What Happened Following The Demise of The Messenger of Allah (A.S.)

By: Al-Nu`man, the Judge (d. 363 A.H.)

Judge al-Nu`man, an Isma`alite, composed a poem about what happened following the demise of the Messenger of Allah (A.S.) in one inclusive poem wherein he says,

Both swore fealty to him and said:

The best, you are, of everyone in state!

Among them were people of those at Badr slain,

And at others, people of confined grudge, plain.

They swore fealty, the heads of their folks,

So people swore, too, on that day

Except a few who recognized the way

Of their Prophet, so they kept away.

To Ali, their Imam, they went;

Said he: Your effort is already spent!

They said: No We shall do it for sure!

So he said: Set out now and your heads shave

So people will know you then come in a wave

To me so we may fight, God will make a way

For us to judge, and we will see what He does say.

The failed when they saw him determined,

So those who went to him counted only seven,

While fealty was sworn by all the rest

Who thought swearing it was the best.

I did call them by their very names.

He said: I shall not fight you for sure

For few you are and cannot meet the rest

So they sat to see what he would do

With them and what order to issue.

`Omer came to them with a group

Seeing the man they installed is not obeyed

Till they reached the door of Fatima (A.S.)

The Batal lady who boycotted them.

She intercepted between him and them

Hoping they would not reach her man

But he broke the door, the first of them

And they forced their way through her veil

As she did cry, ask for help and wail.

They hit her, so she did miscarry

Al-Zubayr heard the call and went in a hurry

But stumbled, his sword was taken

And was surely by them broken

So they caught al-Zubayr and he

In their hands a captive came to be.

The wasi came out with the rest of the men

Seeing their defenses were totally in vain.

They overpowered them and brought them to `Ateeq.

He goes on to say:

What a sigh in my heart

Like fire I feel in my mind.

Their killing al-Zahra Fatima

Ignited in my insides the fire

For it is known among the people

She died after having miscarried

She ordered to be at night buried

And her grave’s marks obliterated

So nobody knows where she is buried.

So that only her cousin would be there

And his family, and in distress she did disappear.

Her Lord greets her, with her nations she was displeased.

They swore fealty to him against their wish

As taqiyya. Alas! God for His servants did allow

Not to be forced to make for the ruler an untrue vow.

Till he says,

It is narrated for sure

That he said when he came:

Swear it! Said he: I shall not!

He said: Then I shall have you killed!

May Allah testify that he was weak

When he swore fealty to the usurper

Fearing being killed, and others swore too

For fear of those who were there.

If they made the Trusted One so weak

Before him Aaron was treated the same

By the nation of Moses when they

Wanted otherwise to have him killed

Treading the same steps indeed

The steps the wasis had to tread

Just as the sent Messenger said.