AL-HUDA
Foundation, NJ U. S. A
the Message Continues ... 3/87
Newsletter for November 2008
Article 1 - Article 2 - Article 3 - Article 4 - Article 5 - Article 6 - Article 7 - Article 8 - Article 9 - Article 10 - Article 11 - Article 12
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THE LIFE AND THE TIMES OF IMAM ALI al-RAZA bin MUSA (a)
by late Dr. Haider Hussain Shamsi
Imam Al-Raza bin Musa (a) was born during the reign
of the Abbasid caliph al-Mansoor Dwaneeqi. He
was only two weeks of age when his grand father,
Imam Ja'far as-Sadiq (a) passed away. He was
thirty-five years of age when his father was
martyred by the caliph Haroon ar-Rashid. He
had witnessed the treatment his father had
received at the hands of the caliphs for refusing to
accept them as his leaders.
The first encounter
of the new Imam with the powers of the caliph came
swiftly and like lightening. With the false
accusation of an armed rising by an uncle of the
Imam Muhammad bin Jafar, the caliph Haroon ar-Rashid
dispatched his captain Issa Jaludi with an army to
sack Hijaz and to liquidate the house of the Alids.
The havoc they rendered to the people and their
property in Madinah dwarfed the deeds of the Syrian
army sent by Yazid bin Muawiyah after the massacre
of Karbala over a hundred years earlier. The
Imam stood firmly in front of the dwellings of his
clan, and handed the invaders all they had, except
the clothing on their bodies at the time. The
ruthless general and his soldiers departed with a
large booty obtained from the homes of the innocent
Muslims.
To prevent bloody
conflict between his two sons Muhammad al-Amin and
Mamoon ar-Rashid after him, the caliph Haroon
ar-Rashid divided his empire between them. Al-Amin
(from an Arab mother) was given the West with the
Arab provinces, and Mamoon (from a Persian mother)
the East with all of the non-Arab provinces.
Due to his sickness, Haroon ar-Rashid retired from
his throne and died in 193 AH at the age of
forty-five years. He was buried in the city of
Meshed. However, the two princes wasted no
time in waging war on each other in order to grab
the share of the other. The tussle between the
divided caliphate went on for about five years till
the year 198 AH. Finally, Al-Amin got killed in
a battle and the original expanse of the empire
was again unified under Mamoon. Although Mammon was
victorious in his confrontation with his brother, he
had made the Arabs very upset at their defeat and
the death of al-Amin at his hands.
Mamoon knew that
the people of Hijaz, and the Shiites elsewhere had
already received a heinous treatment from his
father. The memory of the events was still
quite fresh in their minds. As a result of
these events, the Shiites had become rebellious.
There were many uprisings among them in various
provinces led by prominent Alkyds. Mamoon took
an unusual step to redress these ill feelings of his
subjects. In the year 201 AH, he called the
Imam to Merv (in Khorasan) from Madinah and declared
him as his successor, and minted coins in the Imam's
name. To further enhance his apparent goodwill
among the Alkyds and the Shiites, he gave his
daughter, Umm-e Habiba, in marriage to the Imam in
202 AH. The caliph had took wise steps to
produce the desired effects. He managed to win
the confidence of the Shiites and stabilize his
rule.
Mamoon invited learned individuals to participate in
religious and multicultural debates in his court.
This afforded Imam Ali ar-Raza great opportunity to
expound the vastness of his knowledge in these large
gatherings. It also increased his visibility
and the popularity of the Imam which had previously
been denied to all his ancestors. He was now
able to preach the Truth about the Faith of Islam
according to teachings of the Ahle Bait. The
Abbasids in Baghdad were already very unhappy at
having an Aliyyid among them as a declared successor
to the caliph. The growing popularity of the
Imam in the eastern provinces naturally posed a
grave threat to the rule of the dynasty. They
decided to name a new Abbasid caliph to replace
Mamoon. They started to rally behind Ibrahim
bin Mahdi bin Mansoor as their new caliph. Mamoon had to make a hasty move back to Iraq from Khorasan to quell the dangerous developments in Baghdad. It was this time when the Imam was given poisoned grapes that caused his death. Before his death, Imam Ali al-Raza advised his followers that his only son Muhanunad (Jawad) would be the next Imam, even though he was at a young age of only eight years. After his death, the body of the Imam was buried in Meshed close to the gravesite of his tormentor, Haroon ar-Rashid.
