History of Fatimah Bint Muhammad

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 solitude of mountains around
Makkah, meditating
and reflecting on the great mysteries of
creation.
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 whe n 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 Ta lib 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 othe r 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
str ength 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,
gathe red 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 thu gs 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 imprecati on 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 a nd 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 daught ers 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 w ith 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
Qurays h 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 Uthma n
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.< P> 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 s eek 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 h ad 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 tendernes s, 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 a
ngers 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 o nly 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 sta nd 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 cravin
g 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 g ratitude 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 re port 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
twen ty 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 Madin ah 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
sol ace 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 aft er 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 ti mes 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 ho use 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 tha t 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." ,P."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 h
umiliation 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
sorrow s 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
a nd 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 int o 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 t he 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
four th 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 no t 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 d estitute 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 d evotions.
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
th e 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
loo king 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.