The caliph had tried to involve Sayyid Ibn Tawus in...

The caliph had tried to involve Sayyid Ibn Tawus in political affairs and to place all the Talibiyyin under his leadership but the Sayyid emphatically rejected this. Mustansir also tried to send the Sayyid as an emissary to the Mongol ruler, which was not accepted. The first son of the Sayyid was born on the 9th of Muharram 643 in Hilla and the second on the 8th of Muharram 647 in Najaf.

What we come to know from books of biography and translated works is that the Sayyid had returned to Hilla in 641 and had gone to Najaf in 645 wherefrom he had gone to Karbala in 649 and had proceeded on a journey to Samarrah in 652 and on reaching Baghdad he stayed there and when Baghdad fell to Moguls he was in that city. When Holaku Khan arrived in Mustansariyah he asked the Ulamas (scholars) this query: Who is better, a tyrant Muslim ruler or a Kafir judicious ruler?

None gave a reply to this query but the Sayyid said: A Kafir judicious ruler is better. All the ulama followed the Sayyid’s reply! It is obvious that the reply of Sayyid saved and protected the lives of the people of the city. Only Allah knows that any Muslim would have remained alive in Baghdad if he had not replied so. It was on the 10th of Safar 656 A.H. that Holaku Khan called Sayyid and gave him protection and the Sayyid left for Hilla. On 9th Muharram 658 he was in Najaf in his house.

On 14th Rabiul Awwal 658 he was in Baghdad in his residence. It is mentioned that Holaku gave the leadership of the Alawys to Sayyid during 656-661, and it appears that in 656 he was given the leadership of Baghdad and in 661 that of all the Talibiyyin. In the beginning, Sayyid refused the leadership. But Shaykh Naseeruddin Tusi told him that non-acceptance of it would result in his death and thus he was compelled to agree. The Sayyid expired on the morning of Sunday, the 5 of Zilqad 664 A.H.

in Baghdad, and his long time wish for being buried in Najaf was fulfilled. Information about his last days is difficult to obtain. Some say that he died as the chief, and some state that in the last days of his life he was dismissed from leadership or he and his brother were martyred. He wrote the first part of his book Al-Malahim on 15 Muharram 663 while leaving Baghdad for Ziyarat in Najaf and during his stay in Hilla. In Jamadiul Awwal 664 A.H.

he gave Ijaza (Doctrinal authority certificate) to some of his students. We have no information that he left Iraq in 624 A.H.