A Look Into The Life Of Ali Akbar - 9th Muharram 1437/2015

'A'udhu bil-Lahi, min al-Shaytan, al-rajim. Bismi-Llah, Al-Rahmani, Al-Rahim. Al-hamdulil-Lahi Rabbi al-'Alamin, wa bihi nasta'in, wa innahu khairun nasirin wa mu'in, wa la hawla wa la quwwata illa bi-Llahi Al-'Aliyyi Al-'Adhim, wa as-salatu wa as-salamu 'ala ashrifi al-ambiyai wa al-mursaleen, wa khatim an-Nabiyeen, wa Sayyidi al-mursaleen, Abul Qasimi Muhammad [Allahumma Salli ‘ala Muhammadin wa ‘ala aali Muhammad] wa 'ala Ahli Baytihi at-tayyibin, at-tahirin, al-mas'meen, al-madloomeen.

The soldiers went out, one by one. None will be left before it is done. Husayn looked at Ali Al-Akbar and knew the time for him had come. Oh Ali Al-Akbar, let us see the face of Truth and Prophecy. Your smile is the universe to us, your eyes are paradise to me. But now his body lies there, dead. Husayn, it is all just as he said. The one who looked just like Rasul, his turban is bloody on his head. The one who looked just like Rasul, his turban is bloody on his head.

Qala Allahu Ta'ala fi muhkimi Kitabihi al-Kareem: Bismi-Llah, Al-Rahmani, Al-Rahim. "Wa la tahsabanna alladheena qutiloo fi sabil Allahi amwatan bal ahyaon 'inda Rabbihim yurzaqoon" (3:169). "Fariheena bima atahumu Allahu min fadlihi wa yastabshiroona bi 'lladheena lam yalhaqoo bihim min khalfihim alla khawfun 'alayhim wala hum yahzanoon" (3:170). Amanna bi-Llah, wa sadaka Allahu Al-'Aliyyu, Al-'Adhim. Salawaat [Allahumma salli ‘ala Muhammadin wa ‘ala aali Muhammad].

We are going to continue today with a subject I understand you were discussing last night, and that is the illustrious figure of Hazrat Ali Al-Akbar, peace be upon him. And of course, we respect all of the Shuhada of Karbala and the family of Imam Husayn, alayhi as-salam; however, why perhaps I am giving this name some special respect, inshaAllah will be clear throughout this discussion.

I am going to embark on something we do not often necessarily hear about - although it is a very obvious subject, it may be discussed from time to time - and that is what do we actually know about Ali Al-Akbar, peace be upon him? Because when it comes to the lives of the Shuhada of Karbala, or for that matter, even the lives of the Imams before their Imamate, such as the life of al Imam al-Husayn, alayhi as-salam, before Karbala, we do not actually hear very much. And if you open a biography, I am sure you have had this experience - you sometimes want to know more about the life of Sayyida Zaynab, peace be upon her, or Imam Husayn - sometimes you open that biography, and it is about everything but them, right? It is about their times, the political situation, it is about Saqifa... and you find maybe only a few pages that you can actually say, according to our modern standards, "This is about their actual lives."

Now, this is not some great conspiracy by biographers, and there is a couple of things going on here. One, of course, is that in the tradition which we inherited as Muslims, there was a great focus on genealogy - and we will discuss genealogy today, in part because I think there is a lesson in that to be had - but that was a focus when discussing people among the Arabs of the Prophetic Era. But also, to be honest, we do have a limited amount of material on these figures, for whatever reason. Of the material we have, some people might question the reliability of some of it, so it can actually be quite difficult to present a lengthy discussion on their lives. I do not claim to have a great amount of detailed findings, but these are some things that are found really scattered throughout our books with respect to his life, and inshaAllah, we will be able to derive some general lessons about that.

So one of the things I think we can look at with respect to Hazrat Ali Al-Akbar, peace be upon him, is whether or not the greatness of a person lies in their ancestry or in their actions. Is it, as the Arab genealogists used to imply, that one's worth comes from one's ancestry, especially one's paternal ancestry? Or is it in the choices we make as human beings? Today, of course, we do tend to focus on the latter. One could very much argue that Islam also focuses on the latter, that I am not accountable for what my parents do, or we are not accountable for what our descendants do; we are accountable for ourselves, and we will stand before Allah with respect to the choices that we make for ourselves.

