Imam Ridha (a.s.)'s Debate with other faiths

When Imam Ridha (Peace be upon Him) came to Persia, the Abbasid ruler Ma'moon tried to embarrass Him, to take Him down a peg or two and to reduce His enormous popularity with the people. He gathered together leaders of religions and of different sects and asked them to engage in debate with the Imam and put pressure on them to beat Him. He thought that the Imam would not have an answer and that the Imam would not be able to withstand all of them because He was nothing but a spiritual man, a worshipper, and an ascetic.
What eluded Ma'moon was that Ali Ibn Musa Al-Ridha (Peace be upon Them both) was an Impeccable Imam who received inspiration from Heaven and was Allah's proof on the earth. So was it possible for anyone to win against Allah's proof?
The debate began amidst a mass gathering mustered in one of Ma'moon's palaces in the Iranian city of Merv and continued for several days. The clear victory achieved by Imam Ridha (Peace be upon Him) in these debates was a reason for Ma'moon's growing angrier because the Imam's popularity with the people increased in an unequalled fashion. The religious leaders who came to engage the Imam in debate were:
1. The head of the Christians.
2. The head of the Jews.
3. The head of the Sabaeans.
4. The head of the Zoroastrians.
5. The head of the atheists.
With each of them were other heads and a group of the most senior members of the faith group and trend. What was amazing was that the Imam (Peace be upon Him) engaged them in discourse using their own scriptures and beliefs, during the course of which he showed himself to be more knowledge than each group about what was in their books and what about what they believed in and that He took the course of rational argument in his debate with them until He proved each of these religions and beliefs to be wrong and forced their representatives to concede.
Before the Imam (Peace be upon Him) headed towards the debating hall, he got up and performed ritual ablutions (wudhu) and then he performed dhikr of Almighty Allah right up until he reached the hall. The first among them to be engaged by the Imam (Peace be upon Him) were the Christians who were represented by the most senior Catholicos (Patriarch) in Persia.
History tells us that when the Imam reached the hall, Ma'moon and all gathered there rose out of respect for Him and then sat back down. Ma'moon turned to the Christian Patriarch and said to him, "Catholicos, this is my cousin Ali Ibn Musa Ibn Ja'far, who is a descendant of Fatima daughter of our Prophet and a descendant of Ali Ibn Abi Talib (Allah's Blessings upon both of Them). I would like you to speak with him and engage him in debate but proceed fairly.
The Catholicos replied, "Commander of the Faithful, how do I debate with a man who relies on a book which I reject and on a Prophet in whom I do not believe?" Al-Ridha (Peace be upon Him) said to him, "Christian, would you agree to my engaging you on the basis of your Gospels?" The Catholicos replied, "Can I reject what the Gospels said? All right. I swear by God that I acknowledge it whether I like it or not." Al-Ridha (Peace be upon Him) said to him, "Ask what you like and understand the answer."
The Catholicos said, "What do you say about Jesus' prophethood (Peace be upon Him) and His Scripture? Do you reject any of it?" Al-Ridha (Peace be upon Him) said, "I acknowledge Jesus' prophethood, His Scripture and the Glad Tidings He brought to His Umma which the Disciples acknowledged and I am an unbeliever in any Jesus who does not acknowledge the prophethood of Muhammad (Allah's Peace and Blessings upon Him and His pure Family) and His Scripture and who did not bring glad tidings to his umma about Him.
The Catholicos said, "Is it not true that you are only persuaded beyond reasonable doubt by two just witnesses?" He said, "Yes." He said, "So call two witnesses whom the Christians do not reject – from outside your faith group – to the prophethood of Muhammad, and ask us to do the same from outside our faith group. Al-Ridha (Peace be upon Him) said, "Now you have brought fairness [to the proceedings], Christian. Will you not accept from the best just witness in the sight of Jesus Christ Son of Mary?"
The Catholicos said, "Who is this just witness? Tell me his name." He said, "What do you say about John the Dailamite?" He said, "Bravo! Bravo! You have mentioned the person loved most by Christ." He said (Peace be upon Him), "I swear to you, do not the Gospels say that John said, 'Christ told me about the religion of Muhammad the Arab and passed on the Glad Tidings of Him to me. He said that He would come after He did. I passed the Glad Tidings on to the apostles and they believed in Him?"
