Name:
Father: Abu Talib bin Abdul Muttalib bin Hashim.
Mother: Fatimah bint Asad bin Hashim bin Abd Munaf.
Kunniyat (Patronymic): Abul Hasan and Husayn, Abu Turab
Laqab (Title): Al-Wasi, Amir al-Mu'minin
Birth: He was born in the Ka'ba , in thirty 'Am al-Fil (the year of the elephant).
Martyrdom: He
was martyred by the Khwariji named Abd al-Rahman ibn Muljam at Kufa
during the month of Ramadhan in the fortieth year of Hijrah and is
buried in Najaf on the outskirts of Kufa.
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Biography
Amir al-mu'minln Ali
(upon whom be peace) was the son of Abu Talib, the Shaykh of the Banu
Hashim. Abu Talib was the uncle and guardian of the Holy Prophet
(sawas) and the person who had brought the Prophet (sawas) to his house
and raised him like his own son. After the Prophet (sawas) was chosen
for his prophetic mission, Abu Talib continued to support him and
repelled from him the evil that came from the infidels among the Arabs
and especially the Quraysh.
According to well-known
traditional accounts Ali was born ten years before the commencement of
the prophetic mission of the Prophet (sawas). When six years old, as a
result of famine in and around Mecca, he was requested by the Prophet
(sawas) to leave his father's house and come to the house of his
cousin, the Prophet (sawas). There he was placed directly under the
guardianship and custody of the Holy Prophet (sawas).
A few years later, when
the Prophet (sawas) was endowed with the Divine gift of prophecy and
for the first time received the Divine revelation in the cave of Hira',
as he left the cave to return to town and his own house he met Ali on
the way. He told him what had happened and Ali accepted the new faith.
Again in a gathering when the Holy Prophet (sawas) had brought his
relatives together and invited them to accept his religion, he said the
first person to accept his call would be his vicegerent and inheritor
and deputy. The only person to rise from his place and accept the faith
was Ali and the Prophet (sawas) accepted his declaration of faith.
Therefore Ali was the first man in Islam to accept the faith and is the
first among the followers of the Prophet (sawas) to have never
worshipped other than the One God.
Ali was always in the
company of the Prophet (sawas) until the Prophet (sawas) migrated from
Mecca to Medina. On the night of the migration to Medina (hijrah) when
the infidels had surrounded the house of the Prophet (sawas) and were
determined to invade the house at the end of the night and cut him to
pieces while he was in bed, Ali slept in place of the Prophet (sawas)
while the Prophet (sawas) left the house and set out for Medina. After
the departure of the Prophet (sawas), according to his wish Ali gave
back to the people the trusts and charges that they had left with the
Prophet (sawas). Then he went to Medina with his mother, the daughter
of the Prophet (sawas), and two other women.
In Medina also Ali was
constantly in the company of the Prophet (sawas) in private and in
public. The Prophet (sawas) gave Fatimah, his beloved daughter from
Khadijah, to Ali as his wife and when the Prophet (sawas) was creating
bonds of brotherhood among his companions he selected Ali as his
brother.
Ali was present in all
the wars in which the Prophet (sawas) participated, except the battle
of Tabuk when he was ordered to stay in Medina in place of the Prophet
(sawas). He did not retreat in any battle nor did he turn his face away
from any enemy. He never disobeyed the Prophet (sawas), so that the
Prophet (sawas) said, "Ali is never separated from the Truth nor the
Truth from Ali."
On the day of the death
of the Prophet (sawas), Ali was thirty-three years old. Although he was
foremost in religious virtues and the most outstanding among the
companions of the Prophet (sawas), he was pushed aside from the
caliphate on the claim that he was too young and that he had many
enemies among the people because of the blood of the polytheists he had
spilled in the wars fought alongside the Prophet (sawas). Therefore
Ali was almost completely cut off from public affairs. He retreated to
his house where he began to train competent individuals in the Divine
sciences and in this way he passed the twenty-five years of the
caliphate of the first three caliphs who succeeded the Prophet (sawas).
When the third caliph was killed, people gave their allegiance to him
and he was chosen as caliph.
