Imam Musa ibn Ja'far al-Kazim (RA) was one of the great figures of the second Islamic century and one of the leaders from the household of the Prophet ﷺ, the…
Imam Musa ibn Ja'far al-Kazim (RA) was one of the great figures of the second Islamic century and one of the leaders from the household of the Prophet ﷺ, the son of Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq (RA) and his foremost student. He was born around 128 AH / 745 CE in the Hijaz and, after his father's death in 148 AH / 765 CE, became the teacher and reference point for the circle his father had gathered. He is remembered above all for a temper no one could provoke, a generosity that emptied his hands, and nights spent in prostration. The man who answered insult with a gift His title al-Kazim — الكاظم — means the one who swallows his anger, and it was earned in public. A man of Madinah used to abuse him openly. His companions asked leave to silence him; Imam Musa forbade them, and instead rode out to the man's farm and sat down with him in his field. He asked what the man had spent on his crop and what he hoped to make from it. A hundred dinars spent, the man said, and two hundred hoped for. Imam Musa handed him three hundred and left the standing crop to him as well. The man rose as he was leaving and asked Allah to bless him, and never spoke against him again. "Be gentle with people, and you will win their love." Attributed to Imam Musa al-Kazim The purses of Imam Musa In Madinah he carried money out at night to households that would not have asked for it, leaving purses of two, three and four hundred dinars at their doors. The phrase "the purses of Musa" passed into speech in the city: a man who found one had his debt cleared and his season saved. He gave to those who had wronged him on the same terms as everyone else, and taught his students that a favour is spoiled by being spoken of. "The best of what a servant offers his Lord after knowing Him is gratitude for what he has been given, and patience with what he has been denied." Attributed to Imam Musa al-Kazim Nights in prostration His second title was al-Abd al-Salih, the Righteous Servant, given for his worship. He would enter the Masjid of the Prophet ﷺ after the night prayer and remain in prostration until much of the night had passed, repeating his plea for pardon. The same is described of him in confinement: prayer from the last of the evening until dawn, and remembrance after Fajr until the sun rose. Those who came after him in the way of renunciation looked back to him as a model of patience and detachment, and the biographers connect Shaqiq al-Balkhi, Ma'ruf al-Karkhi and Bishr al-Hafi with him. "Strive that your day be divided into four: an hour for supplication to Allah, an hour for your livelihood, an hour for the company of brothers you trust, who will show you your faults and be sincere to you inwardly, and an hour in which you take from what is lawful and pleasant — and by that hour you find the strength for the other three." Attributed to Imam Musa al-Kazim Standing before Harun al-Rashid He lived under al-Mansur, al-Mahdi, al-Hadi and Harun al-Rashid. He never raised a rising and never claimed a throne, but his descent and his following kept him watched. The best-known meeting came at the grave of the Prophet ﷺ in Madinah, where Harun came forward before the people and gave his greeting: "Peace be upon you, O Messenger of Allah — O my cousin." Then Imam Musa stepped forward and said: "Peace be upon you, O Messenger of Allah — O my father." Harun's colour changed, and he said: "This, Abu al-Hasan, is the true boast." Recorded by al-Khatib al-Baghdadi in Tarikh Baghdad Prison and the grave in Baghdad He was arrested in the reign of Harun al-Rashid and taken from the Hijaz to Iraq, held first at Basrah and then in Baghdad under the official al-Sindi ibn Shahik. A message carried out of the prison is attributed to him: that for every day of hardship passing over him a day of ease passed over the caliph, until both would stand together before Allah on a Day that has no end. He died in custody in Rajab 183 AH / 799 CE, at about fifty-five, and was buried in the graveyard of Quraysh on the western bank of the city. His grandson Muhammad al-Jawad (RA) was later buried beside him, and the district that grew around them took his name — al-Kazimiyyah. What remained after him Among his children were Ali al-Rida (RA), buried at Mashhad, and Sayyidah Fatimah al-Ma'sumah (RA), buried at Qom; through his descendants the Musawi sayyids became one of the widest branches of the Prophet's family ﷺ in the Muslim world. Narrations carried through him are found in the collections of al-Tirmidhi and Ibn Majah, and al-Dhahabi entered him in Siyar A'lam al-Nubala as an imam and an exemplar. "The moderate man will never be poor." Attributed to Imam Musa al-Kazim The twin golden domes over the grave What stands over him now is one of the largest sanctuaries in Iraq. Two gilded domes rise side by side — one over Imam Musa, one over his grandson Muhammad al-Jawad (RA) — flanked by four minarets sheathed in gold, set in a courtyard wide enough to hold tens of thousands at once. The grilled silver enclosures around the two graves are worked over with calligraphy, and the walls of the porticoes are faced in mirrorwork and glazed tile. The sanctuary was built up in stages: Buyid patronage in the fourth Islamic century, a rebuilding under Shah Isma'il in 1508, and Ottoman additions and gildings that continued into the nineteenth century, with the courtyard and gates enlarged repeatedly since. The city of Kadhimiya grew around it, and the old bridge across the Tigris links it to Adhamiyya and the grave of Abu Hanifa (RA) on the far bank. It is among the most visited graves in Baghdad — millions arrive each year, and the crowds are heaviest in Rajab, when walkers come in on foot along the river road from across Iraq. On ordinary days the courtyard still fills at 'Asr beneath the twin gilded domes, the sanctuary marking where he was laid to rest.