Value of al-Zahra’ (A.S.)

 

Some people may wonder and say, “The participation of al-Zahra’ (A.S.) in the issue of Mubahala does not indicate the greatness of her value and distinction because her father, the Prophet (A.S.), had brought all his family members since they were the dearest to him, the ones he loved the most, in order to prove that he was ready to sacrifice them for the sake of the religion, and it does not have any other implication.”

In answer, we would like to say that Allah, Glory to Him, involved al-Zahra’ (A.S.) in an issue that had something to do with the permanence of the religion and with its being the truth, and she affects the essence of believing in it till the Day of Judgment, because the Mubahala was to prove that Jesus (A.S.) was only a human being, not a god.

The Holy Qur’an has immortalized her participation in order to demonstrate that she (A.S.) had reached the pinnacle in her perfection, eminence and distinction, so much so that Allah, the most Glorified One, made her, in addition to the Prophet (A.S.), the wasi and both of the Prophet’s grandsons (A.S.) the evident proof that the Prophet (A.S.) was truthful in everything he said. Allah, Glory to Him, was the One Who ordered His Prophet (A.S.) to use these individuals to invoke His curse upon the liars; he did not do it on his own.

So, it was not done because they were his family members, his Ahl al-Bayt, peace and blessings of Allah be upon them all. Rather, it was done because Fatima, peace of Allah and His blessings be upon her, and the Prophet (A.S.), and Ali and both grandsons of the Prophet, peace be upon them all, were, as such, the most precious of all in existence and the most distinguished among all of Allah’s creation. It became quite clear that the most Exalted One wanted all people to realize that sacrificing those chosen elite ones meant sacrificing everything, and that there was no value for existence without them, and the sacred hadath carries the same meaning.[1]

The exclusion of more than one man, and the restriction of the female gender to only al-Zahra’ (A.S.) in this issue points out to the fact that no other woman came close to the status of eminence and nearness to Allah, Glory to Him, than did al-Zahra’ (A.S.). So, there is no room to attribute any merit to anyone else besides her (A.S.) by way of distinction over all other women. Some people attribute status and distinction to some of the wives of the Prophet (A.S.), such as `a’isha, regarding her as superior to the women of the nation. This cannot be right especially when we see how she behaved after the demise of the Messenger of Allah (A.S.), how she declared mutiny against the Imam, the Commander of the Faithful (A.S.) how she set out to fight the wasi of the Messenger of the Lord of the Worlds, causing the death of a very large number of innocent people from among those who stood tall in their conviction and service to Islam. Satan did, indeed, show its horn from where the Prophet (A.S.) had pointed, and Allah, the Great, said the truth, and so did His glorious Prophet (A.S.).

What `a’isha did, then, how she disobeyed Allah, can never be used as a justification for women’s political activity, as some people may claim, nor does it prove that Islam sanctions it or that it does not.

As regarding the conduct of al-Zahra’ (A.S.) it is but the criterion and the scales because such conduct was in obedience of Allah, for she was the purified and the infallible woman whose statements and actions are relied upon when a verdict is to be derived from the Shara`a, be it relevant to a political or an apolitical issue.

[1]Refer to pp. 179 & 198 of Al-K_fi; and to pp. 138-139 of al-Nu`mani’s Ghayba; to pp. 488-489 of Basa’ir al-Darajat. Refer also to p. 359, Vol. 8, of Al-Sihah min Sirat al-Nabiyy al-A`zam (A) where the are quoted.