Zulfiqar - The Sword of Imam Ali (a.s.)


                                     

In one of the battles, the enemy soldier said to Imam Ali: ‘If I had your sword, I could also wreak havoc.’

Imam Ali threw the sword at his feet and said, ‘Take it.’

The arrogant soldier bent and with his left hand tried to lift the sword. When he couldn’t, he tried picking the sword with his right hand. He couldn’t. So he used both his hands to lift but still couldn’t. He bent more and used every ounce of strength he had to pick the sword but he was unable to even move it slightly.

Horrified, he looked at the Imam and said, ‘Ya Ali, what is this? I can’t lift your sword.’

The Imam replied. ‘I gave you my sword but not my arm.’

Such was the sword of Imam Ali. Only he could hold the Zulfiqar. In the battle of Uhad, the archangel Gabriel gave this sword to Imam Ali saying, ‘La fata illa Ali, la saif illa Zulfiqar’ (There is no warrior like Ali, there is no sword like Zulfiqar).

Zulfiqar is now part of folklore. Many miracles are ascribed to it. In the battle of Khyber, Imam Ali slayed Marhab, the famous Jew hero, and his equally formidable brothers, with this sword. It was unique - just like Imam Ali is unique – because it was scissor-like and double-bladed, unlike any other sword before or after it came in the hands of its master, the commander of the faithful, Imam Ali.

In one of the most reliable historical sources it is mentioned that the sword was named Zulfiqar because in its middle it had a design in its length similar to the vertebrae (fiqar) of the spine. Also, once Imam Ali struck with it, the victim was deprived of life from this world and paradise in the next (afterlife).

Zulfiqar has been depicted in art by numerous artists and sung about by innumerable poets and till now its legendary prowess is talked about. Whatever gets associated with Imam Ali becomes miraculous.

-          NZ

13.7.2019








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