QMI-INS-055pza · c. 50–120 AH
Inscription of Zayd ibn Ḥasan: “Bless Us in This Dwelling of Ours”
نقش زيد بن حسن: «اللهم بارك لنا في منزلنا هذا»
al-Madīnah, Saudi Arabia
- آمن زيد بن حسن بالله وحده لا شريك له وشهد
- ألا إله إلا الله وأن محمدا عبده
- ورسوله على ذلك يحيى (يحيا) ما حي (حيي) وعليه يموت
- إذا مات وهو يسل (يسأل) الله أن يقربه من
- محمد في الآخرة كما قربه منه في
- بالدنيا (الدنيا) وأن يجعله من أحباه (أحبائه) وأصفيه (أصفيائه)
- ونجبه (ونجبائه) اللهم بارك لنا في منزلنا هذا وأد
- رأ عنا شره وشر كل ذي شر وأرددنا
- إليه مر مرا (مرارا؟) كثيرة
Zayd ibn Ḥasan has believed in God alone, who has no partner, and has testified that there is no god but God and that Muḥammad is His servant and His messenger. On this he lives as long as he lives, and on it he will die when he dies. He asks God to bring him close to Muḥammad in the Hereafter, as He brought him close to him in this world, and to make him one of His beloved and His chosen and His elect. O God, bless us in this dwelling of ours, and wa- rd off from us its evil and the evil of every evil one, and bring us back to it many times over.
A nine-line text cut into a rock face at al-Madīnah. It falls into two parts. The first is a creed in the third person: Zayd ibn Ḥasan has believed in God alone and testified that there is no god but God and that Muḥammad is His servant and messenger; he lives by this and will die by it; and he asks God to bring him close to Muḥammad in the Hereafter “as He brought him close to him in this world”, and to count him among God’s beloved, chosen and elect. The second part turns to direct address, and from “he” to “we”: “O God, bless us in this dwelling of ours (manzilunā hādhā), ward off from us its evil and the evil of every evil one, and bring us back to it many times over.”
Source and photograph: [pending]. Reading by Ahmed W. Shaker. On Zayd ibn al-Ḥasan: Ibn Saʿd, al-Ṭabaqāt al-kabīr; al-Mizzī, Tahdhīb al-Kamāl, s.v. Zayd ibn al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī; al-Dhahabī, Siyar aʿlām al-nubalāʾ, s.v. Zayd ibn al-Ḥasan.