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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books A Short Biography of Imam Jaffer As-sadiq(a.s) Chapter 2 : Imam Jaffer Sadiq (a.s) Life After Martydom of His Father INTRODUCTION: Imam Jaffer Sadiq (A.S) took over as the Imam of the time from his father in AH 114 when Hisham Bin Abdul Malik was the Caliph.

Unlike most of his predecessors, who had ruled for veiy short times and therefore did not have enough time to obstruct the progress of Islamic Education propagated by Imam Baqir and Imam Sadiq (A.S.), Hisham ruled for 22 years. He became a real threat to Islam, especially in the later years of his life. Imam Sadiq (A.S) therefore had to do two things.

First and foremost, he had to protect all the educational progress that his grandfather, his father and he himself had achieved up to this point in time. Second, he had to play down his role as the champion of Islamic learning and wait for another opportunity to arise, and then to continue his work from where he had left it. In this chapter, we shall see how he succeeded in accomplishing these two goals.

📌HIS RESPONSIBILITIES AS THE IMAM OFTHE TIME: Remember that when Imam Baqir (A.S) was about to depart form this world, he had asked Imam Sadiq (A.S.) to be fully responsible for the "ummah'. Imam Sadiq (A. S) had promised to do just that, but to do so through the process of education and learning. This is the key to understand the Imam's reaction to various situations that arose during twenty four years of his Imamat.

Imam (A.S.) had two options to choose from: Either involve himself in political activities and bring down the oppressive rulership of the Ummayades, or seek reform through the process of education. At that time, the political option appeared to be the better of the two choices. but if we look at the events now; we can realize that the second option was.

indeed, the best option, and we can appreciate Imam Sadiq's wisdom and deep foresight in choosing this option to bring about necessary changes in the society. Before we examine Imam Sadiq's approach, let us look at the reasons which made people at that time, think that the political choice was the only choice available. The Ummayade rulers were cruel carefree and completely incapable of ruling effectively. They did not care for Islam or the Muslims.

To meet their own ever-using expenses, the rulers overburdened their subjects with taxation and exhausted resources, with the result that there were dissatisfaction and uprising throughout the empire.

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