Abu Hanifah...

Abu Hanifah, after offering him his best compliments, enquired: “O the son of the Holy Prophet! What is your opinion about the deeds of a man? Does he do them by himself or does God make him do them?” “O Abu Hanifah”, the five years old Imam replied at once, in the typical tone of his ancestors, “the doings of a man are confined to three possibilities. First, God alone does them while man is quite helpless. Second, both God and man do equally share the commitment. Third, that man does them alone.

Now, if the first assumption is true, it obviously proves the unjustness of God who punishes His creatures for sins which they have not committed. And, if the second condition be acceptable, even then God becomes unjust if He punishes the man for the crimes in which He is equally a partner. However, the undesirability of both these conditions is evident in the case of God.

Thus, we are naturally left with the third alternative to the problem that men are absolutely responsible for their own doings.” He is one of the Imams whose miracles in childhood are reported extensively. Imam Ja’far As-Sadiq (A.S.) repeatedly pointed out Imam Musa Al-Kadhim (a.s.) as his successor because he knew of the people who after his death would differ. N.B. The Ismailis say Ismail (Imam’s eldest son who died whilst Imam Ja’fer Sadiq (a.s.) was still alive) was the 7th Imam.

One of the 6th Imam’s other sons – Abdullah also claimed Imamate.) Yaqub Al-Saraaj visited the 6th Imam once who told him to greet his son Musa who was a week old in his cradle. Imam Musa replied to the salaam and told Yaqub to change his daughters name (Humayra) as it was a name not liked by Allah. Safwan (a companion of the 6th Imam) once saw the young Imam Musa teaching the lamb he was playing with to prostrate to Allah. Once when Imam was 5 years old, Abu Hanifa came to visit the 6th Imam.

He asked Imam Musa (a.s.): “O son of the Prophet! What is your opinion about the deeds of man? Does he do them on his own free will or does God make him do them?”. The 7th Imam replied: “The doings of man can have three possibilities: God compels a man to do them whilst he is helpless. Both God and man share the commitment. Man does them alone. If the first is true then God cannot punish man for sins he did not commit.

If the second is true then too God cannot punish man for he is an equal partner. Then, we are naturally left with the third, that man is absolutely responsible for his own doings”.