Alhassanain(p) Network for Heritage and Islamic Thought

The Era of Imam al-Sadiq (as)

The era of Imam al-Sadiq (as) was among the most horrible Islamic eras and among the most sensitive ones, full of anxiety and worry, especially during the Umayyad government. The Muslims were under a high pressure and they were highly exhausted. There was no part in the Islamic country safe and enjoying safety, security and settlement. There was terror everywhere and worry was widespread.

Among the other most well known characteristics of that era is the existence of various national revolutions everywhere. They were announcing disobedience and aimed at defeating the Umayyad government, which tried to slave the people, forcing them to do what they hate. Among the most important revolutions were those led by the offsprings of the Imams (as) and the leaders of the Shiah followers as well as the revolutions of those who got outside the religious circle. These revolutions led to the weakness and defect of the Umayyad Dynasty to a large extent.

Among what the believers suffered during the final period of Umayyad government was severe tribal struggle among the Muslims. The Umayyad rulers worked severely to gain this aim, in order to extend their power and have influence on the Muslims as well as to keep their minds away from what they currently suffer such as cruelty and brutality.

This very irrational policy led to the distribution of hatred and enmity among the tribes. Nevertheless there was hatred-exchange among some tribes as many of which are documented. The trace can be found in the written poems of Jareer, Farazdaq and other poets of that era. This was among the factors of the collapse of the Umayyad Dynasty and the establishment of the Abbasidd Dynasty everywhere in everyplace and region.

Imam al-Sadiq (as) had seized the opportunity which was full of impressing events and established his great University that elevated the flag of knowledge and distributed awareness and cultural and scientific developments among the believers. We have already talked about this issue earlier in the book.

Anyway, in this part, we will talk about the policy of the Umayyad Dynasty and their plans. Before that, we will have a comprehensive study about the Umayyad rulers from the early days of their government till the end the Party’s era and the appearance of the Abbasidd Dynasty, which no believer could ever expect to come to power.

The believers were expecting the government of the Alawi Party, which could fulfil their wishes and dreams about the distribution of justice, safety and security. The Alawi Party came with this purpose. They faced many cruelties and severe troubles while the Abbasidd Dynasty were getting use of the facilities that the Umayyad Dynasty used to supply them with. The Abbasidd Dynasty did not have any role in relieving people from the existing cruelty of the era of the Umayyad Dynasty.

Anyway, irrespective of the affairs mentioned, when the Abbasidd Dynasty gripped the government, they followed the same interior policy of the Umayyad Dynasty. Nevertheless, it was severer and tougher than that, especially during the government of al-Mansour al-Dawaneeqi, who spoiled the wealth of the nation and filled his treasury with the great deal of amounts that were stolen from the Islamic countries. He left poverty struggles with the poor. Additionally, he had a various unique kind of cruelty against the Alawi Party, who were calling for social justice. This book presents issues to clarify this topic.

Among the rest of the studies of the book is the analysis of the political parties, religious sects, which were familiar with their principles and their political activities. Additionally, it will study the cultural and economical life of that era. Analysis of this nature, which considers Imam al-Sadiq (as) as the leader of knowledge and thought in the Islamic world, is among the richest topics about his personality.

In all our topics we relied on the most creditable resources without having the one-sided look or take side with any group. Our aim is to study the history with its reality; knowing the brilliant characters who elevated the value of knowledge. We also tried to protect human rights and support the rights of the poor and the needy. We do ask Allah, the Almighty, to grant us success. He, the Almighty, is the supporter of those who turned their face towards Him.

The Umayyad Rulers

No one in the Islamic countries could ever expect that the Umayyad Dynasty could reach the authority and obtain the control over the Muslims. They have their dark background in damaging Islam and facing its Prophet, the great Prophet (S). They are those who declared war against it and united the enemies in order to destroy the light of Islam. However Islam returned their tricks and forced them to flee in all their decisions as well as helping its great Prophet (S) and dignifying the great religion.

When Islam defeated them and destroyed their military and economical power when they obtained the conquest in Mecca, which was their secure place, they entered in Islam low and humble, fearing to be revenged by the believers who lost their sons and brothers by the older Umayyad tribe.

The Islamic leadership has faced them with lowness and humility as the believers at that time were looking at their Islam, as a doubtful Islam, because they were the same hypocrites who embraced Islam just to protect their lives and their heart was deep diving in infidelity keeping their hidden hatred against Islam.

When the great Prophet of Islam (S) passed away, many troubles and severe problems encompassed the family of the Prophet (S), who were the deposit of the Prophet (S) in his nation for the general leadership instead of keeping them away from the political and social scenes as some of their belongings were expropriated such as Fadak. This was planned in order to prevent them from having any influence in the political and social fields. These faces were emphasized by many researchers basing their research on historical facts.

Anyway, the political pathways and policies aimed at lifting the Umayyad Parties from their low position and dignifying them again as they were granted some important and sensitive positions in the government. Abu Bakr had given Muawiyah ibn Abi-Sufyan the role of governor for the state of al-Sham and he was accompanied by the caliph until approaching the borders of Yathrib, while the caliph did not do the same with other governors.

After the death of the first caliph, Umar adhered to the former appointed position for Muawiyah and continued his support over his deeds. Although there was news over the squander of Muawiyah and using golden and silvery dishes, wearing silky dresses and whatever Islam has prohibited, but he was excused. Umar used to say his famous expression for excusing him: “This is the Kisra of the Arabs,” but Islam has neither Kisra nor Qeisar behaviourism. People are all the same and no one has superiority over another unless in Allah-fearing and devoutness.

Anyway, is it permitted for the Kisra of the Arabs to do whatever they want, even what was considered illegal by Allah and his Messenger (S)?

Muawiyah gained a privileged position before the second caliph, who used to check and investigate each one of his rulers. Muawiyah was outside the circle of investigation and he was freed from being inspected.

Anyway, when Uthman took over the government, he took Banou-Umayyah and the family members of Abi Maeet and granted them control over the believers’ lives as well as granted them a great amount of wealth while appointing them in the most important and the most influential positions in the government. Therefore, they became dominant on the government’s various parts. Additionally, they became among the powerful bourgeoisie in the nation.

Marwan was amongst the closest one to Uthman and the nearest one. He was his consultant and the manager of his affairs. Marwan, as historians, was carrying all the attributes that the Arabs were carrying before the appearance of Islam. They said that nothing could behave him to be attributed according to the characteristics of Islamic teachings. He was aggressive, arrogant, diving in wrongness. The believers were angry about him as they hated him. He has played a dangerous role at that time. He was the one who drew Uthman to many troubles and problems as well as throwing him towards malicious problems.

The nation suffered a lot from the government of Uthman to the severest extent. Worry and anxiety spread in all its region and places. Complains increased over Uthman because he was the one who appointed the worst governors such as Walid and other people from his relatives on the believers. Furthermore, many of the elevated companions of the Prophet (S), such as Abu Dharr, Ammar ibn Yaser, Abdullah ibn Masoud and others, asked for the application of social justice and removing Banou-Umayyahh from the government.

Among the worst things that the believers bore a grudge against him was his usage of Banou-Umayyah as rulers and governors on various Islamic regions while they lacked deep knowledge about the Islamic thoughts. They used to see governing as a tool for owning the wealth of the nation.

Therefore they used to squander the wealth of the nation. They gathered the wealth of the believers, labelling them as their belongings. They, therefore, stood against what Islam ordered to be cautious in dealing with the wealth of the government and the necessity of using this wealth in developing the people’s lives while saving them from struggling with poverty and other financial disasters.

The policy that Uthman followed was neither apposite nor appropriate. It brought various kinds of problems for him. It had created an opposite party against him including many of the prominent companions of the Prophet (S) and the intellectuals. Different Islamic regions supported them.

A group of military people hurried to him towards Yathrib, surrounding Uthman, asking him for straightness or resignation. He used to respond to them with gentleness, but he afterwards annulled what he said because of the pressure of Marwan. Therefore they thought that no other alternative is left for them other than preparing against him. He was then killed. They did not allow anyone to bury him. Imam Ali (as) mediated for burying him. They allowed the Imam (as) with that. Therefore he was buried in Hash Kowkab.

The Government of the Imam (as)

The leaders of the believers, Imam Ali (as), the symbol of social justice, accepted the government, after he seriously rejected to accept the responsibility, but the people who conducted the revolution forced that. As soon as accepting the government he declared the valuable value that Islam embraced in the political field, such as spreading justice, comfort, equality among people, equality in dividing what they share in common, dismissing the mercenaries and the members of the Umayyad family from the governmental organisations, getting hold of what they have gathered illegally and returning that wealth to the nation’s treasury, destroying the obstacles which were inserted among the believers by the Umayyad Dynasty.

People are equal according to the religion of the Lord. There is no master and no slave, unless with faith. The Umayyad Dynasty was angry and their hearts burnt from fury and hatred. The ground, in which they were happy, had become unwelcome. They knew the justice of Imam Ali (as) and that it was not going to be affected with sin. The weak is strong for him until his right is returned to him, and the strong is weak for him until he gives back what he deprived others from.

They knew that he will apply Islam with all its details according to its reality which was descended by the Lord of the two Universes and that he will not leave any place for the Umayyad Dynasty to interfere in any of the believers’ affairs.

The Umayyad Dynasty joined Aishah, tried to motivate her towards the enmity of the government of the Imam (as). Talhah and Zubayr joint her after they swore to Allah (SwT) that they were going to Umra. However they aimed at betraying the Imam (as) and breaking their promises to accept the Imam (as) as the leader of the government. They decided to break the decision of the nation.

Aishah found them helpful and considered them as good evidences for the general public who followed her to Basrah. She occupied Basrah after a bloody conflict and fight. When the Imam (as) became aware about the situation in Basrah, he commanded his army to move towards Basrah. He overcame this disobedience, which threw Basrah into sadness and mourning.

Why did Aishah make this flood of believers’ blood? Did the Imam (as) get personal usage of the government’s wealth? Did he appoint any of his relatives as ruler for any region in the Islamic nation? What was the reason behind this revolution? Allah (SwT) is the real judge and He is the reference of all the affairs.

The Umayyad Dynasty fled to their leader Muawiyah ibn Abi-Sufyan after their defeat in Basrah. Many of the ignorant worked with him aiming at defeating the government of the Imam (as) claiming to take the revenge of Uthman’s murder, as a supporting factor.

Muawiyah got use of his media to increase the importance of the case of Uthman and that he was killed innocently with the responsibility of Imam Ali (as). He emphasized that he and Banou-Umayyah are the successors and revenger.

They ordered the media to distribute the case that Banou-Umayyah are the real successors of the Prophet (S) but no one else is. It was quite common for the people of Shaam to believe that they deserve the succession of the Prophet (S) because of their close relation to him. Once Ali ibn Abi Abbas met a tribe leader from Shaam and he was told: “I swear by Allah that we did not know that the Prophet (S) had any relative other than Banou-Umayyah to be his successors, until you came to power.”

The preachers of Umayyad Dynasty tried to distribute this among the nation in their Friday sermons as well as every other festival or religious ceremony. The people of Shaam were cheated with this and they used to mourn and weep for ibn Affan. Muawiyah threw them to fight against the Imam (as), the greatest symbol of human rights and success.

The most prominent politician, such as Amr ibn al-As and al-Magheera ibn Shuba, joint Muawiyah at the time. They tried to put various tricky plans to overcome the events. They stuck to all kinds of deceivers to accuse the Imam (as) with the murder of Uthman. In this way, Muawiyah led those who are easy to be cheated to have the sense of enmity against the successor of the Prophet (S) and the gate of the science.

He fought the Imam (as) in Siffeen. His army occupied the river Foraat in order to kill the army of the Imam (as) from the lack of water and thirst. Muawiyah considered this as the first success. The army of the Imam (as) included the brilliant companions of the Prophet (S) such as the great Ammar ibn Yaser, Hijr ibn Oday, Dhoo Shahadatain and Amr ibn al-Hamq al-Khuzai and other similar companions who knew the value of the Imam (as) as the Imam of the devout and the symbol of truth and justice in the world.

The army of the Imam (as) saw the river occupied by the army of Muawiyah. They asked the army of Muawiyah to allow them to drink from the water of the river, but they rejected that request and denied allowing them to drink from the river. Therefore the companions of the Imam (as) attacked the army of Muawiyah, which resulted in backing the enemies and occupying the riversides.

The army of the Imam (as) asked him to prevent them from drinking from the river, but the Imam (as) rejected to deal in the same way that they had dealt with his army. This is not a kind of nature and behaviour that resembles respect and honour. People are equal in water and no one is permitted to prevent others from this blessing.

The Imam (as) asked Muawiyah to accept the rule of the Lord and not to have bloodshed among the believers. Muawiyah rejected that request and denied the call of truth and insisted on his enmity and hatred. The war began between two sides. It lasted about two years, once getting tough and once stays calm. All the groups of the Muawiyah army got disordered and Muawiyah was about to flee. The assured victory was undoubtedly with the Imam’s (as) army within minutes.

At that moment, ibn al-As and al-Ashath ibn Qeis planned a plot that continued not a short time. The plot was to raise the sheets of the Holy Book of Allah (SwT) with a call to return to the rule of Quran. Therefore the people of Shaam raised the sheets of Quran with their voices loud demanding the return to the judgement of Quran. A group of people in the army of the Imam (as) was cheated with this plan without ever thinking and pondering about the backdrop scenario.

Therefore they asked for stopping the war and accepting this call, which is similar to a poisonous mean for them as well as the rest of the believers. The experienced Imam (as) rejected that call and considered it as a deceiving plan from Muawiyah, because the combat was very close to its end and nothing has left to worry about, except killing or arresting Muawiyah as Malik al-Ashtar, the leader of the army of the Imam (as), said.

How difficult it was for the experienced Imam (as), whose dignity shakes mountains, to deal with such people who warned to kill him if not accepting the call for the judgement of Quran.

The Imam (as) had no other alternative unless accepting that plan which led them and their offspring to destruction. Muawiyah won the battle and the army of ignorance that Islam fought against had got the victory. The wrong won and the truth and justice lost. The insurgents insisted to appoint Mosa al-Ashari as their representative in this judgement while Abu Mosa was the enemy of the Imam (as), and was ignorant in his thoughts and lacked deep insight. The deceived army started moving towards the Imam (as) shouting: “We represent no one other than Abu Mousa.”

The Imam (as) accepted what they wanted, as his commands were no longer obeyed and his speech was no longer heard. The appointment of Abu Mousa was done with the view of the cheated army and not with the idea of the Imam (as). They had specified a time for the judgement of be conducted. When the time came, Abu Mousa started his talk with the fox of Shaam, Amr ibn al- As, who presented various kinds of meals and glorified him with plenty titles and majesty until he could cheat him. They agreed that each would dispose his side and then to appoint another person as the leader of the believers.

Abu Moses started the talk in front of the public and disposed the Imam (as) from the caliphate, which was honoured with him. Then ibn al-As broke what he had promised his partner. He disposed Ali (as) from caliphate first and presented Muawiyah for the position.

The quarrel continued at the army of the Imam (as). Most of them followed the corrupted way of appointing a judge. Therefore a group of them got separated from the army of the Imam (as) and formed a new group. At the time they were called Khawarij, which means people who got outside the main and right stream. They forced the Imam (as) to stop the war as they forced him to accept appointing Abu Mousa al-Ashari for judgment.

Al-Khawarij did all kinds of corruption in the world. Therefore they distributed fear and terror among the people. They permitted the murder of the believers and robbed their wealth. Thus they endangered the national security. The Imam (as) aimed at guiding them in order to have them return to the guided path. He talked with them and presented all the necessary proofs to show the corruption of what they were following.

A group of them accepted the reasoning and returned to the truth, but the rest insisted to stay with their enmity and hostility. They declared war against the Imam (as). Therefore there was no other choice for the Imam (as) than to fight with them. He fought with them and got rid of them. After the end of the war, the army of the Imam (as) was surged with sedition and riot and they publicly started to disobey the commands of the Imam (as), especially the top commanders of the army, who were seduced by Muawiyah to reach good wealth and position as well as getting what they wished to obtain.

Muawiyah won in the field and started to attack different parts, which were under the control of the Imam (as) in order to spread instability and insecurity in the state as well as to show that the Imam (as) is unable to protect their lives. He also occupied Egypt and murdered the ruler there.

He was getting ready to attack Iraq to dispose the Imam (as) from power after the majority of his commanders were seduced by Muawiyah. Therefore the Imam (as) stayed in Kufah addressing the nation with fervent speeches to face Muawiyah, warning them from the great danger in case Muawiyah occupies the land. The people were listening to what the Imam (as) said with deaf ears.

The Imam (as) became sad from the miserable events. He turned to Allah (SwT) asking to leave these people to be free from the nation that has lost its awareness. His request was accepted by the Lord and the evil Abdul Rahman ibn Muljam who assassinated him in the house of Allah, while he was praying. The Imam (as) loudly shouted the following when he felt the bite of the sword: “I swear to the Lord of Kabah that I succeeded.”

O the lord of truth and justice, you succeeded! You attempted to free human beings from cruelty and slavery, but the Umayyad Dynasty stayed between you and your objectives, which are still the hymns and chants of all the free people all the time and everywhere. O the leader of the devout and believers! You won! You fought for the sake of Allah (SwT) the best kind of fight. You never equivocated nor cheated. You never accepted anything against your religion, aiming at the satisfaction of the Lord, the Almighty.

After the martyrdom of the Imam (as), the grandson of the Prophet of Islam (S), Imam Hasan prepared the burial ceremony of his father in his final resting point in Najaf. This region was blessed with him and has become the Kabah of incomers as well as a centre for Islamic sciences and intellectual. The grandson of the Prophet (S) took over the leadership of the nation after his father. The nation pledged allegiance, but they were a few in number and as some historians said, many of those pledging were not that willing.

Muawiyah went on working hard to overthrow the government of Imam Hasan (as). Therefore he contacted the commanders of his army and bribed them with money, appointing them in high positions as well as the seduction of marrying them with one of his daughters, aiming at luring them to leave the Imam (as). The weak ones fulfilled all the desires of Muawiyah and the highest one in position was the general commander of the army, Ubaydullah ibn al-Abbas who obtained half a million dinars from Muawiyah and joined his army. Another group promised Muawiyah to assassinate the Imam (as) or arrest him if they could.

Muawiyah with his united armies set forth to fight the grandson of the Messenger of Allah (S). When Imam Hasan (as) was informed about this attack, he ordered his army to get ready to face the enmity of the Umayyad Dynasty, but those submitting were so few, as many of them were seducing the obliged soldiers to leave and join Muawiyah.

The Imam (as) left his capital, Kufah, with a group of his army with all different attitudes that they were carrying. The majority of the armies were carrying the same view of Khawarij in their enmity against Ahl al-Bayt (as); another group left the war and chose to stay in rest and comfort; and a large part were willing to take side with Muawiyah aiming at having something from his wealth.

Anyway, Imam Hasan (as) became sure that he has no strong army to start the battle. Nevertheless, some of Khawarij attacked him in the thigh while he was praying telling him: “You considered a partner for Allah as your father did.”

The Imam (as) studied carefully the affairs of that time, and was sure that the result of the battle was apparent and that Muawiyah would win the battle and after that his followers would be either killed or defeated. Nevertheless he believed that the fight would also result in many problems. Therefore he decided to sign a peace agreement aiming at gaining what was best for the nation, while he was not happy at all with this peace process.

He specified some conditions for this peace, but Muawiyah broke his promise and publicly said that whatever he agreed on with Imam Hasan (as) was under his feet. This way the real personality of Muawiyah became apparent and this incident proved that Muawiyah lacked whatever is considered as Islamic principles.

The Government of Muawiyah

Muawiyah got hold of the power by force not by the will and intention of the nation. He also declared publicly the following statement: “I swear by Allah that I did not get the leadership by knowing about kindness from you, or by noticing your happiness over this leadership, but I got this by fighting with you with sword.” When he completely reached to the power, he focused all his political activities into the following categories:

Uprooting Shiah’s, and removing them in a way that no talk about them would exist except in political and social fields. Among the fierce activities, which he applied against them, were the following:

• Physical assassination of prominent Shiah such as Hijr ibn Adi, Amr ibn al-Hamq al-Khuzai, Rashid al-Hajri and others who were among the greatest leaders and heritages of Shiah at that time.

• Destroying the house of the Shiah. The followers of Muawiyah started destroying every house which belonged to any one of the members of the family of the Prophet (S)

• Ignoring all their civil rights such as rejecting them as witness in courts

• Damning the leader of the believers, Imam Ali (as) in their formal and religious ceremonies in order to feed the believers with their enmity.

Forming a committee for creating pseudo-traditions (non-existence Hadith) and attributing them to the Prophet (S) and considering the following issues:

• Admiring the companions and creating religious and jihad-like backgrounds for them.

• Admiring the Umayyad Dynasty and creating brave stories for them and showing that they were the real protectors of the Islam and the glorifiers of its glory.

• Dispraising the Alawees and pretending that they were not the family of the Prophet (S) as well as misleading the people that they were the enemies of the Prophet (S)

• The members of the pseudo-Hadith writers were Amr ibn al-As, Samra ibn Jondab, Shaykh al-Magheerah, Abu Hareerah al-Doosi and others. It is said that their pseudo-traditions were written in the books Sihah al-Bukhari and Muslim as wells as the traditions of the Prophet (S). These pseudo-traditions are considered as part of the traditions in Islam

Assassination of the opposition party, who were considered to be dangerous in gaining power. At the top of these oppositions was Imam Hasan (as) who was poisoned through the evil hands of Jada bint al-Ashath. Muawiyah promised that caliphate would return to the Imam (as) after his death, but he, as expected, broke his promise.

He used the most tyrant and cruel rulers in different regions of the Islamic country, as they filled the whole country with cruelty and misery. They stole the wealth in a way that no one from the general public could ever have a proper property. Muawiyah and his rulers stole the whole blessings of the nation and left poverty prevalent for the poor.

Among the most tyrant rulers was Muawiyah’s brother who spread the atmosphere of terror and horror in Iraq which could not be seen anywhere else. Even the great poet of the Arab has expressed his fear in his poems. He depicted that picture as if sleep left his eyes, a black snake stinging him and the poison’s effect felt in the bone. He said that he could not sleep at night from fear and horror.

Muawiyah granted the government of Iraq to this tyrant ruler who drowned the region with darkness as well as forced people to do what they hated. He forced the people by force to obey the rules of Muawiyah as he did not leave any room for freedom and justice.

He promised Yazid, his son, to take over the government after his death. He got the promise of this decision from people by force and granted him the control over the affairs of the believers while he knew the extent of his corruption and enmity towards religion. Additionally his son had no specific unique attribute that made him qualified for his position.

The Government of Yazid

Among the worst things that believers had to bear was the government of Yazid. He drowned the country with cruelty and misery, as he committed all kinds of sins and whatever things were unblessed.

The Murder of Slaying Imam Husayn (as)

Yazid committed the worst sin in the world, that has already swayed mountains. It is the murder of the grandson of the Prophet (S) with his family and companions. Here is a brief look at this event that shocked the world with its happening.

His troops, with the leadership of the criminal, Ubaydullah ibn Zeead, surrounded the grandson of the Prophet (S), Imam Husayn (as), in Karbala and forced him to stay there without ever allowing anyone to come defend him, as they were prevented to go towards any Islamic country.

His troop surrounded the river, al-Foraat, and prevented the water, which is allowed in every tradition and relgion, from reaching the Imam (as) and his companions. Therefore the great offspring of the Prophet (S) was dying from thirst. The shouts of the children there reached the heaven while they were shouting begging for water. The hearts of the hardhearted people were not moved at all in front of this impressing scene. They were just obeying the commands of the Umayyad Dynasty with their cheap personalities and decided to prevent the family of the Prophet (S) from reaching the river.

They intentionally aimed at killing the grandson of the Prophet (S) with prominent group of his family as well as great companions who were among the greatest reformers. They did not even respect the sacredness of the Prophet (S) in his family who were described as the ship of salvation and rescuers of people.

They mutilated the body of the grandson of the Prophet (S) after murdering him. Their horses rode on their holy bodies, forgetting the speech of the Prophet (S) who once said: “Husayn is from me and I am from Husayn.”

They left the pure corpse on the ground of Karbala without burying them. However they buried the killed people of their troops. They did this in order to mock at the Imam (as) and for fulfilling the desires of the Umayyad Dynasty.

They intentionally and wildly burned the tents of the family of the Prophet (S) attempting to make the members of the family to escape with their children in the desert while the fire followed them. Is there any crime matching this one?

They stole all the stuff of the Imam (as) and his clothes while leaving his pure corpse bare as they deprived the ladies who were with the Imam (as) from their jewelleries.

They carried the heads of the offspring of the Prophet (S) on the tip of their spears as show off in different parts as revenge against the family of the Imam (as) as well as frightening the general public.

They took the family of the Imam (as) and the ladies who were with the Imam’s (as) companions as prisoners in different parts in order to make them low, forcing them to walk in the streets of Kufah and Damascus while they were expressing their delight for arresting the daughters of the Prophet (S).

This was a brief of what happened to the family and offspring of the Prophet (S) by the grandson of Abi-Sufyan.

The Event of al-Harrah

Among the terrible crimes of Yazid was the event of al-Harrah, which dispraised the respect of the capital of the Prophet (S) because of refusing to recognize Yazid as the leader of the believers. Therefore, Yazid commanded Mosref ibn Aqaba, who was professional in crimes, to occupy the city of the Prophet (S), Medina and to allow his troops to do whatever they liked with the citizens for three days and to rob whatever they wanted.

Afterwards, he forced the citizens to recognize Yazid as the leader of the believers. He beheaded whoever disobeyed his rule. Historians described and narrated very sad stories of what happened to this city after the cruel occupation of the city.

This catastrophe matched the forever disaster of Karbala, which is the symbol of sadness in the world.

This was a brief of the crimes of Muawiyah and the grandson of Abi-Sufyan, who disobeyed whatever Islamic rules and traditions he could during his short period of government.

Muawiyah ibn Yazid

Muawiyah ibn Yazid inherited the kingdom from his father and grandfather who had not deserved it, but they robbed it from those who deserved. They were the offspring of the Prophet (S) and the mine of knowledge. Muawiyah had exact knowledge about this, knowing the ignorance of his father and grandfather and he bore a grudge against them. Therefore he formally resigned from the government and unmasked the real reality of his father and grandfather in a great sermon announcing his resignation. He said the following:

“My grandfather has struggled with someone who was closer than his relatives to the Prophet as well as his history. He was the greatest of the migrants in value and faith. He was the cousin of the Prophet (S). The Prophet gave him his daughter to be his wife with her decision. My grandfather had done what you know and you followed him with what you knew. He has become the prisoner of his sin inside his grave and a prisoner for his wrongdoings. Afterwards, my father followed the same process. He was not qualified for that position, as he followed his desires and death came to him and made him in his grave imprisoned with his sins”

His tears overwhelmed him at this point. Then he added:

“Among the worst thing is that we know about his bad future and the evil ending. He killed the relative of the Prophet (S); legitimated what was illegal and destroyed al-Kabah.”

I have not seen a sermon more clarifying than this. This shows the pure intention, which was indeed anxious about the religion. He put his father and grandfather on the discussion table and described what they had done from crimes and evil deeds against the rights of the family of the Prophet (S). What is worth mentioning is that this young man was lowering himself for being the son of Yazid, who was the worst person known in the history.

Anyway, the kingdom of Abi-Sufyan, which Muawiyah attempted to keep was destroyed by the hands of his grandson, Muawiyah ibn Yazid. And this way the kingdom that drowned the world from the truth, had come to end.

The Government of Marwan

There is no worse happening in human history than having Marwan as an Islamic caliph. Historians have agreed that he was the principle of darkness and among the supporters of wrongdoings.

Among his famous title was the thread of wrong. He was named so because of the courage and freedom in committing any wrong. This name has become as a scandal for his offspring.

Among the most striking attributes of Marwan is betrayal as well as breaking promises. He promised the leader of the believers, Imam Ali (as), but then betrayed and stopped recognising the Imam (as) as the caliph. Afterwards he stood against the Imam (as) in the battle of al-Jamal, where the troops of Aishah were defeated and he was captured and brought to the Imam (as) to promise not to fight the government again. The Imam (as) said: “I need not his promise. His hand is not reliable. That is, if he promises with his hands, he will break his promise with his forefinger!”

Another attribute of Marwan was envy. Malik ibn Hubayrah al-Sukouni said the following addressing his follower, al-Haseen ibn al-Magheer: “I swear by Allah that if Marwan gets the power, he will envy you for your lash, the net of your shoes and the shadow of tree under which you rest.”

Therefore the Islamic caliph, the most significant Islamic position has gone to Marwan and other similar people in the Umayyad and Abbasidd Dynasty, while the people were deprived from the family of the Prophet (S) who was the symbol of social justice and the narrators of the Allah’s (SwT) statements as the Prophet (S) said about them.

Anyway, the government of Marwan was very short in power and it was over after six months. What the leader of the believers predicted had come to happen. Some of the sources confirm that his wife, the mother of Khalid ibn Yazid ibn Muawiyah, was the one who planned to kill him, because of his gibes over her son. With his death, another sheet of betrayal and wrongdoings was turned.

Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan

One of the disasters believers had to bear was the government of Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan. Historians agreed that he had no blessed attributes in his behaviours or whatever to make him deserver the caliphate. He was a tyrant ruler, one who committed bloodshed without proof.

Al-Mansour al-Dawaneeqi said the following about him: He was a tyrant ruler who did not care what he was doing. Listen to what he said after the murder of ibn Zubayr: “No one can ever tell me to fear Allah while I am in this position, otherwise he will be beheaded.” It is for sure that such a person hates mentioning the Lord Who commands for justice and kindness and denies cruelty and hostility.

This tyrant ruler was the first one who prohibited anyone from talking before the caliphs. It was among the symbol of his brutality and pride on the society and among his other attributes was stinginess in a way that he was called the sweat of stone because of his severely ungenerous nature.

Narrators attributed him with cruelty and brutality to the extent that no sign of kindness and mercy could be found in his character. He over shed the blood of people untruthfully. He himself confessed about this personally when Um al-Dara told him: “I was informed that you drank blood after performing your prayers.” He replied: “I swear by Allah that I do not feel sinful at all for drinking the blood.”

He spread sadness and the lack of comfort among the believers because of the large number of people whom he killed. After the murder of ibn Zubayr, he killed anyone whom he thought was cooperating with him and considered him as a supporter. He had made the following cruel lecture: “I do not cure the illness of this nation except with sword until your wishes come along mine.” This prejudiced belief, which had no ray of light inside, did not care about the objectives that lead to the progress of the society. He only relied on untruthful killing and bloodshed.

Appointing Hajjaj as the Governor

The most damned thing performed by Abd al-Malik was appointing al-Hajjaj ibn Yousif al-Thaqafee on the believers, while he was a known terrorist and the worst criminal ever known to the world. But Abd al-Malik gave him extensive responsibilities. Therefore he was permitted to control believers’ lives and wealth as he wished according to his desires without ever considering any law and rationality.

Hajjaj has created an atmosphere of terror in the nation under his control. Something that people had never seen to this extent in brutality.

