By: Sayyed Ali Shahab
Source : Noor al - Islam
Jaber ibn Abdillah al Ansari relates "The Prophet of Allah (P.B.U.H.) told me, 'Perhaps you will live until you meet one of my sons (descendants) through Hussain, called Muhammad who will open knowledge's door at large. When you meet him, convey to him my greetings. (Recorded by the renowned Sunni scholars Sibt ibn Jawzi in Tadhkirat al Khawas", ibn Sabbagh Maleki in "Alfusul Al-Muhimma" and Shablanji in "Nur -Absar".)This is how Prophet Muhammad (P.B.U.H.) introduced the fifth Imam of his household (Ahlul Bayt (A.S)) to his companions. Jaber, as foretold lived a long life, and dutifully conveyed the Prophet's greetings to the young Muhammad ibn Ali ibn Al-Hussain, who was soon renowned as "Baqer al-Uloom".
Imam Muhammad AI-Baqer, a child of three and a half years at the tragedy of Karbala, witnessed the massacre of AhluI Bayt (A.S.) by the blood thirsty hordes of the Omayyads. He along with his ailing father and the female members of the Prophet's Household were dragged in chains to the court of the tyrant Yazid and had to endure imprisonment.
However, Ahlul Bayt (A.S.) were released and returned to Al-Medina, where Imam AI-Baqer grew up in the shadow of his renowned father.
It was a peroid of great political and religious turmoil. Uprisings against Omayyad oppression occured everywhere. The blood of Muslims literally flowed like water. Schizm was rife and the ummah of the Prophet was in a state of bewilderment. The tyranny of the usurpers of the day had kept the greater number of Muslims away from the torchbearers of guidance, Ahlul Bayt (A.S.). The Prophet (P.B.U.H.) had left behind two precious things (thaqalyn), the Qur'an and his household, warning people that as long as they held fast on to these two they would never go astray. The book is a comprehensive set of laws for the benefit of mankind, but it needed divinely ordained scholars to explain and expound on its message. It is no doubt a miracle, but in the hands of the dubious it could become destructive to those with little knowledge and claims beyond their ability.
The people knew this tradition but the fear and censorship of Muslims. The march of the Muslim armies was gaining new converts to the faith, but it was a faith devoid of its true spirit.
It was at this time of discontent Imam Al -Muhammad al Baqir (as) , in the true tradition of his father and grandfather before him, quietly started to set things right in order to deliver the Ummah of his great ancestor, the Prophet (P.B.U.H.). The first generation of Muslims, except for Jaber ibn Abdillah as referred to, at the beginning of the article, was no longer there to recall the companionship of the Prophet (P.B.U.H.) and the practising of his "Sunna". The Imam, therefore felt the need to train the new generations and formulate the legal code of Islam. As the rightful heir of Prophet Muhammad (P.B.U.H.) he had grown up according to and was the guardian of the pure pristine and unadulterated "Sunna" of the Messenger of Allah.
The Qur'an and the Sunna are the two sources of legislation in Islam and it was the task of Ahlul Bayt (A.S.) to ensure their correct application. The criterion for judging the authenticity of the Sunna of the Prophet (P.B.U.H.) was the Holy Qur'an. A famous tradtion says; "Accept the Sunna which tallies with the Qur'an but discard what contradicts the Holy Book". But oppurtunists, encouraged by the regime, and emboldened by the ignorance of the masses, spared no efforts to twist and misinterpret the meanings of verses of the Q ur'an.
An idea of the troubled times and the spiritual vacuum could be gauged form the saying of the fifth Imam himself "What you do not know, say; Allah knows better. (These days) One takes a verse from the Qur'an and splits it as wide as that between heaven and earth" (Balaghi in Sahih Al-Kafi).
Therefore to put an end to discord and deviation, Imam Al-Baqer felt the necessity to lay the foundation of the first school of jurisprudence in AI-Medina. The school flourished at the time of his son, the sixth Imam, Ja'afar al-Sadq (A.S.) and is referred to as the "Ja'fari School" of fiqh. The term Ja'fari, however, should not be misleading. Imam Al-Baqer and Imam Ja'afar were not innovators, but faithful transmitters of the genuine message of Islam as revealed to Prophet Muhammad (P.B.U.H.).
