Imam Musa b. Ja'far al-Kazim (a): Difference between revisions

==Prison==

During his imamate, Imam al-Kazim (a) was repeatedly summoned and imprisoned by Abbasid caliphs. For the first time, he was taken from [[Medina]] to [[Baghdad]] at the command of the Abbasid caliph, [[al-Mahdi al-'Abbasi]]. Harun also imprisoned the Imam (a) for two times. The time of their first arrest and the first prison are not mentioned in sources, but the second arrest occurred on [[Shawwal]] 20, 179 (January 6, 796) when he was arrested in Medina and was imprisoned in [[Basra]] in the house of 'Isa b. Ja'far on [[Dhu l-Hajja]] 7 (March 5). According to al-Shaykh al-Mufid, Harun wrote a letter to 'Isa b. Ja'far in 180/797 and asked him to kill the Imam (a), but he refused to do so. After a while, the Imam (a) was moved to the prison of Fadl b. Rabi'. Imam al-Kazim (a) spent the last years of his life in the prisons of Fadl b. Yahya and al-Sindi b. al-Shahik. In Imam al-Kazim's (a) [[ziyaratnama]] (Visitation Supplication), he is greeted as "tortured in the depths of the prisons" ("al-Mu'adhdhab fi qa'r al-sujun": {{ia|المُعَذَّب فی قَعر السُجون}}).

There are different accounts of why Imam al-Kazim (a) was arrested and imprisoned by the Abbasid caliphs. According to some accounts, he was arrested by Harun because of [[Yahya al-Barmaki]]'s jealousy of the Imam (a) and slanders of 'Ali b. Isma'il b. Ja'far. It is said that Harun was suspicious of Imam al-Kazim's (a) relations with the Shi'as and feared that the Shiite belief in his imamate would undermine his government. According to other accounts, the Imam (a) was imprisoned because some Shi'as, such as [[Hisham b. Hakam]], did not practice the taqiyya, despite the Imam's (a) commands. Thus, Hisham b. Hakam's debates contributed to the Imam's (a) imprisonment.

 

Imam al-Kazim (a) spent the last days of his life in al-Sindi b. al-Shahik's prison. According to al-Shaykh al-Mufid, al-Sindi poisoned the Imam (a) at the command of Harun al-Rashid, and three days later, the Imam (a) was martyred. His [[martyrdom]] occurred on [[Rajab 25, 183]] (September 1, 799). There are other views about the time and the place of Imam al-Kazim's (a) martyrdom as well.

 

When Musa b. Ja'far (a) was martyred, his corpse was put on Baghdad's bridge at the order of al-Sindi b. al-Shahik and it was announced that Musa b. Ja'far died of natural causes. There are different accounts of how he was martyred. The majority of historiographers believe that he was poisoned by Yahya b. Khalid and al-Sindi b. al-Shahik. According to another account, the Imam (a) was suffocated by being folded in a carpet. Hamd Allah al-Mustawfi has attributed to the Shi'as the belief that Musa b. Ja'far (a) was martyred by hot lead poured in his throat, but he cited no sources for his claim.

 

Two reasons have been mentioned for why the Imam's (a) corpse was exhibited in a public place: one of them was to show that the Imam (a) died of natural causes, and the other was to repute the view of those people who believed in the [[Mahdawiyya]] of Imam al-Kazim (a).

 

Musa b. Ja'far's (a) corpse was buried in the Shuniziyya area in the family mausoleum of al-Mansur, known as the graves of the [[Quraysh]]. His burial place is known as the [[Shrine of Kazimayn]]. It is said that the Abbasids buried the Imam's (a) corpse there so that the Shi'as could not congregate in his burial place.