Al-Dameeree said: “Al-Hajjaj could not keep himself away from bloodshed. He was even informing about his inside feeling in considering bloodshed as the most interesting pleasure.” He confessed about his love in bloodshed when he said: “I swear by Allah that there is no one in the whole of earth who is braver than me in dealing with blood.” The number of people he killed, not considering those killed in war, reaches something about one hundred twenty thousands; and some estimated this number as one hundred thirty thousands.

Al-Hajjaj was one of the elements of corruption and crime in the world. He burned the country, where he ruled with his brutality and savagery.

His Stand with Religion

Al-Hajjaj was a real atheist and he neither believed in Allah (SwT) nor the Hereafter. He declared his atheism in his deeds and speeches. He used to mock at the great Prophet of Islam (S) as he once addressed Allah (SwT) in front of a group of people saying: “Is your Messenger, meaning Prophet Muhammad (S), better than your caliph, meaning Abd al-Malik?”

This man also used to mock at those having the opportunity of visiting the grave of the Prophet (S), saying: “Damn them! Those who circulate around the ruined graves! Why do they not come and circulate around the palace of the king Abd al-Malik? Do they not know that a caliph of a person is better than his Prophet?”

Al-Hajjaj has expressed the superiority of Abd al-Malik who broke everything sacred about the Prophet (S), who elevated the flag of monotheism and rescued human beings from the darkness of the Ignorant Era and its superstitions. Al-Deenory commented on the statement of al-Hajjaj, saying: “He, al-Hajjaj, considered the Prophet as infidel, because he expressed some lies and attributed them to the Prophet. He also said that the earth is prohibited from eating the corpse of the Prophets. Another sinful deed was the blockading of Kabah in a fight with Abdullah ibn Zubayr as well as stoning with catapult from the mountain of abi Qobays.”

Among his unbelief cases in the religion was that he used to see that obeying him had a greater privilege than obeying Allah (SwT). Aban ibn Uthman narrated his statements in this regard, saying: “He said: I swear by Allah that obeying me is more necessary than obeying Allah, because Allah said the following: ‘So fear Allah as much as ye can’ (64:16).” He considered this for Allah (SwT) as well as himself. Then he said: ‘Listen and obey’ and considered just himself as the subject to be listened and obeyed. Then he added: “If I address a man and tell him to enter from a door and he does not, then I’ll be permitted to shed his blood.”

Bin Abbas narrated the following saying: “I were before Abd al-Malik while a letter came from al-Hajjaj glorifying his caliphate, claiming that all the affairs of the world is in the hand of the caliph and that a caliph is greater than the angels, the elevated, messengers and Prophets. Reasoning that this is because Allah created Adam with his hands and the angels all bowed before him and he was placed in the Paradise, then he descended him down to the earth and assigned him as his caliph and ordered the angels to be the messengers. Abd al-Malik enjoyed that letter, saying: I wish I had some people outside the religion to argue this concept with Allah.”

Al-Hajjaj considered everyone who claimed to be against Abd al-Malik to be infidel. He presented all those who were involved in the defeated revolution of ibn al-Ashath to sword, and accepted just to temporarily free those who announce their atheism natures because of standing against the caliph.

The Problems of the Shiah

The Shiah spent a very tough time during the government of this tyrant. He spread murder and mocking against them and filled their houses with sadness and problems. His hatred over the Shiah was to the extent that it was said that he would better come along to hear that someone is infidel or atheist than to hear that someone is among the followers of Ali (as).

The evil people and the worst ones tried to get closer to this tyrant by talking badly about the leader of the believers and dispraising him. A villain came once and said the following in a loud voice: “O the king! My family were disloyal to me and named me ‘Ali’; I am a poor man and I need the help of the kind.”

Al-Hajjaj became happy by hearing this and he went on thanking him, saying: “Because of what you have reached in thought, I’ll grant you the following position’”

Anyway, the followers of Ali (as) were the target of the sword and the prisons during the era of this brutal king. He used to kill them everywhere he found them as well as filled the prison with them. What is certain is that the era of al-Hajjaj was among the toughest era ever seen in the history.

The Problem of Kufah

The cruel king poured the cup of anger on Kufah, which was the centre of opposing the Umayyad Dynasty. He forced them to obey the rules of the Umayyad Dynasty by terror. He gave a sermon in Kufah without mentioning the name of Allah (SwT) at the start of his speech and without glorifying the rule of the Prophet Muhammad (S). Among his sentences were the following:

“O people of Iraq! O the people of dissension, hypocrisy and evil behaviours! Your caliph and leader, meaning Abd al-Malik, analysed all people of his tribe and found me the hardest one and the most difficult one to be broken. Therefore, he chose me and granted me with a lash and a sword. The lash fell down and the sword remained.”

Among the other sentences of his speech were:

“I swear by Allah that I see rude looks, straight necks ready to be cut. It is me that is the owner. I feel as if I am looking at the blood dropping from the head and beards.”

His hangmen reaped the heads of innocent people in order to spread the atmosphere of horror, which people cannot remember in any similar era. The people were frightened from his careless murdering of people and his severe punishments. Abu Wael al-Asadi said the following meaning al-Hajjaj: “I swear by Allah that I know no one fearing any ruler more than he.”

His Prisons

This brutal ruler took very horrible prisons unsupported from cold and hotness. He used to torture the prisoners with the most severe type of torture. He used to tie the prisoners with cut cane and then pulled the cane from where they were placed on the skin to see the blood streaming.

About fifty thousands men and thirty thousands women died in his prisons, where sixteen thousands ladies were unmarried while in the prisons men and women were kept in the same place. He used to pass by the prisoners while they were begging. He then used to say the following: “You used to be proud and arrogant! Shut up and do not say even a word.” He considered them as the people of the Hell and considered himself as the Lord, the Almighty.

This was a brief introduction from the brutality of al-Hajjaj, his cruelty and the way he used to commit what was prohibited by Allah, the Almighty.

His Death

This tyrant malicious criminal died after making the country drowned with disasters and converted the people’s lives to an unbearable Hell. He was finally affected with a severe disease in his stomach. He felt severe frost in a way all the fire was everywhere around him to keep him warm, but did not feel it, even when he came closer and his skin was burnt, he did not feel it. His problem made him suffer badly.

He complained about the condition he was in to al-Hasan al-Basri and he told him: “I tried preventing you from torturing the good, but you insisted.” He replied: “O Hasan! I do not ask you to beg Allah to helping me, but I am asking you beg Allah to let me die sooner and do not lengthen my suffering.”

The tyrant stayed suffering from the pain and he stated the following when he was about to die: “O Allah! Forgive me as people say that you will not forgive me!” The malice died on Ramadhan and some said that he died in Shawwal (95 A.H.) when he was fifty-three or fifty-four. The historian said that the land in which he was buried stayed shacking for three days from his cruelty and savagery.

It is funny that some of the Umayyad governors were informed about his news and they said: “He was reading Quran alive and dead.” What kind of Quran did this executioner recite? Anyway, the gate of cruelty was shut with the death of his tyrant. The believers received this news with happiness and joy. The curse followed him from the day of his death and it would be so until Allah (SwT) takes the souls of everyone in this worldly life.

Comments about al-Hajjaj

The most well known Islamic scholars bear a grudge against al-Hajjaj. They have conveyed their indignation over him in their statements. The following are some of them.

Al-Hasan al-Basri

When he was informed about the death of al-Hajjaj, he said: “O Allah! You made him dead. Please make his customs dead. He came as frightening person, short and without doing anything for the sake of Allah. Among his proud behaviour we can mention his statement: ‘Pledge allegiance and consider me as ruler, otherwise you will be beheaded.’”

Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz

Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz was angry about al-Hajjaj and he said the following about him: “If all the evil of your nation come and we bring with al-Hajjaj, we would overcome them.” This means that if all the criminals and evildoers come from all countries from all the regions of the earth and being placed on one scale of the scales, and this terrorist is placed on the other scale of the scales, he would overcome them. This is all because of what he committed as crimes and sins.

Asim

Asim said: “There was nothing left prohibited by Allah, the Almighty, unless al-Hajjaj went through it.”

Al-Qasim

Al-Qasim ibn Mukhaymarah said: “Al-Hajjaj used to destroy the principle of Islam step by step.”

Zadhan

Zadhan said: “Al-Hajjaj has nothing from religion at all.”

Tawous

Tawous said: “I wonder to hear people who address al-Hajjaj as a believer.”

There were other statements from the scholars of his era. They all agreed upon the fact that he lacked the Islamic identity and that he was a black sheet in the human beings’ history as one of the people who was continuously committing crimes.

Returning to the Topic of al-Hajjaj

Here we are going to return to talk about the lifetime of Abd al-Malik.

His Rulers and Attendants

The rulers of Abd al-Malik and his attendants were no less in atheism than he himself regarding their religion. Let us read some of their statements:

Khalid al-Qasri

Khalid ibn Abdullah al-Qasree was a ruler on Mecca. He had announced the atheism during a sermon in Mecca, saying: “Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan is better than the father of the Prophets, Abraham.” Doesn’t this mean atheism and infidelity?

Ibn Shafi

Ibn Shafi stood in the gathering of Hesham and said the following in a loud voice: “The king is the caliph of Allah, meaning Abd al-Malik. He is more generous for Allah than His Prophet, meaning Muhammad. Therefore you are His caliph and Muhammad is his messenger”

Yousif ibn Umar

Yousif ibn Umar, the agent of Hesham, once said the following in the Friday sermon: “The first people who created riot and sedition for the nation were Ali and his unpleasant friend Ammar ibn Yaser.”

The Imam (as) in Damascus

Al-Ayashi in his interpretation book mentioned that in the era of Abd al-Malik a magician from al-Qadariya appeared who corrupted the religion of the people with darkness and deviation he tried to distribute among the people. The scholars of that era could not find a solution to reject the doubtful points he posed.

Abd al-Malik found it the best way to invite Imam Muhammad al-Baqir (as) to Damascus and have him in a meeting with al-Qadari to reject his claims and doubts. The agent presented this to the Imam (as), but the Imam (as) rejected that request, because he could not bear the difficulty of the road. Therefore he sent Imam al-Sadiq (as) to go there.

When he reached Damascus he met Abd al-Malik and Abd al-Malik told him about the case. Afterwards, Abd al-Malik commanded to bring al-Qadari and he attended the gathering. The place was full with the crowds to listen to the debate. The Imam (as) turned to al-Qadari and asked him to read the Chapter of Al-Fatiha (The Opening). He started to read the Chapter, but when he reached the verse ‘Thee do we worship, and Thine aid we seek’, the Imam (as) told him: “Whom you worship? And what is your need in knowing if the affair is yours?” The weakness appeared on the al-Qadari and he could not give an answer. The Imam (as) continued his speech and rejected what he claimed as doubts.

The Death of Abd al-Malik

Abd al-Malik died because of a disease. He met his death without being safe or confident. He was suffering of his deeds and the cruelty towards the people. He was the one who empowered al-Hajjaj on the people’s lives and who in turn distributed terror and horror in their lands.

Anyway, the sadness in Abd al-Malik reached a point that he hit his head with his hands while saying: “I wish I could earn my living on a daily basis and could do my best in worshiping Allah, the Almighty, and obeying him.” However this regret can do nothing for him as he horrified millions of believers and filled their hearts with fear and terror.

He ended his life by assigning the caliphate to his son Walid, who was among the corrupted people of the Umayyad Dynasty. He also advised his son to deal well with al-Hajjaj. The following came in his will: “Look at al-Hajjaj as he was the one who prepared the public for you. My son! He is your sword and your hand against those who are against you. Do not listen to anyone’s talk about him. You need him more than he needs you. Call people to come and pledge allegiance to you. If they said something else, then ask your sword to do what is necessary.”

He advised his son to deal kindly with al-Hajjaj, who drowned the nation in mourning and beheaded the heads of the innocent. Nevertheless, he also asked him to kill whoever denied pledging allegiance to him. He did not stay long after this will unless a few moments. His death was on Wednesday in half of Shawal in the year 86 A.H. (after the migration of the Prophet (S) from Mecca to Medina). Al-Hasan al-Basri was asked about him and he said: “What can I say in someone that one of his malevolences was al-Hajjaj.”

It is worth mentioning that Imam al-Sadiq (as) was born in the era of his brutal tyrant. He spent his childhood in his era and saw the terrible events that happened to the believers during this time. It was for sure that those events left deep sadness and grief in his heart.

The Government of al-Walid

Al-Walid took over the government of the nation after the death of his father, the one whom historians described as a cruel tyrant and one who could not handle the language perfectly. His father criticised his fault in his son and said: “He cannot control the Arab unless those whose language is worse than him.”

He gathered the masters of grammar and entered a house without getting out for six months. Then he came out, but he was in the same situation as when he entered the house. Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz blamed his government saying: “He was the one who filled the world with cruelty.” Also historians said: “He used to have many marriages and divorces. He got married about sixty three times.”

It is worth mentioning that al-Walid was the one who constructed the great and famous Umayyad Mosque of Damascus, and spent about six million golden dinars of coins from the currency of the time of al-Zarkali. In the same way, he increased the decoration of the Mosque of the Prophet (S) by inlaying it with mosaic as well as including the rooms of the wives of the Prophet (S) and the rest of the properties of the houses in the surroundings.

Imam (as) with al-Walid

Al-Walid travelled to al-Yathrib to supervise what his ruler did in repairing the construction of the Mosque of the Prophet (S). His trip was formal and included the formal reception and the royal ceremonies. The ruler of the Yathrib came to receive him from fifty leagues outside the border of the city, as well as prepared the largest house in the city for the king and his attendants.

When al-Walid entered the city he allowed the people to leave. Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz urged the nobles and the respected offspring of the companions of the Prophet (S) to be among the first visitors of the king. He aimed at Imam Baqir (as) and asked him to visit al-Walid. The Imam (as) rejected that request, but Umar with his diplomacy could convince the Imam (as) to visit him.

He told him: “This city is the city of your grandfather, and the visitor there, irrespective of where to go, has actually entered your house and he will be considered your guest. This is al-Walid, if not your caliph, he is a believer who entered your house.” Therefore the Imam (as) unwillingly accepted to go and in the second day he set off the residence of al-Walid.

When al-Walid saw him, he welcomed him and received him with respect and glorification. Al-Walid asked the Imam (as) about his belongings. The Imam (as) responded that he has a farm enough for him and his family and that he did not need anything. Al-Walid offered him a larger farm in any part of the Islamic region in order to live with comfort he and his family. The Imam (as) rejected that offer and said: “This farm is enough for me and my family and my sons with know that Allah, the Almighty, is the One who feeds.” Then he stood from that gathering and al-Walid said farewell to him.

In the second day, al-Walid entered the Mosque of the Prophet (S) and saw what his ruler did regarding the repairing process as well as the expansion process. Imam Baqir (as) was there giving lectures to his students. The subject was geography. Al-Walid was listening to the lecture and it was a new field for him. He asked the Imam (as) about this science and the Imam (as) replied: “This is a science that talks about earth, skies, suns and stars.”

Imam al-Sadiq (as) was young at that time attending the lectures of his father. Al-Walid asked Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz, saying: “How is that youth among these men?” Umar replied: “He is Jafar ibn Muhammad’”

Al-Walid went on saying: “Is he capable of comprehending and understanding the lesson?”

Umar hurried saying: “He is the most intelligent one among those attending the lectures as well as the one who asking most of the questions and raising many queries.”

Al-Walid asked to bring the boy. When he was in front of him, he said: “What is you name?”

“Jafar,” he replied.

Al-Walid presented a question, saying: “Do you know who the owner of logic was?”

“Aristotle was called the owner of logic. Actually his followers and companions named him this way,” he replied.

Al-Walid was astonished and asked him the next question: “Who is the owner of al-Maaz?”

“This is not a name of anyone. It is the name of a group of stars called Thu al-Aenah,” he responded.

Astonishment surrounded al-Walid and he wondered about the intelligence of the Imam (as). He turned to Imam Baqir (as) and said: “Your son will be the great scholar of his era.”

The prediction of al-Walid came true and Imam al-Sadiq (as) became the most knowledgeable one, not just during his time, but throughout the history.

The Death of al-Walid

Al-Walid ibn Marwan died in the year of 96 from the migration of the Prophet (S) and the duration of his government was nine years, seven months while he was forty-five years old.

The Government of Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik

Sulayman took over the government after the death of his brother. He started his work in a way that resulted in the thanks of the people. He degraded the family of al-Hajjaj heavily as he pledged Abd al-Malik ibn al-Mhalab to punish them. He also fired all the agents of al-Hajjaj.

He freed more than eighty-one thousands person in a single day and let them re-join their families. He had also found thirty thousands people who were innocently in the prison as well as thirty thousands women. This deed was among that which can be thanked. Those criticising his policy said the following: “He was unfair in gathering tax; he sent a letter to his agent in Egypt, Osama ibn Zayd al-Tanoukhi, ordering him to tighten the tax.” This letter talks about the extent of the cruelty of this ruler on the nation.

Osama, his agent in Egypt, responded to him, telling him about the suffering that the Egyptians were bearing: “As soon as I came the people were in trouble. If you please have your kindness on them and let them feel comfortable or decrease the tax on the people. If you decrease the tax, people can work on the construction of the country. If you do so, the result will be seen during the next year.”

Sulayman mocked at him and said: “Damn you! Milk the cow! If there were no milk left, suck the blood.”

Did you see this persistence in cruelty on human lives? He wanted to deprive them from any rich economical power and the distribution of poverty and scarcity. He used to spend all the great amount of money on his girlfriends.

Once, he was given pearls. He asked the one giving the pearls to distribute the pearls on a red quilt. As soon as they were distributed over the quilt, the pearl giver said: “There is nothing more beautiful than seeing white pearls on red quilt.” There was one of the king’s girlfriends standing beside him and she instantly said: “O the king! Give it to me!” He took a handful of pearls and gave it to her. She put them aside and said: “Give me more.” He gave her more than two third of the pearls. Then she said: “What will you do with the rest of the pearls?” He gave the rest of the pearls to her. The man was astonished and said to himself: “He gathered these; was cruel with people; and she took them all.”

It is worth mentioning that there was a kind of separation between him and Husham. Husham said: “I swear by Allah that I will complain against Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik when I see Marwan ibn Abd al-Malik on the Resurrection Day.”

Historians said: “Sulayman was very selfish and proud in the most extent possible. Once he put on his best clothes and went on showing off saying: I am the king, the young, the highly respected, the generous and the granter.”

He looked at one of his girlfriends there, saying: “How do you see the king?”

She said: “I would see him the greatest wish and the light of eyes, if the poet did not say.”

He said: “What did he say?”

She said: “The poet said:

You would be the most valuable thing if you could stay; But there is nothing for human to stay.

You are the one we all have no doubt and fully trust; But Allah said that you will be lost.

We see nothing as shortage in you,

Other than the fact that the world will not stay with you.”

The Government of Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz

Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz was the best Umayyad Governor. He was the most knowledgeable one considering the political and social events. He saw the family of the kings chose the deviated pathway and he found them away from the way of truth and justice. This was what brought hatred and extreme dislike of the government for the nation. He aimed at arranging things in order to keep people satisfied. This way he could be a brilliant star in the history of eastern governors. As soon as he got into power, he performed the following reforms.

Avoiding the Curse against Imam Ali (as)

Umar sent command, ordering the cease of the curse against the Leader of the Believers, Imam Ali (as), in sermons, prayer gatherings and teaching and educational institutes. The earlier rulers took the political strategy of cursing the Imam (as). Through this way, they wanted to keep people away from knowing more about this great Imam, who granted huge knowledge to the world.

That is because of what he showed as justice, which appeared to be unique throughout the Islamic history. He created real awareness in the Islamic countries that resulted in disobeying cruelty and brutality. The Umayyad strategy could do nothing with the dignity of the Imam (as), as it was as an unfading light of sun.

Al-Shabe said: “I used to hear the Umayyad leaders deliver sermons, cursing Ali publicly while it seems that they unknowingly elevated him to the sky; and when I was hearing them admiring their ancestors on the sermons, it seems that they are uncovering the dirty carcase.”

Abd al-Malik said the following to his son: “I do not see anything the religion builds that the worldly life does not destroy. I saw the worldly life building things and the religion destroys them. I still hear our family, followers and companions cursing Ali and burying his superiority and his kindness for the people. But this does not do anything with people’s heart other than closing it to him. While they try to get closer to people, but they are getting farther and farther.”

Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz said: “When my father is delivering sermons, as soon as he tries to talk against Ali, his tongue could not utter the words fluently.” I said: “O father! During delivering your sermon, when you reach Ali, you knew that you are the wrong-doer.” He said: “Did you notice that?” I said: “Yes, I did!” He said: “O my son! If the people around us know about Ali what we already know, they will leave us to join them.”

Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz, with his knowledge and intelligence, considered the darkness of his forefathers in cursing the Leader of the Believers. He suggested to a Jew to propose to his daughter in front of the people. Therefore he proposed to his daughter and Umar said the following: “How do you propose to my daughter while you are Jewish?”

The Jew replied: “How did your Prophet agree to the Marriage of Ali ibn Abi Talib with his daughter then?”

Umar replied: “Ali is among the greatest people of religion and among the most elevated ones in the believers.”

The Jew said: “Why do you curse him then during delivering sermons?”

Umar turned to people, and said: “Answer this man!”

No one was able to say anything and therefore he ordered to ban the curse and to replace the curse with the following verse from the Holy Quran: ‘O Allah! Forgive us and our brothers who preceded us in faith.’

This story brought great admiration from people and they went on telling this story with pleasure and admiration.

His Relation with the Alawis

Among the blessed things that Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz did was establishing connection with the Alawis, who were kept in poverty during the earlier governments. Therefore the family of the Prophet (S) suffered from distress, where all their gates of life were closed in front of them.

Umar ibn Abd al- Aziz was a scholar who needed them. Thus he wrote a letter to his agent in Yathrib asking him to distribute the amount of ten thousands dinars. The agent sent a letter asking for the offspring of Ali (as) as he has offspring in different tribes. He sent a response telling him to divide the amount of ten thousands dinars among the offspring of Ali (as) and Fatimah (sa) as soon as he received this letter as they had not got anything so far.

The Return of Fadak to the Alawis

Another blessed deed of Umar for the Alawis was that he returned the land of Fadak to them, which was a land given to Fatimah (sa) from the Prophet (S) but it was taken from her at the time of the first caliph. This land was circulating from hand to hand while the offspring of the Prophet (S) were suffering from the lack of resources for their living.

With Imam Baqir (as)

Imam Baqir (as) predicted the caliphate of Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz as Abu Basir narrated saying: “I was with the Imam abi Jafar (as) in the mosque when Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz entered. He said: ‘This young man will gain the power and will work upon returning justice. Nevertheless, he will defame his government by approving the fact that there are others who deserve the government more than him.’”

When Umar gained the power, he asked Imam Baqir (as) to come to Damascus. The Imam (as) accepted that request and travelled to Damascus. Umar received him warmly and welcomed him. Pleasant talks went between them and the Imam (as) stayed as guest for several days. When he wanted to leave Damascus, he asked him to leave him an advice to get use of. The Imam (as) said: “I advise you to fear Allah; to consider the old as father; and the young as son and the men as brothers.”

He advised him with kindness and mercy towards people and not to look down at them. Umar went on saying the following with eagerness: “You gathered what we can rely on. If Allah helps us in this regard, we will be on the right path, Allah willing.”

Imam (as) went out him and when he wanted to leave, a messenger came from Umar to the Imam (as) saying: “Umar wants to come, would you please wait for him?” The Imam (as) waited for him and Umar came and sat close to the Imam (as) humbly and admired him and glorified him. Afterwards, he said farewell warmly.

Points to Criticise

The government of Umar faced some criticism; among which are the following.

He did not change the ownership of the family of the king, which were undoubtedly illegal. Therefore accepting it is an acceptance of cruelty, which stands against the rules of justice that he aimed at obeying.

He did not take any strong stand against his agents who applied pressure on people and robbed their properties.

He continued granting what his ancestors used to give to the royal family, which is against the Islamic principles that asked for equality among the believers as well as the kindness.

He added ten dinars to what was planned to be given to the people of Shaam without applying the same rule for the people of Iraq. This difference is not according to the Islamic teachings, which ruled equality among the believers as well as banned the superiority of one over another.

These were some of the criticisms over the government of Umar ibn Abd al- Aziz. It is a great deal for him, as he claimed to embrace a pure just government that follows pure truth in its policy.

His Death

There were some diseases gathered in Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz, but he rejected to visit the physicians. People blamed him for doing so, but he said: “If the remedy is on back of my ears, I will not take it; I would rather prefer to return to my Lord.”

Some historians said that he did not have a normal death, but rather he was poisoned by the Umayyads. As they knew that if his government continued, he would take the government out of their tribe and family and will not appoint someone who did not deserver caliphate. Therefore they preferred to poison him. He died at the year of 101 after the migration of the Prophet (S) in the month of Rajab in Dayr Saman. The man left good memories of his government and was the source of pride for his family.

The Government of Yazid ibn Abd al-Malik

Yazid ibn Abd al-Malik took over the government after the death of Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz as his brother Sulayman ordered. He kept ruling according to the policy of Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz for forty days, but that was hard to accept by the Umayyad Dynasty. Therefore forty high position men from the tribe came to inform him that caliphs are not published by what they do and do not.

Thus he left the policy of Umar and applied the policy of cruelty and brutality. All the rulers who were appointed by Umar were dismissed and the following message was sent to his rulers and agents: “Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz was a proud man; therefore leave what you used to do during his era. Return people to their former position, irrespective of whether they want or not, like or dislike, survived or not.”

Cruelty returned with all its colour and means against the people and brutality was widespread everywhere in all parts of the nation.

What is worth mentioning is that Yazid ibn Abd al-Malik was an ignorant envious person against scholars. He used to look down at the knowledgeable scholars. He used to call al-Hasan al-Basri, the scholar of al-Basrah, as the old fool. Nevertheless he was over occupied with luxury and corruption.

He had a very influential girlfriend called Hobabah. He was drunk once and said: “Let me fly.” Hobabah mocked at him and mocked at the whole nation, which was governed by him, saying: “Then whom do you leave the nation for?”

He said: “To you’”

He could not leave without her. Once they were out to Jordan for pleasure. There he threw a grape grain at her, it was in her mouth and she was choked and died. He left her unburied for three days smelling her and kissing her; looking at her while weeping. Some of his men talked with him about burying her and they could finally take his permission for burying her. After the burial, he return to his palace sad and full of grief.

It is said that he unearthed the grave after burying her in order to see her. There was much news about his prostitution and corruption that we prefer not to talk about in order to keep the book clean from these sorts of things. He died at the year of 105 after the migration of the Prophet (S) (105 A.H.).

Husham ibn Abd al-Malik

He is among the bad of the worlds and the callers of the darkness. According to what historians agreed, he had got no proper attribute that qualified him for taking the rule of the leader in the Islamic world. Here we will briefly talk about some of his attributes.

Stinginess

Husham was a stingy man. He used to say, but a small coin above another and it will be wealth. He was the one who gathered an amount that no one else ever gathered. He expressed his stinginess with what he said in the following statement: “I’d never got disappointed at anything more than what I granted; caliphate needs wealth as disease needs cure.”

Here is a story about his stinginess. Once he and his companions passed by one of his gardens, which had fruits. He let his followers eat from the fruits. Afterwards he ordered his servant to pull out the fruit trees and instead to plant olive trees so that no one eats from them.

Spite

Another attribute of this ruler was spite and envy. He was spiteful on anyone having a blessed property and proper attributes, especially those having great ancestors and noble forefathers. He was among the most spiteful person against the Ahl al-Bayt (as) who were the peak of humanity and glory.

He was the one who denied the dignity of Imam Zayn al-Abidin (as) and the Leader of the Believers who was surrounded by people during the walk around the Holy House of Allah (SwT) while Husham was alone. Therefore the people of Shaam asked about this person who owned the hearts of the believers and their feelings, which results in this warm respect and glorification. He denied his knowledge about him. Therefore al-Farazdaq recited his great poem in glorifying the Imam (as) and introducing him to the people of Shaam. The heart of Husham was cut from spite and envy and he ordered to imprison al-Farazdaq as well as deprived him from payment.

Hardhearted

Among the most striking attributes of Husham was his hardheartedness. There seemed to be no kindness or mercy in him. His heart looked like a stone or even tougher. Al-Yaqubee ascribed him as stingy, rough, hardhearted and away from mercy.

Malicious Logic

One of his attributes was his malicious tongue and impoliteness in his reasoning. He considered no respect for anyone as he said the following against the great martyr, Zayd ibn Ali: “What did you cow brother do?”1 Zayd answered him with his polite and meaningful language, saying: “The Messenger of Allah, the Prophet, called him, the Discoverer of Science, and you call it cow, because of the huge distance between him and his.”

He also said the following to Zayd: “You are son of a bondmaid, and you do not deserve the caliphate.” Zayd replied to him, saying: “Mothers do not appoint the destiny of their sons. The mother of Ismail was a bondmaid for the mother of Ishaaq, but that did not prevent Allah to appoint him as a prophet, he was the father of the Arabs and from him Muhammad, the best creature was come.” Therefore he presented this neat answer and original reasoning as mothers do not completely interfere in their sons’ objectives.

With His Son Said

Husham assigned his son, Said as the next caliph, but he was informed that he is having illegal relation with the believers’ women. Therefore he told him: “O son of the evil! Do you illegal relation with women, while you are the son of the caliph. Do all the evil deeds that Quraysh did, kill that and take the wealth of this.” Do you see how this man advised his son to commits evil and malicious deeds? He advises him to kill, rob and apply cruelty on people.

Anyway, the personal attributes of Husham and his behaviours did not make him an appropriate person for the position of caliphate. He can be just a simple employee instead of owning this important and influential centre in Islam.

With Imam Baqir (as)

Imam Baqir (as) was among the most brilliant person in the family of the Prophet (S) considering his Allah-fearing and superiority, as he was also the leader of the cultural and scientific revolution in his era. Many great scientists and jurisprudents graduated from his school; among those were Zurarah ibn Ayun, Muhammad ibn Muslim, Aban ibn Taqaloub, and many other jurisprudents of the era.

The Muslims agreed on glorifying him and confessed about his superiority. He was actually the real member of the Prophetic family whom Allah (SwT) glorified the Arabs and the Muslims with. Husham was among those spiteful against him. He ordered his agent in Yathrib to move the Imam (as) to Damascus. The agent delivered the letter of Husham to the Imam (as) and he was forced to travel to Damascus. When he reached there, Husham ordered his companions to scorn the Imam (as) when he finished his talk with the Imam (as).

The Imam (as) entered on Husham and greeted the people who were there but did not greet Husham specifically for his caliphate. Husham was full of anger, thus he faced the Imam (as) saying: “O Muhammad ibn Ali! The man still creates disunion among the believers and still calls people towards himself and claims that he is Imam because of his stupidity and lack of knowledge.”

He received the Imam (as) with those cruel words while he was his guest and then his companions started to take the role of their king. They went on mocking at the Imam (as). The Imam (as) replied them with brevity, saying: “O People! Where are you going to? What has been asked to be done by you? Allah guided you through us and He will end your ends with us too. If the early government is yours, the final power is ours. There will be no power after ours, because we are the people of the final and the final is for faithful believers.”

