Imam Ali in the eyes of Non-Muslims
Saying: "Ali was so popular even among the non-Muslims that when he died, all the Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians of Kufa, particularly their women and children who were personally looked after by Ali, lamented his death and wept as one does for one’s father.
Mourning was observed even in Jerusalem and the Lord Bishop also could not restrain his tears."(Prof. M. G. Reynold’s Book on Islam, Chapter 3.)
The Death of Imam Ali (a.s.)
When Ali was leaving his abode, observes S. Ockley in his famous work, ‘The History of the Saracens’, the household birds began making a great noise and when one of Ali’s servants attempted to quiet them, Ali said, "Leave them alone, for their cries are only lamentations foreboding my death."
The Deer hunting incident of Harun ar Rashid:
"During the reigns of the Ummayyad Caliphs his blessed resting-place could not be disclosed, and so it was also under the Abbasids until the reign of Harun-ar-Rashid. But in the year 175 A.H. (791 A.D.), Harun happened to go hunting in these parts, and the deer he was chasing took refuge on a small piece of raised ground. However much he asked his hunting dogs to capture the quarry, they refused to go near this spot. He urged his horse to this place, and the horse too refused to budge; and on this, awe took possession of the Caliph’s heart, and he immediately started to make inquiries of the people of the neighborhood, and they acquainted him with the fact that this was the grave of Hazrat Imam Ali ibn Abu Talib, the cousin and son-in-law of the Holy Prophet. Harun ordered a tomb to be erected over the grave and people soon began to settle down in its vicinity."
(The Shrine of Ali at Najaf from, "The Shi’ite Religion", by Dwight M. Donaldson)
