Rafed English
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As regarding those men who exposed to al-Mamoon the reality of al-Fadl's conduct and the dangers it implied, they were terrified when al-Fadl tore down the assurances of and were written by al-Mamoon guaranteeing their safety against his wrath and revenge upon coming to know about their incitement and their support of what Imam al-Rida (A.S.) had said about him. Tabari says:

"When that became certain to al-Mamoon, he ordered preparations to go to Baghdad, and when al-Fadl ibn Sahl came to know about those preparations, he came to know only about some of them, so he interrogated them and even whipped and jailed some of them and pulled the hair out of the beards of others, so Ali ibn Mousa came to his court and told him what had happened to those men and reminded him of his assurances to them, and he answered him by saying that he was only tolerating."129

This historical text clearly tells us about the extent to which al-Mamoon went in avoiding a headlong collision with al-Fadl or letting him know that anyone had incited him against al-Fadl, especially since he came to know that he was harming the leaders who were pressured by him to speak the truth about al-Fadl, giving them written assurances that al-Fadl would not harm them. This text also tells us that al-Mamoon was the one who planned the assassination of al-Fadl which took place later as some assassins admitted to al-Mamoon face to face.

Notes:

129 Tabari, Vol. 8, p. 565

Adapted from: "Imam al-Ridha (a.s.), A Historical and Biographical Research" by: "Muhammad Jawad Fadlallah"