By: Seyyed Ali Shahbaz
    "O’ Governor of Sistan! Power and authority are the trust that God has put at your disposal in order to serve His servants. You ought to help your religious brethren. The only thing that lasts for you is virtue and good deeds including your help to your brethren-in-faith. Beware, On the Day of Resurrection God will question you since nothing is hidden from the Almighty!”
     This passage is not an admonition from the central government of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Tehran to the governor of the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan on the borders of terrorist-infested Pakistan.
     Neither is it a "farmaan” of the Safavid Shah in Isfahan to one of Iran’s provinces on the strategic frontier of the Moghal Empire of the Subcontinent.
     Nor is it a decree issued in Baghdad at the court of the Abbasid caliph to a governor of an outpost in Sijistan – as Sistan was often known in early Islamic period.
     As a matter of fact, this short but highly expressive note, preserved in the books of history, is from the Prophet’s city Medina, and the one who dispatched it was a youthful descendant of Prophet Muhammad (SAWA).
     To be more precise, he was the Prophet’s 9th Infallible Heir, Imam Muhammad at-Taqi al-Jawad (AS), whose blessed birthday we celebrate every year on the 10th of Rajab.
     Born in 195 AH (811 AD) in Medina, he was the only son of Imam Reza (AS), and as predicted by the Prophet, his mother was the pure and pious Nubian lady named Sabikat az-Zahab (Gold Ingot).
     He was hardly 8 years old when the divinely-designated mantle of imamate or leadership of mankind, came to rest on his tender shoulders on the martyrdom of his father in the city of Marv in distant Khorasan as a result of a fatal dose of poison administered by the crafty Mamoun, the self-styled caliph of the usurper Abbasid regime.
     Here it should be pointed out that when Imam Reza (AS) was leaving Medina for Khorasan, he was asked by one of his followers: My master, God forbid! If something were to happen (to you), to whom will authority belong? The Imam replied in a calm and composed manner: "To Abu Ja’far (i.e. his young son)”.
     When the surprised questioner indicated that the age of the boy was too young, the 8th Imam Reza said with a smile: "Allah, may He be praised, raised Jesus, son of Mary, as a messenger, a prophet, and bringer of a revealed law (Shari'a), to begin (his mission) when his age was younger than that of (my son) Abu Ja'far.”
     In view of this fact, it would be repetitive to refer to the holy Qur’an as proof of the imamate of the Prophet’s 9th Infallible Heir, especially Surah Maryam, where God grants the Boy-Prophet Yahya (John the Baptist) the Book and Wisdom, and makes the Virgin-Born Prophet Jesus (AS), still an infant in the cradle, speak to the Israelites of the chastity of his mother Mary (SA), while announcing his mission and the heavenly scripture entrusted to him.
     Did the governor of Sistan, to whom Imam Muhammad Taqi (AS) sent the letter feel offended?      
     No, he didn’t, and on the contrary, became a completely changed man before the admonishment reached him. The account of the incident as related by Ahmad bin Zakariya Saydalani, is as follows:
     "It was the Hajj season and I was visiting Mecca from the distant land of Sistan. After performing the pilgrimage, I went to Imam Jawad (AS) to bid him farewell and informed him of my problems. I said, the government has imposed heavy taxes, which I cannot afford to pay, and I request you to write a letter to the
governor asking him to be lenient to me, since he is known to be a devotee of the Ahl al-Bayt. The Imam obliged and I took the letter, thanked the Imam and started the long journey home. However, the news of this valuable letter had preceded my arrival in Sistan and reached the governor. He came forward to receive me, took the letter, kissed it, gently opened it and read it. He then treated leniently as instructed and also behaved fairly with all other people.”
     Did Imam Muhammad Taqi al-Jawad (AS) harboured any political ambitions?
     No, he was neither in need of the revenues of Qom, Rayy and Mazandaran, where those claiming to be his followers had inflicted repeated defeats on Abbasid armies, nor did he require the treasuries of Egypt and North Africa, which were turning into centres of activities for the cause of the Prophet’s Ahl al-Bayt.
     Those in doubt should reflect on his refusal to order the governors of Bahrain, Neishapour and several other provinces as well as the chief Qazi of Kufa and the prime minister of the Abbasid realm (all of whom regarded him as the Prophet’s 9th rightful successor), to pull off a coup and hand over power to him.
    Politics, especially the dirty politics in which caliphs, kings, presidents and prime ministers indulge in their pursuit of short-lived pomp and power by deceiving the gullible masses, held no attractions for Imam Jawad (AS), whose God-given spiritual realm was far beyond the ken of his enemies.
     At the same time, Imam Jawad (AS) was magnanimous in the mold of his great ancestor Imam Ali (AS), who never withheld an answer whenever those that had deprived him of his political rights after the Prophet approached him for a solution to the mess they had created.
    This magnanimity of the 9th Imam could be understood by his inscribing of the famous talisman "Hirz al-Jawad” (that is widely used till this day as protection from harm) on request of Mamoun – the assassin of his father – when the latter was proceeding on a campaign against the Byzantine Empire.
    How could the Prophet’s rightful successor withhold truth even if its disclosure could make the enemies of humanity more rancourous of realities!
    He enlightened the Ummah during his seventeen-year mission that ended abruptly at the young age of 25 years in Baghdad, where he reposes in eternal peace beside his grandfather Imam Musa al-Kazem (AS) in the gold-plated twin-domed shrine of Kazemayn, which is thronged by pilgrims day-and-night throughout the year, while there is no trace of even the grave of his assassin, Mu’tasem, the self-styled caliph.
     For every true Muslim, Baghdad brings to mind the spectacle of Imam Jawad’s (AS) first encounter as a 9-year old orphan with Mamoun. How he stood boldly as the caparisoned horses and the caliph’s entourage approached and had to halt before him. How Mamoun tried to test his knowledge by dispatching his trained falcon and then concealing in his palm the fish it had fetched and asking the young Imam to provide an answer. How he pitted the Boy-Imam with the Mu’tazalite ideologue Yahya bin Aktham in a jurisprudential debate that was easily won by the Prophet’s descendant to the amazement of the caliph and his courtiers.
     In short, Baghdad, which long ceased to have any memories of the accursed Abbasids, continues to be the capital of the 7th and 9th Imams of the Ahl al-Bayt.

Congratulations on the Blessed Birthday of Imam Muhammad Taqi al-Jawad (AS)