Fatimah (605/11–632/33 CE)

views updated

Fatimah (605/11–632/33 ce)

Most famous and controversial woman from early Islamic history who, though honored by all Muslims as a participant in the first two formative decades of Islam, is especially significant to Shi'is of various sects since they trace their legitimacy to Muhammad through her and her descendants. Name variations: Fatima. Namesake of the Fatimid dynasty. Born in Mecca between 605 and 611 ce; died in 632 or 633 ce; daughter of the Prophet Muhammad and Khadijah; sister of Zaynab, Umm Kulthum , and Ruqaiyah; married `Ali b. Abi Talib, the fourth caliph of Islam; children: two daughters, Zaynab and Umm Kulthum; two sons, Hasan and Husain (the Shi'ite martyr, al-Husain b. `Ali), and possibly a third son named Muhassin who died in infancy.

Fatimah is more powerful as a timeless abstraction than as a historical person. She is noted more for her offspring than for her accomplishments. Although voluminous biographical literature about this holy woman exists, concrete historical facts are scarce. She is not mentioned in the Qur'an, and the poetry of the first century A.H. (Anno Hegirae, the year of the emigration from Mecca in 622) omits her altogether. The Tabakat of the historian Ibn Sa'd gives a full account of `Ali without ever naming his wife. The principle source of information about Fatimah is the hadiths, or "reports." The hadiths preserve details of the sunna—a reference to the "way of the Prophet" or the collective habits and sayings of Muhammad. The hadiths augment the Qur'an in providing further information on how to lead a worthy life; for the Prophet and his family are held by Muslims to be models of virtue. Although it is through the hadith literature that we have the clearest picture of Fatimah, even this source preserves only random details about her life.

Fatimah was the daughter of Muhammad and his first wife Khadijah . She was born in the sacred city of Mecca, which, even in pre-Islamic Arabia, was a site of pilgrimage where warring tribes suspended animosities and came together during months of truce to worship at the ancient shrine of the Ka`aba. Scholars have not reached consensus on exactly when Fatimah was born or what position she held in the family. Her importance to subsequent history has led some to assume that she had the distinguished position of the eldest of four daughters, although there is no solid evidence for this claim. It is partially motivated by the aversion of some Muslim biographers to the suggestion that Fatimah was born to Khadijah when she was an old woman.

The most loved of women to the prophet of God is Fatimah.
—Syed Ameer Ali

We know Fatimah was wed shortly after 622, and if she had been the oldest of the daughters she would have been between fifteen and twenty when she married. It was a matter of prestige for girls to marry between the ages of nine and twelve. For this reason, some scholars, predominantly Shi'ite, claim that Fatimah was not the eldest, but the youngest daughter because they reject the possibility that a woman of such holiness could have remained single past the ordinary period of celibacy—a condition abhorred by Arab women of the time. For Muhammad to permit Fatimah to remain unmarried when she was first nubile would constitute callous indifference on the part of the Prophet towards his daughter. Further, many scholars argue that Muhammad's daughters would undoubtedly have been ardently sought after as marriage partners, so Fatimah, the most excellent of the children, would certainly have been betrothed at a young age. The best guess is that Fatimah was born shortly before Muhammad's first revelation in 610. She was raised in a household with her sisters (two brothers died in infancy) and `Ali, her kinsman and future husband. One of the few glimpses we get of her childhood comes in 619 at Khadijah's death as Muhammad comforts his weeping daughter.

The message of Islam that Muhammad delivered to the people of Mecca was initially unpopular among the powerful elite of the city. The Prophet and his earliest converts suffered ostracization and active persecution. At one point during this period, Muhammad was praying at the Ka`aba when his detractors pelted him with refuse consisting of goat entrails used in pagan sacrifice. Enraged, Fatimah rushed to her father's defense, shouted at the offenders, and cleaned the filth from him. In 622, the Prophet and his followers, including Fatimah, left Mecca for the nearby city of Medina where they could practice their religion unmolested.

