If you wish to realise the greatness of Imam al-Sadiq (as)...

If you wish to realise the greatness of Imam al-Sadiq (as), you will see his praise not only by Sunnis but also by non-Muslims as well, especially since his contributions to his contemporary intellectual revolution were invaluable and quite diverse. Not only was he a theologian, he was also a mathematician, a botanist, and alchemist, a scientist, and a man of letters. To quote what Shi’as say about him may be out of place here.

Probably the best compliment the Imam (as) received was from one of his world famous students: Imam Abu Haneefah al-Nu’man, founder of the major Sunni sect, the Hanafis, who was one of tens of thousands of scholars who prided himself in being Abu Abdullah’s students.

Abu Haneefah said verbatim: "Lawlal sanatan, Ia halaka al-Nu’man," which means, ‘Had it not been for those couple of years, al-Nu’man would have perished," a reference to two years which he spent in Baghdad as a student of Imam al-Sadiq (as) during al-Mansur’s caliphate. In his Musnad Abu…