Ali ibn Hussayn

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Ali ibn Husayn (Arabic: علي بن حسين زين العابدين) lived during 658-713 (38-95 A.H.)^[1] is the fourth Shi'a Imam. He is the son of Husayn ibn Ali and the great-grandson of Muhammad. He is known to both Sunni and Shia Muslims as Zainul Abedin (Jewel of the Worshippers) and only to Shias as Imam Sajjad (The prostrating Imam).

1 Birth and family life
2 Learning
3 Piety
4 The Day of Ashura
5 Death
6 The Imamah
7 References
8 See also
9 External links
- 9.1 Shi'a references
- 9.2 Sunni references

[edit] Birth and family life

Ali ibn Husayn was born in Medina in 658. His father, Husayn ibn Ali, is considered the Third Shi’a Imam by most Shi'a; Husayn was the grandson of Muhammad. Shi'a Muslims believe that Ali ibn Husayn's mother was Shahrbanu, the daughter of the last Sassanid emperor.^[2]

Because of the belief in his royal Sassanid heritage, he is sometimes called Ibn al-Khiyaratayn ("son of the best two"), meaning the Quraish among the Arabs and the Persians among the non-Arabs.

According to Shi'a belief, his mother was brought as a captive to Medina during the caliphate of Umar ibn al-Khattāb, who wanted to sell her. Ali suggested instead that she be offered her choice of the Muslim men as husband and that her dower be paid from the public treasury. Umar agreed and she chose Ali ibn Abu Talib's son, Husayn. She is said to have died shortly after giving birth to her only son, Ali. He was about two years old when his grandfather, Ali ibn Abu Talib, was killed.

Zainul Abedin fathered fifteen children: eleven boys and four girls.

[edit] Learning

He dedicated his life to learning and became an authority on prophetic traditions and Sharia. He is regarded as the source of the third holiest book in Shi'a Islam after the Quran and the Nahj al Balagha (the collection of the works of Ali), the Sahifa al-Sajjadiyya, commonly referred to as the Psalms of the Household of Muhammad. Zainul Abedin had many staunch supporters such as Sa'id ibn Jubayr.

[edit] Piety

Shi'a Muslims praise him for his nobility of character and his piety, which are said to have earned him his sobriquet (Zainul Abedin) within his lifetime.

[edit] The Day of Ashura

At the famous Battle of Karbala on the day of Ashura, Husayn and most of his family were killed. Zainul Abedin survived because he was too sick to fight, and was bedridden. Afterwards, he was taken prisoner by the Umayyad forces and transported to Damascus where he was made a prisoner of the Caliph, Yazid I. After some years, he was freed, and returned to Medina where he lived a quiet life as a scholar and a teacher.

It is said that for Forty years, whenever food or water was placed before him, he would weep. One day, a servant said to him,

"O son of God's Messenger! Is it not time for your sorrow to come to an end?" He replied, "Woe upon you! Jacob the prophet had twelve sons, and God made one of them disappear. His eyes turned white from constant weeping, his head turned grey out of sorrow, and his back became bent in gloom, though his son was alive in this world. But I watched while my father, my brother, my uncle, and seventeen members of my family were slaughtered all around me. How should my sorrow come to an end?"

[edit] Death

Zainul Abedin resided in Medina until his death in 712-714 CE (94 or 95 AH). Some ^{[attribution needed]} claim that he was poisoned by the caliph of the day, Waleed ibn Abdul Malik ibn Marwan. He was buried in Jannat al-Baqi, the cemetery in Medina where other important figures of Islamic history are buried.

[edit] The Imamah

The issue of who succeeded him as Imam led to a split within Shi'ism. The Twelver Shi'a believe that it was Muhammad al-Baqir, his son, who succeeded him while another (minority) community, the Zaidiyyah believe it was Ali's other son, Zayd ibn Ali.

Preceded by Husayn ibn Ali	head of Banu Hashim 680–713	Succeeded by ?
	Shia Imam 680–713	Succeeded by Muhammad al-Baqir
	Zaidi Imam 680–713	Succeeded by Zaid ibn Ali