The Imam (as) in his short lecture about the position of Ahl al-Bayt (as) guided the people about the fact that they were the guidance source for the nation during all its historical stages. Their grandfather, the master of all Prophets (peace be upon them all) was the torch of light and guidance, the one who saved humans from the superstition of the ignorance period and customs.

Nevertheless in the final stage of the history of his nation, Allah (SwT) will send Mehdi (as) from the family of Prophet (S) to rebuild that which is destroyed from the religion and to return the power to Islam and the dignity to the believers.

The Lecture of the Imam (as) in Damascus

The people of Shaam crowded to see Imam Muhammad al-Baqir (as) while having a spiteful look at him, as their thoughts were filled with lies which were formed according to what the media propaganda had planned to depict Ahl al-Bayt (as) as the enemy of Islam and that the Umayyad Dynasty were the real supporters of Islam and Quran.

The Imam (as) wanted to guide them to the right path and to work on their minds to clean their enmity against the Ahl al-Bayt (as). Therefore he had a lecture in front of them. He started by praising the Prophet (S) and then he followed his lecture: “Keep away from the people of conflict, the hypocrisy monger, the carriers of fire and the wood of the hell. Instead join the shining moon, the infinite ocean, the brilliant star, the light of the believers and the guided path.”

Afterwards, he continued: “Do you mock at the friend of the Prophet (S), meaning the Leader of the Believers, Imam Ali, or you mock at the real jurisprudent of the religion? Where are you going to? What kind of sadness are you planning for yourselves? He became prominent as the early ones to believe. He won by superiority and reached the goal. That is why he left the government and people were humble in front of him. He reached the top. It is an apparent lie that one could reach his level.”

Then he added: “Who can reach the level of the brother of the Prophet during interceding for people on the Resurrection Day? Who can be the cousin of the Prophet if we want to consider his relationship? Who can be in the Prophet’s bed when the enemies wanted to kill him at night? Who can be the gate of science as the Prophet once said about him? Who can pray towards the couple of Qiblas? Who can be the mean of faith when atheism is prevalent?”

It seems that these phrases are different parts of the lecture and not the complete transcript. Anyway, these phrases talk about the values of Ahl al-Bayt (as) and their superiorities.

Arresting the Imam (as)

When everyone in Shaam knew about the superiority of the Imam (as), the brutal king feared and ordered to arrest the Imam (as). The prisoners gathered around the Imam (as) and started to take from his knowledge. The head of the prison feared a riot, therefore he informed Husham about the case. Husham in turn ordered to free the Imam (as) and return him to Yathrib.

Closing the Shops in the Way of the Imam (as)

Husham instructed to have Imam abi Jafar (as) and his son Imam al-Sadiq (as) out of Damascus fearing the attraction of people with their manners. He also commanded the shops and selling centres to shut their doors in the way of the Imam (as) and not to sell anything to him. He aimed at killing the Imam (as) through this way.

The caravan of the Imam (as) went on, but the starvation and thirst put them under pressure. They passed some of the cities, but all the shops were closed in their path as soon as they arrived to any city. When the Imam (as) saw this, he went up a mountain and said the following in a very loud voice: “O the people of the city! I am the witness of Allah on you! Allah, the Almighty, said: ‘That which is left you by Allah is best for you, if ye (but) believed! But I am not set over you to keep watch!’ (11:86)”

When the Imam (as) finished his statements, an old man from the leaders of the city spoke in a loud voice, saying: “O Men! His call is indeed the call of Shoayb. I swear by Allah that if you do not come to this man, opening your shops, you will be dealt from the above and from the below (by the punishment). Believe me this time and obey me but not in future if you like. I am an adviser for you.” The people of the village were frightened. Thus they hurried opening their stores and the Imam (as) bought what he deeded from stuff and this way the plot of Husham against the Imam (as) was spoiled.

The Revolution of Zayd

The Revolution of Zayd was among the unforgettable revolutions in the history of Islam. It aimed at overcoming the social cruelty, disasters and saving the believers from the Umayyad’s governmental scandals.

Zayd revived the soul of Islam inside the body of the religion of the people. He saw the wrongs living, the honest lying and the devotion not for the sake of Allah (SwT). He found cruelty prevalent and brutality everywhere against the believers. He could not bear silence anymore. Some of his followers said that they once went out with him towards Mecca. At midnight, when stars were in the sky shining, he said: “Do you see that star? Can anyone reach it?”

They said: “No!”

He then said: “I swear by Allah that if I was made to stick to that star and thrown from there on to the earth, irrespective of where to fall, and to be divided to pieces, on condition that the nation of Muhammad is reformed, I will be happy.”

Did you see this reformist look and the self-sacrifice nature of this man for the sake of freeing the believers from the cruelty and brutality of the rulers?

Isa ibn Abdullah narrated from his grandfather Muhammad ibn Umar ibn Ali, saying: “I was with Zayd ibn Ali, when Husham sent us to Yousif ibn Umar.

When we left him and were about to reach al-Qadeseeyeh, Zayd said: “Separate my stuff from yours.” His son said: “What are you going to do?” He replied: “I want to return to Kufah. I swear by Allah that if I knew that Allah would be satisfied with me if I lighted fire on my hand until it is burnt, I would do this. But I know nothing better than Jihad against the Umayyad Dynasty.”“

Zayd did not start his revolution to grasp power or kingdom. He aimed at satisfying Allah (SwT) and for the sake of the Hereafter. He said the following to Jabir ibn Yazeen al-Jafee: “O Jabir! I cannot bear keeping silence any longer! The Book of Allah was disobeyed and the power of the tyrant is prevalent. I saw Husham with another man who was cursing the Prophet in front of him.

“I said the following to the one who cursed: Woe to you! You infidel! If I had the power, I would not let you live and I would take your soul out of your body and would send you to Hell. Then Husham said: ‘Do not talk that way with our guest.’ I swear by Allah if I had not been alone with Yahya, my son, I would have fought him until I am dead.”

The brutal king wanted to low Zayd and to bring low his dignity. But Zayd faced him with the ultimate bravery without considering his power and caliphate. He said the following to him: “Hello, you squint-eyed! You will find yourself deserve that name.” Then he left there and decided on the revolution.

He used to say: “There is not a group of people who hate defending themselves by fighting, unless they are kept low.” He went on towards Kufah to take it as a base for his revolution in the fight. His companions advised him not to go to Kufah because of the reputation of the people of Kufah with betrayal and perfidy, but he did not pay attention to those advices.

He was such a brave that did not fear his life. He was mocking at death and stepped bravely towards it. He did not want to live low. He was the grandson of Imam Husayn (as), the master of the free and the revolutionaries in the Islamic world.

As soon as he reached Kufah the people of Kufah rushed to receive him and to pledge allegiance to stay with him. The call was announced to be for regaining the power of the Book of Allah (SwT), the tradition of the His Prophet (S), fighting with the cruel, defending the poor and needy, distributing the resource among the people, sending back the tyrant and assisting the people of truth.

Zayd planned this revolution for the sake of having the above-mentioned goals and to free the people from the brutality and the Umayyad Dynasty and their unjust behaviours with the people. The number of those pledging allegiance reached four thousand. Therefore he thought to attack Kufah, fight the army there and to occupy the city and topple up the Umayyad power there.

His group set off from Jabanah Salim while hailing the name of their great leader alongside the following motto “O Allah! Let them down.” When Zayd saw the number of flag increased above his head, he said: “Thanks Allah who guided me. I swear by Allah that I was about to be ashamed from the Prophet (S) when I ran into him in the Paradise while not fulfilling my duty in commanding for the good.”

The war commenced in a night severely cold while just seven days remained from Moharam. The conflicts began and the armed army from the followers of Zayd and the Umayyad armies with the leadership of the ruler of Kufah, Yousif ibn Umar.

The Betrayal of the Koufis

The unfortunate thing was that the army of Zayd who were tens of thousands betrayed him and left him in the hard time with just a few of his sincere followers. When Zayd saw their betrayal, he said the following: “They have made it the same thing that they did with Husayn.” He meant that they followed the same thing that their forefathers did with his grandfather, the father of the free, Imam Husayn (as). Zayd with his few followers had a brave fight in the streets of Kufah and its avenues. He did his best there in a way that people remembered no one as brave as he was.

Passing Away

Zayd showed unique bravery beyond description. He went on pursuing the armies of the Umayyad Dynasty and forced them to bear severe damages.

O you! The great leader! You embraced death without ever glancing at humility and lowness. You died under the shadows of swords and spears respected and great. You have elevated the flag of Islam keeping it flapping. When the night came across, a betrayed spear rushed into Zayd’s forehead and reached his great brain, which did not think unless about the announcement of Human Rights and the removal of cruelty and brutality against the poor and needy.

The disaster happened to the follower of Zayd and they had to pass a very sad period full of grief. They fetched a physician, who took out the spear but he passed away. Here the glowing flame, which aimed at lighting up the way and elevating the measure of freedom and respect for the whole nation of the world, faded out.

The great leader who aimed at applying the social justice in the world reached martyrdom. His objective was to prepare equal opportunity in the world among the poor and those whose rights were deprived by the cruel Umayyad government. Anyway, the companions of Zayd tried to bury his body, but feared the infidel Umayyad Government to maim the corpse.

After discussing the case, they finally decided to bury him in the river. Therefore they stopped the water at a point, dug a grave and then put that pure body inside the grave. Afterwards they let the water to stream above the grave. The left the place while they were still having the memory of the great brave man, who tried helping people who had no one help, in their thoughts.

Among the companions of Zayd there were some spies, spying the movements and actions of the group. They soon went on towards the governor of Kufah and informed him about the place of burial. The governor ordered his officers to dig up the grave and pull out the poor body. They carried him to the palace. The governor ordered to hang him upside-down and behead him. The head was sent as a present to the cross-eyed of Umayyad family, Husham ibn Abd al-Malik. The tyrant Husham ordered to put the head in his gathering and ordered the whole people to kick the head with their shoes as a mocking.

Then Husham commanded to install the honourable head on the main gate of Damascus. Afterwards, he sent it to Medina and installed it close to the Mosque of the Prophet (S) one day and one night. Next, he sent it to Egypt. All these steps were carried out in order to frighten the people and to prove who is more powerful and to demonstrate that the government is able to handle and abolish every possible revolution and opposition.

Husham sent a letter to the governor of Kufah, telling him to keep the body hanged aiming at scorning the Alawi and mocking at their methodology. He forgot that this had lighted the fire of the revolution in the soul of the Shiite and increased their decisive manner to sacrifice for the sake of their principles.

The Burning of the Pure Corpse

The pure corpse was on top of the wood installed while it was lighting the way of freedom and respect for the people. It called people to disobey cruelty and to leave lowness. It gave them the message to prepare to revolt against cruelty and savagery. The government set guards for the body. The number was four hundred where each night there were one hundred guards. Nevertheless a building was constructed surrounding the corpse fearing the Shiite to steal the corpse and to bury it.

When Walid took over the power, he wrote to the governor of Kufah, Yousif ibn Umar, commanding him to bring down the pure corpse and to burn it with fire. The bloodthirsty governor obeyed the command and fired the holy body that aimed at clearing the world from the cruelty of the cruel and to have the lost freedom and respect back to people.

After firing the corpse, the butcher, Yousif ibn Umar, intentionally scattered the ashes of the corpse in the Euphrates River while saying: “You the people of Kufah! I’ll force you to eat from him in your meals and to drink him in your water.” Was this the reward of the Prophet (S) who freed his nation from the lowness of slavery and made them the masters of nations to see the Umayyad Dynasty killing his offspring and maiming their corpse without any pretence except their will to free their people and distribute justice in the nation?

Imam al-Sadiq (as) and Zayd

Imam al-Sadiq (as) used to glorify his uncle Zayd and respect him a lot. Among the examples of respecting him was that he used hold the stirrup for him to get on the horse and then to make up his clothes on the top of the horse.

He said the following to Muhammad ibn Salim: “Did you see my uncle Zayd?”

He said: “Yes!”

“Did you see anyone in us similar to him?” The Imam (as) said.

“No!” Muhammad replied.

Then the Imam (as) said: “I do not think you’ll see anyone from us similar to him, ever.”

Zayd was among one the greatest people in Islam and a brilliant sheet in the sheets of Islamic history. He has no peer in the Prophetic family, which is among the most honourable families in the Islamic countries.

Imam al-Sadiq (as) glorified the revolution of his uncle Zayd and said the following to his followers: “Do not say, Zayd was out of the circle of Islam. Zayd was an honest scholar. He did not call you to himself, instead he called you towards the satisfaction from the offspring of the Muhammad (S) and if he was there, he could prove what he had promised you.”

This was the confession of the Imam al-Sadiq (as) about the revolution of the Zayd and confirming its religious nature. He had also given Abd al-Rahman one thousand dinars and ordered him to distribute this money among the family of those who were injured or killed with Zayd.

It was from the ignorance of the Umayyad Dynasty to feel proud of the hanging of the corpse of Zayd. One of the evil agents enjoyed this happening. He was al-Hakim ibn Ayash who said the following:

“We hanged your Zayd on top a date trunk

While we have not seen a guided person hanged on date truck

You ignorantly compared Uthman and Ali

But Uthman is far better and more pleasant than Ali”

Zayd’s body was hanged on top of a date trunk because of his support from the poor and the oppressed. The Umayyad Dynasty had made the whole country as a farm in order to enslave all the believers and to force them to do what they hate. When he was informed about this poetry he was hardly sad.

He raised his hands up and said the following: “O Allah! If your salve was lying, please set up your dog against him.” Allah, the Almighty, responded the request of the Imam (as). A loin attacked him while was passing in the avenues of Kufah. When the Imam was informed about this news, he thanked Allah for responding his call, saying: “O Thanks for Allah who fulfilled His promise.”

Imam al-Sadiq (as) and the rest of the Prophetic family were sad about the martyrdom of Zayd as he was a great Islamic scholar and from the masters of the Ahl al-Bayt (as). He made the whole Islamic country feel of change. His martyrdom and burning his corpse was among the horrible deeds that shocked the hearts.

Al-Yaqubee said: “When Zayd was killed, the Shiite moved towards Khurasan and made the opposition apparent. The number of people who came to them increased and people’s tendency towards them became higher. They started telling the people about the evil deeds of Umayyad Dynasty and the way they used to treat the family of the Prophet (S). This process continued until there was no region unaware of this brutal action. The callers appeared; the dreams were seen; and the heroic stories were studied.”

The Death of Husham

Husham became ill which resulted in his death. When he was about to die, his sons were around him weeping. When he saw them in his situation, he said: “Husham had given you the wealth of the worldly life; you are giving him your weeps and leaving you what he gathered and you are leaving him with what he did. O How dreadful the destiny of Husham is, if Allah does not forgive him.” He died on Rabee al-Thanee (125 A.H.) while he was fifty-three years old. He governed for nineteen years, nine months.

The Government of al-Walid ibn Yazid

The kingdom reached to Walid ibn Yazid after Husham. He was pledged allegiance to gain the caliphate while he was not in Damascus. He was actually outside the city. Regarding his personal attributes, he was ignorant to the extent that word bears the meaning. All the historians had the same idea about him. They all say that he mocked at religion. In addition to that he was known for his wine drinking. Ibn Asaakir said: “He was exhausted in drinking wine and following his low desires.”

He then added: “There was no one in the Umayyad Dynasty who is more habituated to wine and unprincipled deeds than him. He had intercourse with one of his maids and callers to prayer came to inform him about it. He swore that he would not pray unless she did. She wore her dress and prayed while she was not pure and not having ablution. Husham used to blame his deeds and he once said: I really do not know whether you are a Muslim or not; you had left nothing evil undone and uncommitted.”

Once Husham was angry with his son, who was called Abu Shakir, and said the following to him: “You are going to look like al-Walid ibn Yazid, while I want to make you eligible to caliphate. So stop following your prostitution and you are your religious manner.”

News came about the infidelity of Walid as he constructed a dome in the size of Kabah and aimed at installing it there above the rooftop of Kabah in order to sit there with his followers and to bring wine and the rest of tools for his pleasures as well as committing other similar things. But when he reached Mecca, he feared the anger of the people and ignored his idea.

He did not stay long until he was killed in the worst possible way. His head was hanged on top of his Palace and then on the highest fences in his country. It is worth mentioning that the preachers of the Abbasidd Dynasty seized the opportunity of the corruption of Walid to pave the way for overwhelming the Umayyad Dynasty and gaining power.

The Government of Yazid ibn al-Walid

He took over the government after the murder of his cousin al-Walid. He was the first one of the kings of the kings of Umayyad Dynasty who was attributed and named with deficiency. He was named so, because he had got the least of the people’s. He returned them to what they were at the era of Husham. He did not last long and was only in power for just five and a half months. Then he died. He did not have any conflict with Imam al-Sadiq (as) nor did he apply any pressure on him. Therefore the Imam (as) was delivering his lectures freely with the entire freedom.

The Government of Ibrahim ibn al-Walid

He was promised to take power by his brother Yazid ibn al-Walid, but there was no firm decision about this. His brother once greeted him during the Friday Prayer as the next caliph, in another Friday Prayer he greeted him as a ruler of a region, and in another Friday Prayer he greeted him with neither caliphate nor governance. The affairs of the nation were in a huge mess. The duration of his government lasted just two months and ten days and it came to end when Marwan ibn Muhammad killed him.

The Government of Marwan ibn Muhammad

He was among the last kings of the Umayyad Dynasty and among the firmest one in taking decisions. He took over the power in a situation when riots were everywhere and fights were prevalent everywhere in every region of the Islamic country. A conflict came to an end in one region while another region was being under the heavy mess of another conflict. The government did whatever it could do. Its military and financial foundations were weak.

Ibn al-Walid asked the Umayyad Dynasty to survive and last as well as modified their strategy before it would be late and before the collapse of the dynasty. Anyway, the collapse of the Umayyad Dynasty came about to be inevitable. That was because of the weaknesses and defects as well as the rise of regional revolutions, which left no national interest and support for them.

Alawi Preachers

The Alawi preachers were doing their business with absolute freedom in all parts of the Islamic country, asking people to seek the satisfaction of the Allah from the Family of Muhammad (S). The methods used for having this call were the following:

Does anyone of you have any doubt that Allah, the Almighty, sent Muhammad and purified him?

No!

Do you have doubt that Allah descends his Book, which talked about what is legal and what is illegal as well as the rest of the instructions?

Nay!

Do you think that his traditions are with groups other than his family?

No!

Do you have any doubt that Ahl al-Bayt are the mine of knowledge and the owners of the heritage of the Prophet (S) who was taught by the Lord?

No!

This call reached the hearts and the people responded to this call with all eagerness and warmness to the responsibility of the Ahl al-Bayt (as). Among the preachers was al-Mansur al-Dawaneeqi, who was travelling to rural areas and talked about the superiority of Ahl al-Bayt (as). The believers felt secure with this call and considered it a principle foundation for their progress as well as their freedom from the cruelty and savagery of the Umayyad Dynasty.

Al-Abwa Conference

The Hashimies formed a meeting in al-Abwa and talked about the preaching affairs as well as appointing the caliph from the attendants. The following were in the meeting: Ibrahim al-Imam, al-Safah, al-Mansur, Salih ibn Ali, Abdullah ibn al-Hasan and his sons, Muhammad and Ibrahim, and Muhammad ibn Abdullah ibn Amr as well as others. Salih ibn Ali stood up as lecturer, saying: “You are group that people’s eyes are now looking at you. Allah has gathered you in his position. Therefore, agree on appointing one. Ask Allah to bring victory for you and help you.”

Abu Jafar al-Mansur went on confirming what Salih just said by saying: “Why are you cheating yourselves. I swear by Allah that every one of you know that people are interested eagerly in this young man, pointing to Muhammad ibn Abdullah ibn al-Hasan.” The audience went on saying: “You are right! We know that.”

Then, they all stood up and went to shake hand with Muhammad. Ibrahim al-Imam, al-Mansur, al-Sahfah and the rest of the attendants shook hand with Muhammad pledging allegiance to be with him. The Abbasidd Dynasty did not keep to their promise. The broke what they pledged and went on hiding themselves and informed their preachers about this and advised them to keep this hidden because of their fear from the revolution of the Alawis. They feared the response of the people, as they did not have a strong social foundation. They did not have a brilliant history.

Anyway, the Abbasidd Dynasty used to point to the Alawis in order to gain the confidence and trust of the nation. They also wanted to have the friendship of the Alawis.

Choosing Abi Muslim

Ibrahim al-Imam, the head of the Abbasidd family chose his slave aba Muslim al-Khurasani to the general leader for the revolution’s movement and he forced the callers and the Shiites to obey him. He wrote the following to the Shiite in Kufah and Khurasan: “I have commanded aba Muslim with my command. Listen to him and obey him. I appointed him on Khurasan and the rest of reachable places.”

Umar ibn Abu Muslim was nineteen years old. He was awake, betrayer without the sense of mercy and kindness. He was among the most thoughtful politicians in plotting. All were astonished for choosing Abu Muslim for this dangerous position due to his young age and the lack of enough experience. Some of the preachers refused to obey his commands, but Ibrahim al-Imam forced them to obey. Some historians said: “Abu Muslim murdered everyone who opposed him in process of electing him.”

The Advices of Ibrahim to Abi Muslim

Ibrahim al-Imam advises his slave the following deadly advices, which contradicted the religion of Allah (SwT). The following had come to it: “O Abd al- Rahman! You are from us. Therefore keep my advices in your heart. Look at this part of Yemen and be generous with them and try to be among them. Allah does not allow a progress in a task unless with their participation.

“Look at that region in Robayea and be suspicious about them. Look at that region in Modhar and consider them as enemies close to your house’s door. Kill those whom you feel suspicious about and those whom you feel bad about. If you could, do not let anyone to speak Arabic in Khurasan and do not let anyone to grow up and create danger for you.”

These advices form malicious advices and did not pay attention to the protection of blood, something the Islam has the most care and attention about.

Abu Muslim adhered to the advices of his leader. He went on heavily in creating bloodshed and committing sins. Historians said: “He had killed sixty thousands Arab with sword irrespective of those killed in war.”

In Khurasan

When Abu Muslim became the candidate of military leadership from Ibrahim al-Imam, he hurried to Khurasan in order to lead the nation for fighting the Umayyad Dynasty. As soon as he reached there, he delivered a lecture to the preachers, saying the following: “Feel the courage deep inside your heart as it’s a mean to success; increase talking about hatred as it encourages for action; and force people to obey as it the tool for gaining victory in wars.”

These advices convey his military experience. He asked for action and increasing the talk about hatred as well as forcing people to adhere to the commands. There were among the most important factors for victory and overcoming the enemies. Abu Muslim went on arranging the movement in a very excellent and precise manner. He was depicting the corruption of the Umayyad Dynasty and their cruelty and brutality.

He talked about the way of distributing justice and comfort among the people. The nation responded to this call and gathered around him. This way the first steps of the appearance of the Abbasidd army formed. One of his military skills was his usage of the hardness nature of the two tribes (al-Yemen and Modhar). He went on taking this enmity in order to feed for his own purpose. Whenever they were about to unite against him, he motivated one tribe against the other. This way he used to keep them busy from opposing him.

Nasr ibn Sayyar

Nasr ibn Sayyar was among the strongest Umayyad rulers and among the most thoughtful ones for the events. He saw that the army of Abu Muslim had the capability that might make it capable of collapsing the Umayyad Dynasty. Therefore he wrote to the ruler of Shaam, Marwan ibn Muhammad, a motivating letter asking him to help by sending additional troops to face Abu Muslim.

Marwan was not able to fulfil his request. Therefore he wrote to him informing him about his weakness and his inability to prevent the overgrowing victories of the recent riots.

In an another letter, he wrote to the ruler of Iraq, Umar ibn Hobayra, asking him to provide him with troops for opposing the attacks of Abu Muslim, but he got a reply telling him that there are no men to send.

Nasr thought that sending letter to both al-Kermanee and Sheeban al-Khareji might help out.

But neither of the letters of Nasr nor his motivating poems could be of any help in controlling the problem. The borders of the revolution expanded and surrounded all parts of Khurasan and it was finally defeated by Abu Muslim’s troops. He appointed a ruler there from himself and expressed his joy and happiness over this victory.

The troops of the occupiers went everywhere gaining control of the entire parts as well as damaging the wealth and lives. Nasr could not survive among that heavy power. Thus he decided to escape and leave the place. He departed the city and set off towards the path between the two cities, Ray and Hamedan, but he died from sadness and gloominess.

After occupying Khurasan and the region surrounding the city, Abu Muslim directed towards Iraq to occupy it too. His troops followed him as waves, waving the back flags, which were the symbol of the Abbasidd Dynasty. Therefore they could occupy Iraq without having to face any opposition. The Abbasidd Dynasty could then gain its reputation by Abu Muslim.

The Stand of Imam al-Sadiq (as)

Imam al-Sadiq (as) was distinguished in these affairs with neutrality as well as not getting into any political activities. He knew about the possible failure and the feasibility of even more damages to the people that might lead the society towards more riots and disasters. The Imam (as) had got that stand with the Alawis as well as the preachers of the Abbasidd Dynasty.

The Imam (as) with the Alawis

Imam al-Sadiq (as) knew that the power had to reach the Abbasidd Dynasty after the collapse of the Umayyad Dynasty and not that of Alawis. He used to advise them not to go after gaining rule and power. Historians mentioned plenty of advices mentioned by the Imam (as) to his cousins from opposing the Abbasidd.

According to what historians said, the Alawis and the Abbasidd, during the caliphate of the Umayyad Dynasty, agreed to appoint Muhammad and they asked Imam al-Sadiq (as) about this. He rejected that plan and said: “Do not do that! The time has not come yet.”

Abdullah ibn al-Hasan thought that this was because of the Imam (as) envying that for his son. When the Imam (as) knew about this, he looked at him with pity and kindness and discovered that he had no idea about, saying: “No! I swear by Allah that it is not that, of envy. But those, pointing to Abil-Abbas al-Saffah, his brothers and sons, would plan to get rid of you.” Then the Imam (as) stood up impressed. Abd al-Samad and Abu Jafar al-Mansur followed him, saying: “O Abu Abdullah! Do you really say this?” He said: “I swear by Allah! Yes! And I know this!”

He was completely sure without any doubt that the government will be that of the Abbasidd Dynasty and not that of the Alawis. He even went on more than enough to advise Abdullah ibn al-Hasan not to get involved in the caliphate. He said the same about his son. Among what he said was the following: “I swear by Allah that it, the caliphate, is not yours and neither that of your son, but it is theirs, pointing to the bani Abbas, and that your sons will be dead.”

This knowledge is derived from the knowledge of the Prophet (S) as they are his offspring, the heir of his knowledge and wisdom and the Prophet’s (S) secrets keeper. The Imam (as) talked with his cousins and told them about their rescue route. He informed them that they would not get what they thought about and that if they followed it, they would throw themselves as well as the people in trouble and disasters.

They faced plenty of problems from those cruel rulers, who did not leave any mean for hurting them. They, therefore, went on the Jihad’s fields freely and died respectably under the sharpness of the swords. We will talk about their revolution later in the book.

With Abi Salmah

When the Umayyad Dynasty was about to be collapsed under the heavy thud of the Abbasidd troops, Abu Salmah, who was titled as the minister of the family of Muhammad (S), thought to deliver the power to the Alawis. Irrespective of its helping or cheating nature, he wrote to the following three: Imam al-Sadiq (as), Abdullah ibn al-Mahadh, and Umar al-Ashraf ibn al-Imam Zayn al-Abidin. He handed in his letters to one of their followers, who was about to leave for Kufah and advised him with the following: “Firstly, meet Jafar ibn Muhammad al-Sadiq. If he accepted the idea, cancel the other two letters, otherwise go and meet Abdullah ibn al-Mahadh. If he agreed then cancel the letter of Umar al-Ashraf. But if he does not agree then meet Umar’”

The messenger set off until he reached Yathrib and went to visit Imam al-Sadiq (as). He handed in the letter. The Imam (as) got the letter and started reading it. After reading the letter, he turned to the messenger and said: “What is the relation between me and Abu Salmah while he follows someone other than me.”

The messenger went on asking the Imam (as): “Read the letter and give whatever response you want.”

The Imam (as) said the following to his servant: “Bring the light closer.” When the servant brought the light closer, the Imam (as) put the letter above the light until it was burnt.

The messenger said: “Aren’t you going to give a reply.”

The Imam (as) responded: “You have already seen the response.”

The messenger left the Imam (as) disappointed and went out to see Abdullah ibn al-Hasan and handed over the letter. He read the letter and was glad. The next day, he went towards the house of Imam al-Sadiq (as). The Imam (as) received him with respect and hospitality and told him: “O Muhammad! What did make you come here?”

He replied: “It is beyond description.”

The Imam (as) asked: “What is it?”

He said: “It is the letter of abi Salmah asking me to be the caliph and that our followers from Khurasan set off towards us.”

The Imam (as) looked at him with kindness and pity and delivered him an advice while believing that it is pointless. He said: “O Aba Muhammad! When and how the people of Khurasan were among your followers? Did you send aba Muslim to Khurasan? Did you ask them to wear black? Have you ever met or known anyone of them or seen anyone’s face? So how can they be your followers and you know nothing about them and neither do they?”

The Imam (as) had clarified the stance and talked with the language of logic and mindfulness, but Abdullah went on arguing with reasons, which were weaker than the house of spider. The Imam (as) interrupted his speech and said: “Allah taught us to give the advice to all believers. So how can I deprive you from that? Do not cheat yourself with falsity. This government will be that of theirs, meaning bani al-Abbas. I have received a letter similar to the one that you received now.”

The Imam (as) disclosed another brilliant fact of future that Abdullah had no idea about. It was the destiny of the caliphate, which would be the Abbasidd. The opposition did not move forwards and after a short while, the event happened according to what the Imam (as) had predicted.

Anyway the refusal of the Imam (as) for the request of abi Salmah carried the originality and the depth of the Imam (as) regarding the events of those days. The call of abi Salmah, if he was really decisive at it, does not necessarily show this belief in the Alawis for the caliphate, but instead it originated from other motivators such as the possibility of losing his personal benefits and privileges.

Why did he not correspond to them before that date when the priority was not with the Abbasid? In addition to that, the troops of the Abbasid’s were not loyal to the Alawis, but they were loyal to bani Abbas. So, how could the Imam (as) accept this request with all these warning signs? What did Abdullah ibn al-Hasan obtain by accepting his deal, except the disaster that affected him and his family?

The plan of abi Salmah was not hidden for the Abbasid, as they were spying him and all his actions were controlled and reported to the Abbasidd leaders. Al-Saffah and his brother al-Mansour agreed that al-Mansour should go to visit Abu Muslim and to inform him about the issues related to abi Salmah and ask him to assassinate him. Therefore al-Mansour went out and met Abu Muslim and informed him about their idea in the assassination of abi Salmah.

Abu Muslim said: “Do that and I will reward you.” Then he asked one of the leaders, Merar ibn Anas al-Dhabee, and told him: “Set off towards al-Kufah and kill aba Salmah wherever you find him.” He left there aiming at al-Kufah with a number of his soldiers. Abi Salamah was spending the night with al-Saffah who claimed the forgiveness and satisfaction of the Abbasidd Dynasty. Merar hid with his soldier in the way of abi Salmah. When he left al-Saffah, he murdered him. Then, they claimed that he was killed by the opposition. This way, the issue of abi Salmah, who was among the striking Abbasidd leaders, came to an end.

