Zain al-Abedin and Seyyed al-Sajedin: Zain al-Abedin (Ornament of the Worshippers and Seyyed as-Sajedin (Chief of those Prostrating to God)
the 5th of Sha’ban is the birthday of the Second Ali (AS) of the Prophet’s Household. He was the grandson of the First and Foremost Ali (AS), and was born in the Prophet’s city, Medina, in the year 38 AH two years before the martyrdom in Kufa of his peerless grandfather.
In other words, before him none had the honour to be the namesake of the One and Only Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb (AS). As a matter of fact, his father Imam Husain (AS) was so deeply attached to the name of his own father that he named two more sons that God granted to him afterwards (both of them to be martyred in Karbala) as Ali.
He was destined to be the trustee of the divine mantle of imamate, which by God’s command Prophet Muhammad (SAWA) had conferred upon his grandfather in 11 AH at the celebrated gathering of Ghadeer-Khom on the 18th of Zilhijja while returning from the Farewell Hajj pilgrimage.
He proved admirably worthy of his name, to the extent that his piety and worship in the mode of his illustrious grandfather earned him the epithets of Zain al-Abedin (Ornament of the Worshippers) and Seyyed as-Sajedin (Chief of those Prostrating to God).
However, when people felt amazed at these unique characteristics of his, the Survivor of history’s most heartrending tragedy used to say that these are nothing when compared to the peerless piety, patience, prostrations and other acts of worship of his revered grandfather.
As the 4th Infallible Successor of the Prophet, on many an instance during his 34-year mission, he demonstrated his God-given prowess – in the manner of his redoubtable grandfather – to remove any doubt that real authority belonged to him, and not to any pretender (like Abdullah bin Zubair) and neither to any of those tyrannical Omayyad rulers such as Yazid, Marwan, Abdul-Malik bin Marwan, Waleed and others who masqueraded as caliphs.
His famous statement, while captive and still a youth of 23 years in the immediate aftermath of his father’s martyrdom, exposed hypocrisy in the court in Damascus when he called the pulpit “mere planks of wood” because it had lost its sanctity under the Godless Omayyads, and then mounting it he stunned the whole audience with the words: “O Yazid! This Muhammad (SAWA), whose name is being recited in the Azaan, was my (great) grandfather or yours; and if mine, how could you slay the Prophet’s grandson and still call yourself a Muslim?”
The tyrant had no choice but to soon free the Prophet’s blessed family from imprisonment.
Another famous instance of his spiritual powers that were beyond the ken and control of any usurper was his effortless access to the sacred Black Stone at the Ka’ba when pilgrims were jostling to reach it and when the then Omayyad governor of Mecca, Hesham bin Abdul-Malek, unable to near that holy spot, tried to deride him with the words: Who’s is this?
Prompt came the reply from the great Arabic poet, Farazdaq, who was happened to be nearby and who composed a beautiful ode saying: He is the one who is recognized by the Ka’ba and the sanctuary; He is the most eminent person of the age and the (great grand)son of the Best of God’s creation (the Prophet); He is the Appointee of God, and that very faith in Islam if from the House of this man.
Still on another occasion when his uncle Muhammad al-Hanafiyya, in order to disprove the dubious claims of a group of people who wrongly revered him as the Imam, approached the sacred Black Stone for answer, and got no reply, Imam Zain al-Abedin (AS) smilingly stepped forward and saluted the seemingly inanimate object, which to the amazement of the audience responded by greeting him as the Emissary of God.
This miracle by the Second Ali (AS) of the Prophet’s Household makes us recall the famous words of the Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb (AS) when Omar ibn Khattab had tried to scoff at the Sacred Black Stone as a worthless object. The Imam had said: Beware Omar, on the Day of Resurrection the Sacred Black Stone will speak eloquently in the Divine Court giving testimony regarding the faith and disbelief of persons.
These are some instances from the life of Imam Zain al-Abedin (AS), whose birthday we celebrate today and who for his mother had the virtuous Persian princess, Shahr Banu.