--- title: "The University of al-Sadiq: Four Thousand Students and a Living Imam" event: "The Lantern of the Path" session_number: 62 published_at: "2026-04-01" canonical_url: "https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/the-university-of-al-sadiq-four-thousand-students-and-a-living-imam" event_url: "https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/the-lantern-of-the-path" type: "event-session" scripture_reference: "Mafatih al-Jinan, Visitations (Ziyarat), Special Etiquettes for the Ziyarat of Imam Husayn (AS), Line 4" --- # The University of al-Sadiq: Four Thousand Students and a Living Imam *Session 62 of [The Lantern of the Path](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/the-lantern-of-the-path) — 1 April 2026* Mahdawiyyah, Part 18 · The Architecture of Guidance, Part 2 The most dangerous man in the empire carried no sword, raised no army, and claimed no throne. He simply taught. In the narrow window between a collapsing dynasty and one not yet organised, Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq, peace be upon him, opened his door in Madinah and, later, Kufa. Roughly four thousand students passed through his circle — a figure recorded even by scholars with no reason to flatter him — and he taught far beyond jurisprudence: theology, exegesis, philosophy, and the natural sciences all flowed from the same source. Jabir ibn Hayyan, later known to the Latin West as Geber and remembered as a father of chemistry, credited his teacher directly. The Imam read each student for what they were built for. Zurara ibn A'yan became the backbone of transmission; "were it not for Zurara and those like him," the Imam said, "the traditions of my father would have perished." Hisham ibn al-Hakam was sharpened into a debater and sent into the arenas of Baghdad to face the rationalist and predestinarian schools of the age. And when Zurara's closeness to the Imam drew unwanted attention, the Imam publicly disavowed him — strategic prudence, not anger, to keep his transmitter alive. How do you silence a man who carries no sword? What the evening covers The window. Why a lull between two dynasties let a quiet scholar in Madinah teach as no Imam before him safely could. Four thousand students. A curriculum that produced jurists and theologians, and, through Jabir ibn Hayyan, a founder of chemistry. Hisham ibn al-Hakam. How a debater trained by the Imam took on the rationalist and predestinarian schools of Iraq. Zurara ibn A'yan. The narrator without whom, by the Imam's own words, a generation of teaching would have been lost. ## Scripture > السَّلامُ عَلَيْكَ يَا حُجَّةَ اللَّهِ فِي أَرْضِهِ وَ سَمَائِهِ. > > Peace be upon you, O proof of Allah upon His earth and His heavens. — *Mafatih al-Jinan, Visitations (Ziyarat), Special Etiquettes for the Ziyarat of Imam Husayn (AS), Line 4* ## Programme - [Watch the full session](https://youtu.be/2gRNXZP5sPE) - [Sermon: The University of al-Sadiq: Four Thousand Students and a Living Imam](https://youtu.be/2gRNXZP5sPE) - [Nohe: Thorn in the Enemy's Eye — written](https://www.shiasounds.com/p/a-thorn-in-the-enemys-eyes) - [Ziyarah: Ziyarat Aal-e-Yasin](https://youtu.be/uSJNHMq3oYs?si=PKBRrMLLZOtXX_Hq) ## Other sessions in this event - [Session 69 — Shaykh al-Ta'ifa](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/shaykh-al-taifa) — 12 August 2026 - [Session 26 — Imam Hasan al-Mujtaba: A Life of Strategic Sacrifice](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/imam-hasan-al-mujtaba-a-life-of-strategic-sacrifice) — 20 May 2026 - [Session 68 — The World That Surrounded Them](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/the-world-that-surrounded-them) — 13 May 2026 - [Session 67 — Sayyed al-Murtada and the Twenty-Three Years](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/sayyed-al-murtada-and-the-twenty-three-years) — 6 May 2026 - [Session 66 — The Pen and the Sword of the Intellect](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/the-pen-and-the-sword-of-the-intellect) — 29 April 2026 - [Session 65 — Two Sons, One Mother, One Teacher](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/two-sons-one-mother-one-teacher) — 22 April 2026 - [Session 64 — The Beneficial One: Shaykh al-Mufid](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/the-beneficial-one-shaykh-al-mufid) — 15 April 2026 - [Session 63 — When the Light Was Hidden: The Preservers](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/when-the-light-was-hidden-the-preservers) — 8 April 2026 - [Session 61 — Building Before the Builder Returns](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/building-before-the-builder-returns) — 25 March 2026 - [Session 60 — The Antidote Applied](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/the-antidote-applied) — 18 March 2026 - [Session 59 — The Poison Identified](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/the-poison-identified) — 11 March 2026 - [Session 58 — The Contemporary Codification](https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/the-contemporary-codification) — 25 February 2026 --- _Read this session on the web: https://www.truthpromoters.com/events/the-university-of-al-sadiq-four-thousand-students-and-a-living-imam_