The Burden of Reform: A Statement from Zayd ibn ʿAlī

Narrated from al-Bābakī, and his name is ʿAbdullāh b. Muslim b. Bābak, he said:

‎We journeyed with Zayd b. ʿAlī to Mecca. In the middle of the night, as the Pleiades stood high in the sky, he said: “O Bābakī, do you see this constellation? Do you think anyone can reach it?”

‎I said: “No.”

‎He said: “By Allāh, I wish my hands were stuck to them, and thereafter I would fall to the ground wherever I might land, shattering into pieces, and that being the cause for which Allāh rectifies the affairs of the Ummah of Muḥammad ﷺ.”

‎📕 — Maqātil al-Ṭālibiyyīn

‎📘 — Amālī Abī Ṭālib