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| The Birth of Imam Jafar Sadiq |
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| Publisher : Naba Publication | |
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***** IN THE NAME OF ALLAH *****
***** THE BENEFICENT, THE MERCIFUL ***** Jafar Sadiq is the Sixth Imam of the Shias. He was born on the 7th day of rabial-awal on the year 83 Hijra. His name is jafar but he is often known as Sadiq. He is also referred to by the nickname Abu Aabdullah and he is again called Sabir (Patient). Fazil (learned), Taher (pure), Sadiq (truthful) all names derived from his beautiful character and attributes.
Jafar Sadiq succeeded his father Imam MuhammadBaqir following his death and became Imam in the year 114 Hijra when hewas 31 years old. In those days constant revolts and uprising bysympathizers of Imam Ali’s family and his offspring and by the Abbasidfamily had shaken the foundations of the Bani Ummayud government andits institution. Eventually the government was toppled in the year 132A.H and paid the way for ascension of the Abbasids.
The downfall of the one and the ascendancy ofthe other to power led to what is known as the period of theinterregnum, or interval, and served as an ideal opportunity of Islamicsciences among the people.
Imam Sadiq took the best possible advantage ofthe prevailing situation to attract several hundreds of students to himwhom in turn benefited from being taught by the Imam who turned theminto scholars of high caliber.
It was from this time onward that there emerged true Islam in its real phase.
Imam Sadiq was not only an oracle in religious sciences but he was also a great doctor in the science of health.
He acquired renown in medicine and chemistryduring his time. The famous Muslim chemist of those times, Jaber binHayyan refers in his writing to the Imam as his teacher and his lord!
Imam Sadiq gained fame as a teacher of Islamic science. Great scholars of later days were his students.
As the role of a scholars consists in thepromoting of human prosperity and fostering of human civilization wecan rightly regard Imam Sadiq, apart from his high station of Imamhood, as one the greatest personality who ever appeared in the world ofknowledge.
Since it was Imam Sadiq who expanded the scopeof Islamic law and minutely explained, interpreted and expounded itslegal codes and many other issues besides Shiism came to be named afterhim as the Jafari religion. Shiism hence came to occupy a unique andoriginal place with an immediacy that derived at that time from theteachings and inspirations of the Imam.
The Shia belief therefor remained safe fromcorruption and no influences from outside could were interventions fromoutside, or interpolations, or additions able to affect its pristinetruth.
Imam Sadiq lived during a very critical periodof religious ferment and had therefore to grapple with severaltheological issues and questions, which he did both prudently andcourageously.
Although preoccupied fully with disseminatingknowledge the Imam was not unmindful of his social obligations. Revoltsand uprising against the Bani Abbacies were frequent at the time andeven though he did not involve himself openly he could not remaintotally indifferent to what was going on around him. So he did make hissupport felt in one way or another.
Of these many uprisings one stands out anddeserves mention; this was the uprising of Zaid, the grandson of ImamHussain who headed a particularly bloody rebellion.
All these uprisings, revolts and rebellionswere directed against the tyrants of that time and fierily courageousattempts to be rid of tyranny.
Youth were sada’at-children of the prophet?Prepared to kill and be killed and they were inflamed and imbued intheir very blood and bones with the spirit of rebellion.
Imam Sadiq used to encourage the commemorationof the 10th of Moharram (Ashora), which was the day of martyrdom of hisgreat grandfather Imam Hussain and his followers on the plain ofKarbala. To the Imam this ceremony signified the reenactment andrevival of the mission of Hussain.
Poets and orators were urged to recall and recount this passionate episode and were well rewarded by the Imam for their efforts.
What all this served to do was to create agenerally awakening of feeling against tyrants and tyranny, a spiritthat blew over in waves across society.
Caliphs both of the Bani Ummayud and BaniAbbacies dispensation had long endeavored to train and build aroundthem a coterie of jurisprudence who would be partial to them and giveendorse and promote whatever they proposed to do and shield theiractions in plans perpetuated by them whatever their nature.
In short these jurisprudence were expected toback religiously all the deeds and actions of the Caliphs and in otherwords sanction tyranny.
This trend was a matter of some anxiety to theImam and in order to counter it there was only one way out; to trainpious, staunch and sincere jurisprudence who were well versed inIslamic law who would stand up to the tyrants and oppose any of theirdeeds which ran counter to Islam.
So this would have meant religion not being bartered away for worldly profit.
The Imam chose the best of men, trained them and set them out for good.
As a result a group of the most talentedjurisprudence emerged from the Imam’s school who fanned out throughoutthe cities and towns of the region, mingled with the people andawakened and educated them on day-to-day issues, as well as in Islamiclegal codes.
The presence of these pious scholars among thepeople led to their being freed from ignorance to a very great extentand to large numbers of them becoming true Muslims.
The knowledge on Islamic codes disseminated bythe band of students trained by Imam Sadiq proved to be veryefficacious. Many issues dealt with by Sunni theological too wereinspired by these movements took a right direction. The decrees(Fatwas) which the Imam issued were circulated among scholars whostudied their basis and implications. All in the interest generated intheological matters led to an all round improvement in the knowledge ofthe common folk and particularly in that of the learned folk.
