Muhammad Al-Jawad

Muhammad ibn Ali al-Jawad ( ar, محمد بن علي الجواد, Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī al-Jawād, – 29 November 835) was a descendant of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and the ninth of the Twelve Imams, succeeding his father, Ali al-Rida. He was known as al-Jawād () and al-Taqī (). Similar to many of his predecessors, al-Jawad kept aloof from politics and engaged in teaching. He was also renowned for his public defense of Islamic tradition. Al-Jawad organized the affairs of the Shia through a large network of representatives (). His extensive correspondence with his followers on questions of Islamic law has been preserved in Shia sources. Numerous pithy religio-ethical sayings are also attributed to him.

Muhammad al-Jawad was about six when his father, Ali al-Rida, was summoned to Khorasan by al-Ma'mun, who designated him as heir apparent in 817, possibly to mitigate Shia revolts. This appointment provoked strong opposition in Iraq, which apparently forced al-Mamun to return to Baghdad and abandon his pro-Shia policies. When al-Rida died suddenly in 818, likely poisoned by the order of al-Mamun, the succession of the minor Muhammad to the imamate stirred the Shia community but evidently created insignificant divisions after Shia representatives met and were pleased with the qualifications of the young Imam. Al-Mamun later summoned al-Jawad to Baghdad in 830 and gave him his daughter, Ummu Fadhl, though this marriage was without issue and is said to have not been felicitous. Ali al-Hadi, the son and successor to al-Jawad, was already born in 828 to Samana, a freed slave (). Al-Jawad returned to Medina after the death of al-Mamun in 833, who was succeeded by his brother, al-Mu'tasim. The new caliph summoned al-Jawad to Baghdad in 835 and hosted him and his wife. Al-Jawad died there in the same year at the age of about twenty-five. It is commonly held by the Shia that he was poisoned by his disaffected wife, Umm al-Fadl, at the instigation of her uncle, al-Mu'tasim, though this has been disputed. Al-Jawad was buried next to his grandfather, Musa al-Kazim, in the cemetery of the Quraysh, where the Kazimayn shrine was later erected. Kazimayn has become an important center for pilgrimage.

Titles

Muhammad ibn Ali, the ninth of the Twelve Imams, is commonly known as al-Jawad () and occasionally as al-Taqi (). With the title Abu Ja'far reserved for Muhammad al-Baqir, al-Jawad is also cited in the Shia hadith literature as Abu Ja'far al-Thani (). His special is Abu Ali, though he was also known by his contemporaries as Ibn al-Rida () because he was the only child of Ali al-Rida.

Life

Birth and early life

Muhammad al-Jawad was born in Medina, or in a village near Medina founded by his grandfather, Musa al-Kazim. Sources agree that he was born 195 AH (810-811 CE), though the exact date is disputed. According to Medoff, most Twelver sources record mid-Ramadan as Muhammad's birthday but Ibn Ayyas favors 10 Rajab (April 8). The latter date agrees with Ziyarat al-Nahiya al-Muqaddasa, a supplication attributed to the twelfth Imam, Mahdi, and is nowadays celebrated by the Shia. His father, al-Rida, the eighth of the twelve Imams, was a descendant of Ali and Fatima, cousin and daughter of the Islamic prophet, respectively. Most records state that his mother was a freed slave () from Nubia, though her name is given differently as Sabika or Durra (called Khayzuran by the Imam). She was reputedly from the family of Maria al-Qibtiyya, a freed slave of the prophet and mother of his son Ibrahim, who died in childhood.

Muhammad stayed behind in Medina when his father, al-Rida, travelled to Merv in Khorasan at the request of the Abbasid Caliph al-Mamun, who designated him as heir apparent in 817 CE. Possibly to signify this reconciliation between the Abbasids and the Alids, al-Mamun changed the official Abbasid color of black to green. Al-Mamun also married his daughter to al-Rida in 817 and promised another daughter to Muhammad, a minor at the time. ( Al-Ya'qubi, however, places the latter event after the death of al-Rida in 819, following al-Mamun's return to Baghdad.) The appointment of the Alid al-Rida by the Abbasid caliph invoked strong opposition, particularly among the Abbasids and Arab Sunni nationalists, who revolted and installed an anti-caliph in Baghdad, named Ibrahim ibn al-Mahdi.

