Food for Thought for a Happy New Solar Hijri Year (1390 Hijri Shamsi)

By: Seyyed Ali Shahbaz
"Ya Moqallab al-Qoloub wa'l-Absaar;
"Ya Modabber al-Layl wa'n-Nahaar;
"Ya Mohawwel al-Howl wa'l-Ahwaal;
"Hawwil Halana ila Ahsan il-Haal."
(O' Transformer of Hearts and Eyes;
O' Regulator of Day and Night;
O' Rotator of Time and Situation;
Change our state to the most excellent of Situation.)
At 2.50:45 sharp in the pre-dawn hours on Monday, March 21, people throughout the Islamic Republic of Iran would be ushering in the calendar year 1390 solar hijri, with recitation of the above-cited Arabic supplication.
The wordings are clear. Found in most Islamic prayer manuals, along with the emphasis to recite the phrase "Ya Zal-Jalale wa'l-Ikraam (O Possessor of Majesty and Dignity)", at the particular time of the earth's completion of its rotation around the sun, this humble request in the court of the One and Only God to help us bring about positive changes in our life, is indeed a spiritually excellent start for the New Year.
The seconds, the minutes, the nights, the days, the months, and the years, are all signs of the Grandeur and the Blessings of the Almighty Creator. This orderly cycle of the changing seasons, with verdant spring enlivening the environment after the frost of 'lifeless' winter, is without doubt a pointer to the Day of Resurrection.
"And Allah is He Who sends the winds so they raise a cloud, then We drive it on to a dead land, and therewith We give life to the earth after its death; even so is the quickening (of the dead on Resurrection Day)." – Holy Qur’an 35: Thus, in view of these undeniable realities, Nowrouz (New Day in Persian), in addition to being a much welcome holiday season to relieve the pressures of the year-long routine and an energizer to refresh us for the challenges and opportunities of the next year, is a time for reflection.
It is the time to stock of things, of our own selves, the environment around us, our duties towards family, friends, society, country and the world we live in, which is groaning under the jackboots of an oppressive political and economic system totally opposed to God, human dignity, moral values, and spirituality, while in our immediate neighbourhood there are people being brutally massacred by regimes – mostly minority and unrepresentative – that have no authority to rule over them.
This is indeed the message of Nowrouz, for which Iran and the other countries that celebrate it are in fact indebted to the ancient Persians for borrowing it from the astronomically advanced Babylonians, and then thoroughly Persianizing it over the millenniums. It is worth noting that neither we have any information about the celebration of Nowrouz before the Achaemenian dynasty nor does the Avesta, the holy text of the Zoroastrians mentions it.
This means that marking the Vernal or Spring Equinox is an Islamic ritual, since Islam did not start suddenly 1,400 and odd years ago in the Arabian Peninsula. Islam, which means peace, healthy way of life and submission to none but Almighty Allah, was the message entrusted to the father of the human race, Adam, at the dawn of the creation of mankind.
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, the day on which Imam Ali (AS) was lifted on his shoulders by the Prophet to pull down the idols placed atop the Ka'ba by the pagan Arabs.
It is also interesting to note that the Spring Equinox was the day when on the 18th of Zilhijja in 35 AH, following the killing of Osman bin Affan, the caliphate, or the political rule of the Islamic realm, was restored to Imam Ali (AS), a quarter century after usurpation of his God-given right (on the Day of Ghadir, 18th Zilhijja 10 AH) to lead Muslims.
According to the Prophet's 6th Infallible Successor, Imam Ja'far as-Sadeq (AS), narrated by his companion Mu'alla bin Khunays, and as recorded by the great Iranian scholar, Allamah Majlisi in Bihar al-Anwaar, the Spring Equinox or Nowrouz is the day when God Almighty took the oath of allegiance from souls before creation of corporal bodies regarding His Indivisible Unity (Towhid) and charged them not to indulge in polytheism – and other deviated forms of worship – including veneration of fire.
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. Thus, devout Muslims in Iran and in many other countries observe fast on Nowrouz and offer special prayers and supplications to God at the time of commencement of the New Year.
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 of 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?