Imam Isa Ibn Zayd (D. 166AH)
Imam ʿĪsā ibn Zayd
The Bereaver of Lion-Cubs — Peace Be Upon Him
In Maqātil al-Ṭālibiyyīn, on the authority of al-Ḥusayn ibn Zayd (peace be upon them) — having described him to his son Yaḥyā ibn al-Ḥusayn: “He will come toward you at sunset, a man of middle age, tall, of sallow complexion, prostration having left its mark on his forehead, wearing a woolen tunic; he sets down no foot and raises none but while remembering God (Exalted is He), his tears streaming down.”
- Imam Aḥmad
- Muḥammad
- Zayd
- Al-Ḥusayn
On the authority of Imam al-Manṣūr Billāh ʿAbdullāh ibn Ḥamzah (peace be upon him): When Ḥādir, the companion of ʿĪsā ibn Zayd, was brought before al-Mahdī ibn Abī Jaʿfar, he said to him: “Where is ʿĪsā?”
He said: “And how should I know? You seized me and imprisoned me, and you terrified him so he fled; so how should I know the whereabouts of one driven into flight by you, while I am imprisoned?”
He said: “It is not so. When did you part from him, with whom was your last contact with him, and what do you have of knowledge about him?”
He said: “I have not met him since he went into hiding, nor have I known any news of him.”
He said: “By God, you shall guide me to news of him, or I shall surely kill you.”
“Shall I guide you to him so you may kill him, and then I meet his grandfather the Prophet having had a share in his blood? By God, were he between my garment and my body, I would not uncover him. So decree what you will decree.”
So his neck was struck (peace be upon him). Al-Murshid Billāh and Imam Abū Ṭālib (peace be upon them) have also reported the same meaning.
Consider this giving-up of one’s lifeblood. These are the ones who were struck with swords yet increased in nothing but love for the family of the Prophet.
The Messenger of God ﷺ said:
“My Lord (Exalted is He) said to me on the night I was taken up in the Ascension: ‘Whom did you leave in charge of your Community, O Muḥammad?’ He said: I said: ‘You, O Lord, know best.’ He said: ‘O Muḥammad, I selected you for My message and chose you for Myself, and you are My Prophet and My elect of My creation; then there is the Greatest Veracious One, the Pure, the Purified, whom I created from your clay and made your minister and the father of your two grandsons — the two martyred masters, the pure, the purified, the two masters of the youth of the people of Paradise; and his wife Fāṭimah, the best of the women of the worlds. You are a tree, ʿAlī its branches, Fāṭimah its leaves, and al-Ḥasan and al-Ḥusayn its fruits.1 I created you from the clay of ʿIlliyyīn, and I created your Shīʿa from you. Indeed, were they to be struck on their necks with swords, they would increase toward you in nothing but love.'”2
Imam al-Manṣūr Billāh reported it in Al-Shāfī, with a chain of transmission, on the authority of the Greatest Imam Zayd ibn ʿAlī, on the authority of his forefathers (peace be upon them).
Al-Nāṣir lil-Ḥaqq reported, on the authority of Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq, on the authority of his forefathers, on the authority of the Prophet ﷺ, who said: “Indeed, in heaven there are guards, and they are the angels; and indeed, on earth there are guards, and they are your Shīʿa, O ʿAlī.”3 He reported it in Al-Ḥadāʾiq al-Wardiyya; and in the narration of Amīr al-Ḥusayn (peace be upon him) of this report: “they will never alter and never change.”
Al-Ṣādiq reported, on the authority of al-Bāqir Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī, that the Prophet of God ﷺ said: “Indeed, on the right of the Throne are men whose faces are of light and whose garments are of light; they are neither prophets nor martyrs, yet the prophets and the martyrs envy them.” It was said: “Who are they?” He said: “Those are our partisans, and you are their Imam, O ʿAlī.”
And it is also reported in Al-Ḥadāʾiq, on the authority of al-Nāṣir lil-Ḥaqq, on the authority of the Prophet ﷺ, who said: “Seventy thousand of my Community will enter Paradise without reckoning.” ʿAlī said: “Who are they, O Messenger of God?” He said: “They are your Shīʿa, and you are their Imam.”4
Indeed, the surface of the earth has reddened from the blood of the family of the Messenger of God and the blood of their Shīʿa:
They plunged into the perils of death-throes in seeking the pleasure of their Creator —
and let the sword rule over crowns of heads and necks.
How many summits of heads did the swords of the Family send flying —
and how much blood was spilled in the path of God!
— Majd al-Dīn ibn Muḥammad ibn Manṣūr al-Muʾayyidī5
The Sayyid, the Imam, the foremost banner of the noble Prophetic House — al-Raḍī al-Mūsawī, author of Nahj al-Balāghah, Al-Majāzāt al-Nabawiyya, Talkhīṣ al-Bayān fī Majāzāt al-Qurʾān, and others — Abū al-Ḥasan Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn Mūsā ibn Muḥammad ibn Mūsā ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Mūsā al-Kāẓim ibn Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq ibn Muḥammad al-Bāqir ibn ʿAlī al-Sajjād ibn al-Ḥusayn al-Sibt — who died in the year 406 AH at the age of forty-six — said in his elegy for al-Ḥusayn (peace be upon them), having turned to mention of the Prophet’s kindred:
They took hold of the highest reaches of glory, so it is excusable
that mankind and jinn should become envious of them.
O kindred of God, grow angry for the sake of His Prophet —
and draw forth the white swords from their scabbards!
— Al-Raḍī al-Mūsawī (d. 406 AH)
Imam ʿĪsā ibn Zayd (peace be upon them) died, after his call to God, in the days of Muḥammad ibn Abī al-Dawānīq the ʿAbbāsid — poisoned — on the third day of Shaʿbān in the year 166 AH, at the age of forty-five years. May God’s prayers and peace be upon him and upon his pure forefathers.
Scholarly References & Annotations
This portion of the narration came in variants with the dual pronoun, the plural, and the singular for the feminine — referring either to Fāṭimah or to the tree; as for the dual and the plural, they are clear — noted by the Author (peace be upon him).
See Lawāmiʿ al-Anwār fī Jawāmiʿ al-ʿUlūm wa-l-Āthār by our father Imam al-Ḥujjah Imam Majd al-Dīn ibn Muḥammad al-Muʾayyidī (peace be upon him), vol. 1, p. 142 (1st ed.); vol. 1, p. 199 (2nd ed.); vol. 1, p. 285 (3rd ed.).
Mentioned by al-Ḥākim al-Jushamī in Tanbīh al-Ghāfilīn ʿan Faḍāʾil al-Ṭālibiyyīn, Sūrat al-Shuʿarāʾ — 159.
For more concerning these reports and those who transmitted them, see Lawāmiʿ al-Anwār by our father Imam al-Ḥujjah Imam Majd al-Dīn ibn Muḥammad al-Muʾayyidī (peace be upon him), vol. 1, p. 140 (1st ed.); vol. 1, p. 196 (2nd ed.); vol. 1, p. 281 (3rd ed.).
These two verses are by the one in need of God, Majd al-Dīn ibn Muḥammad ibn Manṣūr al-Muʾayyidī (may God forgive them), from an ode in reply to Shaykh Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Muʾayyidī (peace be upon him), whose opening is: “Are these pearls folded up within these pages? Or are these Qurʾānic chapters with which the reciter heals the afflicted?” The author of the introduction to Al-Baḥr (2nd ed., p. 25) had attributed it to Imam al-Mahdī (peace be upon him); the misattribution was later corrected — noted by the Author (peace be upon him).