Please join us to celebrate Eid Ghadir Khum on Saturday Nov. 20, 2010 at 5:30 pm. Program includes prayer, dinner, Quranic recitation, poetry reading, lecture by Dr. Sadri Khalessi (Farsi), English lecture, and classical Persian music. Ticket $10/adults, $5/students, $3.5/child.
Eid al-Ghadeer is celebrated by Shia Muslims to commemorate the anniversary of Prophet Muhammad's (pbuh) sermon at Ghadir Khum, which occurred on 18th of Dhu al-Hijjah of 10 AH in the Islamic calendar.
The sermon, described in the hadith of the pond of Khumm, is the basis of the Shia confirmation of Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib's succession to Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). Sunni Muslims do not deny that a last sermon took place, but do not celebrate the day specifically.
A few months before his death, Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) living in the city of Median, made his last religious pilgrimage to Mecca in a trip referred to as The Farewell Pilgrimage. There, atop Mount Arafat, he addressed the Muslim masses in what came to be known as The Farewell Sermon. After completion of the Hajj, or religious pilgrimage, Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) turned back towards his home in Medina.
On the trip there, he stopped at the pond of Khumm and praised Ali.
The exact meaning of the praise is a matter of much dispute; not only do
Sunni and Shi'a Muslims disagree as to, which statements about the pond
are authentic, but they also disagree on the interpretation.
Shi'a Muslims believe that after the pilgrimage, the Prophet ordered the
gathering of Muslims at the pond of Khumm and it was there that he nominated Imam Ali (as) to be his successor.
Dr. Sadri Khalessi is currently a part time faculty in the Department of
Statistics at Stanford
University where he
teaches graduate courses in Statistics. He also teaches Management classes at
the Northwestern University
in Fremont in California.
He has been a community leader in Northern
California since 1980. He is one of the founders of the Society of
Iranian Professionals (SIP) and the organizer of the monthly cultural events of Shab-e-Sokhan in Cupertino for five consecutive years. He has lectured on Islamic philosophy and Persian literature and poetry for various Iranian cultural institutions in the US and overseas.
Dr. Khalessi is very knowledgeable about Islam from the
historical and philosophical viewpoint. He is also very passionate about the classic
and modern Persian literature and culture.
Mohammad Nejad, a Persian-born master
multi-instrumentalist, was born to a musical family in Tehran, Iran. In Tehran he attended a special high school for musicians,
later graduating from Fine Arts Academy in 1976, and in 1990 received a
Bachelors of Fine Arts Musicianship and Performance from Tehran
University, proficient in both the Western and Persian musical systems.
Nejad plays a large number of
instruments, including ney, zurna, Western flute, santur, kanun, oud,
setar, dotar, tar, kemanche, violin, daf, dumbek, zarb, accordion and
keyboards. He effectively uses Persian instruments to add a Persian
influence to Western classical, jazz, blues, new age, and flamenco. He
also performs traditional Persian classical music.
He collaborates with many other
musicians and ensembles. He has performed throughout Asia, Europe, and
the United States, including most campuses of the University of
California, the Palace of Fine Arts and the Ethnic Dance Festival in
San Francisco, and the San Jose Center for the Performing Arts.
