The Childhood of al-Jawad al-A’immah: An Everlasting Miracle

The imamate of Imam al-Jawad is a manifestation of the imamate that God has explained in the Qur’an.

The imamate of al-Jawad al-A’immah was not the outcome of political conflicts among the powerful and those hungry for power. Otherwise, it would have been impossible for a five-year-old child to surpass seasoned politicians in the arena of political competition—an arena filled with claimants to leadership and people coveting power.

Prophet Abraham reached the rank of imamate in old age, after severe trials. After prophethood and messengership, God Almighty raised him to the rank of imamate and said to him: “Indeed, I will make you an imam for the people.” It is clear that this noble Qur’anic verse assigns no role to people in the matter of imamate. The establishment and appointment of this rank are wholly divine acts, because imamate is a divine covenant that God Almighty grants to the one worthy of it. Because of the greatness and exaltedness of this station, Abraham asks for it for his descendants: “And from my descendants?” God, in answering this prayer, excludes the unjust descendants: “My covenant does not reach the wrongdoers.” Abraham’s prayer concerning descendants purified from every kind of ظلم throughout their lives was answered, and this divine covenant—that is, imamate—reached some of Abraham’s descendants.

Therefore, the Shi‘i understanding of imamate fully accords with the logic and framework of the Noble Qur’an. In the Qur’an, God both introduces the characteristics of the “Imam” and, to a considerable extent, guides us to the instance of the “Imam,” though one must refer to the Prophet for a clear and explicit identification of that instance.

In the verses of the Qur’an, God Almighty considers the Imam to be a person who is absolutely free from injustice: from birth until attaining the rank of imamate, he has committed no error, has no lapse, and no sin will issue from him. In the language of the narrations, only the infallible can be an Imam. At the same time, courage and knowledge accompany him. God has also taught the Book to the “Imam,” granted him wisdom, and made obedience to him obligatory.

On the other hand, a person to whom God has granted such qualities is called an “Imam” and reaches the rank of imamate only when God Almighty appoints him to such a station.

Thus, the Qur’anic imamate in which Shi‘ism believes has two important aspects: first, the characteristics of the “Imam,” unique qualities that God grants to a particular person; and second, God’s “appointment.” In other words, a person who possesses lofty qualities such as freedom from injustice, knowledge, courage, wisdom, and the like may occupy the office of imamate when God Almighty makes him Imam.

Shi‘ism is a school whose foundations and branches are built on the Noble Qur’an and the teachings of the Noble Prophet. Accordingly, in every age it seeks the Imam for whom God Almighty has instituted imamate. On the one hand, Shi‘ism seeks evidence proving that a claimant to imamate has attained this rank from God Almighty; on the other, it considers the claimant to imamate to be one who can correctly answer the questions raised by the Shi‘a.

Therefore, in these two respects—knowledge and divine designation—imamate does not differ from prophethood. Just as the designation of a prophet belongs to God, the designation of an Imam is also solely at the discretion of God Almighty.

This truth applies to all Shi‘i Imams, and all Shi‘a hold this belief concerning all their Imams. Yet it appeared much more prominently during the imamate of Imam al-Jawad. The previous Imams assumed the imamate at advanced ages, and customarily it seemed reasonable to opponents and supporters alike that a mature, rational person possessing abundant knowledge should lead a religious school. But opponents regarded it as impossible that a child under ten years old should lead Shi‘ism—a school with great jurists and highly skilled theologians, which had surpassed others in scholarly fields and debates. Shortly before Imam al-Jawad’s imamate, this school had defeated all rival religions and schools in debate gatherings and demonstrated their inability to answer questions and objections. It was also heir to a mass of books written in various sciences by Shi‘i بزرگان. Such a school was now led by one who had not yet passed more than nine springs of life.

Within the Shi‘i community there was also a vast network of agents linking all Shi‘a throughout the Islamic lands to the institution of imamate. Without doubt, the network of agency could not operate openly; it had to be managed in a way that, while preserving Shi‘i lives, enabled it to serve as one of the instruments for leading the Shi‘i community. Imam al-Jawad assumed leadership and management of this vast network in childhood.

The importance of the matter lies in the fact that at the age of five—during the imamate of Imam al-Rida—he undertook the management and guidance of the network of agency. It is clear that leading a community requires very strong groundwork within that community for a leader to gain general acceptance among its members. In today’s world, all parties and political institutions make extensive preparations to place a particular person in leadership and seek a position for that person in society. From this perspective, leading the Shi‘a through the network of agency was of great importance.

During his lifetime, Imam al-Rida repeatedly declared his imamate. When he was in the cradle, he wrote a letter to him, and Imam al-Jawad healed the letter’s bearer, who was blind.

When some objected to the imamate of a young child and found it difficult that God should place the covenant of imamate upon a child of tender age, Imam al-Rida referred them to the Qur’an, where God says of Prophet John: “O John, hold firmly to the Book,” and “We gave him judgment—meaning wisdom—in childhood.” Yes, the imamate in which Shi‘ism believes has the rank of the prophets; it is not realized through affection, coercion, or domination.

The imamate of al-Jawad al-A’immah was not the outcome of political conflicts among the powerful and those hungry for power. Otherwise, it would have been impossible for a five-year-old child to surpass seasoned politicians in the arena of political competition—an arena filled with claimants to leadership and people coveting power.

The imamate of an Imam in childhood, and his debate with al-Ma’mun’s greatest court jurist, itself showed the intense effort to call his imamate into question. Yet God Almighty makes the one whom He appoints as Imam the heir to the knowledge of the prophets and preceding Imams. Thus, in one gathering, Yahya ibn Aktham, the elderly man claiming juristic mastery in the Abbasid apparatus, was utterly disgraced, to the point that the Abbasid caliph and Abbasids—sworn enemies of the institution of imamate, whose hands were stained with the blood of many Shi‘i Imams—admitted that they were insignificant and contemptible before this child’s knowledge.

Yes, the imamate of Imam al-Jawad is evidence of the truth of Shi‘ism. His imamate at the age of eight, his scholarly debate, his learned answers to eminent jurists and highly skilled Shi‘i theologians, and his intellectual challenge to thinkers at a time when the translation movement of Greek books had reached its height made clear that his imamate was heavenly and that Shi‘ism is a school connected to heaven through its Imam.

Which of the schools that make claims can introduce an Imam like Imam al-Jawad? An Imam before the age of five, before whom all the scholars of his time submit in humility? The childhood of al-Jawad al-A’immah made the truth of the Shi‘i claim still clearer: the claim that the matter of imamate is divine.

The imamate of Imam al-Jawad is a manifestation of the imamate that God has explained in the Qur’an: an imamate in which only God knows who should occupy this office, in whose selection God has given people no choice, and which rests upon knowledge and courage.

Perhaps it was because of this very important matter that the deviant Waqifi movement could not endure. Twelver Shi‘ism follows an Imam whose divine character is wholly manifest and clear—an imamate whose every moment is a miracle, like Christ’s speech in the cradle. Its miraculous aspect is so prominent that it leaves no room for doubt about its divine nature. Therefore, those who had stopped at the imamate of Musa ibn Ja‘far could not deny the imamate of a child in early childhood.

Therefore, the imamate of al-Jawad al-A’immah in childhood, besides showing that Shi‘i imamate is completely and entirely based on the Qur’an and is directly God Almighty’s appointment and will, declares false all the intellectual rivals of the Shi‘i community. It draws a line of invalidation through the Saqifa adherents, the Waqifiyya, and every view that considers the institution of imamate in Shi‘ism to be non-divine.