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These things are posted of this page:
CONTENTS 2011 ONLY:
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INTRODUCTION
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Her Father
God's Prophet and His Holy Daughter
# Who is father of Fatima -bbc
# Muhammad - encyclopedia
# Greatness of Muhammed - Olonzo
# The Tasbih (Rosary) of Hazrat Fatima - Gharib
# Fatima: the Mother of Her Father - Leghaei
# What Prophet Said About Fatima - Hadith
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Her Life 1
Olonzo
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Her Words
Sayings of Holy Lady Fatima
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Her Authority
POSITION AND AUITHORITY OF FATIMA AL ZAHRA
The Authority of the Feminine and Fatima's Place in an Early Work by the Bab
Dr. Todd Lawson (2007)
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Her Planet
Fatima as the Celestial Earth
By Professor Henry Corbin
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Her Depth
Der gnostische Kult der Fatima in shiitischen Islam
["The Gnostic Cult of Fatima in Shia Islam"]
By: Louis Massignon (1938)
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Her Position
THE CENTRALITY OF THE DIVINE FEMININE IN SUFISM
By Laurence Gailan
[Second Annual Hawaii International Conference on Arts and Humanities”, Honolulu, Hawaii 2004.]
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Her Love
Fatimah, Mary and the Divine Feminine in Islam
Divine Feminine in Islam and Fatima | part 2
By Shaykh Ebrahim
The magazine, Knowledge of Reality, Universal Culture and Spirituality
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Her Scroll
Book of Fatimah
Other Secret Shia Books: Al Jafr and Al Jamia.
AL JAFR (book)
AL JAMIA
MUSHAF FATIMA: An Inquiry and Investigation into the
Mushaf of Lady Fatima and the Mushaf of Imam Ali
by Abdullah Amini [2003]
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Her Praise
"Lady of the women of the worlds"
By Ruth E. Rowe (2008)
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Her Life 2
THE LIFE OF FATIMA AZ-ZAHRA
The Principal of all Women - Study and analysis
By: Baqir Shareef al-Qarashi (IRAN 2006)
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Her Searchers
SHIA ISLAM
By: Professor Luis Alberto Vittor (1994, 2006)
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Sinless Fatima
“SAYYEDAT NESAA AL-AALAMEEN”
Chief of the Women of the World
Written by: Mostafa Husayni
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Her Birth
The Birthday of Lady Fatima Zahra
alhassanain.com
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Her Land
Quotation on FADAK from ancient sunni books:
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Her Claim
SPEECH OF FATIMA TO ABU BAKR
Prophet's Daughter Claims Her Father's Inheritance
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Her Home
WAS FATIMA ATTACKED?
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Her Equals
"If I had not created Ali, then there was
no match for Fatimah from Adam to the end of the Earth"
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Preface
First Lady of the Universe
QUEEN OF COSMOS
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Tuesday
Her Father
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God's Prophet and His Holy Daughter
# Who is father of Fatima -bbc
# Muhammad - encyclopedia
# Greatness of Muhammed - olonzo
# The Tasbih (Rosary) of Hazrat Fatima - Gharib
# Fatima: the Mother of Her Father - Leghaei
# What Prophet Said About Fatima - Hadith
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WHO IS FATHER OF FATIMA
# BBC: The Prophet Muhammad
Muslims believe that Islam is a faith that has always existed and that it was gradually revealed to humanity by a number of prophets, but the final and complete revelation of the faith was made through the Prophet Muhammad in the 7th century CE.
Muhammad was born in Mecca in Saudi Arabia in 570.
He was a deeply spiritual man, and often spent time in meditation on Mount Hira.
The traditional story of the Qur'an tells how one night in 610 he was meditating in a cave on the mountain when he was visited by the angel Jibreel who ordered him to recite.
Once Jibreel mentioned the name of Allah, Muhammad began to recite words which he came to believe were the words of God.
The Qur'an
During the rest of his life Muhammad continued to receive these revelations. The words were remembered and recorded, and form the text of the Holy Qu'ran, the Muslim scripture.
Preaching
Believing that God had chosen him as his messenger Muhammad began to preach what God had revealed to him.
The simple and clear-cut message of Islam, that there is no God but Allah, and that life should be lived in complete submission to the will of Allah, was attractive to many people, and they flocked to hear it.
The Hijrah
Muhammad's popularity was seen as threatening by the people in power in Mecca, and Muhammad took his followers on a journey from Mecca to Medina in 622.
This journey is called the Hijrah (migration) and the event was seen as so important for Islam that 622 is the year in which the Islamic calendar begins.
The return to Mecca
Within ten years Muhammad had gained so many followers that he was able to return and conquer Mecca.
From this time on he was generally accepted by the faithful as the true final Prophet of God.
Muhammad continued to lead his community both spiritually and in earthly matters until his death in 632. [source: BBC]
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MUHAMMAD
Encyclopedia Britannica, 2010 #
Muhammad, (b. 570, Mecca, Arabia [now in Saudi Arabia]—d. June 8, 632, Medina), Arab prophet who established the religion of Islam.
The son of a merchant of the ruling tribe, he was orphaned at age six. He married a rich widow, Khadijah, with whom he had six children, including Fatimah, a daughter. According to tradition, in 610 he was visited by the angel Gabriel, who informed Muhammad that he was the messenger of God. His revelations and teachings, recorded in the Quran, are the basis of Islam. He began to preach publicly c. 613, urging the rich to give to the poor and calling for the destruction of idols. He gained disciples but also acquired enemies, whose plan to murder Muhammad forced him to flee Mecca for Medina in 622. This flight, known as the Hijrah, marks the beginning of the Islamic era. Muhammad’s followers defeated a Meccan force in 624; they suffered reverses in 625 but repelled a Meccan siege of Medina in 627. He won control of Mecca by 629 and of all Arabia by 630. He made his last journey to Mecca in 632, establishing the rites of the hajj, or pilgrimage to Mecca. He died later that year and was buried at Medina. His life, teachings, and miracles have been the subjects of Muslim devotion and reflection ever since.
Muhammad was the founder of the religion of Islam, accepted by Muslims throughout the world as the last of the prophets of God.
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GREATNESS OF MUHAMMAD
# Al Olonzo
Prophet Muhammad is the greatest man loved by God Almighty. He is the greatest man on Earth because he revealed the truth to mankind, which Jews had kept hidden and which Christians had altered in their scriptures.
Prophet Muhammad was the last messenger sent by God to communicate Divine message to humanity. This is the story of Prophet's life and God's Code he delivered to the world.
Muhammed the messenger of God was born in 570 in Mecca in Arabia. He was sent by God to mankind to deliver the last Divine Will to humanity by which they would have a life of success and happiness.
Prophet was orphaned at age six. His uncle Abu Talib and his wife cared him for. Prophet married Kadeja who was a pious woman of Mecca. They had one daughter Fatima from whom Prophet’s lineage started. In the year 610, the angel Gabriel informed Muhammed to begin the mission of God. Prophet received revelations and teachings from God. He recorded these in the Quran, Verses of the Quran form the basis of Islam.
Prophet began to preach publicly urging the rich to give to the poor and calling for the end to idol worship. He gained converts but also made enemies who planned to murder him in 622. He was forced to emigrate and move to Medina. This escape marks year one of the Islamic calendar. Prophet followers defended themselves when Meccans attacked them in five major wars. Prophet defeated them and eventually took Mecca by 629.
Prophet died in 632 and was buried at Medina. His life and teachings are devoutly followed by millions of people all over the world. Today, Islam is the fastest growing religion on Earth. Thousand of people convert to message of God as left by His Prophet Muhammad.
Prophet Muhammad had believed in the same God that Prophet Ibrahim believed in. Both Prophets worshipped the true God, Creators of the heavens and the earth. God loved them and sent them to tell the people about Himself. They taught humanity not to bow before false idols and false gods.
With start of Prophet’s mission, the truth about the Creator was now out. Allah was hidden no more. Allah had taken it upon Himself to make sure any seeker of truth had access to knowledge about His Being. For that purpose Allah revealed His own Holy Book, the Quran. He also chose its official interpreter, the Prophet himself, who not only delivered the Quran to the world, he also explained its meanings and made people understood what their Lord was saying. Famous German poet Goethe said that men of intellect would always find the Quran miraculous, even when after they reject it a first: "It soon attracts, astounds, and in the end enforces our reverence... Its style, in accordance with its contents and aim is stern, grand, terrible - ever and anon truly sublime. Thus this book will go on exercising through all ages a most potent influence."
French doctor Maurice Bucaille said: "The above observation makes the hypothesis advanced by those who see Muhammad as the author of the Quran untenable. How could a man, from being illiterate, become the most important author, in terms of literary merits, in the whole of Arabic literature? How could he then pronounce truths of a scientific nature that no other human being could possibly have developed at that time, and all this without once making the slightest error in his pronouncement on the subject? A totally objective examination of it in the light of modern knowledge, leads us to recognize the agreement between the two, as has been already noted on repeated occasions. It makes us deem it quite unthinkable for a man of Muhammad's time to have been the author of such statements on account of the state of knowledge in his day. Such considerations are part of what gives the Quranic Revelation its unique place, and forces the impartial scientist to admit his inability to provide an explanation which calls solely upon materialistic reasoning."
G. Margoliouth said: "The Koran admittedly occupies an important position among the great religious books of the world. Though the youngest of the epoch-making works belonging to this class of literature, it yields to hardly any in the wonderful effect which it has produced on large masses of men. It has created an all but new phase of human thought and a fresh type of character. It first transformed a number of heterogeneous desert tribes of the Arabian peninsula into a nation of heroes, and then proceeded to create the vast politico-religious organizations of the Muhammadan world which are one of the great forces with which Europe and the East have to reckon today."
Dr. Steingass said: "A work, then, which calls forth so powerful and seemingly incompatible emotions even in the distant reader - distant as to time, and still more so as a mental development - a work which not only conquers the repugnance which he may begin its perusal, but changes this adverse feeling into astonishment and admiration, such a work must be a wonderful production of the human mind indeed and a problem of the highest interest to every thoughtful observer of the destinies of mankind… Here, therefore, its merits as a literary production should perhaps not be measured by some preconceived maxims of subjective and aesthetic taste, but by the effects which it produced in Muhammad's contemporaries and fellow countrymen. If it spoke so powerfully and convincingly to the hearts of his hearers as to weld hitherto centrifugal and antagonistic elements into one compact and well-organized body, animated by ideas far beyond those which had until now ruled the Arabian mind, then its eloquence was perfect, simply because it created a civilized nation out of savage tribes, and shot a fresh woof into the old warp of history."
Arthur J. Arberry said: "In making the present attempt to improve on the performance of my predecessors, and to produce something which might be accepted as echoing however faintly the sublime rhetoric of the Arabic Koran, I have been at pains to study the intricate and richly varied rhythms which - apart from the message itself - constitute the Koran's undeniable claim to rank amongst the greatest literary masterpieces of mankind... This very characteristic feature - 'that inimitable symphony,' as the believing Pickthall described his Holy Book, 'the very sounds of which move men to tears and ecstasy' - has been almost totally ignored by previous translators; it is therefore not surprising that what they have wrought sounds dull and flat indeed in comparison with the splendidly decorated original."
Muhammad was prophesied in the Bible. Book of Deuteronomy and Gospel of Saint John both speak of a great Prophet to rise among Arabs, the children of Ishmael son of Abrahams. Refer to words of Moses in chapter 18 verse 18 and words of Jesus Christ in chapters 14 to 16.
Prophet Mohammad gave the clearest teaching about God: Your Creator is one. He is not a Trinity as some Christians believed. He is not many gods as Hindus believe. He does not come up and down. He sends his messengers to deliver his will to mankind.
Mohammad, Messenger of God was asked about God:
A Bedouin once came to Prophet and said, “Teach me of the most unusual of knowledge!” He asked him, “What have you done with the peak of knowledge so that you now ask about its most unusual things?!” The man asked him, “What is this peak of knowledge?!” He said, “It is knowing God as He deserves to be known.” The Bedouin then said, “And how can He be known as He ought to be?” He replied, “It is that you know Him as having no model, no peer, no antithesis, and that He is One and only: He is the One Who is Apparent yet Hidden, the First and the Last, having no peer nor a similitude; this is the true knowledge about Him.”
Here are some verses from different parts of the Holy Quran:
"And when My servants question thee concerning Me, then surely I am nigh. I answer the prayer of the suppliant when he crieth unto Me. So let them hear My call and let them trust in Me, in order that they may be led aright.
We verily created man and We know what his soul whispereth to him, and We are nearer to him than his jugular vein.
Allah! There is no God save Him, the Alive, the Eternal. Neither slumber nor sleep overtaketh Him. Unto Him belongeth whatsoever is in the heavens and whatsoever is in the earth. Who is he that intercedeth with Him save by His leave? He knoweth that which is in front of them and that which is behind them, while they encompass nothing of His knowledge save what He will. His throne includeth the heavens and the earth, and He is never weary of preserving them. He is the Sublime, the Tremendous. There is no compulsion in religion. The right direction is henceforth distinct from error. And he who rejecteth false deities and believeth in Allah hath grasped a firm handhold which will never break. Allah is Hearer, Knower. Allah is the Protecting Guardian of those who believe. He bringeth them out of darkness into light. As for those who disbelieve, their patrons are false deities. They bring them out of light into darkness. Such are rightful owners of the Fire. They will abide therein.
Say: He is Allah, the One! Allah, the Absolute! He begets not, nor was begotten. And there is none comparable unto Him.
Allah is the Light of the heavens and the earth. The similitude of His light is as a niche wherein is a lamp. The lamp is in a glass. The glass is as it were a shining star. (This lamp is) kindled from a blessed tree, an olive neither of the East nor of the West, whose oil would almost glow forth (of itself) though no fire touched it. Light upon light. Allah guideth unto His light whom He will. And Allah speaketh to mankind in allegories, for Allah is Knower of all things. (This lamp is found) in houses which Allah hath allowed to be exalted and that His name shall be remembered therein. Therein do offer praise to Him at morn and evening. Men whom neither merchandise nor sale beguileth from remembrance of Allah and constancy in prayer and paying to the poor their due; who fear a day when hearts and eyeballs will be overturned; that Allah may reward them with the best of what they did, and increase reward for them of His bounty. Allah giveth blessings without stint to whom He will.
As for those who disbelieve, their deeds are as a mirage in a desert. The thirsty one supposeth it to be water till he cometh unto it and findeth it naught, and findeth, in the place thereof, Allah Who payeth him his due; and Allah is swift at reckoning. Or as darkness on a vast, abysmal sea. There covereth him a wave, above which is a wave, above which is a cloud. Layer upon layer of darkness. When he holdeth out his hand he scarce can see it. And he for whom Allah hath not appointed light, for him there is no light. Hast thou not seen that Allah, He it is Whom all who are in the heavens and the earth praise, and the birds in their flight? Of each He knoweth verily the worship and the praise; and Allah is Aware of what they do. And unto Allah belongeth the Sovereignty of the heavens and the earth, and unto Allah is the journeying. Hast thou not seen how Allah wafteth the clouds, then gathereth them, then maketh them layers, and thou seest the rain come forth from between them; He sendeth down from the heaven mountains wherein is hail, and smiteth therewith whom He will, and averteth it from whom He will. The flashing of His lightning all but snatcheth away the sight. Allah causeth the revolution of the day and the night. Lo! herein is indeed a lesson for those who see. Allah hath created every animal of water. Of them is (a kind) that goeth upon its belly and (a kind) that goeth upon two legs and (a kind) that goeth upon four. Allah createth what He will. Lo! Allah is Able to do all things. Verily We have sent down revelations and explained them. Allah guideth whom He will unto a straight path.
In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful.
Praise be to Allah, Lord of the Worlds. The Beneficent, the Merciful. Master of the Day of Judgment, Thee (alone) we worship; Thee (alone) we ask for help. Show us the straight path, the path of those whom Thou hast favoured; Not the (path) of those who earn Thine anger nor of those who go astray.
Say: O disbelievers! I worship not that which ye worship; nor worship ye that which I worship; and I shall not worship that which ye worship; nor will ye worship that which I worship. Unto you your religion, and unto me my religion.
Hast thou not known that Allah knoweth all that is in the heaven and the earth? Lo! it is in a record. Lo! that is easy for Allah. And they worship instead of Allah that for which He hath sent down no warrant, and that whereof they have no knowledge. For evil-doers there is no helper. And when Our revelations are recited unto them, thou knowest the denial in the faces of those who disbelieve; they all but attack those who recite Our revelations unto them. Say: Shall I proclaim unto you worse than that? The Fire! Allah hath promised it for those who disbelieve. A hapless journey's end!
O mankind! A similitude is coined, so pay ye heed to it: Lo! those on whom ye call beside Allah will never create a fly though they combine together for the purpose. And if the fly took something from them, they could not rescue it from it. So weak are (both) the seeker and the sought! They measure not Allah His rightful measure. Lo! Allah is Strong, Almighty. Allah chooseth from the angels messengers, and (also) from mankind. Lo! Allah is Hearer, Seer. He knoweth all that is before them and all that is behind them, and unto Allah all things are returned. O ye who believe! Bow down and prostrate yourselves, and worship your Lord, and do good, that haply ye may prosper. And strive for Allah with the endeavour which is His right. He hath chosen you and hath not laid upon you in religion any hardship; the faith of your father Abraham (is yours). He hath named you Muslims of old time and in this (Scripture), that the messenger may be a witness against you, and that ye may be witnesses against mankind. So establish worship, pay the poor-due, and hold fast to Allah. He is your Protecting friend. A blessed Patron and a blessed Helper!"
