The Rise of New Spiritual Movements and Deviant Schools Shows Society's Emptiness of Imam al-Baqir's Teachings

God Almighty has appointed a successor on earth. This matter is explicitly stated in the Noble Qur'an, where it is referred to as the 'Khalifat Allah,' the vicegerent of God. Wherever the word 'khalifa' appears in the Qur'an, the expression 'inni ja'il; I appoint' appears as well. This means that God has reserved for Himself the right to choose His own successor, and He has not granted this permission to anyone other than Himself. Even if the people of a city, under the pretext of consensus, call someone the caliph of God, where God's will is present, the consensus of the entire world has no value at all; for 'the hand of God is above their hands,' and God's will is above all wills.

God places whomever He wills as His successor. Thus, at the beginning of the creation of the earthly world, God willed to place Adam as His successor on earth. Although the angels are always in their special station of infallibility, God Almighty willed that Adam become the caliph. Since all acts of God are based on wisdom, He made the angels understand the wisdom behind choosing Adam for the station of divine vicegerency. 'And He taught Adam all the names'; He granted knowledge to Adam and placed the angels in a scholarly encounter with Adam, so that it would become clear to them that the kind of knowledge Adam possessed, compared with the knowledge of the angels, had a tremendous nobility.

The angels confessed their lack of knowledge and, by God's command, fell in prostration before Adam. Prostration before Adam showed the humility of the angels, and their humility came from their recognition that Adam, who had reached the station of divine vicegerency and had been given superiority over the angels, possessed a virtue called knowledge. Divine knowledge was the reason for the virtue and superiority that made the angels humble before Adam. Although Iblis saw the special knowledge of Adam, which was taught by God Almighty, and came to know it, he did not see knowledge as the criterion of superiority; rather, he saw superiority in the matter of his own creation, which was fire. The important point was not whether God's creature was from fire, light, or clay; the important point was that the criterion of superiority in the world of existence is knowledge and nothing else.

The criterion of superiority and excellence, the criterion that brings humility and submission before another, is knowledge. Whoever considers something other than knowledge to be the criterion of superiority is in reality Iblis or one of the followers of Iblis. The superiority of the learned over the ignorant is so obvious and necessary that it requires no proof. Therefore, as soon as the angels perceived Adam's scholarly superiority, they confessed their inability and cried out: 'Glory be to You; we have no knowledge except what You have taught us.' God also presents the superiority of the learned over the ignorant in the form of a question: 'Are the one who knows and the one who does not know equal?' The reason God presents the inequality of the learned and the ignorant as a question is that the matter is extremely clear. Therefore, those who abandon the godly scholars and turn to those who are not divine scholars live a satanic life, because Iblis did not consider knowledge to be the criterion of superiority. Whoever seeks the most learned of the community lives like the angels, because the angels were humble before divine knowledge.

Muhammad ibn Ali al-Baqir, peace be upon him, is one of God's caliphs on earth. God named him 'Baqir' in the books of the earlier peoples, and the great Prophet of Islam, during his own lifetime, gave news of his coming. He commanded his noble Companion Jabir: 'Whenever you see him, convey my greeting to him and know that he is Baqir, meaning the splitter-open of knowledge.' Jabir, on repeated occasions when he visited that noble Imam, would repeatedly address him: O Baqir, O Baqir, O Baqir.

Jabir ibn Abdullah al-Ansari said to Muhammad ibn Ali, peace be upon him: 'The Messenger of God conveyed his greeting to you.' The Imam, peace be upon him, said: 'Peace be upon the Messenger of God as long as the heavens and the earth endure, and peace be upon you, Jabir, for conveying the Prophet's greeting.' Then Jabir said to him: 'O Baqir, O Baqir, O Baqir, you are Baqir; you are the one who truly splits open knowledge.' Jabir would then enter the presence of the Imam and sit before him, and the Imam would teach him. At times, in what Jabir narrated from the Messenger of God, blessings and peace be upon him and his family, he would make a mistake, and the Imam would correct his mistake. Jabir would accept it from him, return from his own statement, and say: 'O Baqir, O Baqir, O Baqir, I call God as witness that wisdom was given to you in childhood.' (1)

This is a very important matter. Jabir was a Companion of the Prophet, and according to the view of the opponents, who were very numerous in Medina at that time, the statement of a Companion is authoritative and can even be a source for Qur'anic interpretation after the Prophet. Yet before someone who outwardly appeared to be a child but was in truth God's caliph, Jabir sat like a student and learned. If Jabir narrated a hadith from the Prophet and made a mistake in that hadith, Imam al-Baqir, while still in childhood, corrected the mistake of Jabir, the aged Companion of the Prophet.

