Imam Muhammad Ibn Ibrahim (D. 199AH)
Imam Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm
Peace Be Upon Him
Imam Abū al-Qāsim1 Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Ismāʿīl al-Dibāj ibn Ibrāhīm al-Shabah2 ibn al-Ḥasan al-Riḍā ibn al-Ḥasan al-Sibt ibn the Legatee ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib — peace and salutations of God be upon them.
He rose up in Kufa on Thursday, ten days having passed of Jumādā al-Ūlā, in the year 199 AH. He dispatched his brother Imam al-Qāsim ibn Ibrāhīm to Egypt to call people to God — al-Qāsim being then twenty-six years of age — and Zayd ibn Mūsā al-Kāẓim ibn Jaʿfar to Baṣra, where Zayd burned down the houses of the Banū al-ʿAbbās.
The scholars of the People of the House reported, on the authority of Imam Zayd ibn ʿAlī, that he said:
“Allegiance will be pledged to a man from among us at the Palace of the Two Co-Wives in the year 199, in the first ten days of Jumādā al-Ūlā — a man by whom God will vie in glory over the angels.”
And on the authority of al-Bāqir Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī, son of Sayyid al-ʿĀbidīn, that he said:
“There shall preach upon your pulpits, O people of Kufa, in the year 199, in Jumādā al-Ūlā, a man from among us, the People of the House, by whom God will vie in glory over the angels.”
These two reports were transmitted by Imam al-Manṣūr Billāh in Al-Shāfī, by the Martyr Ḥumayd in Al-Ḥadāʾiq al-Wardiyya, and by Abū al-Faraj in Maqātil al-Ṭālibiyyīn — by way of Aḥmad ibn Saʿīd al-Hamdānī, on the authority of Muḥammad ibn Manṣūr al-Murādī, with his chain going back to the Greatest Imam Zayd ibn ʿAlī and his brother al-Bāqir (peace be upon them).
- Imam Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Zayd ibn ʿAlī
- Imam Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq
- ʿAlī ibn ʿUbaydullāh ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn al-Sibt the scholar of the People of the House and their worshipper
- Yaḥyā ibn Ādam
- Abū Bakr ibn Abī Shayba
- ʿUthmān ibn Abī Shayba
- Abū Nuʿaym al-Faḍl ibn Dukayn
- ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAlqama
- Others
The one who took charge of the ministry of the family of Muḥammad, undertaking their support and the struggle alongside them, was Abū al-Sarāyā al-Sarī ibn Manṣūr al-Shaybānī.3 He was killed (peace be upon him) in the days of Imam Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Zayd.
Soldiers of the ʿAbbāsid armies killed in the days of Imam Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm and the days of Imam Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Zayd combined.
- Ismāʿīlin Egypt and elsewhere
- Jaʿfarin Egypt and elsewhere
- ʿAbdullāhin Egypt and elsewhere
- Aḥmadin Egypt and elsewhere
He (peace be upon him) died a martyr on the night following the first of Rajab in the year 199 AH, at the age of twenty-six years.
“He was the bravest into whom the spirit of life was ever placed.”
— Imam al-Manṣūr Billāh (Peace Be Upon Him)Scholarly References & Annotations
And it is also said: Abū ʿAbdullāh — thus in Al-Shāfī (1/729), Maktabat Ahl al-Bayt (peace be upon them) edition — noted by the Author (peace be upon him).
This Ibrāhīm al-Shabah was the most resembling of people to the Messenger of God ﷺ. Imam al-Mahdī and others counted him among the Imams who made the call — noted by the Author (peace be upon him).
One of the self-made commanders, a brave insurgent. The Imams of the People of the House (peace be upon them) and their loyal followers praised him, as recorded in Al-Shāfī, Al-Maṣābīḥ, Al-Ḥadāʾiq, and Maqātil al-Ṭālibiyyīn. Any disparagement of him by the deviants is not to be heeded concerning him or the likes of him — noted by the Author (peace be upon him). Imam al-Manṣūr Billāh ʿAbdullāh ibn Ḥamzah (peace be upon him) said: he was ʿAlid in his views, holding a strong doctrine in his Shīʿism. See Al-Shāfī (1/736 and following); Al-Maṣābīḥ (522 and following) in the biography of Imam Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm (peace be upon him); and Maʾāthir al-Abrār (1/332).