Imam Ali al-Naqi (al-Hadi) – Life and the Samarra Years

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Who is Imam Ali al-Naqi (al-Hadi)?

Born	214 AH / 836 CE, Medina
Martyred	254 AH / 876 CE, Samarra (878 in the short biography)
Age	42
Father	Imam Muhammad al-Taqi (al-Jawad)
Mother	Semane
Wife	Suzan

Imam Ali al-Naqi (al-Hadi) was born in Medina on the 12th of the month of Rajab (Recep) in the year 214 after the Hijra, 836 CE. He is the twelfth of the Innocents (masum). Apart from Ali al-Naqi and Musa, Imam Muhammad al-Taqi had no sons. When he lost his father he was six years old. People asked Imam Muhammad al-Taqi: “O Imam, if one day you depart from among us and enter God’s mercy, while your children are still small, who will lead us?” Imam Muhammad al-Taqi answered: “My son Ali al-Naqi will lead you.” To those who said he was still very small, he replied: “When I lost my father, I too was, in physical stature, a small child like him. Know this well: God Almighty, who gave the Prophet Jesus his prophethood in his mother’s womb, also gives us of the lineage of the Ehl-i Beyt knowledge and guidance at a young age. Do not worry at all.”

Under surveillance in Samarra in the era of the Abbasid caliphs

When Imam Muhammad al-Taqi was martyred, the Abbasid caliph al-Mu‘tasim (Mutasım) was in the second year of his caliphate. Unlike his elder brother al-Ma’mun (Memun), al-Mu‘tasim had a harsh, rough personality and took pleasure in shedding blood. This eighth caliph of the Abbasids ruled for eight years and eight months, which is why he was called “Mutasım Semâni”, meaning “the Eighth”. He had brought Ali al-Naqi to Samarra in order to keep him under surveillance. Knowing that he was a child and thinking that no harm would come from him, he did not do Ali al-Naqi much evil.

When al-Mu‘tasim died in Samarra in the year 227 after the Hijra at the age of 48, he was succeeded by his son Harun al-Wathiq (Harun’u Vasık). He too continued exactly the policies of his father al-Mu‘tasim and his uncle al-Ma’mun. Yet he did not resemble his father at all: he was given to drink and women and had even worse habits. Harun’s vizier Muhammad bin Abdülmelik had Harun’s brother Cafer (Jafar) thrown into prison for fear that he might one day rise up against this corrupt order.

Harun al-Wathiq could endure this way of life for only five years. In the end he died at the age of 36 during a drunken orgy of debauchery and lust.

Caliph al-Mutawakkil’s hostility towards the Ehl-i Beyt

When Harun al-Wathiq died, he was succeeded by his brother Jafar al-Mutawakkil (Mütevekkil), who was in prison. As soon as Jafar ascended to the office of the caliphate, his first act was to execute the vizier Abdülmelik. In this way Jafar took his revenge on Abdülmelik. Now power was in his hands, and he was strong enough to do whatever he wished: the caliph of the Islamic world, Jafar al-Mutawakkil, was at the same time an enemy of the descendants of Ali. Nor did he pursue this hostility in secret; he did not hesitate to show it openly. In his time the cruelties and insults inflicted on the lineage of the Ehl-i Beyt (Ahl al-Bayt, the family of the Prophet) eclipsed those committed under the Umayyads. The tyrant Jafar once even had animals tethered at the shrine of Imam Husayn.

Caliph Jafar al-Mutawakkil had brought Imam Ali al-Naqi, despite his young age, from Medina to Baghdad in order to keep him under surveillance. For as long as he lived, he made Imam Ali al-Naqi live a life of imprisonment. This cruel, immoral man, devoid of all humanity and without fear of God, was tortured to death in the year 247 after the Hijra, at the age of 37, together with his vizier Fatih bin Hakka, by his son Muhammad al-Muntasir (Muntasır).