Abi Muslim Regretted

The reality of the Abbasidd became clear for Abu Muslim and he believed that they had no loyalty in the same way that the Umayyad did not have. They failed to show any attribute that one can respect. Abu Muslim wrote a letter to Imam al-Sadiq (as). The following was among what was written in the letter: “I disclosed the true statements, and asked people to leave their supports for the Umayyad Dynasty and to join Ahl al-Bayt (as). If you intend to join us, you are welcome…”

The Imam (as) sent him a reply, which can be described as the symbol of wisdom and insight for the reality of the affairs. The following was part of that response: “You are not among my men, and it is not my time…”

How can Abu Muslim who shed the blood of the believers be among the men of Imam Abu Abdullah (as). The men and companions of the Imam (as) were very cautious in the religion. They applied their belief in Allah, the Almighty, in everything. Whatever services Abu Muslim, as the founder of the Abbasidd, made for them, he could not escape from the malice of al-Mansour and he was finally assassinated. We’ll talk about his assassination in the consequent topics.

The End of the Umayyad Dynasty

Allah’s (SwT) will was to have the collapse of the Umayyad Dynasty, which people suffered a lot from its cruelty and savagery. When Abu Abbas al-Saffah took over the power, he sent his armed troops who were led by Muhammad ibn Abdullah ibn Ali to fight the Umayyad governor, Marwan al-Hemar. Abdullah continued his way to occupy the desert with his great army.

The troops met at al-Zab close to al-Musel. The flags of the Abbasidd were carried out by people on top of camels. He used the woods of willow to make them. When Marwan saw them, he was frightened and said the following to those who were around him: “Can you see their spears? It seems that they are as thick as a date tree; look at their flag on that camel! They seem to part of black cloud…”

When he was looking there and his heart was coming out from fear, a group of ravens started flying on top of the frontline of the troops of Abdullah ibn Ali and joined the black flag. There became darker than a night. Marwan feared more. There he started looking sadder and said the following disappointedly: “Did you see the darkness which joined the darkness and it became as an intense dark cloud.”

Marwan’s heart was about to get out because of fear that surrounded him. He said the following to the people who were around him: “Is there anyone introducing the leader of the people?”

One replied: “He is Abdullah ibn Ali ibn al-Abbas ibn Abdul Motalib.”

Marwan was shocked and said: “Is he from the sons of al-Abbas?”

“Yes,” he replied. Marwan then believed about his death and the collapse of his kingdom. Then he said the following with lowness: “I wish I had Ali ibn Abu Talib in his place.”

He wished that the leader and the conqueror was the Leader of the Believers in order to be able to face him with forgiveness and kindness and to ask him for the forgiveness of what they have had as bad deeds against Ahl al-Bayt (as). The man who was with him did not understand what he said. Therefore he went on saying: “Do you compare this man with Ali in his bravery?!”

Marwan responded to that doubt and clarified what he had said earlier: “Ali, with all his bravery, has religion. Religion is something other than king. We are narrating from our past and we know that Ali and his offspring have nothing of this nature at all.”

Anyway, the fight that the great Imams (as) talked about ended the government of the Umayyad Dynasty. They knew about their collapse, but the kingdom will not be that of the Alawis but it will be that of other’s. The severe fight started between the troops of the both parties and finally the Umayyad troops were fiercely defeated and Marwan escaped.

He and some of his followers who lost their dignity and power escaped towards al-Mousel, but the people there did not allow him to enter their city, because they feared the anger of the Abbasidd army. Therefore he set off towards Harran, but could not stay there because of the fear of the arrival of the Abbasidd troops, he directed towards the city of Hams while the Abbasidd troops were pursuing him.

Thus he faced towards Damascus, when he approached there and wanted to ask its governor for help, but he could not because of the lack of time and the Abbasidd troops were behind him. Then he crept towards Jordan, but he found it already occupied by the Abbasid. So, he left it and reached Palestine. At the time the Abbasidd troops reached Damascus and took it under their control.

Marwan feared and left his makeshift residence aiming at Egypt. He stopped by a village called Bouseer and stayed in a church which was inside the village. A group of the Abbasidd troops reached him without letting him know. There was a severe fight there between the two sides and Marwan was killed there.

A man from al-Kufah beheaded him and took off his tongue, but a cat suddenly came over and grabbed the tongue. A man who was there at that time, said: “If there were nothing strange here in this world, it would be considered indeed strange to see the tongue of Marwan in the mouth of a cat.”

This way, the Umayyad Dynasty, which filled people’s lives with disasters and forced them to taste various kinds of brutality, had come to an end. Allah (SwT) had taken His revenge to the most extent possible and had their kingdom collapsed. He, the Almighty, wrote the disgrace, shame and dishonour for them throughout history.

The head of Marwan was carried over for abel-Abbas al-Saffah. When he saw then he prostrated and lasted his prostration for a long time. Then he raised his head and said: “Praise to Allah who did not leave out revenge in you! Thanks Allah who granted us the victory over you and let us overwhelm you! I do not care when I die. You have killed thousands of bani Umayyad because of the murder of al-Husayn. I have burnt the heart of Husham because of the heart of my cosine, Zayd was burnt.”

Then he turned to the audience of his meeting and said the following with happiness while expressing his joy: “Marwan was killed because of my brother Ibrahim; we killed the rest of the Umayyad followers because of Husayn and his companions and the others from the offspring of abi Talib.”

This way the kingdom of bani Abbas was founded and al-Saffah had become the king of the believers in all their regions.

The Umayyad Escaped

When the Umayyad Dynasty, the rest of the Umayyad followers were thrown on their faces, being pursued by fear and horror. Among the escapees were Abdullah and Ubaydullah, the sons of Marwan. With them, there was a group of their relatives and followers. The moved towards al-Nowba and they were welcomed warmly. They asked for being refugees there, but the ruler feared the revenge of the Abbasidd government.

Therefore they left that place with terror until approaching Jawa. There were attacked severely there. The attack forced them to escape to Yemen. There they ran into a two-way path with a mountain in the middle. Each one followed a path, imagining that they would meet about an hour. They walked throughout the day feeling the hunger, but they could not meet one another. They walked days and days.

Ubaydullah accidentally collide with a troop in al-Habasha. They fought and Ubaydullah was defeated and his followers were arrested. The troop robbed what they had and left them barefooted and naked until they died from thirst. They pursued Abdullah ibn Marwan who suffered much more than what his brother had to bear.

They finally approached al-Mandab and stayed there for a month. The people there collected some kinds of stuffs for them and then they aimed at Mecca while they wore the cloths of porters. Allah (SwT) poured this tough punishment on them and made them among the greatest lessons for the cruel and the enemies of the nations.

Genocide

Abbasidd governors aimed at intentionally hurting them totally. They had a kind of genocide of everyone who carried the name of the Umayyad everywhere. Sulayman ibn Ali in Basrah murdered a group of the Umayyad and then he ordered to carry them with their legs in roads until they were eaten by dogs.

Dawoud ibn Ali also killed a group of the Umayyad in Mecca and Medina.

The Abbasidd pursued the Umayyad and they killed whoever they could reach without having any court in order to empower their kingdom and for considering the emotions of the citizens who suffered a lot from the Umayyad government.

The Stance of Imam al-Sadiq (as)

Imam al-Sadiq (as) had an honourable stance towards the Umayyad and he was demonstrating the high personality of the Imams (as) by criticising the genocide. He also asked al-Saffah to prevent this kind of murder after getting the power from them in their control. Al-Saffah was astonished from the stance of the Imam (as) regarding his worst enemy who applied the worst kinds of cruelty.

Al-Saffah did not know that the Imam (as), who was the fruit of the Prophetic tree, was far away from gloating over other’s grief. He was the source of kind-heartedness, mercy and benevolence.

The General Policy of the Umayyad

Before leaving the discussion about the Umayyad government, we will present a brief introduction about their general policy, which was followed throughout most of their kingdom. This was what in turn led to the collapse of their Dynasty.

The Umayyad policy was built on applying corruption to the holy principles of the nation as well as distributing ignorance, lie, hypocrisy and opposing social reform. The blood of anyone facing that policy would be shed and his name would be prohibited to be talked about.

Enmity over Ahl al-Bayt (as)

Among the most important Umayyad policy was the enmity towards the family of the Prophet (S) and persuading the believers to have hatred towards them. The Umayyad governors intentionally worked at wiping out the members of the family of the Prophet (S) and making them suffer.

Muawiyah poisoned the grandson of the Prophet (S) and the youth of the martyrs in the Heaven. He forced the believers to curse the Leader of the Believers (Imam Ali (as)), in lectures and sermons publicly as well as forged traditions and attributed them to Imam Ali (as), who was like a brother to the Prophet (S) and was the gate of his knowledge.

After Muawiyah, his son, Yazid, committed many sins against the family of the Prophet (S). He murdered the other grandson of the Prophet (S), Imam Husayn (as) with other respected people from his family and companions in Karbala. This happening shocked the conscience of people wherever they were from in a way that they thought of taking revenge. Among those revolutions were the revolutions of Media, that of the Tawwabeen and the revolution of al-Mukhtar which happened because of the disaster of Karbala.

Also, the tyrant, Husham ibn Abd al-Malik murdered the elevated martyr Zayd ibn Ali ibn al-Husayn and his son, while having him hanged on the trunk of a date tree and then after burning his corpse, threw it into the Euphrates river. In addition to that they kept the body of Yahya ibn Zayd hanged until the Abu Muslim al-Khurasani came and buried the body.

Nevertheless, there were also many physical assassinations of top Shiite including Hajr ibn Oday, Rasheed al-Hejree, Maytham al-Tammar and others. This torn policy resulted in the emergence of a revolution against the Umayyad Dynasty and the victory of Ahl al-Bayt (as) and asking for the revenge and the collapse of that dark dynasty.

Scoring the Nation

Among the methodological policy of the Umayyad Dynasty towards the nation was to keep them scorned. Yazid ibn Muawiyah, after the event of al-Harrah, took the people of Medina as his slaves. Ibn al-Aa, who was among the most influential people in the Umayyad Dynasty, said: “The grounds are the gardens of Quraysh.” This means that the grounds with its financial capabilities were the wealth of the Umayyad leaders and their followers, not that of the people who worked hard on their farms and grounds.

This was the logic of the Umayyad during throughout their existence in power. They did not consider any respect in anyone. Al-Walid ibn Yazid, the Umayyad, who was a poet, had a poem with the following meaning: The Umayyad followers did not take over the people’s will by their interest. They rather forced them to adhere to what they want. They led them with the power of sword and cruelty. They applied all sort of humiliations. This is a real description of Umayyad policy without exaggeration. This corrupted policy brought destruction and desolation and resulted in many public revolutions and in the springing of many people towards the fields of battle with the governmental organisations.

Scorning the Value and Principles

Among the striking cases in the Umayyad policy was the public scorn of values and principles. The first one who brought this rule was al-Muawiyah ibn Hend. He was the one who after announcing the agreement with Imam Hasan (as), publicly said the following in front of the crowded people: “I gave al-Hasan ibn Ali some promises. There they are, under my feet. I do not adhere to any one of those.” He, this way, showed the reality of his ignorant era, which was symbolised with betrayal and disloyalty.

Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan said: “I will behead anyone, who advises me with the belief in Allah.” This was an apparent example of scorning the values and principles, which was among the most striking attributes of the Umayyad governors. It was this evil behaviour that took them towards disasters and destruction.

Tribal Prejudice

The Umayyad governors, during the whole time of their governance, stuck to tribal prejudice, which was fought by Islam and which was considered as the most important tackles in front of the progress and the development of its lives. This was among the dams that stand against the evolvement and growth of modern and advanced thinking.

Dr. Taha Husayn said: “During the time of Umayyad Dynasty, they returned the same combats and attacks of the ignorant era.” As a result of those combats was the conflict between al-Yemenis and al-Qahtanies. The unity of those tribes was affected, while they were considered among the greatest and most influential citizens of the Saudi Arabia. Marwan ibn Muhammad, the last Umayyad caliph, tended towards al-Nazaries, which resulted in al-Yemenis to leave him and to join the call of the Abbasid.

Anyway, the tribal prejudice was given life again after their death in Islam. This brought many troubles for them and was among the most powerful and influential reasons behind the collapse of their government.

The Financial Policy

Regarding the financial policy, which was followed by the majority of the Umayyad kings, was based on gathering the wealth of the Islamic countries and robbing them while distributing poverty and misery. The Umayyad leaders allocated the wealth and great resources to themselves and all those who were attributed to them. They left the ghost of poverty surrounding every house of the houses of the believers.

Al-Namaree, a poet, clarified this in his poetry which was performed in front of Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan about what he and his people were suffering from as a result of the cruel policy, which deprived them from their earning and left nothing for them to spend their lives with. Al-Namaree in his poems demonstrated the severe cruelty and the unbearable disasters that surrounded the believers, who were praying Allah, day and night, performing their religious duties, and at the same time having to bear the lash of the cruel strategy on their backs, watching their wealth being robbed, being as birds whose wings were broken by arrows and struggling between life and death.

Hunger evacuated the power of the bodies and filled them instead with misery and distress. This all happened when they were generously spending the wealth on their prostitution, whoredom and whatever that corrupts behaviours.

Anyway, the Umayyad kings were stingy in dealing with people, robbing their wealth. They did not leave anyone, irrespective of his wealth, without overwhelming him. As far as I believe, the misled financial policy, which was followed by the Umayyad, was among the most important elements in forcing people towards revolutions that finally resulted in the collapse of their dynasty.

Before ending the talk about the Umayyad Dynasty, we would like to mention the detailed duration that Imam al-Sadiq (as) spent in the Umayyad Dynasty: three years at the time of the kingdom of Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan; nine years and eight months during the caliphate of al-Walid ibn Abd al-Malik; three years and three month during the government of Sulayman; two years and five months in the time of Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz; four years and a month during the government of al-Walid ibn Zayd; six months from the caliphate of Yazid ibn al-Walid and the rest was the era of Marwan ibn Muhammad until the end of their dynasty on 132 A.H.

Imam al-Sadiq (as), during this time, witnessed different kinds of cruelty and brutality that the Umayyad applied against the Alawis and their followers. He used to hear the curse against his grandfather, the Leader of the Believers, in religious lectures and sermons, in Friday Prayers and the rest of the ceremonies and any other formal gatherings. He used to see that some of the rulers of the Medina gathered the Alawis on Friday close to the tribune in order to force them to hear the curse against the Leader of the Believers, Imam Ali (as).

Anyway, the time that the Imam (as) lived during the Umayyad Dynasty was uneasy and disturbed. The souls became tired; blood was shed; security was damaged; and the people were severely in disagreement. These were all because of the non-functionality of the Umayyad policy. It was a policy that ruled people with a policy, which was away from awareness and mindfulness. Malik did not narrate anything from Imam al-Sadiq (as) until the case of bani al-Abbas became clear.

In the Era of al-Saffah and al-Mansour

No one could ever imagine that the government would be in the hands of the Abbasidd in the Islamic countries. Even no one of them could ever believe that they would be able to be kings of the believers. As they had no valuable service in any of the Islamic issues and they had never participated in any deed worth for the believers and their advantage.

They were neutral in any social reform as well as any national revolutions opposing the Umayyad government. They had no social position in the society and the believers used to look at them with doubt and caution, as some of them were spotted as betrayers in Islam, such as Ubaydullah ibn Abbas, the general leader of the troops, who betrayed Allah (SwT) and His Prophet (S).

He delivered the grandson of the Prophet (S), Imam Hasan (as) in to the hands of the enemy after being bribed by Muawiyah and fled at the darkness of the night accompanying the shamefulness and disgracefulness and joint Muawiyah after leaving the Iraqi troops with riot. He, this way, prepared the way for granting the power to Muawiyah to govern the believers.

In the final days of the Umayyad power, where the whole country was full of riots and violence, and all expected to see the collapse of the Umayyad Dynasty, no one of the Abbasidd introduced himself as a candidate for taking the role of a king as they knew people’s attentions were directed towards the Alawis, the preachers of social and political justice in Islam; those who sacrificed their own souls, as well as the offspring’s, for the sake of long term benefits of the nation.

Neither al-Saffah nor al-Mansour saw themselves eligible for this position. Therefore they pledged allegiance to Muhammad, the well known owner of pure soul as they were travelling here and there talking about the brutality and cruelty of the Umayyad governors against the family of the Prophet (S) and his family, aiming at motivating the nation against the Umayyad.

They present the case as it was going to be in the hands of the Alawis of the family of the Prophet (S). When this call came to be clear for abi Salmah, the revolutionary leader of the revolution, he tried to depose him from power, but he was accused of betrayal and al-Saffah aimed at killing him and therefore he was assassinated.

Anyway, the new Abbasidd government did not have a different conceptual and spiritual concept from that of the Umayyad. Thus after the Abbasidd toppled the Umayyad from power, they took over them and it could not be considered as something more than a military coup that resulted in the transfer of power from bani Umayya to bani Abbas and the transfer of capital from al-Sham to Iraq.

So, this just transferred the influence of one group to another, but the managerial and financial organisations of both the governments were not different in both of eras. What is apparent is that the cruelty and savagery of the Abbasidd was severer than the Umayyad. The believers, in the time of the Abbasidd Dynasty, were suffering severely from the dictatorship.

It was a government that did not have any kind of mercy on the people, and the government was just a tool at the hands of the governor to do whatever he thought proper to his own. Everything was in the governor’s hands: he appointed rulers, judges, ministers, leaders, high police officers and financial managers supervising the situation of the markets. He could also depose anyone according to his own will and desire.

The Islamic countries suffered a lot from poverty during the government of the Abbasidd Dynasty. The national treasury used to spend according to the desires of the Abbasidd kings and their wishes. They were highly gone in their desires and used to spend lavishly.

It was doubtless that the wealth used to be spent and enjoyed by the Abbasid, their families, ministers, top politicians, poets and artists who worked for them as well as scholars and scientists who were acting according to their wishes. It seemed that the people had to labour hard in order to provide what was necessary for the above-mentioned group.

Thus they had to feel the hunger, poverty, humidity, and labour. The result of all these labours would return to the Abbasidd governors who deprived the people from their rights and surrounded them with dictatorship and brutality. The time was passing and they were gathering the wealth on top of wealth. Finally there were just two groups, one was enjoying all the pleasures and fun and the other group did not know how to spend their life. We will talk about this aspect of the financial life during the era of Imam al-Sadiq (as) and will get back to the time of al-Saffah and al-Mansour’s government.

The Government of al-Saffah

Al-Saffah took over the leadership of the Islamic country after stealing it from the Alawis. He went towards the great mosque of al-Kufah and performed his prayer there. Then he went up the platform while he was a bit sick and said the following: “O the People of al-Kufah! You are the people who house our kindness and mercy. You are the people who will change in this regard. They could not keep you away from your habit until you are here watching this era and Allah has brought you this chance. You will be the luckiest people with us and the most generous for us. Here I will give you extra hundred Dirham. This is al-Saffah speaking with you’”

This ceremony involved admiring the people of al-Kufah and that they were the centre of their attention of mercy. They also claimed that they have suffered from the Umayyad the severest kinds of cruelty because of them. This was indeed a political lie, because the people of al-Kufah were known with their loyalty towards the Alawis. They bore a lot of problems and disasters because of them and the Abbasidd had nothing in the hearts of the people of al-Kufah and not any other Islamic country.

Anyway, Dawoud ibn Ali started his speech after al-Saffah, admiring bani al-Abbas and dispraising bani Umayyad. Among what he said was the following: “O People! I swear by Allah that we did not do this to increase our silver or gold, neither did we do this to dig a river, build palace, but we rose because they seized our rights and their anger over our cousin.

“We did not hate your affair, but your sad affairs burnt our hearts, while we were sitting and watching your struggles with the Umayyad and their behaviour in lowering you. We watched the manner in using your gathering, your wealth. You are responsible in front of Allah, to whom belongs Might and Majesty, His Prophet (S) and al-Abbas. We have to have our rule according to the Book of the Lord and to treat using the same traditions of the Prophet (S).”

Dawoud, in his speech, separated himself and his family from the worldly greediness and he considered the revenge in support of the Alawis and helping the people of al-Kufah who were under the suppression of the Umayyad governors as the main reasons behind their revolution. Allah (SwT) knows the untruth nature of these speeches.

The Abbasidd revolted because of obtaining the kingdom and government, not because of the people of al-Kufah. How it came for these kinds of people to think about the rights of the nation and its benefits. Anyway, Dawoud went on congratulating the people by granting them money and swearing that the Abbasidd rulers would bring back the political and social justice and whatever related to supporting the nation. But not after a long time, people knew about the wrong nature of these claims.

Then, afterwards, Aboul-Abbas al-Saffah came down from the platform with his uncle, Dawoud ibn Ali, and set off towards the palace of al-Emarah. Al-Mansour stayed there to get the people’s pledges in support of his brother and later on he prayed al-Maqrib and al-Esha prayers with them and stayed for a long time in that night.

The pledges for al-Saffah were on Friday, 12th of Rabee al-Awal (132 A.H.) and the people of al-Kufah attended the pledge gathering with lots of anxiety and worry as they were waiting for the Alawis to spread the justice, security and comfort. However, the wise people of al-Kufah and the rest of the Islamic regions condemned the pledge for al-Saffah and the jurisprudents from this group declared the irreligious nature of this pledge.

The Managerial System

The managerial system at the time of al-Saffah was not proper. He used his uncle, Dawoud ibn Ali, to govern Yathrib, Mecca, Yaman and al-Yamamih, while his uncle was a tough, hard-hearted person, who had no idea about kindness and mercy. He had delivered a cruel lecture in front of the people of Medina, full of warnings. Among what he said in his speech, was the following: “O people! You were given time, until you think that this extra time is ignorance. Woe to you! The use of lash is enough, and the sword is out.”

This talk showed his habit in committing sins and that he had no constraints because of religion. Therefore, instead of spreading the security and comfort among the citizens, as a governor, he faced them with his tough words, which carried the signs of death and destruction.

Dawoud was the one, who murdered al-Mualla ibn Khanees, who was among the brilliant Shiites and among the most sincere people towards Imam al-Sadiq (as). Dawoud asked for him and then asked him about the followers of Imam al-Sadiq (as) in order to get rid of them. Al-Mualla said the following in response: “I know no one from the companions of Abu Abdullah. I am a man who just helps him in his needs and know no one of his friends.”

The brutal governor shouted at him, saying: “Are you lying? If you lie, I’ll kill you right away.”

Al-Mualla did not pay attention to their caution and said the following bravely: “I swear by Allah that if they were under my feet, I would not lift my feet, even if you kill me, I would be happy and prosperous.”

The king was extremely angry from this response and commanded his solders to kill him. Al-Mualla requested to bring him out for the last time towards the market. They brought him out and the people gathered around him. Then he raised his voice, saying: “O people! I am Mualla ibn Khanees. One, who knows me, knows me. Witness that whatever I leave as wealth, farms, loans, servants, houses and whatever are now that of Jafar ibn Muhammad’s.”

The head of the officers rushed to kill him then. This great man was killed protecting his ideology and beliefs. The wealth of al-Mualla was confiscated. Imam al-Sadiq (as) was sad because of this event. Therefore he went on towards the brutal governor and said angrily: “You killed my friend and master and took my wealth…”

Dawoud answered: “I did not kill him; neither did I take your wealth…”

The Imam (as) rushed on, saying: “I will ask Allah against one who killed my master and took my wealth…”

The governor was shocked from what the Imam (as) said and replied: “Do you try to warn me with this prayer?’”

The Imam (as) left him and turned towards Allah (SwT). He started praying against that brutal governor. The following was among what he stated in his prayer: “O the owner of the greatest power! O the One who makes the impossible possible! O the symbol of dignity whom every other creature is low before you! Let us feel free from this tyrant.”

The Imam (as) continued his prayers in the dark night against that savage governor. Allah (SwT) responded to this call and took revenge from Dawoud. The shouts rose from his house and he died without resulting in anyone’s regret.

The managerial system in the government of al-Saffah and al-Mansour was a symbol of cruelty and brutality and it did not have anything less than the sufferings during the Umayyad Dynasty.

Al-Saffah and the Alawids

Al-Saffah obtained the power through the name of the Alawis, whose head had been cut because of the cruelty and brutality. It was quite normal for al-Saffah to treat them with respect and glorification after he seized the power from them and made the hearts of the Alawis sad as it was a betrayal of the Abbasidd against them.

Anyway, the Alawis went on congratulating al-Saffah for being the caliph, while he was in al-Anbar. The head of the group was al-Sayyid Abdullah, but he did not bring his sons, Muhammad and Ibrahim. This made al-Saffah doubtful and said the following to Abdullah: “What had prevented them to come with the group of their family who came?”

Abdullah expressed his apology, saying: “Their wrong has nothing serious to raise the leader’s hatred.”

Al-Saffah accepted that with hatred and disliked that apology. When al-Saffah built the city of al-Anbar and chose it as a capital, he entered there with his brother al-Mansour and Abdullah ibn al-Hasan, who was in the middle of the two, showing them the city, industries and the palaces. Abdullah made an unintentional mistake, which reminded the following known statement:

Cannot you see those who started building palaces?

Believing that they would have the age of Noah, but things change by the will of Allah every night.

The face of abi Abbas changed. Al-Mansour turned to Abdullah, saying the following with anger and fury: “Do you see them as your sons and that their gaining of the power is certain.”

Abdullah replied with apology, saying: “I did not mean it, and I did not intend it. It was just a statement that came to my tongue and did not care about it.”

This statement frightened the heart of al-Saffah and he changed his manner with the Alawis. When the Alawis intended to enter Yathrib, he gave them great presents and sent one of his trusted men with them and said the following to him: “Go and let them settle down. Do not feel doubtful in being kind with them. Whenever you are alone with them show your interest in them and your anger and enmity against us. Tell them that they deserved the caliphate more than us. Pay a good attention to what they say and figure out who are the leader and the most influential characters in them.”

When Abdullah reached Yathrib, his son joined him and asked him about everything that happened. He went on describing the situation and whatever he saw in this meeting with al-Saffah. At the same time, he was persuading them to revolt. The man who was sent by al-Saffah was eyeing them, memorizing whatever going on in those gatherings. When he returned to al-Saffah, he reported whatever he saw and heard from Alawis.

His heart was full of malice and al-Mansour was severely angry and aimed at taking revenge, but al-Saffah prevented him from doing so. Those hating the Alawis went through forging unreal news against the Alawis and claiming that the Alawis were planning to take the power out of his control. Al-Saffah was angry about this. So he sent a letter to Abdullah ibn al-Hasan, ending it with the following statement:

“I wanted your life but you aimed at killing me.”

Abdullah sent him a letter and clarified the stand and destroyed what the enemies aimed. At the end of his statement, he wrote the following: “How can this happen, while you are as an artery to his heart; how can this happen, while you are the head and leader of the whole Hashim family?”

Al-Saffah calmed down, but al-Mansour was always persuading him to take action against the respected Sayyid, Muhammad and Ibrahim, but once al-Saffah scorned him, saying: “One who deals toughly with people, will be hated; and one who is very gentle, will regret that; and ignoring cases is among the respected values and attributes.”

Therefore, he had a political stance with the Alawis and he did not hurt them and take any damaging action against them, but he was rather showing off his kindness and respect towards them.

The Stand of Imam al-Sadiq (as) with al-Saffah

The stand of Imam al-Sadiq (as) during the era of al-Saffah was accompanied with wisdom and knowledge. He did not face him in any sort regarding the government and opposition. The Imam (as) rather took the direction of knowledge distribution among the believers. The knowledge seekers gathered around him and were obtaining from his valuable knowledge.

The Imam (as) had created vast original knowledge awareness and had it for the prosperity of the society. The government, on the other hand, did not take any negative stand regarding this knowledge policy of the Imam (as), but it was carefully keeping an eye on his deeds and watching the people around him, because he was the master of the family of the Prophet (S) at the time and the head of Islamic intellectuality. The government saw him spreading knowledge among the people without entering into any political struggle.

Moving to al-Hirah

The Imam (as), during the government of al-Saffah, moved from Yathrib into al-Kufah and then he stayed in al-Hirah, which is well known for its pleasant weather and nature. The greatest possibility was that this movement was not the result of political pressure or house arrest from the government, but it could rather be considered as his interest in being with the people of al- Kufah, which was a prominent centre for the followers of the Ahl al-Bayt (as). It was there where Shiah started to be distributed around the Islamic world. Additionally, the great number of people intending to go there seeking the knowledge of the Imam (as), were from the citizens of al-Kufah.

Thus, the city of al-Kufah was prosperous with Imam al-Sadiq (as) and became as one of the significant scientific centres in Islam. The great mosque of al-Kufah involved around nine hundred great scholars, with each one managing a group of learners with the Islamic instructions, which were taken from Imam al-Sadiq (as).

Anyway, the University of al-Kufah collected a great number of citizens around Imam al-Sadiq (as), because they saw his prominent personality as a continuing path from his great grandfather, the great Prophet of Islam (S) as well as his fathers who enlightened the intellectual life of Islam in the Islamic and Arab worlds.

Muhammad ibn Maroof al-Helalee talked about the interest of the people in the Imam (as), saying: “I departed towards al-Heera to see Jafar ibn Muhammad during the government of al-Saffah, but there were a huge number of people around him. I had no chance to meet him because of the crowd.”

So the local authority feared this huge number and informed al-Saffah about the case. He ordered to keep the people away from him forcibly. It is worth knowing that some of the companions of the Imam (as) had a question about divorce but did not know how to resolve the problem, and they feared to enter in the Imam’s (as) house. They finally found a way. One of them started selling stuff close to the Imam’s (as) house with his voice loud, when the Imam (as) came out of the house to buy that, the man asked him his question and the Imam (as) gave him the reply.

Briefly, we present some of the affairs that happened in al-Kufah and al-Heera when the Imam (as) was there.

The Welcoming of the Scholars

The scholars and jurisprudents and Hadith narrators welcomed Imam al-Sadiq (as) in al-Kufah. They were writing down what he gave his idea about and what he narrated from his fathers. The Imam (as) persuaded them to write and gather Hadith and jurisprudence as well as the rest of Islamic sciences.

It seems mostly the case that the four hundred principles, which were gathered from Imam al-Sadiq (as) were when he was a resident in al-Kufah. Imam al-Sadiq (as) enriched the Islamic jurisprudence with his ideas and religious opinions and ideas, which had creativity and originality. He was the greatest reference for the jurisprudents of Imams’ followers in what they deliver as their opinions.

His Visit to the Shrine of Imam Ali (as)

The grave of the Leader of the Believers stayed hidden and unknown during the Umayyad Dynasty. This happened according to the will of the Imam (as), fearing the unearthing of the grave by the Umayyad followers and those outside the religion who were among his most severe enemies. After the collapse of the Umayyad Dynasty, Imam al-Sadiq (as) went to visit the holy grave of Imam Ali (as) several times. It was located near al-Najaf. Whenever he went there, he used to take a number of his companions in order to lead them to that respected place. Below are a number of his visits.

Aban ibn Taghlib once narrated: “I was with Abu Abdullah while he was passing al-Kufah at noon. He stopped there and prayed there. Then he moved for a little while and prayed again. Again he moved a bit and prayed in the new place. He, then, said: ‘This is the grave of the Leader of the Believers.’ Then I said: ‘O my master! What about the other two placed that you prayed at?’ He replied: ‘The place of the head of al-Husayn and the place of the platform of al-Qaiem, Imam al-Mahdi.’”

