He lived for one hundred and twenty years; never was he seen on a single day sitting with his knees drawn up or reclining against a support. In the very year of his death, 81 AH, he consummated marriage with a virgin—so stated Abū ʿUbayd and others. Another view is that he died in 82 AH (1); Allah knows best.

ʿAbd Allāh ibn Shaddād ibn al-Hād (2) was a devout ascetic scholar, famed for his counsels and beautiful sayings. He transmitted several ḥadīths from the Companions and from many of the Successors (3).

Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib (4)—whose teknonyms were Abū al-Qāsim and Abū ʿAbd Allāh, and who is better known as Ibn al-Ḥanafiyyah—was the son of an African-complexioned Sindhi woman captured in the campaign against Banū Ḥanīfah; her name was Khawlah. He was born during the caliphate of ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb and later visited both Muʿāwiyah and ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān.

At the Battle of the Camel he toppled Marwān, sat on his chest, and was about to kill him; Marwān pleaded with him by Allah and humbled himself, so he released him. When Muḥammad subsequently visited ʿAbd al-Malik, the caliph reminded him of that incident. Muḥammad replied, “Pardon, O Commander of the Believers,” whereupon ʿAbd al-Malik forgave him and rewarded him generously (5).

Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī was counted among the nobles of Quraysh and was famed for his courage and great physical strength. When allegiance was pledged to Ibn al-Zubayr, he refused to give the pledge, and great hostility developed between them to the extent that Ibn al-Zubayr contemplated harming him and his family, as mentioned earlier. After Ibn al-Zubayr was killed and ʿAbd al-Malik’s authority became firmly established—and once ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar had pledged allegiance— Ibn al-Ḥanafiyyah followed suit. He then returned to Madinah, where he died in this year, though some say in the previous year or the one after, and he was buried in al-Baqīʿ.

The Rāfiḍah claim that he resides on Mount Raḍwā (6), alive and sustained, and that they await his return. On that subject the poet Kuthayyir ʿAzzah said, in the Wāfir metre:

Lo, from Quraysh the rightful guides are four, who hold the truth in trust alike:
ʿAlī—and three grandsons from his line— the blessed scions, plain to every sight.