[Holy Quran 2.186; 50.16; 2.255-257; 112.1-4; 24.35-46; 1.1-7; 109.1-6; 22.70-78]
[Excerpts from: "Muhammad and His Teachings, life and works of Prophet of God", Olonzo]
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The Tasbih (Rosary) of Hazrat Fatima
By: Mansooreh Gharib #
Explanation of Hazrat Fatima’s Tasbih:
It is quoted from Imam Ali, saying: “Fatima, the apple of the Prophet’s eyes was in my house. She ground with the mill so much that her hands formed calluses, and drew water from the well with the bucket so much that the rope marked her chest, and swept the house so much that her clothes became dusty. So, she was in difficulty and trouble. One day I heard a slave had been brought to the Prophet. I said to Fatima: “When you go to visit your father ask him for a servant to help you in doing your daily work.” The next day she went to her father, She saw a group of people talking to him. So, she came back without saying anything for the sake of decency.”
Imam Ali said: “The Prophet knew that Fatima had come to his house for a need, so he came to our house and asked her: “Dear Fatima, what did you want?” She remained silent. He asked again and she didn’t say anything. I said: “O Messenger of Allah, I’ll tell you. Fatima has ground with the mill so much that her hands formed calluses, and drew water from the well so much that the rope marked her chest and she swept the house so much that her clothes became dusty and got the smell of smoke. We heard that some slaves were brought to you. So, I told her to come to you and ask for a servant to help her.”
The Prophet said: “I’ll teach you something that is much better than a servant you asked for. When you get up (when you go to bed, according to some books) recite these praises unto the Lord:
Say “Allah-u-Akbar” (Allah is the Greatest) 34 times.
Say “Alhamd-u-Lillah” (Praise is for Allah) 33 times.
Say “Subhan-Allah” (Glory to Allah) 33 times.
Teaching the Tasbih to the Children:
The Prophet taught her daughter, Fatima, the best lesson, which was the Tasbih. From that time, millions of people have been saying that Tasbih after their prayers. They have been asking the Lord for help via the Tasbih.
In the book “Qorb-al-Asnad”, it is quoted from Imam Jafar as-Sadiq: “We instruct our children to say the Tasbih just as we instruct them to pray. You, too (addressing Abu Haroon) do it, because whoever doesn’t recite the Tasbih, falls into misery.”
The Tasbih with a Long Presence of Heart:
Sheikh Ali bin Jazaeri, said the Tasbih for one hour because with each word of the praises he said, his tears flowed down his cheeks.
The Tasbih, the Sign of a Faithful Person:
It is written in “Makarem-ul-Akhlaq” that the Tasbih of Fatima is one of the five signs of a faithful person.
The Tasbih and Imam Sajjad:
It is said that when Imam Sajjad was taken to Yazeed, he decided to kill Imam. So, he started speaking to Imam and intended to make him say something that would give him a pretext to cause his death. But the Imam said nothing more than Yazeed had said. In his hand, there was a Tasbih and while speaking he turned it.
Yazeed said: “I speak to you and you answer me while your fingers turn the Tasbih. How do you permit yourself to do that?”
The Imam said: “My father informed me that the Prophet didn’t move from his place after the morning prayers and didn’t say anything. Sometimes he took the Tasbih and said: “O Lord! I entered morning while I was praising You equal to the number of the beads of the Tasbih that is in my hand.” Then he turned the Tasbih and spoke without praising.
The Imam continued: “This will be counted for me and will protect me till bedtime.” When he went to bed he also gave a special praise to Allah. “I follow my great grandfather and do the same thing.”
Then Yazeed looked at the people around him and said: “He defeated me by his answer,” and ordered them to let him go.
The Favors of the Angels:
When one of you goes to bed an honorable angel and a mulish Satan come to you quickly. The angel says: “End your day in a good way and start your night doing the right.” At the same moment the Satan says: “End your day committing sins and start your night with wrongdoings.” If the person obeys the angel and ends his day and begins his night in Allah’s name and says the Tasbih, that angel drives the Satan away and protects the person till he/she gets up.
When the person gets up, the Satan comes to him again and repeats what it said the night before. If the person recites the Tasbih, the Satan flees and Allah gives the reward a heavenly reward equal to the reward of the one who has prayed the whole night.
Fatima’s Tasbih (Rosary):
It is written in “Makarem-ul-Akhlaq” that Fatima had a Tasbih made of woolen thread, which had 100 knots, and she used it to recite the Tasbih. When Hazrat Hamzah (Prophet’s uncle) was martyred, she used his soil for making Tasbih.
After the martyrdom of Imam Hussain, the people used his soil to make Tasbih.
Imam Sadiq said: “The first Tasbih was our mother’s (i.e. Fatima’s) which was made of blue thread and after that, she made beads of Tasbih from the soil of Hamzah’s grave.
The Soil of Imam Hussain’s Grave:
Imam Sadiq said: “Prostration on the soil of Hussain illuminates the seven layers of the earth, and if somebody keeps a Tasbih made of Imam Hussain’s soil, they are considered the prayers of Allah, even if they don’t say anything.
The Value of Tasbih:
Imam Baqir said: “Allah has not been praised in any way better than saying the Tasbih. If there had been something better, the Prophet would have taught Fatima.”
The Effects of the Tasbih:
Imam Sadiq said: “Two brothers went to the Prophet and said: “We want to go to Syria for trading. What shall we do to be protected from dangers?”
He (Prophet) said: “When you go to bed, say the Tasbih, and after that say Ayat-ul-Kursi (A verse of the Holy Qur’an, surah Baqara). Then, you will be protected from all the dangers.”
On the way thieves followed them, and when they entered the caravanserai, the thieves sent their slave to see what they were doing.
When the slave reached them, the two brothers went to bed and did whatever the Prophet had told them. Suddenly, the slave saw walls surrounding the brothers. He came back to the thieves and told them the story, but they didn’t believe him and went in the caravanserai themselves. They also didn’t see anything but walls.
The next morning the thieves went to the brothers and said: “We wanted to steal your goods but last night we didn’t see anything but walls.”
The brothers told them the whole story and the thieves said: “We will not follow you anymore because with what you say nobody can rob you of your goods.
Imam Sadiq said: “Whoever says the Tasbih after saying his prayer, before moving from his place the heaven is their reward.
Tasbih in the Qur’an:
Imam Sadiq said about the Verse: “Praise Allah a lot.”
The one who says the Tasbih has obeyed Qur’anic verses and has praised Allah a lot!
[imamreza.net]
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Fatima: the Mother of Her Father
By: Mansour Leghaei #
Imam Sadiq from his father: “Verily, Fatima was surnamed ‘Omme Abiha’.”
[Beharul-Anwaar, vol.43 p.19 from Maqatelu-Talebin]
‘Omme Abiha’ or ‘the mother of her father’ is one of the best known titles of the Lady Fatima (peace be upon her). This title sounds quite peculiar for many people specially those who are less familiar with the Arabic language. This lecture is a humble interpretation of the abovementioned Hadith. I shall by the Will of Allah suggest 10 reasons because of which she enjoyed this unique title.
Fatima was the daughter of Prophet Muhammad, the wife of Imam Ali, the mother of the only two Masters of the Youth of Paradise- Imam Hasan and Imam Husain- and the mother of the 11 infallible Imams (peace be upon them all). She is the elite of the elite women of the past, present and future. She was an infallible martyr and a human huri. She was the crystallization of piety, chastity and real devotee of the Almighty Allah. Her virtues are so numerous that the Messenger of Allah said about her: “If beauty were a person it would be Fatima, Nay! She is greater. Indeed Fatima is my daughter and the best of the people of the earth in her origin, dignity and honour.” [Fara’edoh-Samtayn vol.2 p.68]
Fatima had a short life in this world and as her husband Imam Ali has described, “She joined her father very soon.” Yet, her life was so rich with abundant blessings so much so that she became al-Kauthar and the fountain of the Prophetic blessings.
CHILDHOOD
Fatima was born during the Prophetic mission and when the Prophet of Islam had reached his perfection. She was the only child of the house of Prophet Mohammad and Sayyeda Khadija. Her conception was heavenly blessed with the paradisiacal fruit gifted to her father at the time of his ascension. She was brought up in a house wherein revelation and the words of God were constant. She witnessed the descending and ascending of the angels. Her physical growth accomplished with her mental and spiritual growth and hence she became an infallible lady who enjoyed the sublime virtues of her father, the holy Prophet of Islam.
AFTER THE DEMISE OF HER MOTHER
Lady Khadija died 10 years after the Prophet of Islam declared his mission and left her five year old daughter an orphan. The richest lady of Quraiysh at the time of her death could not even afford a simple shroud for her burial and hence she requested her daughter to ask her father to shroud her with his own cloak after her death. Fatima was since the only memory of Khadija for the Prophet of Islam. After the painful death of her mother the young Fatima dedicated herself to her father, the Messenger of God. During the hardship of Makka she was not only a supportive daughter but a comrade. After her marriage with Imam Ali in Medina, initially her house was quite a distance from the mosque which would make the traveling to the Prophet quite difficult. Thus, the Prophet made an arrangement that the young couple live in the house of Haritha bin No’man whose house was near the house of the Prophet. [ibn Sa’ad, al Tabaqaat vol 8 p14]
THE FEMALE COMRADE OF THE PROPHET
Fatima was not the type of girl who sat at home weaving or sewing with no social responsibility. Her exalted spirit had made her from the very early stages of her life, endeavor for the spread of Islam with her father.
• Once, the Prophet of Islam was inviting people to Islam inside the Masjidul Haraam. Abu Jahl made some of his puppets pour rubbish onto the Prophet. Fatima; the female comrade of the Prophet immediately ran towards her father and with her small hands cleaned the head and the shoulders of the Prophet of Islam.
Many a time the infidels of Quraiysh stoned the Messenger of God and the young Fatima was sometimes shielding her father with her own body.
• Her care and compassion towards the Messenger of God was so motherly and passionate. Every time the Messenger of God came home Fatima was dusting the hair and face of the Prophet . it was due to all this compassionate conduct of Fatima that the Messenger of God had such tremendous love for her.
• The role of Fatima in her support and the spread of Islam was so vital that according to Imam Ali she was considered the second pillar of the Islam. After the martyrdom of Fatima Zahra Imam Ali stated, “The messenger of God was the first column of Islam and Fatima was the second and the Islamic Ommah today has lost its second column too.
FATIMA DURING THE ISLAMIC BATTLES
Fatima was a woman and as such jihad was not obligatory on her. Nonetheless, she was an active participant and a supporter of the Muslim warriors along with her father and husband. During the battles, Fatima had the responsibility of nursing the wounded soldiers and repairing their artillery. When the rumor about the martyrdom of the Messenger of God was spread in Medina during the battle of Ohud, Fatima mobilized some of the ladies of Medina to the battlefield. When she saw her father’s teeth broken and bleeding she was in tears and hugged the Messenger of God. The shia and Sunni historians have narrated that during the severe time of the battle of Ohud whereat blood was flowing from the head and the face of the Prophet, the companions had tried to stop the bleeding of the wounds, to no avail. It was Fatima who then immediately burnt a straw mat and poured its ashes onto the wounds and stopped the blood from flowing. [Safinatul Behar vol.1 p140, Sahihul Bukhari vol.4 p.72]
ADDRESSING HER FATHER
After the battle of Ohud, an ayah was revealed to the Messenger of God to discipline his companions. It was customary for Arabs to call each other with their names without any title and as such they would only call the Prophet of Islam with his first name, Mohammad, the Messenger of God as also too humble to request them to address him otherwise. It was under these circumstances that the Almighty God revealed, “Make not the calling of the Messenger among you as you are calling one of another.” 24:63
Upon the revelation of the Ayah, Muslims were commanded to address the Prophet with the title of Messenger of God.
Lady Fatima narrated, “After the revelation of the Ayah, I wondered whether I could still address my father as ‘father’ and thus I called him ‘O Messenger of God’. Upon hearing that my father immediately replied, “My dear Fatima. That rule was not for you, you call me O father for indeed this is more reviving for my heart and more pleasing your Lord.”[Ibn al-Maghazeli, al Manaqeb p367]
Thus Fatima was the only exception of the above Ayah of which she gained part of her everlasting title ‘The Mother of Her Father’.
FATIMA; THE MOTHER OF HER FATHER
In the year 5 AH, after the Battle of al-Ahzab a new rule with regards to the wives of the Prophet was revealed. “The Prophet is closer to the believers than their own selves and his wives are their mothers.” [33:6] This revelation taught Muslims to respect the wives of the Prophet like their own mothers and that they were forbidden to ever marry them. Thus, none of the wives of the Prophet were ever able to remarry after the demise of the Messenger of God. To this end, every wife of the Prophet was referred to as ‘the mother of the believers’ which means as the believers could not ever marry their mother they could not possibly ever marry any of the wives of the Prophet. After the revelation of the above law, the Messenger of God said to his beloved daughter, “O Fatima. If my wives are the (spiritual) mother of the believers then you are my (spiritual) mother.”
ETIMOLOGY OF THE TERM ‘AL-OMM’
The term mother is referred to in Arabic as ‘Omm’ whether a direct biological mother or indirect and hence, Eve is also referred to as our ‘mother’. Linguistically, the term ‘mother’ is quite similar in all different languages. Omm in Arabic, mum or mother in English, mahdar in Farsi, ma in Urdu and mama in Italian.
The term al-Omm in Arabic is defined by the renowned Arabic linguist al-Raghib “Everything and everyone who is the source of the existence of something or its rearing or reforming.” Therefore, anything that is the origin of the source of something or has a fundamental role in its existence is called al-Omm in Arabic. For instance, in Surah 43 Ayah 4 the Holy Quran is introduced to be in the Mother of the Book, “And verily, it (this Quran) is in the Mother of the Book with Us, indeed exalted, full of wisdom.” The term ‘the mother of the book in the above ayah is meant for al-Lauh al-Mahfuz which is the source of all the divine knowledge and its producer.
The first Surah of the Quran is also called ‘Ommul Kitab’ the mother of the book for its seven Ayaat contain the summary of the entire teachings of the holy Quran and hence is the root and the origin of the rest of the Quran.
Ommah in Arabic is a community which has a common religious and spiritual goal.
In short, Omm is either a biological mother which is not gained but physically or a spiritual mother which is a title given due to some spiritual privileges and characteristics and carries similar parental rights. It is to this meaning that the Messenger of God introduced himself along with Imam Ali as the two fathers of the Muslim Ommah (community).
FATIMA; THE AXIS
In the following I shall share with you ten reasons because of which Lady Fatima enjoyed the divine medal of ‘The Mother of Her Father’ by the Messenger of God.
We will learn that she is the symmetrical axis between Prophet-hood and Imamat.
1. The Axis of Creation
2.
Numerous prophetic traditions state that the Messenger of God is the final cause of the creation. The Almighty God in a holy hadith says, “Had it not been because of you I would have not created the creation.” This is a well established principle in Islamic philosophy and mysticism for the reason that the Messenger of God is the most perfect creation of God and the creation is aimed at the peak of its perfection. It is due to this fact that Fatima is the axis of creation for without her the generation of the most perfect human i.e. the Messenger of God would cease to continue. Similarly, spiritually the existence of Fatima was the cause of the continuation of Islam until the day of Judgment as I shall explain.
2. The Axis of Imamat
Fatima was the symmetrical axis joining Prophet-hood to Imamat. It was through Fatima that the blessed light of Prophet-hood was transmitted to eleven infallible Imams. I’m in awe! She is the mother of 11 infallible Imams! If the holy Mary begot one Jesus, and hence she became a truthful female, the holy Fatima begot 11 pure Imams, behind the last of whom Prophet Jesus shall pray.
3. The Axis of Ahlul-Bait
The story of the Hadith of the Cloak is narrated by numerous Shia and Sunni narrators. Jabbir ibn Abdullah al-Ansari narrated that the Messenger of God went to the house of Fatima while he was not feeling well. Fatima received him and covered him with his Yemenese cloak for warmth and comfort. Then the Prophet of Islam brings Hasan, Husain and then Imam Ali and Fatima under his cloak with him. It was then that the angel Gibreel brought Ayah 33 of Surah 33, “Verily, Allah willed but to purify you Ahlul-bait…..” Lady Fatima is the symmetrical axis in this story so much so that when the arch angel Gibreel aims at introducing those who are under the cloak to the heavenly creatures, he states, “They are Fatima and her father and her husband and her children.”
