The belief of Musa al-Kadhim being the Qaim

This is the second part from yesterday's post. After this post, I'll probably not be talking about them for a long time unless I find something really interesting.

The belief of Imam Musa al-Kadhim being the Qaim (the Mahdi)

The belief that al-Kadhim would be the Qa'im seems to have already spread to some extent within the Imami community when al-Kadhim was still alive. This seems to be a result of the circulation of a hadith in which al-Sadiq was related to have said that the seventh Imam would be the Qa'im.

This created an expectation that it was al-Kadhim who would establish justice and equity on earth. For that reason, when the Imam died in custody in Baghdad, the 'Abbasid vizier Yahya b. Halid al-Barmaid ordered it to be announced that Musa al-Kadhim whom the Shia (al-Rafida) claim was the Qa'im who would not die, had died and that they should come and look at his dead body.

Although the identity and the number of these people are not known, they must have been a considerable number of people since the government delayed the Imam's funeral by displaying his body on a bridge in Baghdad for three days in order to convince the people of al-Kadhim's death.

All the Waqifa agreed that Imam Musa al-Kadhim went into concealment and would return some day and carry out the tasks of the Qa'im. However, there was disagreement among them about the immortality of the Imam and the function of 'All al-Rida who had already been proclaimed as the new Imam by a number of the followers.

Here’s what is written about the Waqifa

Many Waqifas thought that al-Kadhim had not died. He went out from the prison in which he was kept by the 'Abbasids and nobody saw him after that. But the caliph Harun al-Rashid falsified this fact and announced that al-Kadhim had died.

These followers circulated a hadith in which al-Sadiq said that if al-Kadhim head was rolled down to them from a mountain, they should not believe it, because he was the Qa'im.

In another hadith al-Sadiq said:

"Whosoever comes to you and tells you that he has nursed my son, closed his eyes, washed his body, put him in his grave, and shaken off his hands the dust of his grave, do not believe him".

• Other Waqifis accepted the death of al-Kadhim. An opinion of one group of Waqifa was that al-Kadhim after his death, returned to the world and went into hiding where he continued to command his followers. A small selected group of his disciples was able to visit him and see him. They relied on a hadith attributed to al-Sadiq that the Qa'im was called so because he would rise (yaqumu) after having died.
• The opinion of another group was that al-Kadhim died and he would return sometime near the day of resurrection, like Jesus, to fill the earth with justice as it was filled with injustice and despotism. They relied on a statement ascribed to al-Sadiq that in al-Kadhim there was a resemblance with Jesus and he would be killed at the hands of "the children of al-'Abbas".

All these sects were called the Waqiffa. The majority of them did not accept any Imam after al-Kadhim and they categorically rejected the imamate of 'Ali al-Rida.

However, some of them gave some place to him and the following Imams from his descendants in their beliefs. They did not accept them as Imams; they were only the representatives of al-Kadhim until he would return to the earth as the real Imam.

There was another group which could be regarded as the skeptical Waqifa. They considered the contradictory statements about the life of al-Kadhim equal in reliability. They also did not regard the traditions of al-Rida's designation to the imamate as explicit enough for them to set aside other traditions showing al-Kadhim as the last Imam and the awaited Qa'im. Therefore, they decided to wait and did not come to any conclusion about the matter until the truth emerged.

• Al-Nawbahti reports that many people from this group later accepted al-Rida's imamate and joined his party.
• Al-Tusi in his Rijal indicates fifty-four Waqifi names among the disciples of al-Kadhim. This number is about one fifth of all the disciples of the Imam whose names are given by al-Tusi.
• No work of the Waqifa has reached us. Only al-Tusi relates a large number of Waqifi hadith in his Kitab al-Gaybah in order to criticize them. These forty-one traditions were quoted from the book of 'Ali b. Ahmad al-'Alawi. Al-Tusi says that the author wrote it to support the Waqifi belief.

Reference

[1] The Schism in the Party of Mūsā al-Kāẓim and the Emergence of the Wāqifa