 Respected viewers, brothers and sisters in Salaam Assalamu Alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh with me, your host, Muhammad Ali Sayyid, Sayyid Al-Qazweeni is joining us tonight to discuss the biography of Imam Ali Al-Hadi peace be upon him in his tragic martyrdom anniversary Salaamu Alaikum Sayyid How do you do? Alhamdulillah Alhamdulillah, hope you're doing well Thank you very much After his father's martyrdom, 835 Imam Ali Al-Hadi, peace be upon him assumed the official role of Imamah at the age of 6 or 8 And of course, there was a major role to be taken by Imam Ali Al-Hadi, peace be upon him Now, how is this possible? I mean, where did he get his knowledge from? I seek refuge with Allah from Satan, the accursed In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Merciful Alhamdulillah, the Lord of the worlds And peace be upon our Sayyidina Muhammad And peace be upon all of you, my dears Assalamu Alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh to you and to our dear viewers And I'd like to offer my condolences to my dear host and to whoever is watching us across the globe on the death anniversary of the 10th Imam, Imam Al-Hadi Ali Al-Hadi, peace be upon him Imam Al-Hadi, he was the first among a... well, before him it was his father Imam Muhammad Al-Jawad And then right after him Imam Al-Hadi And then Imam Al-Mahdi They created a phenomenon The first was Imam Al-Jawad And then his son Imam Al-Hadi That for the very first time a young boy assumes the position of Imam Al-Hadi This was not heard of This had never happened before Imam Al-Hadi, I'm sorry Imam Al-Jawad was probably at the age of 9 And insha'Allah we shall talk about that during his martyrdom Imam Al-Hadi Depending on which year he was born Imam Al-Hadi became an Imam in the year 220 after Hijrah He was either born 212 or 214 So he was either 6 years of age or 8 years of age when he assumed the position of Imam Al-Hadi Now this was new basically How can a person at that age be the spiritual guide for not just for the Shia but for all Muslims And Imam Al-Hadi has to lead has to give guidance has to have knowledge regarding all questions regarding Islam Not just Islam, even the sciences Ahl al-Bait carried knowledge of biology, chemistry, physics modern science The founders of these sciences were Ahl al-Bait Imam Sadik al-Islam and his students Like for example Jabir bin Hayyan the founder of modern-name biology or even algebra Algebra, these were all founded from the Islamic world and those who introduced these sciences many of them were from Ahl al-Bait So an Imam was not only required to for example lead prayers but to answer questions to have knowledge to be divinely inspired So how can an Imam at the age of 6 or 8 contain so much wisdom and knowledge This was very much possible Let me give an example of recent times Today, in some parts of the world there are children that are memorizing the Quran You ask them about a verse they'll tell you in which chapter the number of the verse the number of the page they'll be able to explain to you the verse supported by narrations of the Ahl al-Bait what we say what the Sunni school of thought says for example, regarding this verse they are walking encyclopedia we've seen this today it's not something strange any longer in Iraq, in Iran, in Egypt recently someone sent me a video of a female she's not even a male a female that has memorized the Quran and answers any question that is posed to her from the Quran Any question that is posed she gives the answer through the Quran That is beautiful It's very much possible for some human beings at a very small age at a low age to contain a lot of knowledge and a lot of information and a great deal of maturity as well The thing is that for example, let's say a young boy at the age of 6 or 8 comes to me in person right now and tells me that he is my leader at this moment he is my spiritual leader he is my religious leader that would be happening through all the religious martyrs would come through him for me in person I wouldn't believe that I wouldn't take his words as commands in matters of religion and neither the rest of people would do that how did the Imam, peace be upon him proved himself to the entire Islamic ummah while there was many scholars and many Islamic schools going on Ahsad, Ahsad You would not believe a child if he just claims to be an Imam or to be a scientist at the age of 6 or 7 claiming to be a neurosurgeon or a rocket science you won't believe him but if he starts stating facts and if he starts lecturing you will believe him and that is what happened with Nahl al-Bait starting with Imam al-Jawad Imam al-Hadi and Imam al-Mahdi because he also became an Imam at the age of 5 first of all was this the first time to happen in history no Nabiullah Isa