Imam Hadi’s definition of Iman and Islam

Today the 3rd of the sacred month of Rajab is the anniversary of the departure from the mortal world of a person who was a picture of piety and the epitome of guidance. He was faith personified, yet despite his selfless and sincere efforts to guide the society he was targeted by tyrants and finally martyred through poisoning.

Let us first present to you a mind-stimulating statement from him defining the difference between “Iman” or true faith stemming from the depth of the heart, and Islam or verbal expression of submission to the One and Only God and testimony of the mission of Prophet Mohammad (blessings of God upon him and his progeny), even if such a belief has not yet penetrated the heart:

“Iman is that which hearts acknowledge and deeds prove, while Islam is that which tongues testify and marriage becomes lawful with.”

The words which you listened to, are a wonderful description of faith that emanates from the depth of the heart compared to mere expression of belief by the tongue – that could often be deceptive. The person who pronounced these bezels of wisdom in such simplified words for the benefit of all people, was not coining anything from himself. He was in fact elaborating on divine knowledge that he had inherited through his illustrious forefathers, ever since God’s revelation to his ancestor, the Almighty’s Last and Greatest Prophet, regarding the dubious beliefs of most of the neo Muslim Arabs, as mentioned in Surah Hujuraat, ayah 14:

The Bedouins say, ‘We have faith.’ Say (O Prophet to them), ‘You do not have faith yet; rather (you should) say, “We have embraced Islam,” for faith has not yet entered your hearts…”

The holy Qur’an has indeed drawn a permanent line between Iman or true belief that stems from the depth of the heart, and the mere claim to be Muslims as those whose hearts have still not been enlightened by true faith, say, while their deeds, which are against the letter and spirit of Islam, prove.

Thus, the person who spared no efforts to instill Iman or true belief in the hearts of Muslims during his 34-year mission on earth, was none other than the Prophet of Islam’s 10^th Infallible Heir, Imam Ali al-Hadi an-Naqi (AS), whose martyrdom we commemorate every year on the 3^rd of Rajab.

He was the victim of those whose hearts were empty of Iman or true faith, while they masqueraded as Muslims and even styled themselves as the Prophet’s caliphs by paying mere lip service to Islam. He was made to depart from the mortal world at the age of 42 in 254 AH – corresponding to the 868 AD) – as a result of a deadly dose of poison given on the orders of the cowardly Abbasid caliph, Mu’taz, whose breast brimmed with blasphemous malice against the Prophet’s Ahl al-Bayt, and who thought that by cutting short the lifespan of the Prophet’s righteous successor, he could prolong his own illegal rule.

Mu’taz was absolutely wrong. Soon, in less than a year after the Imam’s martyrdom, the Turkic guards who three years earlier had installed him as caliph by removing his cousin, Musta’in, beat and kicked him most humiliatingly to death after exposing him to the torrid sun. They then threw away his corpse to rot. This is the fate of the enemies of the Prophet’s Ahl al-Bayt.

The Tenth Imam, whose epithets Naqi and Hadi mean, the Pristinely Pure, and the Divinely-Designated Guide, remains immortal, like his Infallible Ancestors and equally Infallible Son and Grandson. The name and fame of Imam Hadi (AS), has spread all over the world, in view of his services to Islam and humanity during his 34-year long imamate that had commenced in childhood at the age of 8 years following the martyrdom of his father, Imam Mohammad at-Taqi al-Jawad (AS) through poisoning in Baghdad by Mu’tasim.

Here, it is worth noting that like Prophet Yahya or John the Baptist (peace upon him), who was granted book and wisdom by God while still a child – as the holy Qur’an confirms in Surah Mariyam – Imam Hadi (AS) displayed his divinely-decreed knowledge to the bewilderment of the poet al-Junaydi, the tutor appointed by Mu’tasim in the vain hope of brainwashing the son of his victim. When Junaydi was asked by the blighted Abbasid caliph about the progress of his pupil, he said: “I am the student and he is the teacher. I now know what real knowledge is. What I say is because of what I have been taught by the (boy) Imam.”