4. The Axis of Infallibility
Since Fatima is the axis of Ahlul-bait she is also the axis of infallibility as indicated in Ayah 33 of Surah 33. She was the mother and the spiritual coach of all the Imams of Ahlul-bait. The infallibility, bravery and guidance of all the Imams of Ahlul-bait were inherited from their mother, holy Lady Fatima. When Khadija was pregnant with Fatima she used to speak with her. One day when the Prophet of Islam heard his wife talking to her baby he said to her, “Gibreel has given me the glad tiding that she is going to be a baby girl and her generation will be blessed and pure and indeed the Almighty God will continue my generation from her offspring and will make them the Imams and the vicegerents of God on earth after revelation has ceased to continue.” [Rodhatul Wa’ezin vol.1 p.143]
5. The Axis of Al Mubahilah
In the last year of the life of Prophet Muhammad a deputation of 60 high ranked Christians of Najran headed by Abdul Masih their chief monk-priest came and discussed with the Holy Prophet about the personality of Prophet ‘Isa (Jesus). When they refused to accept the logical reasoning of the Prophet of Islam, the Messenger of Allah by revelation invited them to a cursing challenge called ‘al-Mubahila’. “Then whoever disputes with you concerning him (Jesus) after all this knowledge that has come to you, say: Come, let us call our sons and your sons, our women and your women, ourselves and yourselves, then we pray and invoke the Curse of Allah upon those who lie.” [3:61]
The only people the Prophet of Islam chose to take to this vital challenge were: Imam Ali, Fatima al-Zahra, (Imam) Hasan and (Imam) Husain peace be upon them. In this challenge Fatima was the example of the child of the Prophet in ‘our sons’, the woman in ‘our women’. She was also the example of the soul of the Prophet in ‘ourselves’ for the Messenger of God had said about her: “She is part of me as she is my soul in my heart.”
Of the significance of this selection the renown Sunni scholar al-Qandoozi narrated from the holy Prophet: “Had the Almighty Allah knew more honourable people on earth than Ali, Fatima, Hasan and Husain he would have commanded me to challenge the Christians with them. But He ordered me to enter the Mubahila with them (Ahlul-Bait) for they are the best creatures.” [Yanabi’ul-Mawaddah, p.131]
6. The Axis of Imams of Ahlul-Bait
The Almighty God gave the glad tidings to Fatima that 11 infallible Imams will emerge from her offspring. Thus, she was called ‘the Mother of the Imams’ and ‘the Mother of the Blossoms of Islam’ and ‘the Mother of the Light of the Imams’. It is therefore narrated from the Messenger of Allah: “I am the tree and Fatima is its fruit-bearing and Ali is its pollen and Hasan and Husain are its fruits.” [Ihqaqul-Haq, vol.9 p.157]
Similarly, when Lady Fatima delivered her eloquent sermon in the Masjidul-Nabi, Imam Ali addressed her with the title of: “O the remaining of the Prophet-hood.” [Beharul-Anwar, vol.43 p.148]
Most importantly, the holy Fatima was the bearer and the depository of the divine secrete, i.e. Imam Mahdi (may God hasten his reappearance).
7. The Axis of Faith
The Lady Fatima is the axis of faith. It is narrated from the Imams of Ahlul-bait that on the Day of Judgment “she will be the scale of measuring the deeds of our lovers and our enemies.” [ al-Kharazmi, Maqtalul-Husain, p.107] Thus, she is the scale of measuring the lovers and the enemies of Ahlul-Bait.
8. The Axis of the Sayyyeds
The holy Fatima was ‘al-Kouthar’ meaning abundant blessings. The generation of the last Messenger of Allah has spread world-wide through his daughter Fatima. She is the mother of Millions of offspring of the Prophet from the linage of Imam Ali, Imam Hasan, Imam Husain, Imam Redha, and Imam Kadhem (peace be upon them). They are related to the Prophet of Islam through Fatima.
9. The Axis of Intercession
The holy Fatima is the axis of intercession on the Day of Judgment to rescue the sinners from the Hell-fire. Indeed she is called Fatima for Allah has safeguarded her and her followers from the Hell-fire. Numerous Prophetic saying indicated that she is called Fatima for Allah has prevented her and her lovers and followers from the Hell-fire. [See Beharul-Anwar, vol.43 pp.4 -18]
Jabir; the distinguished companion of the Messenger of Allah who lived long enough to visit Imam Baqir asked the Imam to inform him of the status of his grandmother; the lady Fatima. Part of the Hadith reads:
“On the Day of Judgment people will be ordered: Bend your heads down and lower your gaze for indeed this is Fatima proceeding to Paradise. She then will ask the Almighty: O my Lord! I would like my status be known in this Day. Thus, the Almighty Allah addresses her: O daughter of My beloved! Look back and find whoever there is a love in their heart for you or for any of your offspring to take their hands and enter them into Paradise. It is on that Day the she will be as selective as a chicken selects the good seeds over the spoiled ones. Then the Almighty Allah will address those who loved the holy Fatima: Look back and find whoever loved your for the love of Fatima, whoever fed you for the love of Fatima, whoever clothed you for the love of Fatima, whoever offered you a drink for the love of Fatima… then take their hands and enter them into Paradise. Imam Baqir then added: On that Day none will be left save the one who has been doubtful
(about the status of Fatima), or the one who has been Kafir or hypocrite.” [Beharul-Anwar, vol.8 p.51]
10. The Axis of Granting Wishes
Although all the fourteen infallible are the gates through whom the Almighty God grants our invocations, the Lady Fatima has a pivotal role in the granting of our wishes. Even the Imams of Ahlul-bait when they invoked to the Almighty, they asked Allah in the virtuous name of their mother Fatima. Thus, the name of Fatima is again the central core in the recommended supplication for our needs.
“Allahuma inni asaloka be haqe fatimata wa abiha wa ba’leha wa baniha wa sirril musta’ da’e fi ha an to salle’a ala muhammadin wa ale muhammad. Wa an tafalla be ma anta ahlo wa an taqthia hawa’iji”
“O Allah verily I ask You by the right of Fatima and her father and her husband and her sons and the hidden secret entrusted in her (Imam Mahdi a.j) that You may Mohammad and his family and that You may do for me what You are anticipated to do and that You grant my requests.”
MUTUAL AFFECTION
The affection between Fatima and her father was mutual. That means, as much as the holy Prophet of Islam loved his daughter Fatima, she also loved her father the Prophet. Thus, the demise of the Prophet of God did not have but an enormous effect on Fatima. During her short time after the demise of her father, she cried so much that according to the words of imam Sadiq she became one of the five most weeping people in history of mankind. Prophet Adam after his fall wept so much that stains marks appeared on his cheeks. Prophet Yaqoub wept so much in the absence of his son Yusuf that he lost his eye sight. Prophet Yusuf in return also cried so much in missing his father that his fellow prisoners requested that he should cry either at night or day. Imam Sajjad wept for the last thirty five years of his life for the tragedy of Karbala and finally the holy Fatima wept her life away in the absence of her father the holy Messenger of God. She wept so much that Imam Ali had to build an isolated hut for her worshipping and weeping called ‘the House of Grieves’. The weeping of Fatima however, was not only for the physical departure of the Messenger of God from this world, she wept also for the catastrophic deviation that occurred after the Prophet passed. Her weeping was in fact a cry opposition to awaken the Islamic Ummah of the evil consequences of their wrongdoing. Fatima was fully aware that the deviation that occurred in Saqifeh would lead to the massacre of Karbala.
“As salamu alayk O you oppressed lady whose right has been usurped and her rib was broken, the one who was beaten, the lady who was truthful and martyred.”
The enemies of Islam and Ahlul-bait could not stand her opposition. According to al-Mas’oodi; the renowned historian, she witnessed that the party of Abu Bakr forced Imam Ali to pay allegiance to Abu Bakr whilst Imam Ali was refusing. [Ithbatul-Wasiya p262]
Eventually, the enemies threatened to set the house of Fatima on fire should Ali continue to refuse allegiance. Omar ibn Kattab along with his men approached the house of Ahlul-bait. He threatened that should Ali still refuse he would burn the house down and the household. Omar was reminded that Fatima was also in that house, his only reply was, “Even so…”
I would like to end my speech by narrating the tragic event of the martyrdom of the holy Lady Fatima; the part of the heart of the Prophet and the beloved mother of her father with her own heartbreaking description of the scene, “they placed firewood at the gate of my house and then they brought fire and torched it to burn us all. I was standing behind the front door. I pleaded with them by the name of Allah and my father the Messenger of Allah to leave us alone or help us. But Omar grabbed the whip of Qunfuz; the slave of Abu Bakr, and whipped my arm so hard that it bruised and marked like a bracelet. He then kicked the door against me while I was pregnant and I fell to the floor all the while the fire was blazing in front of me and its heat was burning my face. He then slapped me so hard on my face that my earring tore my ear then I felt the pain of labor and lost my innocent baby.
[Baitul ahzan p97 al-Ehtejaj vol1 from p203, Sharh ibn Abil Haddid vol2 p21, The History of Tabari vol2 p234, Al Imamah & Al Siyasah vol1 p12, Morujo Thahab vol2 p302, Al Kafi vol8 p343]
[imamreza.net]
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WHAT PROPHET SAID ABOUT FATIMA
# 40 Hadith of Holy Prophet about his daughter Fatima al Zahra
1) The Prophet said, “On the Day of Judgment, a caller will call out: “Lower your gaze until Fatima has passed.”
2) The Prophet said, “When I long for the fragrance of Paradise I smell the neck of Fatima.”
3) The Prophet said, “Of all the women in the Universe, four would suffice: Mary, Aseya, Khadija, and Fatima.”
4) The Prophet said, “Oh, Ali, Gabriel has informed me that God has married you to Fatima.”
5) The Prophet said, “I am not pleased unless Fatima is pleased.”
6) The Prophet said, “Oh, Ali, God has commanded me to marry you to Fatima.”
7) The Prophet said, “Verily, God married Ali to Fatima.”
8) The Prophet said, “All the children of a mother are attributed to their fatherly relation except the sons of Fatima.”
9) The Prophet said, “All the children of a woman are attributed to their father, but not the sons of Fatima.”
10) The Prophet said, “The most beloved of my family to me is Fatima.”
11) The Prophet said, “The four greatest women in the Universe are Mary, Aseya, Khadija, and Fatima.”
12) The Prophet said, “The head of the women of Paradise is Fatima.”
13) The Prophet said, “If I were separated from the fruits of Paradise I would kiss Fatima.”
14) The Prophet said, “Many men have reached completion, but no women have reached completion except four: Mary, Aseya, Khadija, and Fatima.”
15) The Prophet said, “The first people to enter Paradise will be Ali and Fatima.”
16) The Prophet said, “The verse of purification was revealed concerning five people: myself, Ali, Hassan, Hussein, and Fatima.”
17) The Prophet said, “The best women in Paradise will be Mary, Asiya, Khadija, and Fatima.”
18) The Prophet said, “The first one to enter Paradise will be Fatima.”
19) The Prophet said, “The Messiah (Mehdi) is from my family, from the sons of Fatima.”
20) The Prophet said, “Verily, God has weaned (fatama) my daughter Fatima and her children and those who love them from the Hellfire, and that is why she is named Fatima.”
21) The Prophet said, “Fatima, you will be the first amongst my lineage to follow after me.”
22) The Prophet said, “Fatima is part of me. Whatever upsets her upsets me, and whatever harms her harms me.”
23) The Prophet said, “Fatima is part of me, and whoever pleases her, pleases me.”
24) The Prophet said, “Fatima is the head of the women of Paradise.”
25) The Prophet said, “Fatima is part of me, so whoever makes her angry makes me angry.”
26) The Prophet said, “Fatima is a maiden of Paradise created in human form.”
27) The Prophet said, “Fatima is a Princess (Hur) of Paradise in human form, she does not receive any kind of menses.”
28) The Prophet said, “Fatima is part of me, whatever harms her harms me, and whatever is against her is against me.”
29) The Prophet said, “Fatima is part of me - whatever makes her angry makes me angry, and whatever pleases her pleases me.”
30) The Prophet said, “Fatima is more beloved to me than you, oh Ali, and you are dearer to me than her.”
31) The Prophet said, “Fatima is part of me and she is my heart and the soul which is between my two sides.”
32) The Prophet said, “Fatima is the head of the women of my nation.”
33) The Prophet said, “Fatima is a branch of me, what pleases her pleases me, and what saddens her, saddens me.”
34) The Prophet said, “Fatima is part of me - whatever causes her pain causes me pain, and whatever makes her happy makes me happy.”
35) The Prophet said, “Fatima is part of me, whoever harms her has harmed me.”
36) The Prophet said, “Fatima is the joy of my heart, and her sons are the fruit of my soul.”
37) The Prophet said, “Fatima is not like the women of the children of Adam.”
38) The Prophet said, “Fatima is part of me - what saddens her saddens me, and what pleases her pleases me.”
39) The Prophet said, “Oh Fatima, verily God is angry when you are angry.”
40) The Prophet said, “Fatima, God will not torture you or any of your children.”
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God's Prophet and His Holy Daughter
# Who is father of Fatima -bbc
# Muhammad - encyclopedia
# Greatness of Muhammed - olonzo
# The Tasbih (Rosary) of Hazrat Fatima - Gharib
# Fatima: the Mother of Her Father - Leghaei
# What Prophet Said About Fatima - Hadith
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WHO IS FATHER OF FATIMA
# BBC: The Prophet Muhammad
Muslims believe that Islam is a faith that has always existed and that it was gradually revealed to humanity by a number of prophets, but the final and complete revelation of the faith was made through the Prophet Muhammad in the 7th century CE.
Muhammad was born in Mecca in Saudi Arabia in 570.
He was a deeply spiritual man, and often spent time in meditation on Mount Hira.
The traditional story of the Qur'an tells how one night in 610 he was meditating in a cave on the mountain when he was visited by the angel Jibreel who ordered him to recite.
Once Jibreel mentioned the name of Allah, Muhammad began to recite words which he came to believe were the words of God.
The Qur'an
During the rest of his life Muhammad continued to receive these revelations. The words were remembered and recorded, and form the text of the Holy Qu'ran, the Muslim scripture.
Preaching
Believing that God had chosen him as his messenger Muhammad began to preach what God had revealed to him.
The simple and clear-cut message of Islam, that there is no God but Allah, and that life should be lived in complete submission to the will of Allah, was attractive to many people, and they flocked to hear it.
The Hijrah
Muhammad's popularity was seen as threatening by the people in power in Mecca, and Muhammad took his followers on a journey from Mecca to Medina in 622.
This journey is called the Hijrah (migration) and the event was seen as so important for Islam that 622 is the year in which the Islamic calendar begins.
The return to Mecca
Within ten years Muhammad had gained so many followers that he was able to return and conquer Mecca.
From this time on he was generally accepted by the faithful as the true final Prophet of God.
Muhammad continued to lead his community both spiritually and in earthly matters until his death in 632. [source: BBC]
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MUHAMMAD
Encyclopedia Britannica, 2010 #
Muhammad, (b. 570, Mecca, Arabia [now in Saudi Arabia]—d. June 8, 632, Medina), Arab prophet who established the religion of Islam.
The son of a merchant of the ruling tribe, he was orphaned at age six. He married a rich widow, Khadijah, with whom he had six children, including Fatimah, a daughter. According to tradition, in 610 he was visited by the angel Gabriel, who informed Muhammad that he was the messenger of God. His revelations and teachings, recorded in the Quran, are the basis of Islam. He began to preach publicly c. 613, urging the rich to give to the poor and calling for the destruction of idols. He gained disciples but also acquired enemies, whose plan to murder Muhammad forced him to flee Mecca for Medina in 622. This flight, known as the Hijrah, marks the beginning of the Islamic era. Muhammad’s followers defeated a Meccan force in 624; they suffered reverses in 625 but repelled a Meccan siege of Medina in 627. He won control of Mecca by 629 and of all Arabia by 630. He made his last journey to Mecca in 632, establishing the rites of the hajj, or pilgrimage to Mecca. He died later that year and was buried at Medina. His life, teachings, and miracles have been the subjects of Muslim devotion and reflection ever since.
Muhammad was the founder of the religion of Islam, accepted by Muslims throughout the world as the last of the prophets of God.
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GREATNESS OF MUHAMMAD
# Al Olonzo
Prophet Muhammad is the greatest man loved by God Almighty. He is the greatest man on Earth because he revealed the truth to mankind, which Jews had kept hidden and which Christians had altered in their scriptures.
Prophet Muhammad was the last messenger sent by God to communicate Divine message to humanity. This is the story of Prophet's life and God's Code he delivered to the world.
Muhammed the messenger of God was born in 570 in Mecca in Arabia. He was sent by God to mankind to deliver the last Divine Will to humanity by which they would have a life of success and happiness.
Prophet was orphaned at age six. His uncle Abu Talib and his wife cared him for. Prophet married Kadeja who was a pious woman of Mecca. They had one daughter Fatima from whom Prophet’s lineage started. In the year 610, the angel Gabriel informed Muhammed to begin the mission of God. Prophet received revelations and teachings from God. He recorded these in the Quran, Verses of the Quran form the basis of Islam.
Prophet began to preach publicly urging the rich to give to the poor and calling for the end to idol worship. He gained converts but also made enemies who planned to murder him in 622. He was forced to emigrate and move to Medina. This escape marks year one of the Islamic calendar. Prophet followers defended themselves when Meccans attacked them in five major wars. Prophet defeated them and eventually took Mecca by 629.
Prophet died in 632 and was buried at Medina. His life and teachings are devoutly followed by millions of people all over the world. Today, Islam is the fastest growing religion on Earth. Thousand of people convert to message of God as left by His Prophet Muhammad.
