Ep. 12: Imam Zayn al Abidin | Our Models – The Heroes We Want to Be

After the Muslims conquered Persia, the king of that time escaped and went into hiding. In this way, he spent the rest of his life and died. In the meantime, his children were taken captive and brought into Madinah to be sold off as slaves. When Ali (RA) saw that the daughters of the king were being brought amongst the other slaves that were captured, he suggested to Umar (RA) to not deal with those princesses the way they were dealing with the other slaves and instead, a high price should be set for them and they should be allowed to choose their own masters. Umar (RA) liked this opinion and the three daughters chose who they would have liked to be with. One of them chose Sayyidina Hussain ibn Ali (RA) as her master and she accepted Islam. He freed her, married her and was having his first child with her, and as she delivered the child, she became very sick, and soon after giving birth to the child, she passed away. This child was named Ali, after his grandfather, Ali ibn Talib (RA). He grew up with his first teacher, his father, Hussain (RA), and the blessed noble family of the prophet (SAW), and from childhood, he had access to the great sahaba and the top level of historians who were in Madinah at that time. This young Ali, Ali ibn Hussain, saw many difficulties and tribulations. In fact, he was there when his father was martyred. He endured and continued to live his life as a man of knowledge and wisdom and dedicated a lot of his time to worship. In fact, even as a young child, he would pray so much extra salah that some people used to refer to him as “the one who is always making sujood”. The general public began referring to him as “Zayn al-Abidin”, “The most beautiful or worshippers”.

Allah (SWT) blessed this person with wealth and had very profitable businesses. However, he had other things in mind – one was that he would never compromise his faith, but beyond that, he became a one-man system of welfare for the poor and destitute. He took upon the responsibility of taking care of 100 families. The way he did it was that they did not even know that they were about to get assistance – he handpicked them himself, and he would, in the middle of the night, take sacks of food on his back and deliver them to the poor. He did this for one hundred houses all of his life. No one knew who it was. This was discovered later when he passed away. When he died, those families did not find the supply of food in front of their houses, and when Ali ibn Hussain’s body was being washed, markings were found that would only be found on laborers backs. They made the connection that it was him the entire time. Secretly, with ikhlas and without announcing it, he unconditionally helped and served people. This was his attitude in the daytime as well. Allah (SWT) had given him a high set of akhlaq and mannerisms. Once, he got into a conflict with his own cousin, the son of Hassan (RA). They exchanged some words, and his cousin, whose name was Hassan ibn Hassan, came up to him amongst his friends and really told him off. He told him everything he could possibly say just to let out his anger. Zayn al-Abidin did not utter a single word and remained completely quiet. He let his cousin say whatever he wanted to say, and when he walked away, he did not chase after him. That night, he went to visit his cousin at his house. He knocked on the door, and when his cousin came out, he thought, “It’s payback time. He’s going to give me a taste of what I did to him earlier today.” However, he did nothing of the sort. He said, “Look, my brother; if whatever you said about me is true, may Allah (SWT) forgive me for being like that. And if whatever you said about me is not true, may Allah (SWT) forgive you for saying it.” He said salaam and walked off. Hussain narrates that he was left stunned at the decency of his response. He chased after him, and when he caught up to him, he said, “Please forgive me for the sake of Allah (SWT).” He forgave him.

Once, he was leaving the masjid and a group of people were with him. A random person came and started insulting him in front of all of these people. Zayn al-Abidin was loved by the community, and when this happened, people immediately pounced on this person. They said, “How dare you insult him like that?” The man panicked and became scared. Imam Zayn al-Abidin cleared them away and asked the man, who was now trembling, “Is there something that you need or something that I can help you with?” He replied, “I am sorry.” Imam Zayn al-Abidin said to him, “Whatever you said is based on what you see in me, but whatever you do not see in me is much worse than what you do see.” Imam Zayn al-Abidin asked to give him a sack of dirhams and wrapped his shawl around the person to comfort him. He sent him on his way with the sack of dirhams. After this, every time this person saw Zayn al-Abidin, he would stand up and say, “I testify that you are definitely from the progeny of the prophet (SAW).”

Just having the lineage is not enough – it was his character. This character built appreciation in the people around him. In the time of Hisham bin Abdul-Malik, who was at that time the crown prince of the Umawi dynasty, Hisham came for Hajj. He had his guards try to move people away and make space for him to let him do tawaf properly. It was crowded and difficult to make your way, and even today, this happens. As this was happening and he was struggling to go around the Ka’bah, he saw that a man walked into the mutaf, and as soon as he walked in, people started parting for him and moved out of the way. He very easily went up and kissed Al-Hajar Al-Aswad and started doing tawaf. As he went around, the people moved out of the way themselves. One of Hisham’s guards whispered to him, “Who is this man that people are moving out of the way for him? Here you are, the crown prince of the kingdom, and we are trying to make way for you.” Hisham replied, “I do not know who he is.” Of course, he knew very well who he was, but he did not want to admit that this person had so much importance. There was a poet standing nearby and this poet was famous for his couplets. His name was Farazdaq, one of the most famous poets in Arabic history. Farazdaq heard this and could not stay quiet. He became so upset, saying, “You are not acknowledging who this man is, so let me tell you who he is. This is the man that the stones of Makkah know who he is. The house that he is walking in knows who is. The land inside the haram knows who he is and the land outside the haram knows who he is. This is from the children of the prophet (SAW), and this man, who is so pious, gracious and one of our most outstanding people is from the progeny of Fatima (RA), and it was his grandfather who was the last of prophets. You saying that you do not know who he is does not hurt him because all of the Arabs and non-Arabs know who he is.” He went on for quite a while. “The only time you would hear him say no was in the time that he would proclaim, ‘There is no god but Allah (SWT) and the prophet (SAW) is his messenger’. Anyone who would come to him for help would be greeted with ‘yes’.” He says all of this and eventually gets arrested for making the crown prince look bad. Zayn al-Abidin found out about this and had no idea this was happening in the background, and when he found out, he sent him a large amount of money. He asked for forgiveness and told Farazdaq to use the money for his necessities. He was sent a letter in response and it read, “Someone like you – their gift cannot be sent back. I know, as I am one of those poets who goes into the palaces of kings and rulers and they give me money after I praise them, but I did not do this for a reward. This was a cry from the heart after I saw that this person did not give you the respect that Allah (SWT) had given you.”

When we live this kind of life and we become selfless, Allah (SWT) gives honor and respect. Respect and honor is reserved for three entities – Allah (SWT), his prophet (SAW) and for the believers. May Allah (SWT) enable us to earn honor through the way that these people did – through their akhlaq, mannerisms, sincerity and their beautiful character.