The Catholicos said, "John said that on Christ's authority and He brought Glad Tidings of the prophethood of a man and about his household and his heir and he did not say when that would be and he did not give us his people's name for us to know him." Al-Ridha said (Peace be upon Him), "If we were to bring you someone who recites the Gospels and he were to read out to you the reference to Muhammad, His Household and His people would you believe it?" He said, "Absolutely."
Al-Ridha said (Peace be upon Him) to Qustas the Byzantine, "How well have you memorised the third book of the Gospels?" He said, "How well I know it!" Then he turned to the Exilarch (the head of the Jews) and said to him," Do you not read the Gospel?" He said, "Yes, upon my life." He said, "Go to the third book. If there is a mention of Muhammad and His Household and His people (Allah's Peace upon Them) then testify on my behalf and if there is no mention do not testify on my behalf."
Then He recited (Peace be upon Him) the third book until He reached the point just before the Prophet (Allah's Peace and Blessings upon Him and His pure Family) is mentioned and paused. Then He said, "Christian. I ask you by Christ and His Mother do you understand that I know the Gospel?" He said, "Yes." "Then he read out to us the reference to Muhammad, His Household and His people."
He then said, "What do you say, Christian? This is what Jesus Son of Mary said. If you were to reject what the Gospels say you would be rejecting Moses and Jesus (Peace be upon Them) and if you were to deny this reference you would have to be killed because you would have become an unbeliever in your Lord and your Prophet and your Scripture." The Catholicos said, "I do not deny what has become clear to me in the Gospels and I affirm it."
Al-Ridha said (Peace be upon Him), "Bear witness to his affirmation." (This means that the version of the Holy Book which was around at that time in Iran contained explicit or near explicit mention of the Greatest Prophet and the People of His Household (Peace be upon Them).
Then the Imam (Peace be upon Him) said, "Catholicos, ask what you like." The Catholicos said, "Tell me about Jesus Son of Mary's apostles. How many of them were there? And about the Bible scholars…how many of them were there?" Al-Ridha said, "You have encountered one who knows. As for the apostles, they were twelve men and the best and most learned among them was Luke.
“As for the Christian scholars, they were three men – John the Elder in Aj, John in Circesium and John the Daylamite in Zajan and according to him there was mention of the Prophet (Allah's Peace and Blessings upon Him and His pure Family) and mention of the People of His Household and His People and He is the one about whom Jesus' people and the Sons of Israel spread glad tidings.”
Then He said (Peace be upon Him), "Christian. I swear by Allah that we believe in Jesus who believed in Muhammad (Allah's Peace and Blessings upon Him and His pure Family) and we do not hold anything against your Jesus except his weakness and how little he fasted and prayed!"
The Cathilicos said, "By God, you have undermined your argument and weakened your position and there I was thinking you were the most learned among the people of Islam!"
Al-Ridha (Peace be upon Him) said, "How is that?" The Cathilicos said, "From your saying that your Jesus was weak and rarely fasted and rarely prayed when in fact Jesus did not once break His fast during the day and did not sleep at all at night and He fasted all His life, and stood in prayer all night."
Al-Ridha (Peace be upon Him) said, "For whose sake would He fast and to whom would He pray?" The Cathilicos went silent and broke away! It was natural that the Cathilicos should fall silent because the Imam (Peace be upon Him) had embarrassed him with this question because he acknowledged that Jesus (Peace be upon Him) would pray and fast and so he would have to have a Lord to whom to pray and for whose sake to fast.
In view of the fact that Christians believe that Jesus (Peace be upon Him) is God and the Son of God for whose sake would He fast and to whom would He pray?) Al-Ridha (Peace be upon Him) said, "Why do you deny that Jesus would only raise the dead with the permission of Allah the Mighty and Majestic?