Muhammad al-Muntasir announced that he had committed this murder because his father was a sexual deviant and it was shameful to him that such a man should occupy the office of the caliphate, and he took his father’s place. Caliph Muhammad al-Muntasir was a stern man, honest, devoted to justice, and he gave no countenance to flatterers and sycophants. The Abbasid court breathed a sigh of relief. The profiteers, plunderers and flatterers, however, did not like this situation at all. In the end he was able to reign as caliph for only six months. His enemies put poison in the coffee he drank and killed him at the age of 26.

In place of Muhammad al-Muntasir, his son Ahmet Mustaben (al-Musta‘in) came to the office of the caliphate. Because this man was given to drink and lust, as soon as he became caliph he had thousands of new concubines brought in from outside. No one ever saw him sober for a single hour, let alone a day. In only the second year of his caliphate it was decided that things could not go on like this. One day armed soldiers suddenly seized him and threw him into prison. There he was tortured to death.

His martyrdom

He was succeeded by Muhammad Muattez (al-Mu‘tazz), the youngest son of al-Mutawakkil. But the throne of the caliphate brought no good fortune to Muhammad Muattez either. During his four-year caliphate, thousands of supporters of the Ehl-i Beyt were poisoned or put to the sword. Muhammad Ali al-Naqi, too, was poisoned and martyred in his time, in the year 254 after the Hijra (876 CE).

Caliph Muhammad Muattez was in turn killed in the palace by his chamberlain Salih bin Vusaf. He was succeeded by Cafer Mütedi, the son of al-Mutawakkil’s brother. Jafar wanted to change the order as he saw fit. At that time he killed an influential Turkish commander. The Turks in the army rose up. Jafar sent an army against them, but the Turks easily defeated this army. Jafar fled and hid in the house of a man named Muhammad bin Yezdadpenah. The Turks found him and beat him. They pressed him: “You will write and sign your resignation at once!” When Jafar resisted, saying: “It was God who clothed me in the robe of the caliphate; no one can take this robe off me”, they shut him in a dungeon there and locked its door so that it would never be opened again. Jafar died there. When Jafar was killed he was 37 years old. His caliphate had lasted only eleven months.

Works, last will and children

Imam Ali al-Naqi left many works:

• A treatise he wrote to the adherents of the doctrines of compulsion and delegation (cebir and tefviz).
• His answers to the questions of Yahya, the chief judge (Kadılar kadısı).
• A treatise on religious and sharia rulings.

These books are great works from which people still readily benefit today.

Before he died, Imam Ali al-Naqi called his son Imam Hasan al-Askari to his side, handed over to him the trusts of the Imamate and counselled him on the knowledge he would need. Knowing that his enemies had poisoned him, he made this request of his son: “I am only a guest among you. When God’s command is fulfilled, you are to wash my body and perform my funeral prayer.”

Ali al-Naqi’s illness had only just begun when the relatives of the Ehl-i Beyt around him asked: “O Imam! If one day you depart from among us and enter God’s mercy, which of your children will be our Imam?” Imam Ali al-Naqi pointed to Imam Hasan al-Askari, who was beside him, and said: “My son, Imam Hasan, will be your Imam. Have no doubt about this. Know this! God Almighty gives us of the lineage of the Ehl-i Beyt knowledge and guidance from a very young age. Only do not stray from his path.”

Imam Ali al-Naqi had four sons and two daughters:

• Imam Hasan al-Askari (the 11th Imam, the thirteenth Innocent)
• Seyit Hüseyin
• Seyit Muhammed
• Seyit Cafer
• Seyide Fatima and Seyide Rukiye

May God have mercy on them all.

Source: Seyit Derviş Tur, Erkânname – Aleviliğin İslam Yorumu ve Alevi Erkânları (The Alevi Interpretation of Islam and Alevi Rites), expanded 3rd edition (ISBN 975-6791-52-7).

Translated from the Turkish original by Seyit Derviş Tur.