 Receiving Divine Authority, Imamah at the age of nine, Imam Muhammad Al Jawad was born on the 10th of Rajab which marks today. So for this reason may Allah SWT bless you on this auspicious occasion and grant all your wishes. The lovers of Ahlul Bayt, alayhim salam, respected viewers, brothers and sisters in Islam. Assalamu alaykum wa rahmatullah wa barakatuh. Welcome to another episode where we have dedicated this program to share and discuss and examine the life of Imam Muhammad Al Jawad, the 9th infallible, 11th infallible, the 9th Imam of Ahlul Bayt, alayhim salam. And I am also once again honored to host this program with my dear guest, Sayyid Ja'far Al Qazmini. Assalamu alaykum Sayyidina. Welcome back to another episode. Thank you very much for having me. Alhamdulillah. Sayyidina, just to recap from yesterday we did discuss that the circumstances that brought Imam alayhim salam to receive the Imamah Divine Authority over all universes at the age of nine. We provided evidences of how did the Imam come to be the Imam of his time at such a young age. We also brought examples from the life of Imam Muhammad Al Jawad alayhim salam. Yesterday we left off at a very crucial and important matter, which is the marriage of Imam Muhammad Al Jawad alayhim salam. We know that al-Mu'mun tried to use his power and wealth to influence the Imam in any means in any matter. We can say that this is one of the motives that motivated al-Mu'mun to marry off his daughter to Imam Muhammad Al Jawad. Another reason that I have concluded from my research and other statistics, scholars say that his main purpose was to, he knew. And as we mentioned in the previous episode, al-Mu'mun was somewhat the most knowledgeable ruler from the Abbasid Caliphs. So he knew that there was going to be a 12th Imam who was going to bring justice to the whole world. And he wanted that Imam, that individual to be from his lineage. So scholars have concluded that this may be the reason why al-Mu'mun married off his daughter to Imam Muhammad Al Jawad. Are there any other reasons that would make al-Mu'mun or motivate al-Mu'mun to make this very important decision? I mean to marry off your daughter to an enemy considered as al-Bayt enemies to al-Abbasids. And why is it that Imam Al Jawad got married at the age of eight? Thank you very much, brother Ahmad, for having me. Thank you very much. Going back to your question, first we need to examine the personality of al-Mu'mun. Yes. Al-Mu'mun is the Khalifa of Bani al-Abbas, was unlike other Khulafa and kings of Bani al-Abbas, his predecessors and his successors. There are certain qualities for al-Mu'mun. Number one, by theory, theoretically he was close to the followers of Ahlul Bayt, meaning close to be a Shia, as opposed to be on the other side of the Isle. When you look at the Khulafa of Bani al-Abbas, although they descended from Hashim and they're considered to be Bani Hashim, but their ideology was different than Ahlul Bayt, alaykum as-salam. Because if it were the same, then people would tell them, then what is your position to be at the helm of power? You should leave that to Ahlul Bayt. Therefore, they immune themselves to take the opposite ideology to the Imam to secure their positions. Therefore, you will see Harun, for example, Harun was even hostile to Ahlul Bayt, to the point that he became nasibi. There is a narration that there used to be a Cedar tree, where Bab al-Sidra right now in the Haram of Imam al-Hussein, alaykum as-salam. That was Cedar tree. The Prophet peace be upon him. At the very beginning, you know, at the time of the Prophet, he said, the one who cut off the Cedar tree. People at that time were oblivious. They had no idea what the Prophet was talking about until they realized years and centuries after, basically about 180 years, 185 years of al-Hijrah, when the tomb of Imam Hussain was here. And people would use the Cedar tree as a sign, as a signpost for the tomb of Imam Hussain. Harun cut off that tree to make the pilgrims, you know, lost, lose their sight and lose their targets. For example, Al-Mutawakil al-Abasi, many times he demolished the tomb of Imam al-Hussain, was a nasibi, was hostile to Ahlul Bayt. Unlike Al-Mu'mun, Al-Mu'mun, apparently in Fasad and apparent, he was very close to Ahlul Bayt. Anyone who would say ill about Ali ibn Abi Al-Qalib, or his progeny, he would be in trouble in front of Imam Mu'mun. And he was taking their ideology. At the same time, he was fearing for his own post, for his own position. And he knew that Ahlul Bayt would put a strong challenge, very serious challenge to his authority. Therefore he feared them. That's quality number one. Quality number two, he was very shrewd and intelligent. When his father Harun passed away, the Khilafa was distributed between him and his older brother, Amin. Very shrewdly, very intelligently, he turned the table against Bani Al-Abas, who the majority stood with his brother, Al-Amin. And then through war and battle, he