The Shahadat of Hazrat Ali رضي الله عنه: Who Killed Him, Why and What Happened After
Introduction
On the 19th of Ramadan 40 AH a man walked into the Mosque of Kufa before Fajr with a poison-coated sword hidden beneath his cloak and changed the history of Islam forever.
The man was Abd al-Rahman ibn Muljam al-Muradi, a Kharijite. The man he was about to strike was the fourth Caliph of Islam, the cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet ﷺ, a man who had spent his entire life in service to Allah and to the ummah.
Two days later, on the 21st of Ramadan, Hazrat Ali ibn Abi Talib رضي الله عنه attained his shahadat.
This is the complete story of his martyrdom, the events that led to it, what happened in those final two days and what his death meant for the Muslim ummah.
Who Were the Kharijites and Why Did They Turn Against Hazrat Ali رضي الله عنه?
To understand the assassination you first need to understand who the Kharijites were and how they went from being Hazrat Ali's رضي الله عنه most committed supporters to his most dangerous enemies.
The Kharijites, al-Khawarij in Arabic, literally means those who went out or those who seceded. They emerged from within Hazrat Ali's رضي الله عنه own army during the Battle of Siffin in 657 CE, a military confrontation between Hazrat Ali رضي الله عنه and Muawiyah ibn Abi Sufyan رضي الله عنه over the governance of the Muslim community following the assassination of Hazrat Uthman رضي الله عنه.
When the two sides agreed to resolve their dispute through arbitration rather than continued fighting, a significant faction within Hazrat Ali's رضي الله عنه army refused to accept this decision. Their argument was theological: لَا حُكْمَ إِلَّا لِلَّهِ , judgment belongs to Allah alone. By agreeing to human arbitration, they declared, Hazrat Ali رضي الله عنه had committed an act against the Quran and had therefore forfeited his right to be Caliph.
This was not a minor disagreement. The Kharijites declared Hazrat Ali رضي الله عنه, Muawiyah رضي الله عنه and all who supported either side as apostates whose blood was lawful to shed. They began attacking and killing civilians, committing acts of extreme violence against the Muslim community and declaring everyone who did not join them as deserving of death.
Hazrat Ali رضي الله عنه initially tried to reason with them. He sent delegations to them. He attempted to bring them back through dialogue and persuasion. He offered amnesty. He exhausted every peaceful option available to him.
When they continued their campaign of murder and violence, he finally confronted them militarily at the Battle of Nahrawan in 658 CE with an army of 14,000. Of their approximately 2,800 fighters, the vast majority were killed. Only a handful survived and fled.
But those who survived never forgave him.
The Conspiracy: Three Plotters, Three Targets, One Ramadan Night
The classical sources including Al-Tabari and Ibn Athir record that after the defeat at Nahrawan the surviving Kharijites did not abandon their extremist ideology. They regrouped. They waited. And during Hajj season they made their final plan.
Three Kharijite conspirators met in Makkah after performing Hajj. Their conclusion was that the fractured state of the Muslim community was caused by three men: Hazrat Ali رضي الله عنه in Kufa, Muawiyah ibn Abi Sufyan رضي الله عنه in Damascus and Amr ibn al-As رضي الله عنه in Egypt. They swore to kill all three simultaneously on the same night, the 19th of Ramadan, during the Fajr prayer. The plan was coordinated and deliberate.
Abd al-Rahman ibn Muljam was assigned to kill Hazrat Ali رضي الله عنه in Kufa. Bark ibn Abdullah was assigned to kill Muawiyah رضي الله عنه in Damascus. Amr ibn Bakr al-Tamimi was assigned to kill Amr ibn al-As رضي الله عنه in Egypt.
Ibn Muljam arrived in Kufa and sought local support. He found two accomplices, Shabib ibn Bujra and Wardan ibn al-Mujalid. He had his sword soaked in poison for an entire month to ensure that any wound it inflicted would be fatal.
The sources also record that Ibn Muljam became romantically involved with a woman named Qutam in Kufa, whose father and brother had been killed at Nahrawan. She agreed to marry him on the condition that her mahr include the assassination of Hazrat Ali رضي الله عنه. He agreed.
On the eve of the attack Ibn Muljam spent the night in the Mosque of Kufa, presenting himself as a pious traveler reciting the Quran. No one suspected anything.
The Night of the 19th of Ramadan
In the early hours of the 19th of Ramadan 40 AH Hazrat Ali رضي الله عنه rose for Fajr as he did every morning. He went to the Mosque of Kufa to lead the prayer.
As he prostrated in sajda Ibn Muljam stepped out of the row behind him, crept forward and struck him across the forehead with the poison-coated sword with full force. The blow was so powerful that it split open his forehead. Blood poured from the wound. The congregation erupted in chaos.
