History of Aale Muhammad (pbuh) and Imam Ja'far as-Sadiq (a.s.)

The greatness and preciousness of this Imam is beyond the power of the tongue and the pen to describe. His high rank of knowledge can be imagined from the fact that Jabir Ibn Hayyan Sufi, who was one of his brilliant students, has described his sciences both orally and with pen extremely and written five hundred articles and treatises. Just see that only one of the Imam's students is such a big scholar. Then what a big collection it would become if the capabilities of all of companions and followers are counted together: Ja'far Sadiq, besides being the Imam of his time, was also an ocean of religious sciences and fountainhead of Quranic knowledge. Abdullah bin Abbas said, "Knowledge has been divided into ten parts and nine of them are exclusively with the Amirul Mo-mineen (a.s.) and the remaining one part is divided among all the other people." Now we say that the knowledge of Amirul Mo-mineen was bequeathed to the successive Imams till it reached Imam Ja'far as-Sadiq (a.s.) and by this time it had expanded greatly and all of it was in the possession of Imam Ja'far Sadiq (a.s.).

Shaikh Abu Abdur Rahman as Sullami says in Tabaqaat al Mashaayekh: "Indeed Imam Ja'far as Sadiq (a.s.) surpassed all his contemporaries. His religious knowledge was profound, his piety absolute, his control on the sensual desires complete and his manners in wisdom perfect."

The leader of Sufis and the Shaykh of Tareeqat, Baayazeed Bastami states, 'I have served ninety-nine teachers fully. Yet had I not seen Imam Ja'far Sadiq, I would have died devoid of faith.' Just imagine the rank of this Imam from this statement.

Allamah Dameeri mentions in Hayat al Haivaan, "Abu Hanifa Noman bin Thabit says, 'Once I went with Rabee to Imam Ja'far. He asked me, 'Do you follow conjecture (qiyaas)?' I replied, 'Yes'. Imam retorted, 'Do not base your verdicts on conjecture because the first one to follow conjecture was Iblees (the devil)." Abu Hanifa says, "The Imam asked me some questions but I could not give reply to any of them. So he himself explained the problems and said, 'in your head there are four kinds of liquid; one in the mouth, second in nose, third in the ear and fourth in the eye. Had conjecture been proper, the flavour of all the four should have been one because all are from one matter and origin. But we see that the flavour of each of these four liquids is different. For example, the water in mouth is sweet, that in the eye is sour, that in nose salty and one in the ear acrimonious." Noman bin Thabit Abu Hanifa says, "Imam Ja'far (a.s.), through divine wisdom, examined each and every one of the four liquids and explained their number and qualities. I was surprised by the knowledge of the Imam (a.s.)."

Despite this wide expanse of knowledge and wisdom of this great Imam, the tyrant rulers of the day came in the way of dispersion of the radiance of his intelligence. Therefore the unlimited benefits of his precious grace could not go beyond the circle of his progeny and close dependents.

Bayzeed Bastami was one of the students of Imam Ja'far (a.s.), who was the inheritor of the knowledge of Amirul Mo-mineen (a.s.). The saying that Ja'far acquired knowledge of his maternal grandfather Qasim bin Muhammad is not acceptable to intellect or to history. It is true that Qasim was a very wise and learned man. But since Ja'far (a.s.) was the inheritor of the knowledge of the Holy Prophet (s.a.w.a.), his being taught by any one who is not an Imam is not in any way acceptable to wisdom and intelligence.

Mansur Dawaniqi, who was the caliph in the time of Imam Ja'far as-Sadiq (a.s.) was always threatening and harassing the Imam. On one hand, he often imprisoned Imam (a.s.) in dark and narrow cells but on the other, he was awarding generously jurists like Malik bin Anas in Madinah and Abu Yusuf in Kufa. When Abu Hanifa refused to be a judicial officer in the presence of the Imam of the time, Mansur arrested him and ordered Rabee Hajib to give him one hundred lashes. Abu Hanifa died in jail under the impact of this punishment. Whenever Mansur came to know that a person had obtained a solution from Imam Ja'far (a.s.), he used to punish that man. And he forcibly propagated 'al- Mawatta' of Malik bin Anas, a jurisprudent of Madinah. The reason of this deed is obvious. The existence of the Imam and the spreading of his light of knowledge were deterrents to the lustful and unjust deeds of the greedy and cruel self-worshippers.

It is indeed amazing that the Shias who were forced to practise dissimulation (taqaiyyah), benefitted from the knowledge and wisdom of the Imam (a.s.) and enriched their books and actions with the decrees of the Imam. But unfortunately, the Ahle Sunnat, who were not forced to practise dissimulation, attached themselves to the likes of Harun Rashid, Mamoon, Mansur and Mutawakkil and could never do anything which was against the desires of the cruel rulers. For, they feared that they would meet with the same fate as Abu Hanifa Noman bin Thabit, who acted against the opinion of Mansur, was punished and killed in jail. Mansur asked Abu Hanifa to accept the post of judge. He rejected. When Abu Yusuf, a student of Abu Hanifa asked the latter the cause of not accepting Mansur's offer he replied, 'the religious commands like are like a deep ocean.' Abu Yusuf said, 'A deep ocean can be crossed with in a ship of exploration'. Abu Hanifa shot back, 'We are not the ships of explorations. It is the scholars of holy family of the messenger of God (s.a.w.a.) and its captain is Abu Ja'far Sadiq'.

Here, let me state a fact that really deserves a mention. The Ahle Sunnah scholars have written innumerable books about religious sciences. They have narrated a hundred thousand or even five hundred thousand hadiths and mentioned millions of literary works. But no tradition of narration of the holy Imams after Zainul Abideen (a.s.) has at all been included in them and not the slightest suggestion of their names.

In the books of Fiqh too, at thousands of places, we find the names of jurists (sic!) like Abu Yusuf Muhammad bin Hasan Shaibani and others but not even once do we read the name of Kazim, Sadiq and Reza! Are they not the members of the holy family of the Holy Prophet (s.a.w.a.)? There are nine thousand traditions in Sahih Bukhari and eleven thousand in Sahih Muslim we accept their correctness but from all these traditions not a single one is narrated from the holy Imams and in all these reports the names of Baqir, Kazim, Sadiq of the Aale Muhammad do not occur. Isn't it a pity? Concluding this discussion here, we leave the details to history. Imam Sadiq (a.s.) had five male children; one of them Ismail, died during the Imam's lifetime and is buried in Baqee. Another was Abdullah. He and Ismail were from the same mother. Then there was Muhammad Deebaaj and Moosa Kazim who, the legatee of Imam Sadiq (a.s.).

Adapted from: Analysis of the History of Aale Muhammad (pbuh)" by: "Qadi Bohlool Afandi"