the 'Comforter' the 'Spirit of Truth', the 'Holy Ghost' and the 'MAETREA' prophesied by Buddha, and Ali, his cousin, his adopted son, his son-in-law and his Vicegerent, to be the starter of the line of the Promised Twelve Princes or the Twelve Imams in the seed of Abraham, through ISMAEL.

The Family ABRAHAM and the Promised Last Apostle MUHAMMAD and the Twelve Princes (The Holy Imams)

ABRAHAM ISHMAEL ISAAC l l In the seed ISHMAEL JACOB l l HASHIM IMRAN l l ABD-MANAF MOSES l l IMRAN through his mother Mary l ABDUL MUTTALIB JESUS l ABDULLAH ABU TALIB l l MUHAMMAD ALI The Last Apostle of God The First of the Twelve l Holy Imams Or the FATEMA Divinely chosen guides The Lady of Light promised Twelve Princes l in the seed of Abraham through Ishmael ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- l l HASSAN HUSSIAN ZAINAB UMM-KULTHOOME MOHSIN ( The 2nd (The 3rd daughter daughter (son, Martyrded Imam) Imam) l l in the womb of (Who Accompanied HUSSAIN his Holy mother and witnessed the heartrending when she was killed Tragedy at KARBALA and by the fall of the suffered untold miseries door on her) thereafter, even as captives) ALI AZ-ZAINULABIDDEN The Fourth Imam l MUHAMMAD AL-BAQER The Fifth Imam l JA'AFAR AL-SADIQ The Sixth Imam l MUSA AL-KAZIM The Seventh Imam l ALI AL-RIDA The Eighth Imam l MUHAMMAD AL-TAQI The Ninth Imam l ALI AN-NAQI The Tenth Imam l HASSAN AL-ASKARI The Eleventh Imam l MUHAMMAD AL-MAHDI The Twelfth Imam

THE DIVINELY PLANNED MEASURE FOR AND EVERLASTING GUIDANCE TO HUMNAITY

It is quite obvious that the Divine Plan was to associate the lives of most of the leading apostles of God, with some tragic ends, for it is an acknowledged fact of the phenomena of psychology that human sympathy always goes without fail, to the victims of an unprovoked aggression. It was obviously destined to rouse the sympathy and the support of the whole human world for the Truth for which the martyrs had sacrificed their lives. It will be seen that most of the apostles God and all the divinely chosen guides called the Imams, excepting the Twelfth one, were martyrs. The story of Jesus is made attractive by its being narrated by the people of the Christian church associating it with the alleged crucifixion along with the other sufferings of his at the hands of the Jews.

Muhammad, the Last Apostle of God, left this world having been poisoned by one of the Jewesses of KHAIBER. Lady FATEMA, the Lady of Light, the beloved daughter of the Holy Prophet, the wife of Ali the First Holy Imam, the mother of HASSAN and HUSSAIN the Second and the Third Imams, who had her advent to be a model of the correct Islamic womanhood on the earth, was killed by the fall of the door of her abode, caused by some tyrant.

This Holy Lady suffered so much at the hands of the people after the departure of her father, the Holy Prophet, that she once addressing the holy soul of her departed father, said:

"O' Father dear! After thy departure, fell on me such calamities that if they had fallen on the bright days the days would have turned dark nights".

ALI-AL-MURTAZA:

The Vicegerent of the Holy Prophet, the First divinely chosen Imam, was martyred while in prayer in the Mosque at KUFA.

HASSAN-AL-MUJTABA:

The First son of Ali and FATEMA, the first grandson of the Holy Prophet Muhammad and the Second Holy Imam, was martyred by poison. He was made to leave this world vomiting blood with bits of his liver.

HUSSAIN SHAHEED KARBALA:

The Second son of ALI and FATEMA, the second grandson of the Holy prophet and the Third Holy Imam, was butchered at KARBALA along with his faithful devotees, by YAZZID son of MU'AYIAH, a very brief narration of whose great martyrdom forms of subject this brief work.

ALI ZAINULABIDEEN:

The eldest son of HUSSAIN the Third Imam, and himself the Fourth Imam was poisoned by the OMMAYID KALIF WALID BIN ABDUL MALIK.

MUHAMMAD AL-BAQIR:

The son of ALI ZAINULABIDDEN the Fourth Imam, and himself the Fifth Imam, was poisoned by HISHAM BIN ABDUL MALIK.

JAFAR AS-SADIQ:

The son of MUHAMMAD AL-BAQIR the Fifth Imam, and himself the Sixth Imam, was poisoned by MANSUR.

MUSA AL-KAZIM:

The son of JAFAR AS-SADIQ the Sixth Imam, and himself the Seventh Imam, was poisoned by HAROON-AR-RASHEED. ALI-AR-RIZA:

The son of MUSA AL-KAZIM the Seventh Imam, and himself the Eighth Imam, was poisoned by MAMUN-AR-RASHEED.

MUHAMMAD AL-TAQI:

The son of ALI AR-RIZA the Eighth Imam, and himself the Ninth Imam, was poisoned by MO'TASIM.

ALI-AN-NAQI:

The son of MUHAMMAD AL-TAQI the Ninth Imam, and himself the Tenth Imam, was poisoned by MO'TASIM.

HASSAN-AL-ASKARI:

The son of ALI-ANAQI the Ninth Imam, and himself the Eleventh Imam, was poisoned by MO'TAMAD.

MUHAMMAD -AL-MAHDI:

The son of HASSAN AL-ASKARI, the Eleventh Imam, and himself the Twelfth and the Last of the divinely commissioned Imams, was aimed at to be killed by MO'TAMA, but by the Divine Will, disappeared, and at the Will of the Almighty, he is alive. This Last Guide in the seed of the Abraham through ISMAEL is kept alive and is awaited to reappear at God's Will, as is the belief about Jesus the Last One in the seed of Abraham through Isaac. There are two facts which are obviously wonderful for everyone who comes across the lives of the Holy Fourteen, (i.e., the Holy Prophet his daughter FATEMA and the Twelve Imams):

1- The Holy Prophet is known as the unlettered one, i.e., the one who did not have any education under any mortal in this world and so was every one of the Holy Fourteen, but every one of them was a fountainhead of knowledge of the highest order. 2- None of the Holy Ones, save the Fourteenth, (i.e., the Twelfth Imam) died of any natural death, for all the thirteen were martyred either secretly by poison or openly killed. Only the Fourteenth has been spared since he has been divinely secured and kept alive for the guidance of mankind to the end of the world.

As Islam stands for the up life of humanity as a whole, any sacrifice for it would naturally be for the cause of the whole of the Human race. As it is impossible to accommodate in this brief work here, all the heart-rending details of the greatest sacrifice offered by HUSSAIN, only a few leading events are mentioned in these few pages which will suffice to give any intelligent reader, a view of the situation in which HUSSAIN surrendered his all to fulfill the Lord's Covenant to save Humanity from getting astray after the departure of the Holy Prophet.