We offer you our heartfelt condolences on the anniversary of a tragic day that coincides every year with commencement of the Hajj pilgrimage in Mecca and on the threshold of Eid al-Adha.
The 7th of Zi’l-Hijjah is indeed a doleful day as is evident by our commemoration of the martyrdom of an infallible member of the Prophet of Islam’s blessed household, who directed the minds of Muslims towards the great injustice done to the Ahl al-Bayt by depriving them of their right of political leadership. He said: “There is no single (Eid) al-Fitr or al-Adha in which Muslims do not renew their sorrows for the progeny of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA)… because they see their (that is, the Ahl al-Bayt’s) rights in the hands of others.”
As is clear by the wordings, he was lamenting the usurpation of the God-given religious, social and political rights of the Ahl al-Bayt or progeny of Allah’s Last and Greatest Messenger, by Godless persons who masqueraded as caliphs or rulers of the Islamic realm, and who continue to confound the fate of the Ummah through acts of terrorism in order to tarnish the image of Muslims. Stay with us for an exclusive feature on Imam Mohammad Baqer (AS), the 5th Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA)
Imam Baqer (AS) needs no introduction. Born in 57 AH in Medina, he was descended on both sides from the Seal of Messengers. If his mother Fatema was the daughter of the Prophet’s elder grandson, Imam Hasan Mojtaba (AS), his father Imam Zain al-Abedin (AS) was the son and successor of the Prophet’s younger grandson, the Martyr of Karbala, Imam Husain (AS).
In turn, Imam Baqer (AS) was the father of Imam Ja’far Sadeq (AS), the Reviver of the Prophet’s genuine Shari’ah, which is famous as Ja’fari Jurisprudence, and which in stark contrast to the violence of the Wahhabis, the sedition of the Salafis, and terrorism of the Takfiris, and other pseudo Muslim outfits, is the most humanitarian code of conduct.
Even his own epithet “Baqer al-Uloum” or the Splitter and Spreader of Sciences was prophesied by the Prophet who also conveyed his “salaam” (or greetings) to his great-great-grandson through the loyal companion Jaber ibn Abdullah al-Ansari five decades before his birth.
Imam Mohammad al-Baqer (AS) was hardly four-years old when he had to witness the heartrending tragedy on the plain of Karbala, where besides his grandfather and granduncles (Hazrat Abbas and others), his own paternal and maternal uncles were brutally martyred by the Godless Omayyad forces – that is, Ali Akbar and the 6-month infant Ali Asghar on his father’s side, and Qassem and Abdullah on his mother’s side.
The tragedy did not end on the equally tragic evening of Ashura when the encampment of the Ahl al-Bayt was burnt by the heartless hordes who severed the heads of the martyrs and trampled their bodies.
The next day the noble ladies and children of the Prophet’s Household were paraded as prisoners in the streets of Kufa, and mocked in the court of the tyrannical governor, Obaidollah ibn Ziyad, before being forced-marched through circuitous routes all the way to distant Damascus in Syria, where the self-styled caliph, Yazid ibn Mu’awiyya, burst into unbounded joy saying he has avenged the deaths of his infidel ancestors who had fallen in battle against the Prophet of Islam at Badr and Ohad. Then in confirmation of his own atheism, Yazid added: “The Hashemites had played the game of kingdom; there was neither any prophet nor any revelation from heaven.”
Yazid, stunned by the bold remarks of Imam Zain al-Abedin (AS) in defence of the rights of the Ahl al-Bayt and the virtues of Imam Husain (AS), threatened to kill the 4th Imam as his courtiers watched in mute silence.
At this moment, the 4-year old boy, Imam Mohammad Baqer (AS), sprang to the defence of his father, and to the astonishment of the whole court spoke in flawlessly fluent Arabic, by pointing the glaring difference between Yazid’s court and the court of the Egyptian Pharaoh, although both were tyrants.
