A brief look at Imam Zaynul Abideen (AS)’s life

By: Ali Al-Saleh

Hazrat Imam Ali Yibnil Hussein Zaynul Abideen (AS) is the Fourth Apostolic Imam. His epithet was Abu Muhammad and was popularly titled as Zaynul Abideen (AS). The mother of this Holy Imam was the royal personage, Shahr Banu, the daughter of King Yazdgerd of Persia. Imam Zaynul Abideen (AS) spent the first two years of his infancy in the lap of his grandfather Ali ibn Abi Talib (AS) and then for twelve years he had the gracious patronage of his uncle, the second Holy Imam al-Hassan ibn Ali (AS).

In 61 AH, he was present in Karbala, at the time of the gruesome tragedy of the wholesale massacre of his father, his uncles, his brothers, his cousins and all the godly comrades of his father; and suffered a heartless captivity and imprisonment at the hands of the devilish forces of Yazid. When Imam Husayn (AS) had come for the last time to his camp to bid goodbye to his family, Zaynul Abideen (AS) was lying semiconscious in his sickbed and hence he escaped the massacre in Karbala. Imam Husayn (AS) could only manage a very brief talk with the inmates of his camp and departed nominating his sick son as Imam (AS).

The Holy Imam Zaynul Abideen (AS) lived for about thirty-four years after his father and all his life he passed in prayers and supplication to Allah and in remembrance of his martyred father. It is for his ever being in prayers to Allah, mostly lying in prayerful prostration, that this Holy Imam was popularly called “Sajjad”. The knowledge and piety of this Holy Imam was matchless. He was so mindful of Allah that whenever he sat for ablution for prayers, the complexion of his face would change and when he stood at prayer his body was seen trembling. When asked why this was, he replied, “Know ye not before whom I stand in prayer, and with whom I hold discourse?”

When the brutal forces of Yazid's army had taken the ladies and children as captives, carrying them seated on the bare back of the camels, tied in ropes; this Holy Imam, though sick, was put in heavy chains with iron rings round his neck and his ankles, and was made to walk barefooted on the thorny plains from Karbala to Kufa and to Damascus; and even then this godly soul never was unmindful of his prayers to the Lord and was always thankful and supplicative to Him.

His charity was unassuming and hidden. After his passing away, the people said that hidden charity ended with the departure of this Holy Imam. Like his grand-father 'Ali ibn Abi Talib (AS), Zaynul Abideen (AS) used to carry on his own back at night bags of flour and bread for the poor and needy families in Medina and he so maintained hundred of poor families in the city.

The Holy Imam was not only hospitable even to his enemies but also used to continually exhort them to the right path. Imam Zaynul Abideen (AS) along with the Ahlul Bayt passed through dreadful and very dangerous times, for the aggressions and atrocities of the tyrant rulers of the age had reached a climax.

The invaluable collection of his edited prayers are known as as-Sahifah al-Kdmilah or As-Sahifah As-Sajjddiyyah; It consists of fifty-seven prayers concerning the most sublime Divine sciences and is known also as Psalm of Aal-e-Muhammad (SAWW). The collection is an invaluable treasury of wonderfully effective supplications to the Lord in inimitably beautiful language.

On the 25th of Muharram 95 AH when he was in Medina, al-Walid ibn 'Abdi 'l-Malik ibn Marwan, the then ruler got this Holy Imam martyred by poison. His son the Fifth Imam, Muhammad al-Baqir, conducted the funeral prayers for this Holy Imam and his body was buried in the cemetery of Jannatul Baqi in Medina.