2- Yunus Ibn Abdur Rahman said: Husayn Ibn ‘Ali Rawasi was present in the funeral of Imam al-Kazim (‘a): [He says:] When the purified body of Imam (‘a) was placed besides the grave; a messenger of Sandi Ibn Shahik (l.a.) arrived and Abil Maza, who was the successor [or assistant] of Sandi and who was with the purified body of Imam (‘a) said: Before you bury him, expose his face to the people so that they may see that his body is uninjured and that his death was not through torture and that he died a natural death. After that they opened the shroud and I recognized the illuminated face of our Imam. Then they covered it and interred him in the grave. May excess of divine blessings be on Imam al-Kazim (‘a).1

3- Muhammad Ibn Isa Ibn Ubaid Ubaidi says: Rahima, the mother of Husayn Ibn ‘Ali Ibn Yaqtin, who was a respected and an accomplished lady, performed Hajj 27 times. She narrates from Sa’id, servant of Imam al-Kazim (‘a), who used to visit the prison in order to serve the Holy Imam (‘a), that he was also present at the time of martyrdom of Imam (‘a) and he reported: Just as people become weak after being strong and then they die, same was the case of the death of Imam (‘a).

4- Muhammad Ibn Khalid Barqi has narrated from Muhammad Ibn Ibad Muhallabi that when Harun al-Rashid imprisoned Imam al-Kazim (‘a) and His Eminence also displayed miracles in the prison itself in order to prove his rightfulness, Harun al-Rashid was bewildered; till he summoned Yahya Ibn Khalid Barmaki and said: “O Abu ‘Ali, do you not see the wonders in which we are? Do you not consider the affair of this man (Imam Musa) and relieve us from his worry?"

So, he advised correctly and guided him to a good deed, saying to him: “Commander of the faithful, I think that you have to be kind to him and to link to his womb relatives. For, by Allah, he has spoiled the hearts of our followers against us.”

Harun al-Rashid responded to his advice, saying to him: “Go to him, remove the iron from him, give him my regards, and say: ‘Your cousin says: I have sworn by Allah concerning you that I will not release you unless you admit that you have mistreated me. You must ask me to forgive you your past deeds. There is no disgrace in your admitting (that), nor is there any defect in your asking me for that. This is Yahya Ibn Khalid, my trustworthy one, minister and head of my affairs. So, ask him in as much as I get rid of my oath, and you would also be able to return to Medina safely.’”

5- Muhammad Ibn Ibad said: Musa Ibn Yahya Ibn Khalid informed me: Imam al-Kazim (‘a) said to Yahya: I will definitely die after a week. Keep this confidential and come to me at noon on Friday with as many of your friends as you can and recite my funeral prayers and take care that in order to protect your life when you travel, this tyrant [Harun al-Rashid] who has gone to Riqa,2 when he comes back, he should not see you and you should not see him. As I have seen in the destiny of you and your sons that he would become inimical to you and pursue you; so, keep away from Harun.

Then Imam (‘a) said: “O Abu ‘Ali, inform him (Harun) on my behalf: ‘Musa says to you: My messenger will come to you on Friday and tell you about what you see (i.e., his death). When I bring a suit against you before Allah, you will tomorrow come to know who wronged and aggressed against his opponent! And Peace (be on you).

Yahya went out while he could not see his way due to his pain and impatience. His eyes turned red out of weeping when he saw the Imam (‘a) in that condition. He told Harun about the Imam’s statement, and he sneeringly said: “If he leaves prophecy after some days, our state will be better!” [This statement of Harun shows his extreme distress before the Imam].

When it was Friday, Harun travelled to Madayan and arrived after the martyrdom of Imam (‘a). They brought out the purified body of Imam (‘a) so that people may pay tribute to him, after that they interred him and returned.

After that incident people became divided into two sects: some said: The Imam has passed away and others said: The Imam has not died; he is alive.3

6- Ahmad Ibn Abdun has narrated the statement of Abul Faraj ‘Ali Ibn Husayn Isfahani that he said: Ahmad Ibn Ubaid Allah Ibn Ammar reported on the authority of ‘Ali Ibn Muhammad Nawfali on the authority of his father; and Ahmad Ibn Muhammad Ibn Sa’ad (reported); and Abu Muhammad Hasan Ibn Muhammad Ibn Yahya on the authority of their teachers, who said: The reason for the arrest of Musa Ibn Ja’far (‘a) was that Harun al-Rashid had put his son in the care of Ja’far Ibn Muhammad Ibn Ashath and Yahya Ibn Khalid Barmaki was jealous of that. He said (to himself): “If the caliphate passes on to (the son), my dominion and that of my son will be destroyed.”