killed his brother and he became the Khilafa. And he took the right. Number three, he was pro-knowledge, pro-wisdom and science, as we have said in the past and last night. These qualities have made him think and think wisely. Number one, here I'm looking at it through a political perspective. What you have said, that he knew that the 12th Imam will come from Imam Al-Jawad, eventually. And he will be the leader, he will be the Messiah, the Al-Mahdi. So what's better than having him to be the grandfather from the maternal side, than being an enemy? Therefore, definitely he wanted to push for that conclusion. That maybe the son will come from his daughter. That's number one. But from a political perspective, at the beginning, when he had a fighting with Al-Amin, and most of Bani Al-Abas sided with his brother, his ground was shaky, unstable. Therefore, he wanted to resort to something that brings legitimacy to himself. And people would look at him as a legitimate Khilafa. Therefore, he brought Imam Al-Rava and made him the crown prince. Why? So he can appease the public. The masses of people, when the masses of people see someone in the position in the stature of Imam Al-Rava, as the crown prince, then they would consider that this government is legitimate and there is no need to fight against it. This is number one. Second, there was a revolution by a man, by a commander, a military commander called Abu Saraya. Abu Saraya, again, apparently was a Shia, although he has his own vested motives and interest that he was seeking. His rhetoric, his emblem, was seeking vengeance for Ahl al-Bayt, alaihi s-salam. Whoever has done wrong against Ahl al-Bayt, he wanted to seek vengeance for it. That has attracted numerous followers of Ahl al-Bayt. Some of them even were descendants, were children of Imam Musa Al-Kalam, alaihi s-salam, from other branches, the cousins of Imam Al-Jawad, who have enrolled themselves, became ranks and files of this army to fight Al-Ma'mun. Therefore, Al-Ma'mun thought with a single stone, he can hit repeated targets. Number one, he shows the Shia, the followers of Ahl al-Bayt, that he's a pro-Ahl al-Bayt. Second, in his thought that he will build a legacy for himself, when the Imam al-Mehdi, alaihi s-salam, is born, then he can claim that he was the maternal grandfather of that person. And third, he appeases and subsides the revolution and finds legitimacy and further governing. Those were in his mind. Therefore, when he looked at the Imam at a relatively young age, by the way, Ahl al-Bayt, alaihi s-salam, people would never look at them as children or adults. I will give you a few examples. The first one who became Muslim after the Prophet, who was that person? The first one who became Muslim declared, Islam was alaihi s-salam. At what age? At ten years old. Ten years old and the eyes of public is considered to be a child. Yes. It's not mature enough to accept the Risaleh. Yet the Prophet, peace be upon him, only Ali ibn Abi Talib was invited to Islam. He only invited Ali ibn Abi Talib for Islam right away. And right away, Ali ibn Abi Talib accepted this invitation and declared his Islam. This is according to all scholars. Before the elders of the ones who... Before anyone else. No other person had become Muslim prior to Ali ibn Abi Talib, at age of ten. But history doesn't tell us that the Prophet has invited others who at the same age of Ali ibn Abi Talib for Islam. He would wait for them until they grow up, they reach the age of maturity, then he will invite them. Again, the Prophet, when he asked Bay'ah, Pledge of Allegiance, Muslims in Bay'at al-Radwan, that is narrated in the Holy Quran, Mm-hmm. Included in those were Hassan and Hussein? Mm-hmm. At what age? Five and six years old. Six and seven years old. At a very, very young age. No other child of Muslims have a pledge allegiance or gave Bay'ah to the Prophet, peace be upon him. Except Hassan and Hussein. Even the Prophet, even Allah SWT indicates in the holy Quran that those children, the children of Ahlul Bayt are totally different from the rest of the humanity. Now, when you look at Surah Al-Insan, and you look at the taste of his love, the story of when Ali Ibn Abi Talib, Fatimid Al-Zahra and Hassan Al-Hussein were fasting and they were giving up their food to the beggar, to the orphan, to the captive. All narrators say that Hassan Al-Hussein observed fasting at what age? 5, 6, 7 years old. While fasting becomes mandatory at what age? At age of maturity. So these are indications by the Almighty, by the Prophet, by Amir al-Mu'mineen and the rest that the children of Ahlul Bayt, the Imams are totally different from the rest of the children. Therefore, Al-Mu'mineen knew this fact that the Imam Al-Jawad is no child, although his age is very young. Yet, he's very mature and his intelligence supersedes any other scholar and scientist at the time. Therefore, he offered him his daughter. That didn't work. He tried using wealth. As you mentioned