Imam Zayd Bin Ali
Imam Zayd ibn Ali
Peace Be Upon Him
He is the Imam who opened the gate of jihad and independent legal reasoning, the one who was enraged for God’s sake upon the earth, and who upheld the rulings of the Sunnah and the religious obligations. He is Abu al-Ḥusayn Zayd ibn ‘Ali, Master of the Worshippers, ibn al-Ḥusayn al-Sibt — the brother of Bāqir of the knowledge of the prophets, and the Renewer of the first century.
The Master of the Sacred Law (may God’s prayers and peace be upon him and his family) said: “God sends to this community at the head of every hundred years one who renews its religion for it” — with this wording it was narrated by Amīr al-Ḥusayn (peace be upon him) and others.
In some narrations the wording is: “God bestows His favour upon the people of His religion at the head of every hundred years with a man from my household who makes clear to them the matter of their religion.” This ḥadīth is among those transmitted by the community and used by it as a proof, and it was related in its meaning by Abu Dāwūd, al-Ṭabarānī with a sound chain, and al-Ḥākim in Al-Mustadrak.
This was noted by Aḥmad ibn ‘Abdullāh al-Wazīr, who said: On the whole, the ḥadīth of renewal is agreed upon among the people of all the schools of thought.1
Imam Zayd ibn ‘Ali (peace be upon him) said — in words narrated from him by the author of Al-Muḥīṭ, addressing his companions:
“Woe upon you — do you not know that there is no generation that arises except that God (Glorified be He) sends from us a man, or a man emerges from us, as a proof against that generation — known by those who know him, and unknown to those who do not know him.”
This accords with the import of the saying of the Messenger — may God’s prayers and peace be upon him and his family — in the narration transmitted by the various groups of the community, upon whose authenticity the entirety of creation has agreed:
“I am leaving among you that which, if you hold fast to it, you shall never go astray after me: the Book of God and my progeny, my household. The All-Subtle, the All-Aware has informed me that the two shall never part from each other until they return to me at the Pool.”2
This is among the complete proofs of God upon His servants.
We shall set out the Renewers, at the turn of each century, up to our own time — the year one thousand three hundred and sixty-five — without regard to fractions of years, in every case where it can be said of someone that he falls at the head of a century, as some of our scholarly researchers have established.
It is said in Al-Ifādah: He (peace be upon him) was fair in complexion, wide-eyed, with joined eyebrows, of complete and well-proportioned form, tall in stature, thick-bearded, broad-chested, aquiline-nosed, with black hair and beard — except that grey had touched his temples. He was likened to the Commander of the Faithful in eloquence, rhetorical power, and brilliance.
There are narrations about him from his grandfather, and regarding the other Imams both specifically and generally. Imam al-Hādī (peace be upon him) said: Among what al-Ḥusayn ibn ‘Ali ibn Abī Ṭālib (peace be upon him) narrated — he said: My father informed me, saying: the Messenger of God ﷺ told me:
“A man from my progeny shall emerge, called Zayd. He shall challenge the dominion of the ruler, and be killed. Then his soul shall ascend to the lowest heaven, and the prophets shall say to him: ‘May God reward your prophet on our behalf with the finest of rewards, for he bore witness on our behalf to the delivery of the message.’ And I shall say: ‘You have gladdened my eyes, my son, and you have fulfilled your duty on my behalf.'”
The Commander of the Faithful also delivered a sermon from the pulpit of Kufa, in which he mentioned many things and tribulations, until he said:
“Then Hishām shall hold power for nineteen years, and the earth of al-Ruṣāfah shall cover him — fire has been lined therein for him. What have I to do with Hishām, a stubborn tyrant, killer of my pure and noble son, possessed of neither mercy nor compassion? He shall crucify my son at the rubbish-heap of Kufa — Zayd — at the highest pinnacle of the loftiest degrees. If Zayd is killed, he shall die on the way of his father. Then al-Walīd, a wicked Pharaoh, wretched and unblessed — what a deposed and slain one he is! Its debauchee: al-Walīd; its unbeliever: Yazīd; its tyrant: the little Azraq.”
