—that his honorific was al-Kāẓim. He was born in 128 or 129 AH. Endowed with abundant worship and outstanding magnanimity, whenever news reached him that someone had harmed him, he would send that person gold and gifts.
He was blessed with forty children, both sons and daughters. Once, a slave brought him a dish of porridge; Mūsā purchased the slave together with the farm on which he worked for one thousand dinars, set him free, and granted him the farm as a gift.
Caliph al-Mahdī summoned him to Baghdad and placed him under arrest. One night al-Mahdī dreamed that ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib was saying to him, “O Muḥammad, ‘Would you, were you to assume authority, spread corruption on earth and sever the ties of kinship?’” [Muhammad 47:22]. He awoke in terror, ordered Mūsā released that very night, seated him beside him, embraced him warmly, showed him favor, and extracted from him a pledge not to revolt against him or any of his offspring.
Mūsā replied, “By Allah, such a thing is far from my concern, nor have I ever contemplated it.” Al-Mahdī said, “You have spoken the truth,” granted him three thousand dinars, and sent him back to Madinah; by morning he was already on the road. He stayed in Madinah until the caliphate of Hārūn al-Rashīd. During al-Rashīd’s pilgrimage, the Caliph entered to greet the grave of the Prophet ﷺ with Mūsā ibn Jaʿfar al-Kāẓim at his side. Al-Rashīd said, “Peace be upon you, O Messenger of Allah, O cousin.” Mūsā said, “Peace be upon you, O father.” Al-Rashīd remarked, “That, Abū al-Ḥasan, is true pride!” The remark continued to weigh on his mind until, in 169 AH, he summoned Mūsā, imprisoned him, and kept him confined for a long time.
While in prison Mūsā wrote him a letter saying, “To proceed: O Commander of the Believers, no day of affliction passes for me except that a day of ease passes for you, until we are both brought to the Day on which the false-doers shall be the losers.”
He died in Baghdad five days before the end of Rajab that year, and his grave there is well-known.
[In the same year there also died]
• Hushaym ibn Bashīr Abī Khāzim (1) ibn al-Qāsim ibn Dīnār, Abū Muʿāwiyah al-Sulamī al-Wāsiṭī. His father had been the cook of al-Ḥajjāj ibn Yūsuf al-Thaqafī and later sold ṣiḥnāh and other pickled relishes (2). He used to prevent his son from pursuing knowledge.