Martyrdom of Imam Ja’far Sadeq (AS)

Salaam and heartfelt condolences to you on a very doleful day. Today the 25th of the month of Shawwal is the day on which in the year 148 AH, the 6th Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), was martyred through a fatal dose of poison, administered by the self-styled caliph of the usurper Abbasid regime.

As usual, the Islamic Republic of Iran is commemorating the anniversary of this tragic day with a public holiday so that the faithful properly pay their respects to the memory of Imam Ja’far Sadeq (AS). We invite you to listen to a special feature in this regard, and here is a  mind-stimulating statement from the 6^th Imam:

“Islam could be called naked; (thus) prudency is its dress, decorum is its adornment, good deed is its personality, and piety is its pillar. Everything should have a basis. The basis of Islam is devotion to us—the Prophet’s progeny.”

What you heard is indeed a wonderful description of the dynamism of faith and should dispel any doubts about Islam being a creed of violence, hatred, vandalism, and bloodshed, as alleged by its enemies and as is being enacted these days by Godless savages masquerading as Muslims – as per the script written for them by their masters. These words of wisdom should be carefully pondered upon so as to sift truth from falsehood, differentiate faith from hypocrisy, and discern between right and wrong, in order to defeat the devilish designs of the Takfiri terrorists who have denuded Islam of its dynamics by discolouring its dress, despoiling its adornment, distorting its personality, dismantling its pillar and devastating all its fundamentals, especially its cornerstone of devotion to the Ahl al-Bayt or the blessed progeny of the Messenger of Mercy.

 As is clear from the wording, the person who expressed them was a member of the Immaculate Ahl al-Bayt – devotion to whom is an article of faith enshrined in the Holy Qur’an in several ayah such 33 of Surah Ahzaab and 55 of Surah al-Ma’edah, This article of faith has been further expounded in clear tone by the Seal of Prophets in his sermon from Mount Mercy (Jabal ar-Rahmah) on the Plain of Arafaat on the 9^th of Zilhijja, 10 AH, during his Farewell Hajj Pilgrimage. He said:

“I am leaving behind among you the Thaqalayn (Two Weighty things), the Book of God, and my progeny the Ahl al-Bayt. Hold fast to them and you will never go astray; for the two never part with each other even when they return to me at the Fountain (of Kowthar on the Day of Judgement).”

The 25^th Shawwal brings into sharper focus the identity of this Impeccable Figure, who was the Reviver of the Sunnah (or behaviour) and Seerah (or practice) of the Prophet of Peace. It was on this day that he was forced to leave the world as a martyr in the year 148 AH at the age of 65 years, as a result of a fatal dose of poison. As we said in the beginning of the programme, he is none other than Imam Ja’far Sadeq (AS), the 6^th divinely-designated heir of the Prophet of Islam, who was the First to be known by the epithet of “as-Sadeq” (or The Truthful). The immortal legacy of the 6^th Imam is “Fiqh al-Ja’fari” or the Ja’fari School of Jurisprudence, which unlike the innovation of the so-called schools of jurisprudence that are based on “qiyas” which means guesswork or dubious narrations, is the pure and pristine “Shari’ah” of the Almighty’s Last and Greatest Prophet, bequeathed to him by his Immaculate Ancestors. Who would martyr such a peerless person, and why?

The answers become obvious when we glance at the tragic sequence of events following the passing away of the Prophet of Islam and the usurpation of the rule of the Islamic state by persons who were neither specified by the Holy Qur’an nor entrusted with any authority by the Prophet.

It is outside the scope of this brief radio programme to either mention the Prophet’s public proclamation of Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb (AS) as “Vicegerent” on God’s express commandment at Ghadir-Khom, or refer to the scandalous event of Saqifa Bani Sa’da where the caliphate of the unjust, the unprincipled, and the undeserving was established – only to become more immoral, more un-Islamic, and more agnostic when the Omayyad and Abassid tyrants posed as caliphs.

Born in 83 AH on the 136^th anniversary of the Prophet’s birthday (Rabi al-Awwal 17), Imam Sadeq (AS), who was a 12-year boy when his grandfather Imam Zain al-Abedin (AS) – son of Imam Husain (AS) the Immortal Marty of Karbala – passed away, had been entrusted with the imamate in 114 AH at the age of 31on the martyrdom of his own father, Imam Muhammad Baqer (AS), during the heyday of the Omayyad tyrant, Hisham ibn Abdul-Malek.

In the next decade-and-a-half the Omayyads folded up and were cast into the dustbin of history. The new usurpers that replaced them were offspring of the Prophet’s uncle Abbas ibn Abdul-Muttaleb, and had deceived the Muslim masses by saying they had risen to give the rule of the Islamic state to the Ahl al-Bayt.

In the meantime, Imam Sadeq (AS), fully aware of the political conditions, had burned in the flame of a lamp the letter of one of the commanders of the uprising, offering him rule of the state. As the divinely-designated Imam, his position was above such a caliphate which his illustrious ancestor, the One and Only Commander of the Faithful Imam Ali (AS) had called “worse than a goat’s sneeze”. 

The Abassids who now forgot their devotion to the Prophet’s progeny, dispensed with the dress and decorum of Islam by adorning themselves with the robes of corruption and oppression. To them, the Immaculate Personality of Imam Sadeq (AS), appeared as a thorn, since they were aware that as long as the rightful descendant of the Prophet was physically present, their claim to be successors of the Prophet was under a big question.

Mansour, the 2^nd Abbasid caliph, oblivious of the pledge he had given to Imam Sadeq (AS) at the famous gathering of the Hashemite Clain at Abwa in those days of Omayyad rule, started to prop up pseudo scholars in the vain hope of belittling the Prophet’s Heir. He closed down the 6^th Imam’s famous academy in Medina, which at its height had over 4,000 scholars studying various branches of Islamic and natural sciences, including Jaber ibn Hayyan (Geber to medieval Europe), the Father of Chemistry.

In addition, Mansour, who martyred many male members of the offspring of Imam Hasan Mujtaba (AS) – burying most of them alive – committed the treason of calling the Shi’ites or devoted followers of the Ahl al-Bayt as “Rafidhoon” which means rejecters of the scandalous institution of caliphate. He then went on to coin a new term “Ahl as-Sunna wa’l-Jama’ah”, meaning followers of the Prophet’s Sunnah, when the fact of the matter was that these ignorant masses had no idea of what the real practice and behaviour of the Prophet was. No such sect had ever existed before in Islamic history.

Finally, on this day in 148 AH, the despicable tyrant ended the 34-year imamate of Imam Ja’far Sadeq (AS) by martyring him through a dose of poison, little knowing that it is God’s Will to keep the torch of divine guidance glowing forever, until the advent of the Prophet’s 12^th and Last Successor, Imam Mahdi (AS), to establish the global government of peace, prosperity, and justice.

AS/MG