A Short Biography of Imam Jaffer As-sadiq(a.s)

Chapter 3 : Major Historic Events During the Times of Imam Jaffer Sadiq (a.s)

INTRODUCTION:

Imam Jafer Sadiq (A.S) was born in the reign of Abdul Malik Bin Marwan and was martyred in the times of Mansoor Dawanaqi. He therefore witnessed the reign of ten rulers from the Ummayades and two from the Abbasides. Imam Sadiq (A.S) took over as the Imam of his times from his father during the reign of Hisham Bin Abdul Malik.

To fully comprehend the problems and the prospects that lay in the way of Imam (A.S) in his obligations to serve mankind in general and the Muslims in particular, it is important to examine the political, economic and social climates during the kingship of these rulers all of whom were usurpers and blood thirsty.

The study of these monarch is also important in tracing the causes of the decline and the fall of the House of Ummayades and rise of the House of Abbasides.

The Last four Caliphs from the Ummayades

Hisham Bin Abdul Malik (104AH - 123AH)

We have briefly studied the rulership of Hisham when we were dealing with the biography of Imam Muhammad Baqir (A.S). Suffice it to say that, during the later years of his 19 years of reign, Hisham became extremely oppressive towards [mam Jaffer Sadiq (A.S) so much so that imam had to assume a lower profile in conducting his educational efforts.

Having ruled for 19 years. Hi sham died at the age of 53 at his estate in Rusafa on the banks of River Euphrates In his lifetime. Hisham had made an agreement with his brother that the latter’s son. Walid II would succeed Hishrun Hisham could not change this agreement, though he hated it, and was therefore succeeded by Walid 11 in 123 AH.

Walid Bin Yezid Bin Abdul-Malk Bin (I23-I26AH):

Robert Payne, the author of The History of Islam recognizes Walid as the "corrupt emperor". Syed Amir AH portrays him in these words: "….He waited impatiently to the death of his uncle. Immediately on receiving the news, he hurried to Damascus, and began his reign by driving out Hisham's family from the palace.

even the funeral rites of the deceased monarch were not allowed to be performed without indecent interference …. Suyuti described him as "Libertine, a wine-drinker, and a breaker of divine commands Masoodii in his ‘Muruju Zahab’ relates an incident when Walid opened the Quran and read those verses where Allah reminds faithfuls to submit to His will.

Walid was enraged. He tore the Quran into pieces with his arrow shoots and composed these verses:

Do you dare to threaten me in my proud rebellion? I am Walid -the most rebellious of Men!

O, Quran, when you appear at the Judgment Court, Tell Allah who it was who tore you to shreds. He organized drinking parties on the roof of the House of Allah - the KAB A. An illustration of his faithlessness is given by Amir AH who say, "Walid DL once indulged in a prank which greatly angered the religious people in the capital.

He sent to the Mosque, enveloped in his cloak, a beautiful lad of the harem with whom he had been entertaining himself, to preside at the Friday service in his stead.”

He continued his oppression against the household of the Prophet (S.A.W.W.S.). Yahya, Zaid's son, was killed mercilessly by the orders of Walid. Yahya's head was cut from the body and sent to Walid. Yahya's death, according to Ammer Ali, "accelerated the downfall of the Ommeryades."

His immoral behavior and his cruelty towards his own kith and kin made his own people turn against him. In 126 A.H., Yezid son of Walid son of Abdul Malik, rose against Walid H. Walid was killed, ironically holding on to the Qur' an that he had insulted earlier on, and his body paraded in the city of Damascus, where hitherto he had ruled as the Caliph of the Believers! His sons were put in prison and later murdered by the orders of Ibrahim, Yezid's (EH) brother.

Yazid (III) Bin Walid Bin Yazid Bin Abdul Malik Bin Merwan (126 A.H.127 A.H.):

Having overthrown and killed his cousin, Yazid El set to establish himself as the Caliph of the Muslims. But he ruled only for five months and died mysteriously in 127 AH. He was succeeded by his brother Ibrahim.

None but the people of Damascus only recognized him and his rulership survived only for two months. Merwan bin Mohammad, the grandson of Merwan bin Hakam, the founder of the Merwani dynasty, rose against Ibrahim. Ameer Ali describes the events of that time thus: "Demascus was now in a terrible state of anarchy and confusion, and the arrival of Merwan was welcomed by the respectable citizenry. He was immediately proclaimed Caliph..."

Merwan (II) Bin Muhammad (127 - 132 AH,) He was the grandson of the founder of the Hakamite dynasty, Merwan Bin Hakam. Before being Caliph, he was governor of Armenia and had shown remarkable skills at suppressing rebellions from the north. His enormous powers of endurance earned him the nickname of al-Himar, the ass, not as an insult but as an acknowledgement of his great physical strength.

His life was simple and spent mostly with his soldiers. Though quite advanced in age - he was over sixty - he still possessed the physical powers found rarely in soldiers of his age.

However, as Amir Ali rightly observes, much more than mere soldiets qualities were required to save the Ommeyad power from destruction. His obstinacy, his bad temper, and above all, his hatred for the Yemenites paved his downfall.

