The 5th of Shaʻbān marks the anniversary of the birth of our fourth Imam, Imām ‘Alī ibn al-Ḥusayn (a). Some of his famous alqāb (honorific titles) are Zayn al-ʻĀbidīn (the adornment of the worshippers), Sayyid as-Sājidīn (the leader of those who do sajdah), and as-Sajjād (the one who performs excessive sajdah).
Imām al-Bāqir (a) narrates, “My father ‘Alī ibn al-Ḥusayn would perform sajdah whenever he remembered a favor of Allah. He would do sajdah whenever he would recite an āyah (verse) from the book of Allah that contained sajdah in it. And whenever Allah would repel any evil from him that he was afraid of, or the plotting of any evil person, he would do sajdah. And whenever he would finish any obligatory prayer he would do sajdah. And whenever he would be successful in reconciling two people he would do sajdah. There was a mark of sajdah on all the places of his body that touch the ground during sajdah. Hence he was known as as-Sajjād.”
The Imam was born on the 5th of Sha’bān in the year 38 AH. His mother was Shaherbānū, daughter of Yazdijard, the last king of Iran (prior to the Muslim conquest of Iran). The Imam was born during the period of Imam ‘Alī’s (a) khilāfah. He was present on the plains of Karbala with his father Imam al-Ḥusayn (a), and after the martyrdom of his blessed father the role of Imamah transferred to him at the age of 22.
Throughout the difficulties the women and children of the Ahlul-Bayt faced after the day of ‘Āshūrā’, Imam as-Sajjād (a) was the pillar of support for the family. In the journey to Kūfa and Shām, the Imam (a) gave strong speeches in which he utterly humiliated the Banū Umayyah, waking up the people and informing them of the crime that had occurred in Karbala.