In reality, Jabir practically demonstrated the Imam's being 'the Baqir of knowledge' in Medina, the gathering place of those who claimed knowledge. He practically showed that the knowledge of this child was different from the knowledge of all others who claimed knowledge. If Jabir wanted to present knowledge, he had no choice but to say, 'I heard from the Prophet,' or 'The Prophet acted in this way.' The knowledge of everyone other than Jabir was also to say, 'I heard from such-and-such Companion that the Prophet used to say this.' If the knowledge they claimed was not grounded in the Sunnah, it had no religious value, because it was innovation.

Imam al-Baqir, peace be upon him, while still a child and several generations removed from the Prophet, narrated hadith from the Prophet. More than narrating hadith, he pointed out Jabir's mistakes to him. This took place before the eyes of Medina's scholarly society, and through this conduct Jabir made clear to everyone the learnedness of a child whom the Prophet had titled the splitter-open of knowledge.

Jabir did not stop at that. He also made this truth clear to the people in the mosque. Jabir would sit in the mosque and say: 'O Baqir, O Baqir, O Baqir.' He repeated this so much that the people of Medina said, 'Jabir is speaking deliriously.' Jabir would answer the people: 'I am not speaking deliriously. The Prophet said that you will meet a man from me whose name is my name and whose features are my features. He will split open knowledge and reveal it.' Whenever Jabir saw the Imam in the alleys, he would address him loudly as Baqir and convey the greeting and message of the Messenger of God to the Imam, peace be upon him ... (2)

Imam Muhammad al-Baqir was superior to all creatures of his time, because he inherited the knowledge of all the prophets, from Adam to the Seal of the Prophets. In addition to the inherited knowledge that had reached him, he also carried the special knowledge of Imamate. In a word, he was the divine caliph and worthy of the prostration of the angels. Jabir conveyed the greeting of the Messenger of God to Imam al-Baqir and, quoting the Prophet, said: You are Baqir, the splitter-open of knowledge and the one who reveals knowledge.

Although Jabir conveyed the Prophet's greeting to Imam al-Baqir, he was also carrying a message from the Messenger of God for all of history. He greeted his Imam with the title Baqir so that the people of Medina would understand: if you truly seek knowledge, this is the very person whom the Messenger of God named the splitter-open of knowledge. If you seek the religion of the Messenger of God, this child is the very person whom the Messenger of God considered to be from himself, and his knowledge is the knowledge of the Messenger of God. In reality, Jabir indirectly made the people of Medina understand that if they wanted correct knowledge, they should go nowhere except to the presence of Imam al-Baqir, peace be upon him. Some people of that time heard Jabir's message with the ear of the heart and became the likes of Zurara and Abu Basir, but others did not hear Jabir's message and spent their lives in the misguidance and deviation of the Abu Hanifas of their age, and in the end became people of Hell.

But Jabir's message was not limited to Medina. Jabir's message has reached us today as well. We too address that noble Imam as Baqir, meaning that we believe he is the one who splits open knowledge and reveals correct knowledge. But would that this belief of ours one day take on the color of action. Jabir understood the message of the Messenger of God well and, at the end of his life, became with complete pride a student of Imam al-Baqir, peace be upon him, drinking sip by sip from the Imam's pure knowledge. Should we today not sit at the lessons of Imam al-Baqir in various fields of knowledge?

Today, despite all the love and devotion we have toward Imam al-Baqir, peace be upon him, our society is empty of that Imam's knowledge. The sign of our society's emptiness of the teachings of Imam al-Baqir, peace be upon him, is the formation of new spiritual movements and deviant schools among the youth of our Shi'i society. It is impossible for someone to be acquainted with the knowledge of Imam al-Baqir and then have a deviant thought steal away his belief. It is impossible for a young person's chest to be filled with the luminous words of Imam al-Baqir and for heedlessness and desires to destroy him.

Truly, why do we not have, in scholarly circles, a widespread reading curriculum of the narrations of Imam al-Baqir for school students, university students, and even seminary students? For example, why do we not have a course called Tawhid in the Words of Imam al-Baqir, peace be upon him, in academic centers? Among the books published every year, is there a book that presents the scholarly views of the pure Imams, peace be upon them, for different ages and in fluent language?

Has the message of Jabir ibn Abdullah al-Ansari still not reached our ears? Or has it reached us, while we sit comfortably and allow deviant thoughts to overtake our society? Why should the books of the arguments and debates of the pure Imams, especially Imam al-Baqir and Imam al-Sadiq, peace be upon them both, still not be treated as textbooks? Without doubt, the abandonment of the words of the Imams among the general public, and especially among the elites of society, is no less than the abandonment of the Qur'an. The Qur'an, too, will not be brought out of abandonment except when the words of the Ahl al-Bayt are freed from abandonment among us; for the Ahl al-Bayt of infallibility and purity are the speakers of the Qur'an and the speaking Qur'ans.

1- Bihar al-Anwar, vol. 46, p. 225, chapter 3, his merits, blessings of God be upon him
2- Bihar al-Anwar, vol. 46, p. 225, chapter 3, his merits, blessings of God be upon him