became a prophet from day one when Maryam came after giving birth they told him, Maryam, where did you bring this child they told him how can we talk about who was in Mahdi Sabia Nabiullah she pointed at the child they said, how can we speak to a child that is in his cradle he said, I am the servant of God and Allah has given me knowledge he proved himself they proved themselves through their knowledge through their wisdom it's not like they were in a cave no, they were sitting in Madina Imam al-Hadi was in Madina at the time of his father's martyrdom and at the time that he became an Imam he was in Madina his house was open for everyone to come and meet him people came, left they met him and they discovered that no, he is the true Imam because he has the exact qualities of an Imam to prove this the political Khalifa at the time was al-Mu'tasim al-Mu'tasim by Allah al-Mu'tasim historians say that he put a teacher for Imam al-Hadi al-Mu'tasim was in Baghdad because the capital of the state or dynasty was in Baghdad this political turmoil at the time al-Mu'tasim brought the Turks al-Atrak he brought them and he gave them powerful positions in the government now the Turks back then so that we don't generalize people assume that we are being racist the Turks at the time the ones that he brought they were ruthless they were rude people of Baghdad were fed up not just with the Turks but with al-Mu'tasim himself al-Mu'tasim decided to change the capital of the state from Baghdad to Samarra which was back then called Surra Marra'a al-Mu'tasim was still in Madina now al-Mu'tasim following the political the political policies of his forefathers he designated a teacher for al-Imam al-Hadi he might say well what benefit does he have first of all does al-Imam al-Hadi need a teacher and they don't need teachers they were taught by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala but al-Mu'tasim al-Mu'tasim had two purposes and he states this he asked the governor of Madina at the time I'm sorry the governor of Madina at the time to appoint a scholar to be a teacher for al-Imam al-Hadi for two reasons one when you're his teacher he's a child when you're his teacher you have authority over him you can check who visits him who doesn't visit him you have authority over them so one of the purposes was to stop people from visiting al-Imam al-Hadi this is one two after having a teacher when people would meet him and discover that he's knowledgeable they would say that al-Junaidi this is a way to take credit for his knowledge al-Mu'tasim wanted to take credit for his knowledge he didn't want people to assume a child at the age of 6 or 8 has so much knowledge he wanted to give a purpose a reason for that knowledge al-Junaidi historians say that al-Junaidi he was a linguist and he was an expert in literature and in the Arabic language literature he wanted to teach al-Imam al-Hadi literature historians say that when he sat down with al-Imam al-Hadi he was astonished with the amount of knowledge that al-Imam al-Hadi ha whatever he wanted to teach him he saw that al-Imam al-Hadi already knew after a day, two days, three days he gave up whatever he wanted to teach the al-Imam already knew after a couple of days it became the other way around al-Imam al-Hadi began to teach al-Junaidi and he told I was supposed to be the teacher and he was supposed to be the student but today we've taken opposite roles I'm the student and he's the teacher and historians say that he became a follower of Ahl al-Bayt he became a follower of Ahl al-Bayt this year now this shows that if al-Imam al-Hadi did not possess knowledge why would al-Mu'atil some put him a teacher why would he have this plan and play this game to try to conceal what al-Imam al-Hadi had this shows that al-Imam al-Hadi was no different in the previous al-Imam than al-Imam al-Jawad al-Imam al-Raza Musa bin Ja'far he had the same knowledge that they did he had the same eloquence the same charisma the same leadership the same spirituality that the other al-Imam al-Hadi had that's why he was trying to cover by putting him a teacher first to stop Shia from meeting him and second to get the credit for the and second to get credit when you see a 30 year old man possessing knowledge it's not a big deal but when a 8 year old child possessing the same knowledge this will create a revolution it will be astonishing and it will create a revolution even those that were against at al-Bait will come and accept this school of thought see this proves that it wasn't symbolic today in dynasties al-Saud inside arabia if there is no one remaining from al-Saud except an 8 year old child that 8 year old child will become king same thing will occur in Japan same thing will occur in the UK where there's a monarchy if no one remains except a