Therefore, he deceived Ja’far Ibn Muhammad - and the latter used to believe in Imamate - so that he managed to gain access to him and establish friendly relations with him. His visits to his house were frequent and he became acquainted with his affairs, which he reported back to Harun al-Rashid and he added to these reports that which would make (Harun al-Rashid) feel hatred towards him.

One day (Yahya Ibn Khalid) asked some of those he trusted: “Would you find for me a member of the family of Abu Talib, who is not in comfortable circumstances, and then he would let me know what I need?”

He was directed to ‘Ali Ibn Ismail Ibn Ja’far Ibn Muhammad. Yahya Ibn Khalid took him some money. Musa (‘a) was friendly with ‘Ali Ibn Ismail Ibn Ja’far Ibn Muhammad, used to bring him gifts and treat him well.

Yahya Ibn Khalid sent to (‘Ali Ibn Ismail) requesting him to visit Harun al-Rashid and drawing his attention to the kind treatment, which he had given him. So, he decided to do that. Musa (‘a) was concerned and summoned ‘Ali.

“Where are you going, cousin?” he asked.

“Baghdad,” was the reply.

“Why are you doing that?” he enquired.

“I am in debt and I am poor,” he answered.

“I will pay your debt and act for you and carry out (what you need),” Musa (‘a) told him.

He did not pay attention to that and began to set about (preparing for his) departure. Abul Hasan (‘a) asked him to come and said to him: “Are you leaving?”

“Yes,” he replied, “I must do that.”

“Look, cousin,” he said to him, “fear God and do not give away any confidences against my children.”

He ordered him to be given three hundred dinars and four thousand dirhams. (When he stood up in front of him) Abul Hasan Musa (‘a) spoke to those who were present: “By God, he will strive against my blood and will confide against my children.”

"May God make us your ransom,” they said, “did you know this from his state when you were giving him gifts and being generous to him?”

"Yes,” he said, "my father told me on the authority of his ancestors, on the authority of the Messenger of Allah (S) that when kin cut themselves away, then they should be brought back, for if they cut themselves away, God will cut them off. I wanted to bring him back after he had cut himself off from me for if he cuts me off, God will cut him off.

‘Ali Ibn Ismail set out until he reached Yahya Ibn Khalid. He gave him news of Musa Ibn Ja’far (‘a) and (Yahya Ibn Khalid) reported to Harun al-Rashid and added additional material to it. Then he took him to Harun al-Rashid. The latter asked him about his uncle and he gave information against him to (Harun al-Rashid). He told him that money was being brought to him from east and west and that he had bought an estate named Al-Yasir for thirty thousand dinars. Its (former) owner had said when he had brought him the money: “I will not accept this currency. I will only accept such-and-such currency.” Then he ordered that money be brought and gave thirty thousand dinars of the currency whose coinage he had asked for.

Harun al-Rashid listened to that and then ordered him to be given two hundred thousand dirhams, with which he sought to make a living in one of the areas. He chose one of the provinces of the east.

His messengers were sent to bring the money, and he waited there for its arrival. One day he went to the toilet when he was suffering from dysentery and as a result of it the whole of his stomach came out. He fell down. They tried to put it back, but they could not. He was aware of his situation when the money was brought to him while he was in the pangs of death. He said: “What can I do with it? I am about to die.”

That year Harun al-Rashid went on the pilgrimage. He began it at Medina and there he had Abul Hasan Musa (‘a) arrested. It is reported that when he came to Medina, Musa (‘a) received him with a group of nobles. They had gone out to meet him and then Abul Hasan (‘a) had gone on to the mosque as was his custom. Harun al-Rashid waited until night and then went to the tomb of the Messenger of Allah (S). He said: "O Messenger of Allah (S), I apologize to you for something I want to do. I want to imprison Musa Ibn Ja’far, because he intends to divide your community and cause bloodshed.”

