Day 5

The lesson

1. The Imam knew al-Ma'mun's aim, and told him: You seek to make people say that Ali ibn Musa is fond of the material world. Asked why he had accepted, he said: I accepted this under duress ('Uyun Akhbar al-Rida).
2. Al-Ma'mun held sessions in Merv where the Imam debated scholars of other faiths and schools: the Christian Catholicos (al-Jathaliq), the Jewish Exilarch (Ra's al-Jalut), Zoroastrian scholars, Imran al-Sabi, Abu Qurra and al-Marwazi, on the oneness of God, the Imamate and more (al-Ihtijaj of al-Tabrisi). Al-Saduq writes that al-Ma'mun brought high-level scholars against him out of envy, to devalue his reasoning, but none of those scholars met Imam al-Rida except that they admitted to his superiority and accepted his proofs ('Uyun Akhbar al-Rida).
3. In the middle of these debates, when he heard the call to prayer he left the session, telling those who asked him to continue: I will pray and come back ('Uyun Akhbar al-Rida). When his own gatherings in Merv drew crowds, al-Ma'mun sent Muhammad ibn Amr al-Tusi to scatter the people, and the Imam cursed al-Ma'mun ('Uyun Akhbar al-Rida).

Questions

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Questions are written by AI from the lesson’s facts, and each answer was checked against its fact.