(After the success) they changed their attitude towards them...

(After the success) they changed their attitude towards them, and their oppression of the Shi’is increased in magnitude and intensity.” (7) Muhammad Ahmad al-Buraq says: “The call really was for the ‘Alawites because the Khurasanis were attached to the descendants of ‘Ali, not to the descendants of Abbas.

That is why Saffah and his successors always kept their eyes open and tried to prevent Shi’ism from spreading further in Khorasan They encouraged the poets to praise them (i.e., the ‘Abbasids) and gave them rewards, and those poets used to cast aspersions against the descendants of ‘Ali.” (8) “This led the ‘Abbasid ‘caliphs’ to renounce the faith of (which they had followed up to the beginning of their period of rule) and accept Sunnism because they were afraid that if Shi’ism spread, the rule would go to the ‘Alawites.

Thus the ‘Abbasids faithfully followed the Umayyads in policy, belief and practice.” (9) 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’ites. Thus the fifth Imam started teaching his faith in Medina openly. People came to him from far and wide to learn from his explanations of the Qur’an, the traditions, the 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.’ (10) But later he came back to Medina.

Continued in the next article: ( The Scholarly Jihad of the Imams (2) ) NOTES: ___________________________________________ 1. Muhammad Jawad al Mughniya, ash Shia wal Hakimun , al Maktab al Ahliya, Beirut, 1st edition 1961, p. 75 2. Taha Husain, Ali wa Banuh as quoted in ash Shia , p. 80 3. J. Wellhausen, al Khawarij wa Shia (trans into Arabic of his The Kharijites and the Shi’ites ed. 1985 p. 499) quoted by M. J.