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Hazrat Fatima Zahra (s.a)
The
link between prophethood and Imammah
Fatimah (as) was the only woman connecting prophethood and Imamah and
was the link between the two. She was the daughter of the Prophet (sawa),
the wife of the first Imam (as) and the mother of the rest of the Imams
(as) who descended from her and her husband Ali (as). Allah singled her
out with this virtue and peculiarity because she was the most perfect
and highest example in purity, sanctity, worship, asceticism and morals.
Al-Kauther
According
to some Qur'an commentaries (tafsir), when the Quraysh (tribe)
said that the Prophet (sawa) had no offspring, the chapter of al-Kauther
was revealed: 'Verily We have given thee the Kauther
(Abundance). So pray thou unto thy Lord! And offer sacrifice. Verily,
thy enemy shall be the one cut off (in his progeny).' (Qur'an
108:1-3)
'We have given you al-Kauther' means we have given you the
abundant good, which shall last throughout your life and after it;
therefore, turn your face unto your Lord in prayer, as mention of your
name shall never end and your offspring shall never perish; it is those
standing against you who are more deserving of this description.
This revelation was given against the backdrop of the pronouncements by
some of the Quraysh's most scurrilous men - such as al-'As bin Wa'il,
Abu Jahl, 'Uqbah bin Abi Mu'ayt and Ka'b bin al-Ashraf - that the
Prophet (sawa) was cut off from male children, after the death of his
son al-Qasim. Hence, it is clear that the abundant good - al-Kauther
- was pointing to the abundant offspring which the Prophet (sawa) would
have through his daughter Fatimah (as), and that this was a reply to
those people and their effort to weaken the Prophet's spirits.
Supporting our interpretation, al-Tabataba'I, in al-Mizan
commentary, said: 'Without that, the words 'Verily, thy enemy
shall be the one cut off' would be useless.'
Her
childhood
In Fatimah's childhood, there was no place for playing, leisure and
purposelessness. Nor were her energies those of a child living a
childhood of innocence and simplicity. Rather, hers was the energy of a
child who stored within herself a feeling for the role which she should
play in the Messenger's life and the suffering and pain which he was
facing. It was a childhood with the characteristics of a motherhood,
living its spirit and fulfilling its role.
There she was, and having opened her eyes to life, she saw her father (sawa)
coming every now and then, weighed down by the pressures, burdens and
harm inflicted by the atheists; so she would embrace her father and
relieve his pain and take care of him with all kindness.
One day, she saw her father (sawa) in the Holy Mosque of Makkah after
the atheists had dumped dirt and rubbish over his back while he was
praying to his Lord. She promptly went forward and removed the rubbish
with her small hands, expressing her sadness and condolences to him (sawa)
with her tears. This is what made her open up to her responsibilities in
her early childhood to stand by her father, to take care of him and
empathise with him; and he was the one who had lost his mother, and his
sympathetic wife. She stood by him when he was challenged with the
Message: some called him names, others accused him of being insane,
others threw dirt and stones on him; his uncle Abu Lahab crying out: 'No
doubt, Muhammad has bewitched you!' But when he returned home, he would
be greeted by Fatimah (as), with her sympathy and care, which was not
that of a child weeping without awareness..... She was sensing that his
pain was also hers and so amassed during her childhood the pain of the
Message and pain of the Messenger... And whosoever amasses in their
early childhood the awareness of the pain of the Messenger and the
Message cannot find time for leisure or playing or purposelessness;
playing and purposelessness occur in our lives because of an emptiness,
which we are trying to fill.
This was how Fatimah (as) grew up, not like other children, but as a
person with mission in her feelings, emotions, opinions and her whole
dynamic attitude.
Her
relationship with the Prophet (sawa)
Ibn 'Abdul Barr, in al-Istee'ab, narrated - and we would like
very much to use it, as it was a Sunni source which represents a neutral
source, so that the Shi'ah could not be accused of talking out of
emotion - that 'Ayshah said: 'I had not seen any one who was more
resembling the Messenger of Allah in his speech, conduct and manners as
Fatimah; when she used to enter (his house) he would stand up for her,
take her hand and kiss it and make her sit in his sitting place; and
when he used to enter (her house) she would stand up for him, take his
hand and kiss it and make him sit in her sitting place'.[1]
When we study this text, we can conclude two things: first, the unity
and complete merging between Fatimah's personality and her father's, as
the person most closely resembling him. This is reflected even in his
walking, as seen in many narrations, such as 'Fatimah came and her walk
did not fail the walking of the Messenger of Allah (sawa)'; second, the
depth of the spiritual relationship between the Prophet (sawa) and
Fatimah (as), a relationship which the Prophet (sawa) had with Fatimah
(as) alone.
