With heavy hearts, Shia Muslims have amassed in religious congregations worldwide to mark the martyrdom of the Sixth Shia Imam, Imam Ja’far Sadeq (PBUH).

Saturday coincided with the martyrdom anniversary of the Imam, a descendant of Ali ibn Abi Talib (PBUH), who was the first Shia Imam to assume the role of leading Muslims after the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH).

After holding the role of Imamate (Leadership) for 28 years, Imam Sadiq (PBUH) was poisoned at the age of 65 in 765 C.E. at the behest of then Abbasid Caliph Mansur. Mansur would regularly summon the Imam before orchestrating his martyrdom and consider him a sizeable challenge to his rule.

After Martyrdom, the Imam was buried in the Baqi Cemetery in Medina, in present-day Saudi Arabia.

Mourning his martyrdom, Iranian followers of the Household of the Prophet converged on the Shrine of the Eighth Shia Imam, Imam Reza (PBUH), in the northeastern city of Mashhad. The faithful also gathered at the holy mausoleum in the central city of Qom of Hazrat Fatimah Masoumah (PBUH).

Commemoration ceremonies saw the participants paying tribute to Shia religious figures by mourning to religious eulogists and beating their chests.

A mourning ceremony has been scheduled at the mausoleum of the late founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Khomeini (God bless his soul), in Tehran.