His family saw him as a last attempt to reconcile all the diverse groups of Muslims. The first two decades of Jaʿfar's imamate witnessed very turbulent times in early Islam, with active revolts from some extremist Shīʿah, the uprising of the Zaydīyah, and the ʿAbbāsid movement of Hāshimīyah unfolding from the Kaysāniyah. During this time, Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq remained distant and somewhat overshadowed politically by the numerous claimants who became embroiled in the power struggle. Some of Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq's difficulties were also doctrinal and came from certain individuals classed later as the
ghulāt. His father had already repudiated some of them earlier. The fact that Jaʿfar managed to keep out of politics allowed him time to participate not only in scholarly activities, but also to hold private ses-sions at his home in Medina, thus maintaining his family's practice.
Thought and Law
The Shīʿī community formed around Jaʿfar, who followed the foundations laid by al-Bāqir. Elaborating and consolidating some of the doctrines put forward by his father, Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq developed an extensive system of law and theology so that under him the Shīʿah became very significant, with their own distinct rituals and religious doctrine. Al-Bāqir had already laid the foundations of the madhhab ahl al-bayt with specific views on rites, rituals, and practices of Islam, a contribution acknowledged in Jaʿfar's own words.
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