Mubarak al-Khabaz narrated, saying: “Abu Abdullah said the following to me: ‘Prepare the camel and the donkey.’ Then, when he was about to approach al-Hirah, he said: ‘Get up on and ride.’ Afterwards, he reached the place and prayed. After a while he prayed again and afterwards he prayed for the third time. I turned and said: ‘O my master! What were these prayers, the first, second and the third one?’ He said: ‘In the first prayer I was close to Imam Ali’s grave. The second prayer was the place of the head of al-Husayn. The third prayer is the place of the platform of al-Qaiem, Imam al-Mahdi.’”

Younus ibn Dhabyan narrated, saying: “I met Abu Abdullah when I was close to al-Hirah and there were a talk with him. Then he went on to visit the Leader of the Believers.” Al-Younus said: “When the Imam reached the place he wanted, he said: ‘O Younus! Link your riding animal.’ I linked it somewhere. Then he raised his hands and prayed. I understood his prayers. Then he asked me the following: ‘Younus! Do you know what this place is?’ I said: ‘No, but I know that this is a desert.’ He said: ‘This is grave of the Leader of the Believers who will meet the Prophet (S) at the Resurrection Day.’”

Safwan ibn Mehran narrated, saying: “Imam al-Sadiq set off and I was with him in al-Qadesiah until he was about to approach al-Najaf. He said: ‘This is the mountain the son of my grandfather, Noah, who said: ‘I would appeal to this mountain, which will protect me from the water.’ Then Allah sent him a message ‘Would it be possible for some one to be out of reach from me?’ Then he drowned in the ground.’

“Later he set off to al-Shaam and said: ‘Turn towards me!’ I turned. He was still walking until he reached al-Garee where he stopped. Then he turned towards the grave and greeted Adam, the Prophet, I did the same. The Prophets were greeted one after another until reaching Prophet Muhammad (S). At that moment he fell on the grave and his weeping voice rose. He, then, prayed there and I prayed with him and said: O son of the Messenger of Allah! Whose grave is this? He said: ‘This is the grave of my grandfather, Ali ibn abi Talib.’”

These are some of the visits of Imam al-Sadiq (as) that he paid to his grandfather, the Leader of the Believers, the master of the great family and the gate of science of the Prophet (S).

His Motivation for Visiting the Shrine of Imam Ali (as)

The news repeated from Imam al-Sadiq (as) about motivating others on visiting the shrine of his grandfather, the Imam, the Leader of the Believers. Below are some of them.

He said to one of his followers: “I am going towards al-Kufah, towards a grave, where anyone pays a visit, and prays there, he will not face any malice and Allah will fulfil his request and need.” “I asked: ‘The grave of al-Husayn ibn Ali?’ He said no with his head. Then I said: ‘The grave of the Leader of the Believers?’ He said yes with his head.”

He said: “If someone leaves visiting the Leader of the Believers, Allah will not look at him. Do you not visit someone whom the angels visit?”

Ibn Marid said the following to Abu Abdullah: “One, who visits your grandfather, the Leader of the Believers, what will he get? He said: “One, who visits my grandfather, knowing him accurately, Allah will write the reward of going to Hajj and Umra. Marid! I swear by Allah that feet which are dusted in visiting the Leader of the Believers, walking or riding, will not feel the heat of the Hell. Marid! Write this with golden water.”2

There were also other groups of traditions motivating people to visit the brave of the believers and the supporter of monotheism in all stands and events.

His Visits to the Shrine of al-Husayn (as)

Imam al-Sadiq (as) visited the grave of his grandfather, Imam al-Husayn (as), the youth of the youth of Paradise, when he was in al-Hirah. He was the one who sacrificed himself, his sons, family and companions for the sake freeing the believers from the brutality of the Umayyad Dynasty and to return the brilliant Islamic life, which could prosper the lives of the believers.

The Merits of Visiting al-Husayn (as)

Imam al-Sadiq (as) presented a large number of traditions, expressing the merits and superiority of visiting the father of the free and the master of the martyrs, Imam al-Husayn (as). Below we present some of them.

Abu Khadeeja narrated, saying: “I asked Abu Abdullah about visiting the tomb of al-Husayn. He replied: ‘It is among the best deeds.’”

Abaan narrated from Imam Abu Abdullah (as) saying: “Among the best deeds for Allah is visiting the tomb of al-Husayn and the best deed for Allah is making a believer happy deep in his heart.”

Al-Hadheefa ibn Mansur said: “Abu Abdullah said: ‘One, who visits the grave of al-Husayn for the sake of Allah while staying loyal to Allah, Allah will rescue him for the Fire and will keep him safe at the Day of the Greatest Shock and there will be no request from that believer, unless having it fulfilled in the worldly life and hereafter.’”

Abu Osama Zayd al-Shahham narrated, saying: “I heard Abu Abdullah saying: ‘One, who visits the grave of al-Husayn because of his eagerness, Allah will consider him among those in safety and will give him the result of his deed in this right hand. He will be under the flag of al-Husayn ibn Ali until entering the Paradise.’”

Abu Basir narrated from Abu Abdullah (as), saying: “‘If someone wishes to live in the Paradise and stay in the Heaven, he should not forget to visit the victim of injustice.’ I asked: ‘Who is he?’ He replied: ‘Al-Husayn. One who visits him, eagerly and because of loving the Prophet (S) and the Leader of the Believers, Allah will place him on the blessings of the Paradise to eat with them while the people are still being judged.’”

Imam al-Sadiq (as) was asked about the best time of visiting Imam al-Husayn (as). And he said: “Visit him all the time and always. Visiting him is among the best deeds. One, who increases his visits to him, will get greater blessings. And one who decreases the number of his visits, his blessings will be less. Be sure not to forget the holy time, because then good deeds are worth much more. The holy times are when the angels descend.”

He was asked about the Holy Month of Ramadhan and he replied: “One, who comes humble, straight and in a repented way, and saw his grave in three nights of Ramadhan, the first night, the half night, and the last night, his sins will be cleared as the falling of leaves during autumn. He will be as sin free as he was when he was born from his mother. At that moment a couple of angels raise their voices, saying: ‘O the man of Allah! You are pure, continue your deed.’ And the other one says: ‘O the man of Allah! You did your best! Be informed of the news of your forgiveness and superiority.’”

These were some news from Imam al-Sadiq (as) about the merits of visiting his grandfather, Imam al-Husayn (as). There were also a great number of traditions in this regard. They all persuade the believers to visit the tomb of the father of the free who revolted, in order to return the Islamic justice and elevate Allah’s (SwT) word in the world.

It is also worth mentioning that the traditions related to visiting the Master of the martyrs are not single and isolated, but they are repeated and narrated by the Imams of guidance and people were promised to get granted high rewards for visiting that respected shrine, because al-Husayn (as) has a great position before Allah (SwT), as he sacrificed what he could for the sake of Allah (SwT).

The Prayer of the Imam (as) for the Visitors of al-Husayn (as)

Among the greatest rewards and the most significant gain that the visitors are honoured with, is the prayer of Imam al-Sadiq (as). Let us read this great prayer.

Muawiyah ibn Wahab narrated, saying: “I asked for permission from Abu Abdullah and he allowed me to enter. I found him in his praying place. He was praying there and I stayed there waiting for him to complete his prayer. Then I heard him whispering with his Lord, saying: O the One Who allocated us honour and dignity; the One who specified us for giving advices; the One Who promised us with mediation at the Resurrection Day; the One Who gave us the knowledge and let the heart of the people tend towards us.

“Forgive me and my brothers and the visitor of the tomb of al-Husayn, those who denoted their wealth; those who laboured their bodies aiming at helping us; those who beg you what you granted us; those who enter the delight and cheerfulness to your Prophet (S) as a response to our call; those whose anger is due to our enemies wishing your satisfaction.

“Please do compensate them from us with your Heaven. Grant them in day and night. Grant their family and offspring who are truly following them. Accompany them and keep all the malice away from them. Protect them from all cruel governors or from the malice weak. Save them from the harm of the jinn and human. Grant them the best of what they hope from you in their distance, which is away from their countries. And do grant their offspring, families and relatives.

“O Allah! Our enemies mocked at them because they left their countries, coming towards us and because they were against those whom we are against. Be merciful towards those faces, which were changed by the heat of the sun and have mercy upon those cheeks which were changed to visit Abu Abdullah al-Husayn. O Allah! Have your mercy upon those eyes, whose tears flowed to have mercy upon us. Have mercy on those hearts, which were mourned and burnt for us. Be merciful towards those shouts, which were to protect us. O Allah! I ask you to protect these souls and bodies until they approach the pond at the Day of Thirstiness [The Day of Resurrection].

“The Imam was still prostrated begging Allah with these prayers. When he finished, I asked him: ‘O my master! If I would hear what you mentioned in your prayer from one who does not believe in Allah, I would think that the fire would not touch him ever. I swear by Allah that I wished I have had visited him, but I have not.’ He said: ‘He is very close to you, what had prevented you from visiting him?’

“Then he added: ‘Muawiyah! There is no one invoking Allah for his visitors more than the people in the world. Muawiyah! Do not leave him. One who leaves him will regret this and would wish to have him close to him. Do you not want Allah to see you and your family with whom the Prophet (S), Ali, Fatimah and the Imams pray for? Do you not want to be among those forgiven? Do you not want to be among those who are sin free and among those who shake hand with the Prophet (S)?’”

Did you see this sincere prayer from the prophetic family and the Imam of the virtuous about visiting the Master of the Martyrs? If the visitor does not get anything except this prayer, it will worth its while.

Here, our talk about Imam al-Sadiq (as) when he was in al-Kufah and al-Hirah has ended.

The Death of al-Saffah

Al-Saffah died as a result of a disease. He stayed a few days suffering from the disease and its effects. When he found the disease severe, he sent for his brother Isa ibn Mousa, or as he was called Isa ibn Ali, and he gave him a sealed letter with the following written on the back of the letter: From a servant of Allah and his man to the family of the Prophet (S) and the rest of the believers.

He also advised him not to say anything about the case until his soul is out of his body and then to read the letter to the people. No one knew about the successor and the next caliph. In the night of Sunday, fourteenth of Dhil Hajja (136 A.H.) al-Saffah passed away. Isa ibn Ali mourned with his clothes and did not tell the people about his death.

When the morning came out, he collected the influential people of bani Abbas and the great officers in the government and mourned. He brought out the letter of pledging with the next caliph. He opened the letter in front of them and all knew that he had specified his brother, Mansour, as the next caliph. He also specified his nephew, Isa ibn Mousa as the successor of his brother. He then took the promise of the audience for the caliphate of al-Dawaneeqi. Afterwards, he buried al-Saffah in his palace according to his will.

This way, the life of al-Saffah, which was full of bloodshed and sin, had come to an end. He ended his life by appointing his brother, al-Dawaneeqi as a caliph for the believers while he was among the worst creatures of Allah (SwT) and among the most severe enemies of the family of the Prophet (S).

Additionally, this man was professional in robbing the wealth of the believers until he had his treasury full with that wealth. Nevertheless, he spread horror and terror throughout the Islamic world. This way, our talk about Imam al-Sadiq (as) in the era of al-Saffah has come to an end. He saw how the believers suffered from the brutality and the cruelty of that era. These events had a deep effect on the life of the Imam (as) as it filled his heart with sadness.

The Government of al-Mansour

Among the worst thing that the believers had to bear was the fact that the caliphate, which has to be considered as an aid of Allah (SwT) in the world and the shelter of the needy and those deprived, was at the hands of people who had nothing to do with human kind-heartedness.

Narrators talked about al-Mansour who used to visit different villages and rural areas and talked about the merits of the leader of the believers and his superiority. The people used to reach him with money. He did not have anything special to make him eligible for the caliphate position.

Anyway, when al-Mansour got the power, he applied a policy that the believers did not have earlier to the extent that they wished the Umayyad Dynasty was back when they were suffering from cruelty and savagery. The great reformer, Muhammad thu al-Nafs al-Zakeeya, presented a talk about the savagery of al-Mansour and his brutality, saying: “We harboured malice against the Umayyad caliphs and their followers, but the Abbasidd were even less Allah-fearing than Allah, The responsibility of the bani al-Abbas is greater. If there were any merits for the Abbasid, it would not be that of abi Jafar al-Mansour.”

Anyway, we have to talk about the attributes of al-Mansour and clarify his policy and methodology as well as what Imam al-Sadiq (as) had to bear from his cruelty. Below is part of this study.

His Psychological Elements

Al-Mansour did not have any blessed attribute; he did not have any honourable one either. He applied different kinds of malicious policies against the people. Below we’ll mention some of his elements, which prove his psychological elements.

Stinginess

Al-Mansour was highly gone in stinginess. This attribute completely took him over and was among one of his striking characteristics. It was to the extent that he had become a symbol of stinginess. He subjected all Islamic countries to starvation. He caught the wealth of the people and filled his treasury. He used to see that blessings were only in front of his eyes and they had to be hidden from others even if it resulted in them being in a miserable state.

Ibn Atheer said: “Al-Mansour was named al-Dawaneeqi because of his stinginess. The story is as follows: He ordered to dig a ditch in al-Kufah and he gave each of those contributing in the task one Danq. Each Danq is six Dirhams.”

When he finished building Baghdad, he inspected all the leaders of this army and took whatever remained even if the remaining what a trivial amount of fifteen Dirhams. He used to inspect into very small detail. Below we will present some examples of his stinginess.

His Niggardliness

Among the worst kinds of stinginess is self-stinginess. This is what al-Dawaneeqi was distinguished for. He deprived himself from all kinds of blessings of life as he kept himself away from the blessing, putting on rough clothes, with patches on his shirts. Imam al-Sadiq (as) commented on this, saying: “Thanks Allah to affect him with neediness with his entire kingdom.”

A group said to Imam al-Sadiq (as): “When aba Jafar al-Mansour got the power, he does not put on anything unless the rough ones and does not eat unless the bad meals.” He said: “How pity it is for someone who has the kingdom and all the taxes are gathered and given to him.”

They went on saying: “He does this because of his stinginess in order to gather wealth and increase it.”

He replied: “Praise is to Allah Who deprived him from his worldly life as well as what he left him from religion.”

His Stinginess on al-Mahdi

Al-Mahdi was among the closet one to al-Dawaneeqi as his successor and son, but he was stingy in dealing with him. He used to blame him for the simplest money related issues. Wadheh, his servant, narrated the following story in this regard: “I was close to abi Jafar when al-Mahdi entered and he had a long black garment. He greeted his father and sat down. After a while he stood up and exited. Abu Jafar followed him with his eyes, because of his interest and love in him.

“When he reached the corridor he stumbled with his sword and his garment was torn. He stood up and passed away without showing any regretful facial state. When al-Mansour saw that state, he ordered to call him back. When his son was in front of him, he went on saying the following aggressively and angrily: ‘Abu Abdullah! What have made you treat this way, neutrally? Being independent with your blessings, being ungrateful with what you are granted, or not feeling disasters in your life?’ He had this severe blame against his son because of a tiny thing, to which no one ever pays that sort of attention.”

Wadheh, then, went on narrating the following, saying: “Al-Mansour told me: ‘See what you have as old clothes. Go and gather them. When he is about to come inside, just go and bring the clothes before he enters, and do not forget to bring some patches.’” Then Wadheh added: “I did the same. Therefore when al-Mahdi entered, he saw his father measuring the patches on the torn parts in order to patch them.

“Al-Mahdi laughed and said: ‘O the leader of the believers! Now I see why people say: Look at Dinar and Dirham and do not neglect them, because it would impress the emotion of al-Dawaneeqi!’ An-Mansour replied: ‘There is nothing new for anyone whose clothes are not patched. Here the winter is round the corner and the family need clothes and dresses.’ Al-Mahdi then said: ‘The clothes of the leader of the believers and his wife and family have to have patches?!’ Al-Mansour smiled and said: ‘Come on and hurry up.’”

The maid of al-Mansour, Khalisa, narrated, saying: “I entered to see al-Mansour, and I found him complaining about his molar tooth. When he heard my voice, he said: ‘Come in.’ And I came in while his hands were on migraine. He stayed silence for an hour and then addressed me, saying: ‘Khalisa! How much money do you have?’ I replied: ‘One thousand Dirham.’ He said: ‘Put your hands on my head and swear!’”

She feared and said: “I have ten thousands Dinar.” He said: “Bring it here.” She went to see al-Mahdi and al-Khayzaran and informed them about what happened. Al-Mahdi kicked here and said: “Should I take you to him? What is his problem? I asked him for money and he claimed that he is sick. Allah and take what your told him to fetch.” When al-Mahdi came, he expressed a bitter blame and told him: “O Abu Abdullah! You complain about being needy and this Khalisa has money.”

He faced his successor and son with this unpleasant manner for not giving him the money. He deprived himself and his nation from their money and filled his treasury instead.

With the Singer of His Camel

One of the funniest things to laugh about the stinginess of al-Mansour is to talk about his cheapness in dealing with the singer of his camel. They were in the road towards al-Mecca. The voice of the singer was lovely to the extent that al-Mansour was about to fall down from the top of the camel. Al- Mansour gave him a Dirham. The singer was astonished and said: “O the leader of the believer! I sang for the camels of al-Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik and he granted ten thousands Dirhams.”

Al-Mansour was angry. He said the following, shouting at him: “He should not have given you this amount from the treasury of the believers.”

Then he commanded his guard, al-Rabee to take that amount from him. The man started begging while swearing that he had nothing left from that amount and that he had spent it all. He stayed begging until al-Mansour forgave him on the condition that he sang for his camel without paying him anything both ways round.

With Ibn al-Samaan

The jurisprudent, Azhar al-Samaan was a friend of al-Mansour before he got power and became the caliph. When he became the caliph, he came to see him in order to ask him for help. When he reached there, al-Mansour said: “What is your request?”

He replied: “I owe you four thousands Dirhams; my house is ruined and my son is going to build a house for his family.”

Al-Mansour ordered to give him an amount and asked his friend not to come again to him and said: “Do you come again asking request from now on.”

His friend agreed and after a few months, ibn al-Samaan came back again. Al- Mansour looked at him and became full of anger, saying: “What did bring you here?” His friend replied: “I did not come to have a request. I came just to say hello.”

Al-Mansour looked at him, saying: “I thought you came because of the same reason that brought you here the first time. From now on, come neither for a request nor for saying hello…” Then he gave him an amount and ibn al-Samaan got out, but did not take long and got back for the third time. Al- Mansour told him: “What did bring your back here?”

He replied: “I came neither for a request nor for saying hello, but I heard a prayer from you and wished to take it from you.”

Al-Mansour shouted at him: “Do not take it, as my prayers will get no response from Allah. Because I asked Allah to relieve me from watching your face, but you are here again.” Then he sent him out without giving him anything this time.

With al-Wadheen ibn Atta

Al-Wadheen ibn Atta was a co-worker of al-Mansour during his day of disaster and neediness. Al-Mansour sent for him when he got the power. When he reached him, he asked him about his status and situation, saying: “Abdullah! Tell me more about your wealth.”

He replied: “The leader of the believers knows well about this.”

Al-Mansour then said: “What about your family?”

He answered: “I have three daughters, my wife and a servant for them.”

Al-Mansour commented: “Four women in your house?”

Al-Mansour went on repeating this question for him, in a way that his friend, thought he was about to help him and to grant him something. After a pondering for long, al-Mansour said: “You are the richest of the Arab! You have four people to weave in your house!”

With the Poets

The Umayyad Dynasty used to spent huge amounts of money on poets and it was considered by them as the most important and influential propaganda media. When time passed and the government of al-Mansour al-Dawaneeqi, who was known for his stinginess, came around, he exaggerated in scorning them as well as deprived them from payment and grants.

Abu Naheela al-Shaer came to meet him. He stood at his door, waiting for his permission, but he was not granted any permission to enter. At the same time he was looking at the people of Khurasan who were freely entering and exiting without care, while mocking at him.

Al-Mansour scorned the poets as well as the intellectuals and he overdid his behaviour in lowing them. The people asked al-Mansour for increase in their wealth and an expansion in their earning ability, but there was nothing targeting this request.

Economical Slump

Al-Mansour did his best in robbing the people’s wealth and stealing their properties in order to fill his treasury. He did not pay anything to develop the level of life and the expansion of comfort. The economy became completely paralysed. All the property and wealth were gathered in the central treasury. Poverty became widespread; sadness and inability were distributed everywhere in the Islamic world.

The Reason of His Stinginess

Al-Dawaneeqi expressed the reasons behind being stingy as well as being greedy in gathering the wealth and distributing poverty and neediness with the following two cases.

He said: “Ibn al-Arabee was right when he said: Keep your dog hungry in order to follow you.”

Abu Abbas al-Tousi went on saying: “O the leader of the believers! I am afraid that someone else may show a piece of bread and it leaves you following him.”

The tyrant found the obedience of his nation in keeping them in hunger and he assimilated his nation to a dog and publicly expressed the extent of his malice over the nation.

Al-Dawaneeqi stated the following reason behind collecting wealth and gathering it in his treasury, saying: “One, who has less money, has less people; and one who has less people, his enemies who are more powerful; and one who has a more powerful enemy, his kingdom will be known; and one whose kingdom is public and known, his supporters can be defeated.”

The huge wealth that he had gathered was neither his nor of his family’s, but it was the wealth of the believers, which had to be used for their benefits. It had to be utilised in order to decrease the rate of poverty and neediness. The governor has no authority in using this wealth unless in the way that had to be specified by Islam. However al-Mansour and the rest of the Abbasidd governors had no knowledge in this regard from the Islamic teachings and instructions. They, as their Umayyad brothers, were far away from what Islam specified as instructions.

His Dictatorship

Another thing from the attributes of al-Mansour was his dictatorship. He was tough in all this affairs without ever considering tradition or law. History tells us about his dictatorship where he once brought his nephew, Isa ibn Mousa, and commanded him to fight Muhammad ibn Abdullah. Isa told him: “O the leader of the believer! Consult your uncles…”

Al-Mansour scolded him and said: “Go ahead! You man! It is just you and I who are wanted. Just you and I can decide on doing something.” He was treating people with this arrogance and selfishness and deciding about their lives.

His Betrayal and Disloyalty

Al-Mansour was a betrayer, disloyal person. He used to kill people on suspicion and accusation. Al-Sayyid Mir Ali said the following statement in this regard: “Al-Mansour was a cheater who did not hesitate in making bloodshed. His savagery was extreme in a way that none of his successors could ever reach him to this level except with high contemplation and deep thinking. Generally speaking, Abu Jafar was easy going in his destroying and killing.”

Ibn Habeera, who was living at his era, described him in the following way: “I did not see a man, neither in war nor in peace, neither more deceitful nor more disloyal than him.” He did not own even a slight ray of mercy and kind-heartedness. He was happy to hear and watch the cry of the orphans, the mourning of the widows and the grief of the wounded. He intentionally aimed at killing a group of people who had a role in establishing the Abbasidd Dynasty. Among those, we’ll mention the following.

Abu Muslim

Abu Muslim was the establisher of the Abbasidd Dynasty and the number one leader of the revolution conducted against the Umayyad Dynasty. He was the destroyer of this dynasty, without whom the flag of the Abbasids would not wave neither its name would be mentioned at all.

Al-Dawaneeqi aimed at killing Abu Muslim. He surrounded him and deprived him with the troops, which were around him. He entered on him and met him with high cruelty. He started to count his deeds while Abu Muslim asked for forgiveness but without an effect. Al-Mansour clapped once and the guards of al-Mansour entered with a sword in their hands. He said the following to al- Mansour appealingly: “Will you let me alone with your enemies?”

Al-Mansour shouted at him, saying: “Who is having more enmity against me than you?” Then, the swords attacked him and he was begging for forgiveness. They killed him and al-Mansour started mumbling the following:

“You claimed that religion has nothing to do with this. Abu Muslim! This is your share of cheating and you deserve it. You have drunk the cup you had formerly forced others to drink. It is much bitter in the throat than bitterness itself.”

He then ordered to throw his corpse in the Tigris River. This way the life of Abu Muslim came to an end with the betrayal of al-Mansour. Abu Muslim had lost the fruit of the worldly life as well as the hereafter. This was indeed the worst loss. He was the one who brought the caliphate for the Abbasidd while it was that of the Alawis.

Abdullah ibn Ali

Al-Mansour betrayed his uncle, Abdullah ibn Ali, after he had given him the safety promise. He called his successor, Isa ibn Mousa, and told him: “Take Abdullah ibn Ali until when I return from Mecca. Do not keep it hard on him. He is my uncle and the brother of great people from your family.” He said this to darken the Abbasidd and in order to let them believe that he did not want any harm for his uncle.

Then he sent for Isa secretly and told him: “This man wanted to take the caliphate from me and you, and you are my successor and the caliphate is yours. Take him and murder him. Woe to you if you get weak and refuse to fulfil the command that I issued now.” Afterwards, he left and went to al-Hajj.

Isa was doubtful about this decision. So, he presented this story to his consultant, Younus ibn Farwa, seeking for an advice. His consultant was a great thinker and very knowledgeable about al-Mansour’s thinking method and his disloyal character. Therefore he told him: “This man had sent your uncle to you publicly in front of his relative but commanded you to kill him secretly. He wants him to be killed by your hand. Then he would bound you by this and kill you. I believe that you may better hide him in your house and do not let anyone know about him. Then send someone to al-Mansour to tell him that you have killed him. If he asked you to announce this publicly, then make it public. But beware not to disclose the secret.”

Younus was originally deep in this thoughts and contemplations. He knew the hidden side of al- Mansour and his methods of cheating and deceiving. Isa did what Younus advised him to do. Thus he hid Abdullah and rumoured that he had killed him. When al-Mansour returned from al-Mecca the Abbasidd family gathered around him talking about the case of his uncle. He told him: “I had publicly announced that he will be with my successor and I advised him to be kind with him and I asked him about his, but he said: He is dead.” Then he sent for Isa. When Isa reached him, he shouted: “Why did you kill my uncle?”

He replied: “You commanded me to kill him’”

Al-Mansour said: “I did not order you to kill him’”

He said: “Here is your order in killing him.”

“I did not write this command,” al-Mansour said.

When he saw the serious behaviour of al-Mansour, he was frightened for himself and told him: “He is with me.” He said: “Send him to Abi al-Azhar al-Mulhib ibn abi Isa.” He sent him there and he was imprisoned there. Al-Mansour commanded to kill him there. He was finally killed with a maid there. The plan was made in a way as if he was hugging the maid as they put the maid’s hand under him and his hand under the maid’s as if they were hugging each other making love. Al-Mansour commanded to destroy the head on top of them and sent a judge there with a group of people to know about the case. Their corpses were brought out and placed in their final place.

Muhammad ibn Abi-Abbas

Al-Mansour assassinated Muhammad ibn Abil-Abbas who was a brilliant character of his time. He assassinated him at the hands of a Christian physician. He had to employ this method, because he did not want this assassination to be public. He used a poison and put it in a drug and finally sent it to the one who was responsible for the last assassination step.

Something happened to Muhammad’s body. Therefore he visited that physician and the physician gave him the poison and he instantly died. Afterwards, there were a huge number of complaints about the physician and he was sent to al-Mansour. He, thus, sentenced the physician with thirty lashes and imprisoned him for some days and then let him free with three hundred dinars.

These were a number of the assassinations that al-Mansour committed as a result of his malicious behaviour which was far away from any blessed attribute.

Frightening the Citizens

Al-Mansour faced the people of Yathrib with lots of cruelty and brutality. He deprived them from all sorts of financial strength. He kept them away from blessings of the ground and sea. The reason behind this was that they did not find him eligible for the caliphate, because they knew that he was not a respected person and did not have the merits to own any of the affairs of the believers. The souls of those people were tied to the loyalty of al-Sayyid Muhammad Thee al-Naft al-Zakeeya.

Al-Mansour had chosen various kinds of cruel deeds against the citizens. He used Rebah ibn Uthman al-Mari who was a criminal terrorist. He walked up the platform and addressed the citizens in the following way: “I am a serpent, a son of a serpent ibn Uthman ibn Hayyan and the cousin of Muslim ibn Aqaba, the one who destroyed your green dreams and murdered your men. I swear by Allah that I will make a desert in which not even a dog can bark…”

Did you see this language of this tyrant who was talked rudely about the people’s lives and honours? He introduced himself as the cousin of the tyrant criminal, Muslim ibn Aqaba, who committed the worst crimes against the city of the Prophet of Allah (S). He was the one who destroyed the city, murdered its people and overburdened their tolerance. He had done what even the Jewish did not in Dayr Yaseen. Anyway, the governor did not stop his violent speech at this point until a group of nobles risked their lives, facing him saying: “O you who were punished twice! Either you leave us or we make you leave.”

This malicious governor sent a letter to al-Dawaneeqi informing him about the disobedience of the citizens and their insistence on riot and non-compliance. When the letter reached al-Mansour, he wrote a letter to the people of the city of al-Medina, full of warnings and cautions, giving them an advanced notice of punishment.

He asked his agent to read the letter publicly for the citizens of al-Medina. When the agent approached the city, he gathered the people and read out the letter. Among what was in the letter, we can mention to the following: “O the people of al-Medina! Your governor had written to me informing me about your double-faced manner, disobedience, non-compliance and defiance.

“Hereby the leader of the believers swears that if you continue your manner in the same way, He will endanger what is now considered secure and safe; he will crease the blessings of the sea and ground from you, and will send you tough men doing what they are commanded deep in your houses. Wassalam…”

A number of the honourable men there raised their voices, saying: “O you who were punished twice! You are lying.” Then they started throwing stones at him from everywhere. He instantly managed to escape from that place moving towards his palace, closing the gates and stayed there. Afterwards, Ayyoub ibn Salma, who was a known sinful person, entered upon him and asked him to dishonour the revolutionists, saying: “Allah had sent the governor to make this people deal appropriately. Cut their hands and lash their backs…”

He mentioned some of the Hashimites who rejected the wishes of this mean person and asked him to send for these honourable people and to read the letter of al-Mansour for them. He agreed on that and sent for some of those noble people and read out the letter to them. Hajfs ibn Umar al-Zuhri and Abu Ubaydah ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Azhar turned to him saying: “We swear by Allah that you lied! You commanded us and we disobeyed! You asked us and we rejected.” Then they turned their face towards the agent of al-Mansour, saying: “Will you inform al-Mansour about this?’”

He replied: “I am here to do this not anything else…”

They, then, said: “Tell him: either your statement to change the safety of the people of the city into a danger region, which is against what Allah, the Almighty, promised in His statement where He said: ‘He will change (their state), after the fear in which they (lived), to one of security and peace: They will worship Me (alone) and not associate aught with Me’ (24:55) and we worship Him and associate no one with Him.”

Al-Dawaneeqi dealt with the citizens of al-Medina with such toughness and cruel manner. He set up a governor as an absolute ruler over the people. He was a person with addicted behaviours in committing sins. He did not respect the people of the city because of the superiority of establishing the religion, without which there would be no trace of him and his family, in that place.