child they will make that child a monarchy the same thing occurred with al-Othman the Othmani dynasty in one case the Sultan died and he left a child same thing happens in Iraq in the previous time whenever there's a monarchy if there is no one remaining from the family only a child that child become a monarchy you might assume that it's the same thing with al-Bait but it's not it's not because it's a monarchy it's not because it's in the family and he has to be an imam no it's by credentials it's by credentials and the biggest proof of that is that when we look at history we don't find a single narration that a group came and met imam al-Hadi or before him and they asked a question and the imam didn't know how to answer no not a single instance we find that these imams were asked but they didn't know how to answer that is the biggest proof that these imams even though their age was low they were young they were young but they had the credentials they had the credentials so all that knowledge, all that sciences I mean where did he get from I mean where the source of these information and knowledge come from we follow as al-Bait that our imams are not taught in schools so it's not naturally it's not natural teaching but it's through inspiration it's divine inspiration just like prophets where did prophets study prophets never entered school or they studied at a school now it's divinely inspired knowledge the story of al-Khidr and Musa al-Khidr had obtained more knowledge I said there's a debate whether al-Khidr is a prophet or not a prophet but at the end of the day he's a pious person he's a righteous person him and Musa were not on the same stage why because al-Khidr studied more than Musa al-Khidr was divinely inspired more than Musa prophecy and imam although they are not the same but they're from the same category the position of prophethood and the position of imam they are both divinely appointed and they are both divinely inspired by Allah so we believe that imams receive their knowledge from Allah directly this is according to our school of thought and for those that disagree with us they'll say well that's nonsense how could they be divinely inspired we'll say well what about prophets don't you accept that prophets were divinely inspired which school did prophet Muhammad enter which school did prophet Musa or Isa or Ibrahim they will say they were divinely inspired well if the prophets can be divinely inspired so too can imams because imams are no less than prophets there's a position of prophet and there's a position of imam yes our messenger Muhammad is the best of all definitely excuse me Sayyidna we will have a short break and we will be back respected viewers we will have a short break stay tuned for the after break respected viewers back with Sayyid Hussain Al-Qazweeni in early 800s in which religious scholars were persecuted unless they conceded the Mu'tazali doctrine of the created nature of the Quran the policy lasted for 15 years as it continued through the reigns of al-Mu'mun's immediate successes al-Mu'tasim and al-Wathak what was the problem with this theory how did the imam peace be upon him deal with it this issue is called the Islamic history and when they referred to this incident they call it the problem or the strife of the creation of the Quran this began during the days of al-Mu'mun al-Abbasi and basically the issue was this that is the word of God created or not created and what they mean by the word of God is the Quran Allah Azawajan is according to philosophers the way they put it is qadeem Allah qadeemun nasa hadithan meaning that Allah Azawajan was never created he's the creator he was never created and that's another way of saying qadeem qadeem even though it literally translates to be old but they don't mean old they mean that he was never he was never created he didn't come to being while we human beings we all came to being that's the difference between Allah and us I mean one of the differences that Allah never came to being he was always there we human beings we came to being what about the word of God the Quran did it come to being or was it there along with him so the question was was the word of God created or not created and by the way theology which in Arabic is called this is a very modern term previously it was called and theologians were called why because the first theological discussion that took place among theologians was this qadeem or hadith was the word of God created or was it always there so from that because of that discussion theology is called theology is called in Arabic anyhow there was a major discussion some said yes is not created it's just as ancient as God whenever God was his word was with him others said that Allah created created it was a major strife al ma'moon himself was a