SMHMShaheed Mudassir Hussain Mehdi
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جعفر الصادق

Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq

peace be upon him

الصادقal-Sadiqthe truthful
أبو عبد اللهAbu 'Abd Allahfather of Abd Allah, his best-known kunya
أبو إسماعيلAbu Isma'ilfather of Isma'il, his eldest son
أبو موسىAbu Musafather of Musa al-Kazim
الصابرal-Sabirthe patient
الطاهرal-Tahirthe pure
الفاضلal-Fadilthe one of excellence

His life

  1. Ja'far ibn Muhammad ibn Ali ibn al-Husayn ibn Ali ibn Abi Talib, the sixth Imam. His father was Imam Muhammad al-Baqir; his mother was Umm Farwa, daughter of al-Qasim ibn Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr (al-Irshad of al-Shaykh al-Mufid). His best-known kunya is Abu Abd Allah; some sources also give Abu Isma'il and Abu Musa.
  2. Born in Medina on 17 Rabi' al-Awwal, 83 AH (702) (al-Irshad); some historians give 80 AH (Kashf al-Ghumma of al-Irbili). Twelve years of his life were in the lifetime of his grandfather Imam al-Sajjad and thirty-one in that of his father (I'lam al-Wara of al-Tabrisi).
  3. His title al-Sadiq means the truthful. According to a hadith the Prophet gave him this title, to distinguish him from Ja'far al-Kadhdhab (Kamal al-Din of al-Shaykh al-Saduq). Sunni scholars, among them Malik ibn Anas and Ahmad ibn Hanbal, also called him by it.
  4. Imam al-Baqir's designation of him as Imam was narrated by Hisham ibn Salim, Abu l-Sabah al-Kanani, Jabir ibn Yazid al-Ju'fi and others. Al-Shaykh al-Mufid adds that his superiority in knowledge, piety and practice over his brothers, his cousins and all the people of his time proves his Imamate (al-Irshad).
  5. His Imamate lasted thirty-four years, 114 to 148 AH (al-Irshad): through the last Umayyad caliphs, from Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik on, and the first two Abbasid caliphs, al-Saffah and al-Mansur. He was martyred ten years into the rule of al-Mansur (I'lam al-Wara).
  6. As Umayyad rule weakened and fell he had a freedom to teach that the other Imams rarely had, and so most of the hadiths of the Ahl al-Bayt in the Shia collections, in law and in belief, come from him. Al-Hasan ibn Ali al-Washsha' saw nine hundred people in the Mosque of Kufa narrating from him (Rijal al-Najashi).
  7. Al-Shaykh al-Tusi names about 3,200 people who narrated from him (Rijal al-Tusi); al-Shaykh al-Mufid (al-Irshad) and al-Irbili (Kashf al-Ghumma) give four thousand, more than for any other Imam. Ibn 'Uqda is said to have named four thousand in a book on his students (al-Kuna wa l-Alqab of al-Qummi).
  8. For this reason the school of the Twelver Shia, above all its jurisprudence, is called the Ja'fari school after him. In the Shia view it is not a school he invented but the school of Imam Ali, which kept the teaching of the Prophet; there is evidence the name was already used in his lifetime (al-Ma'arif of Ibn Qutayba; Qurb al-Isnad of al-Himyari). In 1378 AH (1959) Shaykh Mahmud Shaltut, head of al-Azhar, declared following it permissible (Hambastigi-yi Madhahib-i Islami of Biazar Shirazi).
  9. Aban ibn Taghlib said that when the Shia differed over a saying of the Prophet they turned to the words of Imam Ali, and when they differed over the words of Imam Ali they turned to the words of Imam al-Sadiq (Rijal al-Najashi).
  10. Among his best-known students were Zurara ibn A'yan, Burayd ibn Mu'awiya, Jamil ibn Darraj, Abd Allah ibn Muskan, Abd Allah ibn Bukayr, Hammad ibn Uthman, Hammad ibn Isa, Aban ibn Uthman, Abd Allah ibn Sinan, Abu Basir, Hisham ibn Salim and Hisham ibn al-Hakam. Most of the Four Hundred Usul were written by his students. When a man asked to debate him, he sent him first to his students: Humran ibn A'yan on the Qur'an, Aban ibn Taghlib on Arabic, Zurara on jurisprudence, Mu'min al-Taq and Hisham ibn Salim on theology; the man was defeated by each (Rijal al-Kashshi).
  11. Malik ibn Anas, founder of the Maliki school, said he used to go to Imam al-Sadiq and hear the hadiths he narrated (al-Khisal of al-Shaykh al-Saduq), and he narrates from him in his al-Muwatta'. Malik reported that whenever he visited him the Imam was in one of three states: praying, fasting, or remembering God (Bihar al-Anwar).
  12. The Sunni scholar Ibn Hajar al-Haytami records that people carried so much knowledge from him that his fame reached every land, and that Yahya ibn Sa'id, Ibn Jurayj, Malik ibn Anas, Sufyan ibn 'Uyayna, Sufyan al-Thawri, Abu Hanifa, Shu'ba ibn al-Hajjaj and Ayyub al-Sakhtiyani narrated from him (al-Sawa'iq al-Muhriqa). Abu Hanifa held him the most knowledgeable of the Muslims (Tadhkirat al-Huffaz of al-Dhahabi), and al-Jahiz wrote that his knowledge and jurisprudence filled the world (Rasa'il al-Jahiz).
