Imam al-Rida (a) and the Vital Presence of the Prophet (s) in the Reality of the Umma

Imam al-Rida (a)

and the Vital Presence of the Prophet (s) in the Reality of the Umma

Sayed Mahmoud Al-Mosawi

The books of history have mentioned that Imam al-Rida (a), after al-Maʾmun sent someone to escort him from the city of his grandfather, the Messenger of Allah (s), to Marw, in order to install him against his will as heir apparent, carried out a set of tasks before his final departure from Medina, which foretold the beginning of a new phase in the history of the Islamic umma and in the history of the Imamate in its political dimension.

Among those tasks that Imam al-Rida (a) accomplished was his visitation to the grave of his grandfather al-Mustafa (s). The historical sources record that he would take refuge at the grave, his voice rising with weeping and wailing; so it was a visitation of farewell and complaint. Then he took his son, Imam al-Jawad (a), who was at that time a small child, brought him in to the grave of the Messenger of Allah, and placed his hand on the grave; so that was a visitation of entrustment for safekeeping, care and commendation.

We read in this historical event that the Prophet (s) was present in the life of the Imamate; the grave was not a barrier to communicating with him, for certainty calls them to continuous communication with the Prophet (s), as Imam al-Husayn (a) did before his departure from Medina, in his final farewell, heading toward Karbala.

The indications of the event of Imam al-Rida’s (a) communication with the grave of the Prophet (s) through visitation were numerous: they are political messages announcing coming transformations, and they are doctrinal messages containing the meanings of wilāyah and the kind of counsels that the Imam wanted to disseminate to society at that time.

From the essence of the vital communication with the grave of the Prophet (s), we understand that certainty regarding the presence of the concept of (ziyārah) in the reality of the Islamic umma, and the degree of importance it ought to be given. The political and intellectual messages still stand and will remain in every age; therefore the narrations came urging the visitation of the Imams in a striking, emphatic and manifold manner.

The concept of ziyarah, in its linguistic meaning, carries the sense of moving from the visitor to the one visited; in the narrations it carries the sense of (setting out on a journey); and in the Noble Qurʾan it carries the sense of intending and coming: “come to you and pleaded to Allah for forgiveness, and the Apostle had pleaded for them [to Allah]for forgiveness” (Qurʾan 4:64). All of that is to give importance to spiritual and bodily communication with the Infallibles at every moment. Therefore it has come in the ziyarah that they are (the landmarks of guidance), for they are the landmarks in every age, even after their martyrdom. To this goes back the saying of Lady Zaynab (a) to Zayn al-ʿAbidin (a) about the grave of Imam al-Husayn (a): (They will set up a landmark at the grave of your father al-Husayn, whose trace will not be effaced and whose mark will not be obliterated with the passing of nights and days..). Their holy shrines and the loftiness of their standing are an established Qurʾanic truth, as in the verses: “In houses Allah has allowed to be raised and wherein His Name is celebrated” (Qurʾan 24:36)—an ontological raising, as Lady Zaynab (a) foretold—and corresponding to it is the responsibility of raising on the part of all the believers, through maintaining them materially by construction, keeping up visitation, and participating in the seasons of visitation, which continue without interruption, and through maintaining them spiritually by the remembrance of Allah, renewing the covenant with the Prophet (s) and his Ahl al-Bayt (a), and following their upright method.

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