Those experts...

Those experts, who did not know anyone in the gathering, unanimously pointed to the 8th Imam (A.S) as the father of the child. '"Ali ibn Ja'far (the uncle of the 8th Imam A.S) says: 'Then I stood up and kissed the mouth of Abu Ja'far (9th Imam A.S) until his saliva entered my mouth; then I said to him: "I bear (by late Maulana Sa'adat Husain Khan,witness that you are my Imam in presence of Allah." then ar-Rida (A.S) wept and said: "O uncle!

Did not you hear my father saying: 'The Messenger of Allah (S. A. W) has said: "May my father be sacrificed for the son of the best of the slave girls, the son of the Nubian girl, of pleasant mouth, of chosen womb.

(Woe on them, may Allah curse the low Abbasid and his progeny, the companion of mischief!!!) And he will kill them for years and months and days; and he will humiliate them and make them drink a bitter cup; and he is the exiled fugitive whose father and grandfather will be (unjustly) killed; the man of occultation (about whom) it will be said: Did he die or perish? In which valley did he go?'" (Then the Imam A.S said:) "Will this happen, O uncle!

except through me?" I said: "You are right, may I be your ransom! The 8th Imam, 'Ali ar-Rida (A.S), by narrating that hadith of the Prophet (S. A.

W), wanted to show to his uncle that the Prophet had called the 12 th Imam (A.S) "the son of the Nubian girl", and it was not to happen "except through me", because the 8th Imam did marry the Nubian girl, who gave birth to the great-grandfather of the 12th Imam, and thus he would be the son of that Nubian mother, in the same way as he would be the son of Imam ar- Rida (A.S). The sentence, "Will this happen, O uncle!

except through me?", clearly shows that it was Imam 'Ali ar-Rida (A.S) who was destined to marry a Nubian lady, and not Imam Hasan 'Askari (A.S). Q. 13: Concerning the Above Answer: Thank you for the kind letter and the books you sent; may Allah reward you generously. Concerning J. Husain s not understanding the hadith of Kulayni (R.A) correctly, I agree with you.

He does though quote that Nu'mani andal-Saduq (A.S) related other narrations which indicate that al-Qa 'im s mother (A.S) was to be a black slave-girl. He gives the references: N. Al-Ghayba, 84, 85, 120;Kamal, 329. A: The book al-Ghaybah of an-Nu'mani is not with me here. However, the book Mission's library (Published in Qum, 1405 A.H.) and I could not find in it the tradition that the Imam 's (A.S) mother was to be a black slave.