This was narrated by Imam al-Manṣūr Billāh and others among the Imams of the People of the House.3
When misguidance became manifest, darkness spread, desires diverged, and opinions scattered in the days of the Umayyads — and while disagreement had already arisen in this community from after the death of the Messenger ﷺ, the trials grew great and the tribulations immense under this dynasty — Imam Zayd ibn ‘Ali arose to cleanse the religion and renew what the Messenger of the Lord of all worlds had brought, leading a faction of his household and their allies: the faction that God had promised the community, upon the tongue of its Prophet ﷺ, would never cease to stand upon truth manifestly, fighting for it until the Day of Judgement.
The People of the House (peace be upon them) declared their affiliation to Imam Zayd ibn ‘Ali — meaning that they profess to God what he professed: of Divine Unity, Justice, and the Imamate — so as to make manifest to all people that to which they call them of God’s upright religion and His straight path. He had already established the proof and made the way clear, following his forefathers (peace be upon them), and they chose him as a banner between themselves and the nation of their grandfather.
Imam al-Kāmil ‘Abdullāh ibn al-Ḥasan ibn al-Ḥasan said: “The banner between us and the people is ‘Ali ibn Abī Ṭālib, and the banner between us and the Shī’ah is Zayd ibn ‘Ali.”
His son, Imam Muḥammad ibn ‘Abdullāh al-Nafs al-Zakiyyah, said: “By God, Zayd ibn ‘Ali revived what had become extinct of the ways of the messengers, and raised the pillar of the religion when it had grown crooked. We shall kindle light from none but his, and Zayd is the Imam of the Imams.”
And so the call of the Imams has not ceased, and shall not cease, God willing, until the Day of Judgement. Abū Ḥanīfah al-Nu’mān ibn Thābit — who died in the year one hundred and fifty — was among the students and followers of Imam Zayd ibn ‘Ali.
The condition of the righteous Imam, the foremost and pure, the guide and the guided, Zayd ibn ‘Ali, and his rising in the nation of his grandfather, was plainly known among all people. None parted from him except this Rāfiḍī faction, concerning whose misguidance the noble narration has been transmitted.
The community agreed that the Rāfiḍah are the faction that broke faith with Imam Zayd ibn ‘Ali. The narrations differ as to the reason for their breaking of faith, and the People of the House are most knowledgeable in this regard. This faction followed the precedent of their predecessors, the renegade Ḥarūriyyah, as Imam Zayd ibn ‘Ali said:
“O God, place upon these people who rejected me, and departed from my allegiance, Your curse and the curse of my fathers and grandfathers and my own curse — as the people of Ḥarūrāʾ rejected ‘Ali ibn Abī Ṭālib (peace be upon him) until they made war upon him.”4
Al-Ṭabarī states in Tārīkh al-Umam wa al-Mulūk, vol. 8, p. 272, under the events of the year 122:
“Zayd ibn ‘Ali feared that he would be seized and hastened his rising before the appointed time… When the companions of Zayd who had pledged allegiance to him saw that Yūsuf ibn ‘Umar had learned of his affair and was sending agents against him, a group of their leaders gathered before him and said: ‘God have mercy upon you — what do you say regarding Abu Bakr and ‘Umar?'”
Zayd said to them: “The most I can say is that we were more deserving of the authority of the Messenger of God ﷺ than all people, and that those men appropriated it from us and pushed us aside — yet that did not amount to unbelief on their part, for they assumed power and acted justly among the people and governed by the Book and the Sunnah.”
They said: “Then if those did not wrong you, neither have these — so why do you call to fighting a people who are not wrongdoers?”
He said: “These are not like those — for these are wrongdoers: to me, to you, and to themselves. We call you only to the Book of God and the Sunnah of His Prophet ﷺ, to reviving the Sunnahs and extinguishing innovations. If you answer us you shall prosper, and if you refuse I am not your guardian.”
They parted from him and broke their allegiance to him, saying: “The Imam has been superseded.” They held that Ja’far ibn Muḥammad was their Imam. Zayd named them the Rāfiḍah.
