Is the Story of Removing an Arrowhead from Imam Ali’s (AS) Foot Historically Attested?

This incident is widely reported. We may assume that when it took place, it was so extraordinary that it was recounted and circulated in various gatherings until it reached us. It is mentioned in both Sunni and Shi‘i works.

Below are several examples of sources that discuss this incident.

“And know that when you consider worship, you will find him the most devoted of people after the Messenger of God. People learned from him the night prayer, vigil worship, and transmitted supplications. A prayer rug would be spread for him between the two lines of battle, while arrows fell around him; yet he would not turn his attention from his Lord, alter his practice, or grow weary of worship. Whenever he turned to God Most High, he did so with his whole being, his gaze withdrawn from this world and all that it contains, until he ceased to feel pain.

“When they wished to remove iron and arrowheads from his blessed body, they would wait until he began to pray. Once he was absorbed in prayer and had turned to God Most High, they would remove them from his body, and he would feel nothing. When he had finished praying and saw what had happened, he would say to his son al-Hasan: ‘This is none other than your doing, Hasan.’”

*Irshād al-qulūb ilā al-ṣawāb* (by al-Daylami), vol. 2, p. 217

When he turned to God, he did so with his whole being, giving himself wholly to his Lord. He turned his gaze away from this world and all that it contains, to the point that he no longer felt the pain. For this reason, whenever they wished to remove an arrow or its head from his blessed body, they would wait until he had risen to pray. Once he was absorbed in prayer and had turned to God, they would remove it, and he would feel nothing. When he had finished praying and saw what had happened, he would say to his son: “This is none other than your doing, Hasan.”

“By Him in whose hand is the soul of Ibn Abi Talib, a thousand sword blows are easier for me than dying in bed.”

If you ask whether he swore this literally or whether it was a figurative exaggeration intended to encourage his companions to fight, I would answer: he meant it literally. Such was his intense love of God, his boundless longing for Him, and his ardent desire to seek God’s good pleasure that he had attained the highest degrees of self-effacement in God and abiding through God. He was utterly forgetful of himself in the presence of his Lord. In such a state, sword blows and spear thrusts could have no effect on him whatsoever.

This is borne out by reports from several authorities that, during the Battle of Siffin, an arrow lodged in his blessed foot, and the surgeons could not remove it because it was so firmly embedded. But when he rose to pray, they removed it while he was prostrating. After he had finished praying, he learned that it had been taken out and swore that he had felt nothing at all.

This is further supported by a report attributed through a chain of transmission to Abu Ja‘far in *al-Kharā’ij*. He said that, before he was killed, al-Husayn said: “The Messenger of God اللّه صلّى اللّه —may God bless him and his family and grant them peace—said: ‘My son, you will be driven to Iraq, a land where prophets and the prophets’ successors have met. It is a land called Ghamur. You will be martyred there, and a group of your companions will be martyred with you; they will not feel the pain of iron touching them.’ Then he recited: ‘O fire, be coolness and peace for Abraham.’ The battle will be peace for you and them.” The report goes on.

The point of comparison is that al-Husayn’s companions, though among the least of the servants of the Commander of the Faithful, felt no pain from the iron because of the love they bore and their longing to meet the Truth. How much more so would this be true of him, immersed as he was in the oceans of spiritual knowledge and perfected in the station of love?

*Minhāj al-barā‘a fī sharḥ Nahj al-balāgha* (al-Khu’i), vol. 8, p. 152

“As for worship, he was the most devoted of people and the one who prayed and fasted the most. People learned from him the night prayer, constancy in litanies, and the performance of supererogatory prayers. What can you say of a man so steadfast in observing his regular devotions that, on the Night of al-Harir, a prayer rug was spread for him between the two lines of battle, and he performed his nightly devotions upon it? Arrows fell before him and whistled past his ears on both sides, yet he was not startled or moved, and did not rise until he had completed his devotions. And what can you say of a man whose forehead, from the length of his prostrations, had become like a camel’s knee?”

*Sharḥ Nahj al-balāgha* by Ibn Abi al-Hadid, vol. 1, p. 27