However, I am going to insert this point here, because I do think it is important. As I mentioned previously, we have inherited a tribalistic view of history, and the historical literature that we have about Karbala treats it in the light of tribal alliances, tribal relationships, and tribal conflict. So I am sure all of us have heard the account of Karbala as relating to an essential tribal disagreement between the Umayyads and the Hashemites, or going back even before the time of the Holy Prophet, may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him and his family. And many times, you know, Islamic history is cast in this genealogical light.

I am personally of the view that I think this is something we should be thoughtful of, and if we choose to present history that way, be mindful of the fact that we are taking a[n] approach which may or may not necessarily be the approach that the Imams and Holy Prophet, peace be upon all of them, wanted us to take. At least, I am very cautious about putting too much of a tribalistic focus when retelling sacred history - I just want to put that point out there, it is up to you what you choose to do with it, because it is very entrenched in our mindset, and we do not even think about it. I mean, I remember once I was asked to teach at a weekend school - a madressa - for students, and they gave me a book to teach Islamic history, and that is basically what it was about. It was a book that was in Arabic and they expected me to translate it, and it just took this very tribal approach - Abdu Shams, Abdu Manaf, and so forth.

Anyway, it is something we've inherited. But is that always the best way to look at things? And going back to the topic, one of the interesting things we see about Ali Al-Akbar, peace be upon him, is that he does have a very complex lineage. Now of course, from the father's side, we can only say good. I mean, he is the son of Imam Husayn alayhi as-salam, and, you know, obviously one of the most shining and illustrious examples for humanity of all time - of course, the Holy Prophet, peace be upon him and his family, Imam Ali, Fatimat uz-Zahra... and so obviously from his father's side, he has got the best of the best, and so sometimes when you look at these genealogical charts, they will only list that side. It is from his mother's side that it actually gets a little bit more complicated. Now, of course, again, part of this tribalistic approach in our history books is we do tend to focus a lot on paternal relatives who really are a bit distant. And so when we look at Ali Al-Akbar, he is descended from one of the Sahaba named Urwa Ibn Masoud ath-Thaqafi.

So this is obviously going a couple of generations back, and there are other people in his family, but insofar as this was present in people's minds, as we will get to, and insofar as this is an interesting link. Now this Urwa Ibn Masoud, he is referred to in the Holy Qur'an before he converted to Islam, so he is in the time of the Holy Prophet, peace be upon him and his family, but he was an enemy of the Prophet at that time, or an adversary, one can say. And it is related that the kuffar were asking, you know, why isn't the Holy Qur'an sent down to one of our tribal chiefs, basically: "Wa qalu lawla nuzzila hadha al-Qur'anu ‘ala rajulin min al-qaryataini ‘adheem?" (43:31), "Why is not the Holy Qur'an sent down to one of these men of these two great tribes?", basically, one of them being Urwa Ibn Masoud.

So the kuffar, or the people who did not accept the message, felt that he is the better person because of his status, his lineage, his authority, and so forth. And of course, the ethical message in the ayat is that we do not judge people based on their worldly status; you base them on their consciousness of God, and their ethics, and so forth, and that Allah chooses his Prophet - it is not for the people to say, "Yes, this is the celebrity person among us, so they are going to be our Prophet."

However, tafsir-wise, this does relate to Hazrat Ali Al-Akbar's paternal grandfather - or great grandfather, paternal ancestor anyway - and the grandfather in line, Thaqafi, of course, there is a very famous Thaqafi among us (well, not literally among us) - Mukhtar - of course, very, very famous because of the movie, right? What is al-Mukhtar known for? He is known for being brave, for being valourous, for being honourable, for being chivalrous, and these were said to be traits held by the tribe of Thaqif in general, who were a noble tribe, you know - they were not people eking out a bare minimum living, they were people who were known; they had status, and they were also known for upholding these values of valour and so forth.

So this is part of his lineage, and now Urwa Ibn Masoud - the companion, at-Thaqafi, the paternal ancestor of Hazrat Ali Al-Akbar - he did convert to Islam, and it is related that he was actually killed because of his conversion. This is mentioned anyway in the literature about the Sahaba, that he accepts the Prophetic message, he goes to his people, he invites them to Islam, and then the people gathered around and killed him, that they shot him to death with bows and arrows. It is related that his last words were, "This was an honour granted to me by God; the honour to die as a martyr in his cause."