Then he ordered him to be taken from the mosque and brought before him. He had him put in chains and called for two awnings to be brought. He had (Abul Hasan) put in one of them on a mule and had the other awning put on another mule. The two mules left his house carrying the two awnings, which were closed. With each one went the cavalry. The cavalry divided and some went with one awning on road to Basra and the other to Kufa. Harun al-Rashid only did that in order to confuse the people about what had happened to Abul Hasan (‘a). He ordered the men who were with the awning in which was Abul Hasan to hand him over to Isa Ibn Ja’far Ibn Mansur, who was governor of Basra at that time. He was handed over to him and he kept him in detention for a year.

He then wrote a letter to Harun saying, “You may take him (i.e. Imam al-Kazim) from me and hand him over to any other person; otherwise, I will release him. I have tried all means to find any overwhelming evidence against him, but I failed. In fact, I even eavesdropped him hoping that I would hear him invoking God's curse upon me or you, but I always heard him supplicating God for himself and imploring Him for mercy and forgiveness.

So, Harun order someone to go and receive the Imam from Isa. The Imam was then detained with al-Fadhl Ibn al-Rabi in Baghdad where he spent a very long time of detention. However, Harun wanted al-Fadhl to kill the Imam, but the later refused. As a result, Harun ordered him through a letter to give the Imam to al-Fadhl Ibn Yahya who also refused to obey Harun's orders of killing the Imam.

Harun, while residing in al-Riqqah, was then informed that the Imam was living in luxury under the custody of al-Fadhl Ibn Yahya; so, he ordered his servant Masrur to go to Baghdad, immediately come to Musa Ibn Jaffar and gather information about his actual situation there. Harun instructed, “If you see him enjoy luxury as has been told, you must then take this letter of mine to Abbas Ibn Muhammad and take this another letter to Sindi Ibn Shahak and order both of them to carry out my instruction mentioned in these letters immediately.” Obeying his master, Masrur came to Baghdad and resided in the house of al- Fadhl Ibn Yahya without letting anyone know what he had come for. He then visited Musa Ibn Jaffar and found him enjoying luxury, as exactly as Harun had been told. As soon as he left, he headed for Abbas and Sindi and delivered them the two letters of Harun. At once, the messenger left for al-Fadhl Ibn Yahya running. When he was there, the people noticed that al-Fadhl rode with the messenger while he was overcome by astonishment and surprise. Once he met Abbas, he asked for lashes and a lashing wood. He assigned the mission to Sindi and ordered that al-Fadhl should be stripped of his clothes and lashed one hundred lashes. When he left, al-Fadhl was extremely astounded that he unconsciously went on greeting people.

Masrur the servant transmitted this news to Harun in a letter and the latter ordered him to hand over Imam Musa al-Kazim (‘a) to Sindi Ibn Shahak. Harun gathered the people and delivered a speech, saying, “O people, al-Fadhl Ibn Yahya has disobeyed and challenged my orders. So, I see that you should invoke curse on him.” Cries of curse on al-Fadhl were uttered by all people from every corner of Harun's house that shook with these cries.

Upon receiving these news, Yahya Ibn Khalid came to Harun and entered from another door than the one usually used by people. He thus surprised Harun from his back and said to him, “Would you please listen to me, O Amir al- Mu’minin?” Panicked by this move, Harun paid his attention to Yahya who said to him, “It is true that al-Fadhl has committed a mistake, but we can set aright what he has ruined.”

These words gladdened Harun who thus turned his face towards the attendants and said to them, “Because al-Fadhl had disobeyed me, I asked you to invoke curse upon him. Now that he repented and returned to my obedience, you should now accept him as your chief.”

Acceding to him, the attendants shouted, "We always are friends of those whom you befriend and enemies of those whom you alienate. So, we are now loyalists to al-Fadhl.”

Yahya Ibn Khalid himself undertook the mission of transferring the ruler’s letters. When he arrived in Baghdad, the people surged and began to doubt everything. So, Yahya had to pretend that he had come for setting aright all their affairs and observing the performance of the governmental officials. While he was implementing some of these reformations, he summoned Sindi and conveyed to him the instructions of the ruler. Of course, Sindi went on carrying out these instructions.

At the hour of his death, Imam Musa (‘a) asked Sindi to bring to him one of his servants who lived in the house of Abbas Ibn Muhammad so that he would perform the ritual bathing of his body after his death. Sindi did.

