The blow at dawn
In the last year of his caliphate Imam Ali (a) was in Kufa raising an army to march again on Syria. After the Battle of Nahrawan three Kharijites had sworn in Makkah to kill the three men they blamed for the wars — Ali (a), Mu'awiya and Amr b. al-As — and Abd al-Rahman b. Muljam took Ali for himself. On the morning of 19 Ramadan 40 AH, as the Imam bowed in the dawn prayer in the mosque of Kufa, Ibn Muljam struck him on the head with a poisoned sword. The Imam is reported to have said: by the Lord of the Ka'ba, I have succeeded.
The two days
He was carried home and lived two more days, dictating his will to his sons: to hold to the Qur'an and prayer, to care for orphans and neighbours, to strike his killer once and not to mutilate him. He died on the 21st.
The first Night of Power
The eve of the 19th is the first of the three nights on which the Shia keep vigil for Laylat al-Qadr, and the wounding of the Imam on its morning has bound the two together: the nights of the 19th, 21st and 23rd are spent in prayer, the recitation of the Qur'an and the special ceremonies of the Ihya, with the Imam's martyrdom recalled at the centre of them.
Written for Shia Online Community. Dates and facts are checked against the references listed under Research & books; where the tradition records more than one date, all are given.