Prophet Muhammad had believed in the same God that Prophet Ibrahim believed in. Both Prophets worshipped the true God, Creators of the heavens and the earth. God loved them and sent them to tell the people about Himself. They taught humanity not to bow before false idols and false gods.
With start of Prophet’s mission, the truth about the Creator was now out. Allah was hidden no more. Allah had taken it upon Himself to make sure any seeker of truth had access to knowledge about His Being. For that purpose Allah revealed His own Holy Book, the Quran. He also chose its official interpreter, the Prophet himself, who not only delivered the Quran to the world, he also explained its meanings and made people understood what their Lord was saying. Famous German poet Goethe said that men of intellect would always find the Quran miraculous, even when after they reject it a first: "It soon attracts, astounds, and in the end enforces our reverence... Its style, in accordance with its contents and aim is stern, grand, terrible - ever and anon truly sublime. Thus this book will go on exercising through all ages a most potent influence."
French doctor Maurice Bucaille said: "The above observation makes the hypothesis advanced by those who see Muhammad as the author of the Quran untenable. How could a man, from being illiterate, become the most important author, in terms of literary merits, in the whole of Arabic literature? How could he then pronounce truths of a scientific nature that no other human being could possibly have developed at that time, and all this without once making the slightest error in his pronouncement on the subject? A totally objective examination of it in the light of modern knowledge, leads us to recognize the agreement between the two, as has been already noted on repeated occasions. It makes us deem it quite unthinkable for a man of Muhammad's time to have been the author of such statements on account of the state of knowledge in his day. Such considerations are part of what gives the Quranic Revelation its unique place, and forces the impartial scientist to admit his inability to provide an explanation which calls solely upon materialistic reasoning."
G. Margoliouth said: "The Koran admittedly occupies an important position among the great religious books of the world. Though the youngest of the epoch-making works belonging to this class of literature, it yields to hardly any in the wonderful effect which it has produced on large masses of men. It has created an all but new phase of human thought and a fresh type of character. It first transformed a number of heterogeneous desert tribes of the Arabian peninsula into a nation of heroes, and then proceeded to create the vast politico-religious organizations of the Muhammadan world which are one of the great forces with which Europe and the East have to reckon today."
Dr. Steingass said: "A work, then, which calls forth so powerful and seemingly incompatible emotions even in the distant reader - distant as to time, and still more so as a mental development - a work which not only conquers the repugnance which he may begin its perusal, but changes this adverse feeling into astonishment and admiration, such a work must be a wonderful production of the human mind indeed and a problem of the highest interest to every thoughtful observer of the destinies of mankind… Here, therefore, its merits as a literary production should perhaps not be measured by some preconceived maxims of subjective and aesthetic taste, but by the effects which it produced in Muhammad's contemporaries and fellow countrymen. If it spoke so powerfully and convincingly to the hearts of his hearers as to weld hitherto centrifugal and antagonistic elements into one compact and well-organized body, animated by ideas far beyond those which had until now ruled the Arabian mind, then its eloquence was perfect, simply because it created a civilized nation out of savage tribes, and shot a fresh woof into the old warp of history."
Arthur J. Arberry said: "In making the present attempt to improve on the performance of my predecessors, and to produce something which might be accepted as echoing however faintly the sublime rhetoric of the Arabic Koran, I have been at pains to study the intricate and richly varied rhythms which - apart from the message itself - constitute the Koran's undeniable claim to rank amongst the greatest literary masterpieces of mankind... This very characteristic feature - 'that inimitable symphony,' as the believing Pickthall described his Holy Book, 'the very sounds of which move men to tears and ecstasy' - has been almost totally ignored by previous translators; it is therefore not surprising that what they have wrought sounds dull and flat indeed in comparison with the splendidly decorated original."
Muhammad was prophesied in the Bible. Book of Deuteronomy and Gospel of Saint John both speak of a great Prophet to rise among Arabs, the children of Ishmael son of Abrahams. Refer to words of Moses in chapter 18 verse 18 and words of Jesus Christ in chapters 14 to 16.
Prophet Mohammad gave the clearest teaching about God: Your Creator is one. He is not a Trinity as some Christians believed. He is not many gods as Hindus believe. He does not come up and down. He sends his messengers to deliver his will to mankind.
Mohammad, Messenger of God was asked about God:
A Bedouin once came to Prophet and said, “Teach me of the most unusual of knowledge!” He asked him, “What have you done with the peak of knowledge so that you now ask about its most unusual things?!” The man asked him, “What is this peak of knowledge?!” He said, “It is knowing God as He deserves to be known.” The Bedouin then said, “And how can He be known as He ought to be?” He replied, “It is that you know Him as having no model, no peer, no antithesis, and that He is One and only: He is the One Who is Apparent yet Hidden, the First and the Last, having no peer nor a similitude; this is the true knowledge about Him.”
Here are some verses from different parts of the Holy Quran:
"And when My servants question thee concerning Me, then surely I am nigh. I answer the prayer of the suppliant when he crieth unto Me. So let them hear My call and let them trust in Me, in order that they may be led aright.
We verily created man and We know what his soul whispereth to him, and We are nearer to him than his jugular vein.
Allah! There is no God save Him, the Alive, the Eternal. Neither slumber nor sleep overtaketh Him. Unto Him belongeth whatsoever is in the heavens and whatsoever is in the earth. Who is he that intercedeth with Him save by His leave? He knoweth that which is in front of them and that which is behind them, while they encompass nothing of His knowledge save what He will. His throne includeth the heavens and the earth, and He is never weary of preserving them. He is the Sublime, the Tremendous. There is no compulsion in religion. The right direction is henceforth distinct from error. And he who rejecteth false deities and believeth in Allah hath grasped a firm handhold which will never break. Allah is Hearer, Knower. Allah is the Protecting Guardian of those who believe. He bringeth them out of darkness into light. As for those who disbelieve, their patrons are false deities. They bring them out of light into darkness. Such are rightful owners of the Fire. They will abide therein.
Say: He is Allah, the One! Allah, the Absolute! He begets not, nor was begotten. And there is none comparable unto Him.
Allah is the Light of the heavens and the earth. The similitude of His light is as a niche wherein is a lamp. The lamp is in a glass. The glass is as it were a shining star. (This lamp is) kindled from a blessed tree, an olive neither of the East nor of the West, whose oil would almost glow forth (of itself) though no fire touched it. Light upon light. Allah guideth unto His light whom He will. And Allah speaketh to mankind in allegories, for Allah is Knower of all things. (This lamp is found) in houses which Allah hath allowed to be exalted and that His name shall be remembered therein. Therein do offer praise to Him at morn and evening. Men whom neither merchandise nor sale beguileth from remembrance of Allah and constancy in prayer and paying to the poor their due; who fear a day when hearts and eyeballs will be overturned; that Allah may reward them with the best of what they did, and increase reward for them of His bounty. Allah giveth blessings without stint to whom He will.
As for those who disbelieve, their deeds are as a mirage in a desert. The thirsty one supposeth it to be water till he cometh unto it and findeth it naught, and findeth, in the place thereof, Allah Who payeth him his due; and Allah is swift at reckoning. Or as darkness on a vast, abysmal sea. There covereth him a wave, above which is a wave, above which is a cloud. Layer upon layer of darkness. When he holdeth out his hand he scarce can see it. And he for whom Allah hath not appointed light, for him there is no light. Hast thou not seen that Allah, He it is Whom all who are in the heavens and the earth praise, and the birds in their flight? Of each He knoweth verily the worship and the praise; and Allah is Aware of what they do. And unto Allah belongeth the Sovereignty of the heavens and the earth, and unto Allah is the journeying. Hast thou not seen how Allah wafteth the clouds, then gathereth them, then maketh them layers, and thou seest the rain come forth from between them; He sendeth down from the heaven mountains wherein is hail, and smiteth therewith whom He will, and averteth it from whom He will. The flashing of His lightning all but snatcheth away the sight. Allah causeth the revolution of the day and the night. Lo! herein is indeed a lesson for those who see. Allah hath created every animal of water. Of them is (a kind) that goeth upon its belly and (a kind) that goeth upon two legs and (a kind) that goeth upon four. Allah createth what He will. Lo! Allah is Able to do all things. Verily We have sent down revelations and explained them. Allah guideth whom He will unto a straight path.
In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful.
Praise be to Allah, Lord of the Worlds. The Beneficent, the Merciful. Master of the Day of Judgment, Thee (alone) we worship; Thee (alone) we ask for help. Show us the straight path, the path of those whom Thou hast favoured; Not the (path) of those who earn Thine anger nor of those who go astray.
Say: O disbelievers! I worship not that which ye worship; nor worship ye that which I worship; and I shall not worship that which ye worship; nor will ye worship that which I worship. Unto you your religion, and unto me my religion.
Hast thou not known that Allah knoweth all that is in the heaven and the earth? Lo! it is in a record. Lo! that is easy for Allah. And they worship instead of Allah that for which He hath sent down no warrant, and that whereof they have no knowledge. For evil-doers there is no helper. And when Our revelations are recited unto them, thou knowest the denial in the faces of those who disbelieve; they all but attack those who recite Our revelations unto them. Say: Shall I proclaim unto you worse than that? The Fire! Allah hath promised it for those who disbelieve. A hapless journey's end!
O mankind! A similitude is coined, so pay ye heed to it: Lo! those on whom ye call beside Allah will never create a fly though they combine together for the purpose. And if the fly took something from them, they could not rescue it from it. So weak are (both) the seeker and the sought! They measure not Allah His rightful measure. Lo! Allah is Strong, Almighty. Allah chooseth from the angels messengers, and (also) from mankind. Lo! Allah is Hearer, Seer. He knoweth all that is before them and all that is behind them, and unto Allah all things are returned. O ye who believe! Bow down and prostrate yourselves, and worship your Lord, and do good, that haply ye may prosper. And strive for Allah with the endeavour which is His right. He hath chosen you and hath not laid upon you in religion any hardship; the faith of your father Abraham (is yours). He hath named you Muslims of old time and in this (Scripture), that the messenger may be a witness against you, and that ye may be witnesses against mankind. So establish worship, pay the poor-due, and hold fast to Allah. He is your Protecting friend. A blessed Patron and a blessed Helper!"
[Holy Quran 2.186; 50.16; 2.255-257; 112.1-4; 24.35-46; 1.1-7; 109.1-6; 22.70-78]
[Excerpts from: "Muhammad and His Teachings, life and works of Prophet of God", Olonzo]
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The Tasbih (Rosary) of Hazrat Fatima
By: Mansooreh Gharib #
Explanation of Hazrat Fatima’s Tasbih:
It is quoted from Imam Ali, saying: “Fatima, the apple of the Prophet’s eyes was in my house. She ground with the mill so much that her hands formed calluses, and drew water from the well with the bucket so much that the rope marked her chest, and swept the house so much that her clothes became dusty. So, she was in difficulty and trouble. One day I heard a slave had been brought to the Prophet. I said to Fatima: “When you go to visit your father ask him for a servant to help you in doing your daily work.” The next day she went to her father, She saw a group of people talking to him. So, she came back without saying anything for the sake of decency.”
Imam Ali said: “The Prophet knew that Fatima had come to his house for a need, so he came to our house and asked her: “Dear Fatima, what did you want?” She remained silent. He asked again and she didn’t say anything. I said: “O Messenger of Allah, I’ll tell you. Fatima has ground with the mill so much that her hands formed calluses, and drew water from the well so much that the rope marked her chest and she swept the house so much that her clothes became dusty and got the smell of smoke. We heard that some slaves were brought to you. So, I told her to come to you and ask for a servant to help her.”
The Prophet said: “I’ll teach you something that is much better than a servant you asked for. When you get up (when you go to bed, according to some books) recite these praises unto the Lord:
Say “Allah-u-Akbar” (Allah is the Greatest) 34 times.
Say “Alhamd-u-Lillah” (Praise is for Allah) 33 times.
Say “Subhan-Allah” (Glory to Allah) 33 times.
Teaching the Tasbih to the Children:
The Prophet taught her daughter, Fatima, the best lesson, which was the Tasbih. From that time, millions of people have been saying that Tasbih after their prayers. They have been asking the Lord for help via the Tasbih.
In the book “Qorb-al-Asnad”, it is quoted from Imam Jafar as-Sadiq: “We instruct our children to say the Tasbih just as we instruct them to pray. You, too (addressing Abu Haroon) do it, because whoever doesn’t recite the Tasbih, falls into misery.”
The Tasbih with a Long Presence of Heart:
Sheikh Ali bin Jazaeri, said the Tasbih for one hour because with each word of the praises he said, his tears flowed down his cheeks.
The Tasbih, the Sign of a Faithful Person:
It is written in “Makarem-ul-Akhlaq” that the Tasbih of Fatima is one of the five signs of a faithful person.
The Tasbih and Imam Sajjad:
It is said that when Imam Sajjad was taken to Yazeed, he decided to kill Imam. So, he started speaking to Imam and intended to make him say something that would give him a pretext to cause his death. But the Imam said nothing more than Yazeed had said. In his hand, there was a Tasbih and while speaking he turned it.
Yazeed said: “I speak to you and you answer me while your fingers turn the Tasbih. How do you permit yourself to do that?”
The Imam said: “My father informed me that the Prophet didn’t move from his place after the morning prayers and didn’t say anything. Sometimes he took the Tasbih and said: “O Lord! I entered morning while I was praising You equal to the number of the beads of the Tasbih that is in my hand.” Then he turned the Tasbih and spoke without praising.
The Imam continued: “This will be counted for me and will protect me till bedtime.” When he went to bed he also gave a special praise to Allah. “I follow my great grandfather and do the same thing.”
Then Yazeed looked at the people around him and said: “He defeated me by his answer,” and ordered them to let him go.
The Favors of the Angels:
When one of you goes to bed an honorable angel and a mulish Satan come to you quickly. The angel says: “End your day in a good way and start your night doing the right.” At the same moment the Satan says: “End your day committing sins and start your night with wrongdoings.” If the person obeys the angel and ends his day and begins his night in Allah’s name and says the Tasbih, that angel drives the Satan away and protects the person till he/she gets up.
When the person gets up, the Satan comes to him again and repeats what it said the night before. If the person recites the Tasbih, the Satan flees and Allah gives the reward a heavenly reward equal to the reward of the one who has prayed the whole night.
Fatima’s Tasbih (Rosary):
It is written in “Makarem-ul-Akhlaq” that Fatima had a Tasbih made of woolen thread, which had 100 knots, and she used it to recite the Tasbih. When Hazrat Hamzah (Prophet’s uncle) was martyred, she used his soil for making Tasbih.
After the martyrdom of Imam Hussain, the people used his soil to make Tasbih.
Imam Sadiq said: “The first Tasbih was our mother’s (i.e. Fatima’s) which was made of blue thread and after that, she made beads of Tasbih from the soil of Hamzah’s grave.
The Soil of Imam Hussain’s Grave:
Imam Sadiq said: “Prostration on the soil of Hussain illuminates the seven layers of the earth, and if somebody keeps a Tasbih made of Imam Hussain’s soil, they are considered the prayers of Allah, even if they don’t say anything.
The Value of Tasbih:
Imam Baqir said: “Allah has not been praised in any way better than saying the Tasbih. If there had been something better, the Prophet would have taught Fatima.”
The Effects of the Tasbih:
Imam Sadiq said: “Two brothers went to the Prophet and said: “We want to go to Syria for trading. What shall we do to be protected from dangers?”
He (Prophet) said: “When you go to bed, say the Tasbih, and after that say Ayat-ul-Kursi (A verse of the Holy Qur’an, surah Baqara). Then, you will be protected from all the dangers.”
On the way thieves followed them, and when they entered the caravanserai, the thieves sent their slave to see what they were doing.
When the slave reached them, the two brothers went to bed and did whatever the Prophet had told them. Suddenly, the slave saw walls surrounding the brothers. He came back to the thieves and told them the story, but they didn’t believe him and went in the caravanserai themselves. They also didn’t see anything but walls.
The next morning the thieves went to the brothers and said: “We wanted to steal your goods but last night we didn’t see anything but walls.”
The brothers told them the whole story and the thieves said: “We will not follow you anymore because with what you say nobody can rob you of your goods.
Imam Sadiq said: “Whoever says the Tasbih after saying his prayer, before moving from his place the heaven is their reward.
Tasbih in the Qur’an:
Imam Sadiq said about the Verse: “Praise Allah a lot.”
The one who says the Tasbih has obeyed Qur’anic verses and has praised Allah a lot!
[imamreza.net]
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Fatima: the Mother of Her Father
By: Mansour Leghaei #
Imam Sadiq from his father: “Verily, Fatima was surnamed ‘Omme Abiha’.”
[Beharul-Anwaar, vol.43 p.19 from Maqatelu-Talebin]
‘Omme Abiha’ or ‘the mother of her father’ is one of the best known titles of the Lady Fatima (peace be upon her). This title sounds quite peculiar for many people specially those who are less familiar with the Arabic language. This lecture is a humble interpretation of the abovementioned Hadith. I shall by the Will of Allah suggest 10 reasons because of which she enjoyed this unique title.
