Ali ibn Husayn al-Zayn al-'Abedin
The Fourth Imam
Imam
Sajjad (Ali ibn Husayn entitled Zayn al-'abedin and Sajjad) was the son
of the third Imam and his wife, the queen among women, the daughter of
Yazdigird the king of Persia. He was the only son of Imam Husayn to
survive, for his other three brothers Ali Akbar, aged twenty-five, five
year old Ja'far and Ali Asghar (or 'Abdallah) who was a suckling baby
were martyred during the event of Kerbala.
The Imam
had also accompanied his father on the journey that terminated fatally
in Kerbala, but because of severe illness and the inability to carry
arms or participate in fighting he was prevented from taking part in the
holy war and being martyred. So he was sent with the womenfolk to
Damascus. After spending a period in imprisonment he was sent with
honour to Medina because Yazid wanted to conciliate public opinion. But
for a second time, by the order of the Umayyad caliph, 'Abd al-Malik, he
was chained and sent from Medina to Damascus and then again returned to
Medina.
The fourth
Imam, upon returning to Medina, retired from public life completely,
closed the door of his house to strangers and spent his time in worship.
He was in contact only with the elite among the Shi'ites such as Abu
Hamzah Thumali, Abu Khalid Kabuli and the like. The elite disseminated
among the Shi'ah the religious sciences they learned from the Imam. In
this way The Followers of Ahlu Bayt spread considerably and showed its
effects during the Imamate of the fifth Imam. Among the works of the
fourth Imam is a book called
Sahifa al-Sajjadiyah. It consists of fifty-seven prayers concerning
the most sublime Divine sciences and is known as "The Psalm of the
Household of the Prophet (sawas)."
The fourth
Imam died (according to some Shi'ite traditions poisoned by Walid ibn 'Abd
al-Malik through the instigation of the Umayyad caliph Hisham) in 95/712
after thirty-five years of Imamate. |