Imam Reza (A.S) Paragon Par-Excellence
“In houses Allah has allowed to be raised and wherein His Name is celebrated, He is glorified therein, morning and evening.” (Holy Qur’an 24:36)
When this ayah was revealed and Prophet Muhammad (SAWA) expounded its meaning to his companions, according to a narration found in the books of hadith of our Sunni brethren, Abu Bakr asked whether the house of Imam Ali (AS) and Hazrat Fatema Zahra (SA) was also among the houses exalted by Allah. The Messenger of Mercy replied in the affirmative and added that is the best of them.
Today the Godless Wahhabis have destroyed not just the house of Imam Ali (AS) and Hazrat Fatema (AS) in Medina along with the entire Bani Hashem locality, but their blasphemous bulldozers have left no trace of the house where the “Mercy unto the entire creation” was born in Mecca – not to speak of the holy tombs of the Prophet’s immediately family members in the sacred graveyards of Jannat al-Mu’allah (Mecca) and Jannat al-Baqie (Medina).
The question that arises is that: By such ungodly acts that are not less in profanity than the periodical sacrilege to which some satanic minds in the West resort against the sanctities of Islam through films, journals and novels, have the Wahhabis succeeded in obliterating from Muslim minds the hallowed status of the Prophet’s Ahl al-Bayt, whose spotless purity God Almighty Himself has vouched in the holy Qur’an (33:33)?
The answer is a big NO. The facts are all too obvious. A house is not just the place where a person is born and lives, but also the final resting place, or in other words, the grave, which houses his/her body.
To be more precise, the ayah quoted at the beginning of this column, without the least doubt, includes the holy shrines of the Ahl al-Bayt, where day and night the Name of God Almighty is glorified and which are indeed the most exalted abodes anywhere in the world.
One such hallowed house is in Iran, in the city of Mashhad, which these days is hosting millions of Muslims from not just all over the Islamic Republic but from different parts of the globe.
It is the shrine of the Prophet’s 8th Infallible Heir, Imam Ali ar-Reza (AS), who was born on the 11th of Zil-Qa’dah in the year 148 AH in – his now destroyed house in – Medina, but who through immortal martyrdom found a permanent place in Khorasan that leads the believers to the celestial heavens.
Praised be God the All-Glorious. Here because of lack of time and space I refer to some of his impeccable characteristics as mentioned by the famous narrator of hadith, Shaikh Saduq over a millennium ago: “In the words of Ibrahim ibn Abbas: I never saw Ali ar-Reza committing excess over anyone in talking and interrupting anybody’s speech before its coming to the end. He did not stretch his legs in the presence of others. When the meal table was laid he invited the servants to it, and took his meals with them. After taking rest in the nights he got up and made himself busy with the prayers to Allah. Similar to his forefathers he carried food to the houses of the afflicted ones at the mid of nights.”
These flawless traits are an indication of not just the unsullied personalities of the Ahl al-Bayt, but indicate the Infallibility of their Immaculate Ancestor, Prophet Muhammad (SAWA), the Exemplar par-excellence for all mankind.
To end this column here is an admonition from the 8th Imam to his erring brother Zayd that shows it is virtue that exalts a person in the sight of God: “One day, when Imam Reza was delivering a speech in a grand assembly, he heard Zayd praising himself before the people, saying I am so and so. Imam Reza asked him: “O Zayd, have you trusted upon the words of the grocers of Kufa and are conveying them to the people? What kind of things are you talking about? The sons of Ali ibn Abi Talib (AS) and Fatema Zahra (SA) are worthy and outstanding only when they obey the command of Allah, and keep themselves away from sin and blunder. You think you are like Imam Musa al-Kazem, Imam Ali ibn Husayn, and other Imams? Whereas, they took pains and bore hardships on the way to Allah and prayed to Allah day and night. Do you think you will gain without pain? Be aware, that if a person out of us the Ahl al-Bayt performs a good deed, he gets twice the reward. Because not only he performed good deeds like others but also that he has maintained the honour of Muhammad (SAWA). If he practices something bad and does a sin, he has performed two sins. One is that he performed a bad act like the rest of the people and the other one is that he has negated the honour of Muhammad (SAWA). O brother! The one who obeys Allah is from us the Ahl al-Bayt and the one who is a sinner is not ours. Allah said about the son of Noah who cut the spiritual bondage with his father, “He is not out of your lineage; if he was out of your lineage, I would have (saved) and granted him salvation.”
Imam Reza (A.S) Paragon Par-Excellence Imam Reza (A.S) Paragon Par-Excellence
