Jaʿfar al-Sadiq: Difference between revisions

Imam Jaʿfar al-Sadiq’s life spanned the latter half of the [[Umayyad]] dynasty ruling from Damascus, which was marked by various rebellions (mainly by Shiʿite movements), the rise of the ʿAbbasids (a movement that drew on Shiʿite themes), and the establishment of the [[ʿAbbasid]] [[caliphate]] in Baghdad. Throughout this period, he appears to have maintained the politically quietist stance of his father, Imam Muhammad al-Baqir. Whether the revolt of Imam al-Baqir’s half-brother Zayd b. ʿAli in 122/740 was during Jaʿfar al-Sadiq’s imamate or that of his father depends on which of the various dates for the latter’s death is taken. It is clear, however, that Jaʿfar al-Sadiq did not wish to be associated with the revolt and, according to a number of reports Shaikh Mofid <ref>Ershad II, pp. 174-75</ref> condemned the uprising, since he believed that the rebellion would be counter-productive and ultimately harmful to the true community of believers (i.e., the Shiʿites). Similarly, he refused to be involved in the ʿAbbasid uprising and offered no support even after the ʿAbbasids gained power in 132/750. His motives for this refusal were grounded in his belief that he alone was the [[imam]], having been designated as such by the preceding imam, his father. This belief was founded on the doctrine of nass (clear designation) of the incumbent imam of his successor. Nass was in turn based on the notion that the incumbent imam was protected from error by God ([[‘Isma]] “inerrency”). Therefore, the incumbent imam’s designation was, in effect, a revealing of God’s will for the future leadership of the Shiʿites. Some, particularly the followers of Zayd (the [[Zaydiyah]]), did not recognize this doctrine and branched off to form their own distinct Shiʿite tradition, with quite different notions of the functions of an imam.

Apart from those traditions that record the explicit designation of Jaʿfar al-Sadiq as imam by his father, there is also a bundle of historical accounts of Jaʿfar al-Sadiq acting as [[Muhammad al-Baqir]]’s traveling companion. Such stories reinforce the closeness of the father-son relationship and further secure Jaʿfar al-Sadiq’s imamate in the face of Zaydi attack. In particular, there is the story of Imam al-Baqir being summoned to Damascus by Hesham b. ʿAbd-al-Malek (r. 724-43) after besting Nafeʿ in debate over the powers of Imam [[ʿAli b. Abi Taleb]] (q.v.). Jaʿfar al-Sadiq accompanied his father on this journey.<ref>for an account of the debate and its aftermath, see Qomi, II, pp. 246-86</ref> Such explicit confrontations with the ruling power were, however, rare for both of them. Just as he had refused to be involved in the uprisings of Zayd or the ʿAbbasids against Umayyad rule, Jaʿfar al-Sadiq offered no support to the uprising of his own cousin Muhammad b. ʿAbd-Allah b. Hasan, called al-Nafs al-Zakiya (the Pure Soul) and referred to as al-Mahdi <ref>Ebn al-Teqtaqa, pp. 132-33</ref>, in 145/762 against the ʿAbbasids after they had gained power in Baghdad.

* ʿAbd-al-ʿAziz Sayyed-al-Ahl, Jaʿfar b. Muhammad, Beirut, 1954.

* Āḡā Bozorg Ṭehrāni, al-Ḏariʿa elā taṣānif al-šiʿa, 24 vols. in 27, Najaf and Tehran, 1936-78.

* Moḥsen al-Amin Ḥosayni ʿAmeli, Aʿyān al-šiʿa, ed. Hasan al-Amin, Beirut, 1962, IV/2, pp. 29-79.

* Abu’l-Hasan ʿAlī b. Esmāʿīl Ašʿarī, Ketab maqālāt al-eslāmīyīn wa eḵtelāf al-moṣellīn, ed. Helmut Ritter, Cairo, 2000.

* Farhad Daftary, The Ismāʿīlīs: Their History and Doctrines, Cambridge etc., 1990.

* Ebn al-Nadim, Ketab al-fehrest, ed. Reżā Tajaddod, Tehran, 1971; tr. Bayard Dodge as The Fihrist of al-Nadīm: A Tenth-Century Survey of Muslim Culture, 2 vols., New York, 1979.

* Ebn Qotayba, Ketab al-maʿāref, ed. Ṯarwat ʿOkāša, Cairo, 1960.

* Ebn al-Ṭeqṭaqā, al-Faḵri fi’al-ādāb al-solṭāniya wa’l-dowal al-eslāmiya, Egypt, n.d. S. H. M. Jafri, The Origins and Early Development of Shiʿa Islam, London and New York, 1979, pp. 259-79.

* Ahmad Kazemi Mousavi, Religious Authority in Shiʿite Islam: From the Office of Mufti to the Institution of Marjaʿ, Kuala Lampur, 1996. Muhammad b. Yaʿqub al-Kolayni, al-Kāfi fi ʿlm al-din, Tehran, 1994.

* Abu’l-Hasan ʿAli Masʿudi, Moruj al-ḏahab wa maʿāden al-jawhar, ed. Charles Pellat, 7 vols., Beirut, 1962-79; tr. Barbier de Meynard and Pavet de Courteille as Les prairies d’or, rev. and corrected by Charles Pellat, 3 vols., Paris, 1965.

* Hasan b. Musa Nawbaḵti, Ketab feraq al-šiʿa, tr. Muhammad-Jawād Maškur as Tarjama-ye Feraq al-šiʿa-ye Nawbaḵti, Tehran, 1974.

* Abu Hanifa Qāżi Noʿman b. Muhammad Tamimi, Daʿāʾem al-Eslām fi ḏekr al-ḥalāl wa’l-ḥarām wa’l-qażāya wa’l-aḥkām, ed. ʿĀṣaf A. A. Fayżi (Fyzee), 2 vols., Cairo, 1951-61; tr. A. A. A. Fyzee, as The Pillars of Islam, completely revised and annotated by Ismail K. Poonawala, 2 vols., New Delhi, 2002-04.

* ʿAli b. Ebrāhim Qomi, Tafsir al-Qomi, Najaf, 1387/1967.

* Abu’l-Fatḥ Muhammad b. ʿAbd-al-Karim Shahrastani, Ketab al-melal wa’l-neḥal, ed. William Cureton, Leipzig, 1928; tr. Theodore Haarbrücker as Religionsparthien und Philosophen-Schulen, 2 vols. in 1, Hildesheim, 1969; tr. Afżal-al-Din Ṣadr Torka Eṣfahāni, ed. Sayyed Muhammad-Reżā Jalāli Nāʾini, Tehran, 1956.

* Fuat Sezgin, Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttums, 8 vols., Leiden, 1967-82.

* Muhammad b. Jarir Tabari, Ketab taʾriḵ rosol wa’l-moluk, ed, M. J. de Goeje et al., 15 vols., Leiden, 1964, III/IV, pp. 2059-60; tr. by various scholars as The History of al-Tabari, 40 vols., Albany, 1985-2007, XXXIX, pp. 248-49.

* Aḥmad b. Abi Yaʿqub Yaʿqubi, Taʾrikò, ed. M. Th. Houtsma, 2 vols., Leiden, 1969, pp. 458-60.

* [http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/jafar-al-sadeq-i-life Encyclopaedia Iranica - entry of jafar al-sadeq-i-life]

* [http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/jafar-al-sadeq-ii-teachings Encyclopaedia Iranica - entry of jafar-al-sadeq-ii-teachings]