Muslims worldwide commemorate sorrowful martyrdom anniversary of Imam Jaafar Al-Sadiq

The 25th of Shawwal al-Mukarram marks the sorrowful martyrdom anniversary of the sixth Twelver-Shia Imam, Jafar ibn Muhammad al-Sadiq (peace be upon him).

Imam Jafar al-Sadiq, peace be upon him, was born in 83 AH and died in 148 AH.

He is the son of Imam Muhammad al-Baqir, peace be upon him, and held the Imamate of the Shiites for 34 years, from 114 to 148 AH. His Imamate coincided the rule of the last five Umayyad caliphs, from Hisham bin Abdul Malik onwards, and the first two Abbasid caliphs, namely Saffah and Mansour Dawaniqi.

Due to the weakness of the Umayyad government, Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him) had much more freedom for scholarly activity compared to other Shiite Imams, which enabled him to train an estimated number of 4,000 students.

Since an overwhelming number of the narrations of Ahl al-Bayt are from Imam Sadiq, peace be upon him, the Imamiyyah denomination is also known as the “Jafari denomination”.

Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him) is highly revered among Sunni religious authorities. As a notable example, Abu Hanifah considered Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him) to be the most learned person among Muslims.

According to Sheikh Sadouq, Imam Sadiq (peace be upon him) was martyred by poison on the order of Mansoor Dawaniqi. Other Shia Scholars including Ibn Shahr Ashub and Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari III have confirmed this account in their books.