Angelic Appellation
It was five years
after the Muslims had accompanied the Prophet (PBUH&HF) and his family
in the migration (Hijrah) to Medina, when the Holy Prophet's daughter,
Hazrat Fatima (pbuh), gave birth to a little girl.'
When her father, Imam
Ali (pbuh), saw his daughter for the first time Imam Hosein (pbuh), who
was then almost three years old, was with him. The boy exclaimed in
delight,
"O father, Allah has
given me a sister."
At those words Imam
Ali (pbuh) began to weep, and when Hosein (pbuh) asked why he was crying
so, his father answered that he would soon come to know.
Fatima (pbuh) and Ali
(pbuh) did not name their child until a few days after her birth, for
they awaited the Prophet's return from a journey so that he could
propose the name.
When finally the baby
girl was brought before him he held her in his lap and kissed her. The
Angel Jibra'il came to him and conveyed the name that was to be hers,
and then he began to weep. The Prophet (PBUH&HF) asked why Jibra'il wept
and he answered,
"O Prophet of Allah.
From early on in life this girl will remain entangled in tribulations
and trials in this world. First she will weep over your separation (from
this world); thereafter she will bemoan the loss of her mother, then her
father, and then her brother Hasan. After all this she will be
confronted with the trials of the land of Karbala and the tribulations
of that lonely desert, as a result of which her hair will turn grey and
her back will be bent."
When the members of
the family heard this prophecy they all broke down in tears. Imam Hosein
(pbuh) now understood why earlier his father had also wept. Then the
Prophet (PBUH&HF) named her Zaynab (pbuh).
When the news of
Zaynab's birth reached Salman al-Farsi, he went to Ali (pbuh) to
congratulate him. But instead of seeing him happy and rejoicing he saw
Ali (pbuh) shed tears, and he too was apprised of the events of Karbala
and the hardships that were to befall Zaynab (pbuh).
One day, when Zaynab (pbuh)
was about five years old, she had a strange and terrible dream. A
violent wind arose in the city and darkened the earth and the sky. The
little girl was tossed hither and thither, and suddenly she found
herself stuck in the branches- of a huge tree. But-the wind was so
strong that it uprooted the tree. Zaynab (pbuh) caught hold of a branch
but that broke. In a panic she grabbed two twigs but these top gave way
and she was left falling with no support. Then she woke up. When she
told her grand father, the Prophet (PBUH&HF), about this dream he wept
bitterly and said,
"O my daughter. That
tree is me who am shortly going to leave this world. The branches are
your father Ali and your mother Fatima Zahra, and the twigs are your
brothers Hasan and Hosein. They will all depart this world before you
do, and you will suffer their separation and loss." |