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.
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.
In Their Own Words (20)
Turning to God with the deep of the heart is much better than tiring the organs.
Ad-Durr an-Nadhīm, p.223.
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
The increase of blessing is not interrupted by God, unless thanksgiving is interrupted by the slaves.
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.
Artifacts (15)
It done something to me right then and there,
sitting outside of his apartment unit, as a teenage drug dealer was killed in a drive-by shooting. "It done something to me right then and there," Lamar later admitted to NPR Music. "It let me know...
put a stigma on the idea of me reacting as a kid sometimes—I would hurt myself a...
have to get used to." His parents nicknamed him "Man-Man" due to his precocious behavior, although he confessed it "put a stigma on the idea of me reacting as a kid sometimes—I would hurt myself and...
twenty years ago, a conscious rap record wouldn't have penetrated the mainstream...
imp a Butterfly became Lamar's first number-one album on the Billboard 200 and the UK Albums Chart. Billboard commented that "twenty years ago, a conscious rap record wouldn't have penetrated the...
It let me know that this is not only something that I'm looking at, but it's som...
aler was killed in a drive-by shooting. "It done something to me right then and there," Lamar later admitted to NPR Music. "It let me know that this is not only something that I'm looking at, but it's...
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