A Readable Debate of Imam al-Rida on Proving Divine Unity

The infallible Imams, peace be upon them, occupy a station which the bird of imagination and the foot of reason cannot reach. Not only can they not reach that rank; they cannot even aspire to comprehend that station and degree, nor are they able even to describe one aspect of its aspects.

Imam al-Rida, peace be upon him, says: “Who can truly know the Imam and be able to choose him? Far, far from it! Intellects go astray concerning him, imaginations are bewildered and confounded, minds are lost and eyes fail to see; the great are small here, the wise are perplexed, the eloquent are mute, the forbearing are short-sighted, and the intelligent are ignorant and unaware; poets are speechless and writers helpless in explaining and describing one aspect of the Imam’s aspects, one of his stations, or one of his virtues. All confess their incapacity. How, then, can his essence be described and his secrets understood? How can anyone stand in his place and fulfill what pertains to him? No—how? From where?” (1)

Imam al-Rida, peace be upon him, says that scholars unable to describe one aspect of the Imam’s aspects cannot choose an Imam for themselves by their own will and selection. The Imamate is a station whose appointment and selection belongs solely to divine will. Al-Rida, may God’s blessings be upon him, is the eighth Imam among the twelve Imams whom God chose for the Imamate and whose obedience He made obligatory upon all jinn and humankind. He chose him so that God might be worshipped on earth through him. He is the eighth Imam of guidance and the teacher of divine unity.

Al-Ma'mun was among the oppressors and tyrants who usurped the right of the caliphate from Imam al-Rida, peace be upon him, just as this right had been usurped from Imam al-Rida’s pure forefathers, especially the Commander of the Faithful, peace be upon him. Through oppression, he compelled that exalted Imam to leave Medina and travel to Tus in service of his satanic policies. Al-Ma'mun, who had not even refrained from killing his own brother to obtain the caliphate, said to Imam al-Rida: “I wish to remove myself from the caliphate, make you caliph, and pledge allegiance to you.”

The eighth Imam, peace be upon him, replied: “If this caliphate belongs to you and God has assigned it to you, then it is not lawful for you to remove the garment of the caliphate and hand it over to another. And if the caliphate does not belong to you, then it is not lawful for you to grant me something that is not yours.” (2)

In these brief words, the Imam declared the invalidity of the foundation of al-Ma'mun’s government and of those who reached the caliphate as he did. That is, whoever came to the caliphate after the Prophet without divine appointment, and without God Most High having granted him the right to the caliphate, held a usurped caliphate and committed oppression and betrayal against the Greatest Prophet and all Muslims. Al-Rida, may God’s blessings be upon him, stated that al-Ma'mun had no right in the caliphate to transfer, because he had leaned upon a throne whose foundations had been strengthened through the vast killing of Shi'a and descendants of Lady Fatima, peace be upon her. His caliphate had arisen from Satan’s intrigue at Saqifa; therefore, he could never claim that his caliphate came from the Lord.

The Abbasid devil employed another stratagem in this confrontation with truth. Al-Ma'mun said: “If you do not accept the caliphate and do not desire my pledge, then be my heir apparent, so that after me the caliphate will be yours.” Imam al-Rida, peace be upon him, replied: “I shall leave this world before you, while I will be wronged and killed by poison, and the angels of heaven will weep for me.”

After the exchange between that oppressed Imam and the usurping caliph, al-Ma'mun angrily threatened him that, if he refused the offer of succession, he would follow the way of his tyrannical forefathers and kill him. He then imposed the heirship upon Imam al-Rida, peace be upon him, by force.

According to what Imam al-Rida, peace be upon him, said, al-Ma'mun’s aim was for people to form a negative view of Imam al-Rida and for the Imam’s popularity and acceptance among them to disappear. People would say that Ali ibn Musa al-Rida, peace be upon him, had accepted the heirship out of desire for the caliphate and had joined al-Ma'mun and the Abbasids for worldly gain, though their hands were soaked to the elbows in the blood of the Household of the Prophet and their Shi'a.

