He was aware that the allegiance offered to him was the allegiance of death.

He was aware that the allegiance offered to him was the allegiance of death. He was aware of the difficulty of al-Ma'mun and the 'Abbasid caliphate, of the aims of al-Ma'mun in offering him the heir apparency, and of his own dilemma in this offer, which held the danger of acknowledging the legitimacy of al-Ma'mun's rule and thus acknowledging the legitimacy of the 'Abbasid caliphate.

He was aware of the traps which would be set in his way, not the least dangerous of which would be the attempt to involve him in the apparatus of a government and an administration which he had not himself set up, and which were not in keeping with his views, his policies, and his character. He was aware of all that. That is why his first stand towards the offer was to reject it.

Al-Ma'mun and his party continued their efforts to persuade him, and he continued to refuse it until he faced veiled and open threats of death, whence he accepted the heir apparency, "tearfully and sorrowfully", according to many reports. This was how al-'Imam al-Rida (A) explained his acceptance at various times to some of his companions. The refusal was understandable. It was in keeping with his general situation, since he was aware of al-Ma'mun's aims and of his own aims in his lifetime.

However, the acceptance requires an explanation. The threat of death, inasmuch as it was a threat to a personal life, was not a sufficient reason, in our view, for the acceptance. The position of al-Rida (A) resembled in certain aspects the position of al-Husayn (A), in a form that was in conformity with al-Ma'mun's personality and era, and al-Husayn (A) had made the choice of martyrdom.

We must discover the reason, deeper than that of preservation of personal life, which lay behind al-'Imam al-Rida's acceptance of the heir apparency and which was more fitted to his personality as an Infallible Imam and more in keeping with the firm aim of the Infallible Imams. In fact, we see that preserving personal life was not one of the real reasons for the acceptance, for al-Ma'mun's offer of heir apparency itself amounted to a sentence of death for al-'Imam al-Rida (A).

We believe that the Imam was aware of it, and perhaps because of that, he did not take any of his family to Marv, presuming that the same fate that was in store for him would befall them. He was under a sentence of death if he did not accept, and he was under a sentence of death if he did.