Hazrat Ali رضي الله عنه was heard to say at the moment of the strike:
His sons Hasan and Husayn رضي الله عنهما carried him home. Ibn Muljam was immediately seized by the congregation. His two accomplices had also made their attempts. Shabib ibn Bujra's sword missed and he fled and was caught. Wardan ibn al-Mujalid was killed at the scene. As for the other two conspirators in the broader plot, Bark ibn Abdullah severely injured Muawiyah رضي الله عنه but he survived. Amr ibn al-As رضي الله عنه was ill that night and did not attend prayer. The man who led prayer in his place was killed instead.
Only the assassination of Hazrat Ali رضي الله عنه succeeded.
The Final Two Days
The poison from Ibn Muljam's sword spread rapidly. A physician came and examined the wound but could not stop the spreading of the toxin. It was clear from the beginning that the wound would be fatal.
What happened over those two days is one of the most moving accounts in all of Islamic history.
Ibn Muljam was brought before Hazrat Ali رضي الله عنه in chains. He looked at him and said:
The man who had just been struck with a poison-coated sword by his assassin was instructing his family to feed that assassin and treat him humanely.
As the poison spread and it became clear he would not survive, Hazrat Ali رضي الله عنه gathered his children and gave them his final counsel. The accounts preserved in Al-Bidayah wal-Nihayah by Ibn Kathir and Tabaqat Ibn Sa'd record that he advised them to fear Allah, to maintain their prayers, to speak the truth, to be merciful toward orphans and to look after the rights of neighbours. He reminded them that the world was a temporary passage and that what they were preparing for was what lay beyond it.
When someone asked whether Hasan رضي الله عنه should receive the pledge of allegiance as the next Caliph he said: I leave this matter to the Muslims. Let them decide.
He asked that his body not be displayed after death and that his burial place be kept simple and unmarked, out of concern that it not become a place of veneration.
He passed away on the 21st of Ramadan 40 AH, two days after the strike. He was approximately sixty-three years old, the same age at which the Prophet ﷺ had died.
His son Hasan رضي الله عنه performed the ghusl and led the janazah prayer. He was buried in Najaf in present-day Iraq.
What Happened After Hazrat Ali’s Shahdaat ?
The death of Hazrat Ali رضي الله عنه marked the end of the era of the Rightly Guided Caliphs, the Khulafa al-Rashidun. All four of them, Hazrat Abu Bakr رضي الله عنه who died naturally, Hazrat Umar رضي الله عنه who was assassinated, Hazrat Uthman رضي الله عنه who was assassinated and now Hazrat Ali رضي الله عنه who was assassinated, had governed within the prophetic model of consultation, justice and accountability. That era was now over.
Hasan ibn Ali رضي الله عنه was pledged allegiance as the fifth Caliph in Kufa. However facing the military strength of Muawiyah رضي الله عنه and driven by his desire to preserve Muslim unity and prevent further bloodshed, Hasan رضي الله عنه relinquished the caliphate to Muawiyah رضي الله عنه later that year. The Prophet ﷺ had foretold this exact event saying: "This son of mine is a sayyid and perhaps Allah will reconcile two great groups of Muslims through him." That year came to be known as Aam al-Jama'ah, the Year of Unity.
Ibn Muljam was executed by Hasan رضي الله عنه in accordance with his father's instruction, one strike in return for one strike. His two accomplices had already been killed.
The broader Kharijite movement did not die with the assassination. They continued to resurface, rebel and cause chaos across the Muslim world for decades and even centuries. Ibn Kathir in Al-Bidayah wal-Nihayah records that when the news of Hazrat Ali's رضي الله عنه assassination reached the remaining Kharijites, they rejoiced and praised Ibn Muljam. The same people Hazrat Ali رضي الله عنه had pardoned after Nahrawan celebrated his murder.
This remains one of the most sobering facts in the entire story. He had shown them mercy. They repaid it with this.
Who Were the Kharijites and Are They Still Around?
The Kharijites as a historical sect no longer exist in their original form. However the ideology they represented, the tendency to declare fellow Muslims as apostates for not meeting an ideological standard, to use violence against the Muslim community in the name of religious purity and to see themselves as the only true believers, has never fully disappeared.
The Prophet ﷺ warned about this group explicitly. In a hadith recorded in both Sahih Bukhari and Sahih Muslim he described a group who would recite the Quran but whose faith would not pass their throats, who would emerge from the religion as an arrow passes through its target and who would kill the people of Islam while leaving idol worshippers alone.
Ibn Kathir notes that the scholars of Islam across the centuries applied this description to the Kharijites and identified their ideology as one of the most dangerous internal threats the Muslim community has ever faced.
Not because they came from outside the community. But because they came from within it, speaking the language of religion while destroying everything it stood for.
The Lessons His Martyrdom Teaches Us
The lesson of mercy
Hazrat Ali رضي الله عنه instructed his family to feed and treat humanely the man who had just struck him with a poisoned sword. This is not a romantic story about forgiveness. It is a precise demonstration of Islamic ethics under the most extreme possible pressure. His commitment to the principles of justice and dignity did not waver even in the moments when no one would have questioned him for abandoning them.
