Journal of Razavi Culture

The Scope of Personal Afflictions in the Life of Imam Reza (P.B.U.H)

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Ali Safaei niya 1
Yahya Mirhoseini 2
Mohammadmehdi Kheibar 3
Ali Mohammad Mirjalili 4

1 MA, Department of Quranic Sciences and Hadith, Faculty of Theology and Islamic Studies, Meybod University, Meybod, Iran: Ali9658991@gmail.com

2 Associate Professor, Department of Quranic Sciences and Hadith, Faculty of Theology and Islamic Studies, Meybod University, Meybod, Iran(Corresponding Author):Mirhoseini@meybod.ac.ir

3 Ph.D, Department of Quranic Sciences and Hadith, Faculty of Theology and Islamic Studies, Meybod University, Meybod, Iran: kheibarmohammadmehdi@yahoo.com

4 Professor, Department of Quranic Sciences and Hadith, Faculty of Theology and Islamic Studies, Meybod University, Meybod, Iran: Almirjalili@meybod.ac.ir

https://doi.org/10.22034/farzv.2024.469448.2024
Abstract
Divine trials and afflictions are among the inevitable realities of human life. Hence, the prophets and awliyāʾ Allāh, as the chosen ones of God, are not and have not been exempt from this immutable divine tradition. In Shia doctrine, the prophet Muḥammad and the Ahl al-Bayt are introduced as exceptional models for religious upbringing. For the Shia, the Imam is the exemplary and perfect human being, a model in every respect, and is endowed with infallibility (ʿiṣma) and divine protection. Consequently, by adhering to the conduct of their leaders in similar situations—particularly during trials and hardships—the followers can learn from their Imams and apply these lessons in their own lives, thereby attaining desired perfection. Therefore, the manner in which the guiding Imams faced the afflictions encountered in their lives requires careful analysis and methodological study. This research endeavors to provide an appropriate model for coping with hardships and trials by examining the conduct and method of the eighth Imam in facing personal afflictions and difficulties. The imprisonment of his father and the consequent deprivation of his presence, the disobedience of certain relatives, false accusations—including the pursuit of power and the practice of sorcery and magic—the accusation of bringing ill omen and causing drought, remaining childless until the age of forty, and the imposition of restrictions (ḥaṣr) and lack of freedom of action, were among the personal trials in the life of Imam Riḍā. Finally, the Imam’s strategies for confronting the aforementioned afflictions have been indicated.

