One of the characters who, at the beginning of the absence of Imam of the Time (A.S), caused the weakening of beliefs and created doubts about the acceptance of the living Imam (A.S) in the Shiite society, is “Jafar ibn Ali”, nicknamed as the “liar”. Due to his family and social status, Jafar paved the ground for deviation and confusion among the Shiites. This paper is organized based on the historical and narration sources with a descriptive-analytic method through gathering library-based information. The main question is the nature of characteristics of Jafar ibn Ali and his effect on the beginning of Imam’s absence (A.S). Results indicate that Jafar ibn Ali had some deviations in the two parts of “belief” and “practice”.
The analytical-historical study of the characteristics of Jafar ibn Ali and the breadth of sources of the current research have led to new findings in this paper. Moreover, Jafar’s influence on the Shiite society during the early period of Imam’s absence in this paper is one of the less discussed topics in the discussion of Jafar’s character.