The Imam Ali (as) Team would like to congratulate Our Living Imam, al-Mahdi AS, all our respected members and the Muslim Ummah on the birth of Imam Ali al-Hadi AS. Imam Ali ibn-Muhammad al-Hadi (sometimes referred to by the title of al-Naqi), was the son of the ninth Imam. He was born in 212/827 in Medina, and according to Shiite accounts was martyred through poisoning by Mutazz the Abbasid caliph, in 254/868. During his lifetime, the tenth Imam was contemporary with seven of the Abbasid caliphs: Mamun, Mutasim, Wathiq, Mutawakkil, Muntasir, Mustain and Mutazz. It was during the rule of Mutasim in 220/835 that his noble father died in Baghdad through poison. At that time, Ali ibn-Muhammad al-Naqi was in Medina. There, he became the Imam through divine command and the decree of the Imams before him. He stayed in Medina teaching religious sciences until the time of Mutawakkil. In 243/857, as a result of certain false charges that were made, Mutawakkil ordered one of his government officials to invite the Imam from Medina to Samarra which was the then capital. He wrote the Imam a letter of kindness and courtesy asking him to come to the capital where they could meet. Upon arrival in Samarra, the Imam was also shown certain outward courtesy and respect. Yet at the same time, Mutawakkil tried by all possible means to trouble and dishonour him. Many times, he called the Imam to his presence with the aim of killing and disgracing him and on other occasions would carry out a house search. In his enmity toward the Household of the Prophet, Mutawakkil had no equal among the Abbasid caliphs. He was especially opposed to imam Ali, whom he cursed openly. He went to the extent of ordering a clown to ridicule Imam Ali at voluptuous banquets. In the year 237/850, he ordered the mausoleum of Imam Hussain AS in Karbala and many of the houses around it to be torn down to the ground. The water was turned upon the tomb of the Imam. He ordered the ground of the tomb to be plowed and cultivated so that any trace of the tomb would be forgotten. During the life of Mutawakkil, the condition of life of the descendants of Imam Ali in the Hijaz had reached such a pitiful state that their womenfolk had no veils with which to cover themselves. Many of them had only one old veil which they wore at the time of the daily prayers. Pressures of a similar kind were put on the descendants of Imam Ali who lived in Egypt. The tenth Imam accepted in patience the tortures and afflictions of the Abbasid caliph Mutawakkil until the caliph died and was followed by Muntasir, Mustain and finally Mutazz, whose intrigue led to the Imams being poisoned and martyred.
Posted on: Wed, 23 Oct 2013 09:18:50 +0000
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