Another man, who knew Imam ar-Ridha’ (a.

Another man, who knew Imam ar-Ridha’ (a.s), entered the bath and cried out to the soldier, “You will perish!

Do you use the son of the daughter of the messenger of Allah to serve you?” The soldier became so astonished and bent down kissing the feet of Imam ar-Ridha’ (a.s) while saying to him, “Why did you not disobey me when I had ordered you?!” Imam ar-Ridha’ (a.s) smiled at him and said leniently and kindly, “There is a reward in doing that, and I did not want to disobey you in what I shall be rewarded for.”[^1] Among his high morals was that whenever he sat down to a meal, he would seat his servants, even the stableman and the doorkeeper, to eat with him.

He wanted by that to remove discrimination among people and to make all the members of society understand that they were equal to each other. The nobilities of character which he had were the continuity of the morals of his fathers who had established virtues and noble characters in the world of the Arabs and the world of Islam. His Asceticism Imam ar-Ridha’ (a.s) was ascetic regarding all the pleasures of this life and the joys of the world. He turned towards Allah the Almighty.

When he was appointed as the heir apparent, he never paid any attention to the pleasures of authority and rule nor did he attach any importance to them. He considered the walking of men behind a man seduction for the followers and degradation for the followed one. Therefore, he never wanted an official procession, and it was most hated to him to be met with shows of pomp and glorification, as the kings and caliphs would oftentimes be met with.

Muhammad bin Abbad talks about the asceticism of Imam ar-Ridha’ (a.s) by saying, “Imam ar-Ridha’ (a.s) used to sit on a mat (of plants’ leaves) in the summer and on a rug in the winter. He would wear coarse clothes, and when he met people he would put on some softer clothes.”[^2] Historians mentioned that once Sufyan ath-Thawri met him while he was putting on a dress of silk.

Sufyan rejected that and said to him, “Would that you had put on a dress more modest than this!” Imam ar-Ridha’ (a.s) took Sufyan’s hand kindly and inserted it in his sleeve where there was a coarse dress under that of silk and said to him, “O Sufyan, the silk is for the people and the coarse cloth is for the truth.” Asceticism in life was one of the most prominent qualities in the morals of Ahlul Bayt (a.s).

They devoted themselves to Allah totally and saw that devotion to other than Him would not lead to the truth.