in the previous episode, giving him a thousand gold dinars, it's a lot. Yet, that still didn't work. So the final would be, you know, just kill him off. But yet, that's a different topic. But Sayyidina, inshallah, we're going to go into a short break and come back to discussion. But respected givers, stay tuned because we're going to jump generations after discussing the issues of youth present in our times and relating it to Ahlul Bayt, Alayhim As-Salam. And how can they provide a solution to our youth problems currently? So that will be after the break. So stay tuned. Al-Mu'mineen Al-Mu'mineen Al-Mu'mineen Al-Mu'mineen Al-Mu'mineen Al-Mu'mineen Al-Mu'mineen Al-Mu'mineen Al-Mu'mineen Al-Mu'mineen Al-Mu'mineen Al-Mu'mineen Al-Mu'mineen Al-Mu'mineen Al-Mu'mineen Thank you very much. Before the episode, we did discuss 1400 years of what the Imam Al-Salam went through and how did Al-Mu'mineen offer his daughter and what were the reasons of him offering his daughter for the marriage of Imam Muhammad Al-Jawad Al-Salam. But we want to jump generations, Sayyidina. We want to jump centuries of where we stand today as youth. I know you're a youth yourself and you're not that old. But yes, Imam Al-Jawad Al-Salam and Ahl al-Bayt, especially Imam Al-Jawad because he is, if you will, the second Imam to receive Imam at such a young age. So he would kind of influence us, not more than Ahl al-Bayt, but he has directly influences because he has different attributes or similar attributes to Ahl al-Bayt Al-Salam. But how does Imam Al-Jawad Al-Salam, his character, his attributes, his merits, how do they influence us and how do they and how does he become a role model to us in our youth today? You see, one beauty of the infallibles of the prophets and messengers of God is for the fact that they will be a role model for others. You see, the ayah is very clear, the verse. لقد كان لكم في رسول الله و سوطن حسن. In the prophet, peace be upon him, the best role model, a model that for you is to emulate and to follow. Why is it so? In the eyes of many, including the youth, the younger generation, is that life is a rosy thing, is beautiful. It's full of beauties, wonderful things, amenities, enjoyment, pleasure, pleasure, and you name it. That's in our fairytale mind, when we think of life. But the reality tells otherwise. Reality tells you that there is nothing as hard as life itself. In fact, the most difficult thing that people get to see is the real life, not in the classroom, not in the factory, rather the reality of the life. This is the most difficult thing that any human being faces. Let me go back to one ayah that Allah SWT says in Surah Al-Balad. It says The Almighty swears, says, there is no need for me to swear by this holy place, which is Mecca. Nor the fact that you are hell, you are entitled to do anything in Mecca. For one fact, He uses these introductions and is swearing to say this We created a human being in distress that there is a pressure everywhere. There is distress everywhere. There is difficulty and challenge everywhere. This is how the life of a human being. You are striving. Your life is full of striving, full of fight, full of struggle. This is the nature of life. One day they ask Imam Al-Sadiq, if I can catch that phrase rightly. It says the Imam says All of you, you are seeking leisure and you are seeking the resting and enjoying self, but you do not get to see this in this life. Rather, you will see it hereafter. To go along with that, tell your nation, tell your ummah that I have created something that people are searching for, which is comfort to have comfort within their daily life, but yet they will never find it. That thing I created is in heaven, because if you legit want to find comfort, you cannot find it anywhere. In your house, you are thinking of your business, you are thinking of work, you are thinking of what you are going to get for your family today, tomorrow, the next month, the next year. You don't know what is going to happen tomorrow. So every single day you are occupied with distress, you are occupied with a different mentality every day, because you don't know what goes on. But if you want to go back to Imam Al-Jawad and his marriage, why is it crucial and why is marriage at an early age reflect positively on the family and on the couple when they get married at a young age? Sure, let me finish up just the sentence before and then we'll catch this one. So the general perception is that this life is full of enjoyment and we need to take advantage of it. Yes, we need to take advantage of it, but this is not a place for leisure. This is not that you will seek welfare. This place is very hard, very difficult. Therefore, you need to achieve it. You need to earn it with your hard work. There is nothing called ease of life. Therefore, the Almighty out of his blessings and mercy, he created individuals like Ahlul Bayt, alayhimu s-salam. To show us, to see we as a human, we can see their lifestyle. We