Day 6

The lesson

1. Asked by al-Ma'mun to lead the Eid prayer, he went out barefoot, as the Prophet did, saying takbir at every step; the commanders dismounted, took off their shoes and walked weeping behind him. Al-Fadl ibn Sahl warned al-Ma'mun that the people would be won over, and the Imam was called back before he reached the prayer ground (Hayat-i Fikri wa Siyasi-yi Imaman-i Shi'a of Rasul Ja'fariyan).
2. He did not hide the doctrine of the Imamate: he called himself the one whose obedience is obligatory, while telling the Shia to be wary and not spread these words in public (al-Kafi 1:187). Asked by al-Ma'mun to write on the truth of Islam, he wrote of the oneness of God, the prophethood of Muhammad and the Imamate of Imam Ali and the eleven Imams after him ('Uyun Akhbar al-Rida).
3. He ate with his servants even after he was named heir ('Uyun Akhbar al-Rida). In a bathhouse a man who did not know him asked him to wash him, and he did; when the man learned who he was and apologised, the Imam calmed him and went on washing him (Manaqib Ibn Shahrashub). Giving his shirt to Di'bil, he said he had prayed a thousand rak'as every night for a thousand nights in it, and finished the Qur'an a thousand times in it (al-Amali of al-Tusi).

Questions

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