A037 - Jafar al-Sadiq

 Ja‘far al-Sadiq

Ja‘far al-Sadiq (Jaʿfar ibn Muhammad al-Sādiq) (b.c. 702 [83 AH], Medina, Hejaz, Umayyad Empire - d. 765 [148 AH], Medina, Abbasid Empire).  Last Imam recognized by both “Sevener” and “Twelver” Shi‘as.  Ja‘far al-Sadiq was the sixth imam in both Twelver and Isma‘ili traditions of Shi‘a Islam.   He was one of the most widely respected imams, respected by both Shi‘i and Sunni alike for his learning and piety.  Ja‘far al-Sadiq (the truthful) was an influential teacher, theologian and jurist.  Among his students were Abu Hanifa and Malik ibn Anas who were instrumental in the development of Sunni Islam.  While an active Shi‘a theologian, Ja‘far appears to have had a liberal view of learning and maintained an active discourse with many scholars of differing views.  While he stayed out of politics, he was imprisoned and persecuted on several occasions by the Abbasid Caliphs.

His eldest son, Isma‘il, who had been selected to be his successor, died before Jafar, resulting in a confusion in the succession.  The Isma‘ilis maintain that Isma‘il was the seventh imam even though he had no opportunity to exercise that role.

Musa al-Kazim succeeded Jafar al-Sadiq in the Twelver tradition.

Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad al-Ṣādiq (b.c. 702 – 765), commonly known as Ja'far al-Ṣādiq (lit. "Ja'far the Truthful"), was an 8th-century Muslim scholar. He was the 6th Imam and founder of the Ja'fari school of jurisprudence according to Twelver and Isma'ili Shi'ites. He is also important to Sunnis as a teacher of the Sunni scholars Abu Hanifah and Malik ibn Anas (traditionally regarded as the founders of the Hanafi and Maliki schools of Sunni jurisprudence, respectively) and as a transmitter of Sunni hadith. Ja'far al-Sadiq also figures prominently in the initiatic chains of many Sufi orders.

Despite the fact that a wide range of works in religious as well as scientific disciplines were attributed to him, no works penned by Ja'far himself remain extant.

Al-Sadiq was born around 700, perhaps in 702 CC.  He inherited the position of imam from his father in his mid-thirties. As a Shi’a Imam, al-Sadiq stayed out of the political conflicts that embroiled the region, evading the many requests for support that he received from rebels. He was the victim of some harassment by the Abbasid caliphs, and was eventually, according to Shi’a Muslims, poisoned at the orders of the Caliph Al-Mansur. In addition to his connection with Sunni schools of Sunni jurisprudence, he was a significant figure in the formulation of Shia doctrine. The traditions recorded from al-Sadiq are said to be more numerous than all hadiths recorded from all other Shia imams combined. As the founder of Ja'fari jurisprudence, al-Sadiq also elaborated the doctrine of Nass (divinely inspired designation of each Imam by the previous Imam) and Ismah (the infallibility of the imams), as well as that of Taqiyyah -- denial of religious belief or practice in the face of persecution. 

The question of succession after al-Sadiq's death was the cause of division among Shi’a who considered his eldest son, Isma'il (who had reportedly died before his father) to be the next Imam, and those who believed his third son Musa al-Kadhim was the imam. The first group became known as the Ismailis and the second, larger, group was named Ja'fari or the Twelvers. 

Ja'far al-Sadiq was a descendant of  Ali ibn Abi Talib and Fatimah bint Muhammad through Husayn ibn Ali on the side of his father, Muhammad al-Baqir, and of Abu Bakr through Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr on the side of his mother, Umm Farwah bint al-Qasim.  Al-Sadiq was the first of the Shi'ite Imams to be descended from both Abu Bakr, the first ruler of the Rashidun Caliphate, and Ali, the first Imam and the fourth ruler of the Rashidun Caliphate. During the first fourteen years of his life, he lived alongside his grandfather Zayn al-Abidin, and witnessed the latter's withdrawal from politics. He also noted the respect that the famous jurists of Medina held toward Zayn al-Abidin in spite of his few followers.