Fatima was the daughter of Prophet Muhammad, the wife of Imam Ali, the mother of the only two Masters of the Youth of Paradise- Imam Hasan and Imam Husain- and the mother of the 11 infallible Imams (peace be upon them all). She is the elite of the elite women of the past, present and future. She was an infallible martyr and a human huri. She was the crystallization of piety, chastity and real devotee of the Almighty Allah. Her virtues are so numerous that the Messenger of Allah said about her: “If beauty were a person it would be Fatima, Nay! She is greater. Indeed Fatima is my daughter and the best of the people of the earth in her origin, dignity and honour.” [Fara’edoh-Samtayn vol.2 p.68]
Fatima had a short life in this world and as her husband Imam Ali has described, “She joined her father very soon.” Yet, her life was so rich with abundant blessings so much so that she became al-Kauthar and the fountain of the Prophetic blessings.
CHILDHOOD
Fatima was born during the Prophetic mission and when the Prophet of Islam had reached his perfection. She was the only child of the house of Prophet Mohammad and Sayyeda Khadija. Her conception was heavenly blessed with the paradisiacal fruit gifted to her father at the time of his ascension. She was brought up in a house wherein revelation and the words of God were constant. She witnessed the descending and ascending of the angels. Her physical growth accomplished with her mental and spiritual growth and hence she became an infallible lady who enjoyed the sublime virtues of her father, the holy Prophet of Islam.
AFTER THE DEMISE OF HER MOTHER
Lady Khadija died 10 years after the Prophet of Islam declared his mission and left her five year old daughter an orphan. The richest lady of Quraiysh at the time of her death could not even afford a simple shroud for her burial and hence she requested her daughter to ask her father to shroud her with his own cloak after her death. Fatima was since the only memory of Khadija for the Prophet of Islam. After the painful death of her mother the young Fatima dedicated herself to her father, the Messenger of God. During the hardship of Makka she was not only a supportive daughter but a comrade. After her marriage with Imam Ali in Medina, initially her house was quite a distance from the mosque which would make the traveling to the Prophet quite difficult. Thus, the Prophet made an arrangement that the young couple live in the house of Haritha bin No’man whose house was near the house of the Prophet. [ibn Sa’ad, al Tabaqaat vol 8 p14]
THE FEMALE COMRADE OF THE PROPHET
Fatima was not the type of girl who sat at home weaving or sewing with no social responsibility. Her exalted spirit had made her from the very early stages of her life, endeavor for the spread of Islam with her father.
• Once, the Prophet of Islam was inviting people to Islam inside the Masjidul Haraam. Abu Jahl made some of his puppets pour rubbish onto the Prophet. Fatima; the female comrade of the Prophet immediately ran towards her father and with her small hands cleaned the head and the shoulders of the Prophet of Islam.
Many a time the infidels of Quraiysh stoned the Messenger of God and the young Fatima was sometimes shielding her father with her own body.
• Her care and compassion towards the Messenger of God was so motherly and passionate. Every time the Messenger of God came home Fatima was dusting the hair and face of the Prophet . it was due to all this compassionate conduct of Fatima that the Messenger of God had such tremendous love for her.
• The role of Fatima in her support and the spread of Islam was so vital that according to Imam Ali she was considered the second pillar of the Islam. After the martyrdom of Fatima Zahra Imam Ali stated, “The messenger of God was the first column of Islam and Fatima was the second and the Islamic Ommah today has lost its second column too.
FATIMA DURING THE ISLAMIC BATTLES
Fatima was a woman and as such jihad was not obligatory on her. Nonetheless, she was an active participant and a supporter of the Muslim warriors along with her father and husband. During the battles, Fatima had the responsibility of nursing the wounded soldiers and repairing their artillery. When the rumor about the martyrdom of the Messenger of God was spread in Medina during the battle of Ohud, Fatima mobilized some of the ladies of Medina to the battlefield. When she saw her father’s teeth broken and bleeding she was in tears and hugged the Messenger of God. The shia and Sunni historians have narrated that during the severe time of the battle of Ohud whereat blood was flowing from the head and the face of the Prophet, the companions had tried to stop the bleeding of the wounds, to no avail. It was Fatima who then immediately burnt a straw mat and poured its ashes onto the wounds and stopped the blood from flowing. [Safinatul Behar vol.1 p140, Sahihul Bukhari vol.4 p.72]
ADDRESSING HER FATHER
After the battle of Ohud, an ayah was revealed to the Messenger of God to discipline his companions. It was customary for Arabs to call each other with their names without any title and as such they would only call the Prophet of Islam with his first name, Mohammad, the Messenger of God as also too humble to request them to address him otherwise. It was under these circumstances that the Almighty God revealed, “Make not the calling of the Messenger among you as you are calling one of another.” 24:63
Upon the revelation of the Ayah, Muslims were commanded to address the Prophet with the title of Messenger of God.
Lady Fatima narrated, “After the revelation of the Ayah, I wondered whether I could still address my father as ‘father’ and thus I called him ‘O Messenger of God’. Upon hearing that my father immediately replied, “My dear Fatima. That rule was not for you, you call me O father for indeed this is more reviving for my heart and more pleasing your Lord.”[Ibn al-Maghazeli, al Manaqeb p367]
Thus Fatima was the only exception of the above Ayah of which she gained part of her everlasting title ‘The Mother of Her Father’.
FATIMA; THE MOTHER OF HER FATHER
In the year 5 AH, after the Battle of al-Ahzab a new rule with regards to the wives of the Prophet was revealed. “The Prophet is closer to the believers than their own selves and his wives are their mothers.” [33:6] This revelation taught Muslims to respect the wives of the Prophet like their own mothers and that they were forbidden to ever marry them. Thus, none of the wives of the Prophet were ever able to remarry after the demise of the Messenger of God. To this end, every wife of the Prophet was referred to as ‘the mother of the believers’ which means as the believers could not ever marry their mother they could not possibly ever marry any of the wives of the Prophet. After the revelation of the above law, the Messenger of God said to his beloved daughter, “O Fatima. If my wives are the (spiritual) mother of the believers then you are my (spiritual) mother.”
ETIMOLOGY OF THE TERM ‘AL-OMM’
The term mother is referred to in Arabic as ‘Omm’ whether a direct biological mother or indirect and hence, Eve is also referred to as our ‘mother’. Linguistically, the term ‘mother’ is quite similar in all different languages. Omm in Arabic, mum or mother in English, mahdar in Farsi, ma in Urdu and mama in Italian.
The term al-Omm in Arabic is defined by the renowned Arabic linguist al-Raghib “Everything and everyone who is the source of the existence of something or its rearing or reforming.” Therefore, anything that is the origin of the source of something or has a fundamental role in its existence is called al-Omm in Arabic. For instance, in Surah 43 Ayah 4 the Holy Quran is introduced to be in the Mother of the Book, “And verily, it (this Quran) is in the Mother of the Book with Us, indeed exalted, full of wisdom.” The term ‘the mother of the book in the above ayah is meant for al-Lauh al-Mahfuz which is the source of all the divine knowledge and its producer.
The first Surah of the Quran is also called ‘Ommul Kitab’ the mother of the book for its seven Ayaat contain the summary of the entire teachings of the holy Quran and hence is the root and the origin of the rest of the Quran.
Ommah in Arabic is a community which has a common religious and spiritual goal.
In short, Omm is either a biological mother which is not gained but physically or a spiritual mother which is a title given due to some spiritual privileges and characteristics and carries similar parental rights. It is to this meaning that the Messenger of God introduced himself along with Imam Ali as the two fathers of the Muslim Ommah (community).
FATIMA; THE AXIS
In the following I shall share with you ten reasons because of which Lady Fatima enjoyed the divine medal of ‘The Mother of Her Father’ by the Messenger of God.
We will learn that she is the symmetrical axis between Prophet-hood and Imamat.
1. The Axis of Creation
2.
Numerous prophetic traditions state that the Messenger of God is the final cause of the creation. The Almighty God in a holy hadith says, “Had it not been because of you I would have not created the creation.” This is a well established principle in Islamic philosophy and mysticism for the reason that the Messenger of God is the most perfect creation of God and the creation is aimed at the peak of its perfection. It is due to this fact that Fatima is the axis of creation for without her the generation of the most perfect human i.e. the Messenger of God would cease to continue. Similarly, spiritually the existence of Fatima was the cause of the continuation of Islam until the day of Judgment as I shall explain.
2. The Axis of Imamat
Fatima was the symmetrical axis joining Prophet-hood to Imamat. It was through Fatima that the blessed light of Prophet-hood was transmitted to eleven infallible Imams. I’m in awe! She is the mother of 11 infallible Imams! If the holy Mary begot one Jesus, and hence she became a truthful female, the holy Fatima begot 11 pure Imams, behind the last of whom Prophet Jesus shall pray.
3. The Axis of Ahlul-Bait
The story of the Hadith of the Cloak is narrated by numerous Shia and Sunni narrators. Jabbir ibn Abdullah al-Ansari narrated that the Messenger of God went to the house of Fatima while he was not feeling well. Fatima received him and covered him with his Yemenese cloak for warmth and comfort. Then the Prophet of Islam brings Hasan, Husain and then Imam Ali and Fatima under his cloak with him. It was then that the angel Gibreel brought Ayah 33 of Surah 33, “Verily, Allah willed but to purify you Ahlul-bait…..” Lady Fatima is the symmetrical axis in this story so much so that when the arch angel Gibreel aims at introducing those who are under the cloak to the heavenly creatures, he states, “They are Fatima and her father and her husband and her children.”
4. The Axis of Infallibility
Since Fatima is the axis of Ahlul-bait she is also the axis of infallibility as indicated in Ayah 33 of Surah 33. She was the mother and the spiritual coach of all the Imams of Ahlul-bait. The infallibility, bravery and guidance of all the Imams of Ahlul-bait were inherited from their mother, holy Lady Fatima. When Khadija was pregnant with Fatima she used to speak with her. One day when the Prophet of Islam heard his wife talking to her baby he said to her, “Gibreel has given me the glad tiding that she is going to be a baby girl and her generation will be blessed and pure and indeed the Almighty God will continue my generation from her offspring and will make them the Imams and the vicegerents of God on earth after revelation has ceased to continue.” [Rodhatul Wa’ezin vol.1 p.143]
5. The Axis of Al Mubahilah
In the last year of the life of Prophet Muhammad a deputation of 60 high ranked Christians of Najran headed by Abdul Masih their chief monk-priest came and discussed with the Holy Prophet about the personality of Prophet ‘Isa (Jesus). When they refused to accept the logical reasoning of the Prophet of Islam, the Messenger of Allah by revelation invited them to a cursing challenge called ‘al-Mubahila’. “Then whoever disputes with you concerning him (Jesus) after all this knowledge that has come to you, say: Come, let us call our sons and your sons, our women and your women, ourselves and yourselves, then we pray and invoke the Curse of Allah upon those who lie.” [3:61]
The only people the Prophet of Islam chose to take to this vital challenge were: Imam Ali, Fatima al-Zahra, (Imam) Hasan and (Imam) Husain peace be upon them. In this challenge Fatima was the example of the child of the Prophet in ‘our sons’, the woman in ‘our women’. She was also the example of the soul of the Prophet in ‘ourselves’ for the Messenger of God had said about her: “She is part of me as she is my soul in my heart.”
Of the significance of this selection the renown Sunni scholar al-Qandoozi narrated from the holy Prophet: “Had the Almighty Allah knew more honourable people on earth than Ali, Fatima, Hasan and Husain he would have commanded me to challenge the Christians with them. But He ordered me to enter the Mubahila with them (Ahlul-Bait) for they are the best creatures.” [Yanabi’ul-Mawaddah, p.131]
6. The Axis of Imams of Ahlul-Bait
The Almighty God gave the glad tidings to Fatima that 11 infallible Imams will emerge from her offspring. Thus, she was called ‘the Mother of the Imams’ and ‘the Mother of the Blossoms of Islam’ and ‘the Mother of the Light of the Imams’. It is therefore narrated from the Messenger of Allah: “I am the tree and Fatima is its fruit-bearing and Ali is its pollen and Hasan and Husain are its fruits.” [Ihqaqul-Haq, vol.9 p.157]
Similarly, when Lady Fatima delivered her eloquent sermon in the Masjidul-Nabi, Imam Ali addressed her with the title of: “O the remaining of the Prophet-hood.” [Beharul-Anwar, vol.43 p.148]
Most importantly, the holy Fatima was the bearer and the depository of the divine secrete, i.e. Imam Mahdi (may God hasten his reappearance).
7. The Axis of Faith
The Lady Fatima is the axis of faith. It is narrated from the Imams of Ahlul-bait that on the Day of Judgment “she will be the scale of measuring the deeds of our lovers and our enemies.” [ al-Kharazmi, Maqtalul-Husain, p.107] Thus, she is the scale of measuring the lovers and the enemies of Ahlul-Bait.
8. The Axis of the Sayyyeds
The holy Fatima was ‘al-Kouthar’ meaning abundant blessings. The generation of the last Messenger of Allah has spread world-wide through his daughter Fatima. She is the mother of Millions of offspring of the Prophet from the linage of Imam Ali, Imam Hasan, Imam Husain, Imam Redha, and Imam Kadhem (peace be upon them). They are related to the Prophet of Islam through Fatima.
9. The Axis of Intercession
The holy Fatima is the axis of intercession on the Day of Judgment to rescue the sinners from the Hell-fire. Indeed she is called Fatima for Allah has safeguarded her and her followers from the Hell-fire. Numerous Prophetic saying indicated that she is called Fatima for Allah has prevented her and her lovers and followers from the Hell-fire. [See Beharul-Anwar, vol.43 pp.4 -18]
Jabir; the distinguished companion of the Messenger of Allah who lived long enough to visit Imam Baqir asked the Imam to inform him of the status of his grandmother; the lady Fatima. Part of the Hadith reads:
“On the Day of Judgment people will be ordered: Bend your heads down and lower your gaze for indeed this is Fatima proceeding to Paradise. She then will ask the Almighty: O my Lord! I would like my status be known in this Day. Thus, the Almighty Allah addresses her: O daughter of My beloved! Look back and find whoever there is a love in their heart for you or for any of your offspring to take their hands and enter them into Paradise. It is on that Day the she will be as selective as a chicken selects the good seeds over the spoiled ones. Then the Almighty Allah will address those who loved the holy Fatima: Look back and find whoever loved your for the love of Fatima, whoever fed you for the love of Fatima, whoever clothed you for the love of Fatima, whoever offered you a drink for the love of Fatima… then take their hands and enter them into Paradise. Imam Baqir then added: On that Day none will be left save the one who has been doubtful
(about the status of Fatima), or the one who has been Kafir or hypocrite.” [Beharul-Anwar, vol.8 p.51]
10. The Axis of Granting Wishes
Although all the fourteen infallible are the gates through whom the Almighty God grants our invocations, the Lady Fatima has a pivotal role in the granting of our wishes. Even the Imams of Ahlul-bait when they invoked to the Almighty, they asked Allah in the virtuous name of their mother Fatima. Thus, the name of Fatima is again the central core in the recommended supplication for our needs.
“Allahuma inni asaloka be haqe fatimata wa abiha wa ba’leha wa baniha wa sirril musta’ da’e fi ha an to salle’a ala muhammadin wa ale muhammad. Wa an tafalla be ma anta ahlo wa an taqthia hawa’iji”
“O Allah verily I ask You by the right of Fatima and her father and her husband and her sons and the hidden secret entrusted in her (Imam Mahdi a.j) that You may Mohammad and his family and that You may do for me what You are anticipated to do and that You grant my requests.”
MUTUAL AFFECTION
The affection between Fatima and her father was mutual. That means, as much as the holy Prophet of Islam loved his daughter Fatima, she also loved her father the Prophet. Thus, the demise of the Prophet of God did not have but an enormous effect on Fatima. During her short time after the demise of her father, she cried so much that according to the words of imam Sadiq she became one of the five most weeping people in history of mankind. Prophet Adam after his fall wept so much that stains marks appeared on his cheeks. Prophet Yaqoub wept so much in the absence of his son Yusuf that he lost his eye sight. Prophet Yusuf in return also cried so much in missing his father that his fellow prisoners requested that he should cry either at night or day. Imam Sajjad wept for the last thirty five years of his life for the tragedy of Karbala and finally the holy Fatima wept her life away in the absence of her father the holy Messenger of God. She wept so much that Imam Ali had to build an isolated hut for her worshipping and weeping called ‘the House of Grieves’. The weeping of Fatima however, was not only for the physical departure of the Messenger of God from this world, she wept also for the catastrophic deviation that occurred after the Prophet passed. Her weeping was in fact a cry opposition to awaken the Islamic Ummah of the evil consequences of their wrongdoing. Fatima was fully aware that the deviation that occurred in Saqifeh would lead to the massacre of Karbala.
“As salamu alayk O you oppressed lady whose right has been usurped and her rib was broken, the one who was beaten, the lady who was truthful and martyred.”
