Muhammad ibn Ali initiated the Abbasid’s political activities against the Umayyads. He was from the descendants of Abbas, the Prophet’s uncle. The Abbasids were also from the Prophet’s clan of Banu Hashim, and had close ties and relationships with the Prophet’s descendants through Lady Fatimah (SA). The Abbasids had claimed that Abu-Hashim, the grandson of Imam Ali from his son, Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyyah, had asked Muhammad ibn Ali to follow his political activities prior to his death in Syria. He had also selected Muhammad ibn Ali as an Imam for his followers known as Kaysanites (or Kisaniyeh). Muhammad ibn Ali initiated the hidden organization of the Abbasids during the government of Umar ibn Abdul-Aziz to encourage the people to rise up against the Umayyads . The Abbasids selected Kufa as the center for their secret organization while they were living undercover outside the city. They were only able to attract a small group of supporters in Kufa, as it was the center for the Shias who were mostly the followers of Imam Baqir and Imam Sadiq. In order to gain more support, they sent delegates to Khorasan to gather allegiance from the people. Their delegates would collect the Muslims’ obligatory dues (Zakat) for the Abbasids to spend in this movement. They selected “al-Reza min Ale-Muhammad” as their slogan, implying that once they would gain power from the Umayyads, they would select a representative from the Prophet’s family as the caliph who all of us have consensus on. The most important aspect of this slogan was the intended ambiguity in its meaning. This slogan motivated and united many people to support the Abbasids’ movement, despite their differences in interpreting who would be the righteous representative from the Prophet’s family for the caliphate. The Abbasids also had strict orders for their delegates to not reveal the Abbasids as the leaders behind this movement, as this could endanger their lives by the Umayyads. More importantly, the exposure of their names as the representatives from the Prophet’s family would not attract the people’s trust towards their movement. This was because the Abbasids were not directly from the Prophet’s lineage, but were from his relatives, and they were not well-known in society. Muhammad ibn Ali, the founder of the Abbasid’s movement, died after more than two decades of political activities. He selected his oldest son, Ibrahim, as his successor prior to his death. Ibrahim became known as Ibrahim Imam. Ibrahim Imam received approval for his leadership from the delegates of the Abbasids, and became the number one person in their movement. At that time, the Abbasids accelerated their hidden efforts in Khorasan. They had strategically selected Khorasan, as it was located at the boundary of the Islamic territory, and was far from the capital, Damascus, in Syria. The Umayyads could not have full authority over Khorasan, and could not easily remove the brewing threat. The Umayyad’s internal conflict had man
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