Fatimah was the fifth child of Muhammad and Khadijah. She was born at a time
when her noble father had begun to spend long periods in the
This was the time,
before the Bithah, when her eldest sister Zaynab was married to her cousin,
al-Aas ibn ar Rabiah. Then followed the marriage
of her two other
sisters, Ruqayyah and Umm Kulthum, to the sons of Abu Lahab, a paternal uncle of
the Prophet. Both Abu Lahab and his wife
Umm Jamil turned
out to be flaming enemies of the Prophet from the very beginning of his public
mission.
The little Fatimah
thus saw her sisters leave home one after the other to live with their husbands.
She was too young to understand the
meaning of marriage
and the reasons why her sisters had to leave home. She loved them dearly and was
sad and lonely when they left. It is
said that a certain
silence and painful sadness came over her then.
Of course, even
after the marriage of her sisters, she was not alone in the house of her
parents. Barakah, the maid-servant of Aminah, the
Prophet's mother,
who had been with the Prophet since his birth, Zayd ibn Harithah, and Ali, the
young son of Abu Talib were all part of
Muhammad's
household at this time. And of course there was her loving mother, the lady
Khadijah.
In her mother and
in Barakah, Fatimah found a great deal of solace and comfort. in Ali, who was
about two years older than she, she found a
"brother" and a
friend who somehow took the place of her own brother al-Qasim who had died in
his infancy. Her other brother Abdullah, known
as the Good and the
Pure, who was born after her, also died in his infancy. However in none of the
people in her father's household did Fatimah
find the carefree
joy and happiness which she enjoyed with her sisters. She was an unusually
sensitive child for her age.
When she was five,
she heard that her father had become Rasul Allah, the Messenger of God. His
first task was to convey the good news of
Islam to his family
and close relations. They were to worship God Almighty alone. Her mother, who
was a tower of strength and support,
explained to
Fatimah what her father had to do. From this time on, she became more closely
attached to him and felt a deep and abiding love for
him. Often she
would be at Iris side walking through the narrow streets and alleys of Makkah,
visiting the Kabah or attending secret gatherings
off, the early
Muslims who had accepted Islam and pledged allegiance to the Prophet.
One day, when she
was not yet ten, she accompanied her father to the Masjid al-Haram. He stood in
the place known as al-Hijr facing the Kabah
and began to pray.
Fatimah stood at his side. A group of Quraysh, by no means well-disposed to the
Prophet, gathered about him. They included
Abu Jahl ibn
Hisham, the Prophet's uncle, Uqbah ibn Abi Muayt, Umayyah ibn Khalaf, and
Shaybah and Utbah, sons of Rabi'ah. Menacingly, the
group went up to
the Prophet and Abu Jahl, the ringleader, asked:
"Which of you can
bring the entrails of a slaughtered animal and throw it on Muhammad?"
Uqbah ibn Abi
Muayt, one of the vilest of the lot, volunteered and hurried off. He returned
with the obnoxious filth and threw it on the shoulders
of the Prophet, may
God bless him and grant him peace, while he was still prostrating. Abdullah ibn
Masud, a companion of the Prophet, was
present but he was
powerless to do or say anything.
Imagine the
feelings of Fatimah as she saw her father being treated in this fashion. What
could she, a girl not ten years old, do? She went up to
her father and
removed the offensive matter and then stood firmly and angrily before the group
of Quraysh thugs and lashed out against them.
Not a single word
did they say to her. The noble Prophet raised his head on completion of the
prostration and went on to complete the Salat. He
then said: "O Lord,
may you punish the Quraysh!" and repeated this imprecation three times. Then he
continued:
"May You punish
Utbah, Uqbah, Abu Jahl and Shaybah." (These whom he named were all killed many
years later at the Battle of Badr)
On another
occasion, Fatimah was with the Prophet as he made; tawaf around the Kabah. A
Quraysh mob gathered around him. They seized him
and tried to
strangle him with his own clothes. Fatimah screamed and shouted for help. Abu
Bakr rushed to the scene and managed to free the
Prophet. While he
was doing so, he pleaded: "Would you kill a man who says, 'My Lord is God?'" Far
from giving up, the mob turned on Abu Bakr
and began beating
him until blood flowed from his head and face.
