بِسۡمِ
اللّٰہِ الرَّحۡمٰنِ الرَّحِیۡمِ
اَلۡحَمۡدُ
لِلّٰہِ رَبِّ الۡعٰلَمِیۡنَ
والصلاة
والسلام على خاتم النبيين
One
of the righteous Saints of this Ummah, the Imam, sayyidina Yahya bin
Abdullah [al-Mahd], a descendant of the Prophet (sall Allahu alaihi
wasallam) being the great-grandson of the Prophet’s grandson Imam
Hasan al-Mujtaba (radi Allahu anhu). He is remembered for his
uprising against the tyrannical Abbasid government in the land of
Dailam in 792 CE. But this uprising failed and Yahya bin Abdullah
made an agreement for safety with the Abbasid ruler Harun al-Rashid.
During this period, a descendant of Abdullah bin Zubair (radi Allahu
anhuma), namely, Abdullah bin Mus’ab bin Thabit bin Abdullah bin
Zubair, who had enmity toward the progeny of sayyidina Ali al-Murtada
(radi Allahu anhu), entered the presence of Harun al-Rashid and made
a serious allegation against sayyidina Yahya bin Abdullah, accusing
him of having invited him and by implication many others including
those in the ruler’s court to participate in an armed revolt
against the Abbasids. Sayyidina Yahya bin Abdullah not only denied
this allegation, he invited his accuser, Abdullah bin Mus’ab, to
participate in a Mubahalah, a prayer contest in which the two parties
invoke the curse of Allah upon the liar, to settle the matter. With
Harun al-Rashid’s encouragement, both individuals entered into the
Mubahalah. They first offered two light raka’at, then knelt down,
intertwined their right hands, then sayyidina Yahya bin Abdullah
offered the following prayer:
اللهم
إن كنت تعلم أني دعوت عبد الله بْن مصعب
إلى الخلاف على هذا ووضع يده عليه وأشار
إليه فاسحتني بعذاب من عندك وكلني إلى
حولي وقوتي وإلا فكله إلى حوله وقوته
واسحته بعذاب من قبلك آمين رب العالمين
“Allahumma!
If you know that I summoned Abdullah bin Mus’ab to rebelliousness
on the basis of this – and he placed his left hand on it and
pointed to it – then destroy me with an act of Your divine
punishment, and abandon me to my own strength and power. But if the
contrary is true, then abandon him to his own strength and power and
destroy him with an act of Your divine punishment. Amen! Lord of the
Worlds”
Then
Abdullah bin Mus’ab repeated the prayer and the two parted ways.
Sayyidina Yahya bin Abdullah was kept imprisoned by Harun al-Rashid
while Abdullah bin Mus’ab was free to go. Shortly thereafter, the
very next day in fact, another descendant of sayyidina Ali al-Murtada
(radi Allahu anhu), namely, Abbas bin Hasan bin Ubaidullah bin Abbas
bin Ali, was summoned by Abdullah bin Mus’ab to his home through
the latter’s envoy. Abbas sent his son Abdullah in his place, but
as Abdullah bin Abbas approached the residence of Abdullah bin Mus’ab
the womenfolk of that house came out wailing and lamenting,
announcing that Abdullah bin Mus’ab had died!
Abdullah
bin Abbas returned to his father and informed him of the amazing
news, to which his father, Abbas, stated:
لو
جاز أن يدعى ليحيى نبوة لادعاها أهله رحمة
الله عليه وعند الله نحتسبه ولا والله ما
نشك في أنه قد قتل
“If
it were permissible to claim Prophesy [Nubuwwah] for Yahya, his
family would have claimed it, may Allah have mercy on him. We reckon
him to have been recompensed by Allah, by Allah, we cannot doubt that
he [Abdullah bin Mus’ab] has been [divinely] killed!”
Even
Harun al-Rashid was amazed, and he released sayyidina Yahya from his
brief, merely a day long, imprisonment and rewarded him with a
hundred thousand dinars, saying:
يا
أبا محمد أما علمت أن الله قد قتل عدوك
الجبار
“O
Abu Muhammad! Do you know that Allah has killed your enemy, the
tyrant?”
(Tarikh
at-Tabari; v.8, pp.248-250)
On
a subsequent occassion, while sayyidina Yahya bin Abdullah
(rahimahullah) was once again imprisoned under orders from Harun
al-Rashid, he was brought forth to the latter’s presence in heavy
iron fetters. Bakkar, the son of Abdullah bin Mus’ab who was
previously destroyed by Allah as a result of the Mubahalah, continued
to bear enmity toward sayyidina Yahya and the progeny of amir
al-Mu’minin Ali bin Abi Talib (radi Allahu anhu), and repeated
accusations that sayyidina Yahya was covertly organizing a revolt
against the Abbasids in Medina. But sayyidina Yahya bin Abdullah was
intelligent and he informed Harun al-Rashid of a matter that would
doubtlessly disturb him, that Bakkar had in fact, ironically, cursed
the one who killed sayyidina Muhammad Nafs al-Zakiyah (rahimahullah),
who was martyred in Medina in an uprising against a prior Abbasid
ruler, al-Mansur. The Abbasid ruler, Harun al-Rashid, was naturally
contemptuous of Muhammad Nafs al-Zakiyah and would have considered
his killing a good thing. Bakkar claimed that what sayyidina Yahya
(rahimahullah) was saying was a lie, and so sayyidina Yahya bin
Abdullah (rahimahullah) challenged Bakkar to make the following
prayer:
أنا
بريء من حول الله وقوته موكل إلى حولي
وقوتي إن كنت قلته
“May
I be deprived of Allah’s strength and His power, and abandoned to
my own strength and power if I really did say that”
Despite
reluctance and obvious fear, Bakkar finally repeated the prayer
sayyidina Yahya instructed him to say. Soon thereafter, Bakkar
suffered a paralytic stroke and died immediately! Members of his
family, however, claimed that he was murdered by his wife, who was
jealous of his taking a concubine, and had two Black slaves kill him
by means of sitting on his face and having him suffocate to death.
(Tarikh at-Tabari; v.8, p.246)
Either
way, it is evident that the death of Bakkar bin Abdullah bin Mus’ab,
like the death of his father, was a divine punishment for his
slanders and enmity toward the pious Saint and Imam, sayyidina Yahya
bin Abdullah (rahimahumullah).
Indeed,
the victory of sayyidina Yahya bin Abdullah against the two
Zubairids, father and son, by means of Mubahalah and Li’an, is from
among his Karamat (miracles). Abbas bin Hasan bin Ubaidullah bin
[Abul-Fadl] Abbas bin Ali even testified to the effect that sayyidina
Yahya had prophetic characteristics within him, and that his family
would have claimed Nubuwwah for him had such a thing been possible
after the Prophet Muhammad (sall Allahu alaihi wasallam).
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