Birthday of Imam Hasan Askari (PBUH)

Heartiest congratulations to you on a very auspicious day. Today is the blessed 8th of month of Rabi as-Sani, the birthday of the father of the Imam of our times and the 11th Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA).

Now we have an exclusive feature on the life and times of Imam Hasan al-Askari (AS).

He was born in the holy city of Medina in 232 AH (corresponding to 846 AD) and was named Hasan (AS) by his immaculate father, Imam Ali an-Naqi al-Hadi (AS), the 10^th 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 command was an army of angels – as the terrified tyrant Mutawakkel, a 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 11^th 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.

Ahmad bin Ishaq relates that when he heard of the martyrdom of the 10th Imam in 254 AH (867 AD) he went to Samarra and asked for the whereabouts of the 11^th Imam. He was told that Imam had been imprisoned by Mo'taz Billah. After bribing the guards he was able to visit the Imam one night. He described the prison as a tunnel under the Caliph’s palace. Ahmad says he cried when he saw the Imam’s condition. Food was only one glass of water and a piece of dry bread a day.

He was imprisoned because the caliphs were scared of the Prophet’s famous hadith that his righteous successors will be 12 in number, and the last one will rise as Imam Mahdi al-Qa’em (AS) to rid the world of all vestiges of corruption and tyranny, and to establish the global government of peace and justice.

Once there was a severe drought in Samarra and a Christian priest tried to exploit the situation. It seemed that whenever he raised his hands towards the sky, a shower of rain began to fall. As a result the faith of the Muslims started to waver and Mo'taz got worried, for if they left Islam he would never be able to justify his rule over them.

He had no other choice but to turn to the 11^th Imam, who was in prison. Imam Askari (AS) asked him to assemble the people outside Samarra along with the Christian priest. When the people had assembled the Imam asked the priest to pray for rain. When he raised his hands to pray a shower of rain fell. The Imam noticed something and said that whatever was in the hands of the priest should be taken away, and then asked him to pray for rain again. The priest lifted his hands, but this time there was no rain.

Imam Askari (AS) said that what the priest had in his hand was the bone of a pious servant of God, which whenever placed under the open sky caused a shower of rain. Now without the sacred bone the Christian priest was unable to perform his supposed miracle.

The people were amazed. Then Imam Askari (AS) performed a prayer and prostrated to God, before lifting his own hands to supplicate for rain – not a brief shower – so that the drought would end. Soon the clouds gathered and there was a heavy rainfall that filled up ponds and provided water to the dying crops, thereby easing the sufferings of the people of the region.

After this manifest miracle, the people’s faith in Islam was once more strengthened and it was now impossible for Mo'taz to again imprison the Prophet’s 11^th successor. Imam Askari (AS) returned to his house and in the year 255 AH (868 AD), the 12^th Imam was born, although his birth was kept secret so that the caliphs would not attempt to kill the newborn.

Around 255 AH, Imam Hasan al-Askari (AS), made a miraculous visit from Samarrah in northern Iraq to Jurjan (Gorgan or Astrabad) in northern Iran – a distance of over a thousand km. As recorded by the scholar Ali ibn Isa al-Irbili in his book “Kashf al-Ghumma fi Ma’refat al-Aimmah”, the narrator Ja’far ibn Sharif says: I came to the Imam in Samarrah after performing Hajj and said: People of Jurjan are eager to meet you; sometimes honour them by your visit. The Imam said: After 17 days you will reach your hometown on Friday, 3^rd of Rabi as-Sani.” When Ja’far reached Jurjan, to his surprise he saw Imam Askari (AS) there, which is indeed a miracle of Imamate. Meanwhile, a person named Nazar ibn Jaber approached the Imam and requested him to pray for restoration of eyesight of his son. Imam Askari (AS) passed his hands over the eyes of the blind boy who was miraculously cured. The same day the 11^th Imam was back in Samarrah.

During the six years of his Imamate, Imam Askari (AS), at every opportunity 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.

The 11^th Imam was imprisoned several times and many attempts were made on his life. On the 1^st of Rabi-al-Awwal 260 AH (873 AD), the new caliph, Mo'tamad, plotted that the Imam be poisoned in prison and then sent home. The 11^th Imam was in great pain and difficulty for a week and on the 8^th of Rabi al-Awwal he attained martyrdom after handing over the Divine Trust of Imamate to his 5-year old son.

Here some Maxims of Imam Askari (AS)

1. As for those who accept to sit in a place other than the first row of a session, God and His angels will bless them until they leave that session.
2. To greet everyone you pass by and to sit in a place other than the first class of a session are signs of modesty.
3. Reasonless laughter is a sign of ignorance.
4. Among the fatal misfortunes is the neighbour who ignores any good feature that he notices and propagandizes any defect that he notices.
5. The worst servants –of God— are those who are two-faced and two-tongued; they praise their present friends and backbite the absent; they envy them for obtaining graces and disappoint them when they suffer a misfortune.
6. Anger is the key to every evil.
7. The least comfortable of people is the spiteful.
8. The most pious of people is he who stops at suspicious matters. The best worshipper is he who performs the obligatory religious affairs duly. The most abstinent of people is he who refrains from the unlawful. The most hardworking of people is he who keeps away from sins.
9. The faithful believer is a blessing for the believers and an argument against the disbelievers.
10. The heart of the foolish is in his mouth and the mouth of the wise is in his heart.
11. The powerful will be definitely humiliated if he ignores the right.

AS/ME