Thursday: The day of Imam Hasan Al-Askari (as) - The father of our present Imam (mahhr)

Born in Madinaon the 10th of Rabuil Akhar 232 Hijri ( 6.12.846 AD) Died in Samarrah Iraq on 8th of Rabiul Awwal 260 Hijri (4.1.874) aged 28 years. Period of Imamat 6 years.

Samarra (Surre Mun Ra’) was a garrison town about 60 miles north of Baghdad. River Euphrates flows in the middle of the town, and because of the surrounding hills a cool breeze keeps the area cooler in comparison to Baghdad. The word ‘Asker’ in arabic is used for army. Our 11th Imam’s title became known as Askari, the one who lived all his life in a garrison town.
There is another story related with this name by many historians. Once the Caliph called him in his palace and ordered his army to march past before him. The Caliph wanted to boast or to impress the Imam of his power or to dissuade the Imam from any thoughts of revolution against the Abbasid Caliphate. When the march past was over, Imam asked the Caliph to gaze between two of his fingers. What the Caliph saw was a huge army of lancers and swords men marching past, a much bigger crowd than the Caliphs army. He was astonished at this miracle and named him Askari, i.e. the man with a big army.

Imam Hasan al Askari’s (AS) life from childhood to adulthood was spent in this house where his father Imam Ali Naqi (AS) was to remain under house arrest. But despite this close guard on the Imam, he conducted his duties as Imam from inside the house. He taught people Qur’an and instructed his followers the true teachings of Islam as taught by the Prophet of Islam and his Ahlulbayt. In fact Imam Hasan al-Askari wrote a complete Tafseer of the Qur’an which was mentioned by many scholars, historians and exegetes, including Kulaini and Saduq.
Imam’s life in Samarrah was not in peace even under house arrest. From time to time he was taken to Baghdad, questioned and put in prison there. On one such occasion, the Imam was taken by the Turkish guards to Baghdad where he was kept in prison during the short reign of the Caliph al-Muktadi and al-Mu’tamid afterwards.

While he was a prisoner in Baghdad there was a severe draught. Rain had not fallen for some time and crops were drying up. People were facing a famine. They did not know what to do. A Christian priest came to the rescue. He lifted his hands in prayer and rain fell. The Caliph became concerned lest for this reason people would forsake Islam and become Christians. When the Imam was consulted, he said that when people assembled to see the so called miracle performed by the Christian priest, he would remove their doubts. The Imam was allowed to leave the prison to go where the crowd assembled to see the miracle performed by the priest. Imam stood there with the crowd and when the priest raised his hands for prayand rain began to fall, Imam told one of his companions to seize the hands of the priest and bring the piece of bone hidden in his hands. When this bone was brought before the Imam, he said that it was the bone of a Prophet of God. It was the effect of this holy bone when lifted in prayers to God that brought God's mercy and brought rain to the land. This way the Imam lifted the doubts from the minds of the people. After this the Imam himself spread his prayer mat and performed two Rak’ats of prayers then lifted his bare hands to God for rain to come to the land and wipe out the draught. The Imam’s prayers were heard by the Almighty and rain fell so much that the land became fertile again and crops began to grow. (Kulaini, Akhbarus Alam)In recognition of this service the Imam was allowed to leave the prison in Baghdad and live in his house in Samarrah, still under house arrest. He was still not allowed to go to Madina.

Imam Hasan al-Askari(AS) lived a short life, only Twenty Eight years and in this short life he had to endure great sufferings by the hands of the Abbasid caliphs. But in spite of all that suffering and confinement under house arrest in Samarrah, many students of Islam benefited from his God gifted knowledge and later became scholars in their fields. He discussed with agnostics of that age many times about the existence of God and the reasons for the necessity of the Prophets and Imams and many atheists changed their minds and converted to Islam. One of those was Ishaq al-kindi who was writing a book about contradictions in Qur’an. Imam invited some of his students and taught them lessons from the Qur’an. These students of Al-kindi confronted their teacher and rejected his arguments about the contradictions in the Holy Book. Al-Kindi realised that these arguments could not have come from the brains of these young students. He asked them about the secret of their extensive knowledge of the Qur’an. In the end they confessed that Imam Hasan al-Askari taught them. Kindi himself became the disciple of our Imam, burnt his own writings on atheism and later wrote many treatises on Islam.

Imam Hasan al-Askari (AS) also dictated many Traditions of the Holy Prophet and recorded many explanations of the verses of the Holy Qur’an.

One of the famous traditions people learnt from Imam Hasan al-Askari was, “ The wine drinker is like an idolater.” Ibn al Jawzi in his book “Tehrim al Khamr” mentioned this tradition from the Imam from the most reliable narrators of Hadith.

Historians have noted many names of the Imam’s students who became scholars of their time

One of the famous students of the Imam was Abu Ali al-Hasan ibn Khalid who prepared a commentary of the Holy Qora’an which should be considered the work of the Imam himself. The Imam used to dictate its contents to Abu Ali who went on writing the commentary. Scholars indicated that the book consisted of 1920 pages.

In spite of the fact that the Imahad never given any cause for concern to the Caliphs of his time, their guilt in this matter was so great that they did not leave these pious personalities in peace. If they had no fear of their throne they were afraid of the excellence and knowledge of the Imams. In the case of Imam Hasan al-Askari, the same type of jealousy led to the poisoning of the Imam to end this life of a saint whose only activity was to teach Qora’an as the Prophet and his Ahlulbayt taught before him. During the rule of Al-Mu’tamid poison was given to the Imam mixed in some fruit and he died on 8th Rabi-al-Awwal 260 Hijri. He left only one son, whose name was Muhammad who was only five years old when his father died.

The Caliph Al- Mu’tamid himself attended the funeral prayer. When they all lined up and were ready to commence the prayers, Imam Hasan al-Askari’s brother Jaafar stood in front of the people to lead the prayer. Before he could commence the prayer, a five year old boy came out of the house, went near his uncle. Shook his mantle and told him, “set aside uncle, only an Imam can lead the funeral prayer of an Imam”. His uncle Jaafar stepped aside and this five year old boy lead the prayers. Immediately after the end of the prayer he went inside his house and was not seen by his pursuers, lead by the caliph Mu’tamid himself.

Our Eleventh Imam was buried in the same house where he had died, by the side of his father Imam Ali Naqi (AS). By the passage of time, the place was transformed into a great mausoleum and pilgrims from all over the Islamic lands came to pay their homage to the two Imams of Ahlulbayt who were buried there.

http://www.al-islam.org/kaaba14/14.htm