scholar he was a oppressor he was a ruler he was a oppressor no doubt but compared to other abasi rulers he had some knowledge he was a theologian he was a scholar he was a jurist but not others like al ma'moon al ma'moon was illiterate historians say that he didn't know anything he didn't know anything he was illiterate al ma'moon created this problem and indeed it was a major problem to the point that those who disagreed with al ma'moon's official opinion went to jail like Ahmad ibn Hanbal Ahmad ibn Hanbal went to jail he was beaten he was tortured for an academic opinion for holding an opinion now what was it all about was it really about was it created or not created so what there were so many discussions out there there were so many more important discussions out there the discussion of you know regarding toheed there's the discussions regarding prophecy imama ma'ad theological jurisprudential discussions but why this because it had no end there was no end to this discussion we believe that this discussion was was introduced and it became a big deal as a way to distract Muslims as a way to distract Muslims and a way to persecute religious scholars this is that's one but most important was to make it a distraction keep people busy was the Quran created or not created was the word of Allah created or not created they get into arguments and fights over something that because there's no proof for that there's no proof what difference does it make what difference what practical difference does it make on people was the Quran created or not created the word of Allah created or not created what difference does it make it was made to keep Muslims distracted as they say today a cloud covered so that many al-abbas can do whatever they want the rulers own land spend money have parties build mansions drink commit adultery do whatever they want but people were busy talking about Qalaam Allah this is what they wanted and proof of that is that it continued and any Khalifa that came they kept the discussion going you would come okay what do you say what do you say what is your opinion oh this is your opinion then you're going to be punished and what's funny is that each Khalifa would choose one opinion his son would choose another opinion the first Khalifa would reward some punish others his son will come and do the opposite he would reward the scholars that were punished by his father and punish the ones that were rewarded by his father that what we saw with Ahmad ibn Hanbad he was out of jail Ahsan first he was punished and then he was rewarded why because of two different Khalifas this shows that it was a distraction just like today history repeats itself just like today today we see that Muslims are under attack we are being attacked but we're given distractions we're given distractions the west distracts us with minor issues one of the major problems today is that Sunni Shi'i strife the Sunni Shi'i fights you see some countries they sell arms to this country they give arms to this country they instigate between this country and that country to get us to fight one another while they have their own agenda and we don't see the overall picture there's a cloud cover on our eyes we don't get what's happening we're being distracted aren't we being distracted for the past several decades we're being distracted Muslims with each other they're fighting one another while there's a whole entire world behind the scenes behind the scenes there's things going on every year we get distracted by useless things or by useless discussions useless discussions is this halar or is this haram should we do this or should we not while the world is advancing America's advancing Europe is advancing but the Muslim world is still behind do you ever see the Muslim world coming up with a scientific discovery or we come up with a device nothing we don't have scientific discoveries our universities are the most behind unfortunately we can't even come up with a simple device a clock a watch a telephone all of these new devices all of these technologies coming from from the west from the west which is basically what was taken from the Arabs at the first time Ahsent the compass, maps this was all taken from the Arab why? because we've engaged in useless discussions discussions that lead to nowhere every year we have useless discussions arguments between ourselves not just Sunnis versus Sha'z even Shi'i versus us we get into arguments and fights year after year while everyone else is advancing these are distractions these are distractions Imam Al-Hadeen, known as this Imam Al-Hadeen realized that the discussion about the Qur'an it's not a theological discussion the truth behind it is not meant to reach the truth to really know is the word of God, creator or not creator no, it wouldn't matter