During his caliphate of
nearly four years and nine months, Ali followed the way of the Prophet
(sawas) and gave his caliphate the form of a spiritual movement and
renewal and began many different types of reforms. Naturally, these
reforms were against the interests of certain parties that sought their
own benefit. As a result, a group of the companions (foremost among
whom were Talhah and Zubayr, who also gained the support of A'ishah,
and especially Mu'awiyah) made a pretext of the death of the third
caliph to raise their heads in opposition and began to revolt and rebel
against Ali.
In order to quell the
civil strife and sedition, Ali fought a war near Basra, known as the
"Battle of the Camel," against Talhah and Zubayr in which Ummul Mu'mineen A'ishah,
was also involved. He fought another war against Mu'awiyah on the
border of Iraq and Syria which lasted for a year and a half and is
famous as the "Battle of Siffin." He also fought against the Khawarij
at Nahrawan, in a battle known as the "Battle of Nahrawan." Therefore,
most of the days of Ali's caliphate were spent in overcoming internal
opposition. Finally, in the morning of the 19th of Ramadan in the year
40 A.H., while praying in the mosque of Kufa, he was wounded by one of
the Khawarij and died as a martyr during the night of the 21st of
Ramadan.
According to the
testimony of friend and foe alike, Ali had no shortcomings from the
point of view of human perfection. And in the Islamic virtues he was a
perfect example of the upbringing and training given by the Prophet
(sawas). The discussions that have taken place concerning his
personality and the books written on this subject by Shi'ites, Sunnis
and members of other religions, as well as the simply curious outside
any distinct religious bodies, are hardly equalled in the case of any
other personality in history.
In science and knowledge
Ali was the most learned of the companions of the Prophet (sawas), and
of Muslims in general. In his learned discourses he was the first in
Islam to open the door for logical demonstration and proof and to
discuss the "divine sciences" or metaphysics (ma'arif-i ilahlyah). He
spoke concerning the esoteric aspect of the Quran and devised Arabic
grammar in order to preserve the Quran's form of expression. He was the
most eloquent Arab in speech (as has been mentioned in the first part
of this book).
The courage of Ali was
proverbial. In all the wars in which he participated during the
lifetime of the Prophet (sawas), and also afterward, he never displayed
fear or anxiety. Although in many battles such as those of Uhud,
Hunayn, Khaybar and Khandaq the aides to the Prophet (sawas) and the
Muslim army trembled in fear or dispersed and fled, he never turned his
back to the enemy. Never did a warrior or soldier engage Ali in battle
and come out of it alive. Yet, with full chivalry he would never slay a
weak enemy nor pursue those who fled. He would not engage in surprise
attacks or in turning streams of water upon the enemy. It has been
definitively established historically that in the Battle of Khaybar in
the attack against the fort he reached the ring of the door and with
sudden motion tore off the door and cast it away. Also on the day when
Mecca was conquered the Prophet (sawas) ordered the idols to be broken.
The idol "Hubal" was the largest idol in Mecca, a giant stone statue
placed on the top of the Ka'bah. Following the command of the Prophet
(sawas), Ali placed his feet on the Prophet (sawas)'s shoulders,
climbed to the top of the Ka'bah, pulled "Hubal" from its place and
cast it down.
Ali was also without
equal in religious asceticism and the worship of God. In answer to some
who had complained of Ali's anger toward them, the Prophet (sawas)
said, "Do not reproach Ali for he is in a state of Divine ecstasy and
bewilderment.
" Abu Darda'', one of the
companions, one day saw the body of Ali in one of the palm plantations
of Medina laying on the ground as stiff as wood. He went to Ali's house
to inform his noble wife, the daughter of the Prophet (sawas), and to
express his condolences. The daughter of the Prophet (sawas) said, "My
cousin (Ali) has not died. Rather, in fear of God he has fainted. This
condition overcomes him often." There are many stories told of Ali's
kindness to the lowly, compassion for the needy and the poor, and
generosity and munificence toward those in misery and poverty. Ali
spent all that he earned to help the poor and the needy, and himself
lived in the strictest and simplest manner. Ali loved agriculture and
spent much of his time digging wells, planting trees and cultivating
fields. But all the fields that he cultivated or wells that he built he
gave in endowment (waqf) to the poor. His endowments, known as the
"alms of Ali," had the noteworthy income of twenty-four thousand gold
dinars toward the end of his life.
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