Another narration by al-Hakim in al-Mustadrak states: 'The
Messenger of Allah used, when he came back from a battle or journey, to
come to the mosque and pray two rak'as to thank Allah..... then
would enter to (the house of) Fatimah, then he would come to his
wives'.[2]
This meant that Fatimah (as) held the prime place in the relationships
between the Prophet (sawa) and other people, including his wives.
In
the same book, al-Mustadrak, al-Hakim also narrated: 'The Prophet
(sawa), when he used to travel, the last person he would see was
Fatimah.' Thus her image would stay in his mind, and the kindness and
emotion, with which she used to embrace him, would stay with him in his
travel and his memory, to comfort him.
Al-Hakim added: 'And when he returned from a journey, the first person
he would see would be Fatimah.'[3]
Historians have said that the Prophet (sawa) did not accept that
Fatimah (as) became separated from him even after her marriage and,
therefore, did not accept that she lived in a house far away from him,
so she lived in the house next to his so that he could enter into her
house directly from his.[4]
In al-Isti'ab we read: ''Ayshah was asked: who was the most
beloved person to the Messenger of Allah? She replied: Fatimah. I asked:
and amongst men? She said: her husband...'[5] This is an important
witness by 'Ayshah for Fatimah and Ali (as).
There are many stories from her life which tell how she used to study
her father's thoughts to know what he liked and disliked, what opened up
his heart and what closed it. An example of this was when he (sawa) came
back from a journey and entered her house, looked around a little, then
left. Quickly she knew that something bothered the Messenger of Allah (sawa).
She thought about it and realised that on the door of her house was a
curtain and that she had two bracelets in her hands; she took the
curtain down and took off the bracelets and sent them with her sons and
said: 'Say greetings to my father and say to him: we have not
introduced anything after you except this, it is for you to do with them
what you like.' When the Prophet (sawa) heard this, his expression
relaxed. He was moved by this generous, wonderful, spiritual gesture by
his daughter, and this thoughtful response, and gave these things to the
poor, saying: 'She did this! May her father be sacrificed for her!
May her father be sacrificed for her! May her father be sacrificed for
her! What have the family of Muhammad to do with life: they have been
created for the hereafter!'[6]
This is what every girl with a mission should learn, when her father is
a man of missionary affiliations and responsibilities; as too should
every woman with someone who has a missionary dimension in his life: she
should learn not to get too engrossed with her own affairs, but to open
herself up to the responsibilities of her father, husband, brother or
son so as to join with him in the dynamic movement of responsibility,
and not to add to the burdens to his responsibility. For we see many
great men, past and present, become burdened by the people who are
around them: while when they think in a missionary manner, those around
them think only of themselves.
We
also learn from Fatimah (as), in her advanced missionary awareness and
position, that she was someone who rebelled against her personal needs,
however simple, for the sake of her missionary ambitions; she was
someone who prioritised in favour of principles over the self. This is
what we need to learn, for many of us - men and women alike - fall down
when it comes to a choice between the needs of the principle and the
needs of the self; we too often choose the self, and may even make a
principle of service to the self.
Fatimah al-Zahra (as) was unique in all her behaviour and deeds, even
in her sorrow for her beloved, especially during her separation from the
Messenger of Allah (sawa).
Historians tell us that, when she went to him as he was dying, she
embraced him and he whispered something in her ear which made her weep.
Then, when he whispered something that made her laugh, she was asked:
'How quickly (your) laughing after weeping?!' She said: 'I shall not
reveal the Messenger of Allah's secret in his life.' So, when she
was asked about this after his death, she said: 'He whispered in my
ear first that he was going to meet his Lord and that his soul was
announced to him (his death), so I wept; then he whispered in my ear
again that I was going to be the first of his family to go after him, so
I laughed!'[7] Where else would you find a young woman, whatever her
love for her father, become happy when he tells her that she is going to
be the first to die after him?
