Ali AL-Hadi: Difference between revisions

Imami tradition relates many miracles of Imam ʿAli al-Hadi; he is described in particular as endowed with the knowledge of the languages of the Persians, Slavs, Indians, and Nabateans, as foreknowing unexpected storms and as accurately prophesying deaths and other events. Thus, he is reported to have cursed Mutawakkil and to have correctly predicted his death within three days after the caliph had either humiliated him (by ordering him, together with other Hashimites and dignitaries, to dismount and walk in front of himself and Fath b. Khaqan) or had imprisoned him. In the presence of Mutawakkil, he unmasked a woman falsely claiming to be [[Zaynab]], the daughter of [[Imam Hussain]], by descending into a lions’ den in order to prove that lions do not harm true descendants of ʿAli (a like miracle is also attributed to his grandfather [[ʿAli al-Reza]]). He brought a lion pictured on a carpet to life and made it swallow an Indian juggler who had, on the order of Mutawakkil, tried to put him to shame by his tricks; and he turned a handful of sand and stones into gold for a needy follower. According to Ebn Babuya, he was poisoned by Mutawakkil or Moʿtamed <ref>r. 256-79/870-92</ref>, neither of whom, however, was caliph at the time of the death of the Imam. A theological treatise on human free will and some other short texts and statements ascribed to him are quoted by Ebn Shoʿba Harrani.<ref>Tohaf al-ʿoqul, Beirut, 1389/1969, pp. 338-58</ref>