Musa al-Kazim

Lore & Background

He spent the first twenty years of his life under his father's guidance, a period coinciding with the Abbasid overthrow of the Umayyads. After Ja'far al-Sadiq's death in 765, a succession crisis led some followers to recognize Isma'il ibn Ja'far, forming the Isma'ili sect, but al-Kazim attracted the largest following, which became Twelver Shi'ism. He generally avoided politics and devoted himself to religious teachings, but was tightly restricted by Abbasid caliphs and spent much of his adult life in their prisons. To counter restrictions, he established a network of representatives (wukala) to organize his followers' affairs across the Abbasid Empire.

Reader's Guide

Musa al-Kazim's significance lies in his role as the seventh Imam who solidified the Twelver Shia tradition after the succession crisis following Ja'far al-Sadiq's death. Al-Kazim played a key role in eradicating extreme views (ghuluww) from Shia Islam, and his legal answers survive in Wasiyya fi al-aql. He is also a link in the Sufi Golden Chain, and his shrine in Baghdad, where his grandson Muhammad al-Jawad is also buried, is a holy site. His numerous children gave rise to the widespread Musawi Sayyid lineage. The Waqifite sect, which believed he was the Mahdi in occultation, disappeared over time.

Did You Know?

• Musa al-Kazim's mother, Hamida Khatun, was a Berber slave-girl who taught Islamic jurisprudence to women in a Medina seminary.
• After his death, some followers refused to accept he had died, believing he was the Mahdi who had entered occultation; this sect, the Waqifite, disappeared over decades.
• Al-Kazim is credited with numerous supplications, including the Jawshan Sagheer composed after surviving the caliph al-Hadi.
• The Al-Kazim Shrine in Baghdad also houses the tomb of his grandson, the ninth Imam Muhammad al-Jawad.