In his mother's house, al-Sadiq also interacted with his grandfather Qasim ibn Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr, who was respected by the people of Medina as a famous traditionalist. During this period, Umayyad power was at its height, and the childhood of al-Sadiq coincided with the growing interest of the people of Medina in prophetic science and interpretations of the Qur'an. 

Al-Sadiq was thirty-four or thirty-seven when he inherited the position of Imam upon the death of his father Muhammad al-Baqir. He held the Imamate for 28 years, longer than any other Shi'ite Imam.  His Imamate was a crucial period in Islamic history for both political and doctrinal areas. Prior to al-Sadiq, the majority of Shi'ites had preferred the revolutionary politics of Zaid (his uncle) to the mystical quietism of his father and grandfather. Zaid had claimed that the position of an Imam was conditional on his appearing publicly to claim his rights.  Al-Sadiq, on the other hand, elaborated the doctrine of Imamate, which says "Imamate is not a matter of human choice or self-assertion," but that each Imam possesses a unique ʿIlm (Knowledge) which qualifies him for the position. This knowledge was argued to have been passed down from the Prophet Muhammad through the line of Ali ibn Abi Talib's immediate descendants. The doctrine of Nass or "divinely inspired designation of each imam by the previous imam", therefore, was completed by al-Sadiq. However, in spite of being designated as the Imam, al-Sadiq would not lay claim to the Caliphate during his lifetime.

Al-Sadiq's Imamate extended over the latter half of the Umayyad Caliphate, which was marked by many revolts (mostly by Shi'ite movements), and eventually the violent overthrow of the Umayyad Caliphate by the Abbasids, descendants of Muhammad's uncle Al-'Abbas. Al-Sadiq maintained his father's policy of quietism, and played no part in the numerous rebellions. He stayed out of the uprising of Zaydits who gathered around his uncle Zayd, who had supported Mu'tazilites and the traditionalists of Medina and Kufa. Al-Sadiq also did not support the rebellion led by his cousin, Muhammad al-Zakiyyah who was inspired by the Kaysanites. Al-Sadiq also played no part in the Abbasid rebellion against the Umayyads. His response to a message requesting help from Abu Muslim, the Khorasan leader of an uprising against the Umayyads, became famous. Al-Sadiq asked for a lamp and burned Abu Muslim's letter, saying to the envoy who brought it, "Tell your master what you have seen." In burning Abû Muslim's letter he had also said, "This man is not one of my men, this time is not mine." Al-Sadiq also evaded requests for assistance to other claims to the throne, without advancing his own claims. He had said that even though he, as the designated Imam, was the true leader of the Ummah, he would not press his claim to the caliphate. This conscious position of neutrality was likely why Ja'far was tolerated by the Umayyad court for so long. This position also gave rise to the legal precedent of Taqiyyah -- the denial of religious belief or practice in the face of persecution. 

The end of the Umayyad dynasty and beginning of the Abbasid was a period during which central authority was weak, allowing al-Sadiq to teach freely in a school which trained about four thousand students. A school of this size was unusual for religious teachers at this time. Among these were Abu Hanifah and Malik ibn Anas, founders of two major Sunni schools of law, the Hanafiyah and the Malikiyah.  Wasil ibn Ata, the founder of the Mu'tazila school,. was also among his pupils. After the Abbasid revolution had overthrown the Umayyad caliphate, it turned against Shi'ite groups who had previously been its allies against the Umayyads. The new Abbasid rulers, who had risen to power on the basis of their descent from Muhammad's uncle Al-'Abbas, were suspicious of al-Sadiq, because Shi'ites had always believed that leadership of the Ummah was a position issued by divine order, and which was given to each imam by the previous imam. In addition, al-Sadiq had a large following, both among scholars and among those who believed him to be the imam. During rule of Al-Mansur, al-Sadiq was summoned to Baghdad, along with some other prominent men from Medina, in order for the Caliph to keep a close watch on them. Al-Sadiq, however, asked the Caliph to excuse him from going there by reciting a hadith which said that "the man who goes away to make a living will achieve his purpose, but he who sticks to his family will prolong his life." Al-Mansur reportedly accepted his request. After the defeat and death of his cousin Muhammad al-Nafs al-Zakiyyah in 762, however, al-Sadiq thought it advisable to obey Al-Mansur's summons. After a short stay in Baghdad, however, he convinced the Caliph that he was not a threat, and was allowed to return to Medina.

