Imam Jafar
al-Sadiq(A.S.)
"The Founder of the First Grand Islamic
University" The 'Abbasids faithfully followed the Umayyads in policy,
belief and practice." [1] Be that as it may, the Umayyads in their last
days and the 'Abbasids in their first days could not give much attention to the
Shi' is.
Thus the fifth holy Imam of the Shi'ites Imam
Muhammad al-Baqir(A.S.) started teaching his faith in Madinah openly. People
came to him from far and wide to learn from him explanations of the Qur'an, the traditions, rules of the sharia,
theology, etc. It was not a formal madrasa (university, school); yet, for want
of a better word, we shall call it the madrasa of the Imam.
The fifth Imam Muhammad Al-Baqir (95-114/712-732)
died before the madrasa had reached its point of perfection, but his son, the
sixth Imam, Ja'far As-Sadiq developed it to such an extent that the number of
his disciples exceeded four thousand. This continued up to 132/750 when the 'Abbasids
came to power Although as-Saffah, the first 'Abbasid caliph, ruled for only
four years, and that time was mostly taken up in consolidating his power, he
found time to call the Imam Ja'far as-Sadiq to his capital, Hira, where he was
held incommunicado.
One man who wanted to see him had to disguise
himself as a hawker of cucumber to reach the Imam.' [2] But later he came back
to Madina. Then came al-Mansur (13S158/754-775) whose only aim in life, it
seems, was to kill every descendant of 'Ali. The Shi'is in general, and the
'Alawites in particular, were persecuted more brutally than they were during
the reign of the Umayyads.
He put even more hindrance in the way of the Imam.
"He forbade the people to go to the Imam, and forbade the Imam to sit
(outside) to receive the people, and put the utmost pressure on him. So much so
that if a problem appeared in a Shi'is life concerning, for example, marriage,
divorce or some other matter, and he had no knowledge of the rule of the sharia
about it, he could not reach the Imam, and, as a result, the man and the wife
had to separate. " [3]
After a long period, al-Mansur allowed the Imam to
benefit the people with his divine knowledge, [4] but there were always spies
to report his words and answers. Therefore, the Imam had to be cautious in his
discourses. In short, the period of freedom had gone, so far as the Shi'is were
concerned.
Anyhow, this period coincided with the movement of
free thinking which had started in the Muslim world. Arabs came in contact with
the older civilizations of Iran, Syria and Egypt, and became acquainted with
Zoroastrian and Manichean beliefs and Greek philosophy. Some books had already
been translated from Greek and other languages.
Many scholars adopted strange beliefs and foreign
ideas and spread them among the common people. One finds a bewildering plethora
of new sects mushrooming. Atheism was openly advocated even in the great mosque
of the Ka'ba; the Murji'ites, by saying that faith is not affected by deeds,
supported the tyrannies of the rulers; the "exaggerators" (ghulat)
claimed divinity for this or that human being (even the Imam Ja'far as-Sadiq
was believed to be God by Abul Khattab). The Kharijites declared that all
Muslims who were opposed to them were infidels; The sufis adopted some ideas
from Christian monks and Hindu ascetics, and led people away from Islamic
monotheism; the traditionalists flooded the Muslim world with forged
traditions.
In short, there was a deluge of anti- Islamic
ideals and ideas which inundated true Islam. Amidst this all, these two Imams
guided to the truth. These Imams and their faithful disciples were the first to
see this danger, and they were ready to fight it with their logical evidence.
They defended the true faith, repulsed its enemies, and raised the standards of
the shari'a.
They launched an unremitting jihad (academic, of
course) against the ghulat and showed them in their true colours. They argued
with the Muttazilites, the Murji'ites, and the Kharijites in public and proved
the weakness of their standpoints. They exposed the sufis and refuted their
arguments. They corrected what was wrong in the theological ideas of many
Muslim scholars, and showed them where they had gone wrong in jurisprudence.'
