Imam of the Truthful

By: Seyyed Ali Shahbaz
"God the exalted should not be compared to anything, nor should anything be compared to Him. Whatever that comes to the imagination is other than God." – Imam Ja'far as-Sadeq (AS).
If the above hadith is considered the finest description of monotheism that is not found in any other creed or set of beliefs other than the school of the Ahl al-Bayt of Prophet Muhammad (SAWA), the person who expressed the phrase was among the "Fabulous Fourteen" described by God Almighty in His last revelation to mankind (the Holy Qur'an) as the Rasekhouna fi Ilm (Possessors of knowledge with certitude). Moreover, he did not claim that the phrase was the innovation of his mind and intellect, since such an assertion would have been a clear contradiction of the unique principle of Tawheed, the fundamental concept of creation that had resonantly echoed in the messages preached to mankind by all divinely-sent Prophets, but which had conveniently been ignored by many nations bent upon distorting the truth in pursuit of selfish and satanic motives.
Through such dynamic expressions, Imam Ja'far as-Sadeq (AS), as the 6th infallible Imam of the Ahl al-Bayt, revived monotheism in its pure and pristine form that his illustrious ancestor, the Almighty's Last Messenger to mankind, had proclaimed over a century ago to shatter the shackles of polytheism and polluted beliefs fastened around superstitious minds. Thus, it is no wonder that the fiqh or the code of laws Imam Sadeq (AS) bequeathed to humanity is known till this day as the genuine Muhammadan Shari'a, or in other words Islam Original, as the Prophet had promulgated on the commandments of God Almighty.
In other words Fiqh al-Ja'fari is untainted from the analogy (qiyas) of the faltering minds of new entrants to Islam who neither had any correct information of the unsullied sunnah (behaviour) and seerah (practice) of Prophet Muhammad (SAWA), nor had bothered for recourse to the unbroken chain of Prophetic ahadith, while compiling self-contradictory traditions narrated from dubious persons and inventing schools of jurisprudence that have unfortunately confounded the fate of Muslims by splintering the ummah into sects.
In the words of Malek ibn Anas, a descendant of the Prophet's not so obedient neo-Muslim servant Anas bin Malek and founder of a school of jurisprudence that bears his name: "Never has the eye seen, nor the ear heard, and neither the heart of a human being thought anyone more virtuous, knowledgable, devout or pious than Ja'far as-Sadeq (AS)." Abu Hanifa, the son of a Zoroastrian convert to Islam from Kabul and founder of another school of jurisprudence, referring to the two years he had studied under Imam Sadeq (AS) before leaving his school because of ambitions, has admitted: "If not for those two years No'man (Abu Hanifa's real name) would have perished."
This brief column does not permit me to go into details of how Imam Sadeq (AS) had tried to caution Abu Hanifa against the pitfalls of guesswork in matters of religion by pointing out to him on the basis of the verses of the Holy Qur'an that Iblis (Satan) was the first one to indulge in qiyas (analogy) by assuming that he was superior to Adam and thus refusing to prostrate to him as God had commanded. It will also be tedious to recount how the crafty and tyrannical usurper Mansour Dawaniqi had tried to use Abu Hanifa against the Prophet's 6th infallible heir in a bid to legitimize the rule of the Abbasids, who like the Omayyuds before them, had no authority whatsoever to the caliphate.
Time and space also do not allow me to trace the development of the famous school of Medina whose foundations were laid by the Survivor of the Karbala Tragedy, Imam Zain al-Abedin (AS), which split the atoms of knowledge under Imam Muhammad Baqer al-Uloum (Cleaver of Knowledge), and which reached its bloom with 4,000 scholars from all over the Muslim world – including the Father of Chemistry Jaber ibn Hayyan and the Master of Rational Debates Hesham ibn Hakam – studying different branches of sciences under Imam Ja'far as-Sadeq (AS).
Since Monday the 25th of Shawwal is the day when the fruitful life of the Prophet's 6th infallible heir was cut short through a dose of poison by Mansour at the age of 65 years in 148 AH, it will suffice to note that long after the Abbasid caliph; his mighty army that terrorized people; his overflowing coffers that squeezed the last dirham from the masses; his scribes who chronicled his vanity; and his poets who praised his debauchery; have vanished from the face of the Earth, the glory of Imam Ja'far as-Sadeq (AS) remains all the more bright. The faithful, wherever they are on the Planet, commemorate his departure and promote his teachings despite the destruction of his shrine in Medina's sacred Jannat al-Baqie Cemetery some 80 years ago by Mansour-like marauders.
The rationality of Islam – as evident from the hadith quoted at the beginning of this column – has become synonymous with Imam Sadeq (AS), in whose era the uprising of the people of Khorasan in favour of the Ahl al-Bayt had been hijacked by the Abbasids and the city of Baghdad founded by the usurper Mansour as a seat of tyranny to suppress any sentiments for the Prophet's Household.
Truth, however, has triumphed resonantly. From Khorasan to Baghdad and beyond, the Muslim masses follow the precepts taught by the Imam of the Truthful (Sadeq), while even an imaginary piece of sculpture that the modern day tyrant Saddam had erected in Baghdad in an abortive attempt to glorify the despicable Mansour (similar to the overthrown Ba'thist dictator's installing of statues of the accursed Nebuchadnezzar and other ancient Babylonian tyrants), was recently blown off, with the headed separated from the torso as a divine portend of the eventual fate of falsehood.