Introduction
Imam Abul-Hassan II, Ali ibn Mousa al-Rida, is the eighth in the series
of the Imams from the Household of the Prophet in whose personalities all
the standards of greatness have been personified; so, they became its most
magnificent example and most genuine fountainhead.
His life was characterized by a somber tragic stamp from its grievous
beginning till its painful end. Bitterness seldom parted from his soul
during the periods he lived, i.e. the reign of Harun al-Rashid and the
beginning of the regime of al-Mamoon, the latter's son.
At the outset of his life, he witnessed the norms of trials and tribulations
which filled the life of his father Imam Mousa ibn Ja'fer (A.S.) [1],
the patient Imam whose mere existence was the cause of worry for the ruling
government and the source of its suspicious doubts despite his peaceful
stance, distancing himself from any causes for a direct confrontation therewith.
The Abbaside caliph al-Mehdi III ordered the Imam (A.S.) to go to Baghdad
so that the caliph would secure from him promises and pledges that he would
not oppose his authority or mobilize a revolution against him to put an
end to his regime, and the Imam (A.S.) did not go back home till al-Mehdi
joined his Lord and his shoulders bent by the load of the regime's sins
and immoral actions to be succeeded by al-Hadi. The latter tried to put
an end to the life of the Imam, but he did not live long enough, so al-Rashid
acceded to the throne, thus the parching flames of the tragedy started
incinerating the existence of the Alawis headed by Imam Mousa ibn Ja'fer
(A.S.), and the dungeons of Baghdad, Basrah, Wasit and other cities could
not limit the regime's passion for seeking revenge against its opponents.
Its antagonistic attitudes caused it to invent norms of revenge worse than
what those dungeons could provide, such that humanity shudders from. Instructions
issued by the government required the builders to fill the hollow building
cylinders and columns with the still alive bodies of the elite among Alawi
youths and non-Alawi sympathizers and to cause them to die thus out of
suffocation. This ugly method of eliminating the government's opponents
was not something invented by al-Rashid, but it was a continuation of a
custom started by al-Mansour to seek revenge against some Alawi youths
as history tells us. [2].
Imam Mousa ibn Ja'fer (A.S.) received the lion's share of the atrocities
suffered by the Alawis during that period of time. Al-Rashid imprisoned
him due to his being the top Alawi leader, subjecting him to extreme pressures
at his horrible dungeons for fourteen years according to some accounts
till he became tired of thinking of methods and means of inflicting pain
on him; therefore, he ordered al-Sindi ibn Shahik, through his minister
Yahya ibn Khalid, who was in charge of the last prison in which the Imam
was imprisoned, to poison him and rid him of the presence of one who robbed
him of his tranquility and peace of mind. Meanwhile, the Imam (A.S.) was
painfully and bitterly watching closely the bloody events which consumed
many of his own family and kin.
He was destined to relive the tragedy through which his father had lived
from its beginning to the end without being able to decrease its intensity,
for he was powerless to do so. Maybe he even awaited the same fate at the
hands of the ruling gang, for the dispute was one of a conflict of principles
between the rulers on one hand and the Alawis on the other; it was not
a personality conflict.
After the martyrdom of his father and the perishing of al-Rashid, then
the ending of the days of al-Amin in the way they ended, and al-Mamoon
receiving the reins of government, the winds of yet another tragedy of
a different type started blowing at the Imam (A.S.). It was a tragedy the
Imam (A.S.) lived with extreme bitterness.
Al-Mamoon, due to certain political reasons which we will discuss separately
in this research, decided to use the Imam (A.S.) as a bargaining chip between
him and the Abbasides in Baghdad on one hand, and between him and the Alawis
on the other, and also between him and the Shi'as of Khurasan as well.
The ploy of relinquishing the throne was foiled when the Imam (A.S.) refused
to accede to it. Then he was forced to play a role in the masquerade of
the succession to the throne. We are here concerned about dispelling some
of the ambiguity which shrouded it, the ambiguity which dragged many researchers
into a helter-skelter situation the results of which became obscured from
their superficial sight the scope of which did not exceed the skimming
of the surface, nor did they take the trouble to delve deeply into the
depths of their research.
It is worth mentioning here that when the Imam (A.S.) refused to accept
the caliphate from the abdicating caliph, al-Mamoon, or to take charge
of the post of heir to the throne, he had no reason except his own awareness
of the real depth of the goal al-Mamoon anticipated to achieve by his plan,
and that the desire to abdicate was not genuine enough to be taken seriously;
rather, it was a political maneuver whereby al-Mamoon desired to perfect
his game during a particular period of time, a game which was dictated
by political circumstances posing serious threats to his seat of government.
It was a situation on which the very destiny of al-Mamoon depended.
The expected finale was thereafter enacted when al-Mamoon completed
his acting part, which he had rehearsed beforehand, perfecting the playing
of his intricate role in such dexterity and skill which secured a period
of tranquility for his regime, something which he could not have otherwise
achieved had he not done so, as we will discuss later in this research.
In addition to the above, we shall attempt to deal with the comprehensive
aspects of the life of the Imam (A.S.) so that the picture becomes clear
to us when we wish to review the life of a great Imam such as Imam al-Rida
(A.S.).
Muhammad Jawad Fadlallah