Shortly after the small group of Muslims arrived in Medina, Fatimah was married. She seems to have had a melancholy temperament, was physically frail, often ill, and is seldom described as beautiful. Fatimah had no dowry, despite the wealth her mother acquired through trading ventures. These disadvantages aside, the Prophet's daughter had many suitors of very high quality. By divine inspiration, Muhammad settled on his cousin, ‵Ali.

Fatimah and her husband lived in close proximity to Muhammad and shared his hardships; the newly established community was tight-knit and poor. Fatimah's biographers paint a picture of a young housewife, working hard to support her family under strained circumstances. She was a devoted daughter, loyal to her father and committed to the message he preached. All the hadith collections refer to the assistance Fatimah gave Muhammad in the struggle for the survival of Islam. When the Muslims returned defeated from the Battle of Uhud, Fatimah tended Muhammad's wounds and washed his sword. She accompanied her father on the military mission in which Mecca surrendered and was present at the farewell pilgrimage when Muhammad solidified the rites of the hajj (pilgrimage) and left Mecca for the last time. The Sahih and the Musnad indicate that Muhammad stopped each day at this daughter's door to announce that it was time for the early morning prayer. She preached the precepts of Islam to her friends and children and modeled the importance, particularly, of fasting and almsgiving by going without food in order to feed the poor, even when food was scarce.

According to Muslim tradition, there have been only four perfect women; Fatimah and her mother were two of them. Both of these women were perfect, in part because they performed their functions admirably. Modern distinctions between public and private life did not exist in 7th-century Medina, yet primary roles and expectations for women in early Islamic culture were distinct from those of men. After her duty to submit to Allah, the essential obligations of a woman were to produce children and provide a healthy environment in which they could grow. Fatimah did this. She had two sons, Hasan and Husain, and two daughters, Zaynab and Umm Kulthum who was born in the last year of her mother's life. Shi'ite tradition claims that Fatimah and `Ali had a third son named Muhassin who died in infancy.

Although idealized as a loving daughter and devoted mother, Fatimah found her role as wife difficult. She remained loyal to `Ali, but their relationship was stormy. When Muhammad first offered his daughter to `Ali, he declined the match on the grounds that he was too poor. Muhammad won his acquiescence by giving him booty acquired at the Battle of Badr. Fatimah was no more eager than `Ali. `Ali was a brave soldier but was indeed penurious and, according to some reports, lacked intelligence. The couple argued frequently and loudly, so much so that Muhammad often was forced to play the role of peacemaker. Tradition has it that Fatimah was compelled to take on chores too taxing for her. She ground corn and carried water, doing much of the work that in a family of her social status would normally have been left to servants, but `Ali was not able, or perhaps willing, to procure assistance for his wife. Fatimah was even physically abused by `Ali to the extent that she sought the protection of her father. `Ali became so exasperated with his wife that he neglected the conjugal bed and slept in the mosque. Fatimah objected when `Ali wanted a second wife and successfully sought her father's support against her husband. "She is," said Muhammad, "a portion of my flesh. Whoever hurts her, has hurt me, and whoever hurts me has hurt God." `Ali refrained from remarrying while Fatimah was alive, but after she died he took nine more wives.

Muhammad finally felt compelled to seal off the door between his and Fatimah's apartments. This was only partially because of the rows between his daughter and son-in-law. Fatimah was also at odds with A'ishah , Muhammad's favorite wife and the daughter of Abu Bakr, Muhammad's successor. A'ishah was very resourceful and frequently exercised more sway over the Prophet than Fatimah did. Two spheres of influence developed around Muhammad: one represented by A'ishah and Abu Bakr, one by Fatimah and `Ali. Envy, disappointment, scarce resources, and competition for Muhammad's attention strained relations among the Prophet's wives and daughter.

