Birth Anniversary of Imam Sadeq (PBUH)

We repeat our heartiest congratulations to you today, since the 17th of Rabi al-Awwal is a day of double joy. In addition to the birth anniversary of the Messenger of Mercy, Prophet Mohammad (blessings of God upon him and his progeny), regarding whom we presented to you a special article earlier today, the day also happens to be the birth anniversary 136 years later in 83 AH, of his 6th Infallible Heir, Imam Ja'far as-Sadeq (PBUH).

Now we have an exclusive feature on this illustrious personality.

Today, on the 17^th of Rabi al-Awwal amidst celebrations of the Prophet's birth anniversary in the year 83 – corresponding to 702 AD – the joy was doubled for the Prophet's great grandson and great granddaughter, that is, Imam Zain al-Abedin, the son of Imam Husain, and his wife Hazrat Fatema, the daughter of Imam Hasan Mujtaba (peace upon them all), on tidings of the birth of a radiant grandson to them. The father of the newborn was the Prophet's first namesake among his Immaculate Ahl al-Bayt, Imam Mohammad Baqer, while the mother was the pious lady, Fatema Omm Farwa (peace upon her) the daughter of the jurisprudent Qasem.

It would not be out of context to say that the grandmothers of the proud couple who were blessed with the person destined to be the Prophet's 6^th Infallible Heir, were sisters, or to be more precise, the two princesses of Persia. Hazrat Shahr-Bano (peace upon her), was the wife of Imam Husain (AS), while her sister, the mother of Qasem was the wife of Muhammad bin Abi Bakr, the adopted son of the Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb (AS).

The boy was named Ja'far (AS), in honour of the Prophet’s martyred cousin and Imam Ali's elder brother, Hazrat Ja’far at-Tayyar (AS), who attained martyrdom in jihad during the Prophet’s lifetime in defence of Islam and humanitarian values, against the Byzantine attack at Mouta (presently in Jordan).

During those dark days of Omayyad tyranny in the aftermath of the tragedy of Karbala, Imam Ja'far (AS), grew up into a paragon of virtue, having spent 12 years under his grandfather Imam Zain al-Abedin (AS), and the next 19 years under his father, the Splitter and Spreader of Sciences or Baqer al-Uloum. In the process, like the Prophet, he acquired the epithet "Sadeq" or the Most Truthful, which means his veracity was beyond an iota of doubt. Such was his honesty and credibility that even his opponents vouched the truthfulness of his words. Whenever a scholar would quote him he would refer to him as the Legatee of Prophet Mohammad (blessings of God upon him and his progeny).

In 117 AH, in the 3^rd year of his imamate, Imam Ja'far as-Sadeq (AS) lost his two aged grandaunts, that is Fatema and Sakina (peace upon them) the daughters of Imam Husain (AS). Fatema was the wife of Hassan al-Musanna the son of Imam Hasan Mojtaba (AS), while Sakina remained a spinster throughout her pious life, as her betrothed, another of Imam Mojtaba’s son was martyred in the Karbala tragedy. Both these revered ladies, who along with their youngest sister, Hazrat Ruqayya (peace upon her), who was martyred in prison in the Syrian capital at the tender age of 4 years, had witnessed the tragedy of Karbala and suffered imprisonment in its aftermath in Kufa and Damascus. They were laid to rest in the Sacred Baqie Cemetery of Medina. Along

The 6^th Imam used to cherish the memories of his paternal grandmother Hazrat Fatema, the noblest lady of Imam Hasan Mojtaba's family and the Siddiqa or the Most Truthful Lady of her times, who had played a pivotal role in Karbala and its equally torturous aftermath in supporting her husband Imam Zain al-Abedin and protecting her young son, Imam Muhammad al-Baqer (peace upon them).

Of the 34-year period of imamate of Imam Sadeq (AS), during which he revived the seerah and sunnah of the Prophet and took his academy to its peak with 4000 scholars studying different branches of science under him, 18 years were under the Omayyad usurpers and 16 years under the new breed of usurpers, the equally oppressive Abbasids.

