Imam
Reza (p.b.u.h.) was born on 11th day of month: Zighadeh, year: 148
(lunar calendar) in Medina.
Much
have been mentioned about his morals and characteristics. For instance Abram
Souli has stated:
“If
one said he had observed some one like Ali ibn Mousa Alreza in piety and
erudition, do not confirm him. He was a divine man, enjoying spiritual
attainment and distinction, he had been educated in divine school, having
profited from divine learning, having been grown in the bosom of innocence and
putity.”
1
Of
prominent chrematistics of Imam Reza (p.b.u.h.) we can name his patience and
his being satisfied with satisfaction of God. He was patient encountering the
problems of his time like a sea of endurance and in the events of his life he
was remembering the statement of Imam Ali (p.b.u.h.):
“Oh! My Creator! I take
oath to your trueness if you place me in your fire, I will consider it as a
paradise; because your satisfaction is my paradise; so wherever you take me, I
will consider it as your satisfaction.”2 (It means that we
consider satisfaction of God as our destination, not the paradise or the
hell.)
Because satisfaction of God was significant to him, the eighth Imam (p.b.u.h.)
was only thinking about satisfaction of God in all the different events and
since God and prophet (p.b.u.h.) were satisfied with him in the skies and on
the earth, he was well known as Reza (satisfied).
Of the
other great characteristics of him we can mention the fact that whenever the
scientists and the friends were leaving him, Imam would call all the slaves
and servants (whether white or black, small or big) to talk to them like his
own brothers and to eat food with them on a table cloth.
Imam
Reza (p.b.u.h.) was like his sacred ancestors in generosity, worship,
munificence and was the most generous and the most pious man of his time. He
was a center of piety, attainment, and virtue, a symbol of affection, love,
kindness, a mine of benevolence and a shelter for the needy people.
It
has been mentioned that one day a man went to Imam (p.b.u.h.) and stated: I am
a friend of you and I spent all my money in a pilgrimage to Mecca and to
return to my own city, I need your help. Of course, when I reach my city, I
will pay the money I have borrowed from you to the needy people. Imam Reza
(p.b.u.h.) granted to him the sum of 200 Dinar and prescribed: take it as your
capital and you do not need to pay it to the needy as a charity. I have
endowed to you the money.
It has
been written that whenever Imam Reza was eating food, he had a bowl and he
would select the best food to pour it into the bowl and he would instruct that
it would be given to the poor and would say:
It is a proper task to release a
slave or to feed a poor person. Since everyone could not release slaves, to
choose a way to paradise, he should feed the poor people.