Muhammad died in 632. Despite A'ishah's jealous supervision of the sickbed, Fatimah was able to make her way to her dying father in time to hear him predict that she would be the first member of the family to follow him to Paradise. Muhammad left no provision for a successor to lead the growing Muslim community. Some felt that `Ali was the logical choice because of his relationship to the Prophet, because he had been the first male convert to Islam, and because, according to many, Muhammad had, in fact, designated that `Ali follow him. However, Abu Bakr, who was older than `Ali and commanded more respect in the community, led the public prayers in Muhammad's stead, and by general agreement, became the first caliph (successor). A rift developed between `Ali's party (called Alids) and the supporters of Abu Bakr, and Fatimah suffered in this conflict. After Muhammad's death, Abu Bakr refused Fatimah lands at Fadak and Khaybar which she felt were rightly hers because they had been her father's personal property. When Fatimah contested the disposition of the properties, Abu Bakr responded, "Prophets do not leave heirs." At one point in this tumultuous year of the Prophet's death, `Umar (a partisan of Abu Bakr) and his men arrived at `Ali's house to coerce him and his supporters to recognize the leadership of Abu Bakr. Fatimah came into the street threatening to uncover her hair—a sign of great distress. When she became ill a few months later, she shunned A'ishah and refused even to see Abu Bakr. Because of this enmity, `Ali delayed pledging allegiance to the first caliph until after Fatimah's death.

Fatimah died of consumption in the same year as her father. Her funeral was prepared in haste and carried out at night. `Ali would finally become caliph years later. As Abu Bakr lay dying, he designated `Umar his successor. When `Umar died in 644, `Uthman followed him. `Ali became the fourth caliph in 656, but by that time the umma (community of believers) was rent by factional conflict. The division between Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims can be traced to the friction over leadership which followed the death of the Prophet. A Shi'i is one who belongs to the Shi'ah or party of `Ali. Shi'is hold that `Ali was the rightful successor to Muhammad and view Abu Bakr, `Umar, and `Uthman as interlopers. `Ali was murdered in 661 by a disgruntled supporter.

`Ali's eldest son by Fatimah, Husan, relinquished leadership to Mu'awiya, a member of a powerful Meccan clan and governor of Syria. Mu'awiya was not a part of the Prophet's family; in fact, his clan had persecuted Muhammad and was late to adopt Islam. The Alids rejected Mu'awiya insisting that the charisma required for guidance of the umma inheres only in descendants of the Prophet. As Fatimah was the only child of Muhammad who survived him, it is through her, they claimed, that the spiritual authority to guide Islam is transferred. For Shi'ite Muslim, `Ali was the first Imam (rightful leader of Islam invested with infallible guidance by God). Hasan was the second Imam and Fatimah's second son, Husain, was the third.

By the time Mu'awiya died and his son, Yazid, succeeded him, there was enough opposition to this new Umayyad dynasty that Husain was successful in rallying the support, especially in Iraq, to attempt a coup. In 680, as Husain and a small group of his supporters were advancing through Iraq, they were ambushed by Yazid's troops near Karbala. The entire company was massacred, except the women and children. Fatimah's daughter, Zaynab, was with her brother at Karbala. She saved one of Husain's sons, although two of her own were slaughtered. Zaynab shepherded the prisoners from Karbala to Damascus where they were held captive. She persuaded the caliph to spare Husain's son, `Ali Zain al-Abidin, who was eventually rescued and assumed the title of Imam. Although the position carried no political power, in him the lineage of Muhammad through Fatimah was preserved.

After the murder of Husain, factionalism associated with the Alids became permanent. Although the Shi'is have always been a minority in Islam—often persecuted and driven underground—they have continued to argue that leadership of the umma rightly inheres in the house of the Prophet through his daughter Fatimah, her husband, `Ali, and their son, Husain. Some later extremists even believed that the revelation of Islam had been intended for `Ali and that the angel Gabriel gave it to Muhammad by mistake. From 909 to 1171, a Shi'ite regime came to power in North Africa and then Egypt. To underscore their legitimacy, they called themselves Fatimids because of their leader's descent from the woman through whom the charisma of the Prophet was transferred.