Toward the end of his life, al-Sadiq was subject to some harassment by the Abbasid caliphs. The governor of Medina was instructed by the Caliph to burn down his house, an event which reportedly did al-Sadiq no harm. To cut his ties with his followers, Al-Sadiq was also watched closely and occasionally imprisoned. Through these trials, Al-Sadiq appears to have continued his scholarship and remained an influential teacher in his native Medina and beyond.

Al-Sadiq married Fatimah Al-Hasan, a descendant of his ancestor Al-Hasan ibn 'Ali, with whom al-Sadiq had two sons, Isma'il ibn Ja'far (the sixth Isma'ili Imam) and Abdullah al-Aftah. Following his wife's death, al-Sadiq purchased a Berbery or Andalusian slave slave named Ḥamīdah Khātūn, freed her, trained her as an Islamic scholar, and then married her. She bore him two more sons: Musa al-Kadhim (the seventh Twelver Imam), and Muhammad al-Dibaj. Hamidah was revered by the Shi'ites, especially by women, for her wisdom. She was known as Hamidah the Pure. Ja'far al-Sadiq used to send women to learn the tenets of Islam from her, saying that "Hamidah is pure from every impurity like the ingot of pure gold."

Al-Sadiq also had a son called "Is-haq al-Mu'tamin", who reportedly married Sayyidah Nafisah bint al-Hasan, a descendant of Al-Hasan ibn 'Ali.

Al-Sadiq was arrested several times by the Umayyad and Abbasid caliphs Hisham, al-Saffah, and al-Mansur. He was particularly seen as a threat by the newly minted Abbasids who felt challenged by his strong claim to the title of caliph. When he died in 765 CC (148 AH) at the age of 64 or 65, many Shi'i sources suspected that he was poisoned at the behest of Mansur. Al-Sadiq's death led to uncertainty about the succession of the Imamate. He was buried in Medina, in the famous Jannatul Baqee' cemetery, and his tomb was a place of pilgrimage until 1926. It was then that the Wahhabis, under the leadership of Ibn Saud, the founding King of Saudi Arabia, conquered Medina for the second time, and razed the tomb, along with all other prominent Islamic shrines, with the exception of that of the Prophet Muhammad.

According to Tabatabai, upon hearing the news of al-Sadiq's death, Mansur wanted to put an end to the Imamate. Mansur reportedly wrote to the governor of Medina, commanding him to read the imam's testament, and to behead the person named in it as the future imam. However, the governor found that al-Sadiq had chosen four people rather than one: Mansur himself, the governor, the Imam's oldest son Abdullah al-Aftah, and Musa al-Kazim, his younger son.

The Shi'ite group had begun to split during the lifetime of al-Sadiq, when his eldest son Isma'il ibn Jafar predeceased him. After the death of Ja'far al-Sadiq, his following fractured further, with the larger group, who came to be known as the Twelvers, following his younger son Musa al-Kadhim.  Another group believed instead that Isma'il had been designated as the next Imam, and that since he had predeceased his father, the Imamate had passed to Isma'il's son Muhammad ibn Isma'il and his descendants. This latter group became known as the Isma'ilis. Some Isma'ilis believe that Isma'il had not actually died, but would reappear as the Mahdi, the rejuvenator of Islam in the Shi'ite doctrine. Still other groups accepted either Abdullah al-Aftah or Muhammad ibn Ja'far al-Sadiq (Al-Dibai), both sons of the Ja'far al-Sadiq, as the imam. A final group believed that al-Sadiq had been the last imam, and that the lineage had not continued. After the death of Musa al-Kazim, the majority of his followers recognized his son Ali al-Ridha as the eighth imam, while others believed that al-Kazim had been the last imam. This latter group became known as the Waqifiyah. No major divisions occurred in Shiaism from the eighth to the twelfth imam, whom the majority of the Shia (Twelvers) considered to be Muhammad al-Mahdi. Among the sects which separated from the majority, only the Zaidiyyah and the Ismaili continue to exist today.

Sadiq, Ja'far al- see Ja‘far al-Sadiq
The Truthful see Ja‘far al-Sadiq
Jaʿfar ibn Muhammad al-Sādiq see Ja‘far al-Sadiq