Such scenes of vicious opposition and
harassment against her father and the early Muslims were witnessed by the young
Fatimah. She did not
meekly stand aside
but joined in the struggle in defence of her father and his noble mission. She
was still a young girl and instead of the cheerful
romping, the gaiety
and liveliness which children of her age are and should normally be accustomed
to, Fatimah had to witness and participate in
such ordeals.
Of course, she was
not alone in this. The whole of the Prophet's family suffered from the violent
and mindless Quraysh. Her sisters, Ruqayyah
and Umm Kulthum
also suffered. They were living at this time in the very nest of hatred and
intrigue against the Prophet. Their husbands were
Utbah and Utaybah,
sons of Abu Lahab and Umm Jamil. Umm Jamil was known to be a hard and harsh
woman who had a sharp and evil tongue.
It was mainly
because of her that Khadijah was not pleased with the marriages of her daughters
to Umm Jamil's sons in the first place. It must
have been painful
for Ruqayyah and Umm Kulthum to be living in the household of such inveterate
enemies who not only joined but led the
campaign against
theft father.
As a mark of
disgrace to Muhammad and his family, Utbah and Utaybah were prevailed upon by
their parents to divorce their wives. This was
part of the process
of ostracizing the Prophet totally. The Prophet in fact welcomed his daughters
back to his home with joy, happiness and
relief.
Fatimah, no doubt,
must have been happy to be with her sisters once again. They all wished that
their eldest sister, Zaynab, would also be
divorced by her
husband. In fact, the Quraysh brought pressure on Abu-l Aas to do so but he
refused. When the Quraysh leaders came up to him
and promised him
the richest and most beautiful woman as a wife should he divorce Zaynab, he
replied:
"I love my wife
deeply and passionately and I have a great and high esteem for her father even
though I have not entered the religion of Islam."
Both Ruqayyah and
Umm Kulthum were happy to be back with their loving parents and to be rid of the
unbearable mental torture to which they
had been subjected
in the house of Umm Jamil. Shortly afterwards, Ruqayyah married again, to the
young and shy Uthman ibn Allan who was
among the first to
have accepted Islam. They both left for Abyssinia among the first muhajirin who
sought refuge in that land and stayed there
for several years.
Fatimah was not to see Ruqayyah again until after their mother had died.
The persecution of
the Prophet, his family and his followers continued and even became worse after
the migration of the first Muslims to
Abyssinia. In about
the seventh year of his mission, the Prophet and his family were forced to leave
their homes and seek refuge in a rugged
little valley
enclosed by hills on all sides and defile, which could only be entered from
Makkah by a narrow path.
To this arid
valley, Muhammad and the clans of Banu Hashim and al-Muttalib were forced to
retire with limited supplies of food. Fatimah was one
of the youngest
members of the clans -just about twelve years old - and had to undergo months of
hardship and suffering. The wailing of hungry
children and women
in the valley could be heard from Makkah. The Quraysh allowed no food and
contact with the Muslims whose hardship was
only relieved
somewhat during the season of pilgrimage. The boycott lasted for three years.
When it was lifted, the Prophet had to face even
more trials and
difficulties. Khadijah, the faithful and loving, died shortly afterwards. With
her death, the Prophet and his family lost one of the
greatest sources of
comfort and strength which had sustained them through the difficult period. The
year in which the noble Khadijah, and later
Abu Talib, died is
known as the Year of Sadness. Fatimah, now a young lady, was greatly distressed
by her mother's death. She wept bitterly
and for some time
was so grief-striken that her health deteriorated. It was even feared she might
die of grief.