And it is related - and this is mentioned in Nafas ul-Mahmoom, although obviously it is not the original source - that the Prophet, salla Allahu alayhi wa alih, said that the example of Urwa Ibn Masoud is like the example of the believer in Surat Ya Sin: "Wa ja'a min aqsa al-madinati rajulun yas'a, qala ya qawmi at-tabi'u al-mursaleen" (36:20), so the person in Surah Ya Sin who tries to bring the people to faith - and that he invited his people towards worshiping God, and his people killed him.

So we have an example of someone who has actually converted to Islam during the Prophetic Era in the paternal (through his mother's paternal lineage) line of Hazrat Ali Al-Akbar and is killed for his faith. I would say that is a pretty good example, and they are good footsteps to follow in, and Ali Al-Akbar also, he is a shaheed, descended from someone who is killed for the sake of his faith.

So where is the complexity? The complexity, of course, is on his mother's side, who was a relative of Abu Sufyan, basically, so this would have made Abu Sufyan Ali Al-Akbar's mother's ancestor, at any rate - it is sometimes difficult to work out what we are supposed to call these relatives - but Urwa was married to Maymuna Bint Abu Sufyan, so that made him [Hazrat Ali Al-Akbar] a grandson of Abu Sufyan, so basically that made Ali Al-Akbar's mother also a cousin of Yazid, to say it plainly. And so obviously, this is a very different kin link.

So we actually have someone who is, by blood, related to both the Umayyads and the Hashemites, so you have got basically the best and the worst, to put it bluntly, by blood, you know - blood, of course, does not dictate one's life, but it is a thought-provoking mix. It is a reminder that in this era, there were a lot of complex tribal and marriage relationships that cross a lot of these boundaries we have today. Of course, to make it more complicated, although she [Ali Al-Akbar's mother] is related to the Umayyads, her aunt was actually married to Imam Ali, peace be upon him. So again, we have got a very complex link here.

And it is interesting that - this is related from Abu Faraj Isfahani, as someone who wrote a lot of biographical accounts and so forth - it is related that Muawiya once asked - Wa Allahu Alam - but it is related that he once asked, "Who is most worthy of the caliphate?" So this is Muawiya speaking. So the people, of course, knowing the correct answer to the question, said, "You, Muawiya! You are the most worthy of the caliphate." Obviously, they are going to say that, and he says, "No" - and according to this account, it goes without saying this is not a Shi'i account, this is a Sunni account - says "No, the most worthy person for the khilafah is Ali Ibn Al-Husayn ibn Ali, because he has three things." So, again, Muawiya is answering according to the tribal ethos of the time, he is not speaking of Ali Al-Akbar's personal qualities - although, of course he could speak of them - but he speaks about his lineage. He says, "He combines the valour of Bani Hashim" - so you know, the battle prowess and bravery of Imam Ali - "and the 'generosity'" - put some quotation marks around this 'generosity' - "of Bani Umayyah, and the honour of the tribe of Thaqif", because, again, al-Mukhtar's tribe was known for being very honourable, keeping their word, not fighting deviously, and so forth.

So at any rate, this sort of account does indicate an awareness of the complexity of this sort of situation. And it does mean that, you know, sometimes we might assume someone who comes from a certain lineage is predestined, although even with the Umayyads, we do not see that, necessarily. But, nonetheless, on the day of Ashura, this did come up. It came up both with respect to Ali Al-Akbar and also Hazrat Abbas, peace be upon them. Actually, also before the day of Ashura, what is said to Hazrat Abbas, peace be upon him? What offer is made? It is related that Shimr, la'natu Allahi alay, said, "Where are the sons of our sister? Where is Abbas and our brothers?" And then they offered to Hazrat Abbas that you are secure, you have a relationship to us, so come to our side; we will not hold you accountable, you know, do not give your life like this. There is no need for you to get killed. Come and be secure with us.

And now incidentally, I have heard the commentary on this narration that perhaps this is not meaning that Hazrat Abbas is a direct relative of this particular individual, but is sort of a general relative for marriage. In any case, there was a relationship, by blood or by marriage, such that the enemies offered him immunity. So he has a choice. He could take the choice. He could say, "Thank you, you know, I have come with you this far and this is all". Of course, God forbid, he is not going to do that. He says, "The curse of Allah be upon you and your security. Are you offering this while the son of the Messenger of Allah has no security at all? And are you ordering us to be obedient to these people whom Allah is basically sending to Hell" - for their deeds, of course.

