Furthermore...

Furthermore, she had time and again heard from the fortune-tellers and sages of Arabia about the prophethood of her husband and it was on account of the truthfulness and righteousness of the Hashmite young man that she married him. The First Amongst Men to Adopt Islam was Ali Almost all the Shi'ah and Sunni historians are unanimous that the first amongst men to embrace Islam was Ali. As against this well-known statement there can also be found some rare statements, in history.

Their narrators have chosen to state the reverse of it. For example, it is said that the first man to embrace Islam was either Zayd bin Harith or Abu Bakr. However, most of the arguments bear evidence against these two statements. Some of these are as follows: The First Evidence Ali had been brought up from his very childhood in the house of the Holy Prophet and the latter endeavoured to educate him like a kind father.

Most of the biographers say unanimously: "Before the appointment of Muhammad to the prophetic mission a severe drought appeared in Makkah. Abu Talib, the uncle of the Holy Prophet, had a big family to support. He was the chief of Quraysh, and his income was not at all in keeping with his expenditure and he was not as wealthy as his brother Abbas.

The financial condition of Abu Talib prompted the Holy Prophet to discuss the matter with his uncle Abbas and they decided to take some of the children of Abu Talib to their own houses so as to alleviate his burden and to help him meet his requirements. Consequently the Prophet took Ali to his house and Abbas took Ja'far under his guardianship".[^2] In the circumstances it can be said that, when Ali went to the Holy Prophet's house his age was not less than eight or ten years.

The reason for this presumption is that the object of the Holy Prophet in taking Ali under his patronage was to alleviate the burden of the chief of Makkah (Abu Talib) and besides the fact that separation of a child from his parents who is less than eight or ten years, is a difficult matter; it could not also have any appreciable effect on the conditions of life of Abu Talib.

Hence, it is necessary that we should presume the age of Ali at that time to be such that his being taken away from Abu Talib had an appreciable effect on the latter's conditions of life.