Muhammad Ali bin Harun bin Hasan was a Ba Alawi figure of Tarim whose lineage in Al-Mashra al-Rawi descends through the Jamal al-Layl line, Muhammad Asad Allah and al-Faqih al-Muqaddam.
He was born in Tarim, memorised the Quran and kept the company of senior religious figures of his time. The biography records that he travelled through Yemen, learned from scholars there, performed Hajj and spent several years in the Two Holy Sanctuaries. It remembers him for good character, worship, congregational prayer and generosity toward others.
Al-Mashra al-Rawi also preserves an anecdote in which al-Sharif al-Za’farani angrily insulted Muhammad Ali after asking him for something he did not possess. Muhammad Ali did not retaliate and instead worked to obtain the requested item and sent it to him. The episode is transmitted as an illustration of his forbearance and generosity.
Muhammad Ali died in 983 AH. No burial place is recorded in this biography.
Lineage and source note
Primary source: Al-Mashra al-Rawi fi Manaqib al-Sada al-Kiram Al Abi Alawi, volume 2, biography of Muhammad Ali bin Harun bin Hasan. It records his Tarim origin, Quran study, travel through Yemen and the Haramain, devotional life, the al-Za’farani anecdote and death in 983 AH.
A later entry in the same volume, for Muhammad bin Umar al-Bayti, gives a death in 1052 AH and burial at Zanbal. Those details belong to that later figure and not to Muhammad Ali bin Harun.