Although her older
sister, Umm Kulthum, stayed in the same household, Fatimah realized that she now
had a greater responsibility with the
passing away of her
mother. She felt that she had to give even greater support to her father. With
loving tenderness, she devoted herself to
looking after his
needs. So concerned was she for his welfare that she came to be called "Umm
Abi-ha the mother of her father". She also
provided him with
solace and comfort during times of trial, difficulty and crisis. Often the trials were too
much for her. Once, about this time, an insolent mob heaped dust and earth upon
his gracious head. As he entered his
home, Fatimah wept
profusely as she wiped the dust from her father's head.
"Do not cry, my
daughter," he said, "for God shall protect your father." The Prophet had a
special love for Fatimah. He once said: "Whoever
pleased Fatimah has
indeed pleased God and whoever has caused her to be angry has indeed angered
God. Fatimah is a part of me. Whatever
pleases her pleases
me and whatever angers her angers me."
He also said: "The
best women in all the world are four: the Virgin Mary, Aasiyaa the wife of
Pharoah, Khadijah Mother of the Believers, and
Fatimah, daughter
of Muhammad." Fatimah thus acquired a place of love and esteem in the Prophet's
heart that was only occupied by his wife
Khadijah.
Fatimah, may God be
pleased with her, was given the title of "az-Zahraa" which means "the
Resplendent One". That was because of her
beaming face which
seemed to radiate light. It is said that when she stood for Prayer, the mihrab
would reflect the light of her countenance. She
was also called
"al-Batul" because of her asceticism. Instead of spending her time in the
company of women, much of her time would be spent in
Salat, in reading
the Quran and in other acts of ibadah.
Fatimah had a
strong resemblance to her father, the Messenger of God. Aishah. the wife of the
Prophet, said of her: "I have not seen any one of
God's creation
resemble the Messenger of God more in speech, conversation and manner of sitting
than Fatimah, may God be pleased with her.
When the Prophet
saw her approaching, he would welcome her, stand up and kiss her, take her by
the hand and sit her down in the place
where he was
sitting." She would do the same when the Prophet came to her. She would stand up
and welcome him with joy and kiss him.
Fatimah's fine
manners and gentle speech were part of her lovely and endearing personality. She
was especially kind to poor and indigent folk
and would often
give all the food she had to those in need even if she herself remained hungry.
She had no craving for the ornaments of this
world nor the
luxury and comforts of life. She lived simply, although on occasion as we shall
see circumstances seemed to be too much and too
difficult for her.
She inherited from
her father a persuasive eloquence that was rooted in wisdom. When she spoke,
people would often be moved to tears. She
had the ability and
the sincerity to stir the emotions, move people to tears and fill their hearts
with praise and gratitude to God for His grace and
His inestimable
bounties.
Fatimah migrated to
Madinah a few weeks after the Prophet did. She went with Zayd ibn Harithah who
was sent by the Prophet back to Makkah
to bring the rest
of his family. The party included Fatimah and Umm Kulthum, Sawdah, the Prophet's
wife, Zayd's wife Barakah and her son
Usamah. Travelling
with the group also were Abdullah the son of Abu Bakr who accompanied his mother
and his sisters, Aishah and Asma.
In Madinah, Fatimah
lived with her father in the simple dwelling he had built adjoining the mosque.
In the second year after the Hijrah, she
received proposals
of marriage through her father, two of which were turned down. Then Ali, the son
of Abu Talib, plucked up courage and went
to the Prophet to
ask for her hand in marriage. In the presence of the Prophet, however, Ali
became over-awed and tongue-tied. He stared at
the ground and
could not say anything. The Prophet then asked: "Why have you come? Do you need
something?" Ali still could not speak and
then the Prophet
suggested: "Perhaps you have come to propose marriage to Fatimah."
"Yes," replied Ali.
At this, according to one report, the Prophet said simply: "Marhaban wa ahlan -
Welcome into the family," and this was taken
by Ali and a group
of Ansar who were waiting outside for him as indicating the Prophet's approval.
Another report indicated that the Prophet
approved and went
on to ask Ali if he had anything to give as mahr. Ali replied that he didn't.
