HIS LINEAGE
The Imami scholar and biographer Shaykh al-Najashi (d 450 AH/1058 AD) has recorded his lineage at the beginning of his biography as: Abd al-Azim bin Abdullah bin Ali bin al-hasan bin
Zayd bin al-Íasan bin Ali bin Abo talib (Pbuh) and this is his correct lineage. However, he then writes at the end of the biography: ‘He (i.e. Abd
al-Azim) died and when he was undressed so that the funeral bath could be given to him, a small piece of paper was found in one of his pockets in which was written his lineage, as
follows: ‚I am Abu al-Qasim Abd al-Azim bin
Abdillah bin Ali bin al-hasan bin Zayd bin Ali bin al-hasan bin Ali bin Abo tÁlib (Pbuh).‛ But the first rendering of his lineage is correct for Imam
al-hasan’s progeny continued through the agency of two sons, who were:
1) Zayd bin al-hasan, and
2) Al-hasan al-MuthannÁÞ.
Thus it is apparent that Imam al-hasan (Pbuh) did not have a son by the name of Ali through whom he may have had grandchildren (as the second version of
Seyyid Abd al- Azim’s lineage above implies). Therefore on the basis of the above, Seyyid Abd al-Azim was separated from Imam al-hasan (Pbuh) by four generations only (as implied
by the first version of his lineage).
HIS POSITION NEAR THE IMÀMS OF THE AHLULBAYT (Pbuh)
His station near the Imams of the ahlulbayt (Pbuh) comes to light in the course of their statements in his favor. Thus he was a brilliant traditionist, a source
of reference in matters of the faith, trustworthy in matters of religion and here we mention some of their statements. Shaykh al-saduq (d 381 AH/991 AD) reports from Seyyid Abd al-Azim
that he said: ‘I visited my master Ali bin Muhammad bin Ali bin Musa bin Jaafar bin Muhammad bin Ali bin husayn bin Ali bin Abo talib (Pbuh). When he caught sight of me, he
exclaimed: "Welcome O Abu al-azim, you are indeed our true friend!" So I said: "O son of the Messenger (Pbuh), I wish to present to you my beliefs. If they are correct then I will affirm and
adhere to them till I meet Allah, Great and Exalted". So the Imam said: ‚Then present them O Abu al-Ázim‛. So I said: ‚I maintain that Allah, Blessed and Exalted is one. There
is nothing like Him. He is beyond the two limits, the limit of negation and annulment (of attributes) and the limit of anthropomorphism. And that He has neither a body nor a form,
nor dimension nor a material core. Rather He is the One who creates bodies and gives forms, the Creator of dimensions and matter. Lord of everything and its Possessor, Creator
and Originator.
And (I maintain) that Muhammad was His servant, His Messenger and the Seal of the Prophets. There is no prophet after him till the Day of
Judgment. And (I maintain) that the Imam, the Caliph and the Guardian of the affair (of guidance) after him was Ameer al-Momineen Ali bin Abo talib, and
then al-hasan, then al-husayn, then Ali bin al-husayn, then Muhammad bin Ali, then Jaafar bin Muhammad, then Musa bin Jagfar, then Ali bin Musa, then Muhammad bin Ali and thereafter,
you my master‛. So the Imam said: ‚And after me will be my son al-hasan. However, I
wonder how the people will react with regards to his successor‛ I asked: ‚Why do you say that, O master?‛ He replied, ‚Because none will see his
person, nor will it be permissible to mention his name till he appears, when he will fill the earth with justice and equity as it was previously filled
with oppression and tyranny.‛ So I responded: ‚I accept (what you have informed me) and I maintain that their friend is the friend of Allah, their enemy is the enemy of
Allah. Obedience to them is obedience to Allah; disobedience to them is disobedience to Allah. I maintain that the (Prophet’s) night journey did occur, that questioning in the
grave will happen, that heaven and hell exist, that accounting of deeds will occur and that the Hour will undoubtedly arrive when Allah will resurrect those in the graves. I
further maintain that the (religious) obligations after al-Wilaya (i.e. love and adherence to the ahlulbayt) are: Prayers, the zakat levy, fasting, pilgrimage to Mecca, striving (in the
path of Allah), commanding good and discouraging evil.‛ On hearing this, Ali bin Muhammad (Pbuh) said: ‚O Abu al-Qasim, what you have mentioned is, by Allah, the religion which
Allah has chosen for His servants and one with which he is satisfied. So adhere to it, may Allah cause you to stay steadfast on the established faith, in this world and in
the hereafter.‛ Further, it is clear from what naiib bin Abbad narrates, that Seyyid Abd al-Azim was a ‘source of reference’ in matters of the faith and an interpreter of Islamic
law for the Shiyites in regard to issues which seemed ambiguous and unclear to them. Thus Abu Turab al-Ruyani says: ‘I visited Ali bin MuÎammad (Pbuh) in SamarrÁÞ and I asked him
