the main achievements of Sayed Murtada and shall get a bird’s eye view of the times in which this great scholar lived. The city of Baghdad was the center of Shia society since the times of the 9th Imam (a.s). When the tyrannical rulers forced the 10th and 11th Imams (a.s) tomigrate from there to Samarra, they left behind their deputy in the city of Baghdad. During the Ghaibat e Sughra, the four Naibs ( Deputies) of the Imam (a.s) lived in the city. He established the center for Shia Learning in the same city.and it remained there till the times of Sheik Abu Jafar Toosi who was the Shia Pontiff after Sayed Murtada. During his period, at the end of the 4th Century H and the beginning of the 5th Century, there was violent riot between the Shias and Sunnis of Baghdad.
In this riot, the entire neighborhood of Kharq was burned and razed to ground. Thus Sheik Toosi had to shift his base to Najaf e Ashraf. One very important fact we find in the history is that Sayed Murtada was the most affluent person of his times. There is a false notion in the minds of people that a man of religion must live in abject penury that he must live in a dilapidated abode and he shouldn’t follow any avocation of economic gain! Even if he is endowed by Allah with bounties, they expect him to appear before the people in poor attire to attract praise of his audience for being humble! But Sayed Murtada was different. He was amongst the most affluent of the city of Baghdad.
It is recorded in chronicles that from Baghdad to Makkah there wasn’t any place where he didn’t have properties and assets. While on his Haj pilgrimages, Sayed Murtada would distribute charity all along the way. Therefore it is recorded that he gave charity of 9,000 Dinars to each person as Sadaqa during one of his journeys. Sayed Murtada had established his centers of trade and commerce in all important places in the Islamic Realm. This was the time when arose the question of providing state protection to the Shia community, it was Sayed Murtada who came forward and made efforts in the direction. But the people of the faith weren’t able to support this cause. It is recorded in the history that when Qadr Billah was the caliph, the Muslims were divided in many sects because the door of Ijtehad was kept open. It reached such a pass that every individual assumed that he was a Mujtahid and started pronouncing edicts (Fatwa). One innovation was added to the Shariah that one should act according to his own intuition and whatever appealed to him should be deemed as Allah’s Wish! Till the times of the Infallibles (a.s) only Qiyas (Conjecture), was in vogue.
But now people started practicing Istehsaan, that is, one must go ahead with the thing that appealed to his mind as Allah’s Wish. Thus there rose a spate of Mujtahids who neither had sufficient knowledge of the Quran nor of Hadit. This state of affairs created worry in the mind of the ruler of the day. He thought that if things drifted in that manner the very faith would be in jeopardy. He worried that when there wouldn’t be left any Muslims, how would he rule and keep the society together. Therefore he consulted his viziers and announced that any person or a school of Fiqh who donated a certain amount of Dinars, they would be authorized to issue Fatwa.
Therefore the four schools of Fiqh— Hanafi, Hanbali, Shafaee and Maliki paid the prescribed fee and obtained the royal permission for carrying out their missionary work that they could propagate their creed and enhance their numbers. All others were banned from issuing edicts (Fatwa). Sayed Murtada was the leader of the Jaafari or Imami School of Fiqh those days. When he heard of the announcement he thought it was the best opportunity to come out of the Taqayya (Dissimulation) and the Shias would get the legitimate state protection. Therefore he personally went to the presence of the ruler and settled the matter. One narration says that the ruler demanded 200,000 Dinars for granting permission. Another narration was that he wanted to take 100,000 Dinars.
Sayed Murtada returned from the ruler, gathered whatever personal funds he could organize and then appealed to people of the Faith to raise the difference telling them that from that day they would have protection and peace. One narrative is that the Sayed contributed 100,000 Dinars and raised the balance from others.
There is another narration that the ruler wanted 100,000 Dinars out of which Sayed Murtada gave 80,000 Dinars and asked others to contribute the difference. We don’t know what straits the people were in that they weren’t able to contribute the money. Thus this opportunity came their way and they missed it. One can well imagine the affluence of Sayed Murtada from this episode. Despite all the wealth, Sayed Murtada’s piety and dedication to the Faith was unshakeable