Patience in Sickness

Patience in Sickness

 
Abu Muhammad Riqqi says:

 Once, I arrived in the presence of Imam Ridha (a.s.) and greeted him. He replied to my greetings, inquired after my health and began to converse with me.

 In the course of the conversation, all of a sudden he said, “O’ Abu Muhammad!  Every Mu’min, whom God afflicts with a misfortune and who exhibits patience over it, shall surely come to possess the rank and recompense of a martyr in the eyes of God.”

 

I wondered, “In what connection did the Imam (a.s.) speak this?  We had not been talking about misfortunes and calamities for the Imam (a.s.) to have suddenly come up with this kind of speech?”

 

I bid farewell to the Imam (a.s.) and proceeded towards my friends and fellow travellers, when suddenly I experienced a pain in my leg.  I passed the night in great pain and when morning dawned, I noticed that my legs had become inflamed.  After a period, this inflammation became more severe.  I remembered the speech of Imam Ridha (a.s.) in which he had recommended patience in the face of misfortune and how I had thought it to be out of place then.

 

In this state I reached Madinah, but there, a large wound developed in my leg, oozing pus.  The pain was so excruciating that I could not be at peace. I then realized that the Imam (a.s.) had visualized such a phenomenon when he had spoken to me and advised me to keep calm by means of patience.  For ten months, I was bed-ridden as a result of this sickness.

Hikaayat-ha-e-Shanidani, vol. 1, pg. 166; Bihaar al-Anwaar, vol. 49, pg. 51.

 

The narrator says:  After a period, Abu Muhammad regained his health only to fall ill once again, eventually passing away in that sickness

Muhammad Ibn Abi U’mair Served Three Imams (a.s.)

Muhammad Ibn Abi U’mair Served Three Imams (a.s.)

 

Muhammad Ibn Abi U’mair had the opportunity of serving Imam Kadhim, Imam Ridha and Imam Jawad (a.s.) and both, the Sunnites and the Shiites, have attested to his trustworthiness and uprightness.

 

He was a cloth-merchant by profession and financially very well off.   He wrote ninety-four books on traditions and jurisprudence.  Due to his stateliness, and his knowledge of the names of the Shiites, he used to be greatly troubled during the period of Haroon Al-Rashid and Mamun; he would be abused, imprisoned and his property would be seized.  He was asked to become a judge, but he declined the offer; since he was familiar with the Shiites of Iraq, he was asked to reveal their names, but he refused to comply so they flung him into prison and, on numerous occasions, he was whipped so severely that he was barely left alive.  Once, upon the orders of Haroon Al-Rashid, Sindi Ibn Shaahak subjected him to a hundred and twenty lashes and he had to purchase his freedom by paying one thousand dirhams.  Financially, he suffered a loss of a hundred thousand dirhams and his captivity extended for a period of four years.

 

His sister (Sa’eedah or Minnah) gathered all his books and concealed them, but it so happened that one day it rained and all his books were ruined.  Later, the traditions that he used to narrate were either from the sharp memory, which he possessed, or from copies, which others had transcribed from his original books before their destruction

Muntahal Aa’maal, vol. 2, pg. 358.

Misfortune of Jaludi

After the martyrdom of Imam Kadhim (a.s.), Haroon Al-Rashid, the Abbasid Caliph dispatched one of his commanders, a person by the name of Jaludi, to Madinah and instructed him: “Attack the houses of the progeny of Abu Talib, loot the womenfolk and leave behind nothing, except one apparel for each of them!”

 

Once in Madinah, Jaludi started to execute Haroon’s orders. As he neared the house of Imam Ridha (a.s.), the Imam (a.s.) gathered all the ladies of the house into one room and stood at the door, preventing Jaludi from entering.

 

Jaludi insisted that he must enter the house and loot the ladies and take away their apparels.  The Imam (a.s.) promised that he himself would collect their clothes and ornaments and hand them over to Jaludi, on the condition that he should abstain from entering the room.

 

Jaludi eventually acquiesced to the Imam’s request, whereupon he entered the room, gathered the ornaments and clothes of the ladies and, together with the other things of the house, placed them at Jaludi’s disposal, which he promptly dispatched to Haroon.

 

After Haroon, it was his son Mamun, who took over the reins of the Caliphate.  It so happened that one day he became angry with Jaludi and sought to punish him with death.  Imam Ridha (a.s.) had been present in that assembly and requested Mamun to forgive him.

 

Jaludi, recollecting his previous wickedness with respect to the Imam, thought that he (a.s.) would complain about it to Mamun and so, turning to Mamun, he said:

 

“I place you under the oath of God!  Do not accept his words in connection with me.”

 

Mamun said: “By God!  I shall not accept his words.”  Saying this, he then ordered Jaludi to be beheaded

Raahnama-e-Sa’adat, vol. 1, pg. 177; Aa’yaan al-Shia’h, vol. 1, pg. 60.