Imam Baqer (A.S.) himself says in this regard; "If I report a tradition without giving it a chain or authorities, then my chain ot authorities for it is in fact my father on the authority of my grandfather on the authority of his father (Amir ul-Mo'mineen Ali ibn Abi Talib (A.S.)) on the authority of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and his family, on the authority of (Archangel) Gabriel, peace be upon him, on the authority of Allah, the Almighty and High".
The famous Sunni scholar Muhammad Ibn Uthman Al-Dhahabi writes in his "Mizan Al-I'tidal" that whenever Jaber ibn Abdillah used to recite any tradition from Imam Muhammad al-Baqer (A.S.), he introduced it by saying: "The trustee... told me". Muslim, the famous compiler of traditions, states in the beginning of his book "Sahih Muslim"from Jarrah that Jaber said: "I have altogether sevently thousand traditions which have come to me through Abi Ja'afar (i.e. Imarn Muhammad AI-Baqer (A.S.)) from the holy Prophet".
Sheikh AI-Mufid writes in al-Irshad that whenever Jaber bin Yazid al-Jufi reported anything on Imam Baqer's authority, he used to say, "The trustee of the trustees (of the Prophet) and the heir of the knowledge of the Prophets, Muhammad ibn Ah ibn al-Hussain, peace be upon him, told me."
Imam AI-Baqer (A.S.) recounted reports of the beginning of history and reports of the Prophets. Details of the campagins of Prophet Muhammad (P.B.U.H.) were written on his authority. People used to refer to him for the Sunna of the Prophet, and a commetary of the Holy Qur'an was written on his authority. He trained his disciples to impart knowledge to others and to make legal decisions and issue rational decrees in the light of the holy Qur'an and the Prophet's Sunna. The blessings of "Ijtihad" as initiated by Ahlul Bayt (A.S.), have continued to serve as guidance for the Muslims ever since, with competent jurists rising up to shoulder the challenging task in every age.
The Imam thus encouraged Islamic learning and the dynamism of Ijtihad among his followers. The Muslims turned to him for instruction in the fundamental articles, rites and observance of faith and in all other branches of Islamic knowledge deduced from the holy Qur'an and the real Sunna of the Prophet. There were hundreds of thousands of disciples and companions of Imam Baqer and his son Imam Ja'afar. Their exact number is difficult to ascertain. Among them were about four thousand eminent scholars, whose names and accounts have been preserved in biographical books. So great was their influence that subsequent traditionsts like the founders of the later Sunni schools of jurisprudence, Hanafi, Hanbali, Shafei, and Maleki relied upon them and took traditions from them.
The regime in Damascus aware of its illegal claims to authority, became alarmed at the activities of Imarn Al-Baqer (A.S.) in educating and enlighterning the Muslims. The
Caliph Hisham ordered that the Imam and his son, Imam Al-Sadeq, be brought to his capital The Imam entered the Caliph's assembly and greeted those seated around with a gesture of his hand. He did not, however, salute the Caliph customary court salutation, and took his seat without waiting for permission. This enraged Hisham and he began insulting the Imam. When Hisham stopped the successor of the Prophet stood up and said:
"0, people, where are your headed? Where are you being led? Through us Allah guided your first and throught us he will end your last. If you have no absolute sovereignty we do have our absolute sovereignty, and there will be no sovereignty beyond ours as ours will be the last. Almighty Allah says, "And the end will belong to those who ward off evil".
The enraged Caliph had the Imam placed under arrest. But even in confinement the Imam continued his mission and used the opportunity to reform and educate the inmates. The historian Tabari says that Hisham got more alarmed on the growing influence of Imam Al-Baqer on the Syrian people, especially as a result of a dialogue with a local Christian religious leader. He reluctantly released the Imam and sent him back to Al-Medina.
Arrogance, they say, deprives the mind of reason, and Hisham like all short sighted usurpers, administered poison to Imam AI-Baqer, in whose honor there was no greater testimony than the Prophet's greetings through Jaber. The Imam as a result, left for his heavenly abode in the year 114A.H. after 19 years of Imamate, but not before ensuring that the seeds of knowledge which he split open, would be brought to fruit by his worthy successor, Imam Al-Sadeq (AS).