The enemies of Islam and Ahlul-bait could not stand her opposition. According to al-Mas’oodi; the renowned historian, she witnessed that the party of Abu Bakr forced Imam Ali to pay allegiance to Abu Bakr whilst Imam Ali was refusing. [Ithbatul-Wasiya p262]
Eventually, the enemies threatened to set the house of Fatima on fire should Ali continue to refuse allegiance. Omar ibn Kattab along with his men approached the house of Ahlul-bait. He threatened that should Ali still refuse he would burn the house down and the household. Omar was reminded that Fatima was also in that house, his only reply was, “Even so…”
I would like to end my speech by narrating the tragic event of the martyrdom of the holy Lady Fatima; the part of the heart of the Prophet and the beloved mother of her father with her own heartbreaking description of the scene, “they placed firewood at the gate of my house and then they brought fire and torched it to burn us all. I was standing behind the front door. I pleaded with them by the name of Allah and my father the Messenger of Allah to leave us alone or help us. But Omar grabbed the whip of Qunfuz; the slave of Abu Bakr, and whipped my arm so hard that it bruised and marked like a bracelet. He then kicked the door against me while I was pregnant and I fell to the floor all the while the fire was blazing in front of me and its heat was burning my face. He then slapped me so hard on my face that my earring tore my ear then I felt the pain of labor and lost my innocent baby.
[Baitul ahzan p97 al-Ehtejaj vol1 from p203, Sharh ibn Abil Haddid vol2 p21, The History of Tabari vol2 p234, Al Imamah & Al Siyasah vol1 p12, Morujo Thahab vol2 p302, Al Kafi vol8 p343]
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WHAT PROPHET SAID ABOUT FATIMA
# 40 Hadith of Holy Prophet about his daughter Fatima al Zahra
1) The Prophet said, “On the Day of Judgment, a caller will call out: “Lower your gaze until Fatima has passed.”
2) The Prophet said, “When I long for the fragrance of Paradise I smell the neck of Fatima.”
3) The Prophet said, “Of all the women in the Universe, four would suffice: Mary, Aseya, Khadija, and Fatima.”
4) The Prophet said, “Oh, Ali, Gabriel has informed me that God has married you to Fatima.”
5) The Prophet said, “I am not pleased unless Fatima is pleased.”
6) The Prophet said, “Oh, Ali, God has commanded me to marry you to Fatima.”
7) The Prophet said, “Verily, God married Ali to Fatima.”
8) The Prophet said, “All the children of a mother are attributed to their fatherly relation except the sons of Fatima.”
9) The Prophet said, “All the children of a woman are attributed to their father, but not the sons of Fatima.”
10) The Prophet said, “The most beloved of my family to me is Fatima.”
11) The Prophet said, “The four greatest women in the Universe are Mary, Aseya, Khadija, and Fatima.”
12) The Prophet said, “The head of the women of Paradise is Fatima.”
13) The Prophet said, “If I were separated from the fruits of Paradise I would kiss Fatima.”
14) The Prophet said, “Many men have reached completion, but no women have reached completion except four: Mary, Aseya, Khadija, and Fatima.”
15) The Prophet said, “The first people to enter Paradise will be Ali and Fatima.”
16) The Prophet said, “The verse of purification was revealed concerning five people: myself, Ali, Hassan, Hussein, and Fatima.”
17) The Prophet said, “The best women in Paradise will be Mary, Asiya, Khadija, and Fatima.”
18) The Prophet said, “The first one to enter Paradise will be Fatima.”
19) The Prophet said, “The Messiah (Mehdi) is from my family, from the sons of Fatima.”
20) The Prophet said, “Verily, God has weaned (fatama) my daughter Fatima and her children and those who love them from the Hellfire, and that is why she is named Fatima.”
21) The Prophet said, “Fatima, you will be the first amongst my lineage to follow after me.”
22) The Prophet said, “Fatima is part of me. Whatever upsets her upsets me, and whatever harms her harms me.”
23) The Prophet said, “Fatima is part of me, and whoever pleases her, pleases me.”
24) The Prophet said, “Fatima is the head of the women of Paradise.”
25) The Prophet said, “Fatima is part of me, so whoever makes her angry makes me angry.”
26) The Prophet said, “Fatima is a maiden of Paradise created in human form.”
27) The Prophet said, “Fatima is a Princess (Hur) of Paradise in human form, she does not receive any kind of menses.”
28) The Prophet said, “Fatima is part of me, whatever harms her harms me, and whatever is against her is against me.”
29) The Prophet said, “Fatima is part of me - whatever makes her angry makes me angry, and whatever pleases her pleases me.”
30) The Prophet said, “Fatima is more beloved to me than you, oh Ali, and you are dearer to me than her.”
31) The Prophet said, “Fatima is part of me and she is my heart and the soul which is between my two sides.”
32) The Prophet said, “Fatima is the head of the women of my nation.”
33) The Prophet said, “Fatima is a branch of me, what pleases her pleases me, and what saddens her, saddens me.”
34) The Prophet said, “Fatima is part of me - whatever causes her pain causes me pain, and whatever makes her happy makes me happy.”
35) The Prophet said, “Fatima is part of me, whoever harms her has harmed me.”
36) The Prophet said, “Fatima is the joy of my heart, and her sons are the fruit of my soul.”
37) The Prophet said, “Fatima is not like the women of the children of Adam.”
38) The Prophet said, “Fatima is part of me - what saddens her saddens me, and what pleases her pleases me.”
39) The Prophet said, “Oh Fatima, verily God is angry when you are angry.”
40) The Prophet said, “Fatima, God will not torture you or any of your children.”
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Her Life 1
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The Life of Lady Fatima
Muslims believe that Fatima is the most superior woman through all the centuries and eras. This belief is inferred from Prophetic narratives. In one of these statements (on which both Shias and Sunni agree) the Great Prophet says: "Fatima is the master of all the women of the worlds." Although it is mentioned in the Holy Quran that Mary is the best woman in the worlds and has high position and is considered to be chaste and continence and is one of the four greatest women, she was the best woman of her life's period, but Fatima's superiority is not restricted to her life's period and is history time. That is why Prophet Muhammad named her as the greatest women of all the women from the first to the last in another saying. Another point that can be inferred from these narratives is that because Fatima is the greatest woman and no other has competence with her, knowing and recognizing all her life and every moment of her life is extremely valuable, as we can reach high spiritual states by deliberating it. Furthermore, by referring to the Holy Quran we find out that several verses are descended to state her position: (33:33) (known as Tathir verse), (3:61) (known as Mubahilah verse), (17:26), the beginning verses of chapter 76 (al-Insan) , the whole chapter 108 (al-Kawthar). In this article, we briefly discuss her life and personality.
Names, titles and nicknames
Her name is Fatima and her other names are: Zahra, Seddiqah, Tahirah, Mubarakah, Batool, Radiah and Mardiah. The word Fatima means separated. She is named Fatima because her followers are separated from the Hell because of her. Zahra means luminous. Imam Sadiq (the sixth Imam) said: "When Fatima prayed, she shined for the heavens as the stars shine for people on earth". Seddiqah means someone who says nothing except the truth. Tahirah means pure and clean, Mubarakah means full of favour and blessing Batool means separated from uncleanness and Radiah means satisfied with God's fate and destiny and Mardiah means laudable. The following are some of her titles: Ensiah (heavenly lady), Haniah (sympathetic), Shahidah (martyr), Afifah (chaste), Sabirah (patient), Alimah (learned), Madhloomah (oppressed), Ma'soomah (infallible), Umm al-Hassan (mother of Hassan), Umm al-Hussain (mother of Hussain), Umm al-A'immah (mother of Imams) and Umm Abiha. Umm Abiha means mother of her father. Prophet Muhammad has given her this title and this shows that he treated her as his mother. This fact was proved throughout the history as she cured her father during the wars and when she was at home and many other cases.
Her father and mother
As we said, her father was Muhammad, the Great Prophet of Islam, the last prophet and the best creature. Her mother was Khadijah bent Khuwaylid, one of the richest women of Quraish, who spent all her wealth on propagating Islam and did not even have a shroud when she passed away. She was so famous for her chastity that people called her Tahirah (pure) before Islam. She was the first woman who converted to Islam.
Her birth
Fatima was born on 20th of Jamadi al-Thani, five years before the appointment of the Prophet, in Mecca. When she was born, she started talking with divine power and announced that: "There is no god except Allah, my father is the messenger of Allah and the master of the prophets, my husband is the master of successors and my two sons are the master of grandchildren". Most of the Shia and some of the Sunni commentators such as Fakhr al-Razi express that the first verse of Kawthar refers to Fatima. He has known her as Kawthar (extreme blessing) and the reason for maintenance and spread of the Prophet's progeny. The last verse of chapter 108 (al-Kawthar) proves this fact, as God tells the Prophet: "Your enemy will be without progeny".
Moral virtues
Fatima had high moral virtues and her life is full of spiritual behaviour. We explain two of them below noticing that these are only a very little part of her moral virtues:
1. Jabir ibn Abdullah al-Ansari, the Prophet's companion, says that a poor emigrant (Muhajir) came to the Prophet and asked for help. The Prophet answered: "I do not have anything. Go to my daughter whose house is beside mine". Then Bilal, the Prophet's muezzin, guided him. He went to Fatima's house and said: "Peace be upon you, O The family of the Prophet!" and asked for help. When Fatima got aware of his poverty, although she and her father and husband did not have anything to eat for 3 days, she brought out the necklace which Hamzah's son, her cousin, had presented her and told the man: "Take this and sell it. I hope that God gives you better than this". The man took the necklace and went to the Prophet and described what had happened. The Prophet cried and prayed for him. Ammar Yasir (the Prophet's companion) stood up and after asking for permission, bought the necklace instead of giving him food, cloth, an animal and cost of travelling. The Prophet asked the man: "Are you satisfied?" The man felt ashamed and thanked. Ammar put the necklace in a Yemeni cloth and perfumed it and dedicated it to the Prophet with his slave. The slave came to the Prophet and told the story. The Prophet offered the necklace and the slave to Fatima. The slave came to Fatima. She took the necklace and let the slave free. Then the slave smiled and when he was asked for the reason, he answered: "What a blessed necklace! It fed a hungry, covered a naked, made a pedestrian have an animal, made someone free from want, let a slave free and finally returned to its owner".
2. Prophet bought Fatima a new dress for her marriage ceremony. Fatima owned a patchy dress before. A poor man came to her house and asked for a used cloth. Fatima decided to give him the old dress as the man had asked but remembered the verse: "You never attain to righteousness until you spend out of what you like". So she gave him the new dress.
Her marriage
Fatima had many suitors. Umar and Abubakr asked for her hand in marriage. The Prophet replied: "God has her authority". Anas ibn Malik says that Uthman and Abd al-Rahman ibn Ouf did the same and volunteered to pay a high dowry (marriage portion). At that time, Gabriel descended to Prophet and said:" Muhammad! God sends regards and orders: Marry Fatima to Ali." Imam Ali asked for Fatima's hand in marriage and Prophet agreed on this marriage according to divine will. It is mentioned in the narratives that the Prophet said:" If Ali didn't exist, there would be no mate for Fatima". Fatima had a little dowry. They had 5 children: Hassan, Hussain, Zainab, Umm al-Kulthum and Muhsin (who miscarried in the happenings after Prophet's death). Imam Hassan and Imam Hussain, who are trained by such mother, are of the 12 Imams and the other 9 (except Imam Ali and Imam Hassan) are of Imam Hussain's progeny and are related to Prophet by Fatima.This is the reason we call her Umm al-A'immah (Mother of Imams). Zainab, her older daughter, was a learned and chaste and pious woman. She declared Imam Hussain's rising after him so properly that people opposed Yazid's oppressions several times and many risings shaped up and Yazid's throne was to be overthrown. We can obtain that she never quit worshipping even during the worst conditions and this was based on her knowing of Allah. Umm al-Kulthum, also trained by Fatima, was an honourable, wise and eloquent woman who was with Zainab after Ashura and had a principle role in awaking people.
Fatima at home
Fatima, with all her virtues, was a good wife for Imam Ali. It has been narrated that Imam Ali's sadness and grief removed whenever he looked at Fatima. She never asked him for something that he couldn't afford. It is worthy to find out their matrimonial relation from Amir al-Mu'minin's words as he named Fatima the best woman and was proud of her and said: "I swear to God that I never made her angry and never ordered her to do something she didn't like and she also never made me angry and never disobeyed me."
Her dignity and knowledge
Although Fatima is not an Imam, but her dignity and position among the Muslims and specially Shias is not lesser than the Imams. She is actually mate of Ali's and she is higher than other Infallible Imams. To understand how knowledgeable she was, it is worthy to read Fadakiah sermon, in which she says firm sentences on Monotheism, declares her knowing of Prophet and explains Imamah briefly. This sermon, including her argumentation from the Holy Quran and expressing the reason for establishing religious laws, proves her knowledge to be revelational (a part of the sermon will come at the end of this article). Another proof to show her high knowledge from Islam history is that some woman and even some men of Medina used to come and ask her about their religious problems.
Infallibility
To prove her infallibility and her immunity of sins and even mistakes and faults, it is sufficient to refer to Tat'hir verse. To avoid elongation, we only mention that her infallibility is proved the same as Prophet and other Imams. We recommend you to see the related article.
Fatima's magnificence in Prophet's words
Prophet praised Fatima frequently. He said:" Her father is sacrificed for her." He used to repeat this sentence many times and sometimes bended and kissed her hand. He used to bid farewell to her as the last person before going to a journey and visited her first after returning. Most of the narrators and Muslim of all schools with any belief have narrated this Prophetic statement:" Fatima is a part of me. Anyone who annoys her has annoyed me." On the other hand, the Holy Quran states that Prophet never says something with carnal desire and all his sayings are revelational, so we obtain that praising Fatima has a reason beyond emotions of a father and daughter. Prophet pointed out this fact himself and told the cavillers:" God has ordered me to act like that". He said:" I savoir smell of heaven from her."
From another aspect, if we consider the Prophetic narratives and the holy Quran together, we will find our that anyone who annoys Prophet will have a painful chastisement: "Anyone who annoys Prophet, will be away of God's compassion and will have a debasing chastisement." So, it is declared that Fatima's consent and satisfaction is God's consent and satisfaction and her anger is God's anger. In fact she is the symbol of God's consent and anger, because it is impossible that someone does something annoying Fatima and so annoys Prophet and deserves divine punishment, but God is pleased with him. Another point that is obtained considering this narrative and verses of the Holy Quran is that Fatima is satisfied and becomes consent only by passing the way of truth and she becomes angry only for deviating from the way of truth. Carnal desires and emotions are not determinant in her consent and anger, for that would be against God's justice to punish someone on one's desires or emotions.
Fatima after Prophet's death
Fatima was mournful after Prophet's death. Not only had she lost her father, but also the best creature and seal of the prophets. The one who had high moral virtues and was said to have good humour by God and the one by whom revelation ended. Moreover, his successor's right was usurped and Islam was getting out of its correct way. Fatima never hid her sorrow. Sometimes she went to Prophet's shrine and mourned there and sometimes to the shrines of martyrs of battle of Uhud martyrs and Hamzah, Prophet's uncle. Even when women of Medina asked the reason of her sorrow, she clearly noticed the death of Prophet and usurpation of his successor's right.
It hadn't passed much long from Prophet's death that his recommendation and conveying God's command on Ghadir, introducing Ali as Muslim's ruler was forgotten. They gathered in a placed named Saqifah and chose one as their ruler and began to get people swear allegiance. Therefore some of the Muslim gathered in Fatima's house showing their objection to usurpation of governorship and ignoring God's command appointing Ali as Muslim's ruler and Master. When Abubakr - who was only chosen by the people gathered in Saqifah - got aware of this meeting, he sent Umar to Fatima's house in order to bring Imam Ali and the others to the mosque for swearing allegiance by force. So, Umar and some others went there carrying some fire. When he arrived there, Fatima came behind the door and asked the reason for his coming. Umar answered to take Imam Ali and the others to mosque for swearing allegiance. Fatima prohibited them not to do this and reproached them. Therefore some of the people following Umar dispersed. At this time Umar threatened to put the house with all the people inside in fire knowing that Fatima was inside. Then, some of the objectors exited the house and Umar fought them and broke some of their swords. But still Imam Ali, Fatima and their children were inside. Then Umar ordered some firewood and put the door in fire and entered the house by force and inspected the house with his followers and then carried Imam Ali by dragging, reluctantly, by force to the mosque. During these happenings, Fatima was injured a lot and experienced great hardship but she didn't calm down and went to the mosque because of her duty to defend her Imam of time and addressed Umar and Abubakr and the others and cautioned them of God's anger and punishment, but they continued what they were doing.
Fatima was also oppressed on Fadak after the Prophet's death. Fadak is a village 165 kilometres from Medina, which has productive soil and a spring and lots of date palms. Fadak belonged to Jewish and they granted it to the Prophet without any wars. So it was of "Anfal", which belongs to God and Prophet as the Holy Quran says. After the verse "Give the near kin their rights …" came down the Prophet granted Fadak to Fatima as God had ordered. Imam Ali and Fatima had some agents in Fadak who worked there and sent the income for Fatima after harvest. She gave the agents' salary first and divided the remaining among the poor, although her living was as simple as possible. They sometimes granted their daily food and slept hungry, but considered the poor first and this was sincerely for God (as mentioned in the beginning of chapter 76). After the death of the Prophet, Abubakr imputed a narrative to the Prophet saying that prophets bequeath nothing, and claimed that Prophet's inheritance belonged to all Muslims. Fatima defended her right in two ways. First she introduced some people witnessing that Prophet had granted Fadak to her when He was alive, and so Fadak was not an inheritance. Then, she made a resplendent speech containing deep meanings about Monotheism, Prophecy and Imamah, in Prophet's mosque. She proved invalidity of Abubakr's claim in this extremely eloquent and clear speech. She asked Abubakr: "Why do you contradict the Holy Quran?" and then mentioned some Quran verses naming Solayman as Dawood's heir or saying that Zakaria asked God for a heir of himself and Yaghoob's family. Therefore, assuming that Prophet hadn't granted Fadak to Fatima when he was alive, it belonged to Fatima after His death and the claim that prophets bequeath nothing and imputing it to the Prophet is against the truth according to her proof. Since it is impossible that the Prophet talks in contravention with God's sayings. God has insisted on this fact in the holy Quran many times. However, Fadak wasn't returned to its real owner and was usurped. We should notice that Fatima's speech and her proof was so clear that nobody was doubtful and many of the denier had accepted it inwardly. The reason is that Umar, the second caliph, returned Fadak to Imam Ali and Fatima's children after Islamic conquest was expanded and the government didn't need Fadak's income. But it was again usurped when Uthman became the caliph.