So Hazrat Abbas, peace be upon him, he is offered this, and he says no. So he has the choice, and he takes the choice. Similarly, on the day of Ashura, something very similar is related with respect to Ali Al-Akbar, and someone says, "Ali, you have a blood relationship with Yazid, and we wish to safeguard this. We don't wish to fight our own kinsmen so we can grant you security."

So he is again, he could have been at a crossroads - I am not saying he would have been, I am saying he could have been - and it is related he said, "No, the relationship I have with the Messenger of Allah, salla Allahu alayhi wa alih, is more worthy of being safeguarded. This is the choice I make, to stand with the Prophet, to stand with Imam Husayn."

And then at that point, it is related, he said his famous words - "Ana Ali Ibn Al-Husayn Ibn Ali, nahnu wa Rabbul Bayt, awlad bin 'n-Nabi" - which has been rendered into English: "I am Ali Ibn Al-Husayn Ibn Ali! I swear by the Ka'aba, none is better for the caliphate than we! A[n] illegitimate son will not judge us by his wicked whim. Our chaste house is where [the] Muslims true guidance doth stem. In defense of my father, I will strike with my sword, with the blow of a Hashemite who serves the Great Lord!".

And of course, this is impromptu poetry, narrated from them on the day of Ashura, not dissimilar to what is related with respect to Hazrat Abbas, peace be upon him, when he reaches the river. What does he say when he sees the water in front of him? He is very thirsty. He is very exhausted. He could have drank the water and renewed his strength, and no one would have blamed him. He says,

"Ya nafsa min ba'ad al-Husayni hunee wa ba'adahu la kunti an takuni!" "Oh Self, before you is Husayn, not after him should you remain! Can you quench your thirst, that wants him slain? It is not the faith that you maintain!"

So this was the kind of eloquence that is related from them. So both of them are actually offered the opportunity to have a way out of the battle on the day of Ashura, and they both declined, and preferred to give their lives instead in the way of Allah Ta'ala. So that is just a bit about the genealogy of Hazrat Ali Al-Akbar, peace be upon him. Now, one of the more detail-oriented questions that comes up is when was he born and how old was he on the day of Ashura?

Generally, we, myself included, do get a mental image of him as being in his late teens - for whatever reason, this is the portrayal we use. Historically speaking, there are actually a couple different viewpoints which relate to whether or not he was older or younger than Imam As-Sajjad, peace be upon him, and one can surmise there is a confusion in the historical books, probably because both of them were named Ali Ibn Al-Husayn. So maybe some people mixed up these two names.

The dominant view that you find among researchers and historians is that Ali Al-Akbar was born in Sha'ban in the 33rd year Hijri, so he would have been a bit older than we imagine during the events surrounding Karbala, albeit there is a minority view which says he is a bit younger than Imam As-Sajjad. And the idea that he was older than Imam As-Sajjad, many of us have heard it many times because it is related in the dialogue between Imam As-Sajjad and ibn Ziyad. When ibn Ziyad asks Imam As-Sajjad, peace be upon him, "Who are you?", and he says, "I am Ali Ibn Al-Husayn", and he [Ibn Ziyad] says - you know, obviously a very devious statement - he says, "Did not Allah kill Ali Ibn Al-Husayn?", meaning, "My forces killed Ali Ibn Al-Husayn", but he is blaming Allah, as we were discussing the other day.

He says, "No, I had an older brother named Ali Ibn Al-Husayn, and you killed him." So the dominant view, as I mentioned, is that he is a little bit older than many of us do tend to envision. Without getting too much into the life and times, just to put this in historical perspective, to make a sort of mental timeline, if you will, at the time of his birth, Al-Imam Al-Husayn, alayhi as-salam, would have been about in his late twenties - if any of you are in this age group, maybe you even have children - and Imam As-Sajjad, peace be upon him, would have been born about four years later.