Torturing the Alawis

Al-Alawis were under high pressure in the era of al-Mansour al-Dawaneeqi who was deprived from kindness and mercy as he did not obey any law or tradition. He was following his Umayyad brothers in keeping the Alawis under pressure and cruelty as well as tortured them. Al-Mansour is considered as the first Abbasidd caliph who separated between the Alawis and the Abbasidd who were considered as a single family.

The prophetic family was presented to all sorts of tortures in the Abbasidd era. The suffering of that era was much higher than the time when they were dealing with the Umayyad era to the extent that the following poem was stated:

We swear by Allah that what the Umayyad had committed before is tenth of what the Abbasidd are committing now.

Al-Mamoun had uncovered what the Abbasidd had committed against the Ahl al-Bayt (as), saying: “The Umayyad had killed a lot from them, meaning the Alawis, as soon as their swords were out and around, but we, the Abbasidd, killed them generally. We may asked the great person of al-Hashimi about the reason why they were killed; why they were thrown in Tigris and Euphonies Rivers; many were buried in al-Baghdad and al-Kufah.”

The Alawis suffered from various types of terrifying and horrifying. However the Alawis were the preachers of social and political justice in the Islamic world. They are the master of the believers, the pride of the human society throughout the history. Al-Jahhadh said: “They, the Alawis, are the salt of the earth, the centre of the world, the best of the nation, the honour of the Arabs, the pure of the human kinds, the decoration of the world, the beauty of the era, the blessed surrounding to live in, the mine of merits, the flag of knowledge and the faith of the faith…”

Only Allah (SwT) knows the extent of the pressure they had to undergo during the era of al-Mansour al-Dawaneeqi. The world was narrow for them as they tasted all sorts of cruelty and tortures and were disposed to all types of attacks. Below we will mention some of the troubles that they had to sustain.

Spying on the Alawis

When al-Dawaneeqi took over the power, he used all abilities against the Alawis. This happened because of the following two reasons.

First, he knew well that the nation was looking at the Alawis and they believed that the Alawis deserved the caliphate more than him, because of their valuable attributes such as patience, knowledge, mercy and kindness as well as being away from selfishness.

Second, he did not see himself deserving the caliphate more than the Alawis, because of his knowledge about attributes, such as stinginess, cruelty, betrayal and disloyalty manner. The people of al-Medina and the rest of the Islamic counties knew that he did not fit in the position of even a simple governmental role in the Islamic government.

He could be considered among the worst of the people. His malicious behaviour led him towards removing the Alawis out of his way even physically. The first thing he had done was to appoint a group of spies in order to stay informed about their news and affairs as well as to know the two Sayyid, Muhammad and his brother Ibrahim.

Therefore, he chose a man from his spies and wrote a pseudo-letter with the Shiite tongue in order to show that it was sent by them to abi Muhammad, indicating their loyalty to him and his two sons. He also sent an amount of money. The man was sent to Yathrib and entered to meet Abdullah and asked about his son Muhammad. He did not tell him anything about his son, but the spy insisted and kept asking him about Muhammad. After a while Abdullah was cheated and told him: “He is in Jaheenah Mountain.” He commanded a man, Ali, who is known as the blessed man, to lead him to his place.

Al-Mansour had an official who was about to be Shiite. He wrote to Abdullah informed him about that spy. When he read that letter, he instantly sent aba Habbar to Muhammad and Ali ibn al-Hasan, warning them about the man and that he was al-Mansour’s spy. Abu Habbar set off and informed Muhammad when he approached his place where he was staying in a cave with a number of his companions.

The spy was with them and was the loudest voice of all of the people there. When he saw aba Habbar, he was frightened and knew that his plan is uncovered. Abu Habbar addressed Muhammad, saying: “I have to tell you something.” He stood up and went with him and was informed about the issue. He was informed that the man was appointed by al-Mansour and suggested him to kill the man, but he did not agree on that plan.

Then when he suggested keeping him in custody, he accepted. When the spy noticed the danger that he would face soon, he escaped. They looked for him, but without any result. The spy passed a long path in the desert until reaching al-Mansour and notified him of all that went by.

Al-Mansour sent for Haqaba ibn Selm al-Azdi and told him: “I want you for something that I am involved in and I am still looking for someone you may be able to be that one. If you can make me feel happy about this, you will be promoted.” Aqaba said: “I will be pleased to be able to accomplish the need of the leader of the believers.”

Al-Mansour ordered him to hide himself and to keep the talk secret. He also appointed specific time to meet him. Al-Mansour said: “When the time comes, hurry to us. Our cousins, the Alawis, have started to plot against our kingdom and planned to assassinate it. They have some fans in Khurasan and the surrounding regions. They send them donations. Go there. Take clothes and a great deal of money and reach them unknowingly with a letter assumed to be written by the people of the village.

“If they drawback from their stance, it will be better for them. But if they are still insisting on their idea, be cautious and set off to see Abdullah ibn al-Hasan with humility and kind-heartedness. If he is against you, and he is, be patient and meet him regularly until he gets used to you in order to get what he is planning in the inside. Then hurry towards me informing me of what is happening.”

Aqaba went to Yathrib and went to see Abdullah and gave him the letter. He rejected the book and blamed him. He stayed there until his book and blessings were accepted and got used to him. Aqaba asked him for a response and he said: “Regarding the letter, I do not personally write a letter to anyone, but you are my letter to them. Ask them for peace and tell them that I am about to out for a revolution.”

He then appointed a time for the revolution. Aqaba returned to al-Mansour and informed him of what was going on in the ground. He became anxious and was pondering of what to do. He could not find anything better than to travel to Yathrib in order to conduct the destruction and abolition of the movement of the Alawis.

Arresting the Alawis

Al-Dawaneeqi waited till the time of al-Hajj came around and then he and his close followers travelled to the Sacred House of Allah (SwT). After the end of the ceremony of al-Hajj he returned to Yathrib and took Aqaba ibn Selm with himself who was the spy on the Alawis. He advised him before the trip with the following: “If I meet the sons of al-Hasan and Abdullah is with them, I will glorify them, respect them and eat from their meal. When we completed our meal, I’ll take a glance at you. Then, you come in front of his sight; he will turn his face from you. Then turn and point to his back by your foot’s thumb and make him see you in his full eyes. Then make him see you while he is eating.”

When al-Mansour reached Yathrib, the Alawis welcomed him and Abdullah ibn al-Hasan was among them. Al-Mansour brought him to sit besides him and sent for meal and ate together. Aqaba stood up and performed what al-Mansour commanded him and sat in front of him. Abdullah feared and told al-Mansour: “Help me, May Allah keep you in comfort…”

Al-Mansour shouted at him, saying: “Allah will not keep me in comfort if you I keep you in comfort…” Then he commanded to bind his hands with handcuffs and to throw him in prison. A group of the Alawis were handcuffed and imprisoned in Marwan’s house. A number of people were sent by the governor of al-Medina in order to warn him about the anger of al-Mansour and his revenge.

They asked him to inform them about the hideaway of his two sons in order to release him from the prison. He turned to al-Hasan ibn Zayd and told him: “O my nephew! I swear by Allah that my trouble is greater than the trouble of Ibrahim. Allah, the Almighty, ordered him to sacrifice his son. The reason was for the sake of Allah and Ibrahim said: ‘For this was obviously a trial’ (37:106). You came to force me handing in my sons to this man to have them killed while it is a sin. You know my nephew; I could not sleep on my bed, while you know that I sleep easily.”

It was obviously one of the most severe trials and one of the most hard-to-bear ones. He was fallen between a couple of trials without any rescue aid: either to stay in the darkness of the prison, bearing the difficulties or to inform them about the hideaway of his two sons and subject them to danger of being killed at the hands of this mean executioner.

He chose to stay in the darkness of prison and not to lead them to the hideout of his sons who aimed at freeing the nation from the government of al-Mansour and other similar governors, who were the symbol of cruelty and brutality.

Transferring Them to Iraq

The great Sayyids stayed in the prison of the cruel in Yathrib for three years. They suffered a lot from the tortures there. Their imprisonment raised the anger of the religious people and they started talking about them in their meetings and gatherings. The intelligence of the government conveyed the general public’s anger over the imprisonment of the Alawis. Therefore the brutal caliph decided to overcome this problem in that year after the Hajj.

At 142 A.H., he travelled for al-Hajj and after completing his Hajj, he returned and made his way to pass al-Rabadha. Thus he stayed there for a while. Rebah, his agent and ruler of Yathrib, received him and talked with him about the prisoners of the state. He also ordered him to take him towards them.

Rebah returned to Yathrib and took the prisoners out of the prison. He tied their hands with handcuffs and led them towards the mosque of their grandfather, the great Prophet of Islam (S) where people crowded around them with tears in their eyes and sadness in their faces. Rebah was cursing the prisoners and asked the people to do the same, but the crowd started to talk back at him and against al-Mansour, having mercy on the Alawis.

The Disaster of Imam al-Sadiq (as)

Imam al-Sadiq (as) was affected with sadness and severe grief because of what happened to his cousins. He saw the Alawis with their hands tied with handcuffs. Their faces became yellow and their bodies trembled. The Imam’s (as) eyes were full with eyes. He turned to al-Hasan ibn Zayd, saying: “O Abu Abdullah! I swear by Allah that the dignity of the Lord will not be kept from now on. I swear by Allah that the followers of the Prophet did not keep to their promises and the pledge that they had confessed at al-Aqaba.”

He then started to narrate the story of al-Aqaba for him, saying: “The Prophet (S) said the following to Ali (as): Take their promises at al-Aqaba. He said: How to take the promises? The Prophet (S) replied: Take their promises to prevent the Messenger of the Lord and his offspring whatever they avoid themselves and their offspring…”

If the followers of the Prophet (S) had an honourable stance on the Day of al-Saqifa and shook the hands of the Leader of the Believers, Imam Ali (as), the caliphate would not be that of al-Dawaneeqi and similar governors such as the Umayyad and Abbasidd governors. Neither the nation would be affected with the disasters and trials. Whatever the believers suffered in the past and what they will suffer in the future is the result of those terrible events that the believers were caught in after the passing away of the Prophet (S) directly.

Anyway, Imam al-Sadiq (as) was very sad and in grief in a way that he prayed the following against al-Ansar: “O the Lord! Have a severe power against al-Ansar.”

The Imam (as) had to bear all these terrible events and disasters. He knew the disaster that they had to bear. Therefore he appealed to his tears in order to reduce the weight of the problems.

The letter of the Imam (as) to Abdullah

Imam al-Sadiq (as) sent a letter to his great uncle, Abdullah ibn al-Hasan, expressing his consolidation condolence for the troubles he had to come over. He wrote the following after greetings.

“To the great man and the respected family of the uncle and the cousins. You and your family were alone in bearing the disasters and tortures, but you were not alone in having tears in the eyes, the anger of the hearts. I suffered from worry and anxiety in the same way that you had suffered. But I referred to what Allah, the Almighty, referred the real believers.

“It was what He told the His Messengers (as): ‘Now await in patience the command of thy Lord: for verily thou art in Our eyes’ (52:48). He also said the following to His Prophet: ‘So wait with patience for the Command of thy Lord, and be not like the Companion of the Fish’ (68:48). In another instance He, the Almighty, said the following to the Prophet, when he met the martyred body of his uncle, Hamzah: ‘And if ye do catch them out, catch them out no worse than they catch you out: But if ye show patience, that is indeed the best (course) for those who are patient’ (16:126).

“The Prophet (S) was patient there and did not punished those responsible. Allah, to whom belongs Might and Majesty, said: ‘Enjoin prayer on thy people, and be constant therein. We ask thee not to provide sustenance: We provide it for thee. But the (fruit of) the Hereafter is for righteousness’ (20:132).

“He also said: ‘Who say, when afflicted with calamity: ‘To Allah We belong, and to Him is our return’. They are those on whom (Descend) blessings from Allah, and Mercy, and they are the ones that receive guidance’ (2:156-157) and ‘Those who patiently persevere will truly receive a reward without measure!’ (39:10).

“Also Luqman said the following to his son: ‘And bear with patient constancy whatever betide thee; for this is firmness (of purpose) in (the conduct of) affairs’ (31:17). Also when Allah mentioned the following as what Moses said: ‘Said Moses to his people: ‘Pray for help from Allah, and (wait) in patience and constancy: for the earth is Allah’s, to give as a heritage to such of His servants as He pleaseth; and the end is (best) for the righteous’ (7:128) and ‘Except such as have Faith, and do righteous deeds, and (join together) in the mutual teaching of Truth, and of Patience and Constancy’ (103:3).

“The Almighty also said: ‘Then will he be of those who believe, and enjoin patience, (constancy, and self-restraint), and enjoin deeds of kindness and compassion’ (90:17) and ‘Be sure we shall test you with something of fear and hunger, some loss in goods or lives or the fruits (of your toil), but give glad tidings to those who patiently persevere’ (2:155).

“He also said: ‘How many of the prophets fought (in Allah’s way), and with them (fought) large bands of godly men? But they never lost heart if they met with disaster in Allah’s way, nor did they weaken (in will) nor give in. And Allah Loves those who are firm and steadfast’ (3:146). Additionally, the Lord, the Almighty, also said the following: ‘For men and women who are patient and constant’ (33:35) and ‘Follow thou the inspiration sent unto thee, and be patient and constant, till Allah do decide: for He is the best to decide’ (10:109). There were many similar examples in Quran.

“O uncle and cousin! You know that Allah, the Almighty, does not care that his good man suffers. There is nothing for Him more loveable than troubles with patience. He, the Almighty, continuously grants His enemies the blessings of the worldly life, otherwise the enemies would not kill and torture, horrify His elevated men while His enemies are safe.

“Otherwise, why should Zachariah and Jon the son of Zachariah be murdered cruelly and unjustly because of one of a whore among the rest of the whores. Why should your grandfather, Ali ibn Abu Talib be murdered? The same applies to your uncle al-Husayn ibn Fatimah. If these were not the case, Allah, the Almighty, would not have mentioned the following in His Holy Book: ‘And were it not that (all) men might become of one (evil) way of life, We would provide, for everyone that blasphemes against (Allah) Most Gracious, silver roofs for their houses and (silver) stair-ways on which to go up’ (43:33).

“If this was not the case, He would not say: ‘Do they think that because We have granted them abundance of wealth and sons, We would hasten them on in every good? Nay, they do not understand’ (23:55-56). By the same token, the following Hadith said: If the believers would not be sad, I would have created the disbeliever as a strong iron without any health problem at all.

“Similarly, if it was not the case, the following would not come in a Hadith: I worldly life does not worth a wing of a mosquito before Allah, the Almighty. If it was not so, the following Hadith would not come, saying: If there is a believer at the top of a mountain, I will send a disbeliever or a hypocrite to bother him.

“If it was not the case, there would not be a Hadith like the following: If Allah liked a tribe or a person, He would send his troubles and sadness forwards and would not overcome that sadness unless they are inside that sadness. Also, If it was not the case, the following Hadith would not come: There are not anything other than the following couple of two things that a believer has to taste: an anger to be controlled and a sadness which is overcame with patience.

“If it was not the case the followers of the Prophet (S) would not pray for a long age, healthy body and the increase of children of those who harmed them. At last not lease, if it was not the case, the following would not happen as when the Prophet (S) had his mercy and call for forgiveness on someone, he would achieve martyrdom.

“O uncle and my cousins and brothers! Therefore be patient and satisfied. Leave everything to Allah, the Almighty. Be content with whatever He plans and keep yourself submitted before His will. May Allah grant us patience and write a prosper ending and rescue us from destruction! He is indeed the closest. Allah’s blessings be upon His best creature, Muhammad, His Prophet and his family!”

The Imam (as) asked his cousin to be patient and used the verses of the Holy Quran, which were about patience as one of the most important means for human beings to tolerate the disasters they face. The Imam’s (as) heart was broken for all the troubles that his cousins had to bear, even though he believed that their struggle with the tyrant al-Dawaneeqi was not necessary. The Imam’s (as) role was similar to the role of the Prophet (S) away from emotional feelings which may be against the Holy religion.

Imam al-Sadiq (as) was highly careful to ask about the health of the sons of his cousins. Khallad ibn Ameer al-Kendi, the servant of Aal Hajar ibn Oday, narrated saying: “I entered to meet Abu Abdullah and he said: ‘Do you know anything about the family of al-Hasan?...’” Khallad said: “We have got a news about them, but we do not like to mention it for you…” “Then I added: ‘We wish Allah to give them the health,’ He was impressed and went on saying: ‘What kind of health do they have?!’ Then he wept and his voice became louder and we wept with him.”

The Imam (as) was aware of what was happening to his cousins such as disasters, which melted the hearts. Al-Mansour al-Dawaneeqi kept no kind of tortures unapplied on them and he left no curse unless attributing it to them.

In al-Rabadhah

The caravan of al-Alawis started passing the deserts. It was just three miles away from Yathrib when it stopped and they were taken down from their riding camels. Then the blacksmiths were brought and each one of the Alawis was cuffed. The cuff of the leader, Abdullah ibn al-Hasan, was very tight for his hands in a way that he sighed and felt the pain. His brother begged them to cuff his hands instead and it was transferred to him.

The caravan set off until it reached al-Rabadha where al-Dawaneeqi was staying. They were taken down from their riding camels while their hands were cuffed with the sunrays making them feel dizzy. Al-Mansour commanded to bring Muhammad ibn Abdullah. When he was brought there, he received him with curses and swears.

Al-Mansour whose family did not know anything as honour and were committing any sin, accused him of different sins. The brutal al-Mansour ordered his soldier to take off the Alawi’s clothes. They took off his clothes and even his private parts were apparent. He ordered his executioners to lash him while he was looking at him.

The lash was hitting his body and al-Mansour was happy. He was keeping himself happy by torturing the family of the Prophet (S). One of the lashes hit his face and he told the following to the executioner: “Keep your lash away from my face as it has a sacred nature because of the Prophet of Allah (S).” Al-Mansour turned to the executioner and said: “His head, his head…”

He was hit with thirty lashes and then al-Mansour ordered to tie a dog collar on his neck. His hands were also tied and he was taken out and made to enter where his brothers were. He looked like a Negro because of the lashes that hit his body. The colour of his body changed and blood was flowing from his body. One of the lashes targeted his eyes and it was away.

One of his servants jumped and said: “May I give you my clothes?” He replied: “Yes! Allah bless you! I swear by Allah that I did not feel any pain.” The servant threw his clothes on him. Muhammad, in that situation, asked for water, but no one gave him water except a man from Khurasan who gave him some water.

A short time afterwards, the mean al-Dawaneeqi reached there Abdullah ibn al-Hasan started reminding him about the superiority of the Prophet (S) when dealing with his grandfather al-Abbas when he was a captive and said: “We did not do that with you during the Day of Badr…”

The Abbasidd family rejected all the kindness of the Prophet of Islam (S) towards their grandfather al-Abbas. They returned that kindness with these sorts of cruelty and scorns. Al-Mansour turned his face from Abdullah and that statement hurt him. He then ordered to carry the Alawis to Iraq.

In al-Hashimiyyah

The caravan of the Alawis started to move in the desert without any stop. It was moving fast towards the graves and the dark cells in the prisons until it reached al-Hashimiyyah. Al-Mansour, then, ordered to imprison them in the prison where neither day nor night could be recognized. They put them there. They did not even know the prayer time. Therefore they divided Quran into five sections and they used to perform compulsory prayers whenever each one completed his part.

Al-Mansour ordered to bring Muhammad ibn Ibrahim who was a symbol of beauty and handsomeness. People used to go and see him because of his handsomeness. When al-Dawaneeqi came, he mockingly said: “Are you the one who is attributed as gold?’” He replied: “Yes.” Al-Mansour said: “I swear by Allah that I will kill you in a way that none of your family members were killed like this…” then he ordered to empty a cylinder which was built; he was put there and then that place was built on top of him while he was alive.

The policy of the mean and brutal person was such against the children of the Prophet (S) with various types of tortures. He left no scared for the Prophet of Allah (S) and his offspring and intentionally murdered them in a very fierce wild way, which had not happened earlier in the history of human genocide.

Among one of the crimes of the criminal followers of al-Mansour was that once al-Sayyid Abdullah ibn al-Hasan, the leader of the Alawis and their oldest one, asked for water. They did not give him water. Therefore they asked al-Mansour about this case and he agreed. While he was drinking, the mean villain Aboul-Azhar hit the container fiercely in a way that some of the teeth of Abdullah fell inside the container.

The great Sayyids were in the prison of this brutal Abbasidd caliph and they were suffering from the severest types of trouble. They were forced to use their place as toilet as the smell became unbearable. Some of their followers tried to bring some good smelling materials to ease smelling that bad smell, but they were of no help. Their legs swelled and the effect reached the heart.

Most of them died. Al-Mansour ordered to destroy the prison for the rest of them who were still alive. Therefore the majority of them died and among them was Abdullah ibn al-Hasan. Allah knows how they suffered, scorned and blamed. Human history had not seen any cruel governor fiercer than him considering all the human values and principles.

This event left a bad anger against the Abbasidd Dynasty. The Abbasidd fan broke the relation and relationship and betrayed all the kindness that the Prophet (S) had for their grandfather al-Abbas. They shed the blood of the sons of the Prophet (S) and committed the worst punishment against them.

This way the relation between al-Alawis and Abbasidd had come to an end. The Abbasidd became as the Umayyad were in their enmity against the Ahl al-Bayt (as), or the Umayyad Dynasty may be considered more honourable than the Abbasidd who divorced kindness and mercy and kept a long distance from the principles, values and moral behaviours.

The Confiscation of the Alawis’ Wealth

When al-Dawaneeqi arrested the Alawis and sent them to prisons, he ordered his agent in Yathrib to confiscate their wealth and servants. In the same way, he confiscated all the wealth of Imam al-Sadiq (as). However when al-Mansour died, al-Mahdi returned that wealth of Imam Mousa al-Kadhim (as).

The Revolution of al-Zaki Muhammad

Muhammad ibn Abdullah ibn al-Hasan was among the most respected Sayyids and was the pride of the Alawis. He had all the attributes of honour, superiority, knowledge, jurisprudence, bravery and generosity. He had gathered all the obtained and inherited superiority and was titled as the owner of a pure soul (al-Nafs al-Zakeeya) and the frank of the Quraysh. He also came from a pure Hashimi family well known for their honour and dignity. People called him as the Guide (al-Mahdi) the one whom the Prophet (S) heralded.

The narrators said: “He was like his grandfather, the Prophet (S) in appearance and behaviour. The people of the city believed that if it would be possible to have another Prophet after Muhammad (S), he would be the one to be chosen.” This narration aims at emphasizing his superiority and his great nature.

This great Sayyid had been elected by the majority of the al-Hashimi tribe while al-Mansour was walking besides him, showing his respect and dignity for his role as he shook hand along with his brother, al-Saffah, twice. After the grasp of the government by the Abbasidd and their dictatorship, Muhammad was severely sad and started to call people towards himself. The nation responded to his call and he stayed in a hidden place with this brother Ibrahim. Their preachers were travelling to different Islamic regions calling people to swear their fealty to Muhammad and to reject the government of al-Mansour. The regions accepted his call after they knew the malice of al-Mansour, his stinginess and brutality.

Abdullah ibn al-Hasan used to glorify his sons and used to call them to fight al-Mansour, saying: “If Abu Jafar prevented you to live in respectfully, do not allow him to prevent you dying respectfully…”

When the news came about the martyrdom of Abdullah and rest of the Sayyid Alawis and what happened to them as different kinds of tortures, Muhammad with his brother Ibrahim decided to declare their revolution on a specific day. Muhammad declared the case in Yathrib at a suitable time.

People, in their different social classes, especially the jurisprudents, came to swear their fealty to him. The people were positive about this pledging. His troops started to occupy the governmental offices in the city and they could take the treasury under their control. When the news spread, the people of Yemen and Mecca rushed to swear their fealty and faithfulness. Happiness and gaiety were spread out and the heavy crowd started to express their loyalty. He stood up ready to have his lecture.

Among what he said was the following. He started with greeting and praising the Prophet (S) and his family: “This man, abi Jafar, was the enemy of the Lord to the extent that he made his palace with a green cupola in order to reduce the respect of the Sacred House of Allah. He has taken Pharaoh as an exemplar when he said: ‘I am your greatest Lord,’ while the believers are the most deserving people to conduct this role and to lead the nation.

“O Allah! They have legalised what you prohibited and prohibited what you legalised. They felt confortable before those you warned about and feared those whom you recommend. O Allah! Reduce their number and get them out of this world and do not leave anyone as exception…

“O people! I never came out but from you! You have neither power nor will, but I have chosen you for me! I swear that did not come to this region except I was sure that I was sworn fealty.”

This lecture talked about the crimes that al-Mansour al-Dawaneeqi committed. Briefly, they are the following:

Building a green cupola, scorning the Kabah in a way that historians considered it as a sign of his crime and atheism.

Al-Mansour legalised what Allah prohibited and prohibited what Allah legalised. He was comfortable with those whom Allah warned against such as the thieves and criminals while he was not happy with those who were careful about their religion and duties.

The fealty for respected Sayyid Thee al-Nafs al-Zakeeya, was comprehensive and public as this fealty were taken from the entire Islamic region.

Anyway, when al-Mansour was informed about the revolution of Muhammad, he sent an army, whose number was estimated to be four thousand fighters. He assigned the general leadership of the army to Isa ibn Mousa. The army flooded to fight the great reformist who aimed at rescuing the Islamic world from the disasters of the cruel government and to return the policy of the Prophet (S) and the rules of Quran, again to the believers.

When the army of al-Mansour approached Yathrib, Muhammad distributed his army in avenues and streets, but before the start of the fight, he went on telling his army the following:

“We are here to get ready for the fight. We talked about the ethics. The army of the enemy is close to us and their number is very high. The victory is from Allah and the decision is His. It seems to me that I have to allow you to stay if you want and to live if you wish…”

This lecture was a disappointed lecture, as there was no hope of victory. That is why he did not motivate his companions to engage in the war. He did not use any sort of cheating and darkening to keep them inside the battlefield. He allowed his companions and army to get separated due to the large number of the enemy’s army. This kind of stance is among those stances, which no one other than the Alawis, who are the bearers of honour and dignity, take.

Those opportunity seizers seized the opportunity and left him alone, and just his real companions stayed. Abdullah ibn Jafar who is known as al-Aftah, came to Muhammad and said: “O my master! I swear that you do not have to power to face what you are about to reach. There is no one believing in the war. Leave here now and join al-Hasan ibn al-Muawiyah in Mecca as you realest companions are there…”

Muhammad, with all his honourable nature and dignity, said the following: “O aba Jafar! I swear by Allah that if I leave the people of the city with the killed! I swear by Allah that that I will not leave here until I kill them or I am killed. You are free to leave wherever you want…”

This great man did not leave Yathrib to be occupied easily by al-Mansour, as he was sure that the citizens would be dealt with cruelly in the same way that Muslim ibn Aqaba did with the citizens. It was for sure that al-Mansour was far more fierce than Muslim and more malicious than him. This great Alawi decided to stay in Yathrib and sacrifice himself for the sake of obtaining people’s safety and security.

The war initiated between the army of the two groups. After a very severe war between the army of the truth and the army of dishonesty, the great leader was wounded seriously and fell on the ground on his knees. The villain Hamid ibn Qahtabah ran shouting not to kill him. Therefore, they left him for that mean person. The vile Hamid ibn Qahtabah decided to do the crime himself. He beheaded Muhammad in order to present it to his master, al-Dawaneeqi.

This way a brilliant history of the Islamic Jihad came to end and the greatest reforming revolution in the Arab and Islamic world, which aimed at distributing justice, security and comfort among the people, reached its ending. The dreams of those free were destroyed. They lost their great leader who was their exemplar in fighting for truth.

The Revolution of Ibrahim

The great leader, Ibrahim ibn Abdullah who was among the flags of the revolutions in Islam, had the proper behaviour, ethics, and his soul was full of faith towards the nation. He moved towards the battlefields in order to free the nation from living as salves in lowliness. He aimed to achieve Islamic justice and the instructions of Quran.

One of his most striking attributes was his iron will. He did not soften by elements such as terrifying and horrifying. He was very much sought by al-Mansour, who sent many spies eyeing him. Ibrahim was able to sit even on the meals of al-Mansour without every showing.

This deed showed his bravery and great power. He was not thinking of escaping at all and did not give up because of the events.

Ibrahim declared his great revolution against al-Mansour in al-Basrah and the believers responded to his request and joint him. The governor of al-Basrah was Sufyan ibn Muawiyah who was among those believing in him and he was in regular contact with him informing him about whatever he got from al-Mansour. He helped him a lot in the affairs of the revolution.

Ibrahim occupied al-Basrah and sent his preachers towards Ahwaz, Fars, Waasit and al-Madaen. These regions accepted his call and swore fealty and the flag of the Alawis was swinging there. The news rushed to reach al-Mansour. He was highly frightened when he heard the news. Al-Hajjaj ibn Qateeba entered to see him and said: “May Allah continues his dignity and give you victory over your enemies.”

Al-Mansour said: “O Hajjaj! Ibraheen knew my problem and the difficulty that I am facing. This was what made him aggressive of attacking me from al-Basrah.”

In this statement, the dread and fear of al-Mansour from Ibrahim is apparent. He confessed that the majority of the farmers were with him.

As soon as enough number of people gathered around Ibrahim to form his army, he decided to fight al-Mansour. Some of his intelligent companions suggested him to stay in al-Basrah and see if they escape from the battlefield, he could send another group. This opinion had a strong professional background and he could win the fight if he would stay there.

But this did not happen and he listened to another idea from the rest of his companions who told him: There are group of people in al-Kufah who would lie without you if they see you. If you do not see them, you may lose this opportunity. Therefore he set off to fight al-Mansour from there.

Al-Mansour prepared his troops who were around fifteen thousand soldiers and appointed Isa ibn Mousa in the position of a general leader. Isa assigned the sinful criminal, Hamid ibn Qahtabah in the head of his army. Ibrahim also started his way, passing through the deserts without stopping. However he was disappointed because of his decision to come to al-Kufah. He understood that if he would stay in al-Basrah it could be a better result. Therefore, he changed his destination a bit and moved to Reba Khamra. He left al-Kufah because he was anxious of bloodshed of the innocent people.

The fight started between the two groups. The army of al-Mansour was severely defeated and the rest of the soldiers fled to al-Kufah. Al-Mansour was scared and he frighteningly told the following to al-Rabee: “What happened to the statement of their al-Sadiq (which means trustee)? How can our son be defeated here?” With his statement, he meant what Imam al-Sadiq (as) said about the victory of the Abbasidd in obtaining the government.

Al-Mansour was confined and he commanded to put camels and cattle at the gates of al-Kufah in order to flee from there. What was strange there was that the army of al-Mansour returned again after the fleeing because of running into a river. They could not cross it. The army of Ibrahim crossed the river in order to lead the fight from one direction, but when they were defeated there, the river did not allow them to flee.

Ibrahim and group of his followers stayed steady. Hamid ibn Qahtabah fought them and he was sending the heads of the opposite’s army to Isa. An arrow hit the throat of Ibrahim and he put aside his role there. He asked his companions to bring him down when he was saying: “The will of Allah was pre-specified and had to happen.” We wanted something and Allah (SwT) wanted another thing.

His followers gathered around him, carrying him and fighting without him. Hamid ibn Qahtabah said: “Keep attacking that group hard until forcing them to leave their stand.” They surrounded them and fought them from every direction until forcing them to leave the body of their great leader Ibrahim.

