A Saint with Prophetic Qualities: Yahya bin Abdullah

 

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).