REFLECRIONS ON THE LIFE OF IMAM ALI AL-RAZA
The Imam had to face an unusual strategy posed by
his appointment to the heirship. He had to
accept the offer to go to the palace, otherwise the
Imam would have to bear the blame of keeping aloof
from involvement in governing the people when he was
given the opportunity to do so.
His interaction with the literary circles of the
Caliph caused a vast variety of written and oral
traditions to be gathered from the Imam which later
became available to the later generations to benefit
from. They consist of his sermons, his debates
and contests, his replies to complicated questions
posed in the court of the caliph, his letters to his
companions and family, as well as his writings and
poetry. Much of the collected material is
related to the meanings and the interpretations of
the Qur'an. Some of it is related to Islamic
law, some to the general knowledge of the heavens
and the earth, and some to the Medicine of the Imam.
He produced many learned students from many lands in
the empire. The Imam was fully conversant with
many languages and fluently communicated with people
from other lands in their mother tongues.
When his students returned to their homes, they
spread the Imams message far and wide. It
became evident that the vast knowledge exhibited by
the Imam was not obtained from any known school or
university of the time. His school and his
university was located in the "City of the Prophetic
Knowledge" whose gateway was through none other than
his own ancestor, Imam Ali bin Abi Talib.
The Imam perpetuated the tradition of the ritual
majalis that had been initiated by his ancestors to
commemorate the martyrdom of Imam Hussain. He
used to sponsor these majalis and patronized them.
He considered this to be a great opportunity to
reach out to the sensitive souls of the people and
propagate every aspect of the true teachings of
Islam. Since the people who attended these
majalis had come to listen, the Imam used their
receptiveness to its greatest advantage. He
dispelled many misconceptions about the Faith. He
confected many misquotes from the Prophet as well as
those attributed to the preceding Imams. He
personally was able to demonstrate the true
methodology of the daily ritual practices of the
Faith. He taught people how to pray and how to
supplicate.
The members of the Abbasid clan had not suddenly
developed love for the Alkyds. In fact, their
spite had multiplied many-fold by the position the
Imam had been placed by Mamoon. His life and
conduct was under the stem scrutiny by his
opponents. Under the watchful eye of his
enemies, the Imam demonstrated the excellence of his
personal way of life despite the imposing royal
protocol. He never spoke harshly to any one,
be it a slave or a master. He only smiled
gently on amusing situations and was never seen in
bursts of laughter. He was never seen to cut
in a conversation.
Selected Sayings:
1.
One who compares Allah with one of His creations, is
a polytheist. One who relates to Allah with
something he has been forbidden to do, is a kafir (a
non-believer).
2. Knowledge, forbearance and
less talk are the qualities of a pious practitioner
of the Faith.
3. Man's best friend is
intelligence, and ignorance is his enemy.
4. The believer is closer
to Allah when he throws himself down in prostration
before Him.
5. One who gives in the
name of Allah, earns His nearness, His rewards and
away from an abode in hell. The miser is
distant from people and Allah, but closer to an
abode in hell.
6. Charitable giving is
like a tree planted in paradise and whose branches
are in the world. One who gives charity clings
to the branches and is carried to the fulfillment of
the ultimate prize of paradise.
7. A Momin is that person who derives pleasure
when he does a good deed, and repents
with sincerity when he commits an error.A
Muslim is that person from whose hands and tongue
the other Muslims do not get hurt.
8. Belief has four
components:
(i)
Dependence on Allah;
(ii)
Acceptance of the Acts of Allah;
(iii)
Submission to His Will;
(iv)
Reliance on Allah's help in his deeds.
9. One who is not thankful to his provider in
this world, cannot be thankful to Allah.
10. Allah has ordained three
sets of duties to be performed together:
(i) Pay the poor tax as
you offer prayers;
(ii) Thank
your parents as you thank Allah;
(iii) Fear Allah and do
good to your own kin. (Excerpted from the late Author's book, " And the Message Continues, The Twelve Imams of the Ahle Bait", which belongs to and must be read in every Islamic School). |
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