[5]
As we have explained above, the major part of this
work was done by the Imam Ja' far as-Sadiq. As a result of his untiring defence
of Islam, the Muslim world came to see in him the only hope for the salvation
of Islam. Eyes turned towards him, thinkers accepted the Imam as their
"great-teacher"; people used to come into his presence with pen and
paper ready, and his words were recorded on the spot.
Thousands of such notebooks were filled, and the
words of the Imam Ja'far as-Sadiq attained the same prestige as those of the
Messenger of God. Not only the Shi'is, Sunnis, Mu'tazilites and atheists, but
also the Hindus and Christians came to him and benefited from his discourses.
The Sunni Imam, Malik b. Anas, the founder of the
Maliki school of law, said: "No eye ever saw, no ear ever heard, and no heart
ever imagined anyone superior to Ja'far b. Muhammad in virtue, knowledge,
worship and piety. [6]
Ibn Shahr ashub writes: "So much knowledge has
been narrated from as- Sadiq that has never been narrated from anyone else; and
the scholars of traditions have collected the names of his trustworthy
narrators of various beliefs and views, and they were four thousand men."
Abu Na'im writes in Hilyatu 'l-Awliya: "Malik b. Anas, Shutba b. Hajjaj,
Sufyan at-Thawri, Ibn Jarih, 'Abdullah b. 'Amr, Rawh, b. Qasim, Sufyan b.
'Uyayna, Sulayman b. Bilal, Isma'il b. Ja'far, Hakim b. Isma'il, 'Abdu l-'Aziz
b. Mukhtar, Wuhayb b. Khalid, Ibrahim b. Tahman, among others ..., narrated
from Ja'far as-Sadiq, peace be upon him." [7]
Quoting from others, Ibn Shahr 'ashub has added the
names of the Sunni Imams Malik, ash-Shat and Ahmad b. Hanbal, and al-Hasan b.
as-Salih, Abu Ayyub as-Sajistani and 'Umar b. Dinar. [8] Hasan b. Ziyad says
that Imam Abu Hanifa (founder of the Hanafi school of Sunni law) was asked
about the most learned man he had seen. He replied: "Ja'far b.
Muhammad." [9] Nuh b. Darraj asked Ibn Abi Layla: "Would you leave
(i.e. change) an opinion you have expressed or a judgment you have delivered
for any other person's words?" He said: "No. Except one man."
Nuh asked: "And who is he?" He said: "Ja'far b. Muhammad."'
[10]
The above is only a partial list of Sunni scholars
and Imams who came to the Imam Ja'far as-Sadiq and benefited from his
teachings. Add to it the names of the sufis, atheists, Hindus and Kharijites
who flocked to his madrasa, and one can appreciate what a treasure of knowledge
was given to people by the Imam. When others benefitted so much, how much more
must have been gathered by the Shi'is. One of his well-known disciples, Aban b.
Taghlib, narrated from him thirty thousand traditions. Hasan b. Ali al-Washsha'
said: "I found in the mosque of Kufa nine hundred shaykhs, every one of
them saying 'Ja'far b. Muhammad told me ...' " [11]
In al-Munjid we find: "His (Ja'far as-Sadiq's)
madrasa was the continuation of his father's (al-Baqir's) madrasa, and was
extremely successful in spreading Islamic culture; the number of its students
in Madina was at least 4,000, and they came from all Muslim countries. There
was a large branch-school in Kufa. One of the greatest achievements of as-Sadiq
was his call to write and edit; before that little writing was done. The number
of the books written by his students was at least four hundred by four hundred
writers." [12]
The Shaykh Muhammad Husayn al-Muzaffar writes:
"The best days for the Shi'is were the transition period, the last years
of the Umayyads and the early years of the'Abbasids ... The Shi'is took
advantage of this breathing space to drink from the stream of the knowledge of
the Imam Ja'far as-Sadiq; they traveled to him to receive from him the commands
of religion and its reality. His disciples narrated from him in every branch of
knowledge, as is seen in the Shi'is books. His disciples were not only from the
Shi'a community, but all the sects narrated from him, as is clearly mentioned
in the books of, hadith and rijal. Ibn ' Uqdah, the Shaykh at-Tusi and the
Muhaqqiq enumerated his narrators, and the total came to four thousand."