Now in the 35th year Hijri, so Ali Al-Akbar would have been about two years old, Imam Ali formally accepted the Khilafah and they moved to Kufa, so everything is moved to Kufa now, and Imam Ali was killed only a few years later, so in 40 A.H., or when Ali Al-Akbar would have been seven, according to this. And at that point the Umayyads took power. There is the peace treaty between Imam Hasan and Muawiyah, and then the events in Karbala take place in the 61st year of Hijri. This, of course, is a time of great change for the Muslim world.

So that is, in any case, a point that biographers oftentimes bring up. Now a question that sometimes people ask too - and again, this points to the paucity of literature and our sources and where sometimes we need to look at a sort of oblique way to find out things about people - some people might ask, was he married? Did he have children? And again, I think many of us, myself included, do have a mental image of him as being someone who never had the opportunity to marry, and never had the opportunity to have children. Salawat [Allahumma Salli ‘ala Muhammadin wa ‘ala aali Muhammad].

Albeit there are a couple of sources that do indicate the opposite. What are these sources? One of them is the Ziyarat of the Shuhada itself, when we say "Salla Allahu alayk, ya Abul Hasan" to refer to him. So we are instructed by the Imams to refer to Hazrat Ali Al-Akbar, peace be upon him, as "Abul Hasan". So that is to say, he has a kuniya with respect to the name of his eldest son, who would have been Hasan. Now some people might argue, well, kuniyas are given honourifically sometimes. Maybe it does not literally mean he had a son named al-Hasan. But it is an indication that he possibly had a son by that name.

And this is actually mentioned in a couple ziyaraat that we have, because we know we have a number of ziyarat texts given us to us by the Imams, not only the ones we typically tend to read very frequently. There is also a narration in al-Kafi, which relates to a completely different subject, but it gives him as an example, and mentions that he was married to a slave girl named Umm Walad, and had a son named Hasan, and then after that, after he was killed, she was married to Imam Zayn al-Abidin. So the question is, is this marriage permissible? And the answer is yes. So this is something also, again, it is mentioned, very tangentially, but it does suggest that he was married and did have a child or children at the time, which at least to me, that was a bit of a surprise when I first realized that.

Now, one of the things that biographers will oftentimes focus on with respect to him is the words of Imam Husayn, peace be upon him, on the day of Ashura, which I am sure you were discussing yesterday. When the Imam sees him go into battle, he sees he looks just like the Holy Prophet, you know, someone who is very innocent, very good. And he says, "Allahuma ishud ala haula il-qawm - O Allah bear witness against these people - fa khad baraza ilayhim ghulam - because a young man has ridden out to them in battle - ashbah an-nas khalqan wa khulaqan wa muntiqan ilah Rasulik - that the person most resembling your Prophet in three ways has come forth." What are these three ways? His appearance - "khalqan" - his manner, "khuluqan" - and his speech, "muntiqan".

Now, "muntiqan" we have already looked at briefly, with respect to the extemporaneous poetry that is narrated on Ashura. "Khalqan wa khuluqan": one of the accounts that is related with respect to the appearance of Hazrat Ali Al-Akbar, peace be upon him, and how he resembled the Holy Prophet - and of course, this is something that is even said with respect to the women when they bade farewell to Ali Al-Akbar, that it was very sad for them because not only are they saying farewell to someone who is very beloved to them, but also they are saying farewell to someone who they used to look at to remember the Holy Prophet; Hazrat Zaynab, for example, who still was at an age that she could remember the Holy Prophet, peace be upon him and his family.

In any case, there is an account that says once a Christian man entered Masjid an-Nabawi - this is after the prophetic era. Some of the less guided Muslims - because unfortunately, there were some less guided people in the community - they told him that you cannot be in here because you are a Christian, not unlike today in certain countries in the Hijaz. Of course, this is not how the Prophet was, this was not how the Imams were; we know the Imams used to teach people of all faiths - Imam as-Sadiq had people from all faiths and all schools of thought - but these people, you know, their mentality is a little bit limited. So the man tells them, he insists, he say, "Yes, I was a Christian, but I had a dream last night that I saw the Prophet of Allah with Jesus, peace be upon him." And he says, "Jesus became Muslim at the hand of the last Prophet. And so I feel that your Prophet is a true Prophet. And I became Muslim" - you know, in the Alim ul-Ghayb when he is having a dream or, you know, maybe a true dream of the Prophet, salla Allahu alayhi wa alih - "and now I wish to also renew my allegiance to the Prophet and to Islam at the hand of one of his descendants."

