C—Mention of a Portion of His Virtues and His States (Peace be Upon Him)

He (Peace be Upon Him) was raised upon knowledge, worship, virtue, and asceticism, and he was known in Madī nah as the Ally of the Qur’an; and he would hear something of the remembrance of Allah and fall unconscious.
Many reports have been transmitted concerning him from the Messenger (May Allah bless him and his family and grant them peace). Among them is what we have narrated with a trustworthy chain of transmission to the Commander of the Faithful ʿAlī ibn Abī T a lib (Peace be Upon Him), who said: When the Messenger (May Allah bless him and his family and grant them peace) informed me of the killing of al-H usayn ibn ʿAlī (Peace be Upon Him) and the crucifixion of his son Zayd ibn ʿAlī (Peace be Upon Them Both), I said: O Messenger of Allah, are you pleased that your offspring should be killed? He said: “O ʿAlī , I am pleased with the decree of Allah concerning me and my offspring. And I have two supplications: as for one supplication, it is today; and as for the second, it is when they are presented before Allah—Exalted is He—and their deeds are presented to me.” Then he raised his hands to the sky and said: “O ʿAlī , affirm my supplication: O Allah, count them by number, kill them separately, set some of them against others, and prevent them from drinking from my Basin and from accompanying me.” He said: So Jibrī l (Peace be Upon Him) came to me while I was supplicating against them and you were affirming, and he said: “Your supplication has been answered.”
And with a chain of transmission to Yah ya ibn Maymu n, raising it to the Prophet (May Allah bless him and his family and grant them peace), he said: “A man from my Household will be
crucified in Ku fah, naked; no one deliberately looks at his nakedness except that Allah—Exalted is He—will blind him on the Day of Resurrection.”
And with a chain of transmission to Abu Dharr al-Ghifa rī (Peace be Upon Him), he said: I saw the Messenger (May Allah bless him and his family and grant them peace) while he was weeping, so I wept because of his weeping, and I said: May my father and mother be ransomed for you—you have severed the ligaments of my heart with your weeping. He said: “May Allah not sever the ligaments of your heart, O Abu Dharr. Indeed, my son al-H usayn (Peace be Upon Him) will have a son named ʿAlī ; my beloved Jibrī l (Peace be Upon Him) informed me that he is known in the heavens as the Master of the worshippers, and that he will have a son called Zayd; and that the followers of Zayd are the knights of Allah on the earth, and the knights of Allah in the heavens are the angels; and that the creation on the Day of Resurrection will be brought to account; and that the followers of Zayd will be upon a white land like silver—or the color of silver—eating, drinking, and enjoying themselves, and some of them will say to others: ‘Go to your master, the Commander of the Faithful, so that we may see how he gives drink to his followers.’” He said: “So they will ride upon noble mounts of ruby and chrysolite, adorned with jewels; their reins will be of fresh pearls, and their saddles of sundus and istabraq.” He said: “While they are riding, some of them will say to others: ‘By Allah, we see people who were not with us in the battle.’” He said: “So Zayd (Peace be Upon Him) will hear and say: ‘By Allah, these participated with you in what you were upon in the world, just as people participated who came after the Battle of S iffī n; and indeed they are your brothers today and your partners.’”
And we have narrated, with a trustworthy chain of transmission, to the Prophet (May Allah bless him and his family and grant them peace) that he said: “The best of the former and the latter is the one killed for the sake of Allah, the crucified one in my nation, the wronged one from my Household—this one is named so.” Then he drew Zayd ibn H a rithah close to him and said: “O Zayd, indeed your name has increased you in love with me; he is named after the beloved from my Household.”
And we have narrated from him (May Allah bless him and his family and grant them peace) that he said: “A man from my offspring will be killed, called Zayd, in a place known as al-Kana sah; he will call to the truth, and every believer will follow him.”
And we have narrated from H ayyah al-ʿAranī , who said: I was with the Commander of the Faithful (Peace be Upon Him)—I and al-As bagh ibn Nuba tah—at al-Kana sah, in the place of the butchers, the mosque, and the grain-sellers; and it was at that time an open desert. He kept turning his gaze to that place, weeping intensely, and saying: “May my father and mother be ransomed for him.” Al-As bagh said: O Commander of the Faithful, you have wept and looked about until our hearts and our eyes have wept; I looked and saw no one. He said: The Messenger (May Allah bless him and his family and grant them peace) told me: “A child will be
born to me—his father was not yet born—who will meet Allah angry with him and pleased with him, firmly upon the truth, upon the religion of Jibrī l and Mī ka ʾī l and Muh ammad (May Allah bless them all and grant them peace); and he will be mutilated in this place with a mutilation such as no one before him was mutilated, nor will anyone after him be mutilated—may the prayers of Allah be upon his soul and upon the souls that are taken with him.”
And we have narrated from Ibn ʿAbba s (Peace be Upon Him), who said: While ʿAlī (Peace be Upon Him) was among his companions, he wept intensely until his beard became soaked. So al-H asan (Peace be Upon Him) said to him: O my father, why do you weep?