[13]
This open teaching and unrestricted preaching
increased the number of the Shi'is in every region throughout the Muslim world.
It is not possible to give a list of well-known Shi's scholars and missionaries
of that time, as it would be too lengthy. The teachings and explanations of the
Imams removed the veils of ambiguity from the Shi'i faith and showed its
teachings in clear terms. Theology, explanation of the Qur'an, morality,
jurisprudence, in short every branch of religious knowledge, was explained in a
clear perspective.
The faith had not changed an iota, nor the Qur'anic
explanations, nor the traditions; but the discussions and arguments with the
newly-appeared sects clarified many fine points and gave Shi'i theology its
distinct shape. Also, Shi'i fiqh (law) was so developed at this time that
people started calling it the Ja'fari school of law. The Shaykh Mustafa 'Abdur'
Razzaq of al-Azhar University says: "The eagerness to codify law came to
the Shi'is earlier than to other Muslims." [14] Some of the factors which
helped in this development were: 1. The intellectual advancement of the
Muslims; 2. The fortuitousness of the transitional period between the Umayyads
and the 'Abbasids; 3. The gatherings of thousands of eager disciples. Such
favourable factors never came together before or after this period, and that is
why other Imams could not do as much, although all of them possessed the same
divine knowledge. That knowledge was not confined to religious subjects only,
and we shall mention in the next part of this article two examples of the
contributions of this madrasa to other branches of knowledge.
In the beginning we examined the prominence of the
school of the Imam Ja'far as- Sadiq in the religious sciences, and discussed
the reasons for its pre-eminence. Now we shall see how it also contributed to
other branches of knowledge, those of the natural sciences.
(a) CHEMISTRY.
Jabir b. Hayyan (the Geber of the Latins), who has
been called one of the 'fathers of chemistry' and 'the most famous Arabic
alchemist' [15], was one of the students of the Imam Ja'far, as-Sadiq. The
quantity of Jabir's output is quite staggering: besides his writings in
chemistry, he wrote 1,300 treatises on mechanics, 500 on medicine, and 500
against Greek philosophy, not to mention other subjects. The number of his
books which have been printed in Latin, French and German since the 17th
century comes to thirty, if we count his '500 booklets' as one book.
There are 36 known manuscripts of his works in the
British Museum, the Biblioteque Nationale in Paris and in other libraries in
Germany. Egypt, Iran and Turkey. The extent to which he is indebted to the Imam
Ja'far as-Sadiq in his research and teachings may be judged from the fact that
in many of his books we find: 'My master and mawla. Ja'far. peace be upon him,
told me that ...', and in his book, 'al Manfa'a' he explicitly says: 'I
acquired this knowledge from Ja'far b. Muhammad, the leader of the people in
his time.' [16]
George Sarton, referring to Jabir's untranslated
work, writes: 'We find in them remarkably sound views on methods of chemical research;
a theory on the geologic formation of metals; the so-called sulphur-mercury
theory of metals ...; preparation of various substances (e.g., basic lead
carbonate; arsenic; and antimony from their sulphides). Jabir deals also with
various applications, e.g., refinement of metals, preparation of steel. dyeing
of cloth and leather, varnishes to waterproof cloth and protect iron, use of
manganese dioxide in glass making, use of iron pyrites for writing in gold,
distillation of vinegar to concentrate acetic acid. He observed the
imponderability of mag- netic force.' [17]
He also discovered that each metal and material had
a basic weight; he called this 'the knowledge of weights, 'ilm al-mawazin.'