During those crucial years of the jockeying for power of the Islamic realm by the Omayyads and the Abbasids that belonged to neither of them, he spurned the offer of caliphate since his own Wilayah or God-given authority, was far above political scheming.

He concentrated on spreading in society the pristine teachings of Islam to the extent that to this day the term Fiqh al-Ja'fari denotes the genuine jurisprudence of Prophet Mohammad (blessings of God upon him and his progeny) which remains unsullied by qiyas or guesswork in which the pseudo jurists of his times indulged.

The 6^th Imam, whose students include all-time greats of different branches of Science, such as the Father of Chemistry, Jaber ibn Hayyan, needs no introduction. His legacy is immortal. Since much has been written of his sufferings and eventual martyrdom at the hands of the Abbasid caliph, the turncoat Mansour Dawaniqi, I intend to summarize here the gargantuan task his imamate faced during the Ommayad era. In 121 AH, he saw the tragic martyrdom of his uncle, Zaid in Kufa by the army of the tyrant Hesham bin Abdul-Malik – the killer of his farther Imam Baqer (AS) earlier in 114 AH in Medina through a fatal dose of poison, following failure of the plot to humiliate him in Syria.

Hesham – a sworn enemy of the Prophet's Household, who years earlier while governor of Mecca tried to mock Imam Zain al-Abedin (AS) during the Hajj and got a fitting riposte from the poet Farazdaq – had forced Imam Baqer and Imam Sadeq (peace upon them) to come to Damascus, where he imprisoned them. To his horror, however, when father and son reformed the inmates he released them and subsequently sent them back to Medina, especially after the leading Christian priest of Syria along with his followers embraced the truth of Islam after a debate with the 5^th Imam.

In 126 AH Imam Sadeq heard the news of the tragic martyrdom of his cousin Yahya, the son of Zaid the Martyr.in distant Jowzajan (which is in present-day Afghanistan and was then part of Khorasan). He was the victim of the lecherous Waleed bin Yazid bin Abdul-Malik, a caliph whose other acts of sacrilege during his brief year-long rule includes the order to his drunk and ritually unclean concubine to lead the morning prayer in the Mosque of Damascus, his shooting of a volley of arrows at the holy Qur'an after flinging it to the ground, and the vow to drink wine atop the holy Ka'ba, an intention that was aborted with his sudden death. In the next six years three more debauchees – Yazid, Ibrahim, and Marwan al-Hemar – took turns as caliphs and spared no efforts to put obstacles in the divine mission of the 6^th Imam before the Omayyads were thrown into the dustbin of history in 132 AH.

Undoubtedly, it is truth and certitude that prevails, as taught by Imam Ja'far as-Sadeq (AS), whose tomb though in a dilapidated state because of the sacrilege committed by the Wahhabis at the Baqie Cemetery, is a testimony to the fact that it is the Prophet's Ahl al-Bayt – the Thaqalayn along with the Holy Qur'an – that are the true guides.

Here we present you a gem of an advice by the 6^th Imam to a person named Abdullah ibn Jundab, which speaks volumes of the dynamic spirit of Islam. It is the formula for building bridges in society so as to ensure a peaceful and harmonious atmosphere for attracting others to the universal message of Islam.

The Imam said:

 “O son of Jundab, regard him who ruptured relations with you, give him who deprived you (of his bestowals), treat kindly him who mistreated you, greet him who reviled you, be just to him who disputed with you, and pardon him who wronged you in the same way you like others to pardon you. Take lessons from God’s pardoning you; do you not see that His sun is covering the pious and the licentious and His rain is falling on the virtuous and the wrongdoers?”

Today, the blessed tomb of Imam Sadeq (AS) in Medina has been destroyed by the Wahhabi cult, but the faithful continue to salute it from near and far, while promoting throughout the world the immortal legacy of the Imam of the Truthful.

AS/ME