It is also reported that a group of them had gone to Ja’far ibn Muḥammad ibn ‘Ali and asked whether they should pledge allegiance to Zayd. He said: “Yes, pledge allegiance to him — for he is, by God, the most excellent among us, our master, and the best of us.” They came and concealed what he had commanded them to do.
Al-Dhahabī states in Siyar A’lām al-Nubalā’, vol. 5, p. 389: “He was a man of knowledge, stature, and righteousness — he made a mistake by rising, and was martyred.” He also reports: “The Rāfiḍah came to Zayd and said: ‘Disavow Abu Bakr and ‘Umar and we shall support you.’ They said: ‘Then we reject you’ — and from that moment they were called the Rāfiḍah. As for the Zaydiyyah, they held to his position and fought alongside him.”
Ismā’īl al-Suddī transmitted from him: “The Rāfiḍah are our enemies — they broke away from us.”
‘Abdullāh ibn Abī Bakr al-‘Atakī narrated from Jarīr ibn Ḥāzim, who said: “I saw the Prophet ﷺ as though leaning against the wooden post of Zayd ibn ‘Ali, saying: ‘Is this how you treat my progeny?!'”
‘Abbād al-Rawājinī reported that ‘Amr ibn al-Qāsim said: “I entered upon Ja’far al-Ṣādiq while a group of the Rāfiḍah were with him. I said: ‘They disavow your uncle Zayd.’ He said: ‘May God disavow whoever disavows him! By God, he was the most versed of us in the Book of God, the most learned of us in the religion of God, and the most devoted among us to kinship — he left not a match among us in all of this.'”
Nashwān al-Ḥimyarī states in Al-Ḥūr al-‘Ayn that Zayd said to them: “I call you only to the Book of God that it be acted upon, to the Sunnah that it be followed, to innovations that they be extinguished, and to the oppressors of the Banū Umayyah that they be deposed and expelled. If you answer, you shall prosper; if you refuse, you shall lose.” When they pressed him to disavow the early Caliphs he said:
“God is the Greatest — my father told me from the Messenger of God ﷺ that he said to ‘Ali (peace be upon him): ‘There shall be a people who claim to love us; they have a nickname — when you meet them, kill them, for they are polytheists.’ Go — for you are the Rāfiḍah.”
Sayyid Abu Ṭālib Yaḥyā ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn Hārūn al-Ḥasanī narrated in Al-Da’āmah that all the factions of the community agreed on the Imamate of Zayd ibn ‘Ali save this faction, noting that the Zaydī was no more eager for the pledge than the Mu’tazilī, nor the Mu’tazilī quicker than the Murji’ī, nor the Murji’ī quicker than the Khārijī. He further stated:
“He was the most excellent of the progeny — he shared with the whole of them qualities in which they could not match him, among them his exclusive mastery of the science of theological discourse — which is the most noble of the sciences, the path of salvation, and the science without which no other science is of benefit — and his precedence and renown in it among the learned and the general public alike.”
“Abu ‘Uthmān ‘Amr ibn Baḥr al-Jāḥiẓ describes him in the art of theological discourse and takes pride in him, testifying to his utmost eminence. Many of the Mu’tazilah of Baghdad attribute themselves to him in their books, saying: ‘We are Zaydīs’ — for had his knowledge, brilliance, and superiority not been apparent, the Mu’tazilah would never have submitted to him.”
Among what attests to this consensus, the poet of the Khawārij lamented Zayd and reproached those who abandoned him:
O Father of Ḥusayn — and all affairs tend toward an end —
the sons of Darza abandoned you and fled.
O Father of Ḥusayn, had a company of the devout
cleaved to you, their onward journey would have had a return.
The sons of Darza abandoned you, utterly bereft,
on a Thursday, with no return from the watering-place.
They abandoned the son of Fāṭimah — noble his grandfathers —
in a place shameful to the eye of the beholder.
