By: Seyyed Ali Shahbaz

“In the Name of God, from Whom I hope for nothing but bounty, and from Whom I fear nothing but justice! I rely only upon His word, and I cling only to His cord!
In You (O’ God) I seek sanctuary – O Possessor of pardon and good pleasure – from wrong and enmity, from the changes of time and the recurrence of sorrows, from the striking of mishaps, and from the expiration of my term before preparation and readiness. From You I seek guidance to that wherein is righteousness and being set right… You I beseech for the garment of well-being and its completion and for the covering of health and its permanence. I seek refuge in You, my Lord, from the goading of the satans, and I seek protection in Your sovereignty from the injustice of the rulers.
“So accept my past prayers and fasting and make my tomorrow and what is after better than my present hour and my today! For You are God, the Best Guardian, and You are the Most Merciful of the merciful.
“Bless Muhammad and the progeny of Muhammad, the best of Your reaction, the summoner to Your truth.”
What a wonderful way to beseech the Lord Most High, by putting all trust in His All-Enveloping Mercy, and in seeking His formidable Protection in all affairs!
The person who bequeathed to us this gem of a supplication was not an ordinary man. He was a direct descendant of the Seal of Messengers. As a matter of fact, he was not just a great-grandson of Prophet Muhammad (SAWA) but his 4th Infallible Heir.
To be more precise, he is none other than the Survivor of the Tragedy of Karbala, who was born this day (5th of Sha’ban) in the year 38 AH (657 AD) during the brief caliphate or political rule of his grandfather, the One and Only Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb (AS), and was named after him as “Ali” by his father Imam Husain (AS).
It would be repetitive to say that his mother was the virtuous Princess of Persia, Shahrbano (SA), and that his devotion to God was such that he is known till this day as “Zain al-Abedin” (Ornament of the Worshippers) and “Seyyed os-Sajedin” (Chief of those who prostrate to God), or simply “Sajjad”.
It would also be tedious to describe the tragic events he witnessed as a 23-year old bedridden youth on the Day of Ashura (Muharram 10) in Karbala, where his father, uncles, brothers, and cousins were martyred, while during its equally tragic aftermath, despite his sickness, he was dragged in chains to the courts of the tyrants in Kufa and Damascus – along with his wife, 4-year old son, aunts, and sisters – and subjected to imprisonment in the Syrian capital.
His personality is larger than life. As the 4th Divinely-designated Imam of the Ummah – a position he held for 34 years from 61 AH till his martyrdom through poisoning in 95 AH – he has left an indelible mark on Islam and history.
He groomed several scholars such as the famous Abu Hamaza Thumali, who for his devotion to the cause of the Ahl al-Bayt was known as “Salman of the Age” – a reference to the Prophet’s great Iranian companion Salman Farsi, who was firmly attached to Imam Ali (AS).
During the first decade of his Imamate, Imam Zain al-Abedin (AS) patiently endured the oppression of the rancorous Abdullah ibn Zubayr who had declared himself caliph in Hijaz, and once plotted to burn alive all male members of the Prophet’s Hashemite clan, but failed to do so, because of the timely arrival of a rescue force sent from Iraq by Mukhtar ibn Abu Obaidah, the Avenger of the Blood of Imam Husain (AS).
The next two decades of the 4th Imam’s mission saw the resurgent power and subsequently the tyranny of the Omayyads, who had been almost totally destroyed but for the blunder of Abdullah ibn Zubayr in refusing to align with Mukhtar to deliver the coup-de-grace to the regime in Damascus.
Through the medium of prayers and supplications (as manifested in the book “Sahifat-as-Sajjadiyyah”) and by expounding the Prophet’s pure and pristine “Sunnah wa Seerah” (practice and behviour), he continued his mission to enlighten the seekers of truth, while the self-styled caliphs, Abdul-Malik ibn Marwan and Walid, were on a spree of state terrorism to plunder North Africa and Spain in the west, and the border areas of India in the east, to give a bad name to Islam and its peaceful teachings.
As part of his unsparing efforts to spread the genuine message of Islam, the 4th Imam dictated to one of his disciples the “Risalat al-Hoqouq” (Treatise of Rights) which expounds each and every right of a human being in society, including a person’s own physical organs – the benefits of their proper use and the follies of their misuse.
No wonder this treatise has been hailed as more comprehensive and perfect than the so-called Human Rights Declaration of the UN, which is full of flaws.
Imam Zain al-Abedin (AS) was the harbinger of mercy to all, even to those who had oppressed him, like the sacked Omayyad governor, Hisham bin Ismail, whom he saved from likely execution by saying “we never feel vengeful towards our fallen foes”.
In this way, the 4th Imam promoted and solidified in society the genuine teachings of Islam, to the extent that the famous Arab poet, Farazdaq, braving imprisonment, proudly recited the following verses when (the future caliph) Hisham ibn Abdul-Malik, while governor of Mecca, failed to reach the sacred black stone at the holy Ka’ba, but the same crowd politely gave way whenever Imam Zain al-Abedin (AS) – the Prophet’s great-grandson – wished to touch it:
“It is the one whose footsteps are known by every place; And it is he who is known to the Bayt in Mecca, the most frequented sanctuary;
“It is he who is the son of the Best of all men of God and it is he who is the most pious and devout; the purest and most unstained, the most chaste and the most righteous, a symbol [of Islam].
“This is Ali [son of Husain] whose forefather is the Prophet; this is the son of Fatema, if you do not know who he is;
“Whosoever recognizes his God knows also the primacy and superiority of this man, because the religion has reached nations through his House.