When asked about the difference, the boy replied that the fact the Pharaoh and his courtiers did not call for the execution of Prophet Moses, proves there was no illegitimately-born person amongst them, while Yazid’s threats to kill the Prophet of Islam’s rightful heir and the silence of the onlookers, is proof of the illegitimacy of the whole court.
For the next 34 years, Imam Baqer (AS) grew up in the shadow of his illustrious father, safeguarding the genuine Mohammadan legacy of Islam, while a string of usurpers rose and fell, fighting each other for power of the state, such as the charlatan Abdullah ibn Zubayr, who during his ten-year rule in Hijaz, violated the letter and spirit of the holy Qur’an through mismanagement of the Hajj and oppression of the Prophet’s Household, including a failed plot to burn alive all male members of the Hashemite clan, similar to what the Saudi usurpers do today.
In 95 AH, Imam Baqer (AS) formally assumed the Divine Trust of Imamate, and continued his father’s mission by expounding to the seekers of truth various issues such as exegesis of the ayahs of the holy Qur’an, the accounts of the Prophets of the past, the nature of the material world, the delicateness of Nafs or the human soul, and how it should be safeguarded from deviation and pollution.
During the 19 years that he was the representative of God upon Earth, he spared no efforts to guide Muslims, even advising the regime to mint currency of its own instead of importing coins from the Roman emperor. In his era, five more Omayyad usurpers masqueraded as caliphs, the last of whom was the tyrant Hisham ibn Abdul-Malik, whose prejudice against non-Arab Muslims caused him to double the taxes that they had to pay. Hisham, jealous of the Prophet’s pure progeny, wrote to his Governor of Medina instructing him to send Imam Baqer (AS) and his son Imam Jafar Sadeq (AS) to Damascus intending to humiliate them in front of an audience.
When they reached Damascus, he kept them waiting for three days. On the fourth day he called them in his presence. He sat on a throne surrounded by his armed guards. In the centre of the courtyard, a target was set on which marksmen were shooting arrows. Hisham asked Imam Baqer (AS) to shoot some arrows at the target, thinking that the Imam had no experience in martial arts. Imam Baqer (AS) said he should be excused, but Hisham kept insisting as he planned to ridicule the Imam. He did not know that each Infallible Heir of the Prophet was inheritor of the virtues of their ancestors, including the martial expertise of the Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb (AS).
Imam Baqer (AS) reluctantly took the bow, and to the astonishment of Hisham and the marksmen, he shot a few arrows continuously, each piercing the other on the very centre spot of the target. Hisham outwitted, began to discuss the problems of the Imamate and the virtues of the Ahl al-Bayt, and when Imam Baqer (AS) recounted these God-given merits on the basis of the holy Qur’an and the Prophet’s hadith, he clearly saw that the stay of the Imam in Damascus might lead to popular respect for Ahl al-Bayt. So he sent Imam Baqer (AS) to Medina, especially after the debate the Prophet’s Heir had with the chief Christian monk of Syria, who became Muslim along with his followers.
The criminal Hisham now plotted the murder of the Prophet’s 5th Infallible Heir by sending him a poison-laced saddle. The poison was applied most skillfully, and when Imam Baqer (AS) mounted the poison affected his whole body. As a result, Imam Baqer (AS) was afflicted, couldn’t perform that year’s Hajj due to sickness, and finally left for his heavenly abode at the age of 57, but not before making a Will to keep alive the legacy of the Ahl al-Bayt.
Part of the Will read that a sum of 800 Dirhams be allotted to hold mourning ceremonies at Mena during the climax of the Hajj for ten years, so that pilgrims coming from the all over the Muslim World, become familiar with the merits of the Prophet’s Ahl al-Bayt, and their sufferings at the hands of the usurpers of the caliphate.
After a few days in pain the Imam attained martyrdom on 7th of Zi’l-Hijja 114 AH, and was laid to rest in the Jannat al-Baqie Cemetery beside his father Imam Zain al-Abedin and maternal grandfather, Imam Hasan Mojtaba (peace upon them).