So the people, they brought him to see Imam Husayn, peace be upon him, maybe they did not know what else to do with him. So he falls to the feet of Imam Husayn. He begins kissing the feet of Imam Hussein and then he tells him about the dream he had. So Imam Husayn asks the man, according to this account, "Do you wish to see someone who looks just like the Messenger of Allah, salla Allahu alayhi wa alih" - who the man had been dreaming about. So he says, "Yes, Sayyidi." So Imam Husayn calls for Ali al-Akbar, who, according to the narration, his face was covered at the time, and then he uncovered his face, and the man was so astonished at this resemblance that he he lost consciousness briefly.

And then Imam Husayn says to the man, when he recovers, "My son resembles my grandfather, the Messenger of Allah, salla Allahu alayhi wa alih." And the man says, "Yes, by Allah, he does look exactly like the person I saw in my dream." And then Imam Husayn says to him, "If you had a son like him, and he was just pricked by a thorn, how would you feel?" And he says that, "I would die if that happened to me." And then the Imam tells him that, "I can foresee my son here," - you know, this young man who looks so much like the Prophet - "being cut to pieces with swords." So this is with respect to "khalqan" and the appearance.

"Khulqan" - of course, the Prophet, salla Allahu alayhi wa alih, as the Holy Qur'an says: "Wa innaka la’ala khuluqin ‘adheem" (68:4), "The Prophet has the best way of dealing with people and the character", and of course, we would say the same thing definitely for the renowned figures from Ahl ul-Bayt, alayhi as-salam, whether it is the Imams or people such as Bibi Zaynab, or Hazrat Ali Al-Akbar. And "muntaqin" we also spoke of as well. And as a matter of fact, these are some points that some authors will develop at great length.

There are a couple things that are a little bit more obscure that you can find in our literature. One of the things - that is one of the titles - that is given to Hazrat Ali Al-Akbar, peace be upon him, in some of the ziyarat texts is, "as-salamu alayka ya waliu Allah wa Ibn Wali", "Peace be upon you the Wali Allah of Allah, and the son of his Wali."

Now as we were discussing last week when I was here, the Shuhadah of Karbala in general are referred to as "Awliyah Allah". Now what is "Awliyah Allah"? Of course, this is a tremendously difficult term to render into English - I mean, sometimes we say the "Waliu Allah" is the "Friend of Allah", you could say he is the person who is close to Allah, and trusted by Allah. I think my personal explanation would be the narration that says that, with respect to the Waliu Allah, they are are so close to God that their act is God's Act, so their hand does not act according to their own will, but acts according to God's will. They speak according to the Will of God, and their spirituality is so aligned with the Divine that it is as if they are acting almost on behalf of the Divine, or, I would say, on behalf, but I do not want to get accused of ghulu' here, so I will say almost on behalf. But the point is there is this synchroni[zation] between them. In any case, it is true that in general [we] refer to the Shuhada as the "Awliyah Allah", in general.

But this is a very specific phrase - "as-salamu alayka ya Waliu Allah wa Ibn Wali" - it is actually a very specific attribution to Hazrat Ali Al-Akbar, peace be upon him. And with respect to the Awliyah Allah, one of the Prophetic narrations is that the Awliyah Allah, or the people who are Waliu Allah, are those who reflect Allah's attributes in their character, so "khalqan wa khuluqan wa muntiqan". Their devotion to Allah and Godliness inspire others to have the same spirit of submission to Allah; they are always remembering Allah. Every act of theirs is a lesson. Their speech, anything they say, is based on wisdom. They are a blessing from God among people. They are restless with the fear of Allah, lest they ever do something, God forbid, that might invoke the Wrath of Allah. And they are eager to receive the blessings of Allah; they always do good to others and safeguard themselves against evil.

As Allah, Subhana Wa Ta'ala, says in the Holy Qur'an about the Awliya Allah, "ala inna awliya' Allahi la khawfun 'alaihim wa lahum yahzanoon" (10:62), that "the Awliya Allah, there is no fear upon them, and nor shall they grieve." Now along those lines, this is a very unusual narration; it is in a book of nawadhir, meaning "rare narrations". In any case, it is related that the narrator saw Ali Al-Akbar when he was a young boy, way before the events in Karbala. He was a child and he wanted to have grapes, according to the narration, but it was out of the season. And I would guess there is a point behind this narration, because obviously even a child would understand that there are certain times of year where we simply cannot get things. So he says to his father, al-Husayn, peace be upon him, "Aba inni shtuhayt 'anabun," , "O my Father, I would like grapes."

