In Shia Islam, the Imamah is a doctrine which asserts that certain individuals from the lineage of the Islamic prophet Muhammad are to be accepted as leaders and guides of the ummah after the death of Muhammad. Imamah further says that Imams possess divine knowledge and authority (Ismah) as well as being part of the Ahl al-Bayt, the family of Muhammad. These Imams have the role of providing commentary and interpretation of the Quran as well as guidance.
Ali ibn Musa al-Ridha, also spelled Rida or Reza in Persian, also known as Abu al-Hasan, was a descendant of the Islamic prophet, Muhammad, and the eighth Shia Imam, after his father Musa al-Kadhim, and before his son Muhammad al-Jawad. He was an Imam of knowledge according to the Zaydi (Fiver) Shia school and Sufis. He lived in a period when Abbasid caliphs were facing numerous difficulties, the most important of which was Shia revolts. The Caliph Al-Ma'mun sought out a remedy for this problem by appointing Al-Ridha as his successor, through whom he could be involved in worldly affairs. However, according to the Shia view, when Al-Ma'mun saw that the Imam gained even more popularity, he decided to correct his mistake by poisoning him. The Imam was buried at the Imam Reza shrine in a city in Khorasan, which afterwards gained the name Mashhad, meaning "the place of martyrdom".
Muhammad ibn Ali al-Jawwad was the ninth of the Twelve Imams and a descendant of Muhammad. He was also called Abu Ja'far, Ibn al-Ridha ; al-Jawwād and al-Taqī. His role is celebrated by the largest branch of Shia Islam, the Twelver or Athnā‘ashariyyah branch. According to Shiite accounts, he was poisoned by his wife and died at age 25, the shortest-lived of the Twelve.
Dhu al-Qa'dah, also spelled Dhu al-Qi'dah or Zu al-Qa'dah, is the eleventh month in the Islamic calendar.
In Shi'a Islam the guidance of clergy and keeping such a structure holds a great importance. The clergy structure depends on the branch of Shi'ism is being referred to.
Narjis bint Yashoua was the wife of Imam Hasan al-Askari and the mother of the final Imam of Twelver Shia Islam. Her name has been recorded as Narjis, Saiyra, Katrina, Lilliana, Malika, and primarily Anna, in books. More sources have described her as a "Roman princess" who pretended to be a slave so that she might travel from her kingdom to Arabia. Mohammad Ali Amir-Moezzi, in the Encyclopædia Iranica, suggests that the last version is "undoubtedly legendary and hagiographic". According to Ibn Babawayh's account, Narjis saw Mary, the mother of Jesus, and Fatimah, the daughter of Muhammad, in her dreams wherein they asked for her hand in marriage to Hasan al-Askari.
Imam Mohamad Jawad Chirri was the founder and director of the Islamic Center of America until his death..
Grand Ayatollah Sheikh Mirza Jawad Kubar Tabrizi was an Iranian Shia marja'.
Al-Kadhimiya Mosque or Al-Kadhimayn Shrine is a Shi'ite Islamic mosque and shrine located in the Kādhimayn suburb of Baghdad, Iraq. It contains the tombs of the seventh and ninth Twelver Shī'ī Imāms, respectively Mūsā al-Kāẓim and his grandson Muhammad al-Jawad. Also buried within the premises of this mosque are the historical scholars Shaykh Mufīd and Shaykh Naṣīr ad-Dīn aṭ-Ṭūsi. Directly adjacent to the mosque are two smaller shrines, belonging to the brothers Sayyid Raḍī and Sayyid Murtadā.
Uthman ibn Sa'id al-Asadi al-Amri was the first of the Four Deputies of the twelfth Imam, Imam al-Mahdi in Twelver Shia Islam. He was appointed as an agent and deputy of Imam al-Mahdi while the Imam was in the Minor Occultation, a period in which he would only contact his followers through the Four Deputies. After ibn Sa'id's death, his son Abu Jafar Muhammad ibn Uthman was appointed as the second deputy by Hujjat-Allah al-Mahdi.
Occultation in Shia Islam refers to a belief that the messianic figure known as the Mahdi, a cultivated male descendant of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad, has already been born and subsequently went into hiding, from which he will one day emerge and establish a global Islamic state.
Twelver, also known as Imamiyyah, is the largest branch of Shia Islam, with about 85% of all Shias. The term Twelver refers to its adherents' belief in twelve divinely ordained leaders, known as the Twelve Imams, and their belief that the last Imam, Imam al-Mahdi, lives in occultation and will reappear as the promised Mahdi. According to Shia tradition, the Mahdi's tenure will coincide with the Second Coming of Jesus, who is to assist the Mahdi against the Dajjal.
Criticism of Twelver Shia Islam dates from the initial rift between the two primary denominations of Islam, the Sunni and the Shia. The question of succession to Muhammad, the nature of the Imamate, the status of the twelfth Shia Imam, and other areas in which Shia Islam differ from Sunni Islam have been criticized by Sunni scholars, even though there is no disagreement between the two regarding the centrality of the Quran, Muhammad, and many other doctrinal, theological and ritual matters. Shia commentators such as Musa al-Musawi and Ali Shariati have themselves, in their attempts to reform the faith, criticized practices and beliefs which have become prevalent in the Shia community.
Al-Mu'ayyad Yahya was an imam of the Zaidi state in Yemen whose tenure of the imamate lasted from 1328 to 1346.
Hakimah bint Muhammad al-JawādHakimah Khatun or Lady Hakimah was the daughter of Imam Muhammad Taqi al-Jawad, and the aunt of Imam Hasan al-Askari. She is a prominent narrator in Shia hadith and history, especially for her narration of the birth of Al-Mahdi.
Al-Risalah al-Dhahabiah is a medical dissertation on health and remedies attributed to Ali ibn Musa al-Ridha (765–818), the eighth Imam of Shia. He wrote this dissertation in accordance with the demand of Ma'mun, the caliph of the time. It is revered as the most precious Islamic literature in the science of medicine, and was entitled "the golden treatise" as Ma'mun had ordered it written in gold ink. The chain of narrators is said to reach Muhammad ibn Jumhoor or al-Hassan ibn Muhammad al-Nawfali who is described as "highly esteemed and trustworthy" by al-Najjashi.
Tawqee refers to letters that were signed by the Twelve Imams in Shia tradition.
An-Nukhailah Mosque is an historic Shi'ite Islam mosque in the town of Al Kifl, Iraq. The mosque is a complex which contains the Dhu'l Kifl Shrine, which is believed to be the tomb of the prophet Dhul-Kifl, who is considered to be Ezekiel.
