Imam Ali (a.s.) 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 ones father. Mourning was observed even in Jerusalem and the Lord Bishop
also could not restrain his tears."(Prof. M. G. Reynolds Book on Islam, Chapter
3.)
Imam Ali (a.s.) in the Bible:
"Sarah, thy wife, shall bear thee a son and thou shall
call him Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting
covenant for his seed after him. And as for Ishmael I have heard thee: behold,
I have blessed him and will make him fruitful and will multiply him exceedingly, twelve
princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation." (Genesis
18: 19-20)
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 Alis 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 Caliphs 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 Shiite Religion", by Dwight M. Donaldson)