Imam Rida

Attending to worship and allocating time to devotional acts and special litanies and supplications during the day and night has been one of the Ahl al-Bayt’s (A.S.) regular practices, which, despite people’s visiting them and their teaching and various other preoccupations, they have never neglected, and this is a great lesson for their followers. Now, part of the Imam al-Reza (A.S.) devotional attitude is introduced as follows: He would prostrate after his morning prayers and stay in prostration until sunrise. When he found a chance and had free time, he would perform a thousand rak‘as of prayers. After every prayer he would perform a thanksgiving prostration. He was so intimate with the Qur’ān that all his sayings and replies and examples were of a Qur’anic nature. Every three days he would complete the recitation of the whole Qur’ān and say: if I wish I would complete it in less than this, but each āya I recite I deliberate on it to see where and when it was revealed. He slept little during night and would keep vigil most of the nights. He would fast a lot, never neglecting the three-days-a-month fasting. He would recite ṣalawāt (benediction to the Holy Prophet) in his supplications and would recite it a lot in his prayers and at other times. He would recite the Qur’ān in bed at night and when he came to the verses concerning the Paradise and Hell, he would weep a lot. All the time he was engaged in remembrance of God and most of all he stood in awe of his Lord. Imam al-Reza's (A.S.) Devotional Schedule in his Journey to Khurasan Rajā‘ b. Abī Dahhak was an administrator of the Abbasid government, who presided over the high council of tax-collection during the reign of Ma’mūn. Having been appointed to take Imam al-Reza(A.S.) to Ma’mūn from Medina to Marv and making sure to choose a route through Basra, Ahwaz, and Fars, rather than through Qum, he said, “I accompanied his holiness from Medina to Marv and I swear by God that I did not see at any time no one like him in piety, excessive remembrance of God, and so awe-inspired by God. He had the habit to keep sitting on his praying place after the Morning Prayer and engage in dhikr of Subḥān Allāh, Alḥamdulillāh, Allāhu Akbar, Lā ilāha illā Allāh, and reciting ṣalawāt to the Holy Holy Prophet and his progeny until the sunrise; then he would prostrate himself and remain in prostration well through the daylight. Then, he would raise his head and talk to people and preached to them. Near noon, he would perform ablution again and return to his praying place, recite adhān and iqāma, and perform his noon prayer after performing eight supererogatory rak‘as prior to noon prayer – in a special procedure as quoted in the ḥadīth. After prayer, he would recite tasbīḥ (Subḥān Allāh = Glorious is Allāh), taḥmīd (alḥamdulillāh = Praise be to Allāh), takbīr (Allāhu Akbar = Allāh is the greatest), and taḥlīl (lā ilāha ill Allāh = There is no deity but Allāh) for a while and then he would go on prostration and recite ḥamdan lillāh (praise be to Allāh) one hundred times. After the sunset, he would perform wuḍū (partial ablution), say adhān and iqāma, and perform the evening prayer; after that he would recite tasbīḥ, taḥmīd, takbīr, and taḥlīl for a time. He would then perform a thanksgiving prostration and after that and without talking to anyone he would perform four supererogatory rak‘as after evening prayer along with two final salāms (face turned right and then left) and two qunūts (a prayer said after the second rak‘a with hands raised). Following that, he would engage in after-prayer-supplications (ta‘qībāt) for a while and then break his fast. Almost one third through the evening, he would stand up and perform his bed-time (‘ishā’’) prayer, then while sitting in his place of prayer, he would say dhikr (remembrance of Allāh) and recite ḥamd and lā ilāha ill Allāh for a while and after performing ta‘qībāt and thanksgiving prostration, he would go to bed. Toward the last one-third of the night, he would get out of his bed while reciting tasbīḥ, taḥmīd, takbīr, taḥlīl, and istighfār (asking for God’s pardon), brush his teeth, perform wuḍū, and perform eleven rak‘as of late-night supererogatory prayer #7779;alāt al-layl) – in a special procedure as related in the ḥadīth – and after prayer, he would keep sitting to say ta‘qībāt and near dawn he would perform two rak‘as of dawn