So it says that Al-Husayn, peace be upon him, he strikes the pillar in the Masjid and he took from it grapes and bananas outside of their season, like in some of the accounts with respect to Bibi Maryam, the Virgin Mary, peace be upon her, and he gave them to him, and then he said, "My son, this is from the fadhl, the bounty of what Allah has granted us." And then it gets the point; he turns to us and says, "But what is with Allah for the Awliya Allah or Wali Allah is better than that," that this is just a very ordinary miracle. Food of course is important, it is necessary, but this is nothing compared to what the capacity of the Awliya Allah is, or what Allah would grant them due to their spiritual status.

And we do have any number of narrations about these sorts of miracles surrounding the Imams. Even today, we see many miracles surrounding them, so it would not be impossible. It is a different sort of narration. And there is one other that is very similar as well, and this is in some of the some of the accounts on the Day of Ashura, and it relates to a narration in the Sunni books about Imam Ali, alayhi as-salam. It says, in the Sunni books, it says that the Prophet, peace be upon him and his family said, "La tasabbu Aliyin," - God forbid, of course, "do not curse Ali" - "fa innahu mamsoos fi Dhat Illahi Ta'ala," - "because he is someone who is touched by, or engulfed in, or next to, the essence of Allah Ta'ala," the "Dhat Allah."

So, you know, of course it would not be unusual for the Holy Prophet, sallalahu alayhi wa alay, Sallu 'ala Muhammad wa 'aali Muhammad [Allahumma Salli ‘ala Muhammadin wa ‘ala aali Muhammad]. It would not be unusual for the Holy Prophet to predict what is going to happen in the future, and that there will come a time when people would curse Imam Ali, peace be upon him. So for him to say this narration or this hadith is not therefore unusual. The description of Imam Ali, alayhi as-salam, as someone who is connected to the Essence of Allah, this is, I think, we would agree with this - yes, he is someone who is very close to the Essence of Allah. Is he not someone who, when asked if he sees Allah, says, "Would I worship someone whom I do not see," said that he senses or sees the presence of Allah with the eye of his heart. So this is with respect to Amir al-Mu'minin, the Commander of the Faithful, Ali ibn Abi Talib, peace be upon him, in some of the Sunni books.

This is also related with respect to the Day of Ashura. According to the account, when Ali Al-Akbar was preparing to go out for battle, he went to say farewell to the women and they were greatly distressed to see him go out and be killed, especially after so many Shuhada' had been killed. And so the Imam says to them, he says, "Leave him - fa innahu mamsoos fi Dhat, wa maqtul fi sabil Illah" - "leave him because he," - using the same phrase - "he is with the Essence of Allah, he is attached to the Essence of Allah, and he is going to be killed in the path of Allah Ta'ala." This shahada, this martyrdom, is coming very soon and he is going to take his final step towards Allah Ta'ala.

And this is really, again, a very evocative phrase. And of course, already, you know, we say that he, along with the rest of the Shuhada' of Karbala, are at this very high level. But to describe him even at this point, despite not being one of the Masumeen, formally speaking - like we say the 12 Imams and Bibi Fatimah and the Holy Prophet, peace be upon him, are the formal Masumeen in the Islamic era - nonetheless, to describe him as being, if you will, tangential, in the sense of touching, the Essence of Allah, is really a very heavy statement, and a very thought-provoking statement, and something I think about sometimes when we hear: "as-salamu ala al-Husayn, wa 'ala Ali ibn al-Husayn, wa 'ala awladi al-Husayn, wa 'ala ashabi al-Husayn," that there is a special mention of Hazrat Ali Al-Akbar that we mentioned on the Day of Ashura.