  13. Al-Tabrisi collected his debates: with atheists on the existence of God, among them Ibn Abi l-Awja' and Abu Shakir al-Daysani; with Abu Hanifa on the method of jurisprudence and especially analogy (qiyas); and with Mu'tazili scholars on how a ruler is chosen (al-Ihtijaj). Al-Kafi records debates in which his students argued before him while he oversaw them.
  14. Among his well-known teachings is Tawhid al-Mufaddal, given to al-Mufaddal ibn Umar over four sessions, on the creation of the world and of man, the wonders of animals and of the heavens and earth, and the wisdom of death; it was once called Kitab Fakkir, for its repeated words: Think, O Mufaddal. Also from him is the Maqbula of Umar ibn Hanzala, on judgment and conflicting hadiths (al-Kafi).
  15. He kept away from armed revolt. When Abu Muslim al-Khurasani wrote inviting him to take the caliphate, he answered: You are not one of my helpers, and the time is not my time (al-Milal wa l-Nihal of al-Shahrastani). When Abu Salama wrote the same, he burned the letter (Muruj al-Dhahab of al-Mas'udi). He named the lack of faithful supporters as his reason (Manaqib Ibn Shahrashub). At al-Abwa', when Abd Allah al-Mahd sought allegiance for his son as the Mahdi, he told him his son was not the Mahdi and foretold that rule would go to al-Saffah and al-Mansur (Maqatil al-Talibiyyin of Abu l-Faraj al-Isfahani).
  16. When al-Mansur asked why he did not visit him as others did, the Imam wrote: We do not have something to fear you for, you do not have anything of the hereafter for which we should have hopes in you, you are not in a blessing to congratulate you for, and you do not think that you are in affliction to send you our condolences. So why should we be around you? (Bihar al-Anwar).
  17. Under al-Mansur his agents watched the Imam and persecuted, even killed, Shia who were in touch with him, so he and his companions kept taqiyya. He told Sufyan al-Thawri to leave because they were being watched (Manaqib Ibn Shahrashub), and told Aban ibn Taghlib to answer questions with the opinions of the Sunni scholars so as not to be harmed (Rijal al-Kashshi). Al-Mansur summoned him to Iraq and made him stay there for a time (al-Milal wa l-Nihal).
  18. When al-Hasan ibn Zayd, governor of Mecca and Medina, set fire to his house, he walked out through the fire saying: I am the son of the Roots of the Earth; I am the son of Ibrahim, God's Friend (al-Kafi).
  19. Summoned to Iraq under al-Saffah and al-Mansur, he visited Karbala, Najaf, Kufa and al-Hira, and his prayer niches in the Mosque of Kufa and Masjid al-Sahla are remembered (al-Imam al-Sadiq of al-Muzaffar). He visited the grave of Imam Ali, until then hidden, and showed it to companions: Yazid ibn Amr ibn Talha (al-Kafi 4:571) and Yunus ibn Zabyan (Tahdhib al-Ahkam 6:35).
  20. He opposed the Ghulat, who called the Imams gods or prophets, and declared them unbelievers and polytheists. He said of them: Do not socialize with them; do not eat, drink, or shake hands with them (Rijal al-Kashshi). And: Be careful lest the Ghulat corrupt your youth. They are the worst enemies of God (al-Amali of al-Tusi).
  21. He would carry bread, meat and money to the houses of the poor by night without telling them who he was (al-Kafi 4:8). Once he gave a beggar four hundred dirhams, and when the man thanked him, gave him his ring as well, worth ten thousand dirhams (Bihar al-Anwar).
  22. He was martyred in Medina in 148 AH (765) (al-Irshad); Ibn Qutayba's 146 AH is held to be an error. The early Shia sources give the month of Shawwal without a day; later sources give 25 Shawwal, the date observed today. A report in Bihar al-Anwar gives 15 Rajab.
  23. Al-Shaykh al-Saduq states that al-Mansur poisoned him (al-I'tiqadat), as do Ibn Shahrashub (al-Manaqib), al-Tabari al-Imami (Dala'il al-Imama) and Ibn Tawus (Iqbal al-A'mal). Al-Shaykh al-Mufid held there is no decisive evidence of how he was martyred (Tashih al-I'tiqad). He was buried in al-Baqi' beside his father Imam al-Baqir, his grandfather Imam al-Sajjad and Imam al-Hasan (al-Irshad; Manaqib Ibn Shahrashub).
  24. He named Imam al-Kazim to his close companions as his successor many times (Rijal al-Kashshi), but to protect him named five executors in his will, the Abbasid caliph among them. Some companions, Mu'min al-Taq and Hisham ibn Salim among them, first questioned his son Abd Allah al-Aftah, were not satisfied, and then accepted Imam al-Kazim (Rijal al-Kashshi).

