The “House of Grief” and People Annoyed by Her Weeping
 

Someone sees no need for the “house of grief” (bayt al-ahzan) so that al-Zahra’ (A.S.) could weep therein. He cannot imagine her mourning her father to the extent that she bothered the people of Medina, so they asked her to take to silence, implying that she used to cry very loudly in the alleys! And such crying and annoyance were not compatible with her status (A.S.). Here is our answer:

FIRST: There is a narrative mentioned by al-Majlisi^[1], which he considers as “weak” because he did not transmit it, as he says, from an original reference upon which he depends. He transmits it from Fidda (house maid of al-Zahra’ [a]) saying that Fatima (A.S.) went out during the night on the second day after the death of her father (A.S.). She wept, and people wept with her. When the people of Medina saw the extent of her grief, they requested Ali (A.S.) to ask her to weep either during the night or during the day, so he built for her the “house of grief” at al-Baqi`. Reference to other sources of this incident have already been stated.

It is quite obvious that Fidda’s narrative cannot be relied upon as al-Maqdisi, may Allah have mercy on him, says, neither from the isnad standpoint nor from the context, as anyone who reviews it may conclude.

As regarding the “house of grief,” it is “... remaining till our time, and it is the place known as Fatima’s Mosque in the direction of the mausoleum of al-Hasan (A.S.) and al-`Abbas. Ibn Jubayr refers to it saying, `Next to the `Abbasi dome lies the house of Fatima (A.S.) daughter of the Messenger of Allah (A.S.), and it is known as bayt al-huzn. It is said that she took to it and observed her grief since the demise of her father (A.S.).’”^[2]

SECOND: Her nightly mourning was more annoying to people who dispersed during the day to go to work at their farms, to look after their flocks, to take care of their chores, so it would have been more appropriate for her to stay at the “house of grief” during the night rather than during the day.

THIRD: The fact is that the weeping of al-Zahra’ (A.S.) did not annoy the people of Medina. Rather, it annoyed the governing clique which needed to be present at the Mosque of the Prophet (A.S.) beside his holy pulpit which was only a few meters (counted on one hand), so the said clique prohibited her from so grieving.^[3]

People used to go to that Mosque in particular and assemble thereat from dawn till a late hour of the night to pray and to stay informed of what events transpired.

The Mosque is the center of the city the population of which, relatively speaking, was small, just a few thousands. Mecca was much larger than Medina, and it used to be called the “mother town” which was capable of raising four thousand warriors as happened during the Campaign of al-Ahzab wherein Mecca enlisted men to its full capacity^[4]. The war included every man capable of carrying arms, from teenagers to middle-aged men. As for Medina, the maximum number of troops it could raise numbered about or a lot less than a thousand^[5].

There was a census of the Muslims carried out in 6 A.H., the time when non-Muslims had no human bases of any significance, and the figure came as one thousand and five hundred or one thousand and six hundred.

In another narrative, the following is cited: “... we were between a thousand and six hundred to seven hundred when the Messenger of Allah (A.S.) said to them, `Write down for me the names of all those who have accepted Islam.’ Al-Damamani has said, `It is said that this took place during the Year of Hudaybiya (Treaty).’”^[6]

Let us suppose that all those whom they included in the census were men, and that they all were married and had children, how many would have been the total residents of Medina?

The people of Medina used to go the Mosque to pray behind the Messenger of Allah (A.S.) in the morning, at noon, and in the evening. Some of them came from outside Medina, walking for miles on foot, yet the Mosque absorbed their number, all of them. Then the Messenger of Allah (A.S.) extended its area in the latter phase of his holy life.

So, the Mosque was the center of this small town whose streets were no more than narrow alleys, and its houses were very close to each other. They are not spacious at all because this was a security requirement due to the internal wars. People did not put their weapons down neither during the day nor during the night^[7].

The people of Medina had set up a ditch around a large area of their town for fear of the polytheists during the war of the coalitions so that they would not be able to reach them, and it took them six days to dig despite its width and depth.

All of this disproves what Ibn Mardawayh had mentioned while discussing the marriage of Fatima (A.S.), i.e. that the Prophet (A.S.) had invited all of them, and they all responded to his invitation “and they were more than four thousand men”^[8] for Medina did not have even half as many men.

What also disproves this figure is another narrative which discusses the same issue. It has stated that those who had attended numbered three thousand and three hundred men who came during a total of three days^[9]. Counting them as four thousand may include these men, too.

In a town of this size, when an ordinary person dies, it will undergo something like an emergency situation. Its residents will go to offer their condolences to the family of the deceased and will try to cheer them up and distance them from the environments of grief. If the deceased enjoys a special social status, more attention will be paid. So, what would you say when the deceased is the very greatest person created by Allah, the best of all created beings in existence, the most honorable Prophet (A.S.), the one who took them out of the darkness and into the light? The town will be turned upside down. People will not tend to their business or farms. They will be living a state charged with emotion, apprehension and expectation. The center of assembling and decision making and all other movements will then be the Mosque. From it will the troops set out to war. It is the place where problems are solved, emissaries received. It is the starting point of a trip and its final destination. The Mosque is the center of the government, or leadership, or the juristic system. The Prophet’s pulpit is the place where the ruler sits, and it is only a few meters from the place where the Messenger of Allah (A.S.) is buried.

Within the atmosphere of the demise of the Prophet (A.S.), the number of those who go to or return from the Mosque doubles. The first thing they start doing is to visit the grave of their Prophet (A.S.), greet him and greet those at his house, for he was buried inside Fatima’s house^[10]. All doors (opening into the Mosque’s courtyard) had been closed except hers. They will ask the truthful and purified lady how she is doing, knowing that she was the only daughter of the greatest of all prophets, and she is not an ordinary woman. Rather, she is the Head of the Women of Mankind from the early generations to the last. Allah is pleased when she is pleased and is angry when she is angered.

The atmosphere of grief which dominated that house and overwhelmed al-Zahra’ (A.S.), due to what the rulers and their supporters had committed against her immediately following the burial of her father, that burial which was not attended by the assailants, nor did they care to prepare him for such a burial, the man who had taken them out of the darkness and into the light, from death to life. Ali (A.S.) had said to them, “You used to follow the worst of all creeds and live the most evil of living, drinking dirty water and eating leather.”^[11]

Instead of offering their condolences to her, their respect and regards, they confronted her not only with their sharp words but also with cruel and rough behavior. So, it was not in the interest of the ruling clique that people would see al-Zahra’ (A.S.) every day sad and depressed even if al-Zahra’ (A.S.) kept silent and did not cry or condemn those who oppressed her and violated her privacy.

Anyone who went to the Mosque and saw her depressed and in pain, enjoying no rest and feeling very upset, then he would go to sit at the meeting place of the caliph only a few meters from her, would remain aware of the pain and the tragedy from which she suffered and of what she had to undergo, and his conscience would in the end wake up.