Muhammad al-Jawad

Muhammad al-Jawad Ninth Imam of Twelver Shi'ism
محمد الجواد
Calligraphic inscription of al-Jawad's name on the zarih of Husayn ibn Ali, located in Karbala
9th Shia Imam
In office 819–835
Preceded by	Ali al-Rida
Succeeded by	Ali al-Hadi
Title	See list al-Taqi (lit. 'the pious') al-Jawad (lit. 'the generous')
Personal life
Born	c. 8 April 811 (10 Rajab 195 AH) Medina, Abbasid Caliphate
Died	c. 29 November 835(835-11-29) (aged 24) (29 Dhu al-Qada 220 AH) Baghdad, Abbasid Caliphate
Cause of death	Poisoning by al-Mu'tasim (most Shia sources)
Resting place	Al-Kazimiyya Mosque, Baghdad, Iraq 33°22′48″N 44°20′16.64″E / 33.38000°N 44.3379556°E / 33.38000; 44.3379556
Spouse	Samana Umm al-Fadl bint al-Ma'mun
Children	Ali al-Hadi Musa al-Mubarqa' Hakima
Parents	Ali al-Rida Sabika (or Khayzuran)
Religious life
Religion	Shia Islam

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Muhammad al-Jawad (Arabic: محمد بن علي الجواد, romanized: Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī al-Jawād, c. 8 April 811 – c. 29 November 835) was a descendant of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and the ninth of the Twelve Imams, succeeding his father, Ali al-Rida (d. 818). He is known by the epithets al-Jawād (Arabic: الجواد, lit. 'the generous') and al-Taqī (Arabic: التقي, lit. 'the pious'). Like most of his predecessors, Muhammad kept aloof from politics and engaged in religious teaching, while organizing the affairs of the Imamite Shia community through a network of representatives (wokala). 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 also attributed to him.

Born in Medina in 810–811, Muhammad al-Jawad was the son of Ali al-Rida, the eighth of the Twelve Imams. In 817, the Abbasid caliph al-Ma'mun (r. 813–833) summoned al-Rida to Khorasan and designated him as the heir apparent, possibly to mitigate the frequent Shia revolts. This appointment provoked strong opposition in Iraq, which forced al-Ma'mun to return to the capital Baghdad in 818 and abandon his pro-Shia policies. On the way back to Baghdad, al-Rida suddenly fell ill and died in Tus, likely poisoned by order of al-Ma'mun as he made concessions to the opposition. Upon the death of al-Rida in 818, the succession of his only son Muhammad to the imamate at the age of about seven became controversial. Most Imamite Shias accepted the imamate of al-Jawad because the Imam, in their view, received his perfect religious knowledge through divine inspiration, irrespective of his age. At the time, some instead turned for leadership to al-Jawad's uncle, Ahmad ibn Musa al-Kazim, and some others joined the Waqifites, but the succession of al-Jawad evidently did not create any permanent divisions in the Shia community. Twelver 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.

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 in 828 to Samana, a freed slave (umm walad). In 833, al-Ma'mun died and was succeeded by his brother, al-Mu'tasim (r. 833–842), who summoned al-Jawad to Baghdad in 835 and hosted him and his wife, possibly to investigate any links between al-Jawad and new Shia revolts. There al-Jawad died in the same year at the age of about twenty-five. All major Sunni sources are silent about the manner of his death, while Shia authorities are nearly unanimous that he was poisoned by his disaffected wife, Umm al-Fadl, at the instigation of her uncle, al-Mu'tasim. Muhammad al-Jawad was buried next to his grandfather, Musa al-Kazim, the seventh of the Twelve Imams, in the cemetery of the Quraysh, where the Kazimayn shrine was later erected. Kazimayn has since become an important center for pilgrimage.