From the narrations that discourage the Rāfiḍa from supporting the Imams of the Ahl al-ʿItra
The first narration:
At first glance, you find it to be an ʿAbbāsid fabrication intended to discourage support for the Imams of the Ahl al-ʿItra and to claim that their cause will not succeed, whereas the realities on the ground contradict the content of these narrations, given that some members of the Ahl al-ʿItra did in fact gain power.
It is reported by al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn ʿAsākir, with his chain of transmission: my father narrated to me—Muʿāwiya b. al-Ḥārith—from his grandfather, the father of his mother, who used to say: “I have a ḥadīth such that, if I wished, I could eat the world by means of it; yet God will not ask me about a ḥadīth that I raise to the ruler.” My father said: I asked him, “What is it?” He said: “When Zayd rose up, I went to my maternal aunt al-Ghad and said to her, ‘Mother, Zayd has risen.’ She said, ‘Poor man—he will be killed just as his forefathers were killed.’ I said to her, ‘Men of reason have gone out with him!’ She said, ‘I was with Umm Salama, the wife of the Prophet ﷺ, when they were discussing the caliphate. Umm Salama said: I was with the Prophet ﷺ when they discussed the caliphate after him, and they said: “The offspring of Fāṭima?” He replied: “They will never reach it. Rather, it will be among the offspring of my uncle, the twin of my father, until they hand it over to the Antichrist.”’”
(History of Damascus 19/474)
Comment:
Here there is an ʿAbbāsid deployment [of the report]: no matter that men of intellect stand with the leaders of the descendants of al-Ḥasan and al-Ḥusayn—do not be deceived, O Shīʿa or others—the authority remains with the Banū al-ʿAbbās; a Prophetic ḥadīth—case closed!
The second narration:
Likewise, at first glance, you find it to be a Rāfiḍī fabrication intended to discourage support for the Imams of the Ahl al-ʿItra and to claim that their cause will not succeed, whereas the realities on the ground contradict the content of these narrations, given that some members of the Ahl al-ʿItra—and from the descendants of al-Ḥasan—did gain power.
It is reported by al-Kulaynī, with his chain of transmission, from Faḍīl b. Sakara, who said: “I entered upon Abū ʿAbd Allāh عليه السلام and he said: ‘O Faḍīl, do you know what I was looking at just a moment ago?’ I said: ‘No.’ He said: ‘I was looking in the Book of Fāṭima, peace be upon her. There is no king who rules the earth except that he is written in it by his name and his father’s name, and I found nothing in it for the descendants of al-Ḥasan.’”
(Uṣūl al-Kāfī 1/242)
Comment:
At that time, the banners of the descendants of al-Ḥasan (peace be upon him) were present on the scene, and the Shīʿa were tested then between the obligation of answering the caller from the family of the Messenger or grounding a doctrine of textual designation (naṣṣ) and refusal through justifications. Hence the descendants of al-Ḥasan (peace be upon him) were singled out for mention here, and in this lies the same rationale as in the first narration.
Additional Summary
Yes, there was indeed a presence of Imam al-Ṣādiq (peace be upon him), as indicated by the narrations, in relation to the call of Imam al-Nafs al-Zakiyya (peace be upon him). However, their purport is not an objection to the call of Imam al-Nafs al-Zakiyya to the Imamate as such; rather, it pertains to the following matters:
- It was not the time of the Mahdī of the End of Time. If you believe that he was the Mahdī of the End of Time, then al-Nafs al-Zakiyya was not he, for there are preliminary signs that had not yet occurred and would come in the future. This is the very same answer given by Imam Zayd b. ʿAlī (peace be upon him) to the one who came to him and asked, “Are you the Mahdī?!”
- Among the bodies of knowledge that he learned from his father, Imam al-Bāqir (peace be upon him), was that Imam al-Nafs al-Zakiyya would not be able to attain authority. Likewise, this was narrated from his father, Imam ʿAbd Allāh b. al-Ḥasan (peace be upon him). Nevertheless, this does not constitute a justification for refraining from action—just as Imam al-Ḥusayn (peace be upon him) rose up, and Imam Zayd b. ʿAlī (peace be upon him) rose up, even though his uncle Muḥammad b. al-Ḥanafiyya used to foretell what would happen to him from his loins, as did his father Imam Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn (peace be upon him), and others besides them. Yet this does not remove the obligation from the morally responsible person.
Yes! These two matters are not part of the substance of the narration cited by Ibn ʿAsākir, nor of the narration of al-Kulaynī. Rather, the purport of the two narrations is broader than that, in terms of discouragement, for one who reflects. The benefit of mentioning this topic is that it assists the observer and the researcher in examining the psychology of that society which failed and refused the descendants of al-Ḥasan and al-Ḥusayn—the Imams of the Ahl al-ʿItra who were callers [to action]. This, in turn, will lead the discerning person to doctrinal matters.
I conclude by saying that Imam al-Ṣādiq (peace be upon him) excused himself to Imam al-Nafs al-Zakiyya from going out [in revolt], as mentioned in Maqātil al-Ṭālibiyyīn. The Imam excused him due to old age and an illness (the appearance of advanced age). Then Imam al-Ṣādiq (peace be upon him) said that he regretted nothing except his not having gone out with the two Imams, al-Nafs al-Zakiyya or al-Nafs al-Raḍiyya—Muḥammad and Ibrāhīm, the two sons of ʿAbd Allāh al-Maḥḍ.
One final point: the Imams of the Ahl al-ʿItra held that Banū al-ʿAbbās played a major role in exploiting the Rāfiḍa to fracture the ranks of the Shīʿa who responded to the callers from the descendants of al-Ḥasan and al-Ḥusayn. They did this by diverting them doctrinally with reports like those mentioned by al-Kulaynī, and by spreading the doctrine of explicit designation (naṣṣ) and testamentary succession (waṣiyya), asserting that they were not Imams—meaning the calling Imams from the descendants of al-Ḥasan and al-Ḥusayn. Yes! Whoever studies the biography of Abū Jaʿfar al-Manṣūr al-ʿAbbāsī will find that he practiced such methods with great skill among the Shīʿa.
May God grant you success.
O Allah, send prayers and peace upon Muḥammad and upon the family of Muḥammad
Translation of Ustadh Kadhim Al Zaydi (May Allah reward him)