28 Facts About Ja'far al-Sadiq

Ja'far al-Sadiq was about thirty-seven when his father, Muhammad al-Baqir, died after designating him as the next Imam.

Ja'far al-Sadiq was the victim of some harassment by the Abbasid caliphs and was eventually, according to Shia sources, poisoned at the instigation of the caliph al-Mansur.

The question of succession after Ja'far al-Sadiq's death divided the early Shi'a community.

Ja'far ibn Muhammad ibn Ali al-Sadiq was born in Medina around 700, and 702 is given in most sources, according to Gleave.

Ja'far al-Sadiq's mother, Umm Farwa, was a great-granddaughter of the first Rashidun caliph, Abu Bakr.

Ja'far al-Sadiq noted the respect that the famous scholars of Medina held toward Zayn al-Abidin.

Ja'far al-Sadiq's house was burned by order of al-Mansur, though he was unharmed, and there are reports of multiple arrests and attempts on his life by the caliph.

Ja'far al-Sadiq held the Imamate for at least twenty-eight years.

In contrast, similar to his father and his grandfather, Ja'far al-Sadiq adopted a quiescent attitude and kept aloof from politics.

Ja'far al-Sadiq viewed the imamate and caliphate as separate institutions until such time that God would make the Imam victorious.

Several influential followers of Ja'far al-Sadiq are recorded to have first followed Abdullah and then changed their allegiance to Musa.

Ja'far al-Sadiq was buried in the al-Baqi Cemetery, being one of the 4 Imams to be buried in the cemetery, in Medina, and his tomb was a place of pilgrimage until 1926.

The governor learned that Ja'far al-Sadiq had chosen four people, rather than one, to administer his will: al-Mansur himself, the governor, the Imam's oldest son Abdullah al-Aftah, and Musa al-Kazim, his younger son.

Ja'far al-Sadiq married Hamida Khatun, a slave-girl from the Maghreb or Al-Andalus, who bore al-Sadiq three more sons: Musa al-Kazim, Muhammad al-Dibaj, and Ishaq al-Mu'tamin.

Ja'far al-Sadiq was known as Hamida the Pure and respected for her religious learning.

Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi considers him possibly the most brilliant scholar of his time, and the variety of views ascribed to Ja'far al-Sadiq suggest that he was an influential figure in the history of early Islamic thought, as nearly all the early intellectual factions of Islam wished to incorporate Ja'far al-Sadiq into their history in order to bolster their schools' positions.

Ja'far al-Sadiq is cited in a wide range of historical sources, including the works of al-Tabari, Ya'qubi, al-Masudi, and Ibn Khallikan.

Ja'far al-Sadiq argued that God's law is occasional and unpredictable and that Muslims should submit to the inscrutable will of God as revealed by the Imam.

Ja'far al-Sadiq was one of the Shiekhs of Imam Malik ibn Anas and he has narrated several narrations in Muwatta Imam Malik.

Sunnis point to several Shia narrations in which Ja'far al-Sadiq denies any affiliation with Shias and denies claiming to be the Imam.

Ja'far al-Sadiq is viewed at the head of the Sufi line of saints and mystics by the Sufi writers Abu Nu'aym al-Isfahani and Attar of Nishapur.

Gleave and Bowering suggest that Tafsir al-Quran, Manafe' Sowar al-Quran and Kawass al-Qoran al-Azam, three mystical commentaries of the Quran attributed to Ja'far al-Sadiq, were composed after his death because these works demonstrate a mastery of the recent lexicon of Muslim mysticism.

Many Twelver Shi'i traditions state that al-Baqir and Ja'far al-Sadiq did not have supernatural abilities and did not perform the miracles attributed to them.

Nevertheless, al-Mufaddal's status as a close confidant of Ja'far al-Sadiq led to a large number of writings being attributed to him by later authors, including major works such as the Kitab al-Haft wa-l-azilla and the Kitab al-Sirat.

In Yarsanism is Ja'far al-Sadiq considered to be incarnation of an angel from the group "Haft-sardar".

The work presents itself as a dialogue between al-Mufaddal and Ja'far al-Sadiq, who is the main speaker.

The Kitab al-Ihlilaja is presented as Ja'far al-Sadiq's opinions transmitted through al-Mufaddal.

Jafar Ja'far al-Sadiq describes his own argument with an atheist Indian doctor in it.