Fatima's illness and visiting her
Finally, Fatima became sick as she was injured terribly in the attack to her home. Sometimes she got up with pains and did the housework, or sometimes went to Prophet's shrine or to Hamzah's and shrines of other martyrs of the battle of Uhud with her children and told out her grievances there. On one of these days the emigrants' (Muhajir) and helpers' (Ansar) wives, who were informed of her illness, visited Fatima. In this visit Fatima expressed her dissatisfaction with usurping caliphate and commentated the people who kept quiet about ignoring their divine orders and Prophet's command about Imam Ali and cautioned them of the result of this happenings and Islam's deviation from its right path and mentioned the blessing which could have been given to them as a result of accomplishment of their religious orders and obeying Prophet's real successor.
It was in these days that Umar and Abubakr went to visit Fatima. Although Fatima rejected them and didn't let them in at first, they finally came to her bed. Then, Fatima reminded them Prophet's statement:" Anyone who makes Fatima angry has made me angry and one who pleases her has pleased me." They confirmed that Prophet had said such a thing. Then, she called God and angels to witness that:"You (Abubakr and Umar) had made me angry and never pleased me and I would certainly complain to the Prophet of you."
Her will
One day, when she still sick, she called Imam Ali and wanted him to be the executer of her will. She commanded by will to wash her body at night, shroud her at night, bury her at night and nobody of the people who had oppressed her shouldn't be present at the burying and saying prayer.
Martyrdom
It was third of Jamadi al-Thani, year eleven after Hijrah. Fatima asked some water and washed her body and performed ablution with it. Then she wore a new cloth and lied in bed and put her hand under her cheek and said: "I will pass away now." And then she was martyred. She had hard blows and injuries. At that time, she was only 28 (according to common words) and she had been alive only 95 days after Prophet's death (according to common words).
She passed away being angry with Abubakr and Umar as most of the Sunni and Shia reliable books mention. She did not talk to them at the end of her life and naturally Abubakr's regret about attacking Fatima's home when he was dying was useless.
Performing her ablutions and burying her
When people of Medina realized Fatima's martyrdom, they gathered in front of her house and waited for the burying ceremony. But it was announced that the ceremony was delayed. At night, when all people were asleep, Imam Ali started to wash Fatima's body and shroud her, in absence of the people, who had oppressed her greatly, according to her will. When ablutions was finished, he told Imam Hassan and Imam Hussain - who were only two little children at that time - to call some of Prophet's real companions whom Fatima was satisfied with, to participate in the burying ceremony. (They were not more than 7 as it has been narrated). After they arrived; he said prayers and then buried her while his children were sad and were secretly crying for losing their mother. When the burying ceremony ended, he turned to Prophet's shrine and said:
"Regards to you, O the messenger of God! From me and your daughter, who has reposed besides you, and has joined you within a little time. O Prophet ! I have lost my patience in separation from your beloved and I have lost my self-control. We are from God and will return to him. Your daughter will inform you how she was oppressed by your community. Ask her what has happened, because it hasn't passed a lot and you haven't been forgotten yet."
Today, after passing many years, still her shrine is hidden and nobody knows where it is located. Muslims, and specially Shias, wait for Imam Mahdi's reappearance. He is the Saviour and is the eleventh child of Fatima's progeny. She will show us his mother's shrine and will eradicate oppression in the world.
Her sayings
Fatima has left many sayings. Some of them are narrated directly from her which indicate her great knowledge and high position. Some others are narrated by the Prophet which indicates their close relationship and her high understanding and intelligence. We mention here two of directly narrated sayings from her:
"If someone sends his pure prayer up to God, God will send down best welfare to him."
"God has obligated belief (conviction) to make you clean of idolatry (superstition), saying prayers to make you clean of arrogance, alms to make your spirits clear and increase your sustenance, fasting to maintain your sincerity, pilgrimage to stand your religion, justice to strengthen your hearts, obeying us for your community's order and comfort, our governing to prevent separation, resistance for glory of God’s law, patience to help you get eligible for reward, calling people to goodness for everybody's welfare, being generous to parents to avoid his anger, union of kindred to increase the population, retaliation to save bloods, vowing to be exposed to God's forgiveness, God has made bankruptcy the result of using short weights, and has forbidden drinking wine to keep you away from uncleanness, slander to avoid imprecation and curse and stealing for remaining chaste. God has forbidden idolatry (obeying false authorities) so that people be sincere in their obedience to God. Therefore, (as He commands), 'Fear God as much as He deserves; be pious and don't die other than you are Muslim.' Obey God in his obligations and prohibited things, because 'Only aware people fear God'."
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The Life of Lady Fatima
Muslims believe that Fatima is the most superior woman through all the centuries and eras. This belief is inferred from Prophetic narratives. In one of these statements (on which both Shias and Sunni agree) the Great Prophet says: "Fatima is the master of all the women of the worlds." Although it is mentioned in the Holy Quran that Mary is the best woman in the worlds and has high position and is considered to be chaste and continence and is one of the four greatest women, she was the best woman of her life's period, but Fatima's superiority is not restricted to her life's period and is history time. That is why Prophet Muhammad named her as the greatest women of all the women from the first to the last in another saying. Another point that can be inferred from these narratives is that because Fatima is the greatest woman and no other has competence with her, knowing and recognizing all her life and every moment of her life is extremely valuable, as we can reach high spiritual states by deliberating it. Furthermore, by referring to the Holy Quran we find out that several verses are descended to state her position: (33:33) (known as Tathir verse), (3:61) (known as Mubahilah verse), (17:26), the beginning verses of chapter 76 (al-Insan) , the whole chapter 108 (al-Kawthar). In this article, we briefly discuss her life and personality.
Names, titles and nicknames
Her name is Fatima and her other names are: Zahra, Seddiqah, Tahirah, Mubarakah, Batool, Radiah and Mardiah. The word Fatima means separated. She is named Fatima because her followers are separated from the Hell because of her. Zahra means luminous. Imam Sadiq (the sixth Imam) said: "When Fatima prayed, she shined for the heavens as the stars shine for people on earth". Seddiqah means someone who says nothing except the truth. Tahirah means pure and clean, Mubarakah means full of favour and blessing Batool means separated from uncleanness and Radiah means satisfied with God's fate and destiny and Mardiah means laudable. The following are some of her titles: Ensiah (heavenly lady), Haniah (sympathetic), Shahidah (martyr), Afifah (chaste), Sabirah (patient), Alimah (learned), Madhloomah (oppressed), Ma'soomah (infallible), Umm al-Hassan (mother of Hassan), Umm al-Hussain (mother of Hussain), Umm al-A'immah (mother of Imams) and Umm Abiha. Umm Abiha means mother of her father. Prophet Muhammad has given her this title and this shows that he treated her as his mother. This fact was proved throughout the history as she cured her father during the wars and when she was at home and many other cases.
Her father and mother
As we said, her father was Muhammad, the Great Prophet of Islam, the last prophet and the best creature. Her mother was Khadijah bent Khuwaylid, one of the richest women of Quraish, who spent all her wealth on propagating Islam and did not even have a shroud when she passed away. She was so famous for her chastity that people called her Tahirah (pure) before Islam. She was the first woman who converted to Islam.
Her birth
Fatima was born on 20th of Jamadi al-Thani, five years before the appointment of the Prophet, in Mecca. When she was born, she started talking with divine power and announced that: "There is no god except Allah, my father is the messenger of Allah and the master of the prophets, my husband is the master of successors and my two sons are the master of grandchildren". Most of the Shia and some of the Sunni commentators such as Fakhr al-Razi express that the first verse of Kawthar refers to Fatima. He has known her as Kawthar (extreme blessing) and the reason for maintenance and spread of the Prophet's progeny. The last verse of chapter 108 (al-Kawthar) proves this fact, as God tells the Prophet: "Your enemy will be without progeny".
Moral virtues
Fatima had high moral virtues and her life is full of spiritual behaviour. We explain two of them below noticing that these are only a very little part of her moral virtues:
1. Jabir ibn Abdullah al-Ansari, the Prophet's companion, says that a poor emigrant (Muhajir) came to the Prophet and asked for help. The Prophet answered: "I do not have anything. Go to my daughter whose house is beside mine". Then Bilal, the Prophet's muezzin, guided him. He went to Fatima's house and said: "Peace be upon you, O The family of the Prophet!" and asked for help. When Fatima got aware of his poverty, although she and her father and husband did not have anything to eat for 3 days, she brought out the necklace which Hamzah's son, her cousin, had presented her and told the man: "Take this and sell it. I hope that God gives you better than this". The man took the necklace and went to the Prophet and described what had happened. The Prophet cried and prayed for him. Ammar Yasir (the Prophet's companion) stood up and after asking for permission, bought the necklace instead of giving him food, cloth, an animal and cost of travelling. The Prophet asked the man: "Are you satisfied?" The man felt ashamed and thanked. Ammar put the necklace in a Yemeni cloth and perfumed it and dedicated it to the Prophet with his slave. The slave came to the Prophet and told the story. The Prophet offered the necklace and the slave to Fatima. The slave came to Fatima. She took the necklace and let the slave free. Then the slave smiled and when he was asked for the reason, he answered: "What a blessed necklace! It fed a hungry, covered a naked, made a pedestrian have an animal, made someone free from want, let a slave free and finally returned to its owner".
2. Prophet bought Fatima a new dress for her marriage ceremony. Fatima owned a patchy dress before. A poor man came to her house and asked for a used cloth. Fatima decided to give him the old dress as the man had asked but remembered the verse: "You never attain to righteousness until you spend out of what you like". So she gave him the new dress.
Her marriage
Fatima had many suitors. Umar and Abubakr asked for her hand in marriage. The Prophet replied: "God has her authority". Anas ibn Malik says that Uthman and Abd al-Rahman ibn Ouf did the same and volunteered to pay a high dowry (marriage portion). At that time, Gabriel descended to Prophet and said:" Muhammad! God sends regards and orders: Marry Fatima to Ali." Imam Ali asked for Fatima's hand in marriage and Prophet agreed on this marriage according to divine will. It is mentioned in the narratives that the Prophet said:" If Ali didn't exist, there would be no mate for Fatima". Fatima had a little dowry. They had 5 children: Hassan, Hussain, Zainab, Umm al-Kulthum and Muhsin (who miscarried in the happenings after Prophet's death). Imam Hassan and Imam Hussain, who are trained by such mother, are of the 12 Imams and the other 9 (except Imam Ali and Imam Hassan) are of Imam Hussain's progeny and are related to Prophet by Fatima.This is the reason we call her Umm al-A'immah (Mother of Imams). Zainab, her older daughter, was a learned and chaste and pious woman. She declared Imam Hussain's rising after him so properly that people opposed Yazid's oppressions several times and many risings shaped up and Yazid's throne was to be overthrown. We can obtain that she never quit worshipping even during the worst conditions and this was based on her knowing of Allah. Umm al-Kulthum, also trained by Fatima, was an honourable, wise and eloquent woman who was with Zainab after Ashura and had a principle role in awaking people.
Fatima at home
Fatima, with all her virtues, was a good wife for Imam Ali. It has been narrated that Imam Ali's sadness and grief removed whenever he looked at Fatima. She never asked him for something that he couldn't afford. It is worthy to find out their matrimonial relation from Amir al-Mu'minin's words as he named Fatima the best woman and was proud of her and said: "I swear to God that I never made her angry and never ordered her to do something she didn't like and she also never made me angry and never disobeyed me."
Her dignity and knowledge
Although Fatima is not an Imam, but her dignity and position among the Muslims and specially Shias is not lesser than the Imams. She is actually mate of Ali's and she is higher than other Infallible Imams. To understand how knowledgeable she was, it is worthy to read Fadakiah sermon, in which she says firm sentences on Monotheism, declares her knowing of Prophet and explains Imamah briefly. This sermon, including her argumentation from the Holy Quran and expressing the reason for establishing religious laws, proves her knowledge to be revelational (a part of the sermon will come at the end of this article). Another proof to show her high knowledge from Islam history is that some woman and even some men of Medina used to come and ask her about their religious problems.
Infallibility
To prove her infallibility and her immunity of sins and even mistakes and faults, it is sufficient to refer to Tat'hir verse. To avoid elongation, we only mention that her infallibility is proved the same as Prophet and other Imams. We recommend you to see the related article.
Fatima's magnificence in Prophet's words
Prophet praised Fatima frequently. He said:" Her father is sacrificed for her." He used to repeat this sentence many times and sometimes bended and kissed her hand. He used to bid farewell to her as the last person before going to a journey and visited her first after returning. Most of the narrators and Muslim of all schools with any belief have narrated this Prophetic statement:" Fatima is a part of me. Anyone who annoys her has annoyed me." On the other hand, the Holy Quran states that Prophet never says something with carnal desire and all his sayings are revelational, so we obtain that praising Fatima has a reason beyond emotions of a father and daughter. Prophet pointed out this fact himself and told the cavillers:" God has ordered me to act like that". He said:" I savoir smell of heaven from her."
From another aspect, if we consider the Prophetic narratives and the holy Quran together, we will find our that anyone who annoys Prophet will have a painful chastisement: "Anyone who annoys Prophet, will be away of God's compassion and will have a debasing chastisement." So, it is declared that Fatima's consent and satisfaction is God's consent and satisfaction and her anger is God's anger. In fact she is the symbol of God's consent and anger, because it is impossible that someone does something annoying Fatima and so annoys Prophet and deserves divine punishment, but God is pleased with him. Another point that is obtained considering this narrative and verses of the Holy Quran is that Fatima is satisfied and becomes consent only by passing the way of truth and she becomes angry only for deviating from the way of truth. Carnal desires and emotions are not determinant in her consent and anger, for that would be against God's justice to punish someone on one's desires or emotions.
Fatima after Prophet's death
Fatima was mournful after Prophet's death. Not only had she lost her father, but also the best creature and seal of the prophets. The one who had high moral virtues and was said to have good humour by God and the one by whom revelation ended. Moreover, his successor's right was usurped and Islam was getting out of its correct way. Fatima never hid her sorrow. Sometimes she went to Prophet's shrine and mourned there and sometimes to the shrines of martyrs of battle of Uhud martyrs and Hamzah, Prophet's uncle. Even when women of Medina asked the reason of her sorrow, she clearly noticed the death of Prophet and usurpation of his successor's right.
It hadn't passed much long from Prophet's death that his recommendation and conveying God's command on Ghadir, introducing Ali as Muslim's ruler was forgotten. They gathered in a placed named Saqifah and chose one as their ruler and began to get people swear allegiance. Therefore some of the Muslim gathered in Fatima's house showing their objection to usurpation of governorship and ignoring God's command appointing Ali as Muslim's ruler and Master. When Abubakr - who was only chosen by the people gathered in Saqifah - got aware of this meeting, he sent Umar to Fatima's house in order to bring Imam Ali and the others to the mosque for swearing allegiance by force. So, Umar and some others went there carrying some fire. When he arrived there, Fatima came behind the door and asked the reason for his coming. Umar answered to take Imam Ali and the others to mosque for swearing allegiance. Fatima prohibited them not to do this and reproached them. Therefore some of the people following Umar dispersed. At this time Umar threatened to put the house with all the people inside in fire knowing that Fatima was inside. Then, some of the objectors exited the house and Umar fought them and broke some of their swords. But still Imam Ali, Fatima and their children were inside. Then Umar ordered some firewood and put the door in fire and entered the house by force and inspected the house with his followers and then carried Imam Ali by dragging, reluctantly, by force to the mosque. During these happenings, Fatima was injured a lot and experienced great hardship but she didn't calm down and went to the mosque because of her duty to defend her Imam of time and addressed Umar and Abubakr and the others and cautioned them of God's anger and punishment, but they continued what they were doing.