The Prophet reminded him that he had a shield
which could be
sold. Ali
sold the shield to Uthman for four hundred dirhams and as he was hurrying back
to the Prophet to hand over the sum as mahr, Uthman
stopped him and
said:
"I am returning
your shield to you as a present from me on your marriage to Fatimah." Fatimah
and Ali were thus married most probably at the
beginning of the
second year after the Hijrah. She was about nineteen years old at the time and
Ali was about twenty one. The Prophet himself
performed the
marriage ceremony. At the walimah. the guests were served with dates, figs and
hais ( a mixture of dates and butter fat). A
leading member of
the Ansar donated a ram and others made offerings of grain. All Madinah
rejoiced.
On her marriage.
the Prophet is said to have presented Fatimah and Ali with a wooden bed
intertwined with palm leaves, a velvet coverlet. a
leather cushion
filled with palm fibre, a sheepskin, a pot, a waterskin and a quern for grinding
grain.
Fatimah left the
home of her beloved father for the first time to begin life with her husband.
The Prophet was clearly anxious on her account and
sent Barakah with
her should she be in need of any help. And no doubt Barakah was a source of
comfort and solace to her. The Prophet prayed
for them:
"O Lord, bless them
both, bless their house and bless their offspring." In Ali's humble dwelling,
there was only a sheepskin for a bed. In the
morning after the
wedding night, the Prophet went to Ali's house and knocked on the door.
Barakah came out
and the Prophet said to her: "O Umm Ayman, call my brother for me."
"Your brother?
That's the one who married your daughter?" asked Barakah somewhat incredulously
as if to say: Why should the Prophet call Ali
his "brother"? (He
referred to Ali as his brother because just as pairs of Muslims were joined in
brotherhood after the Hijrah, so the Prophet and
Ali were linked as
"brothers".)
The Prophet
repeated what he had said in a louder voice. Ali came and the Prophet made a
du'a, invoking the blessings of God on him. Then he
asked for Fatimah.
She came almost cringing with a mixture of awe and shyness and the Prophet said
to her:
"I have married you
to the dearest of my family to me." In this way, he sought to reassure her. She
was not starting life with a complete
stranger but with
one who had grown up in the same household, who was among the first to become a
Muslim at a tender age, who was known
for his courage,
bravery and virtue, and whom the Prophet described as his "brother in this world
and the hereafter".
Fatimah's life with
Ali was as simple and frugal as it was in her father's household. In fact, so
far as material comforts were concerned, it was a
life of hardship
and deprivation. Throughout their life together, Ali remained poor because he
did not set great store by material wealth. Fatimah
was the only one of
her sisters who was not married to a wealthy man.
In fact, it could
be said that Fatimah's life with Ali was even more rigorous than life in her
father's home. At least before marriage, there were
always a number of
ready helping hands in the Prophet's household. But now she had to cope
virtually on her own. To relieve theft extreme
poverty, Ali worked
as a drawer and carrier of water and she as a grinder of corn. One day she said
to Ali: "I have ground until my hands are
blistered."
"I have drawn water
until I have pains in my chest," said Ali and went on to suggest to Fatimah:
"God has given your father some captives of
war, so go and ask
him to give you a servant."
Reluctantly, she
went to the Prophet who said: "What has brought you here, my little daughter?"
"I came to give you greetings of peace," she
said, for in awe of
him she could not bring herself to ask what she had intended.
"What did you do?"
asked Ali when she returned alone.
"I was ashamed to ask him," she said. So
the two of them went together but the Prophet felt they were less in need than
others.
"I will not give to
you," he said, "and let the Ahl as-Suffah (poor Muslims who stayed in the
mosque) be tormented with hunger. I have not
enough for their
keep..."
Ali and Fatimah
returned home feeling somewhat dejected but that night, after they had gone to
bed, they heard the voice of the Prophet asking
permission to
enter. Welcoming him, they both rose to their feet, but he told them:
"Stay where you
are," and sat down beside them. "Shall I not tell you of something better than
that which you asked of me?" he asked and
when they said yes
he said: "Words which Jibril taught me, that you should say "Subhaan Allah-
Glory be to God" ten times after every Prayer,
and ten times "AI
hamdu lillah - Praise be to God," and ten times "Allahu Akbar - God is Great."