Al-Ma'mun tried to separate the people from the Imam of their time and, through this subtle move, remove Imam al-Rida, peace be upon him, from the body of society. The Imam’s separation from society means the destruction of religion, for religion remains alive in society through the Imam and connection with him. Undoubtedly, though al-Ma'mun outwardly bore the hypocrisy of the Abbasids, inwardly his reality was Umayyad. Like the Umayyads, he struck at the roots of religion while hypocritically presenting himself as a devotee of Imam al-Rida. This plot did not succeed because of Imam al-Rida’s conduct.

Al-Ma'mun’s aim was to distance people from the Household of the Prophet. Yet he could not do so, for he could find no rival to the Household, who are the mine of knowledge and knowledgeable in revealed sciences. How can knowledge that springs from the source of revelation and is divine light be concealed? Thus al-Ma'mun adopted the same policy that Umar and Mu'awiya had followed in their intellectual treatment of the Household.

Just as some people of Saqifa, because of their intellectual void and in order to conceal their ignorance before their rival, sought the help of Jews and brought figures such as Ka'b al-Ahbar and Zayd ibn Thabit into court, while Jews performed the most important tasks in their time. Zayd ibn Thabit, who was known for being Jewish, was ordered by some to write and compile the Qur'an, and Ka'b al-Ahbar was their government’s Qur'anic exegete and scholarly authority.

Mu'awiya’s important court adviser was also a Christian who did not hesitate even to wear a cross around his neck in Mu'awiya’s court. Al-Ma'mun likewise followed that path and appealed to the atheistic sciences of the West. By this act, he created intellectual dependence on the West. For this purpose he founded Bayt al-Hikma and through it poured various sciences, including the atheistic philosophy of ancient Greece, into Islamic lands.

Of course, other tyrants and usurpers of the caliphate had done this before al-Ma'mun, but by founding Bayt al-Hikma he accelerated and expanded it, hoping thereby to strike a fundamental blow at the roots of religion and isolate the Household intellectually within society. Looking at the names of Bayt al-Hikma’s translators, whose task was translating atheistic philosophical works of the West, makes the role of Jews in Bayt al-Hikma clear.

In any case, al-Ma'mun thirsted for the libraries of ancient Greece. He committed a great crime within Islamic society, a crime that contaminated Muslim thought and reasoning with the atheistic ideas of the West. Al-Majlisi writes concerning this crime: “This crime against religion, and the spread of philosophical books among Muslims, was among the innovations of tyrannical caliphs and enemies of the Household. [Their purpose in publicizing philosophical books] was to turn people away from the Household, peace be upon them, and from the clear religious law. This is indicated by what al-Safadi mentioned in his commentary on Lamiyyat al-Ajam: after al-Ma'mun defeated some Christian kings [probably Cyprus], he requested from them the treasury of Greek books ....” Al-Majlisi also notes that philosophical books had entered Islam before that. (3)

In any event, al-Ma'mun’s dissemination of these books in Islamic society grew greatly, although the companions of the pure Imams had written many books criticizing and refuting Greek philosophers. Those books have not reached us today, but Shi'a bibliographers have transmitted their titles, which itself testifies to the Household’s confrontation with Greek thought and to these books’ deviation from truth and reality.

In entry 1164 of his Fihrist, in the biography of Hisham ibn al-Hakam, al-Najashi gives a list of the works of Hisham ibn al-Hakam, the skilled Shi'a theologian and companion of Imam al-Sadiq and Musa ibn Ja'far, peace be upon them. Among these works is a book entitled “Refutation of Aristotle in Divine Unity” (4), showing that Aristotle’s belief in divine unity was not accepted by the theological and hadith companions of the pure Imams.

It may be said that the Shi'a and students of the Household broadly criticized the ideas of Western philosophers. Hisham ibn al-Hakam was not alone in writing refutations of philosophers. Among such works was Fadl ibn Shadhan’s “Refutation of the Philosophers”; Fadl was one of the great companions of the Imami school. Shaykh al-Saduq, one of the great Imami traditionists, and the Qummi shaykhs also criticized philosophers in Kamal al-Din wa Tamam al-Ni'ma, composed at the indication of the Imam of the Age. Likewise, a work entitled Tahafut al-Falasifa (“The Contradictions of the Philosophers”) is attributed to Qutb al-Rawandi. (5) According to al-Kashshi, because of his criticism and condemnation of philosophers, Hisham ibn al-Hakam became the target of a murder plot by Yahya ibn Khalid al-Barmaki, Harun’s minister; he was ultimately pursued for this reason and lost his life. (6)

Al-Ma'mun, the scheming Abbasid caliph, continued striving to translate and publish these atheistic books despite Greek philosophers having atheistic thought. Yet this stratagem could not eclipse the Imam’s divine knowledge, for in the debate sessions between Imam al-Rida, peace be upon him, and the exponents of discourse, the truth of Islam and Shi'ism was proven. The impieties of philosophers never entered the thought of the companions of the pure Imams.