some questions relating to the permissible and impermissible. He answered all of them. When I was bidding him farewell, he said: ‚O IammÁd, if something regarding religion confuses
or confounds you then refer it to Abd al-Azim, and convey to him my regards.‛
THE HARSH CIRCUMSTANCES OF HIS TIME
MaÞmÙn ascended the throne after having defeated and killed his brother Amon. The prevailing atmosphere in the royal court during his reign was that of
relative freedom for the Shiyites and the MuÞtazilites, who were those who championed the ideas of divine transcendent monotheism and divine justice. When MaÞmÙn died in the
year 218 AH/833 AD, al-MuÞtaÒim gained the pledge of allegiance for the caliphate and the royal court became a centre for intellectuals and theologians who would engage in polemical
debates with each other. When he died
in 227 AH/841 AD, it was WÁthiq who took over the reins of the caliphate and he continued with the tradition of intellectual and religious freedom that he
had inherited from his predecessors. Thus it was due to and during the reign of these caliphs that the fortunes of the proponents of divine justice shone luminously and polemical
gatherings between adherents of different faiths and sects took place. However, when WÁthiq billah died and Mutawakkil assumed the throne from the year 232 AH/846 AD to 247 AH/861
AD, he promulgated a particularly harsh policy against the ShiÝites and the MuÞtazilites but a very favourable one with respect to the Íashawiyya. He encouraged the dissemination
of ideas favouring divine anthropomorphism and the doctrine of the physical manifestation of God as well as hatred and enmity towards the ahlulbayt to such an extent that the people
of It is sufficient to cite the following anecdote as an example of his hatred and enmity towards the ahlulbayt. He had charged Yaaqub bin al-Sikkot, an authority in
the Arabic language, with the responsibility of tutoring his two sons al-Muytaz and alMuÞayyad. One day he was looking at his two sons and suddenly asked Ibn al-SikkÐt:
‘who is more beloved to you, my (two) sons or al-hasan and al-husayn?’ Ibn alSikkÐt replied: ‘Qambar, the client of Ali is better than them both!’ Outraged
he ordered Ibn al-SikkÐt’s tongue to be pulled out! Historical records do not identify the year in which Seyyid Abd al-Azim al-hasani migrated to Ray and sought refuge there, nor
do they inform us of the year in which he migrated from the hijaz or Iraq to Ray. However, some have imagined that he may have migrated to fars with the purpose of visiting Imam Ali bin
Musa alRidha (Pbuh) and thereafter remained there throughout his remaining life till his death in approximately 252 AH/866 AD. But this supposition is difficult to accept. This
is
because Imam al-Ridha arrived in ÓÙs in the year 199 AH/814 AD due to the persistence of MaÞmÙn [and passed away in 203 AH/818 AD], thus to suppose
that Seyyid Abd al-Azim stayed in fars from approximately that time till the year 252 AH/866 AD is difficult to accept especially when it is known that the prevailing circumstances
during the reigns of the three caliphs mentioned above were favourable and positive for the Shiyites. Therefore I think that Seyyid Abd al-Azim fled the hijaz or Iraq during the reign
of Mutawakkil when the circumstances had changed and become particularly difficult for the ahlulbayt. This is because Mutawakkil had embarked upon promoting two corrupt
ideas.
1) Spreading hatred, rancour and enmity of the ahlulbayt and the destruction of the grave of Imam al-husayn [and related infrastructure] as well
as stopping pilgrims from visiting his grave.
2) Spreading the idea of divine anthropomorphism and exploiting the traditionsits in fabricating and transmitting traditions which gave credence to that
idea. Thus in those difficult and harsh circumstances against the Shiyites and their scholars, Seyyid Abd al-Azim fled to Ray and remained there far from the eyes of the
people. Al-Dhahabi writes: ‘Mutawakkil despatched jurists and traditionists, commanding them to sit with the people and to narrate to them traditions which refuted
the teachings of the MuÞtazilites and the Jahmiyya and to narrate to them
traditions which supported the idea of the physical manifestation of God. Among these jurists and traditionists were Muoab Zubayri, Ishaq bin Abd IsraÞdl,
Ibrahim bin Abdullah al-Harawi, Abdullah and Uthman the two sons of Muhammad bin Abd Shayba. He would distribute rewards and positions among them and bestow them with luxuries and
gifts. Thus Uthman bin Muhammad bin Abd Shayba would sit in Baghdad, a pulpit would be placed for him and thirty thousand people would gather around to listen to him. And Abu Bakr
bin Abd Shayba would sit in the mosque of Raoafa and he used to be even more extreme than his brother Uthman. Thirty thousand men would gather to listen to him.
