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Imam Ali's Birth inside Kabah
Incidentally, the very first event in Imam Ali's life, that is, his birth, is associated with a miracle. There is a new class of Muslim intellectuals who are beginning to show skepticism in the reports about Imam Ali’s birth inside K’abah. There is nothing I have to say to those people. Events of a miraculous nature are associated with all and every spiritual movement. Islam is no exception. The very basic belief that an angel used to come and give messages to the Prophet of Islam from Allah is also a miracle.
Historians have recorded that when Imam Ali's mother, Fatima bint Asad, was near giving birth, she came to the Grand Mosque and stood by the wall of K'abah praying. This was a custom in those days among the Quraysh. Pregnant women would come to the Grand Mosque and pray. Suddenly, there was movement in the wall. It split open. There was enough room for one grown up person to pass through. Fatima bint Asad passed through it. She remained inside the K'abah for three days. Imam Ali was born inside the K'abah on the 13th day in the month of Rajab.
Now note the following points:
1. The Prophet of Islam heard of this, he came, entered the K'abah and picked up the newborn in his arms. Only at this point did the child open his eyes. The Prophet at this time was thirty years old - so the mission was yet ten years away. He named the child Ali.
2. Abu Talib must have heard of his wife disappearing inside the K'abah. He did not show any sign of worry. He just waited for her until she re-appeared with the infant.
3. The place where the wall had split is called the Yamani corner of the cube. There is a mark on the wall showing the exact pattern of the split; it is like the root of a tree, having five branches. K'abah has been rebuilt umpteen times in the intervening centuries and the mark is still there. When I saw it in 1984, the walls were built with stones and the crack-marks were filled with molten silver. When I re-visited it in 1995, the walls had been rebuilt yet again, this time with cinder blocks - but the mark was there all the same.
 

Sources

1. Masoodi in his Murooj az-Zahb
2. Muhammad bin Talha Shafi'i in his Mataalib-us-Su'ool
3. Hakim Nayshapoori in his Al-Mustadrak
4. Al-Umari in his Sharh-e-'Ayniyya
5. Burhanud-Deen Halabi in his Seerat al-Halabiyya
6. Sibt ibn Al-Jawzi in his Tazkirah Khawasil Ummah
7. Ibn Sabbaagh Maliki in his Fusool al-Muhimma
8. Muhammad bin Yusuf Shafi'i in his Kifayat at-Talib
9. Shablanji in his Noor al-Absar
10. Ibn Zahra in his Ghiyath al-Ikhtisar
11. Advi in his Nafhat al-Qudsia
12. Abbas Mahmood Al-Akkad of Egypt in his Al-Abqariyyat al-Imam Ali
13. Mahmood Saeed al-Tantawi, of the Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs, Arab Republic of Egypt, in his book: Min Fadha'el al-'Asharat al-Mubash-shireen bil Janna, published from Cairo, 1976