What relationship deeper could be than this, and what unity of spirit
could be stronger?
Her
father's mother!
One of his eternal and most valued utterances in Fatimah's praise is
the saying of the Prophet (sawa): 'Fatimah is the mother of her
father!'[8]
But, to understand the precise meaning of this statement we should
study the life of the Messenger of Allah (sawa) and the hardships and
difficulties to which he was subjected from the beginning of his life.
He suffered a great deal: from the atheists, to the point that he said:
'No prophet has ever been harmed like I have'[9]; from losing his
wife, the Mother of the Believers, Khadijah (as), who was the shelter in
which he found refuge in his hardships; from the loss of his uncle Abu
Talib, who took care of him and defended him and stood by him. And he
suffered before all this, when he lived an orphan.
Thus, when he was moved by Fatimah's feelings and care, he annointed
the motherhood in his daughter with the words 'Fatimah is the mother
of her father.' It encapsulated all his feeling for the kindness and
great heart of his daughter towards the Messenger of Allah (sawa).
So, imagine the great scale of the feeling and kindness of Fatimah (as),
which succeeded so well in filling the soul of this great man and made
him feel secure... To be a mother for a personality such as the Prophet
(sawa) demands from the person who wants to play that role a great deal
of effort, energy, heart and soul, and a broad horizon.
The first
student
To use today's terminology, Fatimah and Ali (as) were the first
students in the boarding school of the Messenger of Allah (sawa). Ali
(as) used to sit in Makkah, when the revelation was being revealed to
the Prophet (sawa), and Fatimah (as) used to sit as well to read,
together with Ali (as), the revelation and listen to the teachings of
the Prophet (sawa), as he explained the meanings of the revelations.
They, together, would learn what Allah had entrusted to His Prophet with
his laws for man. Hence, Fatimah (as) was with Ali (as) in that great
prophetic, cultural surge.
One could understand the hadith 'If Ali did not exist, there
would have been no match for Fatimah' on intellectual level: that
which Fatimah (as) had was not possessed by any one but Ali (as).
Her
marriage
Many companions proposed to Fatimah (as), but the Prophet (sawa) kindly
turned down their requests, saying: 'I await the order of my Lord'[10]
for in Fatimah (as) there was special merit that was not to be found in
his other daughters. Fatimah (as) possessed a holy secret, which only
Allah Almighty knew; similarly Ali (as) possessed a holy secret, which
only Allah knew.
Some asked Ali: 'Why don't you propose to Fatimah?' But he was shy. At
last he came to the Prophet (sawa) and talked to him on this matter. In
his response, the Prophet (sawa) showed that he was pleased, as if he
was waiting for this proposal, even preparing for it. He said to Ali:
'What money have you got?'
Of
course he (sawa) knew how much Ali (as) had, for he was the one who
brought him up and was with him both at home and away, day and night, in
war and peace; nevertheless he asked him: 'What have you got?'
Ali replied: 'My sword, shield and the clothes which I wear!' The
Prophet (sawa) said: 'You cannot do without your sword with which you
defend Islam and remove hardship from the Messenger of Allah, but give
me your shield.'[11]
The shield was sold for 500 dirham and this was the marriage gift
(mahr) of Fatimah (as), who accepted Ali (as) as her husband.
What we need to understand in this marriage is what is in the hadith
that Imam al-Sadiq (as) - or the Prophet (sawa) according to others -
said: 'Had it not been that Allah the Most High created the Commander
of the Faithful for Fatimah, there would have been no match for her on
Earth.'[12]
What was this match that the narration was referring to?
Certainly it was not the match in terms of family, for there was more
than one cousin of the Prophet (sawa), but it was a match in soul, mind,
intellect and belief. Fatimah (as) was, through her faith, mind,
intellect, soul, purity, holy struggle and asceticism, a suitable match
for Ali (as), who was at the highest level as far these attributes were
concerned. Allah ordered his Messenger (sawa) to marry his daughter to
her match and the pure to the pure, because there was more than one
point on which they met.