He said: O my son, for matters hidden from you, which the Messenger (May Allah bless him and his family and grant them peace) informed me of. He said: And what did the Messenger (May Allah bless him and his family and grant them peace) inform you of? He said: O my son, had you not asked me, I would not have told you, lest you grieve and your sorrow be prolonged. The Messenger (May Allah bless him and his family and grant them peace) informed me—then he mentioned a long narration, in which he said:
“O ʿAlī , how will you be when the cross-eyed, repulsive one—the unbelieving, base one—assumes authority? Then the best of the people of the earth, from its length and breadth, will rise against him.” I said: O Messenger of Allah, who is he? He said: “O ʿAlī , a man whom Allah has strengthened with faith, and whom Allah has clothed with the garment of righteousness and beneficence. He will go forth with a band calling to the Most Merciful; his helpers are among the best of helpers. The cross-eyed one of hatred will kill him, then crucify him upon a trunk of a pomegranate tree, then burn him with fire, then strike him with palm-fiber sticks until he becomes ashes like the ashes of fire; then his soul and the souls of his followers will return to Allah—Exalted is He—to the gardens.”
And we have narrated, with a chain of transmission, from Jaʿfar ibn Muh ammad, from his father, from his grandfather, from al-H usayn ibn ʿAlī (Peace be Upon Them Both), that ʿAlī , the Commander of the Faithful (Peace be Upon Him), delivered a sermonupon the pulpit of Ku fah. He mentioned matters and tribulations until he mentioned that he said: “Then Hisha m shall rule for nineteen years, and the land of Rus a fah shall conceal him—laid out for him is the Fire. What have I to do with Hisha m? A tyrant, obstinate, the killer of my pure and purified son; no compassion nor mercy restrains him. He will crucify my son at al-Kana sah of Ku fah—Zayd—in the loftiest summit of the highest degrees. If Zayd is killed, then it is upon the way of his father.
Then comes al-Walī d: a Pharaoh, vile, wretched, not felicitous. How stripped and slain he is! Its corrupter is al-Walī d, its unbeliever is Yazī d, its false god is Azraq, its forerunner is the son of the eater of livers. Leave him to eat and enjoy and be diverted by hope; for tomorrow he shall know who is the lying, insolent one.”
And we have narrated from the Commander of the Faithful ʿAlī ibn Abī T a lib (Peace be Upon Him) that he said: “There shall emerge from me, in the outskirts of Ku fah, a man called Zayd, in the majesty of sovereignty—and majesty is kingship. None of the former ones preceded him, nor shall the latter ones attain him, except one who acts with the like of his action. He shall come on the Day of Resurrection—he and his companions—with scrolls, then they shall stride over the necks of creation.” He said: “So the angels will meet them and say: These are the successors of successors, and the callers to the truth. And the Messenger (May Allah bless him and his family and grant them peace) will receive them and say: You have acted according to what you were commanded—enter Paradise without reckoning.”
And we have narrated from the Commander of the Faithful (Peace be Upon Him) that he said: “The martyr from my progeny, the one who stands with the truth from my offspring, the one crucified at the Kana sah of Ku fa n—he is the Imam of the strivers and the leader of the radiant, marked ones. He shall come on the Day of Resurrection—he and his companions—and the angels brought near shall meet them, calling out to them: Enter Paradise; no fear shall be upon you, nor shall you grieve.”
And we have narrated from Abu Saʿī d al-Khudrī (Peace be Upon Him) that he said: The Messenger (May Allah bless him and his family and grant them peace) said: “I was shown in my sleep a man from my Household who called to Allah and acted righteously, changed the evil and denounced injustice; then he was killed—so upon his killer is the curse of Allah.” And in another report: “So upon the one who crucified him is the curse of Allah.”
And we have narrated from Abu Ghassa n al-Azdī , who said: Zayd ibn ʿAlī (Peace be Upon Him) came to us in Levant during the days of Hisha m ibn ʿAbd al-Malik. I have never seen a man more knowledgeable of the Book of Allah than him. Hisha m imprisoned him for five months, and while we were with him in imprisonment he would expound to us the interpretation of al-Ḥamd and Su rat al-Baqarah, flowing forth abundantly. And he mentioned the Book, saying therein: “Know—may Allah have mercy upon you—that the Qur’an, and acting upon it, guides to that which is most upright; for Allah honored it, ennobled it, raised it, magnified it, and named it: a Spirit, a Mercy, a Guidance, a Healing, and a Light. And by the miraculous composition of its arrangement. He severed the ambitions of the plotters, and by its wondrous order He distinguished it from the stratagems of the affected. He made it recited without weariness, heard without the ears finding it distasteful, fresh—never worn by repeated recitation—astonishing, whose wonders never cease, and beneficial, whose benefits never end. The Qur’an is upon four aspects: lawful and unlawful, which the people cannot be excused from knowing; interpretation known to the scholars; Arabic known to the Arabs; and taʾwī l known only to Allah—and that is what is to be of what has not yet been.”
“And know—may Allah have mercy upon you—that the Qur’an has an outward, an inward, a limit, and an ascent. Its outward is its revelation; its inward is its interpretation; its limit isits obligations and rulings; and its ascent is its reward and its punishment.”
