By: Seyyed Ali Shahbaz
    "Hypocrites are characterized by three features – telling lies, reneging on promises, and breaching of trust.”
    This apt description of many of supposedly prominent people of our own times are not the words of any starry eyed philosopher, nor of a scholar who does not practice, and neither of a political thinker.
    These are the words of a person whom God Almighty granted eternity to such an extent that till this day even after the passing away of over a millennium and two-and-a-half centuries since his physical presence on earth he continues to rule the hearts and minds of the believers.
    As a matter of fact, today the auspicious 11th of Zilqa’dah, is the blessed birth anniversary of this very blessed figure who was none other than the 8th Infallible Heir of Prophet Muhammad (SAWA). He reposes in eternal peace in Khorasan in the city of Mashhad where millions of devotees from all over Iran and from other parts of the world have gathered today to pay their respects at his blessed shrine.
     Imam Reza (AS) needs no introduction to anyone familiar with Islam, the School of the Prophet’s Ahl al-Bayt, and Iran’s history, culture, and contemporary events. Born in holy Medina in 148 AH, two weeks after the martyrdom of his grandfather, Imam Ja’far as-Sadeq (AS) – to Imam Musa al-Kadhem (AS) and his pious wife Hazrat Najmah (SA) – he was destined to find his final resting place at the age of 55 in distant Khorasan, northeastern Iran, where he was forced to come from Hijaz by the self-styled caliph Mamoun of the usurper Abbasid regime.
     Afraid of the popularity among the Muslim Ummah of Imam Reza (AS), and in order to deceive the people, the crafty Mamoun declared the Prophet’s venerable descendant as his Heir Apparent, although the Imam was some twenty years older than him. He showed outward respect to Imam Reza (AS), and when his plot to mislead the people failed, he had the guest secretly poisoned to death, and then joined the funeral in black clothes, pretending that he was innocent of murder.
     Let us focus on one of the debates of Imam Reza (AS), who as Repository of Divine Knowledge, left no stone unturned during his 20-year imamate to enlighten Muslims and all those who came into contact with him, including Jews, Christian, Sabians, Zoroastrians, Hindus, and atheists.
     Following the martyrdom of his father, Imam Kazem (AS) in 183 AH in Baghdad in the prison of the Abbasid tyrant Haroun, he traveled to the port city of Basra in Iraq in order to disprove the claims of those who deviated from the truth.
     Imam Reza (AS) stayed in the house of a Hashemite kinsman named Hassan bin Muhammad al-Alawi and held a session for a group of Muslims among whom was Amr bin Haddab, who had deviated from the path of the Ahl al-Bayt. In this session of a lively debate, a Jewish Rabbi and a Christian priest were also present. The Imam told them that they have been invited so that they can ask him about Islam, the Prophet's Sunnah and the legacy of the God-given authority of the Imams of the Ahl al-Bayt.
     Amr bin Haddab said to him: I am told that you know all that which God has sent down, including the various languages the people speak.
      Imam Reza (AS) replied in the affirmative, which made Amr say: First of all I want to test you through languages. This is a Roman; this is an Indian; this is an Iranian; and this is a Turk. We have brought them before you.
     The Imam said that by the Will of God, he would answer them in their own languages if they raise any question. To the utter surprise of Amr, the Jewish Rabbi, the Christian priest, and the people of other ethnicities who were present, Imam Reza (AS) fluently spoke with each of them in their native languages, that is, Latin, Sanskrit, Persian, and Turkish.
     After answering the questions of the non-Arabs, Imam Reza (AS) turned to Amr bin Haddab and said in flawless Arabic that he will be tried in these days on charges of murdering one of his blood relations. At this Amr expressed doubt, saying that none except God has knowledge of the unseen. The Imam drew his attention to what God has said in the holy Qur’an that He the Almighty, Who is the Knower of the Unseen, does not reveal His secrets to any except to him whom He chooses as the Prophet. The Imam added: We are the inheritors of God’s Last and Greatest Messenger, who informed us of what was and what will be till the Day of Resurrection.
     It is said, that as per the prediction of Imam Reza (AS), five days later Amr bin Haddab suffered the fate of which he was foretold, and confessed that he had been concealing his crime of murder of which no one else was informed.
     Imam Reza (AS) then held lively discussions with the Christian priest and the Jewish rabbi, quoting from the various Gospels of the Bible, the Torah and other sacred texts of Judaism, including the Psalms of David. To the amazement of the Christian and the Jew, the Imam proved to them the real meaning of so many passages in the Old and New Testaments, pointing out that these pertain to the mission of Prophet Muhammad (SAWA).
     The two argued with the Imam for some days, but couldn’t prove that Jesus or Ezra had ever claimed to be sons of God, as alleged by the Christians and Jews respectively. On the contrary Imam Reza (AS) proved to them that Moses, Jesus, and other prophets had given the Israelites the tidings of the advent of Prophet Muhammad (SAWA).
     To their utter surprise, by quoting passages from their religious scriptures, Imam Reza (AS) pointed out that these are direct references to not just the Prophet of Islam, but to his Divinely-Designated Heir, Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb (AS), and to the latter’s sons, Imam Hasan (AS) and Imam Husain (AS), as well as to Prophet’s Immaculate Daughter, Hazrat Fatema Zahra (SA).
     During the stay of Imam Reza (AS) in Basra, the Christian priest embraced the truth of Islam and decided to travel to Medina to become more familiar with Islamic teachings, especially the classes that the 8th Imam used to hold in Medina.
    The Jewish Rabbi, after debating with Imam Reza (AS), was full of admiration for his deep knowledge, eloquence, and rational interpretation of what was mentioned about the Last Prophet and his blessed household, the Ahl al-Bayt in the scriptures revealed by God to Moses and other prophets.
     Several years later, when Imam Reza (AS) came to Khorasan, Mamoun also tried to test the knowledge of the Prophet’s righteous successor, by assembling scholars of the Jews, Christians, Zoroastrians, Sabians, Hindus, and atheists. Needless to say the Imam not only triumphed in these debates, but made most of them become Muslim.
     These and other developments unnerved Mamoun, and he decided to return to Baghdad, by taking the Imam with him, but while halting at Tous, he deceitfully made the Imam eat poisoned grapes. The result was the martyrdom of Imam Reza and his being laid to rest in Khorasan.