The Madīnan School: Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī
He is Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib al-Hāshimī al-ʿAlawī (raḥimahullāh), known as al-Bāqir. Born in Madīnah in the year 57 AH. He combined in his lineage the two pure branches of the Ahl al-Bayt: his father was ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn, and his mother was Fāṭimah bint al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī. Thus he was the grandson of both al-Ḥasan and al-Ḥusayn, the two grandsons of the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ.
His father, ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn (known as Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn and as-Sajjād), was the surviving son of al-Ḥusayn after Karbalāʾ. He was renowned throughout Madīnah for the intensity of his worship, his prolonged prostrations, and his deep knowledge. He lived a life of quiet devotion and teaching after the great tribulation that struck his family, and he became one of the most respected scholars and worshippers of his generation. Under his care and instruction Muḥammad grew up, absorbing the knowledge, the patience, and the scrupulous adherence to the Sunnah that characterised his father.
His mother, Fāṭimah bint al-Ḥasan, was a woman of virtue and noble descent from the household of the Prophet ﷺ. Through her, Muḥammad inherited the lineage of al-Ḥasan, completing the union of the two brothers’ descendants in one person.
Muḥammad was a small child at the time of Karbalāʾ and carried the memory of that event throughout his life. He became one of the most prominent scholars of Madīnah in the following generation. He narrated from his father, from Jābir ibn ʿAbdullāh, from Ibn ʿUmar, from Ibn ʿAbbās, and from others among the remaining Companions and senior Tābiʿīn. He was known for the breadth and depth of his knowledge in ḥadīth, fiqh, tafsīr, and the sīrah. The title “al-Bāqir” was given to him because he split open knowledge and brought forth its hidden meanings.
ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAṭāʾ al-Makkī said: “I never saw the scholars in the presence of anyone smaller than they appeared in the presence of Abū Jaʿfar. I saw al-Ḥakam ibn ʿUtaybah, with all his standing among the people, sitting before him like a boy before his teacher.” An-Nasāʾī included him among the fuqahāʾ of Madīnah. Among those who took knowledge from him were az-Zuhrī, Ibn Jurayj, al-Awzāʿī, and others. He lived a life of worship, humility, and restraint from the political turbulence of the late Umayyad period, remaining in Madīnah and dedicating himself to teaching and preserving knowledge.
He died in Madīnah in the year 114 AH (some reports say 117 or 118), and was buried in al-Baqīʿ. His son Jaʿfar continued the scholarly tradition of the family.
His transmissions of Hadīth, his overall ‘ilm and the circle of students that gathered around him form an important part of the knowledge that was preserved and transmitted from Madīnah in the early second century.
May Allāh unite us with him in the Firdaws, āmīn
(Named by an-Nasāʾī among the Tābiʿīn of the fuqahāʾ of Madīnah, after Sālim ibn ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿUmar.)
