Martyrdom of the Truthful Imam
By: Seyyed Ali Shahbaz
Shawwal 25 is that tragic day in history when another Infallible Descendent of Prophet Muhammad (SAWA) was martyred by another of those imposters claiming to be caliphs, or political heirs of the Prophet.
This time in the year 148 AH (765 CE) the noble victim was Imam Ja’far (AS), whose epithet "as-Sadeq” (the Truthful) not only stands out as evidence of his unblemished righteousness and the outright falsity of whoever opposed him, but is also a constant reminder that he had inherited this undeniable truthfulness through his father Imam Muhammad al-Baqer (AS), grandfather Imam Zayn al-Abedin (AS) and forefathers – Imam Hussain (AS), Imam Hassan (AS) and Imam Ali (AS) — from his illustrious ancestor, the "Sadeq al-Amin”, whom Almighty God appointed as the Last and Greatest Messenger.
The question that immediately strikes the mind is that how come the Imam’s mendacious murderer, Mansour Dawaniqi, was styling himself as caliph when neither God had decreed it, nor was there any hadith to support his claim or that of his predecessors.
Moreover, everyone knew of his bloodied rise to power, along with his elder brother and immediate predecessor, Abbas as-Saffah (the Slaughterer), by deceiving the masses (especially the Iranian Muslims of Khorasan) that the Abbasids were rising against the Godless Omayyads for the sake of returning power of the Islamic realm to the Ahl al-Bayt!
This does not mean that Imam Sadeq (AS) longed for political power and Mansour was merely eliminating a rival through a dose of poison, as all rulers do.
No, if such was the case, the Imam would have accepted the offer of caliphate that was sent to him from a victorious general of the anti-Omayyad uprising, Abu Salama, instead of burning the letter without opening it, by saying that mortals have no right to give what is of the province of God.
With these words, Imam Sadeq (AS) made it clear that not only was his God-given position of imamate beyond the power of political intrigues, but the whole system of caliphate, starting from the scandalous gathering of Saqifa Bani Sa’da in Medina when the Prophet was being laid to rest, was illegal and an open violation of the commandment of God in the holy Qur’an and the explicit proclamation of the Prophet at Ghadir-Khom on 18th Zilhijja 10 AH with the words: "For whomsoever I am Master, this Ali is his Master”.
To be more precise, Mansour and all those who ruined their afterlife by usurping the caliphate knew without the least doubt that as long as the Heirs of the famous Hadith of Thaqalyan were alive, their rule had no religious legitimacy in the eyes of the Ummah.
This was the reason, Mu’awiyya poisoned Imam Hasan al-Mujtaba (AS) and Yazid so mercilessly martyred Imam Husain (AS) at Karbala.
Mansour like the ungodly Omayyads of the Marwanid branch, who were fearful of doing open bodily harm to the Prophet’s descendants, outwardly showed respect to Imam Sadeq (AS) but inwardly harboured malice towards him.
He even conveniently forgot his own pledge of allegiance three decades ago to Imam Sadeq (AS) at the famous gathering of the Hashemites at Abwa during Omayyad misrule, when, while certain descendants of Imam Hasan (AS) voiced their ambition for political rule, the 6th Imam pointing in the direction of the then insignificant Mansour had predicted his rise to political power. An astonished Mansour had then sworn that Imam Sadeq (AS) was the true Heir of the Prophet and that in the light of Hadith, Imam Mahdi (AS), who will rise in the end times to fill the earth with justice, would be from his lineage.
But no sooner did the 6th Imam’s prophecy materialized, and Mansour found himself at the apex of political power, he became a bitter enemy of the Prophet’s Heir, and further damned himself by naming his son ‘Mahdi’ and forging the lie that it was this son whom the Prophet had prophesied as the Saviour. In addition he imprisoned and martyred most male members of lineage of Imam Hasan (AS).
In short, Imam Sadeq (AS) attained martyrdom, but not before foiling Mansour’s plot to find the identity of his successor and kill him as well, by naming the Abbasid ruler himself, along with the governor of Medina, among the executors of his will.
During the 34 years he was at the helm of spiritual affairs of the Ummah, the 6th Imam bore with patience 18 years of Omayyad tyranny and 16 years of Abbasid atrocities, but left no stone unturned in enlightening the Muslims with the real Seerah (behaviour) and Sunnah (practice) of Prophet Muhammad (SAWA), codifying the genuine Shari’ah as Fiqh al-Ja’far or the Ja’fari School of Jurisprudence, which remains rationally dynamic to this day, in contrast to the schools of jurisprudence founded by some of his not-so-obedient students, who made the fatal mistake of relying on qiyas or analogy, even while admitting the brilliance of Imam Ja’far as-Sadeq (AS).
I end this brief column with the 6th Imam’s simple but logically beautiful description of God the Omnipresent, Who has no form or place and is outside the limits of time and space, and whom imagination cannot encompass, since whatever that comes to the human mind, cannot be God.
When he was asked to show God, he said, first look at the sun. The man replied that he could not look at the sun because it was too bright. The Imam replied: "If you cannot see the created, how can you expect to see the Creator?"