Bayhaqi relates that al-Jawad visited his father al-Rida in Merv in 202 AH. His account is strengthened by the reports that al-Ma'mun in the same year married his daughter Umm Habib to al-Rida and his other daughter Umm Fadl to al-Jawad. Some Shia traditions hold that al-Jawad went to Merv to ritually bathe () and pray over the body of his father after his death in 203 AH.

Reign of al-Mamun ()

His return to Baghdad in 819 marked the end of the pro-Shia policies of al-Mamun, and was soon followed by the return to the traditional black color of the Abbasids. In 825, al-Mamun suppressed a revolt in Qom, an important Shia center, and substantially raised the tax for its inhabitants after they had unsuccessfully appealed to al-Mamun to lower their taxes. The attitude of al-Jawad towards this uprising is unclear, according to Medoff, though he notes that one of its prominent participants, Yahya ibn Emran, might have been a representative () of al-Jawad. In any case, al-Ma'mun is said to have displayed much affection towards the young al-Jawad. He summoned al-Jawad from Medina to Baghdad in 830 and married his daughter, Zaynab, known also as Umm al-Fadl, to him. The couple stayed in Baghdad until the pilgrimage season when they left Baghdad for Mecca and later returned to Medina. This marriage apparently provoked strenuous objections among some members of the Abbasid family, reportedly because of al-Jawad's young age or dark complexion. The Shia al-Mufid (), however, suggests that the opposition feared political rise of al-Jawad similar to his father al-Rida. Those opposed to the marriage arranged for a public religious debate where chief judge Yahya bin Aktam interrogated the young al-Jawad with difficult theological questions to which al-Jawad answered correctly. This episode is viewed by the Twelvers as evidence of the exceptional knowledge of al-Jawad.
Al-Mufid writes that al-Ma'mun married his daughter to al-Jawad in the same assembly in 204 AH, though the marriage was consummated later in 215 AH.

By marrying his daughter to al-Jawad, some have suggested that al-Mamun hoped to mitigate the Shia revolts, including the fresh uprisings in Qom, though this view is rejected by Momen. Tabatabai writes that al-Mamun might have wanted to keep a close watch on al-Jawad from both outside and within his own household. In the same vein, Medoff notes that al-Mamun pursued a policy of simultaneously appeasing and containing pro-Alid groups. The marriage with Umm al-Fadl, however, did not result in any children. Instead, the son and successor to al-Jawad, Ali ibn Muhammad, was already born in 828 to Samana, a freed slave (). There are also other indications that this marriage was not particularly felicitous, including reports that Umm al-Fadl complained to al-Mamun about her marriage, which the latter rejected. Al-Jawad later relocated to Baghdad for eight years, where he primarily engaged in teaching, before returning to Medina with his family after the death of al-Mamun in 833.

Reign of al-Mu'tasim ()

Al-Mamun died in 833 and was succeeded by his brother, al-Mu'tasim, who continued al-Mamun's policy of simultaneously conciliating and containing pro-Alid groups, according to Medoff. It was perhaps to further this policy that al-Mu'tasim summoned al-Jawad to Baghdad in 835 and hosted him and his wife. Al-Jawad died there in the same year at the age of about twenty-five.

Personal life

Similar to his predecessors, al-Jawad lived simply and gave to the poor generously, according to Donaldson. He gave charity at the beginning of every month, writes Baghestani, and interceded with the officials on behalf of the people. His arranged marriage in 830 to al-Ma'mun's daughter Umm al-Fadl did not result in any children, and there seem to be other indications that the union was not particularly felicitous, including reports that Umm al-Fadl complained to al-Ma'mun about her marriage, which the latter rejected. Umm al-Fadl is also commonly held responsible by the Shia for the death of al-Jawad in 835 by poisoning. Ali al-Hadi, the successor of al-Jawad, was born in 828 to Samana, a freed slave () of Moroccan origin.
He was survived by two sons, Ali al-Hadi, the tenth Imam, and Musa al-Mubarraqa, and two or four daughters. In some genealogical books, other sons have been attributed to al-Jawad, but there is no mention of them in the ancient sources.
His daughters are named differently in the sources: Al-Mufid gives the names Fatima and Amama, while ''Dala'il al-imama'' lists Khadija, Hakima, and Umm Kulthum. Fakhr Razi also added the names of Behjat and Barihe to these names, saying that none of them left any descendants. Al-Jawad's children were all born to Samana.

