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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books A Survey Into the Lives of the Infallible Imams Chapter 6 : The Issue of Imam al-Rida(‘a) as the Crown Prince (Session 2) The topic of discussion was the issue of Imam al-Rida’s heir-apparency. We said in the previous session that there are a series of historical facts and a series of doubtful ones.

Even historians like Jurji Zaydan have clearly stated that the policies of Bani al-‘Abbas were confidential and they rarely let their political secrets be exposed and, therefore, their true intentions remain unknown in history.

What is definite and unquestionable is, first of all, that the issue of heir-apparency was not initiated by Imam al-RidaIt was initiated by Ma’mun and even when it started, it did not take the form of a single suggestion on Ma’mun’s part and an acceptance on the part of Imam al-Rida; rather, they had decided on this without prior discussion with the Imam.

They had gathered a group from Khorasan, Marw, Transoxiana, lands which are today considered parts of Russia and Ma’mun was there and sent them to Medina. Then, they summoned a group of Bani Hashim the head of which was Imam al-Ridato Marw. There was no discussion of their desire or free will. They even had defined the route through which they (the Bani Hashim group) were going to pass beforehand. This was through the villages and routes that had no or very few Shi‘ahs.

They had especially specified that they should not cross Imam al-Ridathrough Shi‘ah neighbourhoods. When this group reached Marw, they separated Imam al-Ridafrom his group into a house and the rest in another place. That is where the issue was first discussed and suggested to Imam al-Ridaby Ma’mun which was to accept the crown prince position.

The first words Ma’mun used were, “I want to hand over the caliphate (this of course is not very definite).” In any case, he either proposed to transfer the caliphate to Imam al-Rida first and later said if you do not agree to take the caliphate then accept the position of crown prince or he offered the crown prince position from the beginning and Imam strongly refused. Now, what was the Imam’s logic for refusing? Why did the Imam refuse?