Keywords

Affliction
Suffering
Trial
Imam Riḍā
Sirah of the Ahl al-Bayt
Subjects
The Holy Qurʾān.
Abū Hilāl al-ʿAskarī. 1980. al-Furūq fī al-Lughah. Beirut: Dār al-Āfāq al-Jadīdah. [In Arabic].
Abū Mikhnaf, Lūṭ b. Yaḥyā. 1996. Waqʿat al-Ṭaff. Qom: Jāmiʿih-ye Mudarrisīn. [In Arabic].
Āghā Jamāl Khānsārī, Muḥammad b. Ḥusayn. 1987. A Commentary on Ghurar al-Ḥikam wa Durar al-Kalim. Tehran: Tehran University. [In Persian].
ʿAlī b. Jaʿfar al-ʿUrayḍī. 1988. Masāʾil ʿAlī b. Jaʿfar wa-Mustadrakātuhā. Qom: Āl al-Bayt. [In Arabic].
ʿĀmilī, Sayyid Jaʿfar Murtaz̤ā. 2019. Ḥayāt al-Imām al-Riḍā. [n.p.]: Dār al-Tablīgh al-Islāmī. [In Arabic].
Ashʿarī, Abū al-Ḥasan. 1980. Maqālāt al-Islāmīyīn wa-Ikhtilāf al-Muṣallīn. Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag. [In Arabic].
Baḥrānī Iṣfahānī, ʿAbd Allāh. 1992. ʿAwālim al-ʿUlūm wa-al-Maʿārif. Qom: Muʾassisah-ye Imām Mahdī. [In Arabic].
Basawī [Fasawī], Yaʿqūb b. Sufyān. 1981. al-Maʿrifah wa-al-Tārīkh. Beirut: Muʾassisat al-Risālah. [In Arabic].
Buyukkara, Ali. 2000. “The Schism in the Party of Mūsā al-Kāẓim and the Emergence of the Wāqifa”. Arabica. T. 47, Fasc. 1, pp. 78-99.
Behbūdī, Muḥammad Bāqir. 1991. “A Study on the Waqf Sect and an Examination of the History of the Wāqifiyya.” Faṣlnāmeh-ye Dānishkadeh-ye ʿUlūm-e Insānī-ye Dānishgāh-e Tarbiyat-e Mudarris 1 (5-7): 49-65. [In Persian].
Erbilī, ʿAlī b. ʿĪsā. 2002. Kashf al-Ghummah. Tabriz: Maktabah-ye Banī Hāshimī. [In Arabic].
Fattāl Nīshābūrī, Muḥammad b. al-Ḥasan. 1996. Rawḍat al-Wāʿiẓīn. Qom: Intishārāt-i Raḍī. [In Arabic].
Gesenius, W. (1939). A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament. London: Oxford.
Ghaffārī, Muḥsin. 2002. A Piece of Paradise: From Oppressive Exile to Lonely Martyrdom. Tehran: Payām-i Āzādī. [In Persian].
Ḥimyarī Qummī, ʿAbd Allāh b. Jaʿfar. 1992. Qurb al-Isnād. Qom: Muʾassisat Āl al-Bayt. [In Arabic].
Ibn Abī Yaʿlā, Muḥammad b. Muḥammad. n.d. Ṭabaqāt al-Ḥanābilah. Beirut: Dār al-Maʿrifah. [In Arabic].
Ibn Athīr, ʿIzz al-Dīn ʿAlī b. Muḥammad. 1965. al-Kāmil fī al-Tārīkh. Beirut: Dār Ṣādir. [In Arabic].
Ibn Bābawayh, Muḥammad b. ʿAlī. 1959. ʿUyūn Akhbār al-Riḍā. Tehran: Intishārāt-i Jahān. [In Arabic].
Ibn Bābawayh, Muḥammad b. ʿAlī. 1965. ʿIlal al-Sharāʾiʿ. Qom: Intishārāt-i Dāvarī. [In Arabic].
Ibn Bābawayh, Muḥammad b. ʿAlī. 1983. al-Amālī. Tehran: Islāmīyyih. [In Arabic].
Ibn Fāris, Aḥmad. 1984. Muʿjam Maqāyīs al-Lughah. Edited by ʿAbd al-Salām Hārūn. Qom: Maktab al-Iʿlām al-Islāmī. [In Arabic].
Ibn Ḥamdān, Ḥusayn. 1998. al-Hidāyah al-Kubrā. Beirut: Maktab Islāmī. [In Arabic].
Ibn Hammām al-Iskafī, Muḥammad. 1984. al-Tamḥīṣ. Qom: Muʾassisah-ye Imām Mahdī. [In Arabic].
Ibn Khazzāz al-Qummī, ʿAlī b. Muḥammad. 1980. Kifāyat al-Athar fī al-Naṣṣ ʿalā al-Aʾimmah al-Ithnay ʿAshar. Qom: Bīdār. [In Arabic].
Ibn Miskawayh, Aḥmad b. Muḥammad. 2000. Tajārib al-Umam. Edited by Abū al-Qāsim Imāmī. Tehran: Surūsh. [In Arabic].
Ibn Shahr Āshūb, Muḥammad b. ʿAlī. 2000. Manāqib Āl Abī Ṭālib. Beirut: Dār al-Aḍwāʾ. [In Arabic].
Ibn Ṭāwūs, ʿAlī b. Mūsā. 1990. al-Mujtanā. Qom: Bunyād-i Duʿā. [In Arabic].