Thus it becomes clear now why Seyyid Abd al-Azim emphasised the transcendent attributes of God by his statement; I maintain that Allah, Blessed and Exalted
is one. There is nothing like Him. He is beyond the two limits, the limit of negation and annulment (of attributes) and the limit of anthropomorphism. And that He has neither
a body nor a form, nor dimension nor a material core. Rather He is the One who creates bodies and gives forms, the Creator of dimensions and matter.‛ He did this because some
of the traditionists of his time were spreading ideas of anthropomorphism! It is due to this very same reason that he corrected the Prophetic tradition that was being misquoted and explained
its meaning to be the descent of an angel and not the Being of God.
The will of Imam Al-Rida (pbuh) to Al-Sayyid Abdolazim Al-Hasani (pbut)
From the will of Imam Al-Rida (pbuh) to Al-Sayyid Abdolazim Al-Hasani (pbut):” O Abdolazim! Send my greetings (Peace) to my saints and tell them not to allow the Devil to have his way through their souls. Order them to be honest in their words and to have probity. Order them to be silent and to avoid arguing in matters that do not mean to them, to visit one another for by that they are being close to me, not to be occupied by tearing one another because I have promised myself that whoever does that and incurs the wrath of one of my saints, I will plead Allah to torture him in this world by the fiercest torment and he will be in the Hereafter of the losers
His Death
That in what date abdolazim died there is no written document. In the book Rooh wa reihan, it is written: abdolazim died around the year 250 hegira but the book does not give any document
for this.
Some writers say: by the narrtion from emam Ali Naghi about the virtues of abdolazim, it can be gathered that the abdolazim died during the imamate of ali Naghi
and imam Naghi was martyred in 254. Emadzadeh, in the second volume of the life of hazrat Moussa bin Jafar, page 391 writes: hazrat abdolazim was martyred according to sheikh sadoogh in the year
252 but has not said in which book sheikh sadoogh has written this.
Allameh Majlesi in the book Mazar Behar writes: one of the shiites dreamed the holy prophet in dream that said: the body of one of my children will be borne from Sekkatolmawali( name of an alley)
and will be buried in the garden of Abdoljabbar near an apple tree. When the shiite man awoke from sleep went to Abdoljabbar and proposed to buy the garden from him.
Abdoljabbar said: what do you want the garden for? The man recounted the dream he had dreamed. Abdoljabbar said : I have also dreamed the dream that you have dreamed. So I have endowed the garden
for abdolazim and the shiites who will be buried here hereinafter.After this event abdolazim became sick and died.
When he was undressed to be washed for burial, a piece of paper was found in his shirt that said: I am Abolghassem,Abdolazim, son of Abdollah, bin ali bin hassan alamir bin zeid bin hassan
almojtaba bin ali bin abu taleb. Tarihi in the book Montakhab, writes that it is narrated that among those buried alive was abdolazim whose tomb is in shahrerey. In the book rooh wa reihan, he
says: hazrat abdolazim while he was alive was buried by his enemies and he did not die a natural death. However God knows things better.
However, the late haj mirza Hossein Nouri in the book Lolo wa Marjan, denies this point 2- the purified shrine of hazrat abdolazim located in shahrerey was founded by Majdolmolk Ghomi in the year
480. Majdolmolk was driven away from the court of the soltan due to religious enmity with him and cut his body into pieces, then the cut off parts of the body were laid in a coffin and buried
beside the shrine of imam Hossein.
The Ivan and shrine of abdolazim is the work of shah Tahmasb bin shah ismail Safawi. In the year 944 the late Fathali shah donated a silver shrine for hazrat abdolazim. In 1222 the late
Nassereddin shah began golden work of the dome and the ivan and shrine of hazrat abdolazim and the mirror works and painting of the shrine was completed by Mirza agha khan Nouri who was prime
minister of Iran.
The garden of hazrat abdolazim has four opposite doors. The door which is located towards the tomb and is considerd among very good quality inlaid work is donated by Fathali shah. The door which
is directed towards the down part of the tomb is donated by Nassereddin shah the door which is north side of the tomb and is called the entrance is donated by Mohammad shah ghajar.
The door which is on the west side of the tomb is donated by the prime minister. 3- administration of the tomb(shrine): Atarodi in the book the life of hazrat abdolazim, writes: at the time of
kingdom of shah Tahmasb the first which coincided with the year 936 one of the the great religious men of that time called Mir seyed hossein Khatamolmojtahedin was invited to Iran from Jabal
Amel.
After arrival of the late Mir seyed Hossein to Iran, the then king of Iran entrusted the administration of the holy shrine of Hazrat Masumeh and harzat abdolazim and shah cheragh (ahmad ibn
Mousa) as well as the tomb of sheikh safieddin , the grandfather of the safavid dyanasty in Ardebil to him. And presently the administration of these three tombs and tomb of safieddin is in the
hands of the grand sons of Mir seyed Hossein.
Mr. Dr. Seyed Mohammad Ali Hedayati, the former minister of justice and the high ranking professor of Tehran University who is presently administrator of the holy shrine of hazrat abdolazim, is
the twelfth son of late Mir seyed Hossein, whose progeny goes to Mohammad Dibah, the son of hazrat Sadegh.