The Cathilicos said, "I deny that for reason of the fact that whoever raises the dead and heals the blind and the lepers is Lord and is worthy of being worshipped.” Al-Ridha said (Peace be upon Him), "Elisha had done the same as that which Jesus had done – he walked on water and raised the dead and healed the blind and the lepers but His people did not take Him to be a Lord and no one worshipped Him instead of Allah Great and Mighty. Ezekial the Prophet (Peace be upon Him) did as Jesus Son of Mary (Peace be upon Him) did and raised thirty five thousand men sixty years after their death.”
Then he turned to the Exilarch (the Chief of the Jews) and said to him, "Exilarch, do you find in the Torah those among the Israelites' young people whom Nebuchadnezzar picked out from the Israelite prisoners when he attacked the House of the Holiness (Jerusalem)? He then went off with them to Babylon and God Almighty Powerful and Majestic sent him to them to raise them from the dead? This is in the Torah and no one except an unbeliever amongst you would reject it." The Exilarch said, "We have heard this and we know it."
He said, "You speak the truth." Then He said (Peace be upon Him), "Then go, Jew, to this book of the Torah.” Al-Ridha recited for us some verses of the Torah. The Jew began to rock to and fro at his recitation and showed his amazement. Then He turned towards the Christian and said, "Christian, did these people come before Jesus or did Jesus come before they did?" He said, "They came before He did."
Al-Ridha (Peace be upon Him) said, "The Quraysh gathered before the Messenger of Allah (Allah's Peace and Blessings upon Him and His pure Family) and asked Him to raise their dead. He sent Ali Ibn Abi Talib (Peace be upon Him) with them and said to Him, "Go to the cemetery and call out at the top of your voice the names of this band whom they are asking about and say, 'So and so and so and so and so and so, Muhammad the Messenger of Allah (Allah's Peace and Blessings upon Him and His pure Family) says to you, "Get up with the help of Allah, Powerful and Mighty."
They got up; shaking the dust off their heads and Quraysh went up to them and asked them how they were. They then told them that Muhammad had been sent as a Prophet and they said, 'We would like to see Him and believe in Him. He healed the blind, lepers and the insane and animals, birds, jinn and shaytans speak to him. We have not taken Him as a Lord instead of Allah, Great and Mighty and we have never denied to any of these men their merit.
When you took Jesus as a Lord, you could have taken Elisha and Ezekiel as Lords because they also did something similar to what Jesus did in raising the dead and so on. An obedient Israelite community fled from their lands. There were thousands of them. They feared death and Allah killed them in a single hour and the people of that village undertook to erect a fence around them, where they remained until their bones were eaten away and they grew rotten. One of the Israelite Prophets passed by them and was astonished by them and by just how many rotten bones there were. Allah Great and Mighty revealed to Him, "Would you like Me to raise them for you so that you can warn them?" He said, "Yes, Lord."
Allah Great and Mighty revealed to Him: "Call out to them." He said, "You rotten bones. Get up with the help of Allah Great and Mighty." They all got up, living, and shook the earth from their heads. Then [there was] Ibrahim (Peace be upon Him) the dear friend of the Most Merciful when he took the birds and cut them up into lots of tiny pieces and then placed one piece from each of them on each mountain. Then he called out to them and they came rushing towards Him.
Then [there was] Musa Son of Imran and His companions and the seventy whom he chose who made their way with Him towards the mountain and they said to Him, "You have seen Allah, may He be praised so show us how you saw Him." He said to them, "I did not see Him." They said, "We will not believe until we see Him clearly.
Then a thunderbolt struck them and burned them up entirely and Musa was left on His own. He said, "Oh Lord, I chose seventy men from the Israelites and I took them with me and I am returning on my own. How will my people believe me when I tell them about it? If you had willed you could have destroyed them before, and will you now destroy me just like these stupid people?' So Allah raised them after their deaths.
"You cannot reject any of this that I have told you, since the Torah, Gospel, Psalms and Furqan have declared it. So if all who have raised the dead and healed the blind, lepers and insane are to be taken as Lord besides God, then take all these as Lords. What do you say, Christian?" The Catholicos said: "What you say is unanswerable. There is no god but Allah".