boy, would it please you if I were your father?”

He replied, “As for my father, I would never trade him for anyone, but I would indeed rejoice if you were my mother.”

Al-Farazdaq was taken aback and exclaimed, “Nothing like that has ever happened to me before.”

Ibn ʿAsākir records that he was born in 60 AH and died in 126 AH, and he is the one who said:

“Love is a mixture of sweetness and bitterness—
ask the one who has tasted or even sipped it.
No one has ever known life’s hardship and its bliss
in days gone by unless he loved.”

178 – Zayd ibn ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib (D, T, Q)

Abū al-Ḥusayn, the Hāshimite, the ʿAlid, the Medinan.

He was the brother of Abū Jaʿfar al-Bāqir, ʿAbd Allāh, ʿUmar, ʿAlī, and Ḥusayn. His mother was a concubine.

He transmitted hadith from his father Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn, from his brother al-Bāqir, and from ʿUrwah ibn al-Zubayr.

Among those who narrated from him were his nephew Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad, Shuʿbah, Fuḍayl ibn Marzūq, al-Muṭṭalib ibn Ziyād, Saʿīd ibn Khuthaym, and Ibn Abī al-Zinād.

He was a man of learning, gravitas, and righteousness. He erred, mounted an insurrection, and was martyred.

He paid a visit to the governor of Iraq, Yūsuf ibn ʿUmar, who rewarded him generously; afterward he was sent back. Later, some people of Kūfah came to him and said, “Return and we shall pledge allegiance to you; Yūsuf is of no consequence.” He inclined toward them, raised an army, and Yūsuf’s forces marched out against him. He was killed in the ensuing battle, and his body was displayed on a cross for four years.