—his prodigality. ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn said to him, “There remain behind your son three safeguards: the testimony that there is no god but Allah, the intercession of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him), and the mercy of Allah—Exalted is He.” (1)

Al-Madāʾinī said: al-Zuhrī once committed a sin, was overcome with dread, and began to wander aimlessly, leaving his family and his wealth. When he met ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn, the latter said to him, “O Zuhrī, your despair of the mercy of Allah, which has encompassed all things, is graver than your sin.” Al-Zuhrī replied, “Allah knows best where to place His message” (al-Anʿām 6:124). In another report he had inadvertently shed unlawful blood; ʿAlī ordered him to repent, seek forgiveness, and send the blood-money to the victim’s family. He did so, and thereafter al-Zuhrī would say, “No one has ever done me a greater favor than ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn.” (2)

Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah related that ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn used to say, “If a man credits another with virtues of which he has no knowledge, he is on the verge of ascribing to him vices of which he has no knowledge; and never do two people keep company for the sake of a sin without soon parting in other than obedience.” (3)

They also said that he married a slave-girl to one of his mawālī, and that he freed another slave-girl and then married her. ʿAbd al-Malik wrote to reproach him for this. ʿAlī replied with the verse, “You have indeed in the Messenger of Allah a beautiful example for whoever hopes for Allah and the Last Day and remembers Allah often” (21) (al-Aḥzāb 33:21). The Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—freed Ṣafiyyah and then married her, and he married his freedman Zayd ibn Hārithah to his cousin Zaynab bint Jaḥsh. (4)

It is reported that in winter he would wear a fine khamīṣah of brocade worth fifty dinars; when summer came he would give it away in charity and wear patched—or even humbler—garments, reciting: “Say, ‘Who has forbidden the adornment of Allah which He has brought forth for His servants, and the good things of provision?’” (al-Aʿrāf 7:32). (5)

Al-Ṣūlī, al-Jarīrīd, (6) and others transmitted through several chains that Hishām ibn ʿAbd al-Malik performed the pilgrimage during the caliphate of his father and of his brother al-Walīd. After circumambulating the House, he wished to touch the Black Stone but could not, so a pulpit was set up for him; he touched the Stone, then sat upon the pulpit while the people of Syria stood around him. While he was in that state, ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn approached. As he neared the Stone to touch it, the people stepped back for him out of reverence and awe. He was wearing splendid clothes and had an elegant appearance. The Syrians asked Hishām, “Who is this man?” Hoping to belittle him and prevent the Syrians from admiring him, Hishām replied, “I do not know him.” Al-Farazdaq, who was present, said, “I know him.” They asked, “Then who is he?” Al-Farazdaq pointed to him and recited:

This is he whose footsteps the barren plain remembers;
The House knows him, and so do the ḥill and the ḥaram….