Martyred in the Prime of Youth

Heartfelt condolences to you all on a very sad occasion. Today, apparently the last day of the month of Zil-Qa’dah, is the martyrdom of a venerable person who was forced to leave the world in the prime of his youth.

He was none other than the 9^th Infallible Heir of the Almighty’s Last and Greatest Messenger to mankind, Prophet Mohammad (blessings of God upon him and his progeny). Now we have an exclusive feature on the Prophet’s namesake Imam Mohammad ibn Ali, whose epithets at-Taqi means the Pure, and al-Jawad means the Generous.

First we present you some food for thought from the 9^th Imam, among whose words of wisdom for the guidance of humanity is an aphorism that says: “Delay in repentance is self-deceit, long procrastination is confusion, and it is self-destruction to resort to excuses before Allah while insisting on sins by feeling safe from divine punishment of Allah.”

Then the Imam went on to recite ayah 99 of Surah al-A’raaf, where the All-Merciful warns the wayward, the habitual and unrepentant sinners, the disbelievers and the Arrogant: “Do the people of the towns feel secure from Our punishment overtaking them at midday while they are playing around?”

As is clear, what we related to you are not the utterances of any ordinary person. In fact, these are the bezels of wisdom that were bequeathed to us for our guidance by the 9^th Imam, who was a mere boy of 8 years when the Divine Trust of imamate was entrusted to him. This is not surprising, since God the All-Wise says in Surah Mariyam of the holy Qur’an that He gave the Book and wisdom to John the Baptist while still a child, and He made the infant Jesus speak from the cradle on his prophethood and granting of a scripture. Moreover, Imam Reza (AS), while leaving Medina for his fateful journey to Khorasan from where he was not destined to return, bade a tearful farewell to his then 5-year son, and told his followers that after him this boy is the divinely-designated Imam.

Every year we commemorate the tragic martyrdom of the 9^th Imam whose purity encompassed all his characteristics, and whose generosity was not confined to money and material matters, but most important of all was his generous dispensing of wisdom and knowledge for all those who came in contact with him and sought guidance.

He was martyred through a fatal dose of poisoning in the prime of his youth at the young age of 25 years, by a self-styled caliph who thought that the death of the 9^th Imam of the Ahl al-Bayt, would ensure longevity to the rule of the usurper Abbasid regime.

Mu’tasim was utterly wrong and the misdeed he committed in Baghdad on this day in 220 AH, against Imam Mohammad Taqi (AS), ensured him a lasting place in the infernal flames of hell, while the rich legacy of his victim is alive and invigorating to this day.

The unpardonable crime of Mu’tasim was committed on the threshold of the annual Hajj pilgrimage to holy Mecca, where every year the Imam Jawad, like his illustrious ancestors, was present in the garb of the “Exemplary Pilgrim” to teach the tenets of Islam to visitors from far and near.

Many of the pilgrims of his times, still vividly remembered the questions that a grey-bearded ideologue of the Mu’tazalite sect, Yahya ibn Aktham, had posed to Imam Jawad (AS), who was still a beardless boy, and who despite his tender age gave rationally dynamic answers.

Yahya ibn Aktham, on the instructions of the then caliph, Mamoun, had asked the boy-Imam: “What is the atonement for a person who hunts a game while he is dressed in the Ehram (the pilgrimage garb).”

This question appears quite simple, especially during the Hajj season when every potential pilgrim tries to acquaint himself with the rules before setting off to Mecca to circumambulate the Holy Ka’ba, the symbolic House of the Unseen but Omnipresent Lord.

But the questioner had ulterior motives. He intended to ensnare in the intricacies of legal issues what appeared to him a mere boy. However, to the astonishment of the scholar and the whole court, the lad, with composure and wisdom beyond his tender years, said in a cool and calm manner:

“Your question is utterly vague and lacks definition. You should first clarify whether the game killed was outside the sanctified area or inside it; whether the hunter was aware of his sin or did so in ignorance; did he kill the game purposely or by mistake; was the hunter a slave or a free man; was he adult or minor, did he commit the sin for the first time or had he done so before; was the hunted game a bird or something else; was it a small animal or a big one; is the sinner sorry for the misdeed or does he insist on it; did he kill it secretly at night or openly during daylight; was he putting on the pilgrimage garb for Hajj or for the Umrah? Unless you clarify and define these aspects, how can you have a definite answer?”

Yahya bin Aktham stuttered and couldn’t find any answer to the counter question posed by the boy-Imam. His claim to knowledge shattered before the whole court, he changed his tone and humbly addressed the boy with the words: O’ son of the Prophet, you know better.

The admission of inability by the learned doctor of law embarrassed Mamoun and evaporated his dreams of humiliating the 9th infallible Heir of the Prophet.

The Imam obliged by saying:  

“If he had killed the animal outside the sacred ground and it was winged and large, an atonement of sheep would have been necessary for him. If he had struck it down in the sanctuary, the penalty required of him would be doubled. If he killed a young bird outside the sacred ground, then the atonement of a lamb which had been weaned off milk would have been required of him. If he had killed it in the sanctuary, then he would have been required to sacrifice a lamb and the value of the young bird. As for wild animals, if it was a wild ass, he would have been required to sacrifice a cow. If it was an ostrich, the sacrifice of a camel would be necessary. If it had been a deer, then a sheep would have been necessary. If he had killed any of those in the sanctuary, the penalty would have been doubled.”  

Imam Jawad (AS) continued to describe the various penalties for the pilgrim in Ehram to the astonishment of the whole audience. The Imam then asked Yahya ibn Aktham a question to which the Mu’tazalite scholar had no answer. Imam Jawad (AS) then himself proceeded to provide the answers. Interested listeners can refer to books of hadith and history for details, which are outside the scope of this brief radio programme.

Mu’tasim indeed remembered this vivid debate held over a dozen years ago, yet he was so blind to the truth that he forced Imam Jawad (AS) to leave Medina on the threshold of the Hajj pilgrimage and come to his capital Baghdad, so as to be under the watchful eyes of the regime.

Once a thief was brought before Mu’tasim, and the jurisprudents in his court gave conflicting verdicts, with some saying that the culprit’s hand be severed from the wrist, some that it should be cut off from the elbow, while others wanting that the whole arm to be chopped off.

When Mu’tasim turned to Imam Mohammad Taqi (AS) and insisted on his opinion in this regard, the Prophet’s rightful successor said the mode of Islamic punishment for a habitual thief, according to the genuine laws of the shari’a is that only the four fingers (and that too after due warnings) should be severed, leaving the thumb and the palm intact, since the culprit is after all a human being in need of the mercy of the All-Forgiving God and should not be deprived of the correct way to pray, which requires the touching of 7 organs to the ground including the palms.

After this wise and rational judgement, the malice of the caliph and the court-mullahs increased, and they plotted the murder of Imam Jawad (AS) through poisoning, ignorant of the fact that long after the Abbasids have passed into oblivion, the 9^th Imam who reposes in eternal peace beside his grandfather Imam Musa al-Kazem (AS) in the magnificent gold-plated twin-domed mausoleum of Kazemain, will continue to rule the hearts and minds of believers all over the world from his sanctuary in Baghdad.

AS/ME