Imam Rezas (Redha) Debates with the Scholars of Various Groups and Creeds: Imam Reza -the eighth infallible successor of the final holy Prophet: was taken, against his will, from Medina to the city of (khurasan) by Mamoon, the Abbasy ruler of the time. On one hand, Mamoon -whom the love for money and power had encompassed his soul- knew in his heart that the God-chosen leader of Muslims at that time was Imam Reza; but the true acceptance of this undeniable fact would have meant, giving up his usurped ruler-ship. On the other hand, although Ma’moon was totally aware of many Hadiths from the Prophet Mohammad which emphasized on the rightfulness of Imam Reza, but Mamoon had not truly comprehended the extent of Imam Rezas Divinely Bestowed Knowledge. Thus, Mamoon invited the top scholars of all religions to have debates with Imam Reza; but Mamoon soon found out that the Imams Knowledge was not comparable to any one and no one could ever defeat the Imam; Imam Reza (PBUH) was the absolute winner, in every single debate. Ma’moon realized that he could never compete with the Imam and he became more certain that he had to get rid of the Imam.... On various occasions, al-Ma’moon tried to force Imam al-Reza (A.S.) into the arena of complex debates with various groups and creeds. He used to conduct scientific and intellectual sessions to which he invited giant thinkers, leading scientists, the atheists of the century, and debaters whose scientific might was feared and before the stubbornness of whose complex arguments the evidence was muted and due to the fierceness of whose doubt the proof was weakened. In all such debates, the Imam would come out victorious over his opponents due to the tremendous power of knowledge he possessed without forcing himself into the sophistry of arguments to which some might have resorted in order to demolish the structure of his opponents argument and weaken his ability to provide evidence. Rather, he depended in his debate upon honest arguments in order to prove right to be right, his miraculous ability of conviction, and his calm stylistic method. Al-Nawfali Warns the Imam Al-Nawfali tried to warn the Imam against attempting to deal with the debates of such people when the Imam asked him why al-Ma’moon had invited him to debate them, for al-Ma’moon had asked the Catholic archbishop, the High Rabbi, leading Sabians, the Hindu high priest, followers of Zoroaster, Nestus the Roman medical scientist, and a group of orators, to enter into a scientific debate with Imam al-Reza (A.S.). He sent Yasir the servant to the Imam to tell him about the time when the debate would start, requesting him to attend. When Yasir went out and al-Nawfali was alone with the Imam, the Imam (A.S.) turned to him and asked him in the form of a dialogue, O Nawfali! You are an Iraqi, and the heart of an Iraqi is not severe; so, what can you gain from causing your cousin to require us to meet with disbelievers and rhetoricians? Al-Nawfali answered, May my life be sacrificed for yours! He wants to put you to test, and he loves to know how much knowledge you possess. He has, indeed, built his assumption on a shaky foundation, and doomed, by God, what he has built. He asked, And what has he built? He answered, Scholars of kalam and innovators are opposite of the scholars. A scholar does not deny the undeniable, whereas rhetoricians and polytheists are people who deny and try to prove what is not true. If you argue with them and tell them that God is One, they would say, `Prove His Oneness, and if you say that Muhammad (S.A.W.) is the Messenger of God, they would say, `Confirm his Message, then they would press their lies on a person while he tries to disprove their lies, and they would continue to prove that he is mistaken till he abandons his argument; so, beware of them, may my life be sacrificed for you. He smiled and asked, O Nawfali! Do you fear that they will disprove my argument? He answered, No, by God! I have never worried about you, and I hope God will enable you to have the upper hand over them. The Imam asked again, O Nawfali! Would you like to know when al-Ma’moon will feel regretful? He answered, Yes. He said, When he hears me argue with the people of the Torah quoting their own Torah, with the people of the Gospel (Bible) quoting their own Gospel, with the people of the Psalms quoting their own Psalms, with Zoroastrians arguing in their Persian language, with the Romans in their own Latin, and with rhetoricians using their very rhetoric. So, if I closed all the avenues of argument in the face of each arguing party and disproved his claim, making him renounce his statement from its onset and referring to my own statement, then al-Ma’moon would know that he would not achieve what he aspires. It is then that he will feel regretful; we are Gods, and Unto Him is our return. Thus does the Imam show that he was taking lightly and was not concerned about such persons whom al-Ma’moon wished to gather together against him trying to embarrass him with their falsification and arguments which he hoped might close for the Imam (A.S.) all the avenues of argument. When the session starts and the Imam (A.S.) is invited to join it, discussion starts and the Imam (A.S.) starts his debate with the Catholics, making the Bible his reference to prove his own defense of the Unity of God and disprove the Godhead of Christ (A.S.) by those who regarded him as a god besides God. Then he follows with a magnificent discussion proving that the Bible in circulation today is not the same which God had revealed to Christ (A.S.) and that it is authored by some of the disciples of Jesus (A.S.) who are the authors of the four gospels, depending in his argument on the fact that the details presented by each one of them stand in flagrant contradiction with those of the other. The Catholic archbishop slipped into an obvious self-contradiction; for he on one hand sanctified the authors of the four gospels and held them above lying while, on the other hand, he admitted to the Imam that they did tell lies about Christ (A.S.). A debate between a Christian scholar and Imam Reza (PBUH&HP) Part 1 The following is a part of one of the debates which Imam Reza (PBUH) had with a group of scholars. Here Imam Reza (PBUH) -in order to make the Christian scholar think and to direct his thought to the correct result- at first, expressed a questionable statement* regarding Prophet Jesus (PBUH) and therefore, led the Christian scholar to understand the true value and status of Prophet Jesus(PBUH); let us read together: Imam Reza (PBUH) to the Christian scholar: Swear to Allah, we believe in the Jesus (PBUH) whom Mohammad (PBUH&HP) believed in; we have no objection to Jesus except for his weakness and his scant praying and fasting.* Gaathliq (Christian scholar): Swear to God, you just corrupted your knowledge and weakened your matter and argument; I had thought that you were the most knowledgeable person among Muslims! Imam Reza (PBUH): How come! Why do you say that? Gaathliq: You are saying that Jesus was weak and he prayed and fasted so little; while, not a day of Jesus’ life went by, without fasting and not a night, without staying up and praying; Jesus fasted every day and stayed awake and prayed every night. Imam Reza (PBUH): for (pleasing) whom, did he fast and pray?! Gaathliq: became silent and had nothing to say. Imam Reza (PBUH): I want to ask you a question. Gaathliq: ask me; If I know its answer, I will reply. Imam Reza (PBUH): why do you deny that Jesus -by Gods Permission (not on his own)- revive the dead? Gaathliq: I deny this because anyone who raises the dead and cures the blind and heals the leprous, is god and deserves to be worshiped. Imam Reza (PBUH): Surely, the Prophet Yasa performed similar acts as Jesus, he walked on water, raised the dead, healed the blind and leprous, but his nation did not consider him God and worshiped him not. Prophet Hezqil â1â (Ezekiel) raised the dead like Jesus did, too; he revived 35000 people, after being dead for 60 years. ****************************************************************** and God set me out down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones, And caused me to pass by them round about: and, behold, there were very many in the open valley; and, lo, they were very dry. And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord God, thou knowest. Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live: And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am the Lord. So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone. And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above: but there was no breath in them. Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord God; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live. So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army. ... (Bible, Old Testament, book of Ezekiel, chapter 37, statement 1 to 10) Then the Imam (A.S.) goes to debate the High Rabbi, scholar of the Jews, to prove the prophet hood of Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W.) from the previously revealed divine testaments, after which he follows with a very logical debate. Having argued with him that one of the requirements of a Prophet was to perform something all other creation are unable to perform, he asked him about the reason why they, the Jews, refrained from believing into the miracles of all prophets other than Moses (A.S.) son of Imran (Amran), and the High Rabbi answered him saying, We cannot admit the prophet hood of any who professes prophet hood except after bringing us knowledge similar to that brought by Moses. Al-Reza (A.S.) said to him, Then how come you admitted the prophet hood of other prophets who preceded Moses (A.S.) who did not split the sea, nor cleave the stones so that twelve springs would gush forth from it, nor took their hands out shining white as Moses did, nor did they turn a cane into a snake?! It was then that the High Rabbi overcame his stubbornness, submitted to the argument, and admitted that any supernatural act beyond human capacity was indeed a proof of prophet hood. The Imam (A.S.) asked him then about the reason why they did not believe in the prophet hood of Jesus (A.S.) despite the fact that he brought forth miracles beyond human capacity such as bringing the dead back to life, healing those who were born blind and the lepers, and about the reason why they did not believe in