yeah, it's meant to be a discussion that is why when Imam Al-Hadeen Al-Salam was asked he was asked this was his answer Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim asamana, he wrote a letter asamana Allah wa iyakum minal fitna you see? you realize that this is a fitna don't get don't get drowned and involved especially Wishi'a stay away if the others want to get involved in this fitna and this problem let them but we should stay Arabic asamana Allah wa iyakum minal fitna then do benefit with it benefit with it and not do and not and not so it's the solution we see that the argument in the Qur'an we see that this discussion revolving the Qur'an is it created or not created this is a bid'a this is an innovation اشترك فيها السائل والمجيب the one who's asking the question and the one who's answering they're both to blame this is a fitna would you come up with this discussion why there was bloodshed over this discussion there were people being tortured there were people being jailed over something so ridiculous while the Khulafa they were enjoying themselves and their mansions with their 1001 nights of alcohol, of music, of dancing with their slaves they were keeping Muslims busy how did you realize this you told them this is a fitna be careful let us not get drifted in this fitna so what was the the effect on the political way of that time this fitna how did it affect the internal politics inside the Islamic Ummah at that time you see Imam al-Hadi, alaihi salam he came at the time of al-Mu'tasim during Bani al-Abbas of course there's something we have to understand about these people these people were crooks whether it was Bani Umayyah or Bani al-Abbas they were all crooks they had nothing to do with Islam they spoke in the name of Islam and pretended to be representatives of Islam and Prophet Muhammad but they were the farthest away their whole goal was power power that's the only thing that mattered to them to the point that they were willing to kill their relatives over power Haroon al-Rashid invited Musub al-Jaafar Imam Musub al-Jaafar, alaihi salam visited Haroon al-Rashid Haroon al-Rashid respected him greatly Imam Musub al-Jaafar he respected him greatly he sat him in his seat he gave him money, he gave him gifts and all that al-Ma'moon, he says I was a child I didn't know who this person was meaning Imam al-Kalm he didn't know who Imam al-Kalm was he said when Imam Musub al-Jaafar left I asked my father Haroon I told him who was this man he said you don't know him this is this is the Imam of his time insha'Allah he said but I thought you're a you're the Khalifa I thought you're the Imam he said I am the outer Imam to the people but he's the Imam from God he's the real Imam I'm the fake Imam and he's the real Imam he said well if that is the case then why are you sitting on the throne and he's not sitting on the throne Haroon al-Rashid said his famous quote said al-Wulqa Aqeen I hit him he said my son this is monarchy this is power are you joking me this is power I'm sitting on a throne if you my son let alone Musub al-Jaafar on my throne no you my son if you set your eye on my throne I will cut off your head I will execute you this was the nature of power and this is exactly what happened Haroon al-Rashid died he had two sons his sons fought each other al-Ameen and al-Ma'moon al-Ma'moon was in Khurasan al-Ameen was in Baghdad of course they were from different mothers they were from different mothers but they fought each other until al-Ma'moon killed al-Ameen eventually one of them killed the other one al-Ma'moon al-Ma'moon's army defeated the army of al-Ameen al-Ameen was in Baghdad al-Ma'moon was in Khurasan al-Ma'moon's army defeated al-Ameen's army and they killed him he killed his own brother over power this is not strange when we read about the history of Bani al-Abbas it's full of stories like this when we read about Bani al-Uthman al-Uthman they're even worse they're even worse one Khalifa from one of the Salatin one of the sultans of of the Ottoman Empire in one night when he came to power 18 of his brothers 18 of his brothers I believe Sultan Muhammad Khan Sultan Muhammad Khan I think also known as Muhammad Al-Fatih No, no, no Muhammad Al-Fatih was different Sultan Muhammad Khan this is in tarikh al-Dawla al-Aliya the stories the history of each and every single Sultan from the Ottoman Empire the biographies have been mentioned Sultan Muhammad Khan the grandson the great grandson of Sultan Sulaiman in one night he killed 18 of his brothers as soon as he became Sultan these were ruthless tyrants these were ruthless dictators now Al-Imam Al-Hadi when he came to power he first witnessed Al-Mu'tasim Al-Mu'tasim ruled for about 9 years and then Al-Wathik Al-Wathik ruled for about 5 years after him Al-Mutawakil who ruled for 