They came and behead his noble body and returned running towards Isa. When he saw him, he thanked Allah (SwT) and sent the head as a present to his master, al-Mansour. This way, this great revolution, which aimed at distributing justice, equality and rights as well as removing the cruelty and brutality from the nation, came to an end.

When the news of the murder of the great martyr reached al-Mansour, he was about to fly from happiness. He found himself completely alone in using the power and to fulfil his ambitions. He was eating a meal at that moment which he found delicious. Therefore he said the following to the people around him: “Ibrahim wanted to deprive me from this meal and the similar ones…”

The revolution of Ibrahim did not aim at the worldly desires and wishes. It aimed at attacking and abolishing cruelty and whatever al-Mansour’s government brought for people. It abolished justice and welcomed wrongdoings, which was a common habit from the Umayyad government.

The revolution of the great, brave Ibrahim wanted to distribute the blessings of Allah (SwT) among those needy and the poor. It asked for fulfilling the Quranic instructions in people’s lives. Al-Mansour al-Dawaneeqi who did not know what to do for his delight on murdering the offspring of the Prophet (S), addressed the audience in this gathering and said: “I swear by Allah that I did not see anyone better than al-Hajjaj ibn Marwan…”

Al-Maseeb ibn Zahre al-Dhabee, went on saying the following in order to show his obedience and sincerity toward him as well showing that they were more obedient than al-Hajjaj for their Umayyad masters: “O the leader of the believers! Al-Hajjaj did not do anything more than what we did. I swear by Allah that the Lord did not create anyone more honourable than our Prophet (S). However, in order to fulfil your command, in killing his sons, we did that. Did we disobey?...” Al-Mansour was bit from this statement and this was just like a thunder. He shouted: “Sit down! May you be taken away!’”

Everything became comfortable for al-Mansour after overwhelming the revolution of the Alawis. The tyrant caliph did not stop his tortures against those who remained from the Alawis. He started to get rid of them physically. We will talk about some of the tortures and punishment that he applied.

Putting the Alawis in the Cylinder

When the revolutions were overwhelmed, al-Mansour insistently kept the remaining of the Alawis in a Cylinder like place and them after putting a person there, it was built in order not to keep anyone alive. He once got a son from the children of al-Hasan who had a handsome appearance. He handed him over to a mason and commanded him to put him in one of those cylinder-like places and to build over it. He also appointed someone to check the accuracy of the process.

The mason put the boy inside the cylinder, but left a small pore for him in order to breathe. He said the following to the child: “Do not worry! Be patient! I will take you out from this cylinder when the night comes over.” When it was night, the mason came and took out that boy who was from the offspring of the Prophet (S) and told him: “Be virtuous with my blood and the blood of the worker who worked with me! Hide yourself somewhere. I brought you out in this dark night, because I feared that your grandfather, the Prophet (S), becomes my enemy at the Resurrection Day.”

He again emphasized to hide himself somewhere. The boy then asked to let his mother know in order to let her feel better. Then the boy escaped. The mason did not know where the boy went. The mason reached the house that the boy told him about. He heard the sound similar to the noise of bees, because of weeping. He knew that she was his mother. He gave her the secret of her son and then left her.

The Treasury of the Head of the Alawis

Regarding the topic of the treasury, it has to be mentioned that it was filled with sadness and grief. He filled it with the heads of the Alawis, the old, the young and the children. He ordered Reeta, al-Mahdi’s wife that al-Mahdi should not open its door till after his death. Al-Tabari mourned over this and said:

“When al-Mansour decided to go to al-Hajj, he sent for Reeta ibn Abil-Abbas, al-Mahdi’s wife. Al-Mahdi was in al-Ray before the arrival of abi Jafar. He told her what he wanted, took her promise and gave her the keys of the treasuries. He got closer to her and got her to swear for not opening some of those treasuries, as well as promising not to let anyone other than al-Mahdi know about this and at the time of his death. When that happened, she and his wife met alone without the presence of any other person. When al-Mahdi returned to the city from al-Medina, she gave him the keys and informed him not to open the gates and not to let anyone one know about this until the time of death of his father.

When the death of al-Mansour came around and al-Mahdi took over the power, he opened the gate while his wife was beside him. At that moment he was a great number of killed persons whose ears were carrying patches showing their identity. There were children, young people as well as the elderly. When he saw this scene, he was frightened. He, then, ordered to dig a hole and all were buried there. Afterwards a shop was built on top of that place.”

It is doubtless that someone who commits these sorts of crimes has nothing as belief in Allah (SwT) and the Resurrection Day. Al-Mansour, with all his actions and deeds, proved his atheism and infidelity regarding the religion. Anyway, al-Mansour kept that treasury in which he stored the heads of the Alawis, the offspring of the Messenger of Allah (S). He kept that malicious deed for a Day when neither wealth nor offspring can be of any help. It is that day, on which the cruel will bite his hand.

Alawis Asking for Mercy

The offspring of the Prophet of Allah (S) asked for mercy from this brute in order to take his hands off murdering and imprisoning them. But that rock-like conscience was not moved and he did not stop his manner in torturing them. Historians narrated that once when he set off towards the Sacred House of Allah (SwT), he was in the middle of path when the daughter of Abdullah ibn al-Hasan stopped that caravan and asked al-Mansour for his mercy by a poem that she read out for him. But the conscious of that ill-mannered person did not move and he gave her the following response: “O the daughter of Abdullah! You reminded of him…” Then he ordered to kill her and there she breathed her last breaths.

The savage king commanded to arrest al-Abbas ibn al-Hasan while he was at his door and his mother was watching him. Her heart was beating as a bird’s wings from the extent of fear for her son. The soldiers took him and she walked after him asking the soldiers to allow her to smell her son and to say goodbye to him, but al-Mansour’s soldiers gave her a fierce response.

He was taken to the prison and then to the grave. Allah (SwT) knows how the Alawis suffered from the disasters and troubles of this freak monster, whose nature lacked any proper attribute. He was the one who tried to have a genocide against the offspring of the Prophet (S) in order to leave him with the power and then the successiveness of his sons, who pursued the behaviour of their father in applying cruelty and brutality against the Alawis.

Scolding Imam Ali (as)

When the savage, al-Dawaneeqi, killed the two respected Sayyids, Muhammad and Ibrahim, he appointed one of his agents, Sheeba, to al-Hajj in order to talk badly about the Leader of the Believers, Imam Ali (as), and his great offspring, in the same way that the governors during the Umayyad Era did.

Therefore, Sheeba went up the platform while Imam al-Sadiq (as) was there. He praised Allah (SwT) and glorified him and then said: “Ali ibn Abu Talib divided the stick and the wand of the believers; he disobeyed the leader of the believers; he wanted this, the caliphate, for himself, but Allah hampered that wish for him and he was killed with his anger. Then those, the Alawis, the descendents of the Leader of the Believers used to murder people.”

He was speaking in the same way, until Imam al-Sadiq (as) address him saying: “Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the Two Universes! We glorify Muhammad and the Prophets. Now regarding what you said: From the good you mentioned we are in and from the bad and malice you talked about you and your master, meaning al-Mansour, are preferable.

“You! The one who rides on another person’s riding animal and the one who ate the meal of another one! Return with your sins…” Then the Imam (as) turned to people and said: “I’ll inform you one more shocking news and a more losing fact! I am talking about one who sold his next life for the worldly life of someone else, pointing to Sheeba.” The people asked about the person who talked down Sheeba and they were answered that: “He is Jafar al-Sadiq.”

It was certain that the intelligence officers of al-Mansour took that news to him. He started looking for an opportunity to have his revenge.

The Stance of al-Sadiq (as) towards al-Mansour

The stance of Imam al-Sadiq (as) towards the brutal al-Mansour was distinguished with hatred and anger towards him. He did not recognize his government as an authenticated government, because of the great number of sins and cruelty he had against the people and the Alawis. Al-Mansour tried to grasp his kindness for him and to take him as one of his close followers. He once wrote to him: “Why do not you pay us a visit as the rest of the people?...”

The Imam (as) gave him a clear response without ever considering his caliphate: “We have nothing to fear you for and you do not have anything from the next world to call you for; you are not in a blessed situation to congratulate you; you do not see it a disaster to solace you. So why should we come paying you a visit?”

The Imam (as) gave him a clear answer with a sharp rejection to his request for visiting him. His response was highly delicate and precise. He was not a bourgeois to fear about this lands and wealth from being confiscated if he did not visit him. On the other hand, al-Mansour was neither from those of the Hereafter seekers nor from those who were doing blessed deeds to motivate the Imam (as) to visit him for the sake of Allah (SwT). Al-Mansour tried to cheat the Imam (as). Thus he again, for the second time, wrote a letter to the Imam (as): “You can accompany us to advise us…”

The Imam (as) rejected his request, saying: “One who wants the worldly life does not advise you, and one who wants the Hereafter does not accompany you…”

The response of the Imam (as) represented a strong answer with doubtless demonstrated evidence. Because one, who wants the worldly life and its unwelcome blessings, and is connected to the government, does not reject what it does as cruelty and savagery, but he will be a supporter for its benefits and private intentions. On the other hand, one, who wants the Hereafter, he will escape from having any relation with the government fearing for his religion.

Al-Mansour was astonished at the response of the Imam (as), and he went on saying: “I swear by Allah that he has made those who want the worldly life and those who love the Hereafter distinguishable for me. And he is among those who wants the Hereafter and does not love the worldly life…”

The Imam (as) rejected any relation with al-Mansour and he got away from him with all means. How can the successor of the Prophet (S) have a connection with al-Mansour who was the leader of the brutality and heartlessness in the world?

Historians said: “Al-Mansour once asked Imam al-Sadiq (as) about the reason of the creation of the housefly, which was on his face, saying: ‘O Abu Abdullah! Why does Allah create housefly?’ and then the Imam (as) gave him a response without considering his position, saying: ‘In order to make the tyrants humble…’”

Al-Mansour was shocked at the response of the Imam (as) who took him away from the caravan of the justice and attached him to the brutal tyrants.

The stance of Imam al-Sadiq (as) was distinguished by his complete distance from the government of al-Mansour. He banned his followers from having any kind of participation with the government of al-Mansour or in any other tyrant’s government. Read what the Imam (as) said:

He said: “Woe to you if any of you become the enemy of your brothers favouring the enemies…”

He said: “If a believer complains from another believer and takes him to a cruel judge or king, and the sentence is delivered not based on the Allah’s rule, Allah will consider him participated in the sin.”

He said: “Whenever a man and his brother has a problem and asks another man to judge their case to decide over the problem, but takes the disagreement to them, it will be like those whom Allah, the Almighty, said the following about: ‘Hast thou not turned Thy vision to those who declare that they believe in the revelations that have come to thee and to those before thee? Their (real) wish is to resort together for judgment (in their disputes) to the Evil One, though they were ordered to reject him’ (4:60).”

He said: “The following three are participated: one who commits cruelty, one who cooperates and one who is content…”

He said to Adhafir: “I was informed that you are cooperating with aba Ayyoub and al-Rabee.’ How would you feel if you are sent for as the co-operator of the cruel?”

A man asked the Imam (as) about constructing some buildings and cleaning the river for the government. The Imam (as) said: “I do not want even to tie a tie for them. So, do not help them with anything; do not even fill the ink of their pens. The co-operators of the cruel are in a place full of fire until Allah judges the servants at the Resurrection Day.”

The Imam (as) tried to prevent his companion, and student, Younus ibn Yaqoub, from cooperating with the Abbasidd government even in building a mosque.

A follower from the followers of his grandfather, Imam Zayn al-Abidin (as) came to him and said: “O my master! What do you think if I talk with Dawoud ibn Ali or some other and get involved in a ruling of a region?”

The Imam (as) said: “If I were you I would not do that.”

The man retuned home thinking about the reason of the Imam (as) in rejecting this opportunity for him. Then he said to himself: “Does he think that I will make cruelty? I swear by Allah to the strongest possible faith that I will not oppress anyone and will just apply justice.” Then he went to the Imam (as) and said: “O my master! I thought of the reason behind rejecting my request. I thought you rejected that because you did not want me to oppress people or to have cruelty on them. If I oppress anyone or have cruelty on anyone, I will not marry a woman; I will free all my servants and such as such…”

The Imam (as) turned to him and said: “What did you say?” The man returned his oath, but the Imam (as) raised his head towards the sky and said: “Reach the sky, is easier than that.”

This was the stance of Imam al-Sadiq (as) towards the government of al-Mansour and the rest of the cruel government. The statements of the Imam (as) were derived from the essence of Islam that prohibited cooperation with the cruel and banned any participation with them in any kind of work. Allah, the Almighty, said: ‘Do not rely on those who made cruelty. Otherwise, the fire will catch you.’

The late Tawfeeq al-Fakeeki, one of the prominent figures of law commented on the stand of the Imam (as), which completely rejected any sort of cooperation with the government of al-Mansour and any other similar cruel government, saying: “The Imam had legislated a legal principle for facing an unprincipled policy. In the political language it is called social disobedience or the policy of not cooperating with government that does not respect the rights, mistreats the people, disrespects the legal contracts and agreements signed, dishonours the dignity of the constitution and the legal rights of the people by having cruel treatment with the help of wrong deeds that the brutal government appeal to as well as the imperialistic authorities, and corrupted rulers and governors for their mean and vain ambitions.”

Therefore, Imam al-Sadiq (as) has considered it a duty for the people not to cooperate with their cruel governors irrespective of their positions and ranks, from top to bottom. He banned conducting any sort of economical work. He also warned the doers of these tasks with wrath because of committing one of the huge sins.

Nevertheless, helping a cruel governor means the destruction of truth wholly. If such rulers are empowered, it would result in the appearance of cruelty and oppression as well as the abolition of traditions and cancellation of religious instructions. We do not want to talk too much about the nobility of legislation of this political disobedience as well as its benefits. It is the only successful principle that can politically face a corrupted policy and its abolishing consequences.

The reformers have no option other than this role to appeal to in order to force the tyrants and the brutes to give the rights of the nations and to fulfil their ambitions and wishes as well as obey the law, spread justice and respect the truth. Nobody other than those brave-hearted people, whose hearts are full of faith, can follow this rule.

They are those whose souls gush with steady strong ideology. They are patient people who are ready to sacrifice their precious souls for the sake of the freedom of the nation as well as obtaining their rights from the tyrants. Is there any other remedy that Imam al-Sadiq (as) can use to face the ill-manned policy of the Umayyad and the Abbasidd Dynasties? Certainly no!.”

Anyway, the stand of Imam al-Sadiq (as) was distinguished with severity in dealing with the government of al-Mansour and the rest of the cruel governments. It can be presented by rejection of any sort of cooperation as it was considered to be among the most severely prohibited affairs in Islam.

The Stand of al-Mansour in Dealing with Imam al-Sadiq (as)

Al-Mansour was full of hatred and anger against Imam al-Sadiq (as) in spite of the fact that he did not participate in the great revolutions, which were conducted by Muhammad and then Ibrahim against al-Mansour as well as not giving them any motivation for doing so. Al-Mansour knew this well, and he knew that the Imam (as) was far away from them in this regard.

The Imam (as) previously told al-Mansour about his caliphate and expressed his unwillingness for Muhammad to take over power. This had to be enough for the Imam (as) to be away from the malice of al-Mansour, but he was not so. The Imam (as) faced various kinds of cruelty and oppression. This may have resulted because of the following.

Imam al-Sadiq (as), in his era was the most intellectual and genius character. He was the number one scientific leader and the majority of the believers were following him with kindness and friendliness. By the same token many considered him the Imam and assumed obeying him a duty. He was the successor of the Prophet (S) who is the brilliant source of light in the world. What is clear is that there is nothing severer and harder to accept for the ill souls than seeing someone greater than themselves who is honoured with the respect and dignity of the population.

Al-Mansour al-Dawaneeqi felt the lack of appropriate attributes that qualified him for his sensitive dangerous position in Islam. In addition to that, he was not from a known family in the Islamic world. It was not a family with the same dignity of the family that fought from the sake of Allah (SwT) in the strongest possible way and supported the rights of the needy and those deprived in the world. That is why he declared war against the Alawis and physically assassinated them.

Cruel Actions

The greediness of al-Mansour and his desire for power, forced him to face the Imam (as) in the severest, cruellest possible way. Among those are the following.

Burning the House of the Imam (as)

The brutal tyrant commanded his agent in Yathrib to burn the house of Imam al-Sadiq (as), which was the house of wisdom, knowledge and awareness in Islam.

The ruler burnt his house and the Imam (as) hurried to extinguish the fire while saying: “I am the son of Abraham, the Fellow of Allah.” The Imam (as) was the son of the master of the Prophets, Muhammad (S) and the son of the father of the Prophets, Abraham (as) who made the fire cold and safe. The Imam (as) stayed sad pondering about the fire. When he was asked about the reason of his deep sadness, he replied: “I was thinking about the grief of the family of my grandfather, Imam al-Husayn when the criminal intentionally fired the tents in Karbala.”

Keeping Him Away from the People

Al-Mansour issued his commands to his agents to keep the Imam (as) away from the scholars and others, in order to not allow him to transfer his knowledge. Therefore, the officers surrounded his house and prevented people from entering to see him. This was very hard for the people, especially those elevated and those precise in their religion. It was a hard trial for them. The problem reached to the extent that if a question was to be answered and no one could answer it, the one who had that question, desisted himself from his family because of lack of expertise in Islamic instructions.

This was a hard problem for the followers of the Imam (as), until Allah, the Almighty, made al-Mansour ask the Imam (as) for something no one has. The Imam (as) sent him a cloth-based belt which was from the Prophet (S) and its length was that of an arm. He became extremely happy. He ordered to divide it into four and to attach it in four places. Then he said the following to the Imam (as): “I can give you no reward unless let you free in order to distribute your knowledge for your followers and I will neither prevent you nor them. Give your religious idea to them and do not be in a place where I am.” The Imam (as) started to distribute his knowledge among the believers.

Arresting the Imam (as)

After the defeat of the great revolution of the great martyr Muhammad, the al-Nafs al-Zakeeya and the revolution of his brave brother, Ibrahim, the tyrant al-Dawaneeqi, started his cruel behaviour against the Alawis. He ordered his agent in Yathrib to arrest Imam al-Sadiq (as) and the rest of the Alawis even those who were still immature and to carry them to al-Kufah.

They were carried there and kept there for a month without allowing them to see him. Then his gatekeeper al-Rabee went out saying: “Who are those two Alawis to enter and see the leader of the believers?” Imam al-Sadiq (as) and al-Hasan ibn Zayd entered. Al-Mansour looked at Imam al-Sadiq (as) with anger and told him: “Are you the one who knows the unknown?’”

The Imam (as) replied: “No! No one other the Allah knows the unknown…”

Al-Mansour went on with anger telling him: “Are you the one to whom paying tax is compulsory?’”

The Imam (as) kindly said: “O the leader of the believers! The tax has to be given to you…”

He turned to Imam (as) angrily saying: “Do you know why I invited?’”

The Imam (as) replied: “No!”

Then al-Mansour said: “I had decided to destroy your houses, dry your rivers, cut down your date trees and send you to an exile in a far region, in order not to allow anyone from the people of Hajaz and Iraq get in touch with you as it would result in corruption…”

The Imam (as) turned to him with kindness, saying: “O the leader of the believers! Solomon was given and he thanked! Job was thrown in trouble be he was tolerated! Josef was mistreated but he forgave! And you are from that generation…”

Al-Mansour’s anger calmed down and said the following to the Imam (as): “Repeat what you said…”

The Imam (as) repeated what he said and then al-Mansour said: “A person like you has to be a leader of a tribe. I forgave you and granted you something from the people of al-Basrah’”

His Intention to Kill the Imam (as)

The tyrant aimed at killing the Imam (as) when some of the agents came to him saying: “He does not see prayer accurate behind you! He does not see you qualified and never accepted you as the leader of the believers.” The tyrant was shocked and told them: “How can I trust you?’”

They replied: “Three days will pass and he will come to greet you…this definitely has a reason…” The fourth day passed but the Imam (as) did not came to greet him. Al-Mansour became angry and told al-Rabee: “O Rabee! Bring Jafar ibn Muhammad! May Allah kill me if I do not kill him…”

Al-Rabee slowed down in bringing the Imam (as). He was among those following him and thought that al-Mansour would ignore him, but al-Mansour was bloody angry and knew what al-Rabee had hidden inside. Therefore, he told him the following with extreme anger: “Bring him for me! May Allah kill me if I do not kill him and may Allah kill me if I do not start with you, if you do not bring him for me…”

Al-Rabee was frightened and hurried to the Imam (as) and reached him while the Imam (as) was praying in the great Mosque of the Prophet (S). Then he said: “O Abu Abdullah! The leader of the believers commanded something which is not on an easy topic.” The Imam (as) completed his prayer and departed with al-Rabee whispering something in a prayer. Al-Rabee understood some of it but could not understand the majority of what the Imam (as) was whispering.

The Imam (as) entered to meet al-Mansour and greeted him with his title as the caliph. The tyrant shouted and said: “How strange it is? You the double-faced; you the infidel; do you want to be in my place; you lied about me. Why do you consider a prayer behind me and greeting me false?...”

The Imam (as) turned and talked to him with soft delicate words in order to be safe from his malice, saying: “O the leader of the believers! David the Prophet was granted and he thanked! Job was thrown in trouble and he tolerated! Josef was mistreated and he forgave. They were all from the prophets and the great creatures of Allah.

“The leader of the believers is from the family of the Prophet and his origin returns back to Him and he has the most similar behaviour comparing to that of the Prophets. Whom has Allah granted the same chance as that of yours? Allah, the Almighty, said: ‘O ye who believe! If a wicked person comes to you with any news, ascertain the truth, lest ye harm people unwittingly, and afterwards become full of repentance for what ye have done’ (49:6). You have a strong faith.”

The anger left al-Mansour and he turned to the Imam (as), saying: “I witness that you are Sadiq (honest)’” Then he lifted the Imam’s (as) hand and told him: “You are my brother and my cousin. Ask me your request, the small and big ones…”

The Imam (as) answered: “I am astonished by your meeting and your speech about my requests, but I’ll think about it and will collect them for you, Allah willing…” Then he left him and al-Rabee was astonished and asked the Imam (as): “O Abu Abdullah! I noticed you were whispering something. May I know about what you were whispering?...”

The Imam (as) was reciting a prayer to keep him safe from the malice of al-Mansour. He said the following to al-Rabee: “My grandfather, Husayn ibn Ali, said: If someone fears a king’s cruelty or pride, he can say the following: O Allah protect me with Your Eyes which do not sleep; grant me with your mercy, which is not easily reached; forgive me with your power and do not let me die; you are my request; how great your blessings on me are, whose thanking on my behalf were a few; how numerous trouble you throw me in and my patience was not enough for them.

“O the One who does not deprive me in spite of the shortage in my thanking; O the One who does not let me down in spite of my impatience; O the One who does not uncover me in spite of watching my wrong doing; O the owner of the uncountable blessings and the owner of the mean which are always steady; in you I trust in pushing away the malice that I am in; and in you I seek refuge from his evil. O the most merciful of the merciful…”

Al-Rabee said: “I wrote the prayer. And from that time, the Imam (as) did not meet al-Mansour and did not ask about his request.”

It is from the disgrace of the world that al-Mansour, who was among the most evil people, met the sign of the Lord and the prominent intellectual thinker, Imam al-Sadiq (as) with these meaningless words and continued hurting and scorning him.

Giving up the Request of al-Mansour

When al-Mansour al-Dawaneeqi invited Imam al-Sadiq (as) to show up when he visited the city of the Prophet (S), Medina, he refrained from accepting that request. Al-Rabee narrated what happened to the Imam (as) while he was with him, saying: “When al-Mansour performed Hajj and reached al-Medina, he stayed up at night, called me and said: O Rabee! Get ready right away, be fast and if you can stay alone, do so and bring Abu Abdullah, Jafar ibn Muhammad and tell him the following: ‘This is your cousin reading and saying: Considering our house, in spite of the distance, our health, in spite of its problems, we are relative from a long time ago. He is now asking you for mercy.’ If he rejected your request, leave him with his decision. If he ordered you with something, let him be comfortable. Be kind with him and do not stay tough neither in speech nor in action.”

Al-Rabee went towards the Imam (as). He saw him while the sign of soil was on his face and cheeks. Al-Rabee respected and glorified him. When the Imam (as) finished his prayer, al-Rabee greeted him and the Imam (as) told him: “What happened to you?...”

Al-Rabee said: “You cousin coveys his greeting…”

The Imam (as) replied. Al-Rabee turned to the Imam (as) and informed him about the interest of al-Mansour in meeting him. He told him: “O Rabee! ‘Has not the Time arrived for the Believers that their hearts in all humility should engage in the remembrance of Allah and of the Truth which has been revealed (to them), and that they should not become like those to whom was given Revelation aforetime, but long ages passed over them and their hearts grew hard?’ (57:16)

“O Rabee! ‘Or else did they feel secure against its coming in broad daylight while they played about (care-free)? Did they then feel secure against the plan of Allah? But no one can feel secure from the Plan of Allah, except those (doomed) to ruin!’ (7:98-99). He also ordered him to convey his Hello to al-Mansour and then he stated his prayers again, but before beginning his prayers, he said the following to al-Rabee: ‘Seest thou one who turns back. Gives a little, then hardens (his heart)? What! Has he knowledge of the Unseen so that he can see? Nay, is he not acquainted with what is in the Books of Moses. And of Abraham who fulfilled his engagements? Namely, that no bearer of burdens can bear the burden of another; That man can have nothing but what he strives for; That (the fruit of) his striving will soon come in sight’ (53:33-40).

“Tell him: I swear by Allah that I feared you and our ladies, whom you know well, were frightened because of our fright. It is enough to bother us. Otherwise I will appeal to Allah, the Almighty, five times everyday. Once you narrated the following from your father who in turn narrated from his grandfather: The Prophet (S) said: The prayers of four people are responded by the Lord: The prayer of a father for his son; the prayer of a brother for his brother whom he does not see; and the prayer of an oppressed person as well as a sincere person.”

Al-Rabee said: “The speech of the Imam was not still finished but the agents of al-Mansour came looking after me, waiting to listen to my news. I returned and informed him with what happened. He wept and said: Return to him and tell him: the decision for meeting him is yours, but the ladies whom you talked about are safe. Allah will keep them safe and will overcome their worry.”

Al-Rabee returned to the Imam (as) and informed him with what al-Mansour stated. He said: “Visiting him is a duty” and then he wept and the drops of his tears fell down on his clothes. He turned to al-Rabee and told him: “O Rabee! The end of this world, in spite of its happiness and pride, is similar to the end of spring, when leaves are proud with their greenness. Afterwards, at the end, the leaves change. If one wants to advise himself and know the right of others as well as his right, he has to look at it, the worldly life, a look that shows the look of a person who knows his Lord, the Almighty. This way he will warn himself against a bad conclusion.

“This world has already cheated a group and they treated it with the most possible happiness, but their death suddenly rushed into them at night while they were asleep or during the day while they were playing. How can they get out of it and what did they become afterwards? Pain hurt them, regret surrounded them and forced them to taste the bitterness, drowned them in departure and loneliness. Woe to those who are satisfied with this. Haven’t they seen the destruction of their forefathers?

“O Rabee! Regret will be the longest! Its ugliness is the greatest! It is the worst business. If the proud look at the time of their death and the state of being hopeless from the former dreams, they will know that if they were given the longest years to live and try to fulfil all his wishes, what can they reach to other than elderliness? We ask the Lord for ourselves and you to help us in doing good deeds, to keep away from sins and have the insight to look at the truth…”

Al-Rabee turned to the Imam (as) with respect and told him: “O Abu Abdullah! I’ll ask you a question with all the dignity of the Lord, the Almighty! Is it possible to tell me how could you appeal to Allah and put Him between yourself and your worry? May Allah overcome the problem of an ill or the poverty of a poor! I swear by Allah that I mean myself in this regard…”

The Imam (as) raised his hands and set off towards his mosque and taught him his famous prayer, which is mentioned in the al-Sadiqeeya Book.

The Release of the Imam (as) from His Malice

The tyrant could not bear Imam al-Sadiq (as) who distributed his superiority among the people, who were talking about his scientific capabilities and unlimited genius. Therefore the tyrant decided to kill the Imam (as). Al-Rabee said: “Al-Mansour said: When we are in al-Medina, remind me about Jafar ibn Muhammad. I swear by Allah that no one except me will murder him. Be careful not to forget that.” Al-Rabee added: “When we reached al-Medina, Allah, the Almighty, made me forget about that. Therefore when we reached Mecca, he told me: “O Rabee! Did not I commanded you to remind me of Jafar ibn Muhammad when we entered al-Medina?”

I said: “O my master! I forgot that!” He said: “During our return from Mecca to Medina remind me about that, as murdering him is inevitable. Otherwise, if you do not do that, you will be beheaded.” I said yes and advised my servants and companions to remind me of this when we approach al-Medina. When we reached al-Medina, I told al-Mansour: “Should I bring Jafar ibn Muhammad?” He replied: “Yes! Bring him here dragging him.” I stayed in a frightened state.

Then I met Imam al-Sadiq (as) while he was in the middle of his house. I told him: “O my master! The leader of the believer is calling you towards him.” He said: “Okay.” Then he stood up and he was walking with me. I told him: “O son of the Messenger of Allah! He ordered me to take you towards him dragging.” He said: “Do what he commanded you.” I took his sleeve taking him towards al-Mansour.

When I took him inside, I saw al-Mansour sitting on his throne with an iron pole in his hands aiming to kill him. I looked at Imam al-Sadiq (as) and he was moving his lips. I stayed there looking at them. When the Imam (as) got closer to al-Mansour, he stood up, greeted him and said: “Come closer my cousin!” He took him closer and sat him on his throne. Then he commanded his servants to being perfumes for him.

The same atmosphere continued until he allowed him to leave. When he was leaving, he hurried to walk with him until he reached his house and then I told him: “O son of the Prophet (S)! I had not even a single doubt that he would kill you as you entered. I saw you moving your lips during your entrance. What were you saying?...”

He said: “Having Allah is enough for me over all other lords; having the creator is enough for me over all the creatures; having someone I can lean to forever is enough for me over all others; having Allah is enough for me as there is no lord other than Him; I appeal to the Lord of the great Throne; Having Allah, who is the best supporter, is enough for me. O Allah! Protect me with your eyes, which never sleep. Keep me under your protection, which stays forever. O Allah! I ask you with your dignity to save me from harm and to defend me from the malice powers around. Otherwise I will dead while you are my Lord.

“O Allah! You are greater than what I fear and what I am cautious about! O Allah! You are my help in keeping the malice away from me. I appeal to you from his malice and lean on you. O the protector of Moses from Pharaoh and Muhammad from the parties of the enemies. ‘Men said to them: ‘A great army is gathering against you’: And frightened them: But it (only) increased their Faith: They said: ‘For us Allah sufficeth, and He is the best disposer of affairs.’ And they returned with Grace and bounty from Allah: no harm ever touched them: For they followed the good pleasure of Allah: And Allah is the Lord of bounties unbounded’ (3:173-174), ‘Those are they whose hearts, ears, and eyes Allah has sealed up, and they take no heed. Without doubt, in the Hereafter they will perish’ (16:108-109), ‘And We have put a bar in front of them and a bar behind them, and further, We have covered them up; so that they cannot see’ (36:9).”