the prophet hood of Muhammad (S.A.W.) despite his bringing an extra-ordinary miracle, that is, the Holy Quran while he was neither a scholar nor a writer. The High Rabbi had no answer at all. Then came the turn of the Zoroastrian high priest whom the Imam debated depending on the priests belief in the prophet hood of Zoroaster. The Zoroastrian tells the Imam that Zoroaster brought them what no other man had ever brought them before. We did not see him, he continues, but the stories of our ancestors told us that he legalized for us what no other person before made legal; so, we followed him. The Imam asked, You believed in the stories which came to you about him, so you followed him, didnt you? Yes, he answered. The Imam (A.S.) said, This is the case with all other nations. Stories came to them about what the prophets had accomplished, what Moses (A.S.), Jesus (A.S.), and Muhammad (S.A.W.) had all brought them, so why did you not believe in any of these prophets, having believed in Zoroaster through the stories that came to you about him saying that he brought forth what others did not? Imams Debate With the Sabian The Zoroastrian high priest had no more to say. The Imam then turned to the debates witnesses, having finished debating with the chief representatives of those creeds, asking anyone else to go ahead and put forth any question he had, everyone abstained from doing so. It was then that Imran the Sabian, who was one of the most distinguished scholars of the science of kalam of his time, approached the Imam (A.S.) and asked him how he could prove the existence of the Creator, and the discussion between them delved into the deepest depths of this complex question, while the Imam answered the mans questions through obvious scientific facts in a gloriously simple way. Among the questions Imran asked was: Master! Was the Being known to Himself by His Own Self? The Imam said, Knowledge is acquired by something which would negate its opposite, and so that the thing itself would be existing through what it is negated about it, without the existence of anything which contradicts its existence so that a need arises to negate that thing about itself by defining what is known about it. Do you understand, O Imran? He said, Yes, by God, master! Tell me, then, by what means did He come to know what He knew, by a pronoun or by something else? The Imam (A.S.) said, If it had been by a pronoun, would He then find anyway not to establish for that pronoun a limit where knowledge ends? Imran answered, Yes, He will have to find such way. The Imam then asked him, Then what is that pronoun? Imran could not provide any answer. The Imam (A.S.) said, Is it alright if I ask you about the pronoun and you define it by another pronoun? If you answer in the affirmative, then you would make both your claim and statement void. O Imran! Ought you not come to know that the One cannot be described by a pronoun, and would not be described except by a verb, by deed, by action, and He cannot be expected to be parts and kinds like human beings? Then Imran asked him, Master! The knowledge I have says that the being is changed in his essence by his action of creating... The Imam (A.S.) said, Does your statement, O Imran, mean that the being does not in any way change its essence except when it affects its own essence in a way which changes it? O Imran! Can you say that the fire changes its own self, or that the heat burns itself, or have you seen anyone seeing his own vision? Imran said, No, I have not seen that; could you please tell me, master, is it in that in the creation, or is it the nature of creation in it? The Imam (A.S.) said, Yes, O Imran, He is above all of that; He is not in the creation, nor is the creation in Him; He is elevated above that, and bad indeed is your knowledge about Him, and no might except in God. Tell me about the mirror: are you in it or is it in you? If neither one of you is in the other, then how did you come to see your own selfs reflection in it? Imran said, Through the light between myself and itself. The Imam (A.S.) said, Can you see of that light more than what you can see with your own eyes? He answered, Yes. The Imam (A.S.) said to him, Then show it to us... It was then that the man was too baffled to say a word. The Imam (A.S.) said, I do not see the light except leading you and the mirror to come to know each without being in either one of you. There are many such examples which the ignorant simply cannot observe, and God has the greatest example. Thus did the Imam face the challenge of Imran the Sabians doubting method, demolishing its structure and dispelling the ambiguity of the complex doubts which he could not understand till vision became clear to him. The Imam (A.S.) did not determine an evidence except after building it with simple easy to understand proofs out of the everyday life of man in order not to leave any way for the opponent to doubt after transforming a most complex theory into an easy and commonsense idea, all of that by employing a very beautiful and miraculous style. https://youtube/watch?v=p1fMA26FUYs Reda Hussain Mohamad R.M
Posted on: Mon, 10 Nov 2014 05:37:03 +0000
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