A Biography of Imam ʿAlī

More has been written about Imam ʿAlī than about any figure of Islam save the Prophet himself. This book sets out to know the man. Here is the boy who carried food to the Prophet in the Cave of Ḥirāʾ; the warrior who, when his fallen enemy spat in his face at the Trench, paused until his anger on his own behalf had cooled; the caliph who walked the market of Kūfa in plain cloth, urging full measure; and the husband who said of Fāṛima, “Whenever I looked at her, my cares and sorrows fell away.”

Part One tells his life, from his birth inside the Kaʿba to the dawn prayer in Kūfa at which he was struck down. Part Two gathers his own words: the Covenant to Mālik al-Ashtar, which reminds a governor that every subject is “either a brother to you in religion, or your like in creation”; the testament to his son al-Ḥasan; sermons, sayings and judgements; and poems attributed to him.

Selected by Shaykh Fadhlalla Haeri, translated by Mohammed Alsalman and edited in modern English, it is the companion to Biography of the Twelve Imams.