On questions of Islamic law (jurisprudence)Imam Sadiq was in his time the sole authority. His stature in knowledgewas so prominent and he was so highly revered that one the four Imam ofthe Sunni sect, Abu Haniffa, approached the Imam to become his student.
A good many jurisprudence of those times weremere servants of the court who did not dare to contradict the Caliphs,so that the presence of the Imam’s jurisprudence on this scene was likea breath of fresh air and a bulwark standing as an obstacle to theCaliphs.
Another trend on vogue during Imam Sadiq’s timewas the rather fanciful neglect of worldly matters and an indifferenceto worldly affairs by people who came to be gripped by and absorbed onmysticism of one kind and another.
The tendency among such groups was toperversely shun and desert the society of men on favor of an isolatedsolitude and enjoyment of the limited company of such esoteric groupsto which they belonged. This they termed piety and they calledthemselves pious.
The government secretively supposed suchgroups, which was politically motivated in doing, so Caliphs fosteredthese mystics only to show people that they held them in high regardfor their piety.
Yet it was only a pose, a sham with nosincerity behind it. These mystics claimed they were descendants of thecompanions of the Siffeh (the pious ones at the time of the prophet).
What these mystics so-called forgot was thefact that companions of the Siffeh were worshippers by night butintrepid and daring fighters during the day.
Whether in battle, or in the performance of social duties, it is they who took a greater part than any of the others.
They (the companions of the Siffeh) were alwayssoldiers at the ready for any task whether it was battle, or a fight inany from in the interest of Islam or Islamic society.
It is for this reason that they paid littleattention to worldly matters that might preoccupy them inordinately, ordivert their attention to their so that their attention to their mostessential duties would not suffer neglect. In fact they made the verygreatest of sacrifices in the good of society.
So in regard to this matter too the Imam had toconsider carefully the issue relations to Tasawuf, or mysticism, whichmight be used to mislead others.
What the Imam took up as a framework for hisview was this: that purity of the self was as necessary as purity ofsoul, that morality and the need to disseminate and propagate thereligion was important but that there should be, too, an eye toeternity and eternal value without, however, and misinterpretation ofIslamic instruction Worship which is a pillar of society should not bemade an instrument to deceive or cheat people.
The campaign that Imam Sadiq undertook on thisfront was easy one and was a most sensitive one but he accomplished itwith the greatest prudence.
Mirality, the Imam said, had to be held highand common people guarded from being led astray or falling prey to thestratagems of the wicked ones.
As a result of this high call to piety themystics too began trying to seek the Imam’s guidance but only in orderto claim being among his students and to have close links with the Imamas others hence they sought Imam Sadiq.
Imam Sadiq paid very special attention to matters of health.
Islam has several recommendations on this andthe Imam following on them urged people to take up outdoor activitiessuch as archery and horse- riding, which were in vogue at the time.
The Imam used to relate the story of how theprophet competed with Asama bin zaid in horse riding (vasayel shia-vol.3.p. 327/328). And he quotes the prophet as saying: “Angels come downto earth at the time of horse racing and watch the proceeding”(vasayelshia-vol. 13.p.327/328).
According to Ibn Abi Omair the Imam he used to take part in archery and horse-riding contests. (Vasayel shia-vol 13.p.327\328.)
Imam Jafar Sadiq’s life was one of a constantand consistent struggle against those who were ignorant and whom he didwas to protect Islam and Islamic culture from extraneous influence andtrespasses across its boundaries. And such an eventual career came toan end when the Imam reached the age of sixty-five.
He suffered greatly at the hands of the Caliphswho sometimes sent him away to far distant places hoping that hisinfluence may in this way wane, or at other times took away from himthe very ordinary comforts of life with intent to make life unbearablefor him.
Finally, when he died, it was not a death fromnatural causes. He was cruelly poisoned by one Mansoor dawaniqi on the25th of Shawwal in the 148 A.H.
He was martyred. And he was buried in the Baqeecemetery situated in the southeastern sector of Medina close to thegraves and Imam Hassan, Imam Zainul Abidin and Imam Muhammad Baqir.
Throughout the age’s poets, writers andscholars have extolled the high literary and scientific accomplishmentsof Imam Jafar Sadiq.
We end with an extract from an eulogy from nineother than the famous Islamic literary scholar and historian IbnKhaldoon that runs as follows:
“Miracles narrated of Imam Jafar Sadiq, if thesources are credible, are not beyond belief and are acceptable, nomatter whether they were performed by Imam Sadiq himself, or by andother members.”
It is narrated that Imam Sadiq had correctlyforetold of future events to those close to him and events to thoseclose to him and events unfolded just as he had predicted them. Whenstrange things are attributed to others, why not to them?
What they did was never strange in the ordinarysense of that word, since they were the heirs and blessed repositoriesof prophet hood.
God has a very special regard for them and they are close to God.
Their knowledge is a gift from the divine.
They are the members of the household of the prophet (moqaddama 277 and 280. Egypt Put Azharia 1348 Lunar Hijra)
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