Historical Figure
Muhammad al-Jawad
d. 835
Ninth of the Twelve Shia Imams (811–835)
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Biography
Muhammad ibn Ali al-Jawad was a descendant of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and the ninth of the Twelve Imams, succeeding his father, Ali al-Rida. He is known by the epithets al-Jawād and al-Taqī. Like most of his predecessors, Muhammad kept aloof from politics and engaged in religious teaching, while organizing the affairs of the Imamite Shia community through a network of representatives. The extensive correspondence of al-Jawad with his followers on questions of Islamic law has been preserved in Shia sources and numerous pithy religio-ethical sayings are also attributed to him.
In Their Own Words (5)
People are brothers. The brotherhood that is not in the way of Allah turns into enmity, for Allah says, "Friends on that day will be foes one to another, save those who kept their duty (to God)."
Qur'an 43:67
Turning to God with the deep of the heart is much better than tiring the organs.
Ad-Durr an-Nadhīm, p.223.
When the divine decree descends, the human being is cornered.
The one who conceals the (way of) prosperity and progress from you, has done enimity to you.
Man's death by sins is more than his death by fate and his life by charity is more than his life by age.
Timeline
The story of Muhammad al-Jawad, told in moments.
Caliph al-Ma'mun marries his daughter Umm al-Fadl to the young Imam. It's a political move to control the Shia community through family ties. The Imam is still a child. The marriage binds him to Baghdad.
Known for his theological debates with scholars of every school. He answers legal and doctrinal questions that scholars decades his senior struggle with. His followers record his responses. He's barely 20 and already considered the foremost jurist of his community.
Dies in Baghdad at about 25. Shia tradition holds he was poisoned by his wife at the instigation of the Abbasid caliph al-Mu'tasim. Buried in the Kadhimiya shrine. He is the ninth of the Twelve Imams in Twelver Shia Islam.
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