Birthday of Imam Musa Kazem (AS)

Salaam everybody and heartiest felicitations to you on the auspicious birth anniversary of Imam Musa Kazem (AS), the 7th Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (blessings of God upon him and his progeny).

“The light of the body is in the eyes. If the sight is luminous, the whole body will be bright. The light of the spirit is in the brain (mind). If a person is (really) intelligent, he will acknowledge his Lord (God). If he acknowledges his Lord, he will clearly see his religion. If he ignores the affairs of his Lord, he will be having no religion. Like the body that does not live without a living soul, the religion does not live without true conviction. True conviction is proved only through the mind.”

What a wonderful definition of the rationality of Islam! The one who expressed such eternal words of wisdom that continue to stimulate the intellect and guide the seekers of truth to the blissful path of salvation, – blazed out by the Prophet of Islam –  was no ordinary person.

He was, in fact, a direct descendent of the Seal of Divine Messengers – his 7th Infallible Successor to be exact.

He was none other than Imam Musa al-Kazem (AS), whose birthday we mark today. Born in Abwa, between the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, in the year 128 AH (corresponding to 645 AD), if his father was Imam Ja’far as-Sadeq (AS), the Reviver of the Prophet’s genuine Sunnah and Seerah or practice and behaviour to which the School of the Ahl al-Bayt is indebted for the dynamism of its jurisprudential laws (in contrast to the guesses, hearsay and analogy on which the other schools of jurisprudence are based), his mother was the impeccable lady, Hamidah.

His grandfather, Imam Muhammad al-Baqer (AS) had said about this virtuous lady, his daughter-in-law: “You are Hamidah (the Praised) in this world and Mahmouda (the Praiseworthy) in the hereafter.”

Thus, whatever the 7th Imam spoke, taught and displayed through his practice and behaviour were the ultimate realities of Islam bequeathed to him as a household affair, and hence true conviction based on absolute certitude of faith.

These qualities were not simply acquired but God-given, which means that like Prophet Jesus (AS), who testified the chastity of his mother, the Virgin Mary, while still an infant in the cradle, the Righteous Heirs of Prophet Muhammad (SAWA) were Light Incarnate and thus born with exceptional traits that no neo-Muslim or the offspring of those who had been guided to the light of Islam from polytheism and atheism, could possess.

Here, we do not intend to relate how the week-old infant Imam Kazem (AS) replied from the cradle to the hesitant salutation of his father’s companion, Sarraj, and to the latter’s utter surprise told him in explicit words to change the name of the daughter that was born to him and regarding whose birth he had not informed anyone else, because it is a name that God does not like.

We present another example of the God-given wisdom of the person who reposes in eternal peace in the grand gold-plated twin-domed mausoleum of Kazemain north of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.

Once when Imam Kazem (AS) was between five and seven years of age, the jurist, Abu Hanifa, who was born in a family of Zoroastrian converts to Islam from distant Kabul, approached the threshold of his teacher Imam Ja’far Sadeq (AS), and posed a question to test the wisdom of this tender boy of the Prophet’s Ahl al-Bayt.

Abu Hanifa said: "O son of the Prophet! What is your opinion about the deeds of man? Does he do them of his own free will or God makes him do them?"

Imam Musa al-Kazem (AS) replied with certitude and true conviction:

“The doings of a person can have three possibilities: (1) God compels a man to do them and he is helpless. (2) Both God and man share the commitment. (3) Man does them alone.  If the first case is true than God cannot punish man for sins he did not commit. If the second case is true then too God cannot punish man for He the Almighty is an equal partner. Then, we are naturally left with the third case, that man is absolutely responsible for his own doings.”

A brief radio programme cannot do justice to the memorable life of the 7th Imam who acquired the epithet of “Kazem” which means Restrainer of Anger and Emotions” because of his great patience in tackling the grave issues of deviation, oppression, and corruption, which the misguided Abbasid caliphs and their misled scholars and administrators had unleashed on the Ummah.

Here is a gem of a guideline from Imam Kazem (AS) for proper cognizance of Allah the Glorious when some misguided persons said God Almighty at times descends to the sky from His Throne:.

“Allah never descends (or ascends). He is the same, whether close or remote. No remote thing is far from Him, nor a close thing is near Him. He needs nobody and nothing, but everybody and everything are in need of Him. He is the Generous and Powerful. There is no god but He, the Mighty and Wise. As for those describers who say that He descends, the Blessed and Exalted Allah is far above this description. Those who say so believe that Allah is vulnerable to decrease or increase. Any movable thing needs some outside force that moves it or serves as a medium for its movement. Doomed is he whose faith in Allah is shaken. Beware to attribute to Allah qualities that depict Him as decreasing or increasing, moving or being moved, changing or descending, standing or sitting. Allah, the Almighty and Powerful, is certainly beyond the words of the describers, the depiction of depicters, and the fancy of the fanciful.”

These bezels of guidance from Imam Kazem (AS) alarmed the tyrant Haroun, who imprisoned the Prophet’s Heir and finally had him martyred at the age of 55 by poisoning his food.

Today, the Abbasids are no more, while it is the 7th Imam of the Ahl al-Bayt who from their capital, Baghdad, rules the hearts of the believers all over the world as the “Bab al-Hawa’ej” or Gateway to Needs answered by God Almighty.

To end our programme here is more food for thought from Imam Kazem (AS):

“Work hard to divide your day into four times: One for praying to Allah; One for bread-winning; One for keeping company with brethren and trustworthy persons who know your faults and are faithful to you from the depths of their hearts; One for your pleasures, without doing the forbidden. It is this time that helps you to manage the other three times properly.”

AS/SS