— A poet of the Khawārij, lamenting Imam Zayd
Ḥasan ibn ‘Ali ibn Yaḥyā ibn Abī Ya’lā narrated from ‘Umar ibn Mūsā, who said: I said to Zayd ibn ‘Ali: Was ‘Ali an Imam? He said:
“The Messenger of God ﷺ was a sent Prophet — none of creation was at the level of the Messenger of God ﷺ, nor did ‘Ali possess what the extremists attribute to him. But when the Messenger of God ﷺ passed away, ‘Ali was after him the Imam of the Muslims in their lawful and unlawful matters, in the Sunnah of the Prophet of God and the interpretation of the Book of God — and its rejection amounted to unbelief — until he drew the sword, announced his call, and made obedience to him obligatory, then God took him as a martyr.
“Then came al-Ḥasan and al-Ḥusayn — and by God, neither of them claimed the station of the Messenger of God ﷺ. Yet he did say: ‘They are the two masters of the youth of Paradise’ — so they are as the Messenger of God ﷺ named them, and they were two just Imams until God took them both as martyrs.
“Then we were the progeny of the Messenger of God ﷺ after them — the sons of al-Ḥasan and al-Ḥusayn — and there was among us no Imam whose obedience was obligatory. By God, neither my father ‘Ali ibn al-Ḥusayn nor anyone else claimed the station of the Messenger of God ﷺ, nor the station of ‘Ali, nor did the Messenger of God say of us what he said of al-Ḥasan and al-Ḥusayn.
“The Imam from us, the People of the House, whose obedience is obligatory upon us and upon you and upon all Muslims, is the one who draws the sword, calls to the Book of his Lord and the Sunnah of his Prophet, conducts himself by his rulings, and is known for that — that is the Imam whose ignorance neither we nor you can afford.
“As for a slave sitting in his house, his curtain drawn, his door shut, while the rulings of the oppressors run over him, commanding neither right nor forbidding wrong — how can such a one be an Imam whose obedience is obligatory?”
In praise of Zayd, Muḥammad ibn Sālim narrated that Ja’far ibn Muḥammad said to him: “O Muḥammad, did you witness my uncle Zayd?” I said: Yes. He said: “Did you see among us anyone like him?” I said: No. He said: “By God, I do not think you shall see among us anyone like him until the Hour comes. He was, by God, our master — he left not his equal among us in religion or in worldly affairs.”
And it is narrated from Muḥammad ibn ‘Ali that he said — pointing to Zayd: “This is the master of the Banū Hāshim — when he calls you, answer him; and when he seeks your support, support him.”
When he called the people to the Book of God and the Sunnah of his grandfather, he informed them of what his fathers had charged him with: that he would be killed and crucified. He commanded them to stand firm in the religion and not to fight out of doubt.
He said (peace be upon him) when the banners unfurled over him:
“Praise be to God who has completed my religion for me. By God, I would not rejoice if I were to meet Muḥammad ﷺ having neither commanded his community to do what is right nor forbidden them from what is wrong. By God, I do not care — when I stand by the Book of God and the Sunnah of His Prophet — if a fire is lit for me and I am cast into it, and then find myself thereafter in the mercy of God. By God, no one shall support me except that he shall be in the Highest Company, with Muḥammad, ‘Ali, Fāṭimah, al-Ḥasan, and al-Ḥusayn.
“Woe upon you — do you not see this Qur’an in your midst? Muḥammad ﷺ brought it, and we are his sons. O assembly of jurists, O men of sound minds — I am the proof of God upon you.”
He also said:
“We are the trustees, the noble, and the learned. We are the treasuries of the knowledge of God, the inheritors of the revelation of God, and the progeny of the Messenger of God. Our followers are the watchmen of the sun and the moon.”
He also said — with the muṣḥaf spread open before him:
“Ask me — by God, you shall not ask me about the lawful or the unlawful, the definitive or the ambiguous, the abrogating or the abrogated, the parables or the narratives, but I shall inform you of it. By God, I have not taken this stand except knowing that I am the most learned of my household in what this community needs.”
He was martyred during the reign of Hishām ibn ‘Abd al-Malik al-Umawī, on the night of Friday with five nights remaining of Muḥarram in the year one hundred and twenty-two, at the age of forty-six years. May God’s prayers and peace be upon him.
