| Ali Ibn Husayn |
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This article concerns the fourth imam of Shi'a Islam. For other uses, see Ali Bin Hussein (disambiguation) . Ali ibn Hussayn (also spelled Ali ibn Hussain or Hussein) ( - 713 ) is the fourth Shi'a Imam . He is the son of Husayn Ibn Ali and the great-grandson of Muhammad . He is known to Shi'a Muslim s as Zayn al-Abideen, or "Jewel of the Worshippers". Alternative spellings include ''Zainal Abidin'', ''Zain Al-Abidin'', or even ''Zainulabideen'' and variations of this single-worded form. BIRTH AND FAMILY LIFE Ali ibn Husayn, ''Zayn al-Abideen'', was born in Medina in 658 . His father, Husayn Ibn Ali , is considered the Third Shia Imam by most Shi'a; Husayn was the grandson of Muhammad. It is widely believed that Ali ibn Husayn's mother was Shahr Banu , the daughter of the last Sassanid emperor, Yazdegerd III . However, some contemporary Islamic Scholars have challenged this claim. Because of the belief in his royal Sassanid heritage, he is sometimes called ''Ibn al-Khiyaratayn'' ("son of the best two"), meaning the Quraysh among the Arabs and the Persians among the non-Arabs. According to some accounts, his mother was brought as a captive to Medina during the caliphate of Umar , who wanted to sell her. Ali suggested instead that she be offered her choice of the Muslim men as husband and that her dower be paid from the public treasury. Umar agreed and she chose Ali's son, Husayn. She is said to have died shortly after giving birth to her only son, Ali. He was about two years old when his grandfather, Ali Ibn Abi Talib , was killed. Zayn al-Abideen fathered fifteen children: eleven boys and four girls. LEARNING He dedicated his life to learning and became an authority on prophetic traditions and Shari'a . He is regarded as the source of the third holiest book in Shi'a Islam after the Qur'an and the Nahj Al-Balagha (the collection of the works of Ali), the '' Sahifa Al-Sajjadiyya '', commonly referred to as the ''Psalms of the Household of the Prophet''. Zayn al-Abideen had many staunch supporters such as Sa'id Bin Jubayr . PIETY Shi'a Muslims praise him for his nobility of character and his piety, which are said to have earned him his sobriquet (''Zayn al-Abideen'') within his lifetime. ASHURAH At the famous Battle Of Karbala on the day of Ashurah , Husayn and most of his family were killed. Zayn al-Abideen survived because he was too sick to fight, and was bedridden. Afterwards, he was taken prisoner by the Umayyad forces and transported to Damascus where he was made a prisoner of the Caliph, Yazid I . Eventually, he was freed, and returned to Medina where he lived a quiet life as a scholar and a teacher. It is said that for twenty years, whenever food was placed before him, he would weep. One day, a servant said to him, ''"O son of God's Messenger! Is it not time for your sorrow to come to an end?"'' He replied, ''"Woe upon you! Jacob the prophet had twelve sons, and God made one of them disappear. His eyes turned white from constant weeping, his head turned grey out of sorrow, and his back became bent in gloom, though his son was alive in this world. But I watched while my father, my brother, my uncle, and seventeen members of my family were slaughtered all around me. How should my sorrow come to an end?"'' DEATH Zayn al-Abideen resided in Medina until his death in c. 712 - 714 (94 or 95 AH). Some claim that he was poisoned by the caliph of the day, Waleed Bin Abdul Malik Marwan . (Some Twelver Shia claim that every imam was murdered by Sunni Muslims.) He was buried in '' Jannat Al-Baqi '', the cemetery in Medina where other important figures of Islamic history are buried. THE IMAMAH The issue of who succeeded him as Imam led to a split within Shi'ism . While the Twelver Shi'a believe that it was Muhammad Al-Baqir , his son, who succeeded him while another (minority) community, the Zaidiyyah believe it was Ali's other son, Zaid . SEE ALSO EXTERNAL LINKS Shi'a references
Sunni references
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