Martyrdom of the 9th Imam

Heartfelt condolences to you all on a very doleful day. The last day of the month of Zil-Qa’adah is the martyrdom anniversary of the 9th Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA).

He was the Prophet’s namesake and was known by his famous epithets of Taqi or the Most Pious One, and Jawad or the Most Generous – in both material and spiritual manners. He was martyred in the prime of his youth through a fatal dose of poisoning, and rests in peace in the sprawling twin-domed gold-plated shrine of Kazemain near Baghdad, besides his grandfather, Imam Musa Kazem (AS).

Before we present you an exclusive feature on the life and times of the 9^th Imam, here is a salutation to him, which the devotees normally recite, especially at his holy shrine.

 “O Allah send blessings upon Muhammad and his Household, and send blessings upon Muhammad ibn Ali, the Pure, the Pious, the Devout, the Loyal, the Respectful, the Immaculate,

“Peace upon you; O Abu Ja’far Muhammad son of Ali; the Pious, the Devout, the Guide, and the Loyal (to Almighty Allah)”

Today, apparently the last day of the month of Zi’l-Qa’dah is a day of grief for Muslims, especially for the followers of the Ahl al-Bayt or Immaculate Household of the Almighty’s Last and Greatest Messenger to all mankind.

It is the day on which in the year 220 AH (corresponding to 835 AD), the 9^th Infallible Heir of the Seal of Messengers was forced to leave the world, a martyr, through a fatal dose of poisoning, administered yet again by a usurper caliph.

As is clear from the wordings of the phrases of the Ziyarah or standard form of salutation to him that we recited, he was the namesake of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA). Like the “Seal of Messengers”, he was a picture of piety, patience, and devotion to God Almighty.

Imam Mohammad at-Taqi al-Jawad (AS), who lived in an age when the Islamic realm was at its peak, both politically and intellectually – straddling vast areas of the three continents of Asia, Africa and Europe – was not just generous in spending on the needy from whatever he possessed materially, but his generosity included the dispensing of knowledge and bezels of wisdom to all those who came into contact with him.

Volumes would be required to pen the virtues of the 9^th Imam, whose praises the celestial angels sing. He was a boy of 8 years when the Divine Trust of Imamate – which on Almighty Allah’s express orders the Prophet had entrusted to his dear cousin and son-in-law Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb (AS) on the memorable 18^th of Zi’l-Hijjah at the historic gathering of over a hundred thousand Hajj pilgrims at Ghadir-Khom in 10 AH – came to rest on his tender shoulders following the martyrdom of his father Imam Ali ibn Musa ar-Reza (AS) in due to a fatal dose of poison given by Mamoon the self-styled caliph of the usurper Abbasid regime. Those in doubt are advised to study the holy Qur’an where God Almighty says in Surah Mariyam that He granted Prophet Yahya (John the Baptist) the Book and the Wisdom while still a child; and He empowered the infant Jesus to announce from the cradle his mission as a Prophet with a heavenly scripture, as testimony of the chastity of his virgin mother Mary, whom the ever-rebellious Israelites tried to slander.

Mamoon, having failed to tarnish the image of Imamate, would remain a mortal enemy of the Ahl al-Bayt, but would never resort to open enmity in view of the popularity of the Prophet’s Progeny amongst the Ummah. He decided to test the God-given knowledge of the son of his victim by pitting the boy-Imam against the Mu’tazalite ideologue, Yahya ibn Aktham. Since, we are on the threshold of the Hajj pilgrim, let us focus on the first question of the lively debate and its answer. Ibn Aktham asked the Imam: “What is the atonement for a person who hunts a game while he is dressed in the pilgrimage garb (Ehram).”

This question appears simple, especially during the Hajj season when pilgrims try to acquaint themselves with the rules before setting off to Mecca circumambulate the Holy Ka’ba, the symbolic House of the Unseen but Omnipresent Lord. But the questioner had ulterior motives. He intended to ensnare in the intricacies of legal issues what appeared to him a mere boy. To the astonishment of the scholar and the whole court, however, the lad, with composure and wisdom beyond his tender years said: “Your question is utterly vague and lacks definition. You should first clarify whether the game killed was outside the sanctified area or inside it; whether the hunter was aware of his sin or did so in ignorance; did he kill the game purposely or by mistake; was the hunter a slave or a free man; was he adult or minor, did he commit the sin for the first time or had he done so before; was the hunted game a bird or something else; was it a small animal or a big one; is the sinner sorry for the misdeed or does he insist on it; did he kill it secretly at night or openly during daylight; was he putting on the pilgrimage garb for Hajj or for the Umrah? Unless you clarify and define these aspects, how can you have a definite answer?”

Ibn Aktham stuttered and couldn’t find any answer to the counter question posed by the boy-Imam. His claim to knowledge shattered before the whole court, he changed his tone and humbly addressed the boy with the words: O’ son of the Prophet, you know better. The admission of inability by the learned doctor of law embarrassed Mamoun and evaporated his dreams of humiliating 9th infallible Heir of the Prophet. The Imam obliged by saying: “If he had killed the animal outside the sacred ground and it was winged and large, an atonement of sheep would have been necessary for him. If he had struck it down in the sanctuary, the penalty required of him would be doubled. If he killed a young bird outside the sacred ground, then the atonement of a lamb which had been weaned off milk would have been required of him. If he had killed it in the sanctuary, then he would have been required to sacrifice a lamb and the value of the young bird. As for wild animals, if it was a wild ass, he would have been required to sacrifice a cow. If it was an ostrich, the sacrifice of a camel would be necessary. If it had been a deer, then a sheep would have been necessary. If he had killed any of those in the sanctuary, the penalty would have been doubled.”  

