May Allah magnify our reward and yours on the anniversary of the martyrdom of the Commander of the Faithful, the Master of those who affirm Allah's oneness and the Imam of the Godwary, ʿAli ibn Abi Talib (a).
We ask Allah to fulfill your needs through the blessing of the Imam, and may Allah make us and you among those who are guided by his guidance, who follow in the footsteps of his path, and who call to the path on which he went (a).
A Brief Profile of Imam ʿAli (a)
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His name:
ʿAli ibn Abi Talib (a).
His kunya:
Abu al-Hasan, Abu Turab.
His titles:
The Commander of the Faithful, the Master of the Legatees, al-Murtada, Haydar, al-Anzaʿ and al-Wasi (the Legatee).
His birth:
He was born inside the Sacred House of Allah (in the Kaʿba) on 13 Rajab, thirty years after the Year of the Elephant.
His father:
ʿAbd Manaf (Abu Talib); he was the brother of ʿAbd Allah, the father of the Prophet (s), by his mother and his father.
His grandfather: ʿAbd al-Muttalib ibn Hashim, the chief of Quraysh.
His mother:
Lady Fatimah bint Asad ibn Hashim; she was the first Hashimite woman to be married by a Hashimite man.
His wives: The first of his wives was our Lady Fatimah al-Zahraʾ (a). After her martyrdom he married Umama bint Abi al-ʿAs, whose mother was Zaynab, the daughter of the Messenger of Allah (s); then he married Umm al-Banin bint Hizam; he married Layla bint Masʿud; he married Asmaʾ bint ʿUmays; he married Umm Habib bint Rabiʿa; he married Khawla bint Jaʿfar ibn Qays; he married Umm Saʿid bint ʿUrwa ibn Masʿud; and he married Mukhbaʾa bint Imriʾ al-Qays.
His children:
Shaykh al-Mufid said that they were twenty-seven, male and female, and with the addition of the miscarried martyr (al-Muhsin) they become twenty-eight. The best known of them are: al-Hasan, al-Husayn, Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyya, al-ʿAbbas, al-Muhsin, Zaynab al-Kubra and Umm Kulthum...
His brothers: ʿAqil, Talib and Jaʿfar al-Tayyar.
His hirz (protective prayer):
Allah.. By the radiance of the light of the splendor of Your Throne I have screened myself from my enemies; by the might of the omnipotence of Your perfect glory I have veiled myself from whoever plots against me; by Your mighty authority I have sought refuge from the evil of every ruler and every devil; and from the apportioned shares of Your blessing and the abundance of Your giving, O my Master, I have asked. How should I fear when You are my hope, and how should I be wronged when on You is my reliance? I have surrendered myself to You, entrusted my affair to You, and relied on You in all my states. Bless Muhammad, and heal me, suffice me, and overcome for me whoever overcomes me, O Overcomer who is never overcome. I have driven off every lurker who lies in wait, every rebel who rebels, every envier who envies and every obstinate one who resists, by “In the Name of Allah, the All-beneficent, the All-merciful. Say, ‘He is Allah, the One. Allah is the All-embracing. He neither begat, nor was begotten, nor has He any equal.’” (Qurʾan 112:1–4) Thus is Allah our Lord. Allah is sufficient for us, and He is an excellent trustee. Indeed, He is Strong and a Helper.
His martyrdom: On the twenty-first day of the month of Ramadan, in the year 40 AH.
The Assassination of the Imam
Imam ʿAli ibn Abi Talib (a), the Commander of the Faithful, was assassinated at dawn on the nineteenth day of the blessed month of Ramadan in the Mosque of Kufa. He fell struck down in the mihrab, weltering in his pure blood, saying: ( By the Lord of the Kaʿba, I have triumphed! ), for he is the greatest victor: he (a) triumphed in this world and the Hereafter, and that is the great triumph. And what triumph is greater than for a person to spend his life in the way of Allah and in the way of Muhammadan Islam, in the way of laying the foundations of justice and equality in society, and of eliminating injustice and oppression and doing justice to the oppressed.
His (a) martyrdom was a victory for him; and what victory is greater than for a person to be victorious over the enemies of the Islamic Message—the deviators (al-Qasitin), the renegades (al-Mariqin) and the oath-breakers (al-Nakithin)—for the sake of delivering the Islamic community from them, so that religion may be wholly for Allah, Mighty and Majestic is He.
For the assassination of Imam ʿAli (a) is the true embodier of authentic Islam, the implementer of all its rulings and laws, and the executor of all its legislation.
It was an assassination of the Islam that he built with his effort, his jihad, his being and his blood, and an assassination of the community, for it lost a caliph and a unique Islamic leader, a towering summit in knowledge, merit and jihad. He was a firm mountain of steadfastness, uprightness, courage and heroism, a banner among the banners of religion, and an Imam of the Godwary.
