And all this was done while he was a prisoner!

And all this was done while he was a prisoner! Here we shall just present a part from the speech given by Imam Zaynu ’l-‘Ābidīn in the court of Yazid in response to a speech by a speaker of the establishment who had tried to create hatred in the minds and hearts of the audience against Imam ‘Ali bin Abi Tālib and his family.

The Imam went on the pulpit shackled in chains and introduced himself as follows: “...Those who know me, they know me...And those who do not know, then listen: I am the son of Mecca and Mina; I am the son of zamzam and Safa; I am the son of the noble one who placed the black stone in the Ka’bah; I am the son of the one who put on the ihram and did tawaf; I am the son of the one who was taken from Masjidul Haram to Masjidul Aqsa [in mi’raj]; I am the son of one on whom Allah sent revelations; I am the son of Husayn who was killed in Karbala; I am the son of Muhammad al-Mustafa; I am the son of Fātimah az-Zahrā’; I am the son of Khadija al-Kubra; I am the son of the one who was killed and left in a pool of his own blood; I am the son of the one who was left without a shroud and without burial; I am the son of the one who was killed thirsty...” He soon turned the tide against Yazid; the entire audience started to cry in sympathy for the Imam and his family.

It was such speeches that forced Yazid to publicly disown the actions of his own men. After spending a period in imprisonment, the Imam and the womenfolk of Ahlul Bayt (a.s.) were sent with honour to Medina because Yazid wanted to conciliate public opinion. Jihād by Knowledge The fourth Imam, upon returning to Medina, retired from public life completely and spent his time in worship and in educating his loyal followers.

He was in contact with the elite among the Shi‘ites such as Abu Hamzah Thumāli, Abu Khālid Kābuli and the like. The elite disseminated among the Shi’ah the religious sciences they learned from the Imam. The number of such students of Imam reached to 170. In this way Shi’ism spread considerably and showed its effects during the imamate of the fifth Imam. The high status of knowledge and piety of the companions of Imam Zaynu ’l-‘Ābidīn can be seen from one example of Sa‘īd bin Jubayr.

Sa‘īd was arrested by Hajjāj bin Yusuf ath-Thaqafi, the governor of the Umayyads in Iraq and a bitter enemy of Imam ‘Ali and the Shi‘as.