Imam al-Rida, peace be upon him, invalidated all doubts aimed at divine unity and the foundation of Islam, and interpreted and explained divine unity as it truly is. Imam al-Rida’s debates exist on most subjects of divine unity and knowledge of God: bada', will, volition, decree and destiny, attributes of act and essence, proving the origination of the world, proving the eternal, proving creation “from no thing,” and rejecting belief in creation “from a thing,” and so on. A very interesting and important point is that most of these debates are intelligible to researchers and articulate general criteria and rules in this matter. Undoubtedly, by returning to and holding fast to the precious words of that star of guidance, Shi'a theologians, jurists, and traditionists have been able to invalidate all opponents’ doubts to this day.

As an example, let us review a brief debate containing a principle and rule concerning divine unity:

Imam al-Rida, peace be upon him, asked a Christian who apparently believed in the divinity of Jesus: “What is your belief concerning Christ?” He said: “My master, Christ is from God.” The Imam replied: “What do you mean by the phrase ‘from God’? Being from God has only four possible meanings. First: being a part of a whole; in that case Christ would be a part of God, and God would have parts. Second: you mean ‘Christ is from God’ as vinegar comes from wine; this is impossible concerning God. Third: as son and father; Christ would be the son and God the father, which would be by sexual union, and the invalidity of this is clear. Fourth: as a made thing that is brought into being; in that case God would be Creator and Christ created. Do you have another meaning? Then show us that meaning.” The narration states that the Christian man was unable to answer and was defeated. (7)

With this very brief and simple explanation, Imam al-Rida, peace be upon him, established both the invalidity of Christ’s divinity and that God’s creation is not of the category of whole and part, meaning that creatures are not particulars separated from one universal existence. Nor is God’s creation a matter of God’s essence taking the form of creatures; he also negated creation based on sexual union. Consequently, God originated the universe “from no thing,” without any prior existence.

The infinite sciences of the Household of Infallibility and Purity have reached us today through the narrations that remain from them. There is no Islamic science without a principle and rule from the Household concerning it in the narrations. Yet it is regrettable that throughout history, because of the oppression of tyrants and enemies and the negligence and insufficient effort of the Household’s friends, only a very small number benefited from these sciences. The Household likened their scholarly station to a sealed and abandoned well full of the water of life, from which seekers thirsty for truth have turned away. Thus they said: “We are the abandoned well.” Although the injustice inflicted upon the Household of Infallibility and Purity was immense, and the negative effects of Islamic society’s distance from their teachings remain to this day, our negligence in learning from the spring of their divine sciences must not cause Imam al-Rida’s teachings to remain estranged and neglected today as well. All lovers and devotees of that compassionate Imam should turn ever more to his precious words and those of his pure forefathers, always remembering this truth: “Your speech is light.” The speech of you, the Household, is light; whoever makes this confession before the Imams has accepted wholeheartedly that the speech of those other than the Household is darkness and obscurity.

1. Al-Amali of Shaykh al-Saduq, translation by Kamarah'i, text 677, ninety-seventh session.

2. Bihar al-Anwar, vol. 49, p. 129.

3. Bihar al-Anwar, vol. 57, p. 197, Tatmim Naf'uhu 'Amim, p. 187.

4. Rijal al-Najashi, p. 433, entry 1164, Hisham ibn al-Hakam Abu Muhammad.

5. Bihar al-Anwar, vol. 57, p. 197, Tatmim Naf'uhu 'Amim, p. 187.

6. Rijal al-Kashshi, p. 258.

7. Bihar al-Anwar, vol. 10, p. 349, chapter 19: Debates of al-Rida, Ali ibn Musa, may God’s blessings be upon them.