He has many miracles at the time of his killing, crucifixion, and burning. Among them: the appearance of the fragrance of musk from him after his crucifixion, such that one man said to another: “Is this how crucified men smell?” They heard a caller saying: “This is how the sons of the prophets smell — those who judge with truth and by it deal justly.”
Among them: God (Glorified be He) caused something to prevent his exposure during his crucifixion, as a spider wove its web over him. When they removed it, the flesh from his navel to his knee relaxed so that it covered all of that.
Among them: When the miraculous signs multiplied during his remaining on the cross, they burned him and scattered his ashes in the sea — and his remains gathered at that spot in the shape of a crescent. Al-Daylamī — the author of Al-Qawā’id — said: “We have seen it, and it is seen by friend and foe alike, without dispute.”
{They desire to extinguish the light of God with their mouths} — and the verse continues. May God’s peace be upon him and upon those who gave of themselves in seeking God’s pleasure, in truth.
- Imam Yaḥyā maternal grandfather: Abu Hāshim ‘Abdullāh ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥanafiyyah
- ‘Īsā left descendants
- Muḥammad left descendants
- Al-Ḥusayn left descendants
- Tafsīr al-Qur’ān — Commentary on the Qur’an
- Gharā’ib Ma’ānī al-Qur’ān — The Extraordinary Meanings of the Qur’an
- Kitāb al-Īmān — The Book of Faith
- Al-Radd ‘alā al-Murji’ah — The Refutation of the Murji’ah
- Kitāb al-Khuṭab wa al-Tawḥīd — Sermons and Divine Unity
- Kitāb al-Iḥtijāj fī al-Qillah wa al-Kathrah — Argumentation on the Few and the Many
- Faḍā’il Amīr al-Mu’minīn — The Virtues of the Commander of the Faithful
- Al-Risālah fī Ithbāt al-Waṣāyah — The Epistle on Establishing Succession
- Kitāb al-Ṣafwah — The Book of the Elect
- Tafsīr al-Fātiḥah — Commentary on the Opening Chapter
- Kitāb al-Munāẓarāt — The Book of Disputations
- Kitāb al-Mawā’iẓ wa al-Ḥikam — Admonitions and Maxims
- Al-Majmū’ al-Ḥadīthī — The Ḥadīth Compendium
- Al-Majmū’ al-Fiqhī — The Jurisprudence Compendium
May God’s prayers and peace be upon him and upon his pure forefathers.
Scholarly References & Annotations
For further detail see Lawāmi’ al-Anwār fī Jawāmi’ al-‘Ulūm wa al-Āthār by our father Imam al-Ḥujjah Imam Majd al-Dīn ibn Muḥammad al-Mu’ayyidī (peace be upon him), vol. 2, p. 447 (1st ed.); vol. 2, p. 492 (2nd ed.); vol. 2, p. 545 (3rd ed.).
A full research on this ḥadīth and those who transmitted it is found in Lawāmi’ al-Anwār by our father Imam al-Ḥujjah Imam Majd al-Dīn ibn Muḥammad al-Mu’ayyidī (peace be upon him), vol. 1, p. 51 (1st ed.); vol. 1, p. 83 (2nd ed.); vol. 1, p. 100 onwards (3rd ed.).
Kitāb al-Shāfī by Imam al-A’ẓam al-Manṣūr Billāh ‘Abdullāh ibn Ḥamzah (peace be upon him) (1/579), edition of Maktabat Ahl al-Bayt (peace be upon them).
Ḥarūrāʾ (with two fatḥahs and a sukūn on the wāw): a place two miles from Kufa, where the Khawārij encamped and to which they were attributed. For further detail see Lawāmi’ al-Anwār by our father Imam al-Ḥujjah Imam Majd al-Dīn ibn Muḥammad al-Mu’ayyidī (peace be upon him), vol. 1, p. 209 (1st ed.); vol. 1, p. 276 (2nd ed.); vol. 1, p. 433 onwards (3rd ed.).