And that when you go to bed you should say
them thirty-three
times each."
Ali used to say in
later years: "I have never once failed to say them since the Messenger of God
taught them to us."
There are many
reports of the hard and difficult times which Fatimah had to face. Often there
was no food in her house. Once the Prophet was
hungry. He went to
one after another of his wives' apartments but there was no food. He then went
to Fatimah's house and she had no food
either. When he
eventually got some food, he sent two loaves and a piece of meat to Fatimah. At
another time, he went to the house of Abu
Ayyub al-Ansari and
from the food he was given, he saved some for her. Fatimah also knew that the
Prophet was without food for long periods
and she in turn
would take food to him when she could. Once she took a piece of barley bread and
he, said to her: "This is the first food your
father has eaten
for three days."
Through these acts
of kindness she showed how much she loved her father; and he loved her, really
loved her in return.
Once he returned
from a journey outside Madinah. He went to the mosque first of all and prayed
two rakats as was his custom. Then, as he
often did, he went
to Fatimah's house before going to his wives. Fatimah welcomed him and kissed
his face, his mouth and his eyes and cried.
"Why do you cry?"
the Prophet asked. "I see you, O Rasul Allah," she said, "Your color is pale and
sallow and your clothes have become worn
and shabby." "O
Fatimah," the Prophet replied tenderly, "don't cry for Allah has sent your
father with a mission which He would cause to affect
every house on the
face of the earth whether it be in towns, villages or tents (in the desert)
bringing either glory or humiliation until this mission
is fulfilled just
as night (inevitably) comes." With such comments Fatimah was often taken from
the harsh realities of daily life to get a glimpse of
the vast and
far-reaching vistas opened up by the mission entrusted to her noble father.
Fatimah eventually
returned to live in a house close to that of the Prophet. The place was donated
by an Ansari who knew that the Prophet
would rejoice in
having his daughter as his neighbor. Together they shared in the joys and the
triumphs, the sorrows and the hardships of the
crowded and
momentous Madinah days and years.
In the middle of
the second year after the Hijrah, her sister Ruqayyah fell ill with fever and
measles. This was shortly before the great campaign
of Badr. Uthman,
her husband, stayed by her bedside and missed the campaign. Ruqayyah died just
before her father returned. On his return to
Madinah, one of the
first acts of the Prophet was to visit her grave.
Fatimah went with
him. This was the first bereavement they had suffered within their closest
family since the death of Khadijah. Fatimah was
greatly distressed
by the loss of her sister. The tears poured from her eyes as she sat beside her
father at the edge of the grave, and he
comforted her and
sought to dry her tears with the corner of his cloak. The Prophet had previously
spoken against lamentations for the dead, but this had lead to a
misunderstanding, and when they returned from
the cemetery the
voice of Umar was heard raised in anger against the women who were weeping for
the martyrs of Badr and for Ruqayyah.
"Umar, let them
weep," he said and then added: "What comes from the heart and from the eye, that
is from God and His mercy, but what comes
from the hand and
from the tongue, that is from Satan." By the hand he meant the beating of
breasts and the smiting of cheeks, and by the
tongue he meant the
loud clamor in which women often joined as a mark of public sympathy.
Uthman later
married the other daughter of the Prophet, Umm Kulthum, and on this account came
to be known as Dhu-n Nurayn - Possessor of
the Two Lights.
The bereavement
which the family suffered by the death of Ruqayyah was followed by happiness
when to the great joy of all the believers
Fatimah gave birth
to a boy in Ramadan of the third year after the Hijrah. The Prophet spoke the
words of the Adhan into the ear of the
new-born babe and
called him al-Hasan which means the Beautiful One.
One year later, she
gave birth to another son who was
called al-Husayn,
which means "little Hasan" or the little beautiful one. Fatimah would often
bring her two sons to see their grandfather who was
exceedingly fond of
them. Later he would take them to the Mosque and they would climb onto his back
when he prostrated. He did the same
with his little
granddaughter Umamah, the daughter of Zaynab.
