Imam Sajjad's Endeavors to Train Students

One of the most important achievements of Imam Sajjad (A.S.) was training the gifted students for cultural-ideological fight against the enemies of Qur’an and the Infallible Household of the Prophet Yousef Saqafi in Iraq),¹ Farzdagh known as Abu Faras the poet, Tavous Yamani, Hemad ibn Habib Attar Kufi, Zararat ibn Aeyn Sheybani, Hababah Valbiyah, Jaber ibn Abdullah Ansari, Mohammad ibn Jubayr ibn Mat’am, Farat ibn Ahnaf, Saeed ibn Jobhan Kanani, Mola Umm Hani, Qassem ibn Owf, Ismail ibn Abdullah bin Jafar, etc. These students were trained during the age of despotism. The Imam once said: “The total number of our real friends in Mecca and Medina is below twenty.”²

Once Imam said all the friends of Islam enjoyed peace and security because of the Prophet (peace be upon him and his household) but his own progeny lived in fear and terror.³

Blood-thirsty Hajaj ibn Yousef killed 120,000 people in Iraq. He put in jail 50,000 men and 30,000 women in gender mixed open-roof cells. He had been appointed by Abdulmalek ibn Marvan as the plenipotentiary ruler of Iraq, Fars, Kerman, Sistan, Khorasan, Oman, Yemen, Mosul, Halvan, Madaen, Armenia, Azarbaijan, Aran, Huran, Maheyn, Rey and Isfahan.⁴

Imam Sajjad (A.S.) lived in the reign of five rulers namely Yazid, Abdullah ibn Zubayr, Marvan ibn Hakam, Abdulmalek ibn Marvan, and Valid ibn Abdolmalek; in his reign his brother Hesham ibn Abdolmalek poisoned and martyred the Imam (A.S.). Sheikh Tussi in his book of the dignitaries has named 81 best students of Imam Sajjad (A.S.) such as the following: Saeed ibn Mosayyib, Abu Hamzeh Thamali (Sabet ibn Dinar), Seed ibn Jubayr, Abu Khaled Kaboli, Yahya bin Umm Tavil (he was martyred by Hajaj ibn).

* Translated by: Sadroddin Musawi

1- Tarikh al-Aemmeh, P. 32
2- Al-Gharat, 573
3- Kashf al-Ghammah, Vol. 2, P. 107
4- What Happened to Imam Sajjad and Imam Baqer, P. 83