supererogatory prayer. At dawn break, he would say adhān (the call to prayer) and iqāma (the declaration of standing for prayer). After performing the final Salām (or taslīm), he would say ta‘qībāt; then, he would perform two thanksgiving prostrations till daybreak. In any city where he made an intention to stay for ten days he would fast during daytime and when night fell, he would say prayers before breaking his fast; and if he did not intend to stay, he would perform the obligatory prayers in two rak‘as, except for the evening prayer (which is three rak‘as). He would never fail to perform the evening supererogatory, late-night supererogatory, and the two rak‘as of dawn prayer, neither while travelling nor when staying at home. However, he would give up the daytime – noon and afternoon – supererogatory prayers while on a trip and after any shortened (travel) prayer #7779;alāt al-qaṣr), he would say thirty times the four tasbīḥāts (subḥān Allāh-i, wa al-hḥamduli’Allā-hi, wa lā ilāha ill’Allāhu, wa Allāhu akbar,), and would say: “This is for the completion of ṣalāt… On a trip, he would never fast; and in his invocations, he would always recite ṣalawāt to the Holy Prophet and his progeny, repeating this ṣalawāt during and after his prayers a lot. At night while in bed, he would read the Qur’ān a lot and whenever he reached a verse in the Qur’ān in which Paradise of Hell-fire was mentioned, he would weep and ask Allāh for the Paradise and take refuge in Him from the Hell-fire. In all his prayers, his holiness would recite the bismi’Allāh (the formula bi'smillāh al-raḥmānاal-raḥīm [= in the name of Allāh; the most Merciful, the most Compassionate]) in a loud voice. In any city he entered the people would go to him and ask him about the principal features of their religion and his holiness would answer them, quoting many traditions from Imam ‘Alī (A.S.) and the Apostle of Allāh (S.A.W.) as related through his forefathers. When I took the Imam (A.S.) to Ma’mūn and he asked me for his travel report, I recounted his holiness' states to him, he said, ‘That is true, o son of Abī Ḍaḥḥāk; ‘Alī b. Mūsā is the best among the people of the earth and the most learned and the most devoted among them. Do not tell anyone what you have seen of him because I want his excellences be told in my own words. And I seek for the help of Allāh in my intention to uplift his value.” Imam al-Reza's(A.S.) On-Time Prayers Imam al-Reza(A.S.) gave great importance to on-time prayer, as it is the secret of consciousness and religiosity and a Muslim's devotion to Allāh and spiritual matters; and those who are committed to on-time prayer are usually noble and prominent in faith and spirituality. In a meeting ‘Umrān Ṣābī, the renowned scholar of the time, was talking with Imam al-Reza(A.S.) and their discourse had reached a sensitive point when all of a sudden the Imam (A.S.), stood up and said to Ma’mīn – who was watching the debate – that it was time for prayer. ‘Umrān said, “My heart is softened (for accepting Islam), do not interrupt my answer.” The Imam (A.S.) said, “We will say prayer and come back.” In another ḥadīth, Ibrāhīm b. Mūsā says: “I asked something from Imam al-Reza(A.S.) and he promised to fulfill. Then, one day his holiness set out to visit some of the ‘Alawīs. On the way, the time for prayer came; his holiness dismounted the beast and we were alone. He told me to call to prayer (chant the adhān). I said, ‘Let's wait for the companions to join us.’ He said, ‘May God bless you with His forgiveness, do not postpone prayer from its due time to a later time for no reason; always perform your prayer on time.’ I chanted the adhān and we performed our prayer. After prayer I said to him: ‘O son of the Holy Prophet! Some time has passed since you made a promise to me and I am needy. You are always busy and I rarely have access to you.’ At this time, Imam al-Reza(A.S.) touched the ground and picked a gold ingot and said, ‘Take this! May God bless you, use it and conceal what you just saw.” The man said, “That property was so bountiful that I purchased an equivalent of seventy thousand dinars worth of goods and I became the most enriched person in Khurasan.” Reference: Story of the Sun A Look at Imam al-Reza's Life Author: Sayyid Muhammad Najafi Yazdi Translated by: Ahmad Rezwani Published by: Islamic Research Foundation, Astan Quds Razavi, Mashhad - I.R. Iran