This makes us understand the secret behind the refusal of the Prophet (sawa)
to marry Fatimah (as) off to any of the prominent companions. Al-Sadooq
tells us, in 'Uyoon Akhbar al-Rida (as), that Ali (as) said:
'The Messenger of Allah (sawa) told me: O Ali! Men from the Quraysh
complained about Fatimah ('s marriage) and said: we have asked you for
her hand in marriage but you have turned us down and married her off to
Ali! I said to them: I swear by Allah that it was not me who turned you
down and accepted him, but it was Allah...; (the archangel) Gabriel came
down and said: O Muhammad! Allah the Great and Almighty said: If I have
not created Ali, there would have been no match for your daughter
Fatimah on the face of the Earth.'
Her
narration of the hadith
Here
are some of her narrations:
1. Al-Qundoozi narrated, in Yenabee' al-Mawaddah, that
Fatimah (as) said: 'I heard my father the Messenger of Allah (sawa),
in his death illness saying, and the room full with his companions'
[i.e. he did not say it in whisper or secretly, but aloud in front of
his companions]: O people! I am about to die and I am submitting this
speech to you to fulfil my duty towards you - I am leaving for you the
book of my Lord the Great the Almighty and my progeny. Then he took the
hand of Ali (as) and said: This is Ali with the Qur'an and the Qur'an
with Ali shall never separate until they arrive to me at the basin,
(and) I shall ask you how you have succeeded me in dealing with them?'[13]
2. In Kanz al-Fawa'id, Fatimah (as) narrated that the
Prophet (sawa) said: 'Gabriel informed me that the two angels
(appointed to count the deeds) of Ali did not register any sin for Ali
since they accompanied him.'[14] This was what distinguished Ali
(as) from the rest of the companions of the Messenger (sawa) and this
was what made Fatimah (as) defend Ali's right, not because he was her
cousin and husband, but because he was the infallible in whom the two
angels could not find any sin or bad deed.
3. In another narration, Fatimah (as) said that she went to the
Prophet (sawa) and he stretched out a cloth and said 'sit', then
al-Hasan (as) came and he said to him 'sit with her', then al-Husain
(as) came and he said 'sit with them', then Ali (as) came and he
said 'sit with them'; then he gathered up the cloth and closed it
upon them and said: 'O Lord! They are from me and I am from them; O
Lord! Be satisfied with them as I am satisfied with them.'[15]
His statement 'I am from them'
means that the mission of the prophethood, of which he (sawa) was the
bearer, would be passed on to Ahlul Bayt (as) after him, and so the
Prophet (sawa) would continue to exist through them, and his Message
would continue through them. This is the secret behind his satisfaction
with them, for he is satisfied with only those whom Allah is satisfied.
4. In another narration, Fatimah
(as) brought al-Hasan and al-Husain (as) to the Messenger of Allah (sawa)
in his final illness, and said: 'O Messenger of Allah! You have not
bequeathed these two anything!' He replied: 'As for al-Hasan, he
has my presence and my mastership; as for al-Husain, he has my courage
and generosity.'[16]
5. Fatimah (as) said: 'My father the Messenger of Allah (sawa)
entered when I had gone to bed to sleep, and said: O Fatimah! Do not go
to sleep before doing four things: reciting the whole of the Qur'an,
making the Prophets your mediators (with Allah), making the believers
satisfied with you and performing the pilgrimage and visit (hajj
and 'umrah to Makkah). Then he started praying! So, I stayed in
bed until he finished the prayer and said: O Messenger of Allah! You
ordered me to do four things which I could not do in this hour! The
Messenger of Allah smiled and said: If you recite the Tauheed
chapter (al-Ikhlas surah) three times it is as if you have
recited the whole of the Qur'an; and if you recite prayers to me and the
prophets before me then we shall be your mediators in the Day of
Judgment; and if you pray that Allah forgive the believers (say
istighfar) they shall be satisfied with you; and if you say:
Subhan Allah (praise be to Allah) and al-Hamdu Lillah
(gratitude to Allah) and La Ilaha Illa Allah (there is no God but
Allah) and Allahu Akbar (God is greatest) as if you have
performed the pilgrimage and visit.'[17]
6. She said: 'The Messenger of Allah (sawa) said: Your best of
men are those who are the most lenient with people and most generous to
their women.'[18]
This means that the best people are those
who are most kind to people and most generous to their women, whether
daughters, wives or mothers.
