If we are to stay alone with just the political...

If we are to stay alone with just the political circumstances through which al-Ma’mun was living during that shaky period of his reign, overlooking the historical texts whose contexts lead us to such a conclusion, we would still be able to point the finger to al-Ma’mun regarding the crime of assassinating Imam ar-Ridha’ (a.s.) without being biased to any group or prejudiced against the accused.

Al-Saduq narrates saying, "While ar-Ridha’ (a.s.) was breathing his last, al-Ma’mun said to him, `By God!

I do not know which of the two calamities is greater: losing you and parting from you, or people's accusation that I assassinated you...'"3 In another narrative by Abul-Faraj al-Asbahani, al-Ma’mun said to him, "It is very hard for me to live to see you die, and there was some hope hinging upon your stay, yet even harder for me than that is that people say I have made you drink poison, and God knows that I am innocent of that."4 This exciting situation of al-Ma’mun discloses the fact that the accusation of his own murder of the Imam (a.s.) was the subject of argument, maybe even of conviction, even then, for al-Ma’mun asserts people's accusation of him and he tries to extract an admission from the Imam (a.s.) clearing him of it, as Abul-Faraj mentions.

Simplistic Justification of al-Ma’mun's Situation It is interesting how some people find it hard to believe that al-Ma’mun would assassinate the Imam (a.s.) simply because of all the grief, crying, abstention from eating and drinking, which he feigned to show his distress at the Imam's death, as if they expected al-Ma’mun to show his happiness and excitement at his death in order to give credibility to the accusation others concealed.

But the excuse of these folks is their superficiality in understanding history, and their short-sightedness. How the Imam Was Murdered Stories regarding the method al-Ma’mun employed to kill Imam ar-Ridha’ (a.s.) are abundant. Abul-Faraj and al-Mufid say that he killed him by poisoned pomegranate juice and poisoned grape juice.

In his Al-Irshad, al-Mufid quotes Abdullah ibn Bashir saying: "Al-Ma’mun ordered me to let my nails grow as long as they could without letting anyone notice that; so I did, then he ordered to see me and he gave me something which looked like tamarind and said, `Squeeze this with both your hands,' and I did.