No sooner had he taken over the Caliphate, then they were uprisings in Hems and Palestine. In Iraq, the Kharijis were rebelling against the government.

Rather than focus on fixing the damages done by his predecessors, Merwan had to spend his time and energy putting down rebellions at, Hems, Palestine, Iraq and Hijaz, thereby not only arousing more hatred in the hearts of people against the Ummayed regime, but also weakening his abilities to deal with "the enemies of the State" in the garb of the Abbasides.

In the following chapter, we shall look in some details those people or a group of people who constituted "the enemies of the state" and the steps that they took to benefit out of the state of anarchy that had discended upon the I Smmayde rulership at the time when Merwan al Himar had come to power.

It was at this time that in Khurasan there was an open war declared in the name of "AHLUl -BAY'P to replace the Ummayade regime. This outcry was raised by a man by the name of Abu Muslim, who was none other than a military agent of Ibrahim Bin Muhammad Bin Ali Bin Ibne Abbas. We shall learn more about their personalities in chapter 4.

The main motto of Abu Muslim was that the Ummayades were oppressors and usurpers. The right to rule belonged to "Ahlul Bayt,'" the immediate family of the Prophet Not only were the Ummayades usurpers, they were heinous as shown by the way they spilled the blood of the grandchildren of the Prophet.

They cited the examples of the martyrs of Kerbala and more recent murders of Zaid Bin AH and his son Yahya.

People were urged to rise and march to overthrow the usurpers. To win the confidence of the people, the dress code used by Abu Muslim was that used to mourn the martyrs - black.

The majority of the supporters of Abut Muslim were those who were the sympathizers of the children and grandchildren of Imam Ali (A.S); all along they were made to believe that these grandchildren of the Prophet (S.A.W.W) would be made the rulers to replace the Ummaydes.

However, what many people did not realize at that time was that there was a hidden motive behind this revolution, namely that the name of Ahlul Bayt was being used by the family ol Abbas and then conspirators who were planning 10 take over the Caliphate for themselves when the opportune moment arrived

I his agenda was not know even to such a prominent member of this movement as Abu Salnia about whom we shall learnt if the next chapter As a matter of fact it was during these crucial moments that oath of allegiance was taken in the name of Muhammad NafseZakkiyah in Medina.

By AH 132, Khorsan had fallen totalK in the hands M Abu Muslim, and his force under trie command of Hassan bin Kahtaba, now marched into Iraq and captured Kufa.

In response to these losses, Merwan arrested Ibrahmi who was in constant touch with Abu Muslim, and got him killed. Ibrahim's brother Abu Abass (saffah) and Abu Jaffer (Mansoor) escaped to Kufa. They stayed there till AH 132 when Abu Abbas was declared the Caliph of the Musiinv.

This forced Merwan to march against the advancing force of the Abbasides, A fierce battle was fought at Zab where Marwan was defeated and he fled Soon the entire M us!

ini Empire fell into the hands of the Abbasides Merwan was caught and killed while he was still on the run. With Merwan ended the 90 years of the tyrannical rule of the House of Ummayades and began the rulership of the tyrannical house of Abbas -the Abbasides.

The First Two Caliphs Ffrom The House Of Abbas

Abu Abbas (132 AH -136 AH)

We have noted that Abu Abbas became the Caliph even before the end of the Ommayad dynast under the last caliphate of Merwan Bin Muhammad. With the murder of Merwan, the Ummayade Dynasty ended except in Spam where a grandson of Hi sham, by the name of Abdul Rehman, continued to rule independent from the Abbaside Caliphs in Baghdad.

Abu Abbas was known for his wild temper and vengeance. He showed no mercy to his enemies. He spared the life of none who belonged to the House of Ummayades. He shed so much blood that he came to be known as the "Shedder of Blood" He showed no mercy even to the dead.

Graves of the Ummayade Caliphs were desecrated; whatever that was left of the dead was dug out and burnt into ashes. He is supposed to have an executioner standing next to him, ready to be ordered to execute an unsuspecting victim. Among his renowned poetry are these lines: Our sword are dripping with blood.

And the hands of our enemies are broken to fragments, Like Smashed ostrich eggs.

He shifted his capital from Damascus (Syria) to Hashimyah in Northern Iraq. He appointed his own relatives and close friends to the major government jobs and named his brother, Abu Jaffer, as his successor.

Having ruled for four years he died from small pox. Fearing that his dead body would meet the same fate as the one he meted out to his enemies, his last instructions were that his grave site be kept secret.

Abu Jaffer (Al-Mansoor) (136 - 158 AH):

Abu Jaffer succeeded his brother Abu Abbass (Saffah) as the Caliph in 136AH He ruled for 22 years, and was truly the founder of the House of Abbas, the Bam Abbas or the Abbasides. He was shrewd and unscrupulous He trusted none and would spare the life of no one whom he suspected to be a threat to his rulership. We noticed how he arranged the killing of his loyal supporters such as Abu Muslim.

He got murdered his own Uncle Abdullah Bin Abbas who was one of the persons who fought hard against the Ummayades. Not trusting the people of Kufa, he shifted his capital from Hashimia, to a new capital that he built himself at what is now known as of Baghdad.

