Karbala and Survival
When Imam Husayn was martyred at Karbala on 10 Muharram 61 AH (680 CE), his son Ali was approximately 22 years old and severely ill — too ill to fight. This illness was later understood as divinely arranged: had he been healthy, he would have fought and died with the others, ending the Imamate chain.
After Karbala, he was taken captive with the women and children of the Prophet’s family and brought to Yazid’s court in Damascus. There, according to all accounts, he maintained his dignity and prophetic lineage with extraordinary composure — making clear speeches in court about the Ahl al-Bayt’s station.
Yazid eventually released the survivors, and Imam Ali Zayn al-‘Abidin returned to Medina, where he spent the rest of his life.
Character and Worship
His epithet Zayn al-‘Abidin (ornament of the worshippers) was given because of the extraordinary intensity of his worship. He was reported to have prayed 1,000 rak’at per day in voluntary prayer. When he made wudu and stood for prayer, his color would change from the gravity of the divine presence.
He was known for:
- Anonymous charity: He would carry food at night to the poor families of Medina without revealing his identity — only after his death did people discover from marks on his shoulders that he had been personally carrying sacks of flour
- Freeing slaves: He would buy slaves, teach them the Quran and proper Islamic conduct, then free them
- Scholarship: He taught hadith and Islamic sciences; his students were among the great scholars of the Tabi’in generation
The Sahifa al-Sajjadiyya — The Psalms of Islam
His greatest legacy is the Sahifa al-Sajjadiyya (صَحِيفَةُ السَّجَّادِيَّة — the Page/Book of the Prostrating One) — a collection of 54 prayers covering every dimension of the believer’s relationship with Allah: morning prayers, evening prayers, prayers on the occasion of the new moon, prayers during illness, during Ramadan, prayers for parents, for neighbors, for enemies, for forgiveness.
The Sahifa is considered by Shi’a and Ismaili scholars as one of the most exalted works of Islamic literature after the Quran and the hadith corpus. Its Arabic is of extraordinary beauty and theological precision.
The Risalat al-Huquq — The Treatise on Rights
He is also the author of Risalat al-Huquq (the Treatise on Rights) — a systematic enumeration of the rights that different categories of people and conditions hold over the believer: rights of Allah, rights of the self, rights of parents, of children, of neighbors, of scholars, of rulers, of the poor. It is a comprehensive ethical framework unlike anything else in early Islamic literature. See [[risalat-huquq]].
See also: Imam Husayn, Ali Ibn Abi Talib, Karbala, Nass, Wasiyyat, Bohra History, Understanding Walayah