`Ali and Husain are honored at their tombs in Najaf and Karbala, both in Iraq, and venerated by Shi'is in annual ceremonies. Since Fatimah's place of burial is unknown, she is principally remembered through her name. Generations of Muslims have called their girls Fatimah after the holy daughter of the Prophet. One of these women, Fatimah al-Ma'sumah , achieved fame during the reign of al-Ma'mun (r. 813–833) for piety and her defense of the rights of `Ali's progeny. She is buried in the sacred city of Qum and her golden-domed shrine is a principle site of pilgrimage for Shi'ite Muslims.

Although Fatimah led an unremarkable life, stories about her seemingly prosaic activities are charged with political significance. Because Fatimah is the linchpin between Muhammad and the Shi'ite sects and because she is the conduit through which the Shi'is have claimed political and spiritual power, a "correct" presentation of her in the literature is critical to them. Discussions about Fatimah's date of birth and age at marriage, for instance, are not dispassionate. In fact, there is little that is neutral about the life of Fatimah. For example, some Sunni writers have claimed that when Fatimah was too weak to breast-feed her sons, one of the wives of Abbas nursed them for her. This claim insinuates Abbas, the uncle of Muhammad, into the immediate family of the prophet. It was through the lineage of Abbas that the Abbasids claimed the caliphate in 750 when they successfully overthrew the existing Umayyad dynasty. Connections to Muhammad, especially through his most famous child, Fatimah, have provided powerful propagandistic leverage throughout the history of Islam.

A seemingly inconsequential passage in the Qur'an (iii. 59–60) sets the framework for an anecdote that has assumed great significance, especially to Shi'is. Muhammad had an important meeting with Christian envoys from Nadjran, and he pointedly chose to bring Fatimah and her family with him. This scene lends support to another more powerful story wherein, on one occasion, Muhammad wrapped Fatimah, `Ali, and their two sons in his cloak and said, "These are the members of my family." This group of five persons has since been known as the Ashab al-Kisa (privileged ones of the cloak). Sura (chapter) 33 of the Qur'an states, "Allah will cleanse you, people of the house, and purify you." Shi'is have asserted that the "people of the house" is a reference to Fatimah and her family, and on this basis have claimed a special purity for their sect.

The early collections of hadiths tend to portray Fatimah as very human, with foibles and failings, but later collections of the tradition, especially Shi'ite works, ascribe to this woman—the person closest to Muhammad—increasingly elevated virtues and privileges. She is "the queen of the women of Paradise." Similar to Mary the Virgin , mother of Jesus, many Muslims consider Fatimah batul, or virgin. On the day of resurrection, she will be on a level with her father, and as she passes an angel will demand, "Lower your eyes, ye mortals." The Shi'ite mahdi (savior) will be born from her line. In much of the literature, Fatimah is pitted against A'ishah in a fierce competition for the ideal of female perfection.

The obscurity of Fatimah's life has lent itself to manipulation by generations of Muslim historians and hagiographers. Those who endow Fatimah with all physical graces and mental gifts have embellished her biography with stories of prophecies, miracles, and her pivotal role in early Islam. Sunnis, who tend to view the spiritual inheritance of Muhammad as diffused throughout the umma and not the special property of the Prophet's family, although they honor Fatimah, portray her less the saint and more a model of womanhood.

As is generally the case in revolutionary movements, women played a significant role in the early development of Islam. The wives and daughters of Muhammad were trusted and respected councilors. Khadijah was Muhammad's first convert, and A'ishah played a particularly active political and military role in the early Medinese community. Many of the sayings of the Prophet that comprise the hadith literature were transmitted by women. Fatimah's recognition is well deserved because she was a player in this drama. However much her role in history may have been thrust upon her, or her legend embroidered to suit later political advocacies, Fatimah was a courageous woman. Coping with loneliness, poverty, ill-health, and cataclysmic social change, she was dutiful to her family and devoted to Islam.