Did Imam al-Askari (a) mention his son Imam Mahdi (a) in his will? - Qazwini

one objection that some people bring forth from other schools of thought is that if Imam al-Askari (a) had a son who is the Mahdi, how come he did not mention him in his will? Previous Imams (a) would make it clear in their will who the next imam is. Sometimes they would have it in written form. But we find that Imam al-Askari(a) in his official will, his will that was publicized, does not mention his son al-Mahdi. Why is that the case? Does not this indicate that he had no son as others claim, and that when he passed away in Samarra, he did not leave any progeny behind. What is the answer to these objections? Indeed, Imam Al-Askari (a) did not mention Imam in his public will—that he is my son and that my inheritance shall go to him. He did not say, “He is my only son, and my inheritance shall go to him.” Why? The Imam (a) deliberately and intentionally did not mention the name of his son in his will because the Abbasid government was looking for the Mahdi to kill him. They had heard that the son of Imam al-Askari (a) would be the final Imam who is going to establish justice on earth, so they said let’s kill him before he reaches that state. This is just like the Pharaoh who was told by astronomers that a baby boy is going to be born and he is going to bring down your kingdom. What did he do to avoid that situation? He killed the boys, and he would slash open the stomachs of pregnant women to kill the fetus if it was a boy. The Abbasid caliph wanted to do the same thing. So obviously Imam al-Askari (a) was not going to mention him in his will. This would have made the caliph go after the Mahdi (a) and go after the shia, and he would imprison the Shia. He’d tell them: where is the Mahdi whom your Imam mentioned in the will?! Show us or I will kill you! By the way, which other Imam left a vague official will when it came to appointing his son as the imam after him? Imam Jafaar al-Sadiq (a). In his official will that was known to the government, how many people did he designate to be the successors after him? Five people. Do you know who were they? One of them was the caliph himself. Because you know what the caliph had said? He said, “Go and find the will of Jafaar ibn Mohammad. Whoever he states in his will that he is his representative (basically the next imam after him) kill him!” So the minister went to al-Mansoor, the caliph who killed Imam Sadi (a), and told him, “I cannot execute that will.” He replied to him, “What do you mean you cannot execute the will?! I am giving you a command to kill the one whom Jafar ibn Mohammad stated as his Wasi (successor).” The minister said, “That means I have to kill you!” The minister explained to the caliph that the Imam (a) has appointed 5 people in his will, and one of them is you. So whom are we going to kill? Therefore, Imam al-Askari (a) could not specify the name of the Mahdi (a) in his official will. That’s why he did not mention him. It wasn’t because he didn’t have a son.