The Imam of the pious, peace be upon him, advised his family to hide his grave after his death because he knew that the matter would fall to his enemies after him, as they would not hesitate to dig up the grave out of hatred and enmity towards him. Imam Jaafar al-Sadiq, peace be upon him, answered the question of one of his companions, Safwan al-Jamal, about the reason that prevented the People of the House, peace be upon them, from exposing the grave. He, peace be upon him, said: Beware of the Banu Marwan and the Kharijites, lest they seek to harm him. And Sheikh Jaafar, his beloved, quoted him. From the book “Mukhtab al-Tawarikh” that Al-Hajjaj bin Yusuf al-Thaqafi dug three thousand graves in Najaf in search of the body of the Commander of the Faithful, peace be upon him.

       

Al-Sayyid Ibn Tawus explained the reason for the concealment, saying: “This necessitated that he commanded that he, peace be upon him, be buried secretly, out of fear of the Umayyads and their helpers, the Kharijites and their likes. Perhaps if they exhumed him, despite their knowledge of his location, this would cause the Banu Hashim to wage war and confrontation, which he, peace be upon him, condoned during his lifetime. So how could they not Is he recommended to leave what is subject to dispute after his death, while there were countless benefits in his grave that are not known to us in detail?

       

The location of the honorable grave in Najaf remained a secret that was only known to the Ahl al-Bayt, peace be upon them, and the elite among their Shiites, following the will of the Commander of the Faithful, peace be upon him, from the fortieth year of the Hijra until the fall of the Umayyad state and the establishment of the Abbasid state in the year 132 AH/749 AD. After the disappearance of fear and caution, Imam Jaafar al-Sadiq revealed the honorable grave and directed his Shiites to it and ordered them to visit it when he arrived in Iraq at the request of the first caliph of the Abbasids, Abu al-Abbas al-Saffah, when he met him in al-Hira. The Imam, peace be upon him, built a bench on the grave to indicate it.

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Sheikh Al-Mufid said in this regard: (His grave, peace be upon him, remained hidden until Al-Sadiq Jaafar bin Muhammad, peace be upon them both, led him to it in the Abbasid Empire) [4]. Ishaq bin Jarir narrated on the authority of Abu Abdullah Al-Sadiq, peace be upon him, that he said: When I was in Al-Hira with Abu Al-Abbas, I used to go to the grave of the Commander of the Faithful, peace be upon him, at night, which is in the district of Najaf Al-Hira, next to Ghari Al-Nu’man, and I would pray the night prayer with him and leave before dawn.

       

Imam al-Sadiq, peace be upon him, visited the grave of his grandfather, the Master of the Guardians, may God’s prayers be upon him, many times during the reign of the Abbasid Caliph Abu Jaafar al-Mansur. In one of these visits, the Imam, peace be upon him, gave Safwan al-Jamal a sum of money to repair the grave. Safwan said: I said: Sir: Do you permit me to tell our companions from the people of Kufa about him? He said yes, and he gave me dirhams, and I repaired the grave.

     

Unfortunately, some ancient and recent historians fell into delusion when they dealt with the narratives about the shrine of the Commander of the Faithful, peace be upon him, without investigation and scrutiny. They moved away from the truth when they stated that Harun al-Abbasi was the first to uncover the grave in the year 170 AH/786 AD or 175 AH/791 AD when they discussed it. The story of the hunting incident in the Najaf region, intentionally or unintentionally ignoring what Imam Jaafar al-Sadiq, peace be upon him, did in the year 132 AH when he uncovered the grave and built a bench on it, and urged people to visit it, as we explained above. How can the one who established hostility towards the People of the House, peace be upon them, oppressed their Shiites, and imprisoned Imam Musa Al-Kadhim, peace be upon him, until he died in his prison of poisoning, can venerate the shrine of the Commander of the Faithful, may God’s prayers be upon him?

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Sheikh Al-Mufid mentioned in “Al-Irshad” the details of this story by saying: Muhammad bin Zakaria narrated, saying: Abdullah bin Muhammad told us on the authority of Ibn Aisha, he said: Abdullah bin Hazim told me, he said: One day we went out with Al-Rashid from Kufa hunting, so we went to the area of Al-Ghariyan and Al-Thawiya. So we saw an antelope, so we sent hawks and dogs towards it, and they roamed with it for an hour. Then the antelope took refuge in a hill and stood on it, and the hawks fell to one side and the dogs returned. Al-Rashid was amazed at that. Then the antelopes descended from the hill, so the hawks and dogs descended, so the antelopes returned to the hill, so the hawks and dogs retreated from them, so they did that three times. Al-Rashid Harun said: Run, and whoever you meet, bring him. We brought him an old man from Banu Asad. Harun said to him: Tell me what this hill is. He said: If you give me safety, I will tell you. He said: You have a covenant from God that I will not disturb you or harm you. He said: My father told me on the authority of his fathers They used to say that in this hill is the grave of Ali bin Abi Talib, peace be upon him. God has made it a sanctuary where no one can take shelter unless he is safe.

       

As for what was mentioned about Aaron rebuilding the Holy Grave, it requires careful consideration and further contemplation. Ibn Tawus narrated a narration - which cannot be trusted for many reasons - in which he said: (And as Ibn Tahhal mentioned: Al-Rashid built a structure on it with white bricks smaller than this shrine today, on each side by an arm’s length, and when we uncovered the noble shrine we found it built, with earth and plaster on it. Al-Rashid ordered that a dome be built over it, and it was built of red clay, and a green jar was placed on top of it, and it is in the treasury to this day) [8]. It was mentioned in the margin of the book Farhat Al-Ghari, edited by Sheikh Muhammad Mahdi Najaf, that in version (i) the word “habra” appears.

     

Professor Dr. Salah Al-Fartusi, in his book The Shrine and Shrine of the Commander of the Faithful, cast doubt on the reality of the architecture attributed to Harun. He said: (If we reconsider the narration of Ibn al-Tahhal, we will see it without any support or source to support it. Rather, I see it as being jostled and unable to withstand, for the holy shrine was built on it without a building between the two centuries. The third and sixth, and the most famous of its buildings is the building with a white dome, which is the Adad al-Dawla Building.

     

It is worth noting that Al-Dumayri, in his book “The Great Life of the Animal,” quoted from Ibn Khallikan what indicates that Harun Al-Abbasi stoned the grave only, and there is no reference in his narration to any luxurious building that was built to replace the bench that Imam Jaafar Al-Sadiq, peace be upon him, erected. Al-Dumairi said: (So Al-Rashid ordered the place to be stoned, and it was the first foundation to be laid in it. Then the buildings in it increased during the days of the Samanidah and Banu Hamdan, and it increased during the days of Daylam, that is, the days of Banu Buyeh) [10].

     

In addition, what weakens this narrative and leads to its rejection is that building domes over graves was not known at that time. It is known that the first dome built on a shrine in Iraq was over the tomb of Al-Muntasir Billah ibn Al-Mutawakkil Al-Abbasi in Samarra, who died in the year 248/862 AD. Dr. Souad Maher said in this regard: The mother of Caliph Al-Muntasir - who was of Greek origin - was keen to build a shrine for him far from the palace in which he lived, known as the Crusader Dome.