Birthplace of Ali

Ali was born to Abu Talib and his wife Fatima bint Asad around 600 CE,[1] some thirty years after the Year of the Elephant.[2] Shia and some Sunni sources report that Ali was the only person born in Ka'ba, the ancient shrine in Mecca which later became the most sacred site in Islam.[3][4] Some sources also contain miraculous descriptions of the incident.[1] In particular, it is said that the wall of Ka'ba[5] or its door[1] slivered open as Fatima prayed there and shut close after she entered. She later emerged from Ka'ba with a baby boy, as people awaited her outside, unable to enter Ka'ba.[5]

Ali is said to have been born inside Ka'ba, the holiest site in Islam, pictured above.

The canonical Shia Kitab al-Irshad and the Sunni The Meadows of Gold report that Ali was born inside Ka'ba.[2][6] Shia sources are unanimous in this belief and regard the incident as unique to Ali and an indication of his high spiritual station.[1][3] This account is also given by various Sunni authors, who regard birth in Ka'ba as a great distinction, though not unique to Ali.[1] That Ali was born in Ka'ba is also the view of the recent Sunni scholars Shah Waliullah Dehlawi (d. 1762),[6] Mu'min ibn Hasan al-Shablanji al-Shafi'i (nineteenth century),[7] and Muhammad Sayyid Tantawy (d. 2010).[8][9] The Shia author Razwi lists some Sunni authors with the same view:[10]

• Al-Masudi in Murooj-udh-dhahab (Volume II)[11]
• Muhammad ibn Talha el-Shafi'i in Matalib-us-saool[12]
• El-Umari in Sharh ainia
• Halabi in Sira (Volume I)[13]
• Sibt ibn al-Jauzi in Tadhkera khawasil ummah[14]
• Ibn Sabbagh Maleki in Fusoolul mohimma[15]
• Muhammad bin Yousuf Shafi'i in Kifayet al-Talib[16]
• Mu'min bin Hasan al-Shablanji al-Shafi'i in Nurul absar[17]
• Ibn Zahra in Ghiyathul ikhtisar[18]
• Edvi in Nafhatul qudsia
• Abbas al-Aqqad in al-'Abqarriyet al-Imam Ali[19]
• Muhammad Sayyid Tantawy in Min fada-il al-'ashrat al-mubashireen bil janna[20]