Condolences on the Martyrdom Anniversary of Imam Ja’far as-Sadeq (AS)
Shawwal 25 is that tragic day in history when another Infallible Descendent of Prophet Muhammad (SAWA) was martyred by another of those imposters claiming to be caliphs, or political heirs of the Prophet.
This time in the year 148 AH (765 CE) the noble victim was Imam Ja’far (AS), whose epithet "as-Sadeq” (the Truthful) not only stands out as evidence of his unblemished righteousness and the outright falsity of whoever opposed him, but is also a constant reminder that he had inherited this undeniable truthfulness through his father Imam Muhammad al-Baqer (AS), grandfather Imam Zayn al-Abedin (AS) and forefathers – Imam Hussain (AS), Imam Hassan (AS) and Imam Ali (AS) — from his illustrious ancestor, the "Sadeq al-Amin”, whom Almighty God appointed as the Last and Greatest Messenger.
The question that immediately strikes the mind is that how come the Imam’s mendacious murderer, Mansour Dawaniqi, was styling himself as caliph when neither God had decreed it, nor was there any hadith to support his claim or that of his predecessors.
Moreover, everyone knew of his bloodied rise to power, along with his elder brother and immediate predecessor, Abbas as-Saffah (the Slaughterer), by deceiving the masses (especially the Iranian Muslims of Khorasan) that the Abbasids were rising against the Godless Omayyads for the sake of returning power of the Islamic realm to the Ahl al-Bayt!
This does not mean that Imam Sadeq (AS) longed for political power and Mansour was merely eliminating a rival through a dose of poison, as all rulers do.
No, if such was the case, the Imam would have accepted the offer of caliphate that was sent to him from a victorious general of the anti-Omayyad uprising, Abu Salama, instead of burning the letter without opening it, by saying that mortals have no right to give what is of the province of God.
With these words, Imam Sadeq (AS) made it clear that not only was his God-given position of imamate beyond the power of political intrigues, but the whole system of caliphate, starting from the scandalous gathering of Saqifa Bani Sa’da in Medina when the Prophet was being laid to rest, was illegal and an open violation of the commandment of God in the holy Qur’an and the explicit proclamation of the Prophet at Ghadir-Khom on 18th Zilhijja 10 AH with the words: "For whomsoever I am Master, this Ali is his Master”.
To be more precise, Mansour and all those who ruined their afterlife by usurping the caliphate knew without the least doubt that as long as the Heirs of the famous Hadith of Thaqalyan were alive, their rule had no religious legitimacy in the eyes of the Ummah.
This was the reason, Mu’awiyya poisoned Imam Hasan al-Mujtaba (AS) and Yazid so mercilessly martyred Imam Husain (AS) at Karbala.
Mansour like the ungodly Omayyads of the Marwanid branch, who were fearful of doing open bodily harm to the Prophet’s descendants, outwardly showed respect to Imam Sadeq (AS) but inwardly harboured malice towards him.
He even conveniently forgot his own pledge of allegiance three decades ago to Imam Sadeq (AS) at the famous gathering of the Hashemites at Abwa during Omayyad misrule, when, while certain descendants of Imam Hasan (AS) voiced their ambition for political rule, the 6th Imam pointing in the direction of the then insignificant Mansour had predicted his rise to political power. An astonished Mansour had then sworn that Imam Sadeq (AS) was the true Heir of the Prophet and that in the light of Hadith, Imam Mahdi (AS), who will rise in the end times to fill the earth with justice, would be from his lineage.
But no sooner did the 6th Imam’s prophecy materialized, and Mansour found himself at the apex of political power, he became a bitter enemy of the Prophet’s Heir, and further damned himself by naming his son ‘Mahdi’ and forging the lie that it was this son whom the Prophet had prophesied as the Saviour. In addition he imprisoned and martyred most male members of lineage of Imam Hasan (AS).
In short, Imam Sadeq (AS) attained martyrdom, but not before foiling Mansour’s plot to find the identity of his successor and kill him as well, by naming the Abbasid ruler himself, along with the governor of Medina, among the executors of his will.
During the 34 years he was at the helm of spiritual affairs of the Ummah, the 6th Imam bore with patience 18 years of Omayyad tyranny and 16 years of Abbasid atrocities, but left no stone unturned in enlightening the Muslims with the real Seerah (behaviour) and Sunnah (practice) of Prophet Muhammad (SAWA), codifying the genuine Shari’ah as Fiqh al-Ja’far or the Ja’fari School of Jurisprudence, which remains rationally dynamic to this day, in contrast to the schools of jurisprudence founded by some of his not-so-obedient students, who made the fatal mistake of relying on qiyas or analogy, even while admitting the brilliance of Imam Ja’far as-Sadeq (AS).
I end this brief column with the 6th Imam’s simple but logically beautiful description of God the Omnipresent, Who has no form or place and is outside the limits of time and space, and whom imagination cannot encompass, since whatever that comes to the human mind, cannot be God.
When he was asked to show God, he said, first look at the sun. The man replied that he could not look at the sun because it was too bright. The Imam replied: "If you cannot see the created, how can you expect to see the Creator?"
Condolences on the Martyrdom Anniversary of Imam Ja’far as-Sadeq (AS)