32 Facts About Ali al-Rida

Ali al-Rida, known as Abu al-Hasan al-Thani, was a descendant of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, and the eighth imam in Twelver Shia Islam, succeeding his father, Musa al-Kazim.

Ali al-Rida is part of the chain of mystical authority in Sunni Sufi orders.

Ali al-Rida was known for his piety and learning, and a number of works are attributed to him, including Al-Risalah al-Dhahabiah, Sahifah of al-Ridha, and Fiqh al-Rida.

Ali al-Rida is buried in Mashad, Iran, site of a large shrine.

Ali al-Rida's death followed shortly after the assassination of al-Fadl ibn Sahl, the Persian of al-Mamun, who was publicly seen as responsible for his pro-Shia policies.

Ali al-Rida's father was al-Kazim, the seventh Twelver Shia Imam, who was a descendant of Ali and Fatima, cousin and daughter of the Islamic prophet, respectively.

Ali al-Rida's mother was a freed slave, probably of Berber origin, whose name is recorded differently in various sources, perhaps Najma or Tuktam.

Momen writes that Ali al-Rida was thirty-five years old when his father died, whereas Donaldson holds that he was twenty or twenty-five at the time.

The Abbasid caliph Harun died during the imamate of al-Rida and the empire was split between his two sons: the reigning caliph, al-Amin, who was born to an Arab mother, and al-Mamun, who was born of a Persian mother and was designated as the successor and the governor of the province of Khorasan in present-day Iran.

The sources seem to agree that al-Rida was reluctant to accept this nomination, ceding only to the insistence of the caliph, with the condition that he would not interfere in governmental affairs or the appointment or dismissal of government agents.

At the time, he justified his decision by maintaining that al-Rida was the most suitable person for the caliphate.

The reluctance of Ali al-Rida in accepting this designation might reflect his suspicion that al-Mamun had ulterior motives.

Madelung finds it more likely that the initiative to appoint Ali al-Rida belonged to al-Mamun and not his.

The seriousness of the civil unrest in Iraq was apparently kept hidden from al-Mamun by his until 818, and it was al-Rida who urged the caliph to return to Baghdad and restore peace.

The sources seem to agree that Ali al-Rida died after a short illness as he accompanied al-Mamun and his entourage back to Baghdad.

Ali al-Rida's death followed shortly after the assassination of al-Fadl ibn Sahl, the Persian of al-Mamun, who had become a divisive figure.

Alternatively, the Shia scholar Muhammad Husayn Tabataba'i believed that al-Mamun poisoned Ali al-Rida given the growing popularity of the latter and the immediate proliferation of the Shia teachings.

The caliph then asked a group of Alids to examine the body of al-Rida and testify that he had died of natural causes.

The imamate of Ali al-Rida overlapped with the reigns of the Abbasid Harun al-Rashid and his sons, al-Amin and al-Mamun.

Ali al-Rida initially adopted a quiescent attitude and kept aloof from politics, similar to his predecessors, namely, the fourth through seventh Shia Imams; and he refused to officially approve and accompany the uprisings of the Alids.

Nevertheless, Ali al-Rida called the current situation in his time as the rule of a false government and the system of oppressors.

The brothers of Ali al-Rida did not claim the imamate but a number of them revolted against the Abbasids.

Muhammad, the only child of Ali al-Rida, was seven years old when his father died.

Muhammad, who later became known as Muhammad al-Jawad, was the child of Ali al-Rida, born to Sabika, a freed slave from Nubia, who was said to have descended from the family of Maria al-Qibtiyya, a freed slave of the prophet and mother of his son Ebrahim, who died in childhood.

In view of his continued veneration as a Shia Imam, later Sunni authors were divided about the authority of Ali al-Rida, some saying that he was not always a reliable transmitter and others instead questioning the authority of those who transmitted from Ali al-Rida.

Ali al-Rida is said to have been a devoted student of al-Rida, though Bayhom-Daou regards the accounts of their encounters as apocryphal.

In Sufi tradition, Ali al-Rida is regarded as a model of asceticism, and the chains of authority in Shia Sufi orders progress through Ali al-Rida, followed by al-Karkhi.

Fiqh Ali al-Rida, called al-Fiqh al-Radawi, is a treatise on jurisprudence attributed to Ali al-Rida.

Ali al-Rida was of medium height, according to Ibn Sabbagh, and his skin color was dark or wheatish.

Ali al-Rida ate slowly and little and used to wear cheap and rough clothes, but when he met people, he wore luxurious clothes.

Ali al-Rida did not make his guests to work for him and tried to respect them in the best possible way.

Muhammad ibn Ghaffar narrates that when he visited Ali al-Rida to ask for financial help, Ali al-Rida fulfilled his wish before he mentioned his need and then invited Muhammad to stay overnight as his guest.