Imam as-Sadiq ( ‘a ) used to tell him...

Imam as-Sadiq ( ‘a ) used to tell him, “Sit at the Mosque of Medina and give edicts { fatawa } to the people because I want persons like you to be seen among my Shi‘ah.”[^7] b. Yemen Prior to the conquest of Iraq and the founding of Kufah, Shi‘ah were living in Yemen. Next to Medina, Yemen was the second place where the Shi‘ah of ‘Ali ( ‘a ) were located after the demise of the Prophet (S) because the people there embraced Islam through ‘Ali ( ‘a ).

Writes Ibn Shahr Ashub, thus: The Noble Messenger (S) dispatched Khalid ibn Walid to Yemen to invite the people there to Islam and it so happened that Bara’ ibn ‘Azib was also included in the forces of Khalid. Khalid stayed there for six months but he was not able to convince a single person to become Muslim. The Messenger of Allah (S) was not happy about this state of affairs and recalled Khalid, and instead the Prophet (S) sent the Commander of the Faithful ‘Ali ( ‘a ).

When the Imam arrived there, he performed the dawn { subh } prayer and read to the people of Yemen the letter of the Prophet (S). All members of the tribe of Hamdan became Muslim in one day and after Hamdan the rest of the tribes in Yemen embraced Islam.

When this news was relayed to the Holy Prophet (S), he performed prostration of gratitude { sujud shukr }.[^8] The first house where ‘Ali ( ‘a ) stayed while in Yemen was the house of a woman called Umm Sa‘ad Barzakhiyyah where the Imam gave Qur’an lessons. The said house was converted into a mosque later and it was named as “Masjid ‘Ali”.

Particularly at the last moments of the Prophet (S), people from the different tribes of Yemen went to Medina to meet the Prophet (S), and in their conversation the Prophet (S) introduced to them ‘Ali ( ‘a ) as his successor[^9] and thus, this fact remained in their memory.[^10] And after the demise of the Prophet (S), they did not officially recognize the government in Medina and refrain from remitting their zakat to Abu Bakr, the caliph of the time.[^11] As stated in one of their poems, أَطَعْنا رَسولَ الله ما دام وسطنا فيا قوم ما شأني وَ شأنُ أبي بكر؟ أيورثها بكراً إذا كانَ بَعْدَه فتلك لعمر الله قاصمة الظُّهر When the Messenger of Allah was in our midst, we obeyed him.

O people! Where are we and where is Abu Bakr? If Abu Bakr had a son named Bakr, shall he inherit the caliphate after him?! I swear to my soul! This is backbreaking.