RNA – In a statement on the martyrdom anniversary of Imam Ja’far al-Sadiq, Grand Ayatollah Lotfollah Safi-Golpaygani described the sixth Imam’s school of science and his education of students and emphasized, “Humanity is indebted to the scientific movement of Imam al-Sadiq.”
The text of the most important parts of the statement of this source of emulation is as follows:
In the Name of God, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful
In the first half of the second century AH [719-816 CE], Imam Ja’far al-Sadiq opened a school that had not been known in Islam until that time and after that time, such a school wasn’t seen again. This was school of the Imam where the greatest scholars of Quranic sciences, jurisprudence and theology, chemistry, etc. were delivered to the world.
Shi’ah jurisprudence, which involves thousands of legal and educational materials, as well as practical and moral Islamic programs, is due in most and almost all cases to the boundless knowledge of Imam al-Sadiq.
In regard to the Hajj pilgrimage, which is one of the greatest teachings of Islam and involves transcendent and honest philosophies, the Islamic world is honoured by the ocean of science of Imam al-Sadiq. According to Abu Hanifah, all are dependent on Imam al-Sadiq. About four hundred articles of the rulings of Hajj followed by the Sunnis are deduced from a hadith that has been narrated from the Imam which is located in Sahih al-Muslim, one of the Sunni books of hadith.
Yes! In the political situation of Islamic countries at that time, Imam al-Sadiq was able to find an important opportunity to lead the largest scientific movement and to open a school where the most famous scholars of Islam could learn and study from hadith and science.
The science of Imam Ja’far al-Sadiq enveloped the land and the community of Islamic science and the scholars of Iraq, Hijaz, Khorasan and the Levant learned from him. Only the Imam was able to solve the scientific problems and offer a defence of the predicaments of Islamic issues.
What is most worthy of attention is that the leadership of the Imam isn’t confined to Islamic sciences but he also trained students in other diverse sciences such as astronomy, mathematics, medicine, anatomy, self-knowledge, chemistry, botany and other sciences. The Imam’s school was like a university where major faculties in different sciences were founded and in each school and faculty, discussions and research on specific sciences were pursued.
For example, one of the sciences that Imam al-Sadiq taught and that others benefited from was the science of chemistry. His great university graduated a genius named Jabir ibn Hayyan and if we had pursued the results of that which he learned from the sixth Imam and his scholarship and his scientific discussions with the Imam from his time to the present day and if we had given importance to the other sciences needed by the civilized and advanced societies, today we wouldn’t need the West, Europe and the United States, whom whatever they have is from Islam, its high principles and the blessings of the efforts of Muslim scholars.
Yes! One of the disciples of Imam al-Sadiq is Jabir ibn Hayyan and one of his great works, which proves his intellectual and scientific genius, is the invention of a light pen for the possibility of reading in the darkness, which was used in his writing of important and valuable books.
The fact that each of the students of this school alone implies the greatness of this school of thought, and although this school and university was forced to acknowledge not only Shi’ah scholars but also great scholars of the opponents of the school of the Ahl al-Bayt, all expressly stated that the Imam was the most knowledgeable and the greatest jurisprudent. Abu Hanifah said, “I haven’t seen anyone who is more knowledgeable and a greater jurisprudent than Ja’far ibn Muhammad.”
Rasa News Agency
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