Birthday of Imam Mohammad Baqer (BBUH)

Heartiest congratulations to you on the blessed birth anniversary of the Cleaver and Spreader of Sciences, whose legacy is immortal and continues to enlighten humanity till this day over a millennium and almost four centuries later.

He was none other than Imam Mohammad Baqer (PBUH), the 5th Infallible Heir of the Almighty’s Last and Greatest Messenger, Prophet Mohammad (Blessings of God upon him and his progeny). Let us first read one of his wise statements of on knowledge and the real repositories of science and knowledge.    

“If I found (worthy carriers) for my knowledge which Allah, the Great and Almighty, has given to me, I would proclaim monotheism, Islam, religion, and Islamic laws. How can I do that? My (great)grandfather, the Commander of the Faithful (Imam Ali), peace upon him, found no (worthy) carriers for his knowledge. Thus, he sighed deeply on the pulpit and said: "Question me before you lose me, for there is much knowledge among these ribs.”

What you read were not words of frustrations, but bezels of wisdom concerning the realities of life and the people, expressed by the person who was prophesied by his great-great grandfather, the Prophet of Islam, as “Baqer al-Uloum” or the Splitter and Spreader of Sciences. Born in the Prophet’s city Medina, 57 years after the Prophet’s hijra from Mecca to Medina, and 46 years after the passing away of the Prophet from the mortal world, Imam Mohammad Baqer (AS), was knowledge personified. He was descended on both sides from the Prophet. His father Imam Zain al-Abedin (AS) was the son of the Prophet’s younger grandson Imam Husain (AS), while his mother Fatema (SA) was the daughter of the Prophet’s elder grandson, Imam Hasan Mojtaba (AS). He was thus the inheritor of the celestial knowledge bequeathed by the Prophet, on the commandment of God, to his great-grandfather, Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb (AS).

It was Divine Providence that he was born on the 1st of Rajab, which has started today and which is one of the four sacred months of the Islamic calendar. It is the month in which the All-Merciful, in addition to the regular conduits of mercy, opens up special passageways to His creatures for attaining greater heights of virtue. Indeed, fortunate are those who grab this opportunity to strive towards the bounties of the Hereafter. Last night on the eve of Rajab, most of the faithful may have performed the special prayers and recited the exclusive supplications in the Divine Court. Today many are fasting and are observing the special prayers of the 1st of Rajab.

The faithful are humbly requesting God to firm up their faith, enlighten their minds, illuminate their hearts, purify their souls, strengthen their spirits, make them worthy recipients of the bezels of knowledge specified by the 5th Imam, and above all, alleviate the sufferings of all believers – especially the defenceless people of Yemen, who are victims of the more than year long criminal aerial bombardment by the Wahhabi terrorists, backed by the US and the illegal Zionist entity. God’s promise is true. He will surely make the true believers triumphant, no matter what atrocities the hypocrites and the faithless commit, since He has preserved for the salvation of humanity, the 12th and Last Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), who will reappear in the end times as Qa’em al-Mahdi – may God hasten his advent to rid Planet Earth of all oppression through establishment of the global government of peace, prosperity and justice. Amen No wonder, the Prophet of Islam and 11 of his Infallible Heirs have given us tidings of the eventual emerging out of the long occultation of the 12th and Last Infallible Imam for fulfilling God’s promise. For his part, Imam Mohammad Baqer (AS), who as a 4-year old was present in Karbala on 10th Moharram 61 AH, the Day of Ashura when history’s most heartrending occurred, and who in its equally tragic aftermath despite his tender age, suffered imprisonment in Damascus, along with his parents, aunts and Grand Aunts, Hazrat Zainab and Omm Kulthoum (peace upon them), has said:

“The Master of the Affair was named as the Mahdi because he will dig out the Torah and other heavenly books from the cave in Antioch. He will judge among the people of the Torah according to the Torah; among the people of the Evangel according to the Evangel; among the people of the Psalms in accordance with the Psalms; and among the people of the Qur'an in accordance with the Qur'an.”

These words, from the Imam on whose authority scholars wrote accounts of the prophets of the past, the Sunnah and Seerah (or beahviour and practice) of the Prophet of Islam, the meaning and purport of the ayahs of the holy Qur’an, and the jurisprudential principles of the Shari’a, provide solace to the hearts of not just Shi’a Muslims but also our Sunni brethren, whose books of hadith are replete with countless narrations from Imam Mohammad Baqer (AS). As a matter of fact, all monotheists take comfort from the words of the Imams of the Ahl al-Bayt, who as the righteous heirs of the Prophet, preached peace, friendship and fraternity – unlike the usurper Omayyad and Abbasid caliphs, who like the satanic Salafis of our own days, divided Muslims into sects, massacred people, terrorized countries, destroyed the heritage of the nations of the past, and looted the masses to fill up their coffers.

Those in doubt, are invited to study the fruitful life of the 5th Infallible Imam, who during his 19-year mission, resisted against five tyrannical Omayyad caliphs (whose empire that stretched from Spain in the west to Pakistan in the east has long evaporated), in order to pass on to posterity the ethereal values of universal brotherhood. His son and eventual successor, Imam Ja’far as-Sadeq (AS), was always beside his side – even in the dungeon of Damascus, where the tyrant Hesham put them to satisfy his inflated ego that would soon be punctured forever. The 5th Imam, in the manner of the imprisoned Prophet Joseph of the days of the Pharoah of Egypt, reformed the inmates to the exasperation of Hisham, who had no other choice but to release them.

Upon release, Imam Baqer (AS) had a meeting with the Chief Christian Prelate of Syria, and after a lively debate convinced him of the truth of Islam. As a result flocks of Christian became Muslims. Hisham was at his wit’s end, and reluctantly send the father and son to their hometown, but soon hatched a plot to martyr the Prophet’s 5th Infallible through poison.

The Fifth Imam's magnetic personality groomed such leading lights of Islam who could be called immortals. Names that come to mind are Zurara the master theologian, Mohammad bin Muslim bin Riyyah the eminent jurisprudent, Burayd the prominent jurisprudent, Abu Basir Lais al-Bakhtari the famous traditionist. These four have been described as the “Tent Pegs of the World.”

Then there was Abu Hamzah Samali who held an esteemed place among the companions of the 5th Imam and through whom some moving supplications have been conveyed to posterity including the famous one recited by the faithful to this day before Sahar or late midnight in the fasting month of Ramadhan. Among the Imam's companions was also the renowned poet and master of Arabic literature Kumayt bin Ziyad al-Asadi, whose panegyrics titled al-Hashemiyaat are still recited to this day.

Peace unto Imam Mohammad Baqer (AS). Here are two of his aphorisms to enlighten our minds and souls:

"Our followers are of three kinds, one who follows us but depends on others, one who is like a glass involved in his own reflections, but the best are those who are like gold, the more they suffer the more they shine.”

AS/AS/ME