In the year 114/732 he died...

In the year 114/732 he died, according to some Shiite traditions, he was poisoned by Ibrahim ibn al-Walid ibn `Abdillah, the nephew of Hisham, the Umayyad caliph. During the Imamate of the Fifth Imam, as a result of the injustice of the Umayyads, revolts and wars broke out in some corner of the Islamic world every day. Moreover, there were disputes within the Umayyad family itself which kept the caliphate busy and to a certain extent left the members of the Household of the Prophet alone.

From the other side, the tragedy of Karbala' and the oppression suffered by the Household of the Prophet, of which the Fourth Imam was the most noteworthy embodiment, had attracted many Muslims to the Imam. These factors combined to make it possible for people and especially the Shiites to go in great numbers to Medina and to come into the presence of the Fifth Imam.

Possibilities for disseminating the truth about Islam and the sciences of the Household of the Prophet, which had never existed for the Imams before him, were presented by the Fifth Imam. The proof of this fact is the innumerable traditions recounted from the Fifth Imam and the large number of illustrious men of science and Shi`ite scholars who were trained by him in different Islamic sciences. These names are listed in books of biographies of famous men in Islam.

(Shi`ite Islam) * * * * * al-Imam al-Baqir, peace be on him, said: * The height of perfection is excellence in the understanding of the religion, endurance in hardships and administration of the affairs of life according to one's means, in the right measure. * The scholar ('alim) who derives benefit from his knowledge is better than seventy thousand devotees ('abid ). * One who disobeys Allah has no knowledge of Him. Previous…