[18] He was, in the words of Sarton: 'a very great personality, one of the
greatest in mediaeval science.' [19] Several of his writings have been
translated by scholars such as M. Berthelot, Octave Hodas, E. J. Holmyard,
Ernst Darmstaedter and Max Mayerhoff. Berthelot wrote in his 'History of
Chemistry': 'The name Jabir holds the same place in the history of chemistry
which the name of Aristotle holds in the history of logic.' [20] Holmyard
wrote: 'Jabir was the student and friend of Ja'far as-Sadiq; and he found in
his incomparable Imam a supporter and helper, the trustworthy guide and
helmsman whose direction is always needed. And Jabir wanted to free chemistry,
through the direction of his teacher, from the myths of the ancients which had
held it in shackles since Alexandria; and he succeeded to a great extent in
this aim.' [21]
(b) ANATOMY.
A Hindu physician attached to the court of
al-Mansur once asked the Imam Ja'far as-Sadiq if he wanted to learn something
in this field from him. The Imam said: 'No. What I have is better than what you
have.' Then began a very interesting discourse, in which the Imam asked the
physician questions like these: Why is the head covered with hair? Why are
there lines and wrinkles on the forehead? Why are the eyes shaped like almonds?
Why has the nose been placed between the eyes? Why are the hair and the nails
without life (sensation)? These questions moved from the head downwards, till
he ended up by asking: Why do the knees fold backwards, and why is the foot
hollow on one side? To all these questions, the physician had only one reply:
'I do not know.'
The Imam said: 'But I do know.' Then he explained
all the questions, showing the wisdom and power of the Creator. The hair is
created over the head so that oil may reach inside, and heat may go out through
it, and so that it may protect the head from heat and cold. There are lines and
wrinkles on the forehead so that sweat from the head does not reach the eyes.
giving the person a chance to wipe it away. The eyes are almond-shaped so as to
make it easy to put medicine inside them and remove dirt from them. Had they
been square or round, both would have been difficult.
The nose is put between the eyes as it helps to
divide the light equally towards both eyes. The hair and nails lack sensation
to make it easier to cut and trim them. If there were life in them it would
have hurt a person to cut them. The knees fold backwards because human beings
walk forward, and the foot is hollow to make movement easier.' The physician
became a convert to Islam. [22]
A booklet which was dictated by the Imam Ja'far
as-Sadiq in four sessions to his disciple Mufaddal b. 'Umar was widely
narrated, and has been widely studied and copied to the present day; al-Majlisi
copied the whole book into the second volume of his 'Bihar al Anwar'. [23] In
this book, the Imam explained the wonders of creation, showing at every stage
how all of it is inter related and could not have come into being by chance. In
the first session, he explained the creation of man, his organs of perception,
the power of his mind, his gradual development. and all the functions of body
and mind.
In the second session. he explained the animal
world and its common features; then he divided animals into groups: carnivorous
and herbivorous animals; birds and reptiles; and so forth, explaining every
group's special characteristics. In the process of doing this he described the
donkey. the dog, the elephant, the giraffe, the monkey, domestic mammals,
reindeer, the fox, the dolphin, the pythom the ant, the spider, the chicken,
the peacock the pheasant, the flamingo, the sparrow, the owl, the bat, the bee,
the locust and fish. The third session was devoted to geography. geology.
astronomy (not astrology) and other related subjects, such as minerals, trees
and medicine. In the last session the Imam dealt with the most common objection
made by atheists: If there is a Creator, then why is there so much suffering in
the world?
The Imam answered this with the same attention to
detail as he had shown in the previous sessions, with systematic arguments.
This book is a treasure of knowledge, written to refute the ideas of atheists.
Everywhere the Imam draws attention to the wisdom and power of the Creator. Two
examples will be given here at random. 'Allah created eyesight to perceive
colours; had there been colour but no eye to see it, there would have been no
use for colour. And He created hearing to perceive sounds: had there been
sounds but no ear to hear them, there would have been no reason to have them.
The same is true for all kinds of perception. and the same is true in the
opposite sense: had there been eyesight but no colour to see, eyesight would
have been useless; and if there had been ears, but no sounds to hear, ears
would also have been useless.
