Imam Ja'far b. Muhammad al-Sadiq (a): Difference between revisions

Ja'far b. Muhammad b. 'Ali b. al-Husayn b. 'Ali b. Abi Talib (a) was the sixth Imam of [[Shi'a]]. The name of his mother was Fatima or Qariba and her Kunya was Umm Farwa.<ref>Shahidi, ''Zindigani imam Sadiq'', p.5</ref> [[Umm Farwa bt. al-Qasim|Umm Farwa]] was the daughter of al-Qasim b. Muhammad b. Abi Bakr.<ref>Al-Mufid, ''al-Irshad'', pp. 526-527</ref> [[Umm Dawud]], [[al-Hasan al-Muthanna]]'s wife, was his foster mother.  

His famous title was al-Sadiq which means "truthful". According to a [[hadith]], the [[Prophet (s)]] gave this title to Imam (a) to distinguish him from [[Ja'far al-Kadhdhab]]. It is mentioned in another hadith that he (a) was "Sadiq" before the dwellers of the skies. According to another report, in a dispute between Imam (a) and one of the leaders of [[Abbasids]], a call was heard from the grave of the Prophet (s) saying that, "Ja'far is Sadiq [truthful]".

This title was also common among [[Sunnis]] at the time of Imams (a). For example, [[Malik b. Anas]], [[Ahmad b. Hanbal]] and al-Jahiz mentioned this title for Imam (a). [[Abu l-Faraj al-Isfahani]] said that Imam's (a) foreseeing about the killing of [[al-Nafs al-Zakiyya]] was true; thus, when [[al-Mansur al-Abbasi]] became the caliph, called Imam (a) "al-Sadiq" and it became popular. According to an analysis of the history at that time, Imam al-Sadiq (a) was titled "al-Sadiq" because he (a) avoided any involvement in the uprisings of his time, especially in comparison with 'Abd Allah b. Hasan who was Imam's (a) rival among the descendants of [[Imam al-Hasan (a)]] and made an uprising against Abbasids and later was called "Kadhdhab".