And we have also narrated, with a trustworthy chain of transmission, that Zayd ibn ʿAlī (Peace be Upon Them Both) asked Muh ammad ibn ʿAlī al-Ba qir (Peace be Upon Him) for a book that had belonged to his father. He said: So Muh ammad ibn ʿAlī said: Yes—then he forgot and did not send it to him. A year passed, then he remembered; he met Zayd and said: O my brother, did you not ask for your father’s book? He said: Indeed I did. He said: By Allah, nothing prevented me from sending it except forgetfulness. Zayd said to him: I have become independent of it. He said: Independent of your father’s book? He said: Yes—I have become independent of it by the Book of Allah. He said: Then I ask you about what is in it. Zayd said to him: Yes. He said: So Muh ammad sent for the book, then turned asking him letter by letter, and Zayd kept answering him until he reached the end of the book. Muh ammad said to him: By Allah, you have not withheld from it a single letter.
And we have narrated from Bishr ibn ʿAbdulla h, who said: I accompanied ʿAlī ibn al-H usayn (Peace be Upon Him), Abu Jaʿfar (Peace be Upon Him), Zayd ibn ʿAlī (Peace be Upon Him), ʿAbdulla h ibn al-H asan (Peace be Upon Him), and Jaʿfar ibn Muh ammad (Peace be Upon Him)—and I did not see among them anyone more prompt in reply than Zayd ibn ʿAlī (Peace be Upon Him).
And we have narrated from Saʿī d ibn Khuthaym, who said: When a man spoke to Zayd ibn ʿAlī (Peace be Upon Him) or debated him, he would not rush him from his speech until he reached its end; then he would return to him and answer him word by word until he had fully established the proof against him.
And we have narrated from Abu al-Sudayr, who said: We entered upon Abu Jaʿfar Muh ammad ibn ʿAlī (Peace be Upon Him) and found a private moment with him. We said: Today we shall ask him about our needs as we wish. While we were thus, Zayd ibn ʿAlī (Peace be Upon Him) entered, and his clothes were soaked. Abu Jaʿfar said to him: May my soul be ransomed for you—enter, pour water over yourself, then come out to us. He said: So he came out to us graciously. Then Abu Jaʿfar began asking him, and Zayd began informing him of what he used as proof and what was used as proof against him. They looked at the face of Abu Jaʿfar and saw it radiant with joy. Then Abu Jaʿfar turned to us and said: “O Abu al-Sudayr, this—by Allah—is the master of Banu Ha shim. If he calls you, then answer him; and if he seeks your help, then help him.”
And with a trustworthy chain of transmission to Abu al-Ja ru d, that Zayd ibn ʿAlī (Peace be Upon Them Both) delivered a sermon to his companions when he rose publicly, and he said:
“All praise is for Allah, who has bestowed upon us insight, and has made for us discerning hearts and attentive ears. Successful indeed is the one who makes goodness his emblem and truth his cloak. And may Allah send blessings upon the best of His creation, who came with the truth from his Lord and confirmed it—the truthful Muh ammad (May Allah bless him and his family and grant them peace)—and upon the pure ones from his progeny and household, and the chosen ones from his Ahl al-Bayt and the people of his wilayah.
O people! Hasten, hasten, before the coming of the appointed term and the severing of hope; for behind you is a seeker whom no fugitive can escape—except a fugitive who flees from Him to Him. So flee to Allah through obedience to Him, and seek refuge in His reward from His punishment. He has made you hear and see, and has called you to Him and warned you; and today you are a proof against those who come after you. Indeed Allah—Exalted is He—says: “That they may gain understanding in the religion and warn their people when they return to them, so that they may beware” [Al-Tawbah: 122], and “And do not be like those who say: ‘We hear,’ while they do not hear” [Al-Anfāl: 21], and “And do not be like those who became divided and differed after clear proofs had come to them; and those—for them is a tremendous punishment” [Āl ʿImrān: 105].
ervants of Allah! We call you to a common word between us and you: that we worship none but Allah, and associate nothing with Him, and that none of us take others as lords besides Allah. Indeed, Allah destroyed people who took their rabbis and monks as lords besides Allah. Servants of Allah! It is as though the world, when it is cut off and concluded, had never been; and as though what is to come has already descended; and as though what is departing from us has already departed. So, hasten toward goodness, and acquire righteous deeds—thus you will be upon a path from Allah. For whoever hastens toward evil and acquires wrongdoing has nothing from Allah in any way. Today I speak and you hear, yet you do not perceive; and tomorrow there will be among you a calamity and you will regret—but Allah will grant me victory when He returns me to Him. And He is the Judge between us and our people in truth. So, whoever hears this call of ours—unifying, not divisive; just, not oppressive—and responds to our call, turns back to our path, and strives against himself with his own self, and against those who follow him from the people of falsehood and the pillars of hypocrisy—then he has what we have, and upon him is what is upon us. And whoever rejects our call and refuses to respond to us, choosing the fleeting, perishing world over the abiding Hereafter—then Allah is free of those, and He will judge between us and them.
When you meet the people, th