Even the enemies...

Even the enemies, who constantly pursued the Imam and were sometimes taking the Imam to prison, could not resist paying their respect towards him when confronting the Imam. In this relation, “Muhaddith Qummi” narrates a story from Ahmad ibn ‘Ubayd Allah ibn Khaqan in his book entitled, “Al-Anwar al-Bahiyyah”. Ahmad ibn ‘Ubayd Allah ibn Khaqan was the son of the minister al-Mu‘tamid ‘Ali Allah. He quotes from his father a story in which he was also present.

It is an extremely amazing story which at the moment I have not got time to narrate. It was wide spread among people and they all knew that al-Mahdi of the Nation will emerge from the backbone of this holy existence. This was the main reason for the extreme surveillance of the Imam. The same thing Pharaoh did with Bani Isra’il when he had heard that a birth from among Bani Isra’il would cause his downfall. He killed all the new-born boys of Bani Isra’il and only kept the girls alive.

He had appointed some women to go to the houses of Bani Isra’il and to find out which of the women were pregnant and keep them under surveillance. This is exactly what the caliphate system did with Imam al-‘Askari. How good Mawlawi says, You attacked the hidden prisoners, To close the way on the concealed one. This foolish man never thought that if this were true, could he stop a divine order? Once in a while, they would send some more people to search the Imam’s house.

This was done especially when the Imam passed away, because they were often hearing that Imam al-Mahdi had been born. You all have heard the story of the Imam’s birth when Allah, the Almighty, veiled the birth of this holy being and only a few people found out during his birth. He was six when his great father passed away. During his childhood the special Shi‘ahs who came from different places, the Imam would introduce him to those special followers.

The general public was not aware of this but finally the news that a son is born for Hassan al-‘Askari and they are hiding him spread among people. They would sometimes send somebody to the Imam’s house to find this child and, in their thoughts, get rid of him. But, when Allah wants something, can the servant do anything against it? Meaning when the divine decree has been decided for something, a human being can no longer have any role there.

After the Imam’s death and coincidently with his demise, their officers poured into the Imam’s house and thoroughly searched it.