Now, see how Allah has gauged everything to fit
with everything else. For every organ of perception he made something for it to
perceive, and for every sensory phenomenon something to perceive it. Not only
that. but He created the medium between the organs of perception and their
objects, without which perception could not take place; for example, light and
air: if there were no light eyesight could not perceive colour; and if there
were no air to carry sounds to the ear, it could not hear them. Can someone
with a sound mind who observes all these interconnected phenomena fail to admit
that they could not exist without the Will and Measuring of a Merciful,
All-Knowing Creator?' [24]
At one point Mufaddal said: 'O My Master! Some
people think that all this was made by nature ' The Imam dictated: 'Ask them
about this nature. Is it a thing which has the knowledge and power for such
work? Or is it without knowledge and power? If they say that it has knowledge
and power, then why should they disbelieve in a Creator, because these [i.e.,
knowledge and power] are His attributes. And if they think that nature does it
without knowledge and will, and yet there is so much wisdom and perfection in
these works, they must admit that it could come only from a Wise Creator. [The
fact is that] nature is only [a name for] the system in creation which operates
as He has made it operate.' [25]
There is an interesting aside in the fourth day's
session, where the Imam said: 'The name of the universe in Greek is qusmus
(kosmos), and it means 'adornment'. This name was given to it by their
philosophers and wise men. Could they have named it so except because of the
order and system which they found there? They were not content to call it a
system; they called it an 'adornment' to show that the order and system found
therein has the highest degree of beauty and splendour.'[26]
::::::::::::::Notes::::::::::::
[1] M. J. al Mughniya, op cit p. 139
[2] Muhammad Baqir al Majlisi, Bihar al Anwar, new
edition, Tehran, 1385 A.H, vol. 47, p. 171 quoting Qutb al Din ar Rawandi, al
Kharaij wa l Jaraih, p. 234
[3] Ibn Shahr ashub, Manaqib, vol. 4 al Matba al
Alimiya, Qum, p. 238
[4] ibid, many similar reports are given in Fadl b.
Hasan at Tabarsi, al Ihtijaj, and al Majlisi, op cit
[5] ibid
[6] Ibn Hajar al Asqalani, Tadhib al Tadhib,
Hyderabad, 1325 A.H, vol. 2, p. 104
[7] Ibn Shahr ashub, Manaqab, vol. 4 p 247-8
[8] Ibn Shahr ashub, op cit, p. 248
[9] ibid, p. 254
[10] ibid, p. 249
[11] Muhsin al Amin, Ayan ash Shia, vol. 4 Part II,
Mathah al Imaf, Ebirut, ed. 1380/1920
[12] Al Munjid fi l Alam, Beirut (21st ed.) 1973
[13] Muhammad Husayn al Muzaffar, Tarikh ash Shia,
Dar az Zahra, Beirut, 3rd edition 1402/1982 pp. 53, 55
[14] M. Abdur Razzaq, Tahmid li Tarikh al Falsafat
al Islamiy, Cairo, 1959, p. 202
[15] G. Sarton. Introduction to the History of
Science, vol. 1. Baltimore. 1927. p. 532.
[16] 'Abdullah Nima. Falasifat ash Shi'a, Beirut,
1966. p. 196. This book is an excellent source for those who wish to examine
the contribution of Shiah scholars to philosophy and science. The author
discusses Jabirs life and contribution between pp. 184 and 231.
[17] G. Sarton. op. cit., p. 532. For the Imam
Ja'far as Sadiq. see, ibid.. p. 508.
[18] Quoted by Abdullah Ni'ma. op. cit., pp. 61.
187.
[19] G. Sarton. op. cit., p. 532.
[20] Quoted by 'Abdullah Ni'ma. op. cit., p. 187.
[21] Quoted by 'Abdullah Niima. ibid., pp. 193-4.
[22] ash-Shaykh as-Saduq, Ilal ash shari'a, n.p.,
1311. p. 44.
[23] al Majlisi, Bihar al Anwar. new ed.. vol. 111,
pp. 57-151.
[24] ibid.,p.69.
[25] ibid., p. 67. 34.
[26] ibid., p. 146.
