الإمام السجّاد

Caravan of Husayn

Imam Zayn al-‘Abidin (a)

The surviving Imam · son of Husayn

Spared by illness to carry the message onward.

Imam ‘Ali ibn al-Husayn (a), known as Zayn al-‘Abidin — ‘the ornament of the worshippers' — and al-Sajjad, was the son of Imam al-Husayn (a). He lay gravely ill in the tents during the battle and so was not called to fight.

He survived as the fourth Imam and, alongside his aunt Sayyida Zaynab (a), carried the message of Karbala through the captivity and beyond. In the quieter years that followed he preserved the teachings of his fathers, most enduringly through his collection of supplications, the Sahifa al-Sajjadiyya.