A Muslim Convert Once Before

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ   Shaykh ‘Utsman Nuri Tufbas wrote, in “Islam, Spirit, & Form”, Sayyidina Hasan ibn ‘Ali ( r.a. ) used to read a prayer while entering the mosque as follows: “O my Lord!   Here is your servant at your door.   O the most Merciful Lord!   Your sinful servant is before You.   You Ordered Your righteous servants to forgive the evil acts of sinful people because You are the Most-Generous and the Most-Forgiving.   Please Forgive my sins and Show Mercy to me by Your Generosity and Compassion!”   Imam Abu al-Hasan ‘Ali ibn Husayn Zayn al-‘Abidin ( q.s. ) used to turn pale whenever he rose to make ablution and his legs used to shake when he was about to pray.   And he used to answer those who asked him “what happens to you” as follows: “– Do not you ever know Whose Presence I am about to enter?”   Once, his house caught fire while he was in prayer, but he did not notice it.   On completion of his pr...

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ   Imam Abu al-Hasan ‘Ali ibn Husayn Zayn al-‘Abidin ( r.a. ) said:   “I keep the jewels of my knowledge concealed, Lest the ignorant see Truth and turn away. How many an essential knowledge, if I divulged it, I would be told for it: 'You are of the idol-worshippers'; And righteous men would deem licit my blood, And think well of the ugly deed they would commit.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Imam Abu al-Hasan ‘Ali ibn Husayn Zayn al-‘Abidin ( q.s. ) said, “If people only knew what brilliant result lies in seeking knowledge, they would have definitely sought it, even by shedding the blood of their hearts, and plunging into the depth of oceans.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Imam Abu al-Hasan ‘Ali ibn Husayn Zayn al-‘Abidin ( q.s. ) said, “People who are safe from Allah’s ( s.w.t. ) Punishment are those who fear Allah ( s.w.t. ) more than others.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Imam Abu al-Hasan ‘Ali ibn Husayn Zayn al-‘Abidin ( r.a. ) said, “The pride of the arrogant surprises me.   The day before, he was a drop of a dirty fluid and tomorrow he will be a corpse, and still he is proud.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Imam Abu al-Hasan ‘Ali ibn Husayn Zayn al-‘Abidin ( q.s. ) said, “Beware of keeping company with a liar, for he is like a mirage.   He shows you the near thing as distant, and the distant thing as nearby.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Imam Abu al-Hasan ‘Ali ibn Husayn Zayn al-‘Abidin ( q.s. ) said, “No performance with piety can be trifling; how could it be trifling when it is Accepted by God?”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Imam Abu al-Hasan ‘Ali ibn Husayn Zayn al-‘Abidin ( q.s. ) said, “The one in greatest danger is he who does not regard this world as dangerous for himself.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Imam Abu al-Hasan ‘Ali ibn Husayn Zayn al-‘Abidin ( q.s. ) said, “The best key for all affairs is truth, and the best end of all affairs is faithfulness and loyalty.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Imam Abu al-Hasan ‘Ali ibn Husayn Zayn al-‘Abidin ( q.s. ) said, “Beware of the company of the miser, for he will not part with his wealth to help you when you need it most.   Avoid the company of a liar, as he is like a mirage, he will present the distant as near, and the near as distant.   Moving with the pious invites you to righteousness.”

Imam Abu al-Hasan ‘Ali ibn Husayn Zayn al-‘Abidin, when he was harassed by the Umayyad tyrants, lamented: “O Winds!  If someday you pass by the sacred land, then pass my salaam Before the Rawdhah al-Aqdas where the most exalted Nabi rests. The sadness of separation from Madina feels, Like a sword stuck deep into my liver. How fortunate are the people of that city in, Which is the Exalted and Beloved Prophet. O Rahmatan li al-‘Aalamin !  Assist Zayn al-‘Abidin, Who is standing alone and in difficulty amongst the tyrants.” Imam Zayn al-‘Abidin survived Karbala in 680 CE only because illness had left him too weak to fight alongside his father, Sayyidina Husayn ibn ‘Ali.  He watched, from a sickbed, as the men of his own household were killed around him.  He was then taken captive, marched in chains alongside the surviving women of the Ahl al-Bayt across the desert to Damascus, and paraded before Yazid ibn Mu’awiyah’s own court, the same court responsible for the massa...

Mulla Kamal ad-Din Husayn ibn ‘Ali al-Wa’izh al-Kashifi as-Sabzawari was the fifteenth-century Naqshbandi shaykh , scholar, and author of the Rawdhat ash-Shuhada’ (the Garden of Martyrs), one of the most celebrated Persian accounts of Karbala’.  He recorded in his Futuwwat Namah-yi Sultani , a Persian treatise on spiritual chivalry, that Imam Abu al-Hasan ‘Ali ibn Husayn Zayn al-‘Abidin cursed the murderers of his father, Sayyidina al-Husayn ibn ‘Ali, every time he drank water. When asked why, he said: “My father asked me to remember his thirst and curse his murderers every time I drank.” The Context of the Thirst The army of Yazid ibn Mu’awiyah blocked the Euphrates three days before the 10 th of Muharram, 61 AH.  The camp of Sayyidina al-Husayn) — his family, his companions, the women, the children, the infants — had no access to water for three days. It was a deliberate military decision.  The commander, ‘Amr ibn al-Hajjaj az-Zubaydi, was placed in charge of the rive...

