Imam al-Hadi (a) sometimes decided to show his spiritual power and wilaya in creation to tyrants of his time through wonder including the following case:
To threaten and frighten Imam (a), Abbasid Mutawakkil summoned him and ordered that each of his soldiers provide a sack of red soil and pour them in a place.
His 90 thousand soldiers piled up the sacks and made a great pile of soil. Mutawakkil and Imam al-Hadi (a) went up the pile and armed soldiers paraded in front of them.
The tyrant Abbasid caliph wanted to bully Imam (a) and prevent him from making any uprising. To thwart this plan, Imam (a) told Mutawakkil, “do you want to see my army and soldiers?”
As a miracle of Imam al-Hadi (a), Mutawakkil, who did not expect Imam (a) to have any soldiers and weapons, suddenly saw that armed angels obedient to Imam (a) and ready to serve him filled the space between the earth and the sky. By seeing them, Mutawakkil was terrified and fell unconscious on the ground. When he became conscious again, Imam (a) said,
“We do not argue with you in this world, since we are busy with the hereafter; so, it is not as you assume [about us].”
Sources:
Al-Khara’ij wa al-Jara’ih, p. 400, no. 6;
Bihar al-Anwar, vol. 50, p. 146, hadith no. 30;
Ithbat al-Hudat, Hurr ‘Amili, vol. 3, p. 374, no. 41.
