Reflections on Imam Reza’s (AS) blessed life
Jul 14, 2019 04:34 UTC
Heartiest congratulations on a very auspicious in whose blessings Iran and the faithful all over the world are basking.
As you might be knowing, today is the 11th of the sacred month of Zil-Qa’dah, the day on which in the year 148 AH (corresponding to 766 AD) Imam Reza (AS) was born in the Medina, the city of his illustrious ancestor, Prophet Mohammad (blessings of God upon him and his progeny).
He was the Prophet’s 8th Infallible Heir, and during his 20-year period of imamate he ably guided the seekers of truth to the shores of salvation despite the harassment to which he was subjected by three tyrannical Abbasid caliphs, the last of whom Mamoun, forcibly brought him to Marv in Khorasan and against his will declared him the Heir Apparent of the Islamic realm in order to mislead the Muslim masses into thinking that the ruler was respecting the Immaculate Ahl al-Bayt, and then had him secretly martyred through a dose of poison.
The following is a special feature on the life and times of Imam Reza (AS), whose holy shrine in Mashhad is he most sacred spot on the soil of Iran.
“In houses Allah has allowed to be raised and wherein His Name is celebrated, He is glorified therein, morning and evening.” (Holy Qur’an 24:36)
When this ayah, 36 of Surah Noor, was revealed by God through Archangel Gabriel, Prophet Mohammad (blessings of God upon him and his progeny) expounded its meaning to his companions. According to a narration found in the books of hadith of our Sunni brethren, Abu Bakr asked whether the house of Imam Ali and Hazrat Fatema Zahra (peace upon them) was also among the houses exalted by Allah. The Messenger of Mercy replied in the affirmative and added that it is the Best of Houses.
Alas, today the Godless Wahhabis have destroyed not just the house of Imam Ali and Hazrat Fatema (peace upon them) along with the entire Bani Hashem locality in Medina, but their blasphemous bulldozers have left no trace of the house where the Prophet of Islam, whom God calls “Mercy unto the entire creation”, was born in Mecca.
The question that arises is that: By such ungodly acts that are not less in profanity than the periodical sacrilege to which some satanic minds in the West resort against the sanctities of Islam through films, journals and novels, have the Wahhabis succeeded in obliterating from Muslim minds the hallowed status of the Prophet’s Ahl al-Bayt, whose spotless purity God Almighty Himself has vouched in the holy Qur’an (in ayah 33 of Surah al-Ahzaab)?
The answer is a big NO. The facts are all too obvious. A house is not just the place where a person is born and lives, but also the final resting place, or in other words, the grave, which houses his/her body.
To be more precise, the ayah quoted at the beginning of this column, without the least doubt, includes the holy shrines of the Ahl al-Bayt, where day and night the Name of God Almighty is glorified and which are indeed the most exalted abodes anywhere in the world.
One such hallowed house is in Iran, in the city of Mashhad, which these days is hosting millions of Muslims from not just all over the Islamic Republic but from different parts of the globe.
It is the shrine of the Prophet’s 8th Infallible Heir, Imam Ali ar-Reza (AS), who was as we said earlier was born on the 11th of Zil-Qa’dah in the year 148 AH in – his now destroyed house in – Medina, but who through immortal martyrdom found a permanent place in Khorasan that leads the believers to the celestial heavens.
Imam Reza (AS) needs no introduction. His father was Imam Musa al-Kazem (AS) who rests in peace in Kazemayn near Baghdad where he was martyred through poisoning by the tyrant Haroun Rasheed. His grandfather was Imam Ja’far as-Sadeq (AS), the Reviver of the Prophet’s pristine practice and behaviour (Sunnah wa Seerah), which is known today all over the world as “Fiqh al-Ja’fariyya”.
The 8th Imam’s mother was the virtuous lady from North Africa, Taktoum, also called Najma Khatoun.
In 183 AH, the divine mantle of imamate came to rest on the shoulders of Imam Reza (AS), who ably discharged the duties entrusted to him by God Almighty in guiding the people. He himself was a paragon of virtue and ethics, without the slightest blemish in his impeccable character.
As mentioned by the famous narrator of hadith, the Iranian scholar Shaikh Mohammad ibn Babway Sadouq who lived over a millennium ago:
“In the words of Ibrahim ibn Abbas: I never saw Ali ar-Reza committing excess over anyone in talking and interrupting anybody's speech before its coming to the end. He did not stretch his legs in the presence of others. When the meal table was laid he invited the servants to it, and took his meals with them. After taking rest in the nights he got up and made himself busy with the prayers to Allah. Similar to his forefathers he carried food to the houses of the afflicted ones at the mid of nights."
These flawless traits are an indication of not just the unsullied personalities of the Ahl al-Bayt, but indicate the Infallibility of their Immaculate Ancestor, the Prophet of Islam – the Exemplar par-excellence for all mankind as God calls him in the holy Qur’an.
Imam Reza (AS) who was kind to everyone did not tolerate any deviation, even if the person who committed wrong was to be his relative or brother, as is clear by an admonition from the 8th Imam to his erring brother Zayd which shows it is virtue that exalts a person in the sight of God:
“One day, when Imam Reza was delivering a speech in a grand assembly, he heard Zayd praising himself before the people, saying I am so and so. Imam Reza asked him: "O Zayd, have you trusted the words of the grocers of Kufa and are conveying them to the people? What kind of things are you talking about? The sons of Ali ibn Abi Talib (AS) and Fatema Zahra (SA) are worthy and outstanding only when they obey the commandments of Allah, and keep themselves away from sin and blunder. You think you are like Imam Musa al-Kazem, Imam Ali ibn Husayn, and other Imams? Whereas, they took pains and bore hardships on the way to Allah and prayed to Allah day and night. Do you think you will gain without pain? Be aware, that if a person of us the Ahl al-Bayt performs a good deed, he gets twice the reward. Because not only he performed good deeds like others but also that he has maintained the honour of Muhammad (SAWA). If he practices something bad and does a sin, he has performed two sins. One is that he performed a bad act like the rest of the people and the other one is that he has negated the honour of Muhammad (SAWA). O brother! The one who obeys Allah is from us the Ahl al-Bayt and the one who is a sinner is not ours. Allah said about the son of Noah who cut the spiritual bondage with his father, "He is not out of your lineage; if he was out of your lineage, I would have (saved him from the deluge) and granted him salvation.
