Birthday of the Prophet’s 11th Infallible Heir
Jan 07, 2017 10:50 UTC
In the name of God, the All-Merciful, the All-Compassionate Salaam, and heartiest felicitations on the auspicious birth anniversary of Imam Hasan Askari (AS), the 11th Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). We present you a special feature on his life and times.
“O You the Aware of hidden consciences, You are Merciful to everything and Aware of everything, forgive those who repent and follow Your path, protect them from the torment of Fire, give them soon Your victory that You have promised them of and You do not fail the promise!”
The passage which we recited to you is part of a supplication in the Divine Court that rekindles our hope in the All-Merciful Lord; Whose forgiveness yearns to cleanse the faults of the penitents; Whose clemency is shield against the eternal inferno; and Whose promise is victory for the true believers.
The supplicant who had recourse to the source of knowledge of the unseen was no ordinary person. The 8th of Rabi as-Sani provides us the opportunity to cast glimpse on his perfect personality. Born in Medina in the year 232 AH – corresponding to 846 AD – he was named Hasan by his immaculate father, Imam Ali an-Naqi al-Hadi (AS), the 10th Infallible Heir of the Almighty’s Last and Greatest Messenger. He was destined to acquire the epithet “al-Askari”, which means the “soldier”, or more properly the “Soldier of God”, at whose commands was an army of angels – as a terrified self-styled caliph found out when he tried to boast of the power of his mostly Turkic mercenary slave-soldiers, recruited by the Abbasids from the wild steppes of Central Asia. Another of his famous epithets is “Zaki”, which means the pure and chaste in all affairs. To be more precise he was the 11th Imam of mankind and the father of the Divinely-Promised Saviour, Imam Mahdi (AS), through whom God will grant the final victory to the true believers and make Islam triumphant over all creeds, ideologies, and nations.
As for the mother of Imam Hasan Askari (AS), she was the most virtuous lady of her age, known for her faith in God, chastity, purity of thought, and piety. A native of Nubia between the lands of Egypt and Sudan, she was named ‘Saleel’ or the one purified from error, defect, and impurity. Some historians have referred to her ‘Sowsan’, while others have called her ‘Haditha’, which seem to be her epithets for her outstanding qualities. What an honourable house and what a glorious lineage he had! No wonder his great ancestress was the noblest-ever lady, the Prophet’s Immaculate Daughter, Hazrat Fatema az-Zahra (peace upon her). In addition, to such an impeccable pedigree, he possessed perfect morals, and was sincere in all affairs. Moreover, like his Infallible Predecessors, Imam Hasan Askari (AS) was the most knowledgeable person of his age – not only in Islamic sciences, but in all fields of knowledge.
Bakhtshou, the famous Christian physician, who was a contemporary once said to his disciple Batriq about the Eleventh Imam: “He is the most knowledgeable of all those under the sky in our day.”
Even the conscientious courtiers of the usurper Abbasid caliphs have admitted that if the Abbasid tyrants had not subjected the Imams of the Ahl al-Bayt to oppression and confinement, they would have filled the world with knowledge and sciences to such an extent that the world had never before seen such wisdom and intellectual development.
The Abbasid usurpers, however, were afraid that if the true successors of the Prophet were allowed to associate with the people and spread bezels of knowledge and culture, new horizons would have opened, not only in the fields of sciences but also in the political and social spheres, which would unmask to the Muslim masses the ignorance of the Abbasids and their being the imposters. Thus, in order to preserve their power they didn’t spare any efforts to isolate the Imams from the Ummah. Nonetheless, at every opportunity, Imam Hasan al-Askari (AS), during his brief imamate of six years, guided the seekers of truth, such as his timely admonishment through a common disciple to the philosopher Abu Ishaq al-Kindi that saved him from damning himself to the eternal inferno by expressing doubts on the timeless wisdom of God’s Revealed Word, the holy Qur’an. The Eleventh Imam’s unraveling of truth made al-Kindi repent and burn the dubious book that he had compiled because of lack of proper knowledge.
Imam Hasan Askari (AS), in addition to demonstrating his God-given wisdom and knowledge, also exposed the tricksters and charlatans claiming to perform miracles. The Imam’s life during his detention in Samarrah was not in peace. From time to time he was taken to Baghdad, questioned and put in prison there. On one such occasion, the Imam was taken by the Turkic guards to Baghdad where he was kept in prison. While he was a prisoner there was a severe draught. Rain had not fallen for some time and crops were drying up. People were facing a famine. They did not know what to do. A Christian priest came to the rescue. He lifted his hands in prayer and rain fell. The Caliph became concerned lest for this reason people would forsake Islam and become Christians.
When the Imam was consulted, he said that when people assembled to see the so called miracle performed by the Christian priest, he would remove their doubts. The Imam was allowed to leave the prison to go where the crowd assembled to see the miracle performed by the priest. The Imam stood there with the crowd and when the priest raised his hands for prayer and rain began to fall, Imam told one of his companions to seize the hands of the priest and bring the piece of bone hidden in his hands. When this bone was brought before the Imam, he said that it was the bone of a Prophet of God. It was the effect of this holy bone when lifted in prayers to God that brought God’s mercy and brought rain to the land. This way the Imam lifted the doubts from the minds of the people. After this the Imam himself spread his prayer mat and performed two Rak’ats of prayers then lifted his bare hands to God for rain to come to the land and wipe out the draught. The Imam’s prayers were heard by the Almighty and rain fell so much that the land became fertile again and crops began to grow. In recognition of this miracle, he was allowed to leave the prison in Baghdad and live in his house in Samarrah, still under house arrest. He was still not allowed to go to Medina.
Though his life was cut short in the prime of youth at the young age of 28 years, the 11th Imam bequeathed to his son and successor, the legacy of the Prophet that would become fully manifest with God’s promise of the final triumph of the righteous with the reappearance of Imam Mahdi (AS) to end oppression on earth by establishing the global government of peace, prosperity, and justice. Amen Here is part of a prayer to God Almighty by Imam Hasan Askari (AS):
“O You, Whom angels glorify in the morning and night; O You, the Permanent and Eternal, the Bringer forth of plants in the early morning and afternoon, the Enlivener of the dead, the Resurrector of decayed bones, the Hearer of sounds, the Everlasting, the Dresser of bones that decay after death!
AS/AS/EA
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