Grand Ayatollah Shirazi remarks on blessings of Imam al-Jawad in Shiism
The daily scholarly meeting of Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Sadiq al-Hosseini al-Shirazi was held on Monday, the 10th of Rajab. In this session, like the previous meetings, the Marja answered the questions of the attendees about various legal issues.
Grand Ayatollah Shirazi explained the famous narration of Imam al-Reza (peace be upon him) regarding the birth of Imam al-Jawad (peace be upon him), “This is the child that no child has ever been born with greater blessing for our Shiites than him.” The Marja said: Some prominent scholars, including Allamah Majlesi, and others have interpreted this narration by saying that there have been differences among the Shiites since the time of Imam al-Hasan, Imam al-Hussein, Imam al-Sajjad, Imam al-Baqir, and Imam al-Sadiq, and during the time of all the Imams, peace be upon them, but the most severe of these differences that caused deviation of a large number of Shiites was related to the story of Waqifiyyah.
His Eminence continued: The deviation of Waqifiyyah began with the martyrdom of Imam al-Kazem and the Imamate of Ali al-Reza, peace be upon them, and during this period, many Shiites were made to believe that Imam al-Kazem had not passed away, and therefore Imam al-Reza is not an Imam. As a result, a large number of Shiites were gravitated towards this type of thinking, because some of the great Shiite scholars at that time, such as Ali bin Abi Hamza al-Bataini and Ziyad bin Marwan Qandi, joined the Waqifiyyah.
The supreme Marja commented on the victory of Imam al-Jawad over this group, and said: Imam al-Jawad, peace be upon him, was able to shattered the Waqifiyyah, and in the context of Shiism, among the Imams, peace be upon them, Imam al-Jawad, peace be upon him, was the most blessed of all, as he was able to remove this great misguidance.
Grand Ayatollah Shirazi also pointed to the severe trial of the Shiites in this period and said: The fact that Imam al-Jawad assumed the position of Imamate at the age of seven or eight was a great Divine test. It is said in the hadiths that one of the individuals who questioned the “Divine Appointment of the Twelve Imams” was Ali bin Abi Hamzah al-Bataini. These people were deceived by money and some worldly ambitions, and in any case, this was a difficult test for the Shiites, just like the other tests that God Almighty has decided for the Ummah, such as the story of Ghadir; although it was a well-known and clear issue, some people opposed it blatantly.
