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Imam Ali ibn al-Husayn عليه السلام survived Karbala, where illness kept him from fighting, and bore witness to it as a captive in Kufa and Damascus. In the decades that followed he rebuilt the community through prayer, teaching and quiet care for the poor; his supplications, gathered in al-Sahifa al-Sajjadiyya, are among the treasures of Islamic spirituality.
Early life
The zahoor of Ali ibn al-Husayn was in Medina in 38 AH. His mother is named in a widely cited report as Shahrbanu, said to be a daughter of the last Sasanian king; other reports give different names and origins. He grew up in the households of his grandfather Imam Ali, his uncle Imam Hasan and his father Imam Husayn.
Karbala and captivity
He was in Karbala in 61 AH but was too ill to fight, and so survived the massacre. As the eldest surviving son of Imam Husayn he was taken captive with his aunt Sayyida Zaynab and the women and children, first to Ibn Ziyad in Kufa and then to Yazid in Damascus. Later sources record a sermon he delivered in Damascus declaring the identity and rank of the Prophet’s family. After their release the survivors returned to Medina.
Rebuilding a community
In Medina he lived in a climate of fear: the city was sacked by an Umayyad army after the Battle of al-Harra in 63 AH. He devoted himself to worship and to teaching, buying enslaved people, educating them and setting them free, and quietly supporting poor households. Several sources report that he carried sacks of food at night to families who did not know their benefactor until his death.
A well-known episode tells of the Umayyad prince Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik being unable to reach the Black Stone in the crowd during the pilgrimage, while the people made way for Ali ibn al-Husayn. When Hisham feigned not to know him, the poet al-Farazdaq answered with a famous ode in his praise.
Al-Sahifa al-Sajjadiyya and the Treatise on Rights
His supplications, collected as al-Sahifa al-Sajjadiyya, teach theology, ethics and devotion through the language of prayer: on praising God, on repentance, on parents and children, on neighbours and friends, on the frontier guards, on noble character. The Treatise on Rights (Risalat al-Huquq) sets out, in order, the rights owed to God, to oneself and one’s faculties, and to every person one deals with — rulers, teachers, parents, spouses, neighbours and others.
Martyrdom
He died in Medina in 95 AH. Twelver sources report that he was poisoned at the instigation of the Umayyad ruler al-Walid ibn Abd al-Malik. He was buried in al-Baqi beside his uncle Imam Hasan.
Significance in Twelver Shia belief and Fiqh-e-Jafariya
He is the fourth Imam. Through him the line of Imamate continued after Karbala, and through his prayers and his treatise on rights the community received a complete ethic of devotion and social responsibility. Many of the legal and moral teachings of his son al-Baqir and grandson al-Sadiq build on the foundations he laid.
Significant dates
- 5 Sha‘ban 38 AH (659 CE)Zahoor in Medina
- 10 Muharram 61 AH (680 CE)Karbala; beginning of his Imamate
- 61 AHCaptivity in Kufa and Damascus
- 63 AH (683 CE)Battle of al-Harra and the sack of Medina
- 25 Muharram 95 AH (713 CE)Martyrdom in Medina; burial in al-Baqi
Narrations and texts
The collection includes supplications on noble moral traits (Makarim al-Akhlaq), on repentance, for parents, for children and for the defenders of the frontiers.
Sources: al-Sahifa al-Sajjadiyya (standard recension of 54 supplications); The Psalms of Islam: al-Sahifat al-Kamilat al-Sajjadiyya
The greatest right is God’s right upon you; then the rights of your own self and its faculties — tongue, hearing, sight, hands, feet; then the rights of acts of worship, of those in authority, of those in your care, of family and of all people.
Sources: Tuhaf al-‘Uqul ‘an Al al-Rasul; al-Khisal; Man La Yahduruhu al-Faqih
Summary of the structure; recensions differ in the number of rights listed.
Narrations are given as careful paraphrases, not verbatim translations. See the Editorial Methodology
Differing reports
- His mother’s name and lineage are reported differently.
- Zahoor: 38 AH (al-Mufid) is most common; 36 or 37 AH and the month of Jumada al-Ula are also reported.
- Date of martyrdom: 25 Muharram 95 AH is most widely commemorated; 12 or 18 Muharram and 94 AH are also reported.
- Genealogists differ over the mothers of some of his children.
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 Ali ibn al-Husayn
- al-Kafi — al-Kulayni, Muhammad ibn Ya‘qub (d. 329 AH / 941 CE). Kitab al-Hujja
- al-Sahifa al-Sajjadiyya — Imam Ali ibn al-Husayn Zayn al-Abidin
- Tuhaf al-‘Uqul ‘an Al al-Rasul — Ibn Shu‘ba al-Harrani, al-Hasan ibn Ali (4th c. AH / 10th c. CE)
- Tarikh al-Rusul wa al-Muluk — al-Tabari, Muhammad ibn Jarir (d. 310 AH / 923 CE). years 61–63 AH
- The Psalms of Islam: al-Sahifat al-Kamilat al-Sajjadiyya — Imam Zayn al-Abidin
- The Origins and Early Development of Shi‘a Islam — Jafri, S. H. M.