By: Seyyed Ali Shahbaz

     "The light of the body is in the eyes. If the sight is luminous, the whole body will be bright. The light of the spirit is in the brain (mind). If a person is (really) intelligent, he will acknowledge his Lord (God). If he acknowledges his Lord, he will clearly see his religion. If he ignores the affairs of his Lord, he will be having no religion. Like the body that does not live without a living soul, the religion does not live without true conviction. True conviction is proved only through the mind.”

      What a wonderful definition of the rationality of Islam! The one who expressed such eternal words of wisdom that continue to stimulate the intellect and guide the seekers of truth to the blissful path of salvation, – blazed out by Prophet Muhammad (SAWA) –  was no ordinary person.
 
     He was, in fact, a direct descendent of the Seal of Divine Messengers – his 7th Infallible Successor to exact.
      
    He was none other than Imam Musa al-Kazem (AS), whose birthday we mark on the 21st of Zilhijjah.
 
    Born in Abwa, between the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, in the year 128 AH, if his father was Imam Ja’far as-Sadeq (AS), the Reviver of the Prophet’s genuine "Sunnah” (practice) and "Seerah” (behaviour) to which the School of the Ahl al-Bayt is indebted for the dynamism of its jurisprudential laws (in contrast to the guesses, hearsay and analogy on which the other schools of jurisprudence are based), his mother was the impeccable lady, Hamidah.

     His grandfather, Imam Muhammad al-Baqer (AS) had said about this virtuous lady, his daughter-in-law: "You are Hamidah (the Praised) in this world and Mahmoudah (the Praiseworthy) in the Hereafter."

    In other words, whatever the 7th Imam spoke, taught and displayed through his practice and behaviour were the ultimate realities of Islam bequeathed to him as a household affair, and hence true conviction based on absolute certitude of faith.

    These qualities were not simply acquired but God-given, which means that like Prophet Jesus (AS), who testified the chastity of his mother, the Virgin Mary, while still an infant in the cradle, the Righteous Heirs of Prophet Muhammad (SAWA) were Light Incarnate and thus born with exceptional traits that no neo-Muslim or the offspring of those who had been guided to the light of Islam from polytheism and atheism, could possess.
       
    Here, I do not intend to relate how the week-old infant Imam Kazem (AS) replied from the cradle to the hesitant salutation of his father’s companion, Sarraj, and to the latter’s utter surprise told him in explicit words to change the name of the daughter that was born to him and regarding whose birth he had not informed anyone else, because it is a name that God does not like.

    Time and space does not allow me to go into details about that particular name, which can be found in all reliable books on the life of the Imams, of the 7th Imam in particular.

    Before ending this brief column, I present one more example of the God-given wisdom of the person who reposes in eternal peace in the grand gold-plated twin-domed mausoleum of Kazemain north of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.

   Once when Imam Kazem (AS) was about seven years of age, the jurist, Abu Hanifa, who was born in a family of Zoroastrian converts to Islam from distant Kabul, approached the threshold of his teacher Imam Ja’far Sadeq (AS), and posed a question to test the wisdom of this tender boy of the Prophet’s Ahl al-Bayt.

   Abu Hanifa said: "O son of the Prophet! What is your opinion about the deeds of man? Does he do them of his own free will or God makes him do them?"

   Imam Musa al-Kazem (AS) replied with certitude and true conviction: "The doings of a person can have three possibilities: (1) God compels a man to do them and he is helpless. (2) Both God and man share the commitment. (3) Man does them alone.  If the first case is true than God cannot punish man for sins he did not commit. If the second case is true then too God cannot punish man for He the Almighty is an equal partner. Then, we are naturally left with the third case, that man is absolutely responsible for his own doings.”

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Congratulations on the Blessed Birthday of Imam Musa al-Kazem (AS)