It is said that he modeled Baghdad on the description of the Paradise as described in the Quran. According to the historian Tabari, it cost the Treasury 4,800,033 Dirhams to build [Baghdad - a colossal sum of money, in those days.

Though Abu Jaffer named himself "Mansoor" - the victorious, historians know him as Mansoor "Dawanaki" -Mansoor "the father of the farthings"! This is because he was very stingy when it came to spend money.

Tabari described one such incident in his Tarikh - AI Rasul wal Mulak. The governor of Barasama had finished his tenure n office but Viansoor did not want to reward him anything so he used an excuse that the governor had misappropriated funds while in office.

The governor in his defense argued and swore in the name of Allah that he had on him only one dirham which he has kept to pay his passage to his home Mansoor responded: "I do not doubt that you are idling the truth. Give us our dirham.” Tabari concludes, “Al Mansoor only treated him harshly in order not to give him anything.”

However, when it came to his own relatives, Mansoor was very generous. According to Tabari, in one day Mansoor distributed to a group of his family ten million dirhams, and gave one of his uncles alone one million dinars. Tabari says “we do not know of any Caliph after him who conferred that on a single person.” Some of ms cousins such as Suleman. Isa. Saleh and Ismail (sons of Mi bin Abdullah Bin Abbas) were each given a salary of a million dinar.

By the same token he treated himself with regal indulgence. Tabari again tell us that Mansur had extend into a written contract with his first wife, Umm Musa, that he would not have in his “haram any other women in her lifetime. When Umm Musa died, Mansoor spent that night in company of one hundred virgins!.

Shamlessly, he praised those rulers from the Ummayade who had committed acts of crime against Muslims. For example, he spoke highly of Hayaj Bin Yusuf, who was responsible for spilling the blood of thousands of Muslims.

Tabari tells us that when one of Mansoor's courtiers complained saying,"... I did not think that I would like ;o see the day when al-Haiiaj would be discussed in your house…”, Monsoor replied, " Why do you disapprove of (hat^ He was a man whom people trusted with power, and he served them well.

I would be happy, by God, if 1 could find a man like Hajjaj so that 1 could hand over my responsibilities to him and settle him in one of the two Harems (Mecca and Medina)..." You can now imagine how hard it must have been for Imam Jaffer Sadiq (AS) to have served the Muslim community7 during the reign of this tyrant.

As a matter of fact, Mansoor was after Imam (A.S) and had him called to Iraq several times with the main object of killing him. It was Allah's protection exclusively that protected the Imam (A.S)

A man by the name of Muhammed Bin Abdullah Iskandari reports: "'One day 1 went to meet Mansoor and found him worried and sad. 1 asked for the reason. Mansoor told me that whereas he had succeeded in killing hundreds of the members from the progeny of the Prophet, he still had not been able to kill the head of the house, meaning Imam Jaffer Sadiq (A.S)”. Muhammad inquired as to why would Mansoor want to kill the imam who was the best person of the times.

Mansoor acknowledged Imam's greatness and innocence. Nevertheless, he regarded Imam (A.S) as his main cause of worry. Mansoor then sent for the Imam and instructed his executioner to await for instructions to behead the Imam (A.S). However, when the Imam (A.S) came to Mansoor, the latter’s entire attitude changed.

He showed excessive respect towards the Imam (A.S) and expressed apologies for disturbing the Imam (A.S) at this tune of the night. He asked the Imam if he needed any thing from him. The Imam (A.S) replied that the best things that Mansoor could do for him w7as to leave him alone.

This Mansoor promised to do and he let the Imam (A.S) go home. Then narrator says that after the Imam's departure, he asked Mansoor as to why he had spared the Imam's life though he had called the Imam (A.S) for no other reason than to kill him.

Mansoor explained that with the Imam, appeared 4 huge serpent, which warned Mansoor that should he do any harm to the Imam (A.S), the serpent would devour him. Fearing for his own life, Mansoor let the Imam go unharmed.

Mansoor made several such efforts to harm the Imam (A.S) but he failed. Finally, he got the Imam (A.S) poisoned in Medina through the Governor of Medina. Imam (A.S) passed away in 148 A.H at the age of 65 years.

As soon as the news of the martyrdom of Imams Sadiq (A.S) reached Baghdad, Mansoor wrote to his governor in Medina to find out those whom the Imam named as his trustees and behead them immediately Imam Jaffer Sadiq (A.S) had foreseen that a situation like this would arise; he therefore took a precautionary step to save his successor Imam Musa Kadhim (A.S) by naming Mansoor and the governor of Medina as two of his five trustees.

The other three trustees being Hamida (Imam's wife), Abdullah Aftah and Imam Masa Kadhim (A.S). Therefore Mansoor's instructions could not be implemented.

After Imam Jaffer Sadiq (A.S) Mansoor ruled yet for another ten years. He died a station or two from Macca on 6th Zilhajj 158 AH, on his way to perfom pilgrimage of the ^House of Allah." He was succeeded by his son Mahdi about whom we shall learn when we discuss the Biography of Imam Musa Kadhim (A.S).