can see the agonies that they wanted through, the troubles that they wanted through, the struggles that none of Ahlul Bayt died by himself. All of them have been martyred, have been killed. Didn't they know that where they will be killed? Imam Hussain alayhimu s-salam, didn't he know that if he take the path that he took would lead him to death? Didn't he? Why did he take it? For what reason? To tell us that sometimes you need to earn what you desire with fight. You need to earn it with struggle, by sacrifice. You need to sacrifice yourself for it in order to reach that position. This is a beautiful thing that we emulate, we learn from. Coming to Imam Al-Jawad alayhimu s-salam. The Imams alayhimu s-salam, sometimes they give us piece of advice by words. But most of the time they give us this piece of advice through their action. Their lifestyle. Look at the Imam. Imam Al-Jawad at age of eight or seven, he traveled from Medina to Khorasan. Some 2,000 kilometers away, or even more. More, more. It could be more. 2,000, 3,000 kilometers away from Medina all the way to Khorasan by himself at age seven and eight. Look how he faced the challenges with a brutal enemy, a murderer that he killed his beloved father. An environment that is so hostile to him and to Ahlul Bayt. An environment that are all full of, you know, ranking officials, very arrogant, very self-centric, only thinking of themselves. Then someone at age eight enters the court, enters this environment. How can he handle himself? Many people lose themselves. If we are taken, for example, to the court of the king, with such majestic view and majestic status with so much wealth, power, and knowledge at the same time. Many people lose themselves. They fail. They cannot, you know, face such kind of challenge. But you see the Imam, alaihi salam, very calmly. Very calm, decently. He sat down with Al-Khalifa and debated, debated with the scholars. It is narrated that in these days that the Imam was in the court of Al-Ma'mun, he answered more than 30,000 questions. 30,000 questions. He never said that I am an orphan. That I am lonely. I came from Medina. I don't have family. I don't have a tribe. I am weak. No. Rather, he presented himself in the most difficult and the most dangerous situation. What does that tell you? So we can learn from that that there is no obstacle in life that a human being cannot overcome. Absolutely. This message goes toward the youth. There are so many of the youth. You would tell you life is so difficult. Study is difficult. What have you seen in life? I cannot find, you know, my desired job. I cannot find my desired espouse. I can't have my own home, the car that I've been dreaming about, and things like that. Materialistic things. Then what should I do? What should I go and take refuge in the west and sit there and get money and lose my identity, lose myself? The lifestyle of Imam Al Jawad, as you know, if you have a belief in yourself, if you have an objective view of the life, that life doesn't go without a challenge, that there is difficulty, there is hardship, and you have to face these challenges. You see, sometimes pain, difficulty are the essence of life. The beauty of the life. Discipline. How many delicious foods we end up to eat? If we wouldn't feel hungry, would we bother to go and cook those delicious foods? At what time you end up enjoying the delicious food? When your stomach is empty and you feel hungry. If your stomach wouldn't feel hungry, would you bother to eat? You wouldn't see the other beautiful side of life if you are not in the hardship. If you are not in the bottom of the wave, you wouldn't reach the top of the wave. Therefore, life is always full of difficulties, full of challenges. What we need to learn from the lifestyle of Imam Al Jawad, as you know, is how he faced these challenges. One other message. Of course, this applies to Imam Al Salam when he got married at the age of eight or nine. Why did he get married at eight or nine? First of all, to prove to the opposite side, to the opponents, that he's a mature man. He's not a child. He's someone who can take responsibility of a family. And can, you know, with merits, with capacity, with the qualification, get married to the daughter of the king. And he's very well qualified for that. Very well qualified. So number one is an answer to the challenge that they have posed. Second, although not very expressively, he's saying, you see, Brother Ahmad, when we enter life as mature people, the first thing that we have obstacle with and challenge with is communication with others. Yes. How I would communicate with you, still be friends with you. We can differ. We can differ on taste. We can differ on opinions. We can differ on practices. Yet we can cooperate. Yes. We can live in harmony. When do we start to experience this through marital life? Is when I get married with someone who doesn't share my taste. She doesn't share my worldviews sometimes, doesn't share, and