Imam Jawad (AS) continued to describe the various penalties for the pilgrim in Ehram to the astonishment of the audience. The crafty Mamoun now connived to marry his daughter to the Prophet’s Rightful Heir – not out of devotion to him but in order to keep under surveillance what he thought were political aspirations of Imam Mohammad Taqi (AS) to take over the caliphate. The caliph was wrong, since the 9^th Imam whose spiritual powers were far greater than the wealth and political might of any king or caliph, did not need to rise and establish the rule of the Ahl al-Bayt on earth, which God Almighty had deferred for the end times through the Promised Imam Mahdi al-Qa’em (AS).

Here, it would be interesting to present a lively discourse on the advent of Imam Mahdi (AS) and the global government of peace, prosperity and justice, between Imam Mohammad Taqi (AS) and his distant cousin, Abdul-Azeem al-Hassani (AS) – whose shrine in Rayy near Tehran is a site of pilgrimage. 

Abdul-Azeem al-Hassani narrates: “Once, I went to my master Muhammad bin Ali bin Musa (al-Jawad) intending to ask him about Mahdi al-Qa’em; whether he was al-Mahdi himself or another one. Before I uttered a word, he said:

“O Abu-l Qassim, al-Qa’em of us is al-Mahdi who must be awaited in his occultation and must be obeyed in his appearance. He is the third of my progeny. By Allah Who has sent Muhammad with Prophethood and singled us out with Imamate, if there will be only one day left for the world, Allah will prolong that day until al-Qa’em will appear to fill the earth with fairness and justice as it has been filled with injustice and oppression. Allah will prepare the affairs for him as He had prepared the affairs to Moses where he went to bring a fire and came back to be the prophet of his nation. The best deed of our Shi’a is the awaiting for deliverance.”

Abdul-Azeem al-Hassani said:  “I wish you were the Qa’em of Ahl al-Bayt who will fill the earth with justice and fairness as it has been filled with injustice and oppression!”

Imam Jawad (AS) replied:

“O Abu’l-Qassim, every one of us is Qa’em (or Executor) of the orders of Allah the Almighty and a guide to the religion of Allah, but the Qa’em by whom Allah will purify the earth from the people of unbelief and who will fill the earth with justice and fairness is he whose birth will be unknown to people and who will disappear and it will be impermissible for people to call him by his name. His name and surname are like those of the Messenger of Allah (SAWA). The Earth will submit to him and every difficulty will be easy to him. His companions will be three hundred and thirteen men, as the number of the men of (the Prophet’s Battle of) Badr, will join him from the farthest parts of the world as Allah says (in ayah 148 of Surah Baqara) – “wherever you may be, Allah will bring you all together; indeed Allah has power over all things” – and when this number of loyal men will join him, Allah will make him appear.”

These tidings are ample evidence of the spiritual powers of the Prophet’s 9^th Infallible Heir, of whom the next Abbasid caliph, Mu’tasem, was also jealous. Mu’tasim vividly remembered the debate held over a dozen years ago in Baghdad between the 9^th Imam and Ibn Aktham, yet he was so blind to the truth that he forced Imam Jawad (AS) to leave Medina on the threshold of the Hajj pilgrimage and come to his capital Baghdad, so as to be under the watchful eyes of the regime.

It was clear Mu’tasim was looking for a pretext to poison the Imam. His unpardonable crime was committed on the threshold of the annual Hajj pilgrimage to holy Mecca, where every year the 9^th Imam was present in the garb of the “Exemplary Pilgrim” to teach the tenets of Islam to visitors from far and near.

Once a thief was brought before Mu’tasim, and the jurisprudents in his court gave conflicting verdicts, with some saying that the culprit’s hand be severed from the wrist, some that it should be cut off from the elbow, while others wanting that the whole arm to be chopped off.

When Mu’tasim turned to the 9^th Imam and insisted on his opinion in this regard, the Prophet’s Heir said the mode of Islamic punishment for a habitual thief, according to the genuine laws of the shari’a is that only the four fingers (and that too after due warnings) should be severed, leaving the thumb and the palm intact, since the culprit is after all a human being in need of the mercy of the All-Forgiving God and should not be deprived of the correct way to pray, which requires the touching of 7 organs to the ground including the palms.

After this wise and rational judgement, the malice of the caliph and the court-mullahs increased, and they plotted the murder of Imam Jawad (AS) through poisoning, in the vain hope of giving legitimacy and permanency to the usurper Abbasid dynasty. They were ignorant of the fact that long after the Abbasids have passed into oblivion, the 9^th Imam who reposes in eternal peace beside his grandfather Imam Musa al-Kazem (AS) in the magnificent gold-plated twin-domed mausoleum of Kazemain will continue to rule the hearts and minds of believers all over the world from his sanctuary in Baghdad. There is no trace today of the tombstones of the caliphs, let alone their palaces of pleasures, while the devotees of the Prophet’s Ahl al-Bayt, whether Shi’a or Sunni, while awaiting the advent of Imam Mahdi (AS) salute the shrine in Kazemain near Baghdad, with phrases of praise to the 9^th Imam, such as: “Peace unto you the Spring of Wisdom, the Lantern of light”

AS/ME