Today is Sunday; 3rd of the Islamic month of Moharam 1434 lunar hijri and November 18, 2012, of the Christian Gregorian Calendar.

Over 3,500 lunar years ago, on this day, Prophet Joseph (Yusuf), while an under-teen boy, was rescued from the well into which his brothers had thrown him, after initial deliberation to kill him, because of their jealousy towards him for the deep love and affection of their father Prophet Jacob (Ya’qub) for this pious and extremely handsome son. Joseph was sold as a slave and ended up in Egypt, where Divine Providence, after having again tested his firm faith, patience, and wisdom, through ordeals that included a lengthy prison term, granted him a lofty ministerial rank in the court of the monotheistic Pharaoh. Surah Yusuf of the holy Qur’an details his interesting account – including the magnanimity he showed to his brothers – and calls it “Ahsan al-Qasas” (the Most Excellent of Accounts).

1427 lunar years ago, on this day in 7 AH, Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), sent letters to the world’s kings and emperors, officially inviting them to the truth of the divine religion of Islam. According to historians he sent between twelve to twenty-six letters to the then world leaders spread across the face of the earth including the emperors of Rome, Iran, and China. Obviously, the Prophet’s approach in this regard shows that Islam speaks with logic and reasoning in its invitation to righteousness. A few years following these official invitations, Islam spectacularly spread across the major part of the known world.

1373 lunar years ago, on this day in 61 AH, the Omayyad commander, Omar ibn Sa’d arrived in Karbala with a force of 4,000 armed men to surround the small band of Imam Husain (AS). Omar was sent by the oppressive governor of Kufa, Obaidullah ibn Ziyad, to demand oath of allegiance from the Prophet’s grandson for the ungodly rule of Yazid, or bring him to his court. The Imam refused to yield to oppression and injustice, and for the next few days thousands of more forces converged on Karbala. Finally, on the 10th of Moharram, Imam Husain (AS), bravely courted martyrdom in a unequal battle that has made his stand and cause immortal, inspiring people in every age against oppression.

1182 lunar years ago, on this day in 252 AH, Musta'in-Billah the 12th self-styled caliph of the usurper Abbasid regime was deposed by his masters, the powerful Turkish guards that had installed him as ruler in Samarra, after the suspicious death of his cousin, Muntasir-Billah. During his 4-year rule, Musta'in suffered two disastrous defeats at the hands of Christians in Armenia, and his only success was his killing in unequal combat near Kufa, of the Prophet's descendant, Yayha Ibn Umar Ibn Yahya Ibn Hussain Ibn Zayd the Martyr – son of Imam Zain al-Abedin (AS) the 4th Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA).The cause of his downfall was his quarrel with the Turkish guards, who released Mu'taz, the son of the murdered Mutawakkil-Billah from prison and declared him the 13th Abbasid caliph. Musta'in, the son of Wathiq-Billah, the 9th Abbasid caliph – whose corpse lay in negligence with eyes eaten by termites as his brother Mutawakkil immediately celebrated his own rise to power as the next caliph with festivities – was further humiliated by humbly paying homage to the new caliph, who imprisoned him Baghdad and soon had him murdered. When the severed head was brought before Mu'taz who was playing chess, he said: "lay it aside, till I have finished the game." Then having satisfied himself that it was really the head of his cousin, he commanded 500 pieces of gold to be given to the assassin as reward. These events occurred during the last days of the 34-year imamate of the Prophet’s 10th Infallible Successor, Imam Ali al-Hadi (AS), who in 254 AH was martyred through poisoning by Mu’taz in Samarra, where he was kept under virtual house arrest.

173 solar years ago, on this day in 1839 AD, the second phase of the Algerian people’s anti-colonial struggles against France started under the leadership of Seyyed Abdul-Qader bin Mohieddin al-Hassani, al-Jaza'eri, who claimed descent from Imam Hasan Mojtaba (AS), the elder grandson of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). Abdul-Qader, who returned to Algeria, a few months before the Turks lost it to the French invaders in 1930, had during his 5-year journey abroad, met with, and was highly impressed by Imam Shamil of Daghestan – the leader of the struggle against Russian expansion in the Caucasus which recently had been seized by the Czar from the Qajarid rulers of Iran. As a Sufi scholar, Abdul-Qader now led the military struggle against France, and within two years was made an amir by tribes fighting the French. He organized guerrilla warfare and for a decade scored many victories. He often signed tactical truces with the French, but these did not last. His failure to get support from the eastern tribes, apart from the Berbers of western Kabylie led to the quelling of his uprising. On December 21, 1847, after being denied refuge in Morocco because of French pressure, he surrendered. It took more than a century for the French to leave Algeria as a result of the freedom war that started in the 1950s and triumphed in 1962, but not before France had massacred over a million Algerian Muslims.

56 solar years ago, on this day in 1956 AD, Morocco became independent from the colonial rule of France, which had seized this Muslim country in 1921. Morocco covers an area of 458730 sq km, and is located in northwestern Africa and the coastlines of Atlantic Ocean. Muslims constitute 99% of its population.

49 solar years ago, on this day in 1963, Colonel Abdus-Salam Aref, with the help of the Ba'th Party, seized power in Iraq, by staging a coup and killing General Abdul-Karim Qasem. Abdus-Salam Aref, after consolidating his power, purged the government of the Ba’th Party. In 1966, he was killed in a plane crash, while returning to Baghdad from Basra, where in a blasphemous speech he tried to ridicule the famous sermon of the Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb (AS), in the book Nahj al-Balagha, where the Prophet's rightful successor censures the people of Basra for their unmanly characteristics in assisting the seditionists that had stirred the Battle of Jamal and shed Muslim blood. Abdus-Salam Aref was replaced by his brother Abdur-Rahman Aref.