Women of Jannah

Fatima bint Muhammad

Fatima bint Muhammad
by Omar Suleiman at QuranWeekly

One day in the early days of Islam, the Prophet (SAWS) was praying in front of the Ka’aba and Abu Jahal, ‘Ukbah bin Abi Mu’eet and Shayba, the enemies of the Prophet (SAWS) they were sitting around and they said to each other, Abu Jahal made the suggestion and he said, “Who would take the guts of a camel and all of the filth and dump it on his back while he is praying to humiliate him?” And Abu Jahal is someone who stepped on the neck of the Prophet (SAWS) while he was praying, he’s someone who used to throw dirt at the Prophet (SAWS) while he was praying but he wanted to degrade him even further. And ‘Ukban volunteered himself and he went and grabbed all of the filth of a camel, all of its guts and all of its najaasa (excretions) and he went and he dumped it on the back of the Prophet (SAWS) while he was in sujood/prostration. That weight down the back of the Prophet (SAWS) heavily.

Imagine this young girl, not even a teenager yet, Fatimah radiyaAllahu ta’ala ‘anha, the daughter of the Prophet (SAWS) seeing her father in this state, seeing the people laugh at him and mock him and curse him. And she comes and she starts to scrape all of that filth off of the back of her father. Imagine the humiliation and the hurt and the pain and she sees that and she starts to cry and the Prophet (SAWS) says “لا تبكي إن الله ناصرٌ أباك” [laa tabki inn Allah naasirun ‘abaaki]- Do not cry oh my daughter, Allah (SWT) will help and give victory to your father. And it is at that time that the Prophet (SAWS) raised his hands to the skies and made du’aa saying, “اللهم عليك بأبي جهل، اللهم عليك بعقبة، اللهم عليك بشيبة”. And those 3 men that the Prophet (SAWS) made du’aa against were the first 3 people to go down in Badr.

Now the moral of this story more than anything else is the young girl. Don’t you think that would traumatize her and make her an individual that would not have the same love for her father’s cause but would rahter blame it? Absolutely not! And we look at this young girl Fatima radiyaAllahu ta’ala ‘anha, she’s the 5th child of the Prophet (SAWS). The Prophet (SAWS) had other daughters and you might wonder, why Fatima? Why is she the one that perfected her faith? What about her older sisters? And there are a couple of reasons that the scholars mention. One of them is that she spent the most time with her mother Khadija radiyaAllahu ta’ala ‘anha, another woman who had perfected her faith. And so she adopted her morals and her characters more than anything else. Another reason is that she was with the Prophet (SAWS) at times when no one else was with him. In fact, when Khadija radiyaAllahu ta’ala ‘anha passed away, it was only the Prophet (SAWS) and Fatima radiyaAllahu ta’ala ‘anha alone in that household. SubhanAllah you can imagine what role she had to play.

She was only 5 years old when rasoolAllah received revelation. She was born and grew up in Islam unlike any of the other children. She actually grew up in Islam. But subhanAllah she actually was with the Prophet (SAWS) when no one else was with him. And you can imagine those moments.

Imagine the times the Prophet (SAWS) would come home when he was feeling devastated after losing Khadija and AbuTalib and having no one else and she was the one that would cook for him, she was the one that would come to his aid, she was the one that started to comfort him and took her mother’s place. And in fact, they used to call Fatima radiyaAllahu ta’ala ‘anha ‘أم أبيها’ [umm abeeha]- the mother of her father. SubhanAllah. She cared for the Prophet (SAWS) that much.

She also adopted so much from the Prophet (SAWS) in terms of her character. In fact, one of her nicknames being ‘الزهراء’ [al-Zahraa’] – the splendid one was because of her radiant face, she had that beautiful radiant face and she is the daughter of the Prophet (SAWS) whose face was as bright as the full moon. And we find that ‘Aisha radiyaAllahu ta’ala ‘anha says something very special about her. ‘Aisha says, “I have never seen anyone who resembled the Prophet (SAWS) from Allah’s creation more in speech and in character and conversation than Fatima radiyaAllahu ta’ala ‘anha.” And listen to what ‘Aisha says, she says that any time Fatima entered upon a room where the Prophet (SAWS) was she said the Prophet (SAWS) would get up. He would greet her, he would kiss her, he would hold her hand and then he would take Fatima and sit her down in the same place that he was sitting.