Days

  1. 83 AH702 CEBorn in Medina, 17 Rabi' al-Awwal
  2. 114 AH733 CEBecomes Imam after his father
  3. 132 AH750 CEThe Umayyads fall; the Abbasids take power
  4. 136 AH754 CEAl-Mansur becomes caliph
  5. 148 AH765 CEMartyred in Medina, 25 Shawwal; buried in al-Baqi'

Family

محمد الباقرImam al-Baqir
جعفر الصادقImam al-Sadiq
حميدةHamida
فاطمة بنت الحسينFatima bint al-Husayn
موسى الكاظمImam al-Kazim
إسماعيلIsma'il
عبد اللهAbd Allah
إسحاقIshaq
محمدMuhammad
عليAli
العباسal-Abbas
أم فروةUmm Farwa

In the Qur’an

يَٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوٓاْ أَطِيعُواْ ٱللَّهَ وَأَطِيعُواْ ٱلرَّسُولَ وَأُوْلِي ٱلۡأَمۡرِ مِنكُمۡۖ فَإِن تَنَٰزَعۡتُمۡ فِي شَيۡءٖ فَرُدُّوهُ إِلَى ٱللَّهِ وَٱلرَّسُولِ إِن كُنتُمۡ تُؤۡمِنُونَ بِٱللَّهِ وَٱلۡيَوۡمِ ٱلۡأٓخِرِۚ ذَٰلِكَ خَيۡرٞ وَأَحۡسَنُ تَأۡوِيلًا ٥٩

O you who have faith! Obey Allah and obey the Apostle and those vested with authority among you. And if you dispute concerning anything, refer it to Allah and the Apostle, if you have faith in Allah and the Last Day. That is better and more favourable in outcome.

The verse of those vested with authority · An-Nisaa 4:59

وَمَآ أَرۡسَلۡنَا مِن قَبۡلِكَ إِلَّا رِجَالٗا نُّوحِيٓ إِلَيۡهِمۡۖ فَسۡـَٔلُوٓاْ أَهۡلَ ٱلذِّكۡرِ إِن كُنتُمۡ لَا تَعۡلَمُونَ ٤٣

We did not send [any apostles] before you except as men to whom We revealed. Ask the People of the Reminder if you do not know.

The verse of the People of the Reminder · An-Nahl 16:43

Peace be upon you, O Imam of all creation.

Peace be upon you, O firmest handhold.

Peace be upon you, O firm rope of God.

Peace be upon you, O truthful one, Ja'far son of Muhammad, keeper of knowledge, who calls to God with the truth.

Sources