In the eighth year
after the Hijrah, Fatimah gave birth to a third child, a girl whom she named
after her eldest sister Zaynab who had died shortly
before her birth.
This Zaynab was to grow up and become famous as the "Heroine of Karbala".
Fatimah's fourth child was born in the year after
the Hijrah. The
child was also a girl and Fatimah named her Umm Kulthum after her sister who had
died the year before after an illness.
It was only through
Fatimah that the progeny of the Prophet was perpetuated. All the Prophet's male
children had died in their infancy and the
two children of
Zaynab named Ali and Umamah died young. Ruqayyah's child Abdullah also died when
he was not yet two years old. This is an
added reason for
the reverence which is accorded to Fatimah.
Although Fatimah
was so often busy with pregnancies and giving birth and rearing children, she
took as much part as she could in the affairs of
the growing Muslim
community of Madinah. Before her marriage, she acted as a sort of hostess to the
poor and destitute Ahl as-Suffah. As soon
as the Battle of
Uhud was over, she went with other women to the battlefield and wept over the
dead martyrs and took time to dress her
father's wounds. At
the Battle of the Ditch, she played a major supportive role together with other
women in preparing food during the long and
difficult siege. In
her camp, she led the Muslim women in prayer and on that place there stands a
mosque named Masjid Fatimah, one of seven
mosques where the
Muslims stood guard and performed their devotions.
Fatimah also
accompanied the Prophet when he made Umrah in the sixth year after the Hijrah
after the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah. In the following
year, she and her
sister Umm Kulthum, were among the mighty throng of Muslims who took part with
the Prophet in the liberation of Makkah. It
is said that on
this occasion, both Fatimah and Umm Kulthum visited the home of their mother
Khadijah and recalled memories of their childhood
and memories of
jihad, of long struggles in the early years of the Prophet's mission.
In Ramadan of the
tenth year just before he went on his Farewell Pilgrimage, the Prophet confided
to Fatimah, as a secret not yet to be told to
others:
Jibril recited the
Quran to me and I to him once every year, but this year he has recited it with
me twice. I cannot but think that my time has
come."
On his return from
the Farewell Pilgrimage, the Prophet did become seriously ill. His final days
were spent in the apartment of his wife Aishah.
When Fatimah came
to visit him, Aishah would leave father and daughter together. One day he summoned
Fatimah. When she came, he kissed her and whispered some words in her ear. She
wept. Then again he whispered in
her ear and she
smiled. Aishah saw and asked:
"You cry and you
laugh at the same time, Fatimah? What did the Messenger of God say to you?"
Fatimah replied:
"He first told me
that he would meet his Lord after a short while and so I cried. Then he said to
me: 'Don't cry for you will be the first of my
household to join
me.' So I laughed."
Not long afterwards
the noble Prophet passed away. Fatimah was grief-striken and she would often be
seen weeping profusely. One of the
companions noted
that he did not see Fatimah, may God be pleased with her, laugh after the death
of her father.
One morning, early
in the month of Ramadan, just less than five month after her noble father had
passed away, Fatimah woke up looking
unusually happy and
full of mirth. In the afternoon of that day, it is said that she called Salma
bint Umays who was looking after her. She asked
for some water and
had a bath. She then put on new clothes and perfumed herself. She then asked
Salma to put her bed in the courtyard of the
house. With her
face looking to the heavens above, she asked for her husband Ali.
He was taken aback
when he saw her lying in the middle of the courtyard and asked her what was
wrong. She smiled and said: "I have an
appointment today
with the Messenger of God."
Ali cried and she
tried to console him. She told him to look after their sons al-Hasan and
al-Husayn and advised that she should be buried
without ceremony.
She gazed upwards again, then closed her eyes and surrendered her soul to the
Mighty Creator.
She, Fatimah the
Resplendent One, was just twenty nine years old.
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Tuesday, 26 May 2015
Fateemah bint Muhammad [saw]
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