The Imam (as) turned to Allah, the Almighty, and begged him to rescue him from the malice of this tyrant and to protect him from any evil and bad. The respected Sayyid, ibn Tawous, narrated that the Imam (as) was armed with the following prayer when he entered to meet al-Mansour:

“I start with Allah; with Allah I succeed; I appeal to his Messenger (S) and with the Leader of the Believer I mediate for; and with al-Hasan and al-Husayn I get closer.

“O Allah soften its difficulty, and ease its sadness; attract his hearing, sight and the rest of sense and organs with his mercy and kindness; keep me safe from his anger, distress and soldiers; grant me the victory; save me with your widespread power; Gabriel on my right, Mikaeel on my left, the Prophet (S) in front of me and Allah, my master, protector, supporter and leader; the party of Allah are the successful; I kept secure, away, appeal to the name of Allah, the name of eternal divine monotheism; one who appeals to these will be protected. My Master is the One who sent the Book, the One who is responsible for those virtuous…”

Al-Rabee memorised his prayer and commented on it saying: “I wrote it softly and put in the cover of my sword. I swear by Allah that I did not fear al-Mansour any more after that.”

Al-Mansour with the Imam (as) in al-Rabathah

When Imam al-Sadiq (as) was in al-Rabathah, al-Mansour came to it. When he was aware of the residence of the Imam (as) in that city, he turned to Ibrahim ibn Jabala and told him: “Ibn Jabala! Go and put his clothes on his neck and bring him here by dragging him.” Ibrahim said: “I went out until reaching his house. I could not find him there. I went to look for him in Abi Thar mosque and I found him there at the gate of the mosque. I was ashamed of doing what al-Mansour commanded me to do. Therefore it took his sleeve and told him: The leader of the believer commanded on this.

“He said: ‘We are from Allah and our return is to Him. Let me have a two-bow pray.’ Then he wept severely and said: ‘O Lord! You are the one I trust in every misery; you are my shelter in every problem; You are mine whenever a misery happens to me; how great are the problems which weaken the heart and lack solutions, where the close people are let you down and the enemy rejoice over your grief; I have appealed to You and expressed my complains to You because of my eagerness to You rather than anyone else; You did helped me and took me out; You are the master of every blessings, the owner of every good and the One Who overcomes any trouble; therefore, the praise is due to You and You have the ultimate superiority…’”

The Imam (as) got in towards the tyrant who stayed sitting. He addressed the Imam (as) with cruelty and aggressiveness, saying: “You had one step forward and one backward, but I swear by Allah that I will kill you…” The Imam (as) was expressing his apology and saying: “Have your mercy! I did not hurt you…”

The Imam (as) announced his death, but al-Mansour thought he was announcing his death. Therefore he told Isa ibn Ali: “Ask him! Whether he is talking about himself or me?”

Isa asked the Imam (as) about who was the one who will leave life; he or al-Mansour? He said: “It is me who will leave the life and will have a rest from al-Mansour.”

The Imam (as) stayed in the corridor waiting for Ibrahim to thank him for the good he had for him. Ibrahim went through and joined the Imam (as) and found him staying there praising the Lord, saying: “Praise is to the Lord whom whenever I request, He responds, even if I am slow when He asks me; praise is to Allah whom whenever I ask, He gives, even if I am stingy when He asks me for borrowing; praise is to Allah whom I have to thank because of his merits and help, although my thanks were little; praise is to the Lord who did not leave me and granted me blessings and did not leave me to people to scorn me; O Allah! I am content with your favours and your power; O Allah! Do give me what You granted me to be used in a way You love; O Allah! You did not deprive me from anything, please make it good for me; keep me away from what I hate and make it good for me; O Allah! There were things hidden from my gaze; please do not make me hidden from your protection; let me not lose your assistance and do not deprive me from your attention; I was tied from things, do not let me be tried from thanking you; I rely on you; Allah is my Lord and this is enough for me.”

Sending after Him to al-Kufah

The brutal tyrant Mansour al-Dawaneeqi commanded Ibrahim ibn Jobala to bring Imam al-Sadiq (as) from Yathrib to al-Kufah. Ibrahim set off until he reached the Imam (as) and informed him about the message of al-Mansour. The Imam (as) turned to Allah, the Almighty, with his feelings and emotions and recited the following prayer: “O Lord! You are the one I trust in every misery; you are my shelter in every problem; You are mine whenever a misery happens to me; how great are the problems which weaken the heart and lack solutions, where the close people are let you down and the enemy rejoice over your grief; I have appealed to You and expressed my complains to You because of my eagerness to You rather than anyone else; You did helped me and took me out; You are the master of every blessings, the owner of every good and the One Who overcomes any trouble; therefore, the praise is due to You and You have the ultimate superiority…”

When the riding animal was brought close to him, he turned to Allah (SwT) and went on reciting the following prayer:

“O Allah! With You I start, with You I get success and with Muhammad (S) I turn my attention; O Allah scorn the sadness and every sadness; ease every difficulties; O Allah! Grant me from the blessing more than what I expect; keep me away from the malice more than what I am cautious about; You remove whatever you like and want and You have the Master Book…”

When the Imam (as) reached al-Kufah, he came down and prayed a two-bow prayer. Then he raised his hands towards the sky and went on whispering to Allah (SwT), asking Him to remove the malice of al-Mansour, saying: “O the Lord of the skies and what ever created under that; O the Lord and Creator of the two worlds, the spreading wind, the darkened Satans, the angels and their deeds; I ask you to praise Muhammad and the family of Muhammad and to grant me the best of this land, its best people and the best comings; and to avoid the closeness of evil and malice and whatever they have and the malice of those committing malice…”

Al-Mansour was informed about the appearance of the Imam (as). Therefore he called al-Musayeb ibn Zaheer al-Dhabee and told him: “When I Jafar ibn Muhammad came in and I glance at you, hit his neck and behead him instantly without any delay.” Al-Rabee hurried to the Imam (as), telling him: “O son of the Prophet (S)! This cruel tyrant has made a plan, I hate to see you in. So, do you have anything to say or anything to advise me with?”

He said: “Do not let that frighten you.” He let him know that he would be safe from his malice. When he wanted to come in, he said the following to al-Mansour: “O the Lord of Gabriel, Meekayeel and Esrafeel! O the Lord of Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, and Muhammad (peace be upon them all)! Look after me and do not let anyone of your creatures to have control over me with what I do not tolerate in this early morning…”

The Imam (as) entered. When al-Mansour met the Imam (as), his dignity seized him. His anger calmed down. He took his hand and took him towards his throne and went on asking for forgiveness, saying: “O Abu Abdullah! You effort is glorified! I asked you to come here to complain about your relatives! They do not visit me any longer; they express their doubt about my religion and asked the people to revolt against me. If anyone other than me, who is farther than me, has made this rule, they would listen to it and obey it…”

The Imam (as) went on calming his anger down, saying: “O the leader of the believers! Why do you want to be different from your blessed ancestors? Jacob was thrown in trouble but he tolerated; Josef was under cruelty, but he forgave; and Solomon was granted blessings and he thanked…”

Al-Mansour hurried and went on saying: “I will tolerate, forgive and thank…” Then al-Mansour went on asking the Imam (as), saying: “Tell me about a Hadith that I heard a while ago about visiting the relatives.”

He said: “My father talked to me on behalf of my grandfather and said: The Prophet of Allah (S) said: ‘Kindness and visiting the relatives are the building of the earth and the increase in the age.’” Al-Mansour said: “It was not that one.”

The Imam (as) said: “My father talked to me on behalf of my grandfather and said: The Prophet of Allah (S) said: ‘If one wants to forget about his aging and to be physically healthy, he should visit his relatives.’” Al-Mansour said: “It was not this one.”

The Imam (as) said: “My father talked to me on behalf of my grandfather and said: The Prophet of Allah (S) said: ‘I saw a relative in the sky complaining about the one who broke the relations and family visits. I asked Gabriel: How far they were from one another? He said: Seven generations.’” Al-Mansour said: “It was not that one.”

The Imam (as) said: “My father talked to me on behalf of my grandfather and said: The Prophet of Allah (S) said: ‘A good man was about to die and next to him was a man who was disloyal with his parents. Allah, the Almighty, said to the angel of death: O the angel of death! How long has been left for that disloyal man? The angel said: Thirty years. He, the Almighty, said: Transfer it to that good man.’”

Al-Mansour said: “O servant! Bring perfume.” The servant brought the perfume and al-Mansour kept rubbing it on the Imam’s (as) hands. Then he gave him four thousands Dinars and sent for his riding animal to be brought close to his throne. The Imam (as) rode it and left that gathering.

Al-Rabee said: “I heard the Imam saying: Praise is to the Lord whom whenever I request, He responds, even if I am slow when He asks me; praise is to Allah whom whenever I ask, He gives, even if I am stingy when He asks me for borrowing; praise is to Allah whom I have to thank because of his merits and help, although my thanks were little; praise is to the Lord who did not leave me and granted me blessings and did not leave me to people to scorn me; O Allah! I am content with your favours and your power…”

Then al-Rabee said: “O son of the Prophet of Allah! This tyrant called al-Musayeb ibn Zaheer and gave him a sword and commanded him to behead you, but I saw you moving your lips when you were about to enter. However I could not understand what you were saying…Then the Imam (as) said: It is not the correct time.” When it was evening, al-Rabee went to the Imam (as) asking him to teach him the prayer that saved him from the malice and anger of al-Mansour. Then the Imam (as) said:

“My father told me the following on behalf of my grandfather, saying: When the Jew and Fazara and Gatfan were incited against the Prophet of Allah (S), which was stated in the following verse, ‘Behold! they came on you from above you and from below you, and behold, the eyes became dim and the hearts gaped up to the throats, and ye imagined various (vain) thoughts about Allah!’ (33:10), was the severest day for the Prophet (S).

“He started going in and out looking at the sky, saying: ‘Even if you become narrower, you can bear me.’ Then he went out one night and saw someone, and told Hadheefa: ‘Look who is that?’ He said: ‘O the Messenger of the Lord! This is Ali ibn Abi-Talib.’ Then the Prophet (S) said: ‘O aba al-Hasan! Did you not fear that someone may hurt you?’ He said: ‘I granted myself to Allah, his Prophet and went out as a soldier in this night.’

“The Prophet (S) used to say: ‘O Allah protect me with Your Eyes which do not sleep; forgive me with your power and do not let me die; you are my request; how great your blessings on me are, whose thanking on my behalf were a few; how numerous troubles you throw me in and my patience was not enough for them.

“O the One who does not deprive me in spite of the shortage in my thanking; O the One who does not let me down in spite of my impatience; O the One who does not uncover me in spite of watching my wrong doing; O the owner of the uncountable blessings and the owner of the means which are always steady; in you I trust in pushing away the malice that I am in; and in you I seek refuge from his evil; O my Allah! Look after my Hereafter with my worldly life; and take care of my Hereafter with my faith; protect me with what I cannot notice; do not leave me to myself; O the One Whose forgiveness does not make Him less and the One whom sin does not damage him; I ask you for relief, proper patience, vast blessing, health from every kind of disease and thanking for all the blessings. O the most merciful of the merciful…”

Al-Rabee said: “Al-Mansour called me three times aiming to murder me, but Allah saved me because of the blessings of this prayer.”

Sending after Him to Baghdad

Al-Mansour ordered his agent in Yathrib to bring Imam al-Sadiq (as) to Baghdad in order to assassinate him. The agent fulfilled that command of al-Mansour. When the Imam (as) reached Baghdad, he was kept in a place called al-Hamr throughout the day. Late in the night, he sent for al-Rabee and told him: “O Rabee! You know my stance towards you! I will let you know something that even mothers of children do not know…”

Al-Rabee thanked him for his trust in him and showed him his utmost obedience towards his commands. Al-Mansour told him: “Go to Jafar ibn Muhammad and bring him right away in whatever situation he is without ever changing anything…”

It was difficult for al-Rabee, because he was among those who believed in the Imamate of the Imam (as). He was thinking to himself when he returned to himself: “This is really a damage! If I bring him to al-Mansour, he will kill him because of anger that I saw in him and therefore my Hereafter is gone; and if I do not bring him, he will kill me and the rest of my family and will take my wealth. I was thinking to choose either the worldly life or the Hereafter. At last I tended to the Hereafter.”

Al-Rabee commanded his son, Muhammad, who was a malicious evil person, to bring the Imam (as) in whatever situation he was. Muhammad set off and climbed up the wall of the house of the Imam (as) and found the Imam (as) praying. He had a shirt and a handkerchief. When he finished his prayer, the young man faced him with cruelty and told him: “The leader of the believers asked this.”

The Imam (as) asked to allow him to bring his clothes, but he did not allow him. Then the Imam (as) asked to go to the toilet, but the young man did not agree with this either and told him: “I do not let you change anything.” Then he took the Imam (as) out with bare feet in his shirt and handkerchief.

At the time the Imam (as) was in his seventies. When he passed part of the way, he got tired from walking. There he was allowed to ride until reaching the destination. When al-Rabee saw him, he was overwhelmed with weeping. The Imam (as) asked him: “Let me pray and talk with my Allah!” Al-Rabee allowed him to do so.

When he finished his prayer, al-Rabee took his arms and entered him to see al-Mansour. The Imam (as) was continuing his prayer at the moment. When al-Mansour saw the Imam (as) in that state, he faced him with more cruelty and the evil man shouted: “O Jafar! Aren’t you going to stop your jealousy, oppression and corruption against the Abbasidd family? Allah does not give you anything additional except more jealousy and misery…”

The Imam (as) was in front of that tyrant while expressing his apologies, saying:

“I did not do anything of the sort. I was in the era of bani Umayyad Dynasty and you know well that they were the most severe enemy to us and to you too, while they did not have any right to be so, but I did not oppress them and they did not get any hard from me in spite of their cruelty against me. The leader of the believers! Now how can this happen now with you, my cousin, who is the closest person to me considering the kindness and the most generous one to me?...”

The tyrant put his head down while he was severely angry at the Imam (as). Then he turned to the Imam (as) with malice and harshness and said: “You did it wrong and committed a sin…” Then he folded the cushion and brought a file of some letters, threw it to the Imam (as) and said: “These are your letters to the people of Khurasan, asking them to break their fealty and swear fealty with you against me…”

The Imam (as) strongly rejected that claim, which was attributed to him, and expressed the faked nature of these documents, saying: “I swear by Allah that I did not do this and it’s impossible. This is not my kind of religion. I am among those who believe the necessity of your obedience anyway. My age reached a stage that I cannot do this, even if I want. You can imprison me somewhere until death comes over as it is close to me…”

The brutal tyrant shouted at him: “No and never! No to any dignity…”

The criminal put his head down towards the ground, and then he hit the sword with his hand and drew a span out. Al-Rabee was shocked and said: “We are all for Allah! The man is gone.” But al-Mansour pushed the sword back and addressed the Imam (as) with his tough severe language that revealed his hostility and malevolence, saying: “O Jafar! Aren’t you ashamed at this age and with his family background to talk wrongly, aiming at separating the believers, wishing to have bloodshed and willing to create a problem between the nation and their masters?”

The Imam (as) replied, saying: “No! I swear by Allah that I did not do that. This is neither my letter nor my handwriting and nor my stamp…”

Al-Mansour was not satisfied with the apology of the Imam (as); therefore he drew his sword as long as an arm. Al-Rabee feared and said: “We are all for Allah! The man is already passed away. At the moment I thought that if al-Mansour ordered me to kill the Imam, I’ll take the sword and hit al-Mansour, even if that results in the murder of my son and I.

“But al-Mansour went on expressing his complains for the Imam and the Imam expressing his apologies. Then al-Mansour drew his sword completely and then he pushed it back. Afterwards he put his head down and brought it up again. Then he said: O Jafar! I think you are Sadiq and honest…”

Then he turned to al-Rabee and told him: “Take this container” and commanded him to dip his hands inside the container and put it on the beard of the Imam (as), which was white. It became black and he then added: “Carry him with one of my best riding animals that I personally ride and give him ten thousand Dirhams and follow him respectfully to his house. Let him be free whether to be with us or to return to the city of his grandfather, the Prophet (S).”

Al-Rabee went out and he was extremely happy with the safety of the Imam (as) from the hands of this criminal. Therefore, he turned to the Imam (as), saying: “O son of the Messenger of Allah! I wonder about the intentional intention of this man and the way Allah saved you from him. I know there is nothing difficult for Allah. But I heard you praying after your two-bow prayer that I did not know about. And I also saw you moving your lips in the palace and did not know what you were saying either?...”

The Imam (as) said: “The first one was a prayer for preventing agony and distress that I have not prayed it against anyone before. I considered it as a replacement for the prayers that I used to use after finishing my prayer. But the one which I moved my lips was the prayer of my grandfather, the Messenger of Allah, which he used at the Day of Parties, where the infidel parties and the enemies blockaded him.

“He was the believers, when Allah, the Almighty, said: ‘Behold! they came on you from above you and from below you, and behold, the eyes became dim and the hearts gaped up to the throats, and ye imagined various (vain) thoughts about Allah! In that situation were the Believers tried: they were shaken as by a tremendous shaking’ (33:10-11).

“The Prophet (S) had this prayer. Imam Ali, the Leader of the Believers, used to pray the following prayer whenever he is said: “O Allah! Protect me with the eyes that do not sleep; support me the principle that does not oppress; forgive me with Your power… O Allah no one is overwhelmed if You are his request. O Allah! You are greater and more glorified from what I fear and what I am cautious about. With Allah I commence everything and with Him I seek success and to Muhammad (S) I tend.

“O the One Who is enough for Abraham from Nimrod, and Moses from Pharaoh and what I am in. Allah is my Lord and do not associate anything with Him. The Lord of the lords is enough for me. The creator of the creatures is enough for me. The obstacle of the obstacles is enough for me. The One who stays forever is enough for me. My Allah is enough for me and no other lord is Him. To Him I appeal and He is the Lord of the great Throne…”

The Imam (as) said the following to al-Rabee: “You have asked me once about my land in al-Medina and offered me ten thousand Dinars, but I have not sold it to you. I hereby grant it to you.” Al-Rabee said: “My interest is in the first and the second prayer. If you do so, this is the real kindness. I do not need the land.”

The Imam (as) said: “I am a member of the family of the Prophet, and do not leave our good. We will teach you the prayer and will grant you the ground.” Then he taught the prayer, which is mentioned in the al-Sadeqiyah Book, and he also wrote a document granting the land.

Al-Rabee said: “Did you fear aba Jafar al-Mansour with what he had planned for against you?”

He said: “My fear is from Allah and no one else. Allah, to whom belongs Might and Majesty, was in my heart greater than him.” Then the Imam (as) set off towards Yathrib.

Al-Rabee said: “I found al-Mansour free and in a good manner, therefore I said the following to him: O the leader of the believers! I saw your anger against Jafar a kind of anger that I had never seen before against anyone. Not even against Abdullah ibn al-Hasan or anyone else. The situation reached to a level that you wanted to kill him. You drew a span of your sword, and then you pushed it back and started reproving him mildly.

“Next, you drew an arm from your sword, reproved him mildly and then pushed it back. Afterwards, you drew the sword completely and I was in no doubt that you would kill him. Finally, everything was gone and satisfaction returned to the extent that you commanded me to blacken his beard with the same precious material that only you personally use and to carry him back home with respect…”

Al-Mansour said: “Al-Rabee! Woe to you! You should not talk this way and hiding the case has privilege. I do not want this to reach the offspring of al-Fatimah and to be proud of this in dealing with us. The situation in which we are is enough for us. Nevertheless I do not want to keep this hidden from you. Look who is the house and send everyone out.”

Al-Rabee said: “I sent all out.” Al-Mansour said: “Return and leave no one here in the house.” I did so and then returned. He said the following: “Now we are just you and me. If I hear this story from anyone, I will kill you as well as your children, wife and the whole of your family and will take their wealth and property.”

Al-Rabee swore that he would not disclose it. Al-Mansour then said: “O Rabee! I was decisive to kill Jafar and decided not to hear anything from him and not accept any apologies… The most severe sword for me before that was Abdullah ibn al-Hasan and I knew this from the time of the Umayyad Dynasty.”

Then al-Mansour went on describing the reason behind giving up his plan for killing the Imam (as), saying: “When I wanted to kill him the first time, I saw the Messenger of Allah (S) who stood between me and him, opening his hands and with an angry expression. Therefore, I turned my face from him.

“When I wanted to do it the second time, and when I drew the sword more than that I had drawn the first time, I saw the Prophet (S) again but angrier this time and he got closer and I was sure that if I do what I wanted to do, he would kill me too. I held on for a second and then again I drew the sword.

“The Prophet (S) appeared again opening his arms and got ready, he was angry to the extent that he was about to put his hand on me. I feared and if I had done this, he would have killed me. They are the offspring of Fatimah (sa). No one can ignore their rights except the fool or one who has learnt nothing from religion. Beware no one hears this from you.”

Muhammad ibn al-Rabee said: “I did not talk about this even with my father until the death of al-Mansour. I kept not saying anything about this until the death of al-Mahdi, Mousa and Haroun.”

This way the proofs of the Allah, the Almighty, appeared to the tyrant regarding the descendent of the Prophet (S) and the Imam of the honest and the virtuous. He used to send after him from time to time and hurt him, because of his greediness for his kingdom and authority. He was well informed that the Imam (as) did not perform any operation against his government, what was the source of anxiety for al-Mansour was the fact that the Imam (as) had a huge background of national support and followers.

Additionally many part of the Islamic regions, as well as part of the companions of al-Mansour used to look at the Imam (as) with glorification and dignity. This was hard to bear for al- Mansour. He wished the whole glorification and dignity to be his without desiring anyone to compete with him on that.

This was part of what Imam al-Sadiq (as) suffered from the disaster and troubles caused by al-Mansour. He was among the most severe enemies and the most spiteful ones.

Imam al-Sadiq (as) and the Close Departure

The troubles and disasters continued to come one after another facing the descendent of the Prophet (S) and the head of Islamic intellectuality, Imam al-Sadiq (as), during the era of al-Mansour al-Dawaneeqi. He was the way al-Mansour applied his cruelty and criminality against the Alawis and their followers. He was personally included in the list of exhaustion and scorning.

The tyrant used to call him once in a while and faced him with curse, warning and horrification. He did not respect his scientific level, his old age and his allocation of time between prayers and the distribution of knowledge. The tyrant had none of these attributes. Therefore the Imam (as) was a hidden terrifying ghost for him.

Below we briefly bring the latest issues of the last parts of the life of the Imam (as) and his departure.

The Imam (as) Announcing His Death

Imam al-Sadiq (as) already announced his close death to people and that meeting Allah (SwT) was no longer far. Among those who were informed about this were the following:

Shahab ibn Abd Rabeh narrated, saying: “Abu Abdullah said: ‘How is it if Muhammad ibn Sulayman informs you about my death?’ I said: ‘I swear by Allah that I do not know Muhammad ibn Sulayman. Who is he?’ Once I was in Basrah with Mohamad ibn Sulayman who was the ruler of Basrah. He gave me a letter and told me: ‘O Shahab! May Allah increase your rewards and ours because of the departure of your Imam, Jafar ibn Muhammad.’ I remembered that talk of the Imam and wept.”

The Imam (as) informed al-Mansour about his close departure when the tyrant aimed at killing him. He said: “Be kind! I swear by Allah that I will not accompany you a lot.” Then he left him. Al-Mansour said to Isa ibn Ali: “Go and ask him about the whether he meant his death or mine.” Isa followed him and informed him about the statement of al-Mansour. He said: “No, I mean my death.” What the Imam (as) foresaw came to be true. Not a long time after that he passed away.

His Assassination

Imam al-Sadiq (as) was a disturbing thought in the mind of the tyrant, al-Dawaneeqi. Once he lost his tolerance and narrated the following story to his friend and secret keeper, Muhammad ibn Abdullah al-Eskandari. Muhammad said: “Once I went to visit al-Mansour and I saw him sad. Therefore I told him: ‘Why are you so preoccupied?’

“He replied: ‘O Muhammad! The offspring of Fatimah, who are near hundred, were killed, but their master and Imam is left…’

“I asked: ‘Who is he?...’

“He replied: ‘Jafar ibn Muhammad al-Sadiq…’”

Muhammad tried to keep him away from this thought, therefore he said: “He is a man whose prayer has left him no power. He is busy with Allah and is far away from seeking kingdom and caliphate…”

Al-Mansour was not content with that statement and he said: “O Muhammad! I know you talk about him and that he is your Imam, but kingdom does know anyone.”

Al-Mansour had appointed many spies around the house of the Imam (as), recording whatever came out from the Imam (as) to be sent to him. The Imam (as) talked about how he was suffering from tightening, saying: “Health became so rare that no one looks for it. If it is found in anything, it will be where people are careless about what is going around them. But if you want to seek it in carelessness, you will see that carelessness is not enough and silence is needed. The fortunate is one who can find himself alone to deal with it.”

All plans of the Imam (as) to manage to get rid of the malice of the tyrant did not work and al-Mansour decided on assassination, according to what was said, without appealing to apparent tools. Therefore he concealed a fatal poison in his water through the agent of Yathrib. When the Imam (as) drank from that water, he had an unbearable pain in his stomach and a feeling that his internal organs were being cut. There he believed that the last moment of life was coming through and that it was getting closer.

His Will

When the Imam (as) was close to death, he made different advices, among which are the following:

He left seventy Dinars for al-Hasan ibn Ali, known as al-Aftas. A person asked the Imam (as), saying: “Do you help someone who was against you?” He said: “Woe to you! Aren’t you reading Quran: ‘Those who join together those things which Allah hath commanded to be joined, hold their Lord in awe, and fear the terrible reckoning’ (13:21).”

The Imam (as) was highly regarding his religion to the most extent. He believed in all its values and purposes. He was completely away from emotion and sentiment in this regard. He advised for kindness towards a man who wished to kill him, because the Imam (as) believed that one has to be kind with his relative. This was what Allah (SwT) recommended.

He had specific wills, which made it public for the people, in which he appointed five persons as his successors: al-Mansour al-Dawaneeqi, Muhammad ibn Sulayman, Abdullah, his son Imam Mousa, his wife Hamida. He made this plan fearing the assassination of his son, Imam al-Khadhim (as), by the cruel authority.

The reason behind this became clear after his departure, as al-Mansour wrote a letter to his agent in Yathrib, ordering him to kill the successor of the Imam (as). The agent told him that the Imam (as) had appointed five and that he was one of them. Then al-Mansour replied: “It is not necessary to do so.”

He, in all his wills, specified his son, Imam al-Kadhim (as) as his successor and ordered him to perform and prepare all the funeral steps and to pray the death prayer on him. Additionally, he appointed him as the next Imam and let his close companions know about the necessity of obeying him.

He sent for his wife, Hamida and asked her to gather some of their neighbours and followers. When they gathered, he said: “Our mercy does not reach those who belittle prayer. Prayer is the main principle in Islam. So, that who adheres to it, and does it, is a believer. But those who belittle it, have quitted the boundary of Islam.”

Towards Paradise

Death was getting closer to the successor of the Prophet (S), the leader of the Islamic scientific and intellectual reformation and the symbol of the dignity and pride of the nation. In the last moments of his life, he was advising his family to adhere to proper behaviour and manner as well as warning them about disobeying the rules of the Lord.

He went on reading out some of the verses and chapters of the Holy Quran. Then he had his last glace at his son, Imam al-Kadhim (as) before the departure of his soul which was unique and remains unique forever.

The pillar of Islam passed away; the one, who utilised all these efforts in distributing knowledge and superiority among the people.

The leader of the scientific revolution, which has no competitor in all eras, passed away. He left endless scientific findings in order to lighten up people’s lives, make the truth apparent for them and lead them towards the light.

The death of the Imam (as) was among the dangerous events that the Islamic world was affected with in that era. The sound of mourning rose in the houses of Yathrib. People hurried towards the body of the Imam (as). They were all mourning, weeping for losing the Imam (as) which was a shocking event for all the believers.

Preparing for Funeral

Imam Mousa al-Kadhim (as), with broken heart and lost power, went on preparing the corpse of his father, while tears were flowing down from his eyes. He washed his holy body and enshrouded him with two Egyptian cloths that he used to perform his Hajj with, in addition to a shirt and a turban, which were from his grandfather, Imam Zayn al-Abidin (as).

Then he covered him with a cloth he bought. After preparing his body, Imam Mousa (as) performed the death prayer while hundreds of the believers were there. His holy body was carried with high glorification while the people were severely weeping and at the same time they were talking about the huge scientific capabilities of the Imam (as), which encompassed various scientific fields.

Afterwards, his corpse was brought to al-Baqee and he was buried there besides his grandfather, Imam Zayn al-Abidin (as) and his father, Imam Muhammad al-Baqir (as). His knowledge was buried with his holy body and whatever good attributes that human beings could be attributed with.

Praising the Imam (as) after His Death

The Imam (as) was praised after his death by different intellectual and political figures of that era, among those were the following:

• Abu Harira who praised the Imam (as) with his poems

• Malik ibn Ayun, who also praised the Imam (as) with his poetry

• Al-Ooni who glorified the Imam (as) for his unique attributes

• Al-Mansour al-Dawaneeqi: Al-Mansour al-Dawaneeqi praised the Imam (as) after his death.

• Esmaeel ibn Ali ibn Abdullah ibn al-Abbas said: I went to see al-Mansour once and saw his beard soaked with his tears. He said: “Do you know what happened to you family?”

• “The leader of the believer! What happened?”

“Their master, and their scholar and best one of them passed away.”

“The leader of the believers! Who is that?”

“Jafar ibn Muhammad”

“May Allah grant you the reward and extend your stay with us”

Then al-Mansour added: “Jafar ibn Muhammad was among those whom Allah said the following about: ‘Then We have given the Book for inheritance to such of Our Servants as We have chosen’ (35:32). He was among those whom Allah has elected and he was one who always hurried towards doing the blessed deeds.”

Al-Mansour was among the toughest enemies of the Imam (as), but he confessed the huge loss he and the believers had with the departure of the Imam (as).

Lighting up a Lamp in the House of the Imam (as)

Imam Mousa (as) ordered to light up a light to light the house that the Imam (as) passed away in according to the tradition. The light stayed there every day, until the Imam (as) was arrested in Iraq.

The Date of Departure

Historians have different views about the date of the death of the Imam (as). Some of the narrations are as follows:

He passed away in 148 A.H. This is the most well known date.

He passed away in 146 A.H

His death was in the month of Shawal and it was also said that it was in the middle of Rajab.

His Blessed Age

Historians and narrators have different views about the age of the Imam (as). Below are some of these views:

65 years old

68 years old

The Imam (as) spent his blessed life in distributing knowledge and science. He opened up horizons that people had not had any sort of knowledge about. His life had the greatest outcome for the people.

Notes

1.In Arabic, the two words cow (Baqarah) and discoverer (baaqir) are linguistically close to each other in reading and writing.

2.The aim of these sorts of traditions is to motivate people to know the real personality of these great people, who are the real teachers of the human being with their deeds and behaviour. One who goes visiting these great people will have to learn from them and behave in the same way that they did. That’s why visiting these shrines is so emphasized.