The lesson of the danger of extremism
The Kharijites began as Muslims. They prayed, they fasted, they recited the Quran. They were initially among the most committed fighters for the Muslim cause. But a single theological error, the belief that they alone had the right to declare others as apostates and that violence against fellow Muslims was justified by their own interpretation of the Quran, turned them into one of the most destructive forces in Islamic history.
The Prophet's ﷺ warning about this group was not theoretical. It was prophetic in the most precise sense. And the history of the Kharijites is a permanent reminder of what happens when religious conviction is severed from mercy, scholarship and humility.
The lesson of how to face death
Hazrat Ali رضي الله عنه did not spend his final two days in bitterness, in regret or in fear. He spent them giving counsel to his children, ensuring the rights of his attacker were upheld, leaving the question of succession to the Muslim community and preparing his heart for what was coming.
He died the way he had lived. With complete surrender to Allah ﷻ and complete dignity toward every human being around him.
A Final Reflection
There is a moment recorded in the classical sources about the night before Hazrat Ali's رضي الله عنه assassination that has never left the scholars who read it.
That night, as he was preparing for sleep, he went outside several times and looked up at the sky. His family asked him what he was doing. He said he had heard the Prophet ﷺ say that the night of the 19th of Ramadan was a night of great significance.
He knew something was coming.
He slept anyway. He rose for Fajr anyway. He walked to the mosque anyway.
The man who had faced fire, swords, betrayal, civil war and the weight of leading a fractured community for four and a half years, walked to his own prayer knowing that something awaited him there. And he did not turn back.
رضي الله عنه وأرضاه May Allah be pleased with him and make him pleased.
Frequently Asked Questions About The Martydom Of Hazrat Ali (R.A)
Who killed Hazrat Ali رضي الله عنه?
Hazrat Ali رضي الله عنه was assassinated by Abd al-Rahman ibn Muljam al-Muradi, a Kharijite, who struck him with a poison-coated sword during the Fajr prayer in the Mosque of Kufa on the 19th of Ramadan 40 AH. He died two days later on the 21st of Ramadan from the spreading poison.
What is the date of Shahadat of Hazrat Ali رضي الله عنه?
He was struck on the 19th of Ramadan 40 AH corresponding to 26 January 661 CE and died from his wounds on the 21st of Ramadan 40 AH corresponding to 28 January 661 CE in Kufa, present-day Iraq. He was approximately sixty-three years old.
Why was Hazrat Ali رضي الله عنه killed?
He was assassinated by a Kharijite seeking revenge for the Battle of Nahrawan in 658 CE where Hazrat Ali رضي الله عنه had defeated the Kharijite rebels after they had committed widespread violence against Muslim civilians. Three Kharijite conspirators planned a coordinated assassination of Hazrat Ali رضي الله عنه, Muawiyah رضي الله عنه and Amr ibn al-As رضي الله عنه on the same night. Only the plot against Hazrat Ali رضي الله عنه succeeded.
Who were the Kharijites?
The Kharijites were a faction that seceded from Hazrat Ali's رضي الله عنه army after the Battle of Siffin in 657 CE when he agreed to arbitration with Muawiyah رضي الله عنه. They declared both sides as apostates and adopted the ideology that any Muslim who did not meet their standard of belief was deserving of death. The Prophet ﷺ warned about this group explicitly in authenticated ahadith recorded in Sahih Bukhari and Sahih Muslim describing people who would recite the Quran but whose faith would not pass their throats.
Where is Hazrat Ali رضي الله عنه buried?
He is buried in Najaf in present-day Iraq where his shrine stands to this day and is visited by millions of Muslims annually.
What happened after the Shahadat of Hazrat Ali رضي الله عنه?
His son Hasan رضي الله عنه was pledged allegiance as the fifth Caliph. Later that year Hasan رضي الله عنه relinquished the caliphate to Muawiyah رضي الله عنه to preserve Muslim unity, fulfilling the Prophet's ﷺ prophecy about him. Ibn Muljam was executed by Hasan رضي الله عنه in retaliation as Hazrat Ali رضي الله عنه had instructed, one strike in return for one strike.
What did Hazrat Ali رضي الله عنه say when he was struck?
The classical sources including Ibn Athir in Al-Kamil fi al-Tarikh and Al-Baladhuri in Ansab al-Ashraf record that when the sword struck him he said: فُزْتُ وَرَبِّ الْكَعْبَةِ — By the Lord of the Kaaba, I have succeeded. He then instructed his family to treat his attacker humanely, feed him well and give him one strike in retaliation if he died without mutilating the body.
Hasnain Irshad
Hasnain Irshad is the editorial lead at Al Midrar Institute. A graduate of Jamia Abi Bakr, he oversees the site's blogs on Islamic history, the biographies of the Sahaba, and the Quranic sciences.
Every blog under his supervision is grounded in classical Sunni sources. No unauthenticated narrations. No fabricated attributions.
