Imam Baqir was the 5th Imam. Like all of the 12 Imams, he was appointed by Allah to lead the Muslim Ummah, however the leadership position was stolen from him as it was for the others.

The life of Mohammad al Baqir’s (a.s) was different to that of his fathers because he had the chance to openly teach people about Islam.

​This was possible because the evil leaders in his time were too busy fighting wars and stealing land from other countries to worry about what the Imam did.

​Imam al Baqir (a.s) took this chance to open a school in which he taught many people the Quran and its meaning as well as the hadith (sayings) of the prophet.

​He came to be known “Al Baqir” which means “the one who splits knowledge”, this was a perfect name for the Imam who opened up the doors of understanding to the Muslims and taught 25000 students in his school.

​Imam al Baqir (a.s), like the other Imams cared entirely for the well being of the Muslims and not about having an important position. He cared about their spiritual well-being as well as their problems in everyday life. Because of this whenever the Caliphs, (who were not just or good leaders) asked him for advice about how to rule or how to treat the people he always gave it.

​Even though Imam al Baqir (a.s) tried hard to stay away from politics and tried to keep a low profile, the Caliphs were still worried about his influence and the knowledge he was spreading. Therefore they made a plan to try and humiliate him in front of everyone so that people can stop respecting him. The Caliph thought that because the Imam was always busy teaching students and worshipping Allah (s.w) on his own that he would not have any skills in fighting or shooting arrows and they tried to use this against him.

They planned to surprise him by asking him to shoot arrows at very difficult targets in front of everyone without giving him time to practise, and they thought that surely the Imam (a.s) will not be able to pass this test. The Caliphs asked him to leave his home town and travel to Damascus to meet them. However, when he arrived, they made him wait three days before they saw him. On the fourth day they finally asked him to come to their palace.

While he waited in the palace, they gathered a big crowd and the Caliph sat on large thrown. Then they asked Imam al Baqir (a.s) to shoot arrows at a far away target and they were prepared to laugh at him. However they were speechless when the Imam shot all the arrows at the target perfectly. This was because the Imam’s (a.s) not only have divine wisdom and knowledge, but the strength and bravery of their grandfather Imam Ali (a.s) .

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This shocked the Caliph who tried to change the topic quickly and then finally asked the Imam to return to his home town so that he does not win over the people even more. The caliph was left feeling very angry that his plan did not work and he started to fear the love people had for the Imam even more. Finally, he decided to quietly get rid of the gentle Imam by poisoning him.

​This cowardly action did not go unnoticed then, and it certainly does not go unnoticed now.

​May Allah (swt) hasten the return of our Imam Mahdi (ajf) and may be one of the ones who make him and all our Imams proud.

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Key concept:

​The Imams stayed in communication even with evil rulers, and gave them advise because they cared about the people who were being ruled.

It did not matter to him that he did not get the credit, he only cared about helping the people.