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ After the massacre of the Ahl al-Bayt at Karbala, the accursed ‘Ubdaydullah ibn Ziyad ibn Abu Sufyan, ordered the killing of the last surviving Husayni male of the family of the Prophet ( s.a.w. ), the then 14-year-old Imam Abu al-Hasan ‘Ali ibn Husayn Zayn al-‘Abidin ( q.s. ), as he lay sick in the ladies’ tent.   His aunt, Sayyidah Zaynab bint Fathimah az-Zahrah ( q.s. ) screamed, “Who will be our mahram if he is killed?”   So, the soldiers left him alone.   Every sayyid , including the haba’ib of Yemen, many of the ‘ulama , the awliya’ , and the a’immah of our time, and the shuyukh of the various Sufi orders, are descendants of this lone survivor of Karbala.   And since the Ahl al-Bayt have this tendency to intermarry, this has become true for every lineage.

Imam Abu al-Hasan ‘Ali ibn Husayn Zayn al-‘Abidin was the fourth Imam of the Ahl al-Bayt , the great-grandson of the Prophet through Sayyidina al-Husayn ibn ‘Ali.  He was among the most revered figures in all Islamic history, respected across every school of Islamic thought without exception.  His Risalat al-Huquq — the Treatise of Rights — and his asw-Swahifah as-Sajjadiyyah — the Psalms of Islam — are among the most sublime documents in the Islamic literary tradition. A group of people from Iraq visited him.  They proceeded to speak disrespectfully of Sayyidina Abu Bakr ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Utsman asw-Swiddiq, Sayyidina Abu Hafsw ‘Umar ibn al-Khaththab al-Faruq, and Sayyidina Abu ‘Amr ‘Utsman ibn ‘Affan.  They were speaking disrespectfully of the three Caliphs in the presence of the great-grandson of the Prophet, apparently under the impression that this would be welcome.  It was not. The Three Questions Imam Zayn al-‘Abidin did not raise his voice.  He did...

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Once, a person asked Imam Abu al-Hasan ‘Ali ibn Husayn Zayn al-‘Abidin ( q.s. ), “Who will be looked upon as pious and good on the Last Day?”   He replied, “That person, who when he is happy, his happiness does not drive him towards wrong and that person, when he is angry, then his anger does not remove him from what is right.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Imam Ja’far ibn Muhammad asw-Swadiq ( q.s. ) said, “When my grandfather, Zayn al-‘Abidin recited the Qur’an, the beauty of his recitation attracted the people towards him and all those listening to him would become so overwhelmed with the awe of Allah ( s.w.t. ), that one did not know the condition of the other.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ It is written, in Aw’arif al-Ma’arif , that when Imam Abu al-Hasan ‘Ali ibn Husayn Zayn al-‘Abidin ( q.s. ) performed wudhu , his face used to become pale, and when he stood in swalah , then his complexion would change to such an extent, that it would be difficult to recognise him.   The people would ask, “O Beloved of the Prophet, what has happened to you?”   And he would reply, “O People!   Swalah is a time when you are present in the Court of Allah ( s.w.t. ).   Who is so naive as to smile and look happy, when he is standing before his Creator?”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ A person once swore at Imam Abu al-Hasan ‘Ali ibn Husayn Zayn al-‘Abidin ( q.s. ) and made slanderous remarks to him.   In response, Imam Zayn al-‘Abidin ( q.s. ) said to him, “If the attributes, you accuse me of, are found in me then I repent to Allah ( s.w.t. ), and ask for Forgiveness.   If the attributes are not found in me then, on your behalf, I ask Allah ( s.w.t. ) for Forgiveness.”   The person saw Imam Zayn al-‘Abidin’s ( q.s. ) ihsan and was overwhelmed by it.   He stood up, kissed Imam Zayn al-‘Abidin ( q.s. ) on the forehead and said, “May my soul be sacrificed for you!   Whatever I accused you of was wrong.   I seek forgiveness from you and I request you to pray to Allah ( s.w.t. ) for the Acceptance of my repentance.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ   Imam Abu al-Hasan ‘Ali ibn Husayn Zayn al-‘Abidin ( q.s. ) used to perform one thousand raka’at of nafl swalah every night.   One night, whilst he was performing his nawafil , his house caught on fire.   The people rushed around trying to put of the fire but he continued his swalah oblivious to the fire.   After he had completed his swalah , the people told him that his house had caught on fire.   He replied, “You were trying to extinguish this fire, and I was trying to extinguish the fire of the Hereafter.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Once, Imam Abu al-Hasan ‘Ali ibn Husayn Zayn al-‘Abidin ( q.s. ) was walking in Madina when he saw a person placing a goat on the ground, and was sharpening the knife before slaughtering the animal.   On seeing this, he became very saddened and thought of the martyrdom of his father.   He then began to weep bitterly and asked the man, “My dear brother, did you give the goat some food and water?”   The man replied that he had fed and given water to the goat for the past three days, and had also fed it water just before laying in down.   On hearing this, Imam Zayn al-‘Abidin ( q.s. ) let out a sigh and said, “It is sad that the people of Kufa’ did not even care for him like the goat.   They starved him for three days and nights and then martyred him in this state.”