In the Name of God, the All-Merciful, the All-Compassionate –

“Have they not regarded how Allah originates the creation? Then He will bring it back. That is indeed easy for Allah. Say, ‘Travel over the land and then observe how He has originated the creation.’ Then Allah shall bring about the genesis of the Hereafter. Indeed Allah has power over all things.”

What you heard were ayahs 19 and 20 of Surah Ankabout of the holy Qur’an where the Lord Most High Speaks of the wonders of creation, and how He will raise the dead to life on the Day of Resurrection. For those with an iota of intellect the annual advent of spring after the frosty cold of winter and how the earth is revived with green sprouts after the trees had gradually been denuded of their leaves with the start of autumn, is a sign in this regard. Congratulations everybody. Today, Wednesday, March 20 marks the start of the New Year in the Islamic Republic of Iran and several other neighbouring countries. Today at exactly at 14:31:56 sharp 1392 solar hijri started with prayers and supplications to the Lord Most High. The blessed moment, called in Persian Tahwil-e Saal (Turn of the Year), is greeted with hands raised in supplication to the Almighty by millions of faithful that usually assemble at this hour at holy shrines of the Prophet’s venerable descendents, especially the grand mausoleums in Mashhad and Qom respectively, of his 8th Infallible Successor, Imam Reza (AS) and the latter’s sister, Hazrat Fatema al-Ma’soumah (SA).

Indeed, it is a pleasant sound to the ears to hear from the ardent lips of such huge gatherings – as well as on the TV and the Radios for those who are at home, are travelling, or are watching and eagerly listening from other countries – the following Arabic supplication, which speaks volumes of the faith in Islam of the Iranian Muslims, who immediately after this recitation, before greeting each other, beseech God Almighty to hasten the reappearance of the Saviour:

“Ya Moqallab al-qoloub wa’l-absar,

Ya Modabbar al-layl wa’n-nahar

Ya Mohawwal al-howl wa’l-ahwal

Hawwil halana ila ahsan il-haal,

Translated into English, this popular supplication reads:

(O Rotator of hearts and eyes.

O Regulator of the day and night,

O Transformer of state and situations

Turn our state into the best of conditions)”

As usual, with the start of the New Year, the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, comes on TV screens and airwaves to greet the nation and designate the Year, as per the expedient requirements of the society, in order to firm up faith, strengthen the national spirit and speed up collective development. This unique designation of the Year, indeed acts as an impetus to the Iranian people to strive to materialize the goals of the Islamic Revolution. Over the past three decades, without the least doubt, the Islamic Republic, despite the sanctions and threats of military attack by its dastardly enemies, has made spectacular progress in almost all areas, including nuclear energy, aerospace industry, stem cell technology, missile power, agriculture, petrochemicals, health, medical fields, etc. As a result, the message of Islamic Iran is ringing loud and clear in the region where the Arab people are in the process of the Islamic Awakening. It is also reverberating in the West, where the 99 percent European and American masses are struggling to reclaim their denied rights from the oppressive regimes that represent the mere one percent rich exploiters – mostly controlled by the despicable Zionists. It is thus obvious why the US has come up with all devilish tricks up its sleeve to try to force countries which kowtow to the Great Satan and its surrogate Israel, to boycott Iranian oil and cut off all internationally accepted trade transactions.

This is indeed a blessing in disguise for Iran. These plots are bound to backfire upon their perpetrators, since Nowrouz is not just the resurrection of nature, but, as indicated by the ayahs of the heavenly scripture at the beginning of this column, a sign of the Omnipotent Creator, the Source of all life, Who has made this world as a place of trial and tribulation to sift truth from falsehood. A glance at the history of the world and the civilizations reveals that the tyrants despite their threats, sanctions, raving and ranting, are a vanishing breed, and a humiliating end awaits them and their clients. In other words, Uncle Sam is a fool if it thinks that its diabolical policies will bring Iran to its knees or that the hypocrisy of the man in the White House to beam a Nowrouz Message of his own on the Spring Equinox would deceive the Iranian Muslim masses and undermine the Islamic Republic System. These are the lessons we learn from Nowrouz, which is as old as nature and the creation of Father Adam. It is not a mythical festival of a particular nation or any outdated creed, as some try to portray it. It is an Islamic occasion that starts with a day of fasting, accompanied by prayers, supplications, and greetings for reaffirming allegiance to the legacy of the Messengers of God, in particular that of Prophet Muhammad (SAWA) and his divinely-designated vicegerent, Imam Ali (AS), who has been eulogized in the Nowrouznamehs that are devotionally chanted this day from Kashmir in the east to the Balkans in the west on the Spring Equinox.

There are narrations in Islamic texts about this day. For instance, there are hadith that refer to the resting of Prophet Noah’s (AS) Ark on Mount Joudi after the great flood and the parting of the seawaters for Prophet Moses (AS) on the Spring Equinox. It is said that the peaceful surrender of Mecca to Prophet Muhammad (SAWA) coincided with the Spring Equinox. There is also a narration that says it will be the Spring Equinox when the Saviour of mankind, Imam Mahdi (AS), will reappear to rid the earth of all vestiges of vices and oppression and to fill it with the global government of peace and justice. No wonder, with the advent of Islam in Iran, all the ancient traditions naturally faded away except for Nowrouz. As a matter of fact, Iranian Muslim scientists during the heyday of Islamic civilization, such as al-Khwarezmi, al-Berouni, and Omar Khayyam Neishabouri, perfectly computed the solar calendar, fixing it, like the lunar hijri calendar, according to the auspicious migration of the Almighty's Last and Greatest Messenger, from Mecca to Medina. In view of these wonderful facts, isn’t it advisable for the Islamic world – in addition to the religiously indispensable lunar hijri calendar – to adopt the precisely calculated solar hijri calendar year in Iran for keeping tract of the season and running the bureaucracy, instead of following the alien and a bit imperfect Gregorian calendar that has been imposed by the colonialists and is based on an illusion, which the Holy Qur’an rejects, saying Prophet Jesus (AS) was not crucified