Furious with rage, Mu’tasim vented his frustration on Iranians by removing them from the administrative apparatus and replacing them with his maternal kin, the newly converted Turks, since his mother Marida was a Turkic concubine of the infamous Haroun Rasheed, the murderer of the Prophet’s 7^th Infallible Heir, Imam Musa Kazem (AS).

Volumes would be required for penning the virtues of Imam Hadi (AS), who revived for the benefit of the seekers of Iman or true faith, the famous academy of Medina that had reached its peak during the imamate of Imam Ja’far Sadeq (AS). He groomed scholars, and enlightened ordinary people with the genuine Sunnah and Seerah or practice and behaviour of Prophet Mohammad (blessings of God upon him and his progeny). This sacred seat of science and learning was abruptly closed, when Mutawakkel – that most infidel of all Abbasid caliphs – forced the Tenth Imam to leave Medina and come to reside in his capital Samarra in Iraq, so that the regime could keep close eyes on the activities of the Prophet’s True Heir. Here also, despite the straitened circumstances, Imam Hadi (AS) continued to attract hearts and minds towards true faith, that is, Iman, by his impeccable manners and his diffusion of genuine Islamic teachings.

The Imam endured such great tragedies as the destruction of the holy shrine of his ancestor, Imam Husain (AS) in Karbala by Mutawakkel and the sufferings to which the followers of the Ahl al-Bayt were subjected. One prime example of a true Muslim whose heart overflowed with Iman even at the risk of his life, was the famous Arabic lexicographer, Ibn Sikkit. This learned man, when asked by Mutawakkel whether his sons were superior to the Prophet’s two grandsons, Imam Hasan and Imam Husain (peace upon them), he boldly replied that even Qanbar, the slave of the Commander of the Faithful Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb (AS), was better than the caliph's sons.

Mutawakkel burst into a rage and ordered the pulling out of the tongue of Ibn Sikkit, and the scholar whose heart brimmed with Iman or true faith, patiently attained martyrdom, but refused to retract his statement.

Another tragedy endured by Imam Hadi (AS) in Samarra was the death, or more properly martyrdom of his eldest son, Mohammad, through poisoning by agents of the Abbasid regime. Seyyed Mohammad was on his way to Mecca for pilgrimage to the holy Ka’ba, when he was poisoned in the Iraqi town of Dujail, and after several days of intolerable pain, achieved martyrdom. He was laid to eternal rest by his aggrieved father, Imam Hadi (AS), and grieving younger, the future Imam Hasan al-Askari (AS), in the nearby town of Balad, where his holy shrine is a site of pilgrimage, famous for its miraculous powers and granting of boons.

Mutawakkel soon plunged into the bowels of hell in 861 AD, before he could do any foul deed to Imam Hadi (AS). His death provided the Tenth Imam with a period of respite, and in the next seven years, when three more imposter caliphs were raised to the throne and then thrown into the dustbin of history by the powerful Turkic guards, Imam Hadi (AS) continued to enlighten the minds and souls of all those who sought guidance from him, either directly or indirectly through intermediaries, because of the restrictions placed by the regime.

Alas, on this day, the 3^rd of Rajab, the cowardly Mu’taz had the Tenth Imam martyred through a fatal dose of poison in Samarra. Today, there is no trace of the graves of the Abbasid caliphs, let alone their palaces, while Imam Hadi (AS) continues to rule the hearts of those endowed with Iman or true faith. His glorious shrine in Samarra stands to this day, after due renovations, to welcome pilgrims from all over the world, despite the dastardly bomb blasts to destroy it by the Takfiri terrorists, and their supposedly Muslim backers, whose hearts are obviously devoid of Iman or true faith, and brimming with hypocrisy and unbelief, as is evident by their violation of the letter and spirit of the holy Qur’an.

AS/SS