Mab’ath is the best, greatest and most blessed day of the year
Mab’ath is definitely the greatest and the most important day of the year. This is because sending down the Holy Prophet (s.w.a.) for humanity was greater than all divine blessings throughout history. Therefore, one can say with certainty that Mab’ath is the best, the greatest, and the most auspicious day of the year. We should commemorate the event that happened on Mab’ath, and we should visualize the greatness of that event.
The Commander of the Faithful (a.s.) said, “God sent the Prophet when the mission of other Prophets had stopped and the peoples were in slumber for a long time.” Be’that happened at a time when humanity had been deprived of the presence of divine prophets for a long time. It was about 600 years after Jesus Christ. Humanity had not seen a divine messenger for hundreds of years. What was the result? “The minarets of guidance had disappeared and signs of destruction had appeared.” The world was a dark place. Spirituality had left the world. Mankind was living in ignorance, deviation, and arrogance. Allah the Exalted sent among the people the Holy Prophet (s.w.a.) in such a situation.
The Holy Prophet (s.w.a.) was the person who had been prepared by Allah the Exalted for such a great mission in the entire history of mankind. Therefore, the Holy Prophet (s.w.a.) managed to start a movement in 23 years, and this movement has pushed human history forward in spite of all the problems.
Twenty-three years is a short time, and 13 years of it were spent in unfair battles. It started in Mecca with 5, 10 to 50 people. Only a small number of people managed to resist under the unbearable pressure of prejudiced, blind, and ignorant enemies of Islam. Firm foundations were built upon which the Islamic society and Islamic civilization could be established.
Later on Allah the Exalted prepared the way for the immigration of the Holy Prophet (s.w.a.) to Medina, and he managed to establish this Islamic system and this civilization in Medina. The Holy Prophet (s.w.a.) organized, built, and managed this system in only ten years.
It was a short time. Such events usually disappear in the flood of other important events, and they are usually forgotten. Ten years is a very short time. But the Holy Prophet managed to plant, water, and nurture this sapling in that period of time. He managed to start a movement that led to civilization, and this civilization stood at the peak of human civilization during a certain period.
That is to say, during the 3rd and 4th centuries of the Hijri calendar, Islamic civilization was greater than all earlier civilizations. This is one of the miracles of Islam.
This was while different bitter events happened to the Islamic Ummah after the Holy Prophet (s.w.a.) passed away. Problems, disagreements, and internal conflicts emerged. In spite of all these things, in spite of the deviations that emerged over time, in spite of the impurities that appeared and grew, the Holy Prophet of Islam and the message of Be’that managed to give rise to that greatness in the course of 3, 4 centuries, and the modern world and all civilizations of the modern world are indebted to the Islamic civilization of the 3rd and 4th Hijri centuries.
If humanity considered the issue in a fair way, they would acknowledge that human beings’ salvation and their movement towards perfection will be possible only through Islam. We Muslims were ungrateful. We were unappreciative. We failed to appreciate Islam. We failed to preserve the foundations that had been developed by the Holy Prophet (s.w.a.) for prominent and advanced human societies. We were ungrateful, and we paid the price.
Islam has the capacity to help humanity achieve prosperity and perfection. It has the capacity to help humanity achieve material and spiritual growth. The foundations that were established by the Holy Prophet (s.w.a.)—faith, rationality, struggle, and dignity—are the main foundations of an Islamic community.
Ayat Allah Khamenei
