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The infant son of Imam al-Husayn عليه السلام and al-Rabab, called Abd Allah in the early sources and Ali al-Asghar in later and South Asian usage, was killed by an arrow in his father’s arms on the day of Ashura. He is the youngest of the martyrs of Karbala.
The arrow
Al-Mufid records that Imam al-Husayn عليه السلام sat at the entrance of his tent with his small son in his lap when an arrow struck the child and killed him. Al-Tabari names the archer as a man of the Asad tribe; later accounts give his name as Harmala ibn Kahil. Ibn Tawus relates that the Imam caught the child’s blood in his palm and threw it towards the sky, saying that what had befallen him was easy to bear because it was before the eyes of God.
His name
The early Shia and Sunni sources, al-Mufid among them, call him Abd Allah. Later Shia works, beginning with al-Khwarazmi and Ibn Shahrashub, call him Ali, and the name Ali al-Asghar became the usual one in Persian and Urdu. His mother al-Rabab was also the mother of Sayyida Sukayna.
Differing reports
- How he was killed and buried: the accounts differ on whether the Imam was holding him up before the army or sitting with him at the tent, and on whether he buried him at once or laid him with the other martyrs.
Sources
- Kitab al-Irshad fi Ma‘rifat Hujaj Allah ‘ala al-‘Ibad — al-Mufid, Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn al-Nu‘man (d. 413 AH / 1022 CE). chapter on Imam al-Husayn
- Tarikh al-Rusul wa al-Muluk — al-Tabari, Muhammad ibn Jarir (d. 310 AH / 923 CE). year 61 AH
- al-Luhuf ‘ala Qatla al-Tufuf — Ibn Tawus (d. 664 AH / 1266 CE)
- Maqtal al-Husayn — al-Khwarazmi, al-Muwaffaq ibn Ahmad (d. 568 AH / 1172 CE)
- Manaqib Al Abi Talib — Ibn Shahrashub, Muhammad ibn Ali (d. 588 AH / 1192 CE)