The reporter added: I asked Imam al-Kazim (‘a) to allow me to enshroud him, but he refused and said, “We, the Ahl al-Bayt, manage the affairs of the dowries of our wives, our journeys to the Hajj pilgrimage and the shrouds that are used for enshrouding our dead bodies from our purest legally gotten money. I have my own shroud.”

When the Imam passed away, master scholars and celebrated personalities of Baghdad, one of whom was al-Haytham Ibn Adi, were allowed to see his dead body so that they would witness that he was not killed; rather, his death was natural. His dead body was then taken out and put on the bridge. A caller shouted, "This is the body of Musa Ibn Jaffar. You people may come and look at it.” So, the people came to look at his face fixedly.

The Reporter added: A man from the descendants of ‘Ali Ibn Abi Talib reported to me that the caller who stood on the dead body of Imam al-Kazim shouted, "This is Musa Ibn Jaffar whom the Rafidah claim that he would not die. Come on and look at him.” So, people came and gazed at the body.

The Imam’s body was then carried and buried in the cemetery of Quraysh; so, his grave was next to a man from the Nawfar family, whose name was Isa Ibn Abdullah.”

7- Muhammad Ibn Yaqub has narrated from ‘Ali Ibn Ibrahim and he from Muhammad Ibn Isa Ibn Ubaid and he from Hasan Ibn Muhammad Ibn Bashar and he from an old man from Qatiatur Rabi (a Baghdad locality) from Ahl al-Sunnah and from those who commanded influence, and their statements are reliable; they have narrated that he said:

Sandi Ibn Shahik gathered us eighty persons from the respectable and noble class and took us to Musa Ibn Ja’far (‘a) and said: ‘Look at this man. Has anything happened to him? That is because people claim that a detested thing has been done to him. They say that many times. This is his house and this is his bed. We entertained him and did not harass him. The Commander of the faithful (Harun) does not intend to do evil to him; he is waiting for him to debate with him. He is entertained in all his affairs. So, ask him.’”

That Shaykh said: “We had no concern, except that we intended to see and meet the Imam. When we approached him, we did not see the like of him in virtue and worship. He said to us: 'As for the entertainment and the like he mentioned, they are other than what he mentioned. However, people, I will tell you: I have been given poison in nine fresh dates. I will turn yellow tomorrow and die after tomorrow.”'

When Sandi heard that, his strength collapsed, and he shook all over. That is because the Imam refuted his claims of being innocent of assassinating him.

On the basis of this, the martyrdom of the Imam (‘a) is so well known that it does not need the mention of traditional reports; because denial of the martyrdom of the Imam in the meaning of opposing the necessities and facts, and on one side doubt in his martyrdom leads to doubt in the death and martyrdom of each of his Infallible forefathers and even others, Therefore, one will not be certain of the death of any of them.

In addition to what has passed, it is well known that the Imam made a bequest to his son, ‘Ali Ibn Musa (‘a) and after the martyrdom, entrusted the matter of Imamate to him and there are more traditional reports on this subject than they can be computed; we mention some of them to show that if he had been alive, there would have been no need for him to make a bequest to Imam ‘Ali ar-Ridha’ (‘a).

• 1. Such statements, like: 'So that you might see that his body is uninjured’ etc. which are mentioned in this report and which will come in other reports also, it is because the tyrant Abbaside rulers wanted to absolve themselves from the martyrdom of Ahl al-Bayt (‘a) so that the anger of Shi’a society may not target them. But it is against the facts, because there is clear evidence that Harun instructed Sandi Ibn Shahik to administer poison to the Holy Imam (‘a), which cannot be denied in any way. All this is clearly mentioned in books of important scholars. Important books of this topic are Kitab al-Irshad of Shaykh Al-Mufid and Bihar al-Anwar of Allamah Majlisi (r.a.).
• 2. Riqa is a province between Iraq and Syria and is a part of Syria, which was annexed to Syria during the Battle of Siffin. It is the place of burial of Ammar Yasir, the prominent companion of the Prophet, who was martyred in that battle.
• 3. Although it is possible that the meaning of division of people into two groups is with regard to natural death or because of martyrdom of the Imam through poison and the controversy is not whether he was alive or not; the aim of these controversies could also have been the conspiracy of Bani Abbas, who wanted to absolve themselves from the blame of the death of Ahl al-Bayt (‘a) in which they definitely failed.