The Black Stone’s Testimony for Imam Ali ibn al-Husayn

Al-Kafi places this account in the period after the martyrdom of Imam al-Husayn, peace be upon him. Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyya met privately with his nephew Imam Ali ibn al-Husayn, peace be upon him, and raised the question of succession and Imamate. Muhammad referred to his age and his relationship to Imam Ali, while Imam Ali ibn al-Husayn replied that his father had entrusted the matter to him before leaving for Iraq and had renewed that commitment shortly before his martyrdom.

Rather than leave the disagreement as an exchange of claims, Imam Ali ibn al-Husayn proposed that they go to the Black Stone in Mecca and ask for a sign. The two went together to the Stone. Imam Ali ibn al-Husayn asked Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyya to begin, so Muhammad turned to Allah in prayer and then addressed the Stone concerning the matter between them.

The report says that the Stone gave Muhammad no reply. Imam Ali ibn al-Husayn then told him that, had he been the appointed successor and Imam, the Stone would have answered him. Muhammad therefore asked his nephew to make his own supplication and present the question.

Imam Ali ibn al-Husayn then turned to Allah and addressed the Black Stone by reference to the covenant that the report associates with the prophets, their successors, and the people. He asked it to declare who held the succession and Imamate after Imam al-Husayn. At this point the central extraordinary event occurs: al-Kafi says that the Black Stone moved so strongly that it nearly left its place.

The account continues that Allah caused the Stone to speak in clear Arabic. It testified that succession and Imamate after Imam al-Husayn belonged to Imam Ali ibn al-Husayn. The sign therefore answered the very question that had brought the two men to the Sacred House, and the story moves immediately from the Stone’s testimony to Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyya’s response.

Al-Kafi closes the episode with Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyya accepting the authority of Imam Ali ibn al-Husayn and departing in acknowledgment. An early Imami work, al-Imamah wa al-Tabsirah, preserves a closely related form of the same event, while al-Tusi also recounts the story in his discussion of Imamate. Here the public narrative follows the sequence preserved in al-Kafi: the private dispute, the appeal to the Black Stone, Muhammad’s unanswered prayer, Imam Ali ibn al-Husayn’s supplication, the Stone’s movement and speech, and the final acknowledgment.