Death

Al-Jawad died on 6 Dhu al-Hijjah 220 (30 November 835) in Baghdad after arriving there in Muharram 220 (January 835) at the request of al-Mu'tasim, who hosted him and his wife during the visit. Al-Jawad died at the age of about twenty-five, the youngest among the Twelve Imams. As with the other Imams, al-Jawad is said to have been murdered, though the manner of his death is disputed and some Shia authors have rejected this view, notably Shaykh al-Mufid. Shias commonly hold that al-Jawad was poisoned by his disaffected wife Umm al-Fadl, at the instigation of her uncle al-Mu'tasim (). Citing the Sunni al-Baghdadi () and some others, Baghestani writes that Umm Fadl joined the of al-Mu'tasim after the death of al-Jawad.
He was buried next to his grandfather Musa al-Kazim in the cemetery of the Quraysh on the west bank of Tigris, where the Kazimayn shrine was later erected. Kazimayn has become an important center for pilgrimage.

Imamate

Al-Jawad was contemporary with the Abbasid caliphs al-Mamun and his brother, al-Mu'tasim. He adopted a quiescent attitude and kept aloof from politics, similar to many of his predecessors.

Designation as the Imam

Muhammad al-Jawad was about seven years old when his father died in 818, possibly poisoned by al-Mamun as he made concessions to the Arab party to smooth his return to Baghdad. His death followed shortly after the assassination of al-Fadl ibn Sahl, the Persian ''vizier'' of al-Mamun, who was publicly seen as responsible for the pro-Shia policies of the caliph.

The succession of young Muhammad to al-Rida became controversial, resulting in largely insignificant and often temporary divisions. A group of al-Rida's followers instead accepted the imamate of al-Rida's brother, Ahmad ibn Musa. Another group joined the Waqifiyya, who considered al-Kazim to be the last Imam and expected his return as Mahdi, the promised savior in Islam. Some had opportunistically backed the imamate of al-Rida after his appointment by the caliph and now returned to their Sunni or Zaydi communities. In support of the young Imam, Twelver scholars have noted that Jesus received his prophetic mission in the Quran when he was still a child, suggesting that al-Jawad had received the requisite perfect knowledge of all religious matters through divine inspiration from the time of his succession, irrespective of his age. Medoff writes that, after the death of al-Rida, eighty of his leading supporters gathered in Baghdad at the house of Abd al-Rahman ibn al-Hajjaj, a distinguished companion of the three previous Imams, namely, al-Sadiq, al-Kazim, and al-Rida. There they judged al-Jawad to be qualified for the imamate. Donaldson relates the account of how the prominent Shias from across the empire met with the young Imam during the Hajj and their doubts about him were dispelled. Medoff notes that there was still debate among the Shia as to whether the young Imam was equal to an adult Imam in every aspect. The prevailing answer was that both adult and minor Imams are equal since both receive their knowledge from supernatural sources.

Shia network

To organize the affairs of a growing Shia population, which had expanded far to the east of Iraq and Arabia, the young al-Jawad relied heavily on his representatives or agents () throughout the empire.
This network of agents across the Islamic empire was founded by his grandfather Musa al-Kazim and maintained by his son al-Rida, whose agents continued their activities after testing al-Jawad during the Hajj season and accepting his imamate. The Imamite Shias communicated with al-Jawad through these agents, except during the Hajj when they met directly with him. Some of these agents were Ali ibn Mahziar in Ahvaz, Ibrahim ibn Muhammad Hamdani in Hamedan, Yahya ibn Abi Imran in Ray, Yunus ibn Abdulrahman and Abu Amr al-Hadhdha' in Basra, Ali ibn Hasan Waaseti in Baghdad, Ali ibn Asbat in Egypt, Safwan ibn Yahya in Kufa, Saleh Ibn Muhammad Ibn Sahl and Zakaria ibn Adam in Qom. In addition to these agents, al-Javad sometimes sent special representatives to the cities to collect religious taxes.