Jaʿfariyān, Rasūl. 1989. “Imām Riḍā”. Nūr-i ʿIlm 34: 22-55. [In Persian].
Jaʿfariyān, Rasūl. 2002. The Intellectual and Political Life of the Imams. Qom: Anṣāriyān. [In Persian].
James, E. O, “Rain” (1919), Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, ed. by James Hastings, V10, New York \Edinburg, Charles Scribner’s Sons\T. & T. Clark.
Kashshī, Muḥammad b. ʿUmar. 1988. Ikhtiyār Maʿrifat al-Rijāl. Mashhad: Mashhad University. [In Arabic].
Khalīl b. Aḥmad al-Farāhīdī. 1989. Kitāb al-ʿAyn. Edited by Mahdī al-Makhzūmī and Ibrāhīm al-Sāmarrāʾī. Qom: Muʾassisat Dār al-Hijrah. [In Arabic].
Khān Muḥammadī, Karīm, and Anwārī, Muḥammad Riḍā. 2020. “ Analyze the ostentatious actions of Ma’mun in his encounters with Imam Riḍā” Tārīkh-i Islām 83: 167-94. [In Persian].
Kulaynī, Muḥammad b. Yaʿqūb. 1986. al-Kāfī. Tehran: Dār al-Kutub al-Islāmīyyeh. [In Arabic].
Majlisī, Muḥammad Bāqir. 1983. Biḥār al-Anwār. Beirut: Muʾassisat al-Wafāʾ. [In Arabic].
Mashkūr, Muḥammad Jawād. 1978. A Comparative Lexicon of Arabic with Semitic and Iranian Languages. Tehran: Bunyād-i Farhang-i irān. [In Persian].
Mirhoseini, Yahya. 2013. “Imam Riḍā and the Internal Movements of Twelver Shiism”. In The Dimensions of the Personality and Biography of Imam Riḍā. edited by Ahmad Paktachi. 1:201-239. Tehran: Imam sadiq University. [In Persian].
Mufīd, Muḥammad b. Muḥammad. 1992. al-Irshād. Qom: Shaykh Mufid Congress. [In Arabic].
Najāshī, Aḥmad b. ʿAlī. 1987. Rijāl. Qom: Intishārāt-e Jāmiʿih-ye Mudarrisīn. [In Arabic].
Nawbakhtī, Ḥasan b. Mūsā. 1984. Firaq al-Shīʿah. Beirut: Dār al-Aḍwāʾ. [In Arabic].
Qāḍī ʿAbd al-Jabbār. 1965. al-Mughnī fī Abwāb al-Tawḥīd wa-al-ʿAdl. Cairo: al-Dār al-Miṣrīyyah. [In Arabic].
Rāghib Iṣfahānī, Ḥusayn. 1991. al-Mufradāt fī Gharīb al-Qurʾān. Beirut/Damascus: Dār al-ʿIlm/al-Dār al-Shāmīyyeh. [In Arabic].
Rassī, Qāsim b. Ibrāhīm. 2000. Majmūʿ Kutub wa-Rasāʾil. Ṣanʿāʾ: Muʾassisat al-Imām Zayd b. ʿAlī. [In Arabic].
Ṣafāʾīniyā, ʿAlī. 2023. “A Typology of the Afflictions in the Life of Imam Riḍā”. Master’s thesis. Under the supervision of Yahya Mirhoseini and Mohammad Mehdi Kheibar. Meybod university. [In Persian].
Ṣāḥib b. ʿAbbād, Ismāʿīl. 1993. al-Muḥīṭ fī al-Lughah. Beirut: ʿĀlam al-Kitāb. [In Arabic].
Shūbakalāʾī, Muslim. 2009. “ The States of Exile/Strangeness of Imam Riḍā”. Murabbiyān 34: 22-36. [In Persian].
Ṣīnī, Maḥmūd Ismāʿīl. 1994. al-Makanz al-ʿArabī al-Muʿāṣir. Beirut: Maktabat Lubnān Nāshirūn. [In Arabic].
Subḥānī, Jaʿfar. n.d. al-Milal wa-al-Niḥal. Qom: Muʾassisat al-Nashr al-Islāmī. [In Arabic].
Ṭabarī Āmulī, Muḥammad b. Jarīr b. Rustam. n.d. Dalāʾil al-Imāmah. Qom: Beʿthat. [In Arabic].
Ṭabarī, Muḥammad b. Jarīr. 1967. Tārīkh al-Umam wa-al-Mulūk. Edited by Muḥammad Abū al-Faḍl Ibrāhīm. Beirut: Dār al-Turāth. [In Arabic].
Tamīmī Āmodī, ʿAbd al-Wāḥid b. Muḥammad. 1989. Taṣnīf Ghurar al-Ḥikam wa-Durar al-Kalim. Qom: Dār al-Kitāb al-Islāmī. [In Arabic].
Ṭūsī, Muḥammad b. al-Ḥasan. 1993. al-Amālī. Qom: Intishārāt Dār al-Thiqāfah. [In Arabic].
Zammit, Martin (2002). A comparative lexical study of Quranic Arabic. Leiden: Brill.

Home

Submit Manuscript

Contact Us