Her
grievances
The short life of Fatimah (as), which lasted no more than twenty years
according to some historians, was filled with much suffering and grave
crises. If we talk about the suffering and hardships in her daily
living, we also need to talk about what was worse than that: the
calamities and grievances which she suffered after the death of her
father - something which opened a bleeding wound in the Islamic nation,
and which in turn was the cause of the painful wounds that followed -
one of the worst of which was the murder of the Master of the Youth of
Paradise Imam al-Husain (as) and his progeny in the desert of Kerbala'
and the taking of the women and children as captives to al-Sham
(Damascus), driven like slaves. These grievances have been narrated by
both the Sunnah and Shi'ah, and the numerous narrations which speak
about her grievances and injustices coincide, even to the level of
mutawatir.[19]
1-
The attack on her house
Historians, one of whom is Ibn Qutaybah in al-Imamah wal Siyasah,
said that - after the death of the Prophet and al-Saqeefah episode -
men came with wood to burn down the house of Ali and Fatimah (as), to
threaten them and those whom they considered as opposition, who had
gathered at the house of Ali (as). Some said to the leader of the
assault: 'O man! In the house is Fatimah!'; and Fatimah was the
person whom the Muslims agreed to love and respect, and whose position
they agreed to acknowledge, because she was the only daughter that the
Prophet (sawa) left when he died, and because she was part of him - what
made her angry made him angry and what harmed her harmed him... So, how
come you come with fire to burn her house?
But, he replied with his famous statement: 'Even though!'
We regard this as one of the most dangerous utterances, because it
means that there are no sacred entities in this house, and so there is
nothing to prevent it being burned with its people inside!
This utterance points to the mindset of the people, and what they were
prepared to do. However, had they opened the door to dialogue through
nice words, they would have found Ali the man of dialogue, as he had
always been throughout his life, even after he became a caliph; and they
would have found Fatimah a woman of dialogue, because the Qur'an, to
which Fatimah above all others adhered most closely to, was the book of
dialogue. However, those people had already passed the stage of dialogue
by the time they gathered the wood to burn the house of al-Zahra (as).
So when in reply to 'In the house is Fatimah', that man said 'Even
though!' this represented the ugliest form of injustice to which Fatimah
(as) was subjected.
2-
Other grievances
There were other events in which she suffered, but they have not always
been substantiated fully beyond doubt. Those include the actual burning
of the house, the breaking of her rib, the miscarriage, the slapping of
her cheek, and the beating of her and others. These are recorded in
narrations that may have question marks raised against them, either in
their actual text (matn) or in the chain of narrators (sanad),
as is the case with many historical narrations.
Therefore, we have raised some queries, as have been raised by some
scholars in the past (may Allah be satisfied with them) such as Sheikh
al-Mufeed[20] who seems to question the miscarriage issue, even the
existence of the pregnancy - although we disagree with him on the
latter. However, we do not deny that these events may have taken place -
as Sheikh Muhammad Husain Kashif al-Ghita' has done regarding beating
her and slapping her cheek[21] because denying requires as much proof as
accepting. At any rate, what is definite is that the numerous narrations
attain the level of mutawatir as a whole, confirm that there was
an assault on her if only by exposing her house, attacking it and
threatening to burn it - and this alone should be sufficient to prove
the degree of crime which took place. It was a crime that continued to
haunt those who committed it, and this was why the first caliph declared
as he was dying: 'I wish I had not exposed the house of Fatimah, even if
it had declared war on me.'[22]
3-
Denying her Fadak
Scholars from the two schools of thought, including al-Suyooti, in
their commentary on the verse: 'And give to the near of kin his due'
(Qur'an 17:26), said that when this verse was revealed, the Prophet (sawa)
gave Fatimah (as) the village of Fadak, which he saw as part of the
peace treaty between him and the Jews...[23] It seems that the right of
Fatimah (as) to Fadak has always been well known amongst the Muslims
throughout history, and hence 'Umar bin 'Abdul 'Aziz, the Umayyad
caliph, returned Fadak to Ahlul Bayt.[24] Later, after the first
'Abbasid caliphs had confiscated it again, al-Mahdi returned it once
more, then he and Haroon took it back, and it continued to be in their
possession until al-Ma'moon became caliph and returned it to the
Fatimids.[25]
The proofs to Fatimah's ownership of Fadak were many and clear, and many
Muslims gave witness in that regard, including the Commander of the
Faithful (as) and Ummu Ayman, but their evidence was refuted![26] There
was no counter evidence - except the hadith in which Abu Bakr
narrated that the Prophet (sawa) said: 'We, the folk of prophets, do not
leave bequests - what we leave is for alms.'[27]
The factors which stood against this counter evidence, in addition to
being contradictory to the Qur'an, are:
First:
the hadith was narrated by Abu Bakr only, and Fatimah
(as), through her stance, denied this hadith;
Second:
the Messenger of Allah (sawa) loved Fatimah (as) with the greatest of
love, and would protect her from any evil. So how come he did not tell
her of this (Islamic) ruling, which was anyway contradictory to the
Qur'an, which states that the prophets (as) inherited and bequeathed?