Some of the followers of al-Jawad received permission from him to work for the caliphate for the benefit of Shias. These included Muhammad ibn Isma'il ibn Bazee, who was a vizier, Hossein ibn Abdullah Neishaburi, the ruler of Bost and Sistan, and Hakem ibn Alia Asadi, the ruler of Bahrain. All these cases were part of the activities of the secret Shia network that guided the financial and religious affairs of the Imamite Shias. Even though Imamite sources are silent about any military involvements of this organization, Jassim Hossein attributes the Qom uprising in 210 AH to the political activities of al-Jawad's agents. This uprising was suppressed by al-Ma'mun in the same year and Yahya ibn Abi Imran, one of the agents of al-Jawad, was thus killed. Probably linking al-Jawad to these rebellions, al-Ma'mun summoned the former from Medina to Baghdad in 215 and married his daughter Umm Fazl to him. This marriage did not cause the Shias to support al-Ma'mun, nor did it stop the uprisings in Qom. Ja'far ibn Dawood Qomi, one of the leaders of the Qom rebellion was exiled to Egypt but escaped from there in 216 and rose again in Qom and defeated the caliph's army. After his execution in 217 by the Abbasids, the Alids' uprisings became even more widespread. After succeeding al-Ma'mun, al-Mu'tasim summoned al-Jawad to Baghdad in 220 AH and held him under close surveillance, possibly to ascertain his role in the Shia uprisings. Towards the end of al-Jawad's life, the organization and activities of his agents expanded.

Companions and narrators of hadith

Shaykh Tusi () has listed hundred and sixteen narrators of hadith from al-Jawad, though only a few of them were trusted companions, including Ali ibn Mahziar Ahvazi, Abu Hashim Dawud ibn al-Qasim al-Ja'fari, Abd al-Azim al-Hasani, Ahmad b. Muhammad al-Bazanti, Ali ibn Asbat Kufi, Uthman ibn Sa'id al-Asadi, and Amro ibn Firat. Those who have been criticized by al-Jawad include the Ghulat such as Abu l-Khattab, Muhammad bin Abi Zainab, Abu al-Samhari, and Ibn Abi Zarqa.

In Shia sources, some ( ) have been attributed to al-Jawad, such as speaking at the time of his birth, from Medina to Khorasan for the burial of his father al-Rida, miraculously healing the sick, fulfillment of his prayers for friends and against his enemies, informing about the inner secrets of people, predicting future events, and particularly his death. These are often cited by the Shia as proof of al-Jawad's imamate.

Succession

After his death, the majority of al-Jawad's followers acknowledged the imamate of his son, Ali ibn Muhammad, later to be known by the epithets al-Hadi () and al-Naqi (). Similar to his father, Ali was also a minor when he succeeded him in 835 at the age of about seven. According to Madelung, al-Jawad's will stipulated that Ali would inherit from him to the exclusion of his other son, Musa.

Works

Al-Jawad was engaged in teaching during his eight years in Baghdad, and he was renowned for his public defense of Islamic tradition, according to Hulmes. His extensive correspondence with his followers on questions of Islamic law ( ) about marriage, divorce, and inheritance has been preserved in Shia sources. Al-Rida is said to have praised his son for writing "extremely elegant" letters while still a young boy.

According to Mavani, most Shia hadiths about Khums (Islamic alms, ) are attributed to al-Jawad and his successor, al-Hadi. Mavani regards Khums as an example of the Imams' discretionary authority as Shia leaders, which in this case countered the redirection of Zakat (another Islamic alms) to sustain oppressive regimes and support the affluent lifestyle of caliphs. ''Musnad al-imam al-Jawad'' lists the hadith collections that contain the sermons and sayings attributed to al-Jawad, including ''al-Tazkirat al-Hamdouniya'' by the Sunni Ibn Hamdan (). Among many pithy religio-ethical sayings attributed to al-Jawad, Donaldson quotes a few:

* Al-Jawad related from Ali ibn Abi Talib that, once when the prophet sent him to Yemen, he said to him, "O Ali, he is never disappointed who asks for good (from God), and He never has a motive for repenting who asks (His) advice."
* Al-Jawad reported that Muhammad had said to Ali, "Rise betimes in the name of God, for God hath bestowed a blessing on my people in their early rising."
* "Whosoever gaineth for himself a brother in God, hath gained for himself a mansion in Paradise."
* Al-Jawad related from Muhammad, "Make it a point to travel by night, for more ground can be got over by night than by day."

See also

* The Twelve Imams
* Kazmain shrine
* Holiest sites in Islam (Shia)
* al-Ma'mun
* al-Mu'tasim

Notes

Footnotes

References

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External links

Al-Jawadain holy shrine

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jawad, Muhammad
811 births
835 deaths
9th-century Arabs
9th-century imams
9th-century people from the Abbasid Caliphate
Deaths by poisoning
Husaynids
Twelve Imams