Of course the visit to the imam by a few individuals could...

Of course the visit to the imam by a few individuals could be allowed by the government but certainly not by groups who wished to see the Imam on a regular basis. The KHUMS (1/5 of total savings) which was being paid to the Imams by the believers who cherished these Imams and regarded them as representatives of the Divine Law was spent by these sacred saints on religious matters, and to sustain the Prophet's descendants.

This KHUMS was now secretly collected by these deputies who spent it according to the directives of the Imam. They accordingly were in constant danger of being identified as such by the government's secret intelligence service. In order to divert this danger, UTHMAN IBN SA'ID and his son ABU JA'FAR MUHAMMAD, two prominent deputies of the Imam in the capital Baghdad, ran a big shop trading in oils. This provided them with free contact with the concerned people.

It was thus that even under the very thumb of the tyrant regime that those devotees managed to run the system of the Divine Law unsuspected. CHARACTER AND VIRTUES IMAM HASAN AL'ASKARI (AS) was one of that illustrious series of the immaculate Infallibles each member of whom displayed the moral excellence of human perfection. He was peerless in knowledge, forbearance, forgiveness, generosity, sacrifice and piety.

Whenever AL-MU'TAMAD asked anybody about his captive IMAM HASAN AL'ASKARI (AS), he was told that the Imam fasted during the day and worshipped during the night, and that his tongue uttered no word but remembrance of his maker. During the brief periods of freedom and stay at home, people approached him hoping to avail from his benevolence, and they went back well rewarded.

Once when the ABBASIDE caliph asked AHMED IBN ABDALLAH IBN KHAQAN, his Minister for Charities (AWQAF), about the descendants of Imam Ali (as), he reported: "I do not know anybody among them who is more distinguished than HASAN AL-ASKARI. None can surpass him in dignity, knowledge, piety and abstinence, nor can anybody match him in the point of nobleness, majestic grandeur, modesty and honesty".

When his father IMAM ALI AN-NAQI (AS) died and the family was busy arranging his burial, some servants stole certain articles, thinking that none would notice it. When the burial was over, he called the servants and said: "I ask you about some items; if you tell me the truth, I shall pardon you; but if you speak falsely, I shall get all those items from your possession and punish you fully".