How come he did not tell her when the hadith was directly related
to her - in fact, she was its most clear manifestation? How come he did
not tell his beloved and save her the trouble?
Third:
If the Muslims agree that Fatimah (as) is
the Doyenne of the Women of the World, how come she tells lies, or talks
nonsense or contradicts a hadith of her father (sawa)?
Fourth:
The history of prophets (as) did not tell us that they did not bequeath
anything, and that what they left was for alms, since if that were the
case the followers of other religions would have known.
Fifth:
Is it conceivable that
Ali (as) would enter into dispute with the people about Fadak, and would
accuse them of injustice and treason[28] just to side with his wife?!
How come and the Prophet (sawa) said: 'The right is with Ali wherever
he goes'[29] and: 'Ali is with the right and the right is with
Ali?'[30] And how come Ali does not know that the Prophet (sawa)
does not bequeath when he is the gate to the Prophet's City of Knowledge
and Wisdom, and who has been with the Prophet (sawa) in a way
unparalleled by any other companion?
Sixth:
Historians mentioned
that Fadak was, in fact, under Fatimah's control and that at the
beginning her claim was based on it being a gift from her father (sawa)
during her life and therefore did not fall into the category of
inheritance.
4-
The injustice of history
What great individuals suffer is the injustice of history and of the
historians who intentionally hide their names, marginalize their roles
and do not take care in registering the particulars of their lives,
which are rich in lessons and lively examples that can teach generations
throughout time. Fatimah (as) has been one of these victims, for when we
study her history, we can find only snapshots of her life with her
father the Messenger of Allah (sawa), but with little details. Fatimah
(as) is mentioned as a migrant: but nothing much is recorded here except
that her name is one of those who migrated after the Prophet (sawa). The
irony is that we find history talks extensively about things that are
irrelevant to our practical life, such as the celebrations in the
heavens when she got married![31]
We
know that her life, although short, was full of lessons, teachings,
worship and holy struggle. We can say that, in spite of all this
historical injustice, what has reached us from her, and about her, is
sufficient to give us the highest example and the most complete role
model for any Muslim.
5-
She died angry with her oppressors
The attack on Fatimah's house, and the threat to burn it and other
injustices, did not win the approval of the Muslims in general. This
forced the two men who oppressed her to come and request Ali (as) to ask
her permission to enter and to try to resolve the matters with her. What
was her response?
Ibn Qutaybah, in al-Imamah wal Siyasah, narrates that 'Umar said
to Abu Bakr: 'Let's go to Fatimah, for we have made her angry.' So they
went together and asked her permission, but she denied it to them. They
asked Ali to talk to her, and he did. When they entered and sat, she
turned her face to the wall. They greeted her, but she did not answer.
Abu Bakr said: 'O you the Messenger of Allah's beloved! I swear by Allah
that the kinship of the Messenger of Allah is more beloved to me than my
kinship, and you are surely more beloved to me than my daughter 'Ayshah,
and I wished the day your father died that I died and did not stay after
him... Do you see me, when knowing you and your virtues and honour,
denying you your right and inheritance from the Messenger of Allah (sawa)?
