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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books A Brief Biography of Ali Ibn Husain (a.s) Chapter 4 : Imam Ali Bin Husain (a.s): His Character and Personality GENERAL REMARKS The beliefthat our (S.A.W W), his daughter, Hazrat Fatima (A.S), Imam Ali (A.S) and other eleven Imams (whose biographies we are going to study in this course) are all sinless and make no mistakes, is a very important part of our faith. To us these fourteen personalities were perfect.

However, as each of them had a special job to do and most of them lived in different periods of time, each of them had a chance to show only a few sides of his or her character. In the world in which Imam Zainul Abidin (A.S) lived, the parts of his character which people could be seen very clearly are described in the following pages of this chapter. HIS PIETY He had great love and fear of Allah. These could be seen the way the carried out his daily 'Wajib' prayers and other recommended prayers.

Three things can be said about his prayers to Allah: Once he set up his mind to pray to Allah, he forgot about every thing else. He gave himself totally to Allah. Nothing would disturb his prayers. Consider the following incidents. * Once while he was praying, his house caught fire. To put down the fire and more importantly to save their lives everybody in the house was running here and there. But not the Imam (A.S). He continued his prayers as if nothing had happened.

When he finished his prayers, the fire had already been put down. Somebody asked him, no the son Prophet, why didn't you cut-short your "Sajda" when you heard the people shouting that the house was on fire?" The Imam replied, "When I heard 'fire, fire' I remembered the fire of Hell. I compared that with fire in my house. I found the fire of Hell more severe so I continued praying." * At another time his son, Hazrat Muhammed Baqir (A.S) had fallen in a well.

The child's mother was deeply upset and cried for the Imam's help. The Imam was in the middle of his prayers. He neither broke his prayers nor did he rush to complete his prayers fast. He continued his prayers, at his usual speed. On completing his prayers he went to the well and brought out the child. The child was safe and was not hurt at all. * It is said that once Shaitan (Devil) decided to disturb the Imam's prayers.

The Devil then took the form of a snake and stung the Imam's legs continuously. The Imam felt the pain but he continued praying as if nothing had happened.