And, of course, one of the most famous conversations that I am sure you mentioned last night was when, on their way to Karbala, he overhears his father al-Husayn, alayhi as-salam, repeating, "Inna Lil-Lahi, wa inna Ilahi Raja’un. Inna Lil-Lahi, wa inna Ilahi Raja’un".(2:156), wa al-hamdu li-Llahi Rabbi al-'Alameen; to Allah we belong, and to Allah we return, and praise be to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds." So, we know that Ali Al-Akbar, peace be upon him, ask his father, "Why is it that you are saying this?" And the Imam tells him that, "I fell asleep for a moment and I saw horsemen saying, 'These people are marching as Fate marches towards them,'" so I realized that we ourselves are the ones who are being spoken of and eulogized and lamented. And Ali Al-Akbar says his famous words, "Are we not in the right?" And the Imam says, "Yes, by the one to [whom] all of His servants, Allah's servants, will return to Him, we are in the right." "Then, oh my Father, we do not mind dying as long as we are in the right." So this is in fact the decision that he made at that point on the day of Ashura, when some people offered him the decision to leave, but of course, he stands with the Imam, inshaAllah, may we all do the same as well.

And so Ali Al-Akbar was among the latter Shuhada' to fall. But the moment came where there was virtually no one left in the camp who could stand for the Imam, and one of those last people to fall on this night was Hazrat Abbas, peace be upon him. And of course, Hazrat Abbas, someone who is remembered for his valour, his bravery, his chivalry, and one of the Shuhada' who did not fall in battle. He did not fall intending to go out and fight with the sword. We know he went out on the mission to collect water, especially for the children, who were parched with thirst.

As one of the poets has said, "Ya Abbas, ya Abbas, you are the bravest one of us. Ya Abbas, ya Abbas, you are the bravest one of us. As you are daring to bring water, they are preparing your slaughter." The many enemies, in fact, despite the fact that there were so many of them, still, they were very intimidated by Hazrat Abbas, and he was able to actually get through to the Euphrates, whereupon he declined to drink water and instead would not drink before his Imam. "Ya Abbas, ya Abbas, you are the bravest one of us. As you are daring to bring water, they are preparing your slaughter." And then what happens, happens, "O Flag Bearer, where is your hand, is it bleeding on the sand? Will Sakinah understand? You have fulfilled her last command."

So al-Abbas, he fell, Ali Al-Akbar had fallen. One by one, the companions, the Shuhada', had returned to their Lord. Who was left? There was one soldier of the Imam who was left. And one of the accounts of this that I think is most heart-wrenching is with respect to what is mentioned after the events of Ashura, when al-Mukhtar's forces captured Hurmalah, la'natu Allahi alaih, and they had all of the enemies of Allah who were captured confess to their crimes. And Hurmalah, although he was a very cruel person, he said, he confessed, he bore witness himself, that, "On the day of Ashura, I shot three arrows. But among these arrows that I shot on the day of Ashura, there is only one of them that really breaks my heart."

So they told him, "Tell us what it is you did on the day of Ashura, against Imam Husayn, and the companions of Husayn, and the family of Husayn and the family of the Prophet, salla Allahu alayhi wa alih." He says, "With one arrow, I shot it at the heart of al-Husayn; I shot at the Imam, but this is not the arrow that breaks my own heart. And one of my arrows I shot at the eye of Abul Fadhl Abbas. I am the one who put out the eye of Abul Fadhl Abbas, so that he could not see as he fell from his horse, and as he realized he would not be able to bring water back to the camp. But this was not the arrow that broke my heart. No, there was one arrow that still I cannot get it out of my mind. And it was a very large arrow that I used, much larger than I needed to do. And I took it and I aimed it at the neck of that child, the young infant child of al-Husayn. I aimed the arrow, and it struck him in the neck. The blood was flowing from the neck of that child. He was so thirsty; he did not have any water.

The Imam was holding him out, begging the people that, 'If I have committed a sin, then come and take my life, but what sin has this baby committed? What sin has this six-month-old committed, for you to make him die of thirst like this?' And then he took the baby. He held him up, and I took the arrow and I shot it and I slaughtered the child." He says, "Dhabahtahu min ul-wareedi ila ad-dureed - I slaughtered the child, and I watched as his blood flowed into the arms of his father." His father, al-Husayn, looked up to the heavens. His family had been killed. His brother Abbas had been killed. His small band of supporters had been killed. And now he was standing there with his child, holding him up to Allah, the last sacrifice.

Inna Lil-Lah, wa inna Ilahi Raja’un.(2:156). Wa sa y'alamu alladhina dhalamu ayna munqalabin yanqalibun, wa la aqibatu li 'l-muttaqeen.