Summoned to Baghdad
Muhammad al-Jawad (a), the ninth Imam, had lived in Madinah since the death of al-Ma'mun, who had married him to his daughter Umm al-Fadl. The new caliph al-Mu'tasim summoned him to Baghdad in Muharram 220 AH. There a legal ruling of the Imam's — on how a thief's hand should be cut, given from the Qur'an against the opinions of the court jurists — humiliated the chief judge Ibn Abi Du'ad, who then warned the caliph that the people were turning to the young Imam.
Martyrdom
Al-Mu'tasim had the Imam poisoned; some accounts say through his wife, Umm al-Fadl, at her father's or the caliph's urging. He died at the end of Dhu l-Qa'da 220 AH at twenty-five, the youngest of the Imams to be martyred, leaving a son of eight, Ali al-Hadi (a), as his successor. He was buried behind his grandfather Imam al-Kadhim (a) in the Quraysh cemetery of Baghdad, so that the shrine there is called Kadhimayn, "the two Kadhims".
Observance
The Shia mourn him on the last day of Dhu l-Qa'da — the 29th or 30th according to the year — with some calendars keeping 5 or 6 Dhu l-Hijja instead. His generosity, which gave him the title al-Jawad, and the debates of his childhood are the themes of the day.
Written for Shia Online Community. Dates and facts are checked against the references listed under Research & books; where the tradition records more than one date, all are given.