sometimes even my ideologies. Yeah, your beliefs. Therefore, how do I co-op and work it out with this person? If I can manage having a peaceful life with this person who's different than me in thoughts, in taste, in attitudes, in demeanors, then definitely I can make friends with others. I can co-operate with others. You see, the beauty of life is to gain more confidence, to gain more friendship, not to create hostility and hostile people. How do you end up getting more friends? Is that when you learn how to co-operate with them? Yes. Number one, the new clear society that we create is the family. Therefore, Islam, the Prophet, and the imams have taught us that start this at an early age, at an early life. Don't say I have not finished high school yet. Don't say I have not finished university yet. Don't say that I haven't found the suitable job yet. You can seek those for years and they never come. Therefore, it's to start with this single new clear society that is called a family. So that's a practical message of the Imam, alaihi salam, is that marriage is no joke. Marriage is a serious thing. It's a holy life. It's a sanctuary. Yet, you need to start. You need to look forward for that beautiful community that you want to create. Because if you get to understand each other, then you can move on. And you can make understanding with others. And here you can create a civil society. And of course, with that, the person who is about to get married, they need to be fully aware of their capabilities. I mean, when someone wants to go get married, I mean, you have been married for a very long time. I know that in marriage, there are difficult situations. And some kind of, you know, they get frustrated and they think, oh, it's the end. And I can't live with this person anymore for, you know, minor stuff that goes on in the family. Which, alaihi salam, have given us solutions to. And just to conclude the episode, we have, I think, a couple of minutes. Yes, we have a couple of minutes left. Can we, you know, just summarize the answers of Ahl al-Bayt to common challenges with our life? Just, I think, two or three minutes, if you can conclude with that. I know it's not enough. Probably it's not going to be enough. But when you see for every single situation, Ahl al-Bayt, alaihi salam, pose a model. Yes. When it comes to the trade, making business, you see there are multiple stories of Imam Al-Sadaq, alaihi salam, with his followers. Teach them how to address themselves. How to handle themselves in order to become successful businessmen, for example. A man came to the Imam and told him that my business is ruined. I'm losing. I'm going bankrupt. What should I do? The Imam looked at him and told him, why don't you clip your nail and fix your attire? You need to look sharp. You're in a situation where people will look at you. You are where people's eyes are on you. Therefore, your physical appearance matters. For example, you go to the restaurant and you see the attire of the chef is very dirty. Are you willing to eat in that restaurant? Definitely not. Why? Because the criteria is the cleanliness of the food. So, when the chef looks sharp and clean and nice and immaculate, you will have more tendency to go to that restaurant and of course that business will pick up. So, the Imam alaihi salam always would give a practical advice to people. For example, the Imam alaihi salam, here, the Imam Al-Jawad, just one point. It says, لو سكت الجاهل مختلف الناس. If for one moment, the ignorant, the person who, the uneducated, keeps his mouth silent, people wouldn't disagree again. Where does the disagreement come? When someone says something that is not right and people will fight between themselves. Right at the time of the departure of the Prophet. When the Prophet wanted to tell his nation that get me an ink and paper, so I write to you something that will make you successful for the rest of your life, for the rest of centuries. An ignorant person came to say, حسبنا كتاب الله. No, we have only the Book of Allah. That has created this quarrel and fight until today. Why? Because someone who was not educated, spoken. So this is another practical advice of Ahl al-Bayt to the human. Thank you very much. We'll leave it there. I know we have went to a different topic, but still that does relate to our challenges and our problems today. But I would like to thank you very much, Sayyidina, for joining us over the past two episodes. May Allah SWT bless you and grant you all your wishes on this blessed occasion. Thank you very much, respected viewers, for joining us tonight. As well as May Allah SWT also bless you on this auspicious occasion. And also, if you didn't get the chance to view yesterday's episode or today's episode, you can log in to our YouTube channel or check out our Facebook page at Imam Hussein 3TV. Wassalamu alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh. Thank you very much. Congratulations to you. Congratulations to you as well.