In 201 AH, Imam Reza (AS) was forcibly brought to the city of Marv in Khorasan by Mamoun, who was afraid of the popularity among the Muslim Ummah of the Prophet’s Heir. In order to deceive the people, Mamoun outwardly showed respect to Imam Reza (AS) and offered him the caliphate, an offer which the Imam politely refused with the words: "If the caliphate is really yours, you ought not give to others what God has given you as a trust; and if it does not belong to you, how can you give to others what is not yours."
The crafty caliph was stupefied but threatened the Imam that he had no other option and should agree to become his Heir Apparent, although Imam Reza (AS) was some twenty years older than Mamoun. To celebrate the occasion, but actually to deceive the public, the caliph had poets sing praises of the Imam, and had their hands and even mouths stuffed with pearls and jewels from the public treasury – the looted wealth of the Muslim people.
The Black Insignia of the Abbasids was replaced by the Green Insignia of the Alawids or the descendants of the Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali (AS). And to give the impression of seriousness to these theatrics, coins were struck proclaiming the Prophet’s 8th Infallible Heir as Heir Apparent to the Abbasid usurper, whose great-grandfathers, Mansour Dawaniqi and Abu’l-Abbas Saffah, had seventy years ago hijacked the caliphate on the slogan of returning the rule of the Islamic realm to the Ahl al-Bayt from the Godless Omayyads.
Soon, to his horror, Mamoun realized that through such theatrics he had failed to isolate the Imam from the Ummah as the popularity of the Prophet’s Rightful Successor grew every day amongst the people, in view of his exemplary lifestyle, his God-given knowledge and wisdom, and his dynamic debates with the leaders and scholars of various schools of thought and religion.
Mamoun then invited leaders of various religions and schools of thought and asked Imam Reza (AS) to debate with them, in the hope that these scholars of Jews, Sabians, Zoroastrians, Christians, Hindus and Atheists, would outwit the Prophet’s successor. For instance, when Imran as-Sabei asked Imam Reza (AS): Do we declare the oneness of God by reality or by description?
The Imam answered: “Certainly, God the Light, the Initiator of this cosmos, and the Foremost is One without any associate or any accompanying thing. He is Unique without a second. The Initiator has been Self-Existent and the Light that is dispending with everything. He did not exist in a definite time and will not last for a definite time. He has not existed in anything, has not hidden Himself in anything… No sayer can invent a statement describing Him even if he thinks of light, example, apparition, or shadow. All that was before the creation and in the situation where there was nothing but Him. The same situation is in this position. There are only imaginary attributes and a translation of a picture in the mind purposed for making others understand. Did you understand, Imran?”
Imran as-Sabei who lacked proper cognition of God, the One and Only, had no other choice but to admit the truth of Islam, after this lively discourse on the Almighty Creator, of which we have only presented excerpts.
Imam Reza (AS) held similar debates with Jewish and Christian scholars and proved to them the truth and righteousness of Islam. For instance during the debate with the Jewish scholar Ra's al-Jaloot, the Imam asked him about the Prophethood of Moses (AS). In reply, the Jewish scholar cited the miraculous parting of the sea waters and the turning of the staff into a giant snake.
Imam Reza (AS) said: So you believe in Moses since he did what others could not do. Therefore whoever claims prophethood and then does something which others are not able to do, you would believe him?
Ras al-Jaloot replied: No, I believe in Moses because he has a high status in the sight of God and we cannot believe whoever claims to be prophet unless he brings miracles such as those of Moses.
Imam Reza (AS) said: Then how do you believe in the Prophets before Moses whereas they could not bring miracles such as those of Moses? The Jewish scholar replied: I said that I believe those who perform some miracles for proving their prophethood.
Imam Reza (AS) said: Why do you not have faith in Jesus? Did he not revive the dead and healed the blind, leprous and mad and built birds from clay and made them alive on the command of God?
The Jewish scholar replied: It is said that he did these but we did not see them. Imam Reza (AS) then said: Have you seen the miracles of Prophet Moses or you have just heard them from reliable persons? The Jewish scholar acknowledged the words of the Imam, who then went on to say that Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), as the last and greatest Messenger of God, was an orphan and worked as a shepherd, but it was God Who gave him the Eternal Miracle of the holy Qur’an, which will remain forever, while the miracles performed by the other prophets, including Moses, were time-bound. The Imam thus proved that the miracle of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA), that is, the holy Qur’an is eternal and alive, and can be seen and acknowledged by all, while the miracles of the past prophets are events of the past.
We once again congratulate our listeners, and end our special feature with a wonderful saying from Imam Reza (AS) which is indeed food for thought:
“As for the brain, it is the greatest of all Allah's creatures; it dominates the whole body, controls all movements of it; and drives it to wherever it desires; and by it man is distinguished from the rest of animals. Allah has singled out the brain for man, and through it He has ennobled man over all His creatures.
“Surely, the brain is a world of wonders. No creature can match it in greatness, for it contains stores which never are full and it preserves whatever knowledge is deposited in it. If we want to mention the wonders of the brain, then we have to write a full book about them. Glory belongs to Him Who has originated and created the brain!”
AS/MG
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