The lesson
- At night he carried bread on his back to the houses of the poor, saying that charity given in secret quenches the anger of the Lord; the sacks left marks on his shoulders, seen when his body was washed (Hilyat al-Awliya of Abu Nu'aym; Kashf al-Ghumma; Manaqib Ibn Shahrashub; al-Khisal). Only after his death did about a hundred families in Medina learn who had been feeding them (Sifat al-Safwa; al-Tabaqat al-Kubra).
- He bought slaves he did not need in order to free them, until Medina was said to hold a whole company of men and women he had freed (Zayn al-Abidin of Abd al-Aziz Sayyid al-Ahl).
- Al-Sahifa al-Sajjadiyya collects fifty-four of his supplications; after the Qur'an and Nahj al-Balagha it holds a high place among the Shia, who call it the Psalms of the Family of Muhammad, the Gospel of the Ahl al-Bayt and the Sister of the Qur'an (al-Dhari'a of Agha Buzurg Tihrani). Its transmission is close to mutawatir; al-Mufid narrates it in al-Irshad, and among Sunnis Sibt ibn al-Jawzi (Tadhkirat al-Khawass) and al-Qunduzi (Yanabi' al-Mawadda) quote from it.
Questions
What did Imam Ali ibn al-Husayn Zayn al-Abidin carry on his back at night to the houses of the poor?
Why did Imam Zayn al-Abidin buy slaves he did not need?
What do the Shia call al-Sahifa al-Sajjadiyya, which collects fifty-four of his supplications?
Questions are written by AI from the lesson’s facts, and each answer was checked against its fact.