Imam ʿAli (a) in Allah's Keeping
The Imam (a) finished with the resistance of the renegades (al-Mariqin), and rolled up his sleeves to resume fighting the deviators (al-Qasitin) in al-Sham, after the arbitration had failed at the second meeting between the two arbiters. The Imam (a) ordered the mobilization of his army and declared a state of war to eliminate the hostile forces led by Muʿawiya. The declaration of war came through a sermon of the Commander of the Faithful (a), which he delivered in Kufa—the capital of the Islamic state—and in which he included his call to jihad.
( ..Jihad, jihad, O servants of Allah! Indeed, I am setting up camp this very day of mine.. so whoever wishes to set out to Allah, let him come forth! ).
Then the Imam (a) hastened to tie the banners of war: he tied a banner for al-Husayn, another for Abu Ayyub al-Ansari, and a third for Qays ibn Saʿd. And while the Commander of the Faithful was continuing to mobilize his forces in order to put an end to the movement of apostasy led by Muʿawiya in the lands of al-Sham, a vile plan was being laid in secret to assassinate the Imam (a). A group of the opponents had held a meeting in holy Mecca and deliberated over the matter of their movement, which had ended in the direst consequences.
They came out with decisions, the most dangerous of which was the decision to assassinate the Commander of the Faithful (a), and its execution was entrusted to the sinful criminal (ʿAbd al-Rahman ibn Muljam al-Muradi, upon him be the curse of Allah). In one of the most critical hours through which Islam and the Islamic course were passing, and while the community was looking forward to victory over the elements and the faction led by Muʿawiya ibn Sufyan, the hand of the sinful al-Muradi reached out to ʿAli (a), and he struck the Imam (a) with a sword while he was in his prostration at the dawn prayer, in the noble Mosque of Kufa, on the morning of the nineteenth day of the blessed month of Ramadan, in the year 40 AH.
The Imam (a) was assassinated in the best of hours, as he stood before Allah in humble prayer; and on the noblest of days, as he was observing the fast of the month of Ramadan. Moreover, he (a) was engaged in the greatest Islamic duty, being on his way to plunge into the thick of a war of jihad, and he was also in one of the noblest and purest spots of Allah (the Mosque of Kufa). So happy is ʿAli (a), and good is his destination.
But the crime of killing ʿAli (a) remains the fiercest crime, and the most heinous and savage of them, because it was a crime that did not target a man like other men; rather, it targeted the rightly guided Islamic leadership. It likewise aimed at the assassination of a Mission, a history, a civilization and an entire community, embodied in the person of ʿAli, the Commander of the Faithful (a). Thereby the Islamic community lost a course and a civilization, and the most splendid and purest opportunity in its life after the Messenger of Allah (s).
The Imam (a) remained suffering from his wound for three days, during which he entrusted the Imamate to his son al-Hasan, the Grandson (a), so that after him he would exercise his responsibilities in the intellectual and social leadership of the community. Throughout the three days—as throughout his life—he (a) was constantly occupied with the remembrance of Allah, praising Him, being content with His decree and submitting to His command. He also issued counsel after counsel and wise direction after direction, guiding to good, pointing to what is right, marking out the paths of guidance, making clear the way of salvation, calling for the upholding and preserving of the bounds of Allah the Exalted, and warning against caprice and against shrinking back from carrying the divine Mission. This is one of his testaments on this matter—addressing with it al-Hasan and al-Husayn, the two grandsons of the Messenger of Allah (s), and his Household, and the generations of the community:
( I counsel you both to be wary of Allah, and not to seek the world even if it seeks you, and not to grieve over anything of it that is withheld from you; speak the truth, act for the reward, and be an adversary to the oppressor and a helper to the oppressed ).
( I counsel you both, and all my children, my family and whoever my letter reaches, to be wary of Allah, to set your affairs in order, and to set right the relations among yourselves, for I heard your grandfather (s) say: “Setting relations right among people is better than all prayer and fasting” ) .
Allah, Allah, regarding the orphans: do not let their mouths go hungry by turns, and let them not be lost in your presence.
Allah, Allah, regarding your neighbors, for they are the bequest of your Prophet. He kept enjoining us about them, until we thought he would make them heirs.
Allah, Allah, regarding the Qurʾan: let no one else outstrip you in acting upon it.
Allah, Allah, regarding prayer, for it is the pillar of your religion.
Allah, Allah, regarding the House of your Lord: do not leave it empty as long as you remain, for if it is abandoned you will not be granted respite.
Allah, Allah, regarding jihad with your wealth, your selves and your tongues in the way of Allah.
So peace be upon the Commander of the Faithful the day he was born, the day he passed away a martyr in his mihrab, and the day he is raised alive..
