“Protected by valiant warriors they passed the night on the...

“Protected by valiant warriors they passed the night on the summit of their mountains but these mountains did not protect them. After all their power and pomp they had to descend from their lofty fortresses to the custody of the tombs. O’what a dreadful change their graves had hardly received them when a voice heard exclaiming, “Where are the thrones and the crowns and the robes of State? Where are now the faces of the delicate, which were shaded by veils and protected by curtains.

To this the tomb replied. The worms are now reveling upon these faces. Long were these men eating and drinking, but now they are eaten by the worms in their turn.” Many wept listening to these words uttered by the Imam. Caliph left the Imam alone for a while, but still kept him under house arrest. In the end Mutawakkil died in the hands of his protectors, the Turkish guards, and his son Muntasir became the next caliph. Mutawakkil died in 250 Hijiri and Muntasir Billah assumed the caliphate.

He ruled only 6 months. On his death Musta’een was enthroned. But soon he was also beheaded and succeeded by Mu’ta’z Billah. All this time our 10th Imam was either in Madina, or called by the Caliph to Samarrah where he spent the last days of his life under house arrest. Hardships Suffered by the Imam During This Period Caliph Mu’tasim remained preoccupied with war against the Byzantines and also with the troubles created by the Abbasids tribesmen in Baghdad.

But he did not harass the Imam who carried his responsibilities peacefully. After Mu’tasim, Wathiq Billah too, treated the Imam fairly. But later when he was succeeded by his brother Mutawakkil, son of Mu’tasim, the period of persecution and tortures began in full scale for the Imam and for all members of his family. This ruler exceeded all his predecessors in bearing animosity towards Ahlul Bayt.

Our 10th Imam’s main occupation in Madina, whenever he was left in peace by the Caliphs in Baghdad, was to impart his knowledge to the people. He attracted pupils in large numbers from the provinces where adherents of Ahlul Bayt were strongest, namely Iraq, Persia and Egypt. During the Eight years of the Caliphate of Mu’tasim and throughout the period of Wathik we do not hear that the Imam was molested.

One of the most famous traditions he is said to have related, that had been written in the Sahifa by the hand of ‘Ali Ibn Abi Talib (as) at the direction of the Apostle of God, and inherited by the Imams from generation to generation is related.