Abū Turāb (), is a title attributed to

Ali ibn Abi Talib Ali ibn Abi Talib (; ) was the fourth Rashidun caliph who ruled from until Assassination of Ali, his assassination in 661, as well as the first imamate in Shia doctrine, Shia Imam. He was the cousin and son-in-law of the Islamic prophet Muha ...

, the fourth Muslim

Caliph A caliphate ( ) is an institution or public office under the leadership of an Islamic steward with Khalifa, the title of caliph (; , ), a person considered a political–religious successor to the Islamic prophet Muhammad and a leader of ...

, who is seen by

Shia Shia Islam is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that Muhammad designated Ali ibn Abi Talib () as both his political successor (caliph) and as the spiritual leader of the Muslim community (imam). However, his right is understood ...

Muslims Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

as the first of their Imams. According to Islamic tradition the Arabic title "Abu Turab" was given to Ali ibn Abi Talib by

Muhammad Muhammad (8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious and political leader and the founder of Islam. Muhammad in Islam, According to Islam, he was a prophet who was divinely inspired to preach and confirm the tawhid, monotheistic teachings of A ...

, when he found Ali sleeping while covered with dust. Sahih Muslim Vol. 1 mentions a story in which the Islamic prophet

saw Ali sleeping in the Medina mosque, while he was covered in dust. Muhammad then woke him up by saying, "Get up, Abu Turab". Abu Turab's title refers to this incident. Abu Turab means "Father of Soil/Dust". The Quran says,' Indeed, We have warned you of a near punishment on the Day when a man will observe what his hands have put forth and the disbeliever will say, "Oh, I wish that I were dust!" ' According to Vaglieri this title might have been given to him by his enemies, and fictitious narrations have emerged in the following centuries to give this title an honorable appearance. The earliest non-Islamic source where this nickname for ʿAli b. Abī Ṭālib appears is in George of Reshʿaina in 680 AD.Robert Hoyland, Seeing Islam as Others Saw it, pg. 141

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*{{EI2 , last=Vaglieri , first=L. Veccia , authorlink=Laura Veccia Vaglieri , title=ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib , volume=1 , pages=381–386 Arabic words and phrases Ali

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References

Works cited