Today in History (05 may)

Al-Shaykh al-Saduq is the title given to Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn 'Ali ibn Babawaih al-Qummi. He was the leading traditionist of his time (4th Century A.H.) and one of the most outstanding traditionists of Shi'ite Islam. He earned the title of al-Shaykh al-Saduq on account of his great learning and his reputation for truthfulness. It is a title which he also shares with his father.
His father, al-Shaykh 'Ali was a leading figure among the scholars of Qom. By the father's time the family were established as strong adherents of Shi'ite Islam. However, it is not known how early the family entered into Islam.[1] Al-Shaykh al-Saduq is sometimes known as Ibn Babawaih. This is the family name and indicates the Persian origin of the family, as Babawaih is an Arabicized version of the Persian form Babuyah.
The date of al-Shaykh al-Saduq's birth is not known exactly. However, an interesting story surrounds the circumstances of it. When his father was in Iraq, it is said that he met Abul Qasim al-Husayn ibn Rawh, the third agent of the Hidden Imam. During their meeting he asked the latter several questions. Later he wrote to al-Husayn ibn Rawh asking him to take a letter to the Hidden Imam. In this letter he asked for a son. Al-Husayn sent back an answer telling him that they (the Hidden Imam and al-Husayn) had prayed to God to ask Him to grant the request and he would be rewarded with two sons. Another version of the story says three sons. The elder, or eldest, of these sons was al-Shaykh al-Saduq.Al-Shaykh al-Saduq died in Ray in 381 A.H. and he was buried there. He was probably more than 70 years of age. He is buried at Ebn-e Babooyeh in Persia—Iran. He left behind him many collections of traditions which are considered to be of great importance.

The Bobby Sands Trust was formed after the 1981 hunger strike when ten republican prisoners died, to assert the political status denied them by the British government and its repressive prison regime.
Twenty-seven-year old Bobby Sands, after enduring years of solitary confinement and beatings, led that hunger strike, during which he was elected as MP for the constituency of Fermanagh and South Tyrone. He died after 66 days on hunger strike on May 5th, 1981.
During his imprisonment Bobby wrote poetry, short stories, a poignant account of what the prisoners suffered (One Day in My Life), and kept a diary for the first seventeen days of his hunger strike.
The Trust is made up of comrades of Bobby and his republican contemporaries. The civil rights lawyer Pat Finucane, an advisor to the Trust, was assassinated in 1989 by loyalist paramilitaries who were under the control of British Intelligence through their agent Brian Nelson. The legal firm Madden & Finucane continues to act for the Trust whose original members were Gerry Adams, Danny Morrison, Tom Hartley, Tom Cahill [deceased], Marie Moore (deceased) and Danny Devenny. For a time Bobby’s two sisters, Marcella and Bernadette, were members of the Trust. Current members are Gerry Adams MP, Danny Morrison, Tom Hartley, Jim Gibney, Brendan ‘Bik’ McFarlane, Sile Darragh, Caral Ni Chuilin MLA, and Peter Madden.
The Trust holds the copyright on all Bobby’s poetry and prose and was established to publish, promote and keep in print the extraordinary writings of this young Irish man, who from prison isolation became an international figure in 1981, and who to this day continues to inspire Irish republicans in their pursuit of freedom from British rule.