15 years and then Al-Muntasir who ruled for approximately 11 years and then Al-Musta'een and then Al-Mu'taz so how many rulers is that that's about 5-6 rulers now each one of them although they were from the same family they were from the same line but they fought one another some would get poisoned to another they dug you know traps for one another and Al-Imam Al-Hadi of course we have an image of our imams that they're sitting at home always you know they're holding worshipping they have no idea what's happening in their city let alone in their country this was not the case Al-Imam Al-Hadi and just like all other imams they were following up with every single event they were instructing their followers they were instructing their followers no they were following up what is happening here and what incident a man came from his story is tell us that a man came from Baghdad to Medina Al-Imam Al-Hadi asked him what news do you have of Al-Wathak he said he's good he's in good health he said when when did you last hear of him he said 10 days ago he said about the people of Medina say that he died he said well I don't know you have more updates than I do he said well what happened what has Ja'far done he said Ja'far Ja'far is in prison he said you're wrong Ja'far is now in power Ja'far is now in power and so on and so forth meaning the Imam knew exactly who died who left the position who came into position who was in jail Imam Al-Hadi would follow up with political events as any Imam should because the Imam is not just a religious a religious leader he's also a political leader even as a religious leader in order to lead his people and safeguard them and to protect them and to follow up with political events to make sure what's happening because the instructions that you give to your Shia and to your followers it has to be based upon political events imagine during the days of Saddam you live in Iraq during the days of Saddam and after the fall of Saddam religious leaders today I'm sure the way that they promoted religious teachings is different during the days of Saddam they were reporting it secretly they were reporting it secretly very politically correct very politically sensitive and today there's different cases the Imams would follow up with political events to make sure what's happening and to prepare for future events because the Imams although they were out of power but this didn't mean that they had forgotten about the Khilafah at the end of the day they belonged to whom? not to the Ahlulbayt and they had intentions of getting the Khilafah back to the household and surprisingly the Abbasi rulers they took the Khilafah in the name of the Ahlulbayt peace be upon them at the very beginning of their revolution against Bani Umayyah they were in the name of the Ahlulbayt they were like telling the entire Islamic Ummah that we are fighting to get the things back to track yeah another thing with the political unrest going all over the Abbasi state there was an essential political role that must be taken to ensure the essence of the religion continuity Imam Al-Hadi and politics what were some of the political events that took place on that time and how did the Imam peace be upon him deal with it? well there was obviously unrest as we just mentioned each Khilafah would come for 7 years leave, another one would come for 6 5 and so on and so forth and each Khilafah would bring with him his own his own crew, some would bring them Imam Ali, others would kick them out the capital was changed from Baghdad to some obviously there was a major unrest and as we will talk about that in the coming lectures inshallah one of the reasons why Imam Al-Hadi Imam Al-Hadi was in Medina he was brought from Medina to Samarra Surah Marraa because the Khilafah was in Samarra at that time the Khalifa wanted Imam Al-Hadi under his Aisai the same city why as a famous saying says keep your friends close but your enemies closer Imam Al-Hadi is his enemy his enemies he wanted to bring them closer to have a closer watch on them to make sure that is he going to create a revolution encourage an uprising against the Khalifa Imam Al-Hadi according to historians we don't see any trace that the Imam thought of military uprising against the Khalifa circumstances did not help the Imam did not have enough support where he was in Samarraa the circumstances were not to his favor so definitely Imam he followed up with political events but does this mean that he himself had intentions of a political uprising or a military revolution no wouldn't even have been successful the Imam knew that excuse me Sayyidina inshallah we will continue tomorrow with our discussion of Imam Al-Hadi respected viewers thank you very much indeed for watching his majesty Imam Al-Mahdi may Allah hasten his reappearance