Martyrdom of Imam Ali an-Naqi

Today, although it is Nowrouz or start of the New Year in Iran, the calendar year 1397 solar hijri has started this year on a note of sadness, in view of its coincidence with the doleful 3rd of the lunar month of Rajab, the martyrdom anniversary of 10th Infallible Successor of Prophet Mohammad (blessings of God upon him and his progeny).

We thus present you a special feature on the life and times of Imam Ali Naqi al-Hadi (peace upon him).

"Protected by valiant warriors they passed the night on the peak of their mountains, but these mountains did not protect them.

"After all their power and pomp they had to descend from their lofty fortresses to the custody of the tombs.

"O what a dreadful change their graves had hardly received them when a voice heard exclaiming,

"Where are the thrones and the crowns and the robes of State?

"Where are now the faces of the delicate, which were shaded by veils and protected by curtains?

"To this the tomb replied. The worms are now revelling upon these faces.

"Long were these men eating and drinking, but now they are eaten by the worms in turn."

What you listened to was the English translation of a set of eloquently moving Arabic verses, composed extempore. These were not composed by a poet, but by a Saint who was under pressure from a murderous tyrant. So electrifying was the effect of these verses which expose the realities of the grave for power-drunk potentates that the tyrant burst into tears and was forced to leave in peace his intended victim.

Today on the 3rd of Rajab we are commemorating the martyrdom anniversary of the saintly figure whose words and works are alive and inspirational for all seekers of truth till this day, exactly a millennium, a century and eighty-five lunar years since he was forced to leave the mortal world because of a fatal dose of poisoning in 254 AH in Samarra, Iraq.          

The Prophet’s 10th divinely-decreed successor needs no introduction. Born in Medina in 212 AH, he was named Ali in honour of his illustrious ancestor, the Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb (AS), who on God’s express commandment was proclaimed Vicegerent at the historic field of Ghadeer-Khom before a huge gathering of 120,000 Muslims by Prophet Mohammad (blessings of God upon him and his progeny).

He acquired the epithets of an-Naqi or the Spotlessly Pure and al-Hadi or the Guide. Since he was the 10th in line of succession to the Divine Trust of Ghadeer-Khom, he was the constant target of those who had usurped the political power of the Islamic state and were styling themselves as caliphs.

This was also the reason why the place of eternal rest of the 10th Imam in Samarra, Iraq, was a few years ago blown up by his modern day enemies – the dastardly Salafi terrorists who ought to have realized that they cannot erase from people’s hearts the love and affection of the chosen ones of God whom their much more powerful progenitors (the Salaf) couldn’t erase with either the sword or the pen of their court mullahs.

The powerful tyrants whose plots to harm Imam Hadi (AS) miserably failed were the self-styled caliphs of the usurper Abbasid regime, Mu’tasim and his son, Mutawakkil. Both of them were base born – the former was the son of a Turkic concubine while the latter was the son of a Greek concubine. These two left no stone unturned to try to tarnish the image of the Ahl al-Bayt.

If Mu’tasim appointed tutors to try to brainwash the 8-year old Imam, only to find his appointees learning instead from the God-given wisdom of the boy to whom they were sent to taught, Mutawakkil was exasperated on many an occasion when his ruse to find fault with the Imam (like the poetry session cited above), badly boomeranged upon him.

In between the stratagems of the caliphs were the academic intrigues of the court mullahs that always ended in defeat in the debates they dared to impose on the Prophet’s 10th divinely-designated successor.

One such frustrated scholar was the Mu’tazallite ideologue, Yahya Ibn Aksam, who decades earlier during the reign of Mamoun had been stuttering for words while unable to answer the questions posed to him by the Tenth Imam’s father, Imam Mohammad at-Taqi al-Jawad (AS), who was then a beardless boy.

Yahya Ibn Aksam, now a silver-bearded scholar and scared of holding an open public debate with another Infallible Member of the Prophet’s Ahl al-Bayt, posed a number of complicated questions in writing to Imam Hadi (AS) on the assumption that these would not be correctly answered.

The Tenth Imam, to the surprise of the Mu’tazalite scholar, not just provided the correct answers but opened his mind to facts that were beyond Ibn Aksam’s ken. The following is the Imam’s answers to one of the questions:

“Regarding the prostration of (Prophet) Jacob (AS) and his sons, it was out of their obedience to God and affection of Joseph (AS). It was similar to the angel’s prostration before Adam (AS). That prostration was not intended to Adam personally. It was a sign of their obedience to God and love for Adam (AS). Thus, Jacob the Prophet and his sons prostrated themselves as a sign of showing gratitude to God for the reunion with Joseph. At that very time, Joseph the Prophet (AS) showed thankfulness to God by saying (as the holy Qur’an in ayah 101 of Surah Yousuf relates):

“My Lord, You have given me the kingdom and taught me the meaning of dreams. You are the Creator of the heavens and the earth. You are my Guardian in this world and in the life to come. Make me die as one who has submitted to the Will of God and unite me with the righteous ones.”

Imam Hadi (AS), whose imamate could be roughly divided into two equal parts (about 17 years in Medina and 17 years in Samarra where he was placed under virtual house arrest by the Abbasid regime), shouldered the crucial task of grooming Muslims for the eventual start of the ghayba or period of occultation of his yet-to-be-born grandson, the 12th Imam who will rise as Mahdi al-Qa'em (AS) to cleanse the earth of all vestiges of corruption and oppression by establishing the global government of peace, prosperity and justice.

In view of the need for guidance of posterity, the 10th Imam groomed a great many ulema, who through a solid chain of succession have kept alive the aspirations of the faithful till this day, a millennium and almost two centuries later.

Despite the persecution of the Prophet's progeny and widespread official promotion of all sorts of vices in society, Imam Hadi (AS) continued his guiding role by grooming in various branches of sciences a large number of scholars, whose names are immortal to this day such as Fazl bin Shazan, Ali bin Mahzyar, Ali bin Bilal Baghdadi, Ali bin Ja'far al-Hamadani, and Seyyed (Shah) Abdul-Azeem al-Hasani, whose shrine in Rayy, south of Tehran is a centre of pilgrimage.

The most testing times for the Imam during his 34-year mission, was the almost 14 year misrule of the tyrannical Mutawakkel – notorious as the "most infidel of the Abbasid caliphs". Mutawakkel forced Imam Hadi (AS) to leave Medina and live under virtual house arrest at Samarra, especially after the jubilant reception that the Prophet's successor was accorded in Baghdad on his way by tens of thousands of Muslims of various persuasions. 

The 10th Imam had to endure with patience Mutawakkel’s destruction of the shrine of the Immortal Martyr of Karbala, Imam Husain (AS) and the ban on all pilgrimages to the mausoleum of the Prophet’s grandson.

Though Mutawakkel died, the Imam felt no respite. In short, at 42 years of age, Imam Hadi (AS) was in the full bloom of manhood when martyred in a cowardly manner through a fatal dose of poison by al-Mu'taz, the 13th Abbasid caliph.

AS/SS