Except that I heard your father the Messenger of Allah (sawa) saying:
We, the folk of prophets, do not leave bequests - what we leave is for
alms'.
Fatimah (as) did not comment on the inheritance issue, since she has
previously dealt with that in detail in her sermon, but she wanted to
establish the proof on the two of them regarding the harm, injustice and
wrong-doing to which she was subjected. Hence she said: 'Can I see
you if I narrate a hadith from the Messenger of Allah (sawa); you
know it, will you do according to it?' They replied: 'Yes'; she
said: 'I ask you by Allah, haven't you heard the hadith of the
Messenger of Allah (sawa): the satisfaction of Fatimah is my
satisfaction and the discontent of Fatimah is my discontent?' They
said: 'Yes, we heard it from the Messenger of Allah (sawa)'. She said:
'Therefore, I take Allah and his angels as witnesses that you have
made me discontented and have not satisfied me, and when I meet the
Prophet I shall complain about you to him!'. Abu Bakr said: 'I take
refuge in Allah from his discontent and your discontent O Fatimah!'; but
she said: 'I swear by Allah that I shall invoke Allah against you in
every prayer I do!'[32]
In
another source, she said: 'I ask you by Allah, have you heard the
Prophet (sawa) say: Fatimah is part of me and I am part of her; whoever
harms her harms me and whoever harms me harms Allah, and whoever harms
her after my death it is as if he has harmed her during my life, and who
harms her during my life as if he harms her after my death?'. They
said: 'O Lord, yes'; she said: 'Gratitude to Allah'. Then she
said: 'O Allah! I make you witness, so be witnesses you who are
present, that they have harmed me in my life and at my death!'[33]
In
this way, and with all strength and courage, Fatimah (as) proved her
case and registered that the two of them had made her angry, and hence
also the Messenger of Allah (sawa), and above that Allah the Most High.
Her anger remained, like a bleeding wound, in the heart of her
descendants and followers. When Abdullah bin al-Hasan was asked about
Abu Bakr and 'Umar, he said: 'Our mother was a truthful woman and
daughter of a sent prophet; she died angry with some people and we are
angry because of her anger.'[34]
Her
burial, grave and Ali's funeral farewell speech
Her protest did not stop at that; she continued her protest until her
death. She asked Ali (as) to bury her at night[35] and that those who
oppressed her and confiscated her right should not be present. She
wanted to express her protest and opposition to aggression and injustice
even after death, and she wanted it to be angry and hurtful, but with
wisdom and convincing evidence and strong attitudes. She knew that
people would start asking: why would the daughter of the Prophet (sawa)
be buried at night? Why did she request that? What was happening? For
this had not happened in Islam and everyone was expecting to participate
in the funeral of their Prophet's daughter. But they were to find out
that she was buried at night, and they would be told that that was her
will!
The question spread out amongst Muslims: why? This is what Fatimah (as)
wanted, to awaken consciences, and those who had been fooled would know
the nature of the conspiracy and what had happened.
Moreover, her will also stated that her grave should be flattened so as
to add another proof and witness to the injustice she suffered, and to
eternalise her protest upon those who oppressed her...[36]
Ali (as) did exactly what she wanted and buried her at night and
effaced her grave. The place of her grave remained unknown, although
some narrations by the Imams of Ahlul Bayt (as) say that she was buried
in her house, while others say that she was buried in the rauda
(garden) which was, according to some scholars, what the Prophet (sawa)
meant in his hadith: 'Between my grave and my pulpit a garden
from the gardens of paradise.' A third possibility, according to
others, is that she was buried in the cemetery of al-Baqee'.[37]
[2]
Same; also narrated in Sunan Abu Dawood, Musnad Ahmad and
others.
[7]
Al-Irshad, vol. 1, p. 156; Sahih Muslim, Vol. 4, p. 187,
Dar Ihya' al-Turath al-'Arabi, 1991; al-Bihar, vol. 2, chapter
29, p. 486.
[14]
Bihar al-Anwar, vol. 25, p. 193.
[32]
Al-Imamah wal Siyasah, p. 14.
[34]
Commentary of Nahj al-Balaghah, vol. 6, p. 49-50.
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