This 35-year time period–from 148 to 183 A.H.–namely the period of the Imamate of Abī al-Ḥasan, Mūsā b. Ja‘far (P.B.U.H.) is one of the most important and significant time periods of the lifetime of the Imams (P.B.U.T.). Two of the most powerful ‘Abbasid sultans–Manṣūr and Hārūn–and two of the most tyrannical of these–Mahdī and Hādī–who ruled in that period. Many of these revolts and uprisings and riots in Khurāsān, in African regions, on the Island of Mūṣil, in Deylamān, in Jurjān (Gurgān), in Shām, in Nuṣaybīn, in Egypt, in Azerbaijan, in Armenia, and in other regions and places were repressed and thus became compliant (munqād), and new conquests and booties and abundant wealth in the area of the south and the west and the north of the vast Islamic dominion had increased the power and the solidarity of the ‘Abbasid throne.
The intellectual and doctrinal movements of this period reached its climax and some of them were born and this mental atmosphere was filled with conflicts and an armament was at the hands of the powerful and a calamity in the Islamic and political awareness of the people and made the field constrained and complicated for the standard bearers of genuine Islamic teachings and the owners of ‘Alawite invitation.
Poetry and art, jurisprudence and tradition, and even asceticism and piety entered into the service of the lords of power and became the complementary tools to wealth and power. In this period, it was no longer like the last days of the Umayyad period, nor the same as the first ten years after ‘Abbasid period or like the period after the death of Hārūn, in each of which the dominant government of the time was threatened in a way; a serious threat did not shake the caliphate apparatus and did not make the caliph heedless of the circumstances of the Prophet’s household’s (P.B.U.T.) deep and continued invitations.
The only thing that could give the struggle and the intellectual and political movement of the holy Prophet’s household (P.B.U.T.) and their loyal companions the opportunity to grow and continue was the tireless struggle of these honorable Imams (P.B.U.T.) and resorting to the Divine method of taqīyyah (prudential concealment). It is in this way that the amazing and horrific holy struggle of Imam Mūsā b. Ja‘far (P.B.U.H.) became evident.
I must say that when the researchers of the history of Islam undertook the inquiry and explanation of the life of Imam Mūsā b. Ja‘far (P.B.U.H.), they did not allocate a merited share of attention and intelligence that should been allocated to the great and unparalleled event of the “long term imprisonment” of this magnanimous Imam and as a result they have remained heedless of the momentous struggle of this honorable Imam.
In the biography of that high-ranking Imam, talking about the various incidents unrelated with one another and an emphasis on the scientific and spiritual and sacred position of that progeny of the Prophet (P.B.U.H. & H.H.) and an account of the circumstances of his family, companions, students, scholarly and theological debates, and so on, would remain imperfect and unfinished without regard to the continuous line of struggle that has also taken up all thirty-five-year long Imamate of this honorable man. It is the description and explanation of this line that connects all the components of this gracious life to one another and provides a clear and perfect and directive picture which has a meaning in every phenomenon, incident, and movement.
Why does Imam Ṣādiq (P.B.U.H.) say to Mufaḍḍal, “Tell only those who are completely trustworthy about the matter of this young man’s Imamate?” And instead of speaking frankly, why does he use allusion to tell ‘Abdul Raḥmān, “The armor befits his body?” And why does he introduce him to close companions like Ṣafwān Jammāl with a hint and a sign? An finally, why does he mention the name of his son in his last will and testament as successor after four other people, the first of whom is Manṣūr ‘Abbāsī and then the governor of Medina and then two women; so that after the death of this Imam, a group of Shi‘ite leaders do not know that their successor is this twenty-year old youth? Why in a conversation with Hārūn, who address him saying:
«خليفتان يجيء اليهما الخراج»
[There are two caliphs in a country and people pay tax to both of them], he opens his mouth with softness and denial; but firstly, in an address to the pious and persuasively-speaking man named Ḥasan b. ‘Abdullāh he begins to speak about the knowledge of the Imam (P.B.U.H.) and then introduces himself as the Imam of “obligatory obedience”, meaning the holder of a position that the ‘Abbasid caliph of that day had the authority to hold?
Why does he order ‘Alī b. Yaqṭīn, who has a high ranking post in Hārūn’s government and is one of the devotees of the Imam, to do practice taqīyyah; whilst he reproaches Ṣafwān Jammāl for serving that very caliphate apparatus and enjoins him to cut off his relationship with the caliph? How and by what means does he create all those ties and relations in the vast territory of Islam, among friends and his companions and builds a network that extends to China?
Why did Manṣūr, Hādī, Mahdī, and Hārūn, each at a stage of their own eras of rule, resolved to murder, imprison, and exile him? And why, as is known from some narrations, did the Imam (P.B.U.H.) spend a part of his thirty-five-year period [of Imamate] in suffocation and in the villages of Shām or appear in districts of Tabaristan and why was he pursued by the caliph of the time and enjoin his companions that if the caliph asked you about me, tell him you did not know me and do not know where I was?
Why does Hārūn pay the utmost homage to that Imam on a trip to Hajj but orders his incarceration and exile on another trip and why does that Imam–during the early days of Hārūn’s caliphate where he adopts the method of gentleness and forgiveness and had released the ‘Alawites from prisons–give a description of Fadak [the oasis of Fadak was part of the bounty given to Prophet Muḥammad (P.B.U.H. & H.H.), who gave it as a gift to his daughter, Fāṭima] that complies to all the vast Islamic countries; to the extent that the caliph using allusion says to that Imam, “So, stand up and sit in my place”? And why is the gentle behavior of this very caliph, after a few years, becomes so cruel that he casts that Imam (P.B.U.H.) into a strict prison and then after many years of incarceration he finds tolerating him even as a prisoner so difficult that he outrageously poisons and martyrs him?
These and hundreds of other conspicuous and meaningful and yet apparently unrelated and sometimes contradictory incidents in the life of Mūsā b. Ja‘far (P.B.U.H.) will be interpreted and become relevant when we observe that continuous sequence that continued from the beginning of the Imamate of that honorable man until the moment of his martyrdom. This sequence is the line of the jihād (holy war) and struggle of the Imams (P.B.U.T.) that had continued throughout the 250-year period in various forms whose goals were, first, to explain the pure Islam, the correct interpretation of the Qur’ān and presenting a clear picture of Islamic knowledge and secondly, to explain the issue of Imamate and political sovereignty in an Islamic society, and thirdly, to endeavor and attempt to establish that society and to realize the goals of the holy Prophet of Islam (P.B.U.H. & H.H.) and all the prophets (P.B.U.T.), that is to implement equity and justice and obliterate [those taken as] the partners of Allah from the scene of government and to entrust the reins of government to representatives of Allah and His righteous servants.
Imam Mūsā b. Ja‘far (P.B.U.H.) had also devoted all his life to this jihād; lessons and teaching and jurisprudence and narration and taqīyyah and his pedagogy were for this purpose. Of course, his era had its own characteristics; so, his jihād also had some especial features in proportion to the time; exactly like the other eight Imams (P.B.U.T.), from Imam Sajjād (P.B.U.H.) to Imam Ḥasan ‘Askarī (P.B.U.H.) and each one or some of them, had his or their own especial features in their time, and as a consequence, they had their especial features in their own jihād, and on the whole their life formed the fourth period of the 250-year life which is also divided into some phases.
1989/10/18
