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Imam Sadeq’s (A.S.) Lasting Legacy
By: Seyyed Ali Shahbaz
“O you who have faith! Obey Allah and obey the Prophet, and those vested with authority among you;” (Holy Qur’an 4:59)
Yesterday we celebrated the birth anniversary of the Almighty’s Last and Greatest Messenger, to whom the Creator had bestowed the final and most comprehensive heavenly scripture, the Holy Qur’an, as the universal constitution for all mankind.
As is clear by the above-mentioned Ayah, Divine Guidance did not stop after the passing away of the Prophet, or else the Qur’an would not have exhorted us to obey "those vested with authority among you.”
The commandment of God is not obedience to the Nimrods, the Pharaohs, the Caesars, or any of the emperors, kings, and dictators, who impose themselves on the people.
Neither does it mean obedience to the ungodly rule of the elected or nominated prime ministers and presidents.
Nor are Muslims obliged to obey the un-Islamic dictates of Sultans feigning religiosity, or for that matter those styling themselves as caliphs.
Then who are we required to obey after Prophet Muhammad (SAWA)?
For those with clarity of vision, the above cited Ayah is self-explanatory. It refers to what the Prophet had explicitly said and done on the commands of God.
One of the most vivid instances when God and the Prophet publicly vested as the person with authority among the Muslims, was the 18th of Zilhijja, 10 AH at the place called Ghadeer-Khom.
No one, not even the coup leaders of Saqifa Bani Sa’da who hijacked the caliphate after the Prophet, can deny that Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb (AS) was not proclaimed as vicegerent before a massive gathering of 120,000 Muslims.
The books of hadith and history, including those of our Sunni brethren, are replete with narrations that on numerous occasions, ever since the first public announcement of his mission as the Messenger of God, till his last days when paper and ink had been denied to him, the Prophet had made clear to the ummah the prime position of Imam Ali (AS).
But whose authority are Muslims required to obey after Imam Ali (AS)?
It is obvious that the Prophet not only referred to his two grandsons, Imam Hasan (AS) and Imam Husain (AS) as "Leaders of the Youth of Paradise” and "Leaders who should be followed (in this world) whether they sit or rise”, but also specified without mincing words that his Divinely-Decreed heirs number exactly TWELVE.
It was thus no coincidence, but Divine Providence, that the Prophet’s 6th Infallible Heir and the Reviver of his pristine "Sunnah” and "Seerah” (behaviour and practice) was born on the anniversary of his birthday, the 17th of Rabi al-Awwal.
Imam Ja’far as-Sadeq (AS) needs no introduction. Born in the year 83 AH on the 136th birth anniversary of the Prophet, he left the world, a martyr, in 148 AH at the age of 65, after serving as God’s authority amongst the ummah for 34 years that could roughly be divided into equal parts in the reigns of the Omayyad and Abbasid tyrants who claimed to be caliphs – although neither God nor the Prophet had vested any authority in them.
The first 18 years of his imamate saw the tyrannical rule of Hisham ibn Abdul-Malik, Walid II ibn Yazid II, Yazid III ibn al-Walid II, Ibrahim ibn al-Walid II, and Marwan II al-Hemar (literally the Donkey) – all of whom had no pretension to religiosity and were notorious for their open violation of the laws of God and the teaching of the Prophet.
During these years, the 6th Imam, despite facing persecution, especially by Hisham, took to new heights the academy of Medina that was founded by his grandfather, Imam Zain al-Abedin (AS) – the Survivor of the Karbala Tragedy – and consolidated by his father, Imam Muhammad al-Baqer (AS).
At its peak, the academy saw 4,000 scholars learning different branches of sciences at the feet of Imam Sadeq (AS) including the Father of Chemistry, Jaber ibn Hayyan, and the founder of the school of jurisprudent known as ‘Hanafi’ –Abu Hanifa Noman bin Thabet, the son of an Iranian Zoroastrian convert to Islam.
In the next 16 years of his imamate, the Prophet’s Successor shouldered a graver responsibility. First, after the overthrow of the Omayyads, there was the offer of caliphate by one of the victorious generals of the uprising, and the Imam whose authority was God-given, burned the sealed envelope of the offer in the flame of a lamp.
Next was the devilish plot of Mansour Dawaniqi, the 2nd self-styled caliph of the usurper Abbasid regime. Originally a follower of the Ahl al-Bayt, he had memorized thousands of hadith on the merits of Imam Ali (AS), but became a turncoat on assuming rule of the Islamic realm. He not only tormented Imam Sadeq (AS), whose God-given authority he had acknowledged in his days as a persecuted fugitive during Omayyad rule, but labeled the Shi’ites or devoted followers of the Ahl al-Bayt as "Rafidhoon”, which means rejecters of the caliphate.
Mansour’s next treason was to coin a new term "Ahl as-Sunna wa’l-Jama’ah” for those who had no idea of what the real Sunnah and Seerah of the Prophet was. It was a seditious act since no such sect had ever existed before in Islamic history.
In the face of such intricate plots, Imam Ja’far Sadeq (AS), as the Righteous Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) bequeathed to the seekers of truth the jurisprudence known as "Fiqh al-Ja’fari” which is actually the "Shari’at-al Muhammadi” in its genuine form.
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