Muhammad al-Jawad

Muhammad ibn Ali al-Jawad (Arabic: مُحَمَّدٌ بْنُ عَلِيٍّ ٱلْجَوَادُ, romanized: Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī al-Jawād, c. 8 April 811 – c. 29 November 835), also known as Muhammad al-Taqi, was a descendant of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and the ninth of the Twelve Imams, succeeding his father Ali al-Rida. Born in Medina around 810, al-Jawad was the only child of al-Rida, the eighth Imam. When al-Rida left Medina after being summoned to Khorasan by the Abbasid caliph al-Ma'mun to assume the position of heir apparent, he did not take any of his family members with him. Al-Jawad was only four years old when his father reluctantly left Medina. Therefore, al-Jawad spent most of his childhood away from his father. Al-Rida's appointment provoked strong opposition among the Abbasids in Baghdad, which forced al-Ma'mun to return to the capital Baghdad in 818. On the way back, al-Rida suddenly fell ill and died mysteriously in Tus, likely poisoned by order of al-Ma'mun as he made concessions to the opposition.

Upon the death of al-Rida, the succession of his only son al-Jawad to the Imamate at the age of seven became controversial, but most recognized his knowledge and religious authority. At the time, some instead turned for leadership to al-Jawad's uncle, Ahmad ibn Musa, and some others joined the Waqifites, but the succession of al-Jawad did not create any permanent divisions. Shia sources often justify the Imamate of the young al-Jawad by drawing parallels with Jesus and John the Baptist, both of whom in the Quran received their prophetic missions in childhood. Like most of his predecessors, al-Jawad kept aloof from politics and engaged in religious teaching, while organizing the affairs of Shia Muslims through the network of representatives (Wokala) that his grandfather and the seventh Imam, Musa al-Kazim, had established. The extensive correspondence of al-Jawad with his followers on questions of Islamic law has been preserved in Shia sources, and numerous pithy religio-ethical sayings are attributed to him.

In 830, al-Jawad was summoned to Baghdad by al-Ma'mun, who married his daughter Umm Fadhl to the former. This marriage, however, was to be without issue and might have been infelicitous. His successor, Ali al-Hadi, was already born to Samana, a freed slave (umm walad). In 833, al-Ma'mun died and was succeeded by his brother, al-Mu'tasim, who summoned al-Jawad again to Baghdad in 835 and hosted him and his wife, possibly to investigate any links between al-Jawad and new Alid revolts. Al-Jawad died in the same year at the age of about twenty-five. All Sunni sources are silent about the manner of his death, while Shia authorities are unanimous that he was poisoned by his disaffected wife, Umm al-Fadl, at the instigation of her uncle, caliph al-Mu'tasim. Al-Jawad is buried next to his grandfather in the Al-Kazimiyya Mosque, a holy site in Shia Islam.

Source: Wikipedia — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_al-Jawad