When they came to him (al-Mamūn)...

When they came to him (al-Mamūn), he mentioned the matter before them and promised to enrich those who would question the Imām and render him incapable of answering them. Generally speaking, he appointed him as his heir apparent for the following political reasons: Al-Mamūn intended to destroy the beliefs of the Shiites and to efface their traces.

(He wanted the religious scholars) to render Imām al-Ridā, peace be on him, incapable of answering them, that he might use his incapability as means to cancel the beliefs of the Shiites, who maintained that the Imām should be the most learned of the people of his time and most knowledgeable of them in all kinds of science.

Of course, if the Imām had been incapable of disproving the scholars beliefs, he would have shaken the entity of the Shiites and abrogated their beliefs in the Imāms of the members of the House, ahl al-Bayt , peace be on them. If the Imām had been unable to answer the religious scholars questions, al-Mamūn would have been able to remove him from regency.

In other words al-Mamūn would have been able to achieve his political aims through the Imām, for he had told the people that he nominated him for that important office because he was the most learned of the community, and when he had concluded that he was not the most learned of it, he removed him from the office. Meanwhile, his mass media would have announced that the Imām had fallen short of answering the scholars questions, that it might respond to the Abbāsid familys feelings.

It is worth mentioning that the members of this family were displeased with al-Mamūn when he nominated the Imām for regency, so they removed him from the caliphate and pledged allegiance to Ibrāhim, the singer, as we will see in the chapters that follow. Any how, the leading scholars had prepared the most difficult scientific questions and asked the Imām about them, and he skillfully answered them with.

The narrators have mentioned: He (Imām al-Ridā) was asked about more than twenty thousand questions in different times to the extent that al-Mamūns palace became a scientific center, that the leading scholars admired the Imāms talents and abilities, that they announced to the people the Imāms great abilities in knowledge and excellence, and that most of them believed in his Imāmate. So Al-Mamūn prevented the scholars from debating with the Imām lest they should admire him.

The narrators have mentioned some questions.