Fatima was also oppressed on Fadak after the Prophet's death. Fadak is a village 165 kilometres from Medina, which has productive soil and a spring and lots of date palms. Fadak belonged to Jewish and they granted it to the Prophet without any wars. So it was of "Anfal", which belongs to God and Prophet as the Holy Quran says. After the verse "Give the near kin their rights …" came down the Prophet granted Fadak to Fatima as God had ordered. Imam Ali and Fatima had some agents in Fadak who worked there and sent the income for Fatima after harvest. She gave the agents' salary first and divided the remaining among the poor, although her living was as simple as possible. They sometimes granted their daily food and slept hungry, but considered the poor first and this was sincerely for God (as mentioned in the beginning of chapter 76). After the death of the Prophet, Abubakr imputed a narrative to the Prophet saying that prophets bequeath nothing, and claimed that Prophet's inheritance belonged to all Muslims. Fatima defended her right in two ways. First she introduced some people witnessing that Prophet had granted Fadak to her when He was alive, and so Fadak was not an inheritance. Then, she made a resplendent speech containing deep meanings about Monotheism, Prophecy and Imamah, in Prophet's mosque. She proved invalidity of Abubakr's claim in this extremely eloquent and clear speech. She asked Abubakr: "Why do you contradict the Holy Quran?" and then mentioned some Quran verses naming Solayman as Dawood's heir or saying that Zakaria asked God for a heir of himself and Yaghoob's family. Therefore, assuming that Prophet hadn't granted Fadak to Fatima when he was alive, it belonged to Fatima after His death and the claim that prophets bequeath nothing and imputing it to the Prophet is against the truth according to her proof. Since it is impossible that the Prophet talks in contravention with God's sayings. God has insisted on this fact in the holy Quran many times. However, Fadak wasn't returned to its real owner and was usurped. We should notice that Fatima's speech and her proof was so clear that nobody was doubtful and many of the denier had accepted it inwardly. The reason is that Umar, the second caliph, returned Fadak to Imam Ali and Fatima's children after Islamic conquest was expanded and the government didn't need Fadak's income. But it was again usurped when Uthman became the caliph.
Fatima's illness and visiting her
Finally, Fatima became sick as she was injured terribly in the attack to her home. Sometimes she got up with pains and did the housework, or sometimes went to Prophet's shrine or to Hamzah's and shrines of other martyrs of the battle of Uhud with her children and told out her grievances there. On one of these days the emigrants' (Muhajir) and helpers' (Ansar) wives, who were informed of her illness, visited Fatima. In this visit Fatima expressed her dissatisfaction with usurping caliphate and commentated the people who kept quiet about ignoring their divine orders and Prophet's command about Imam Ali and cautioned them of the result of this happenings and Islam's deviation from its right path and mentioned the blessing which could have been given to them as a result of accomplishment of their religious orders and obeying Prophet's real successor.
It was in these days that Umar and Abubakr went to visit Fatima. Although Fatima rejected them and didn't let them in at first, they finally came to her bed. Then, Fatima reminded them Prophet's statement:" Anyone who makes Fatima angry has made me angry and one who pleases her has pleased me." They confirmed that Prophet had said such a thing. Then, she called God and angels to witness that:"You (Abubakr and Umar) had made me angry and never pleased me and I would certainly complain to the Prophet of you."
Her will
One day, when she still sick, she called Imam Ali and wanted him to be the executer of her will. She commanded by will to wash her body at night, shroud her at night, bury her at night and nobody of the people who had oppressed her shouldn't be present at the burying and saying prayer.
Martyrdom
It was third of Jamadi al-Thani, year eleven after Hijrah. Fatima asked some water and washed her body and performed ablution with it. Then she wore a new cloth and lied in bed and put her hand under her cheek and said: "I will pass away now." And then she was martyred. She had hard blows and injuries. At that time, she was only 28 (according to common words) and she had been alive only 95 days after Prophet's death (according to common words).
She passed away being angry with Abubakr and Umar as most of the Sunni and Shia reliable books mention. She did not talk to them at the end of her life and naturally Abubakr's regret about attacking Fatima's home when he was dying was useless.
Performing her ablutions and burying her
When people of Medina realized Fatima's martyrdom, they gathered in front of her house and waited for the burying ceremony. But it was announced that the ceremony was delayed. At night, when all people were asleep, Imam Ali started to wash Fatima's body and shroud her, in absence of the people, who had oppressed her greatly, according to her will. When ablutions was finished, he told Imam Hassan and Imam Hussain - who were only two little children at that time - to call some of Prophet's real companions whom Fatima was satisfied with, to participate in the burying ceremony. (They were not more than 7 as it has been narrated). After they arrived; he said prayers and then buried her while his children were sad and were secretly crying for losing their mother. When the burying ceremony ended, he turned to Prophet's shrine and said:
"Regards to you, O the messenger of God! From me and your daughter, who has reposed besides you, and has joined you within a little time. O Prophet ! I have lost my patience in separation from your beloved and I have lost my self-control. We are from God and will return to him. Your daughter will inform you how she was oppressed by your community. Ask her what has happened, because it hasn't passed a lot and you haven't been forgotten yet."
Today, after passing many years, still her shrine is hidden and nobody knows where it is located. Muslims, and specially Shias, wait for Imam Mahdi's reappearance. He is the Saviour and is the eleventh child of Fatima's progeny. She will show us his mother's shrine and will eradicate oppression in the world.
Her sayings
Fatima has left many sayings. Some of them are narrated directly from her which indicate her great knowledge and high position. Some others are narrated by the Prophet which indicates their close relationship and her high understanding and intelligence. We mention here two of directly narrated sayings from her:
"If someone sends his pure prayer up to God, God will send down best welfare to him."
"God has obligated belief (conviction) to make you clean of idolatry (superstition), saying prayers to make you clean of arrogance, alms to make your spirits clear and increase your sustenance, fasting to maintain your sincerity, pilgrimage to stand your religion, justice to strengthen your hearts, obeying us for your community's order and comfort, our governing to prevent separation, resistance for glory of God’s law, patience to help you get eligible for reward, calling people to goodness for everybody's welfare, being generous to parents to avoid his anger, union of kindred to increase the population, retaliation to save bloods, vowing to be exposed to God's forgiveness, God has made bankruptcy the result of using short weights, and has forbidden drinking wine to keep you away from uncleanness, slander to avoid imprecation and curse and stealing for remaining chaste. God has forbidden idolatry (obeying false authorities) so that people be sincere in their obedience to God. Therefore, (as He commands), 'Fear God as much as He deserves; be pious and don't die other than you are Muslim.' Obey God in his obligations and prohibited things, because 'Only aware people fear God'."
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Her Words
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Sayings of Holy Lady Fatima
Praise and Eulogy is for God for the blessing and bounties which He has bestowed. And thanks to HIM upon what He revealed. And Praise is for HIM upon the common boons and blessings which He bestowed upon His servants without their request And upon the comprehensive and complete blessings which He granted to all and sundry and gave it to us, consecutively. Those graces and favours which are uncountable. And are irredeemable and uncompensatable due to their plentifulness of number. And the imagination of their end is out of the reach of human mind. He invited the servant to thankfulness for the sake of the consecutive and continuous enhancement of blessings. And opened the door of eulogy and Praise upon them so that He may make his favours and beneficences great and plentiful for them.
I testify that there is no god except the sole and matchless God. And the rectification of the singleness of God is a word that God has declared sincerity it's reality, and made the hearts the centre of it's contact and union. And has made the specifications and research of the oneness of God's station obvious and evident in the light of meditation. The God Who can not be seen by the eyes and tongues are unable and baffled to describe His virtues and attributes. And the intelligence and apprehension of man is helpless and destitute from the imagination of his nature. God made all the beings without previous matter and sample and shape and pattern. And made them wear the dress of life by His main and might and created them according to His Devine will and Intention short of it that He might have needed their creation or have wished any benefit for Himself from their shaping and sketching except this that he wanted to give a proof of His wisdom and make the mankind aware about His obedience and submission and invited them to his servitude and worship and make His Invitation grand and ostentatious.
God fixed the reward for His obedience and torment for His insubordination and disobedience so that He may restrain His servants from His wrath and fury and lead them to His paradise.
And I testify that my father Mohammad is the apostle and the servant of God. And God selected and chose him before appointing him at the post of Prophethood. And He named him before choosing and selecting him. And chose him before sending and delegating him. Then all the creations were hidden and covered in the covers of unseen and were hidden amid the screen and curtain of fear and fright and stayed near the last and final border of non-existence for God was aware of and knew the end of matters and because of His encompassing the incidents of times and ages and His knowledge of the predestines. God chose him so that he may complete and finalise His matter and Implement His order and materialise His decrees and predestines.
God saw nations and groups had various different sects in their religion and scattered and staying on the verge of the fires of differences, busy with the their idol worshipping. They denied God with all the signs and symbols of HIM. So God illuminated the darknesses through my father Mohammad and removed the darknesses from their hearts, removed the blindness of the eyes.
My father stood up with guidance among the people. And saved them from perversion and aberration, and turned their blindness into enlightenment and guided them towards the firm religion. And called them to the straight way.
You the servants of God, are the ones to maintain His injunctions and prohibitions, and the carriers of His religion, and His revelation, and the trustees of God upon your souls, and the propagators of His religion among the other nations.
Oh the servants of God! Know the real leader from God is present among you and the commitment has previously been made to you and the remaining and left over of the prophet hood has been appointed for your guidance. That is the speaking book of God the truthful Quran, and a beaming and gleaming light, in which all the secrets and facts about the completion of man and his prosperity have been exhibited and illuminated. It guides from darkness towards light of guidance. It s followers are the subject of envoy of others.
The book of God is the guide of it's followers towards the pleasure of God. Heeding it leads to the salvation. The enlightened and conspicuous evidences and proofs of God can be obtained through it; as well as the meaning of His intentions and fear invoking constraining prohibitions; and , His sufficing testimonies and conspicuous arguments, and desired virtues and allowed endowments and gifts and obligatory divine laws.
God made the faith for you as a purity from polytheism. And prayer is the cause of your getting away from arrogance. And rendered alms for the purity of your soul and flourishment and expansion of your sustenance. And rendered fasting for the maintenance and firmness of your sincerity. And God set pilgrimage for the consolidation and reinforcement of the religion. God executed and rendered justice for the sake of putting together and harmonization of the hearts. And the subordination and obedience of us (the holy family) for the security of society's system, and Imams as a safety from disunity. And Jihad the honour and glory for Islam and abjectness and humbleness for the infidels and the hypocrites. And patience as a help for getting reward. And commanding goodness and forbidding evil for the amendment and correction of society and the public. And kindness to parents as a protection to His wrath and displeasure. And joining and connecting with the kinship and cognation, the cause of lengthening of life. And retaliation as the security of blood. And vows as a medium for forgiveness. And the correct use of weights measure a medium for stopping from selling less. And prohibition of alcohol the cause of taking distance from contaminations. And prohibition of false accusation of adultery a protection for avoiding the curse. And refraining from theft for the sake of positiveness and affirmation for modesty. And prohibited polytheism for the sake of sincerity in adoration and worship.
Certainly, a messenger has come to you from among yourselves; grievous to him is your falling into distress, excessively solicitous respecting you; to the believers compassionate, merciful. So if you assay and recognise him you will find he is my father not the father of your women. and the brother of my cousin not that of your men. And how nice a relation I have to him. So he propagated his mission. He always used to turn his face from the polytheists. And fought against them till he beat them up. He would invite people towards God by wisdom, and beautiful admonition. He broke the idols and scattered the aggregation of polytheists in a way that they fled, so that finally the hidden secret of oneness of God became manifested by him. And he made the logic of religion reach the people and settled down the foam of the camels of satan and turned the slogan yelling of those devils silent. And downed the agents of hypocrisy and mutual commitments of the infidels got dissolved till such time that, you spoke to a group of enlightened and modest men with the words of oneness of God and sincerity.
You were on the edge of a fire ditch, and were a cup of drink and the morsel of a greedy one and a firebrand of every hasty one and were being trampled on (by other nations) and drank from the contaminated waters gathered over in ditches and your energy (food) was (secured by) the leaves of trees and desert grass. And for your abjectness and abasement you were always afraid that those around you might abduct you in the winking of an eye. So, God liberated you through my father Mohammed. In spite of it that he was involved and at war against the intrepid and the hungry wolves of Arab and the stubborn refractories of the people of the books (Jews and Christians). Whenever his opponents would lit the fire of war, God extinguished it to your benefit.
Imam Hassan said: “On the Friday night I saw my mother standing in her arch of prayer. She was continuously kneeling and performing prostration till the dawn broke. I would hear her pray for the faithful men and women, but she did not at all pray for herself. I said, Oh mother why did you not pray for yourself like you prayed for others? so she replied, Oh my son, first thy neighbour and there after your own house.”
The Prophet asked Fatima “what is the thing which is a blessing for woman?” She said: “She must not see a (strange) man and a man must not see her.”
One day a lady came to Fatima said 'I have a weak old mother who does not know a few problems about her prayers. She has sent me towards you to ask you.” Fatima replied to her queries. And the number of her queries reached to ten and Fatima replied to all her questions. Then she felt ashamed asking so many questions and said, 'Oh daughter of the Prophet, 'I do not put you to more inconvenience than this.' Fatima said, 'Ask me what you do not know. Have you ever seen a person who is one day hired to carry a heavy thing to the roof top from ground for a thousand dinnars of gold and he may feel himself tired.' She said 'No'. Fatima said, 'I have been hired by God to get a wages which if the space between the earth and sky is filled up with pearls still would be more than it for each of the questions I may answer you. Therefore, I deserve it that I must not feel tired exhausted.'
Oh God! Belittle me in my eyes and glorify and magnify Your station to me. And inspire me Your obedience and the practice which may cause Your pleasure and the shunning and evading from things (matters) which are the cause of Your wrath, oh the most merciful of all! Oh God! Content me with the sustenance you have granted me. And till such time that you keep me alive, hide me and make me sound and prosperous. And forgive me and take pity upon me when I die. Oh God! Do not help me in something that you have not predestined for me. And facilitate the achievement of that thing which you have predestined for me. Oh God! Bestow upon my parents and all those persons who have rights of their blessings and beneficences upon me, the best of Your rewards. Oh my God, spare me the leisure and respite for the object for which You have created me. And do not let me be busy and absorbed in my own commitments. And do not torment me when I ask forgiveness. And do not deprive me of what I yearn and question you for.
The person who smells the sweet fragrance of the grave of the Prophet so what if he does not smell any other fragrance for long times to come?
Agonies and anguishes and grief poured upon me in such a way that had they poured upon days those would have turned into nights.
The dust of sorrow covered the space of sky and the sun has faded and the bright day turned bleak. The earth has become dark and gloomy after the death of the Prophet Woe! Alas! what the earth will have much of Jolting upon being separated and parted from him. It is meritorious and befitting that the east and west of the world may weep upon the parting of Prophet and the persons of Muzzir tribe and all of they rest of the Yemen tribes shed tears.
And the great magnificent mountain of the existence and the hidden and covered Kaba (House of GOD) and its pillars should shed tears. Oh last of the prophets, whose light is the source of blessing for the worlds inhabitants, Be the salutation and blessings of God the revealer of Holy Quran upon you. After you inequities took shape and variant voices were raised so that if you were present and supervising all these differences and deviations would not have taken place. You went from among us and now our condition is like the earth which becomes devoid of the beneficial rains. And your nation upset the order and discipline of matters. So be a witness and do not let their matter get out of your sight.
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Sayings of Holy Lady Fatima
Praise and Eulogy is for God for the blessing and bounties which He has bestowed. And thanks to HIM upon what He revealed. And Praise is for HIM upon the common boons and blessings which He bestowed upon His servants without their request And upon the comprehensive and complete blessings which He granted to all and sundry and gave it to us, consecutively. Those graces and favours which are uncountable. And are irredeemable and uncompensatable due to their plentifulness of number. And the imagination of their end is out of the reach of human mind. He invited the servant to thankfulness for the sake of the consecutive and continuous enhancement of blessings. And opened the door of eulogy and Praise upon them so that He may make his favours and beneficences great and plentiful for them.
I testify that there is no god except the sole and matchless God. And the rectification of the singleness of God is a word that God has declared sincerity it's reality, and made the hearts the centre of it's contact and union. And has made the specifications and research of the oneness of God's station obvious and evident in the light of meditation. The God Who can not be seen by the eyes and tongues are unable and baffled to describe His virtues and attributes. And the intelligence and apprehension of man is helpless and destitute from the imagination of his nature. God made all the beings without previous matter and sample and shape and pattern. And made them wear the dress of life by His main and might and created them according to His Devine will and Intention short of it that He might have needed their creation or have wished any benefit for Himself from their shaping and sketching except this that he wanted to give a proof of His wisdom and make the mankind aware about His obedience and submission and invited them to his servitude and worship and make His Invitation grand and ostentatious.
God fixed the reward for His obedience and torment for His insubordination and disobedience so that He may restrain His servants from His wrath and fury and lead them to His paradise.
And I testify that my father Mohammad is the apostle and the servant of God. And God selected and chose him before appointing him at the post of Prophethood. And He named him before choosing and selecting him. And chose him before sending and delegating him. Then all the creations were hidden and covered in the covers of unseen and were hidden amid the screen and curtain of fear and fright and stayed near the last and final border of non-existence for God was aware of and knew the end of matters and because of His encompassing the incidents of times and ages and His knowledge of the predestines. God chose him so that he may complete and finalise His matter and Implement His order and materialise His decrees and predestines.
God saw nations and groups had various different sects in their religion and scattered and staying on the verge of the fires of differences, busy with the their idol worshipping. They denied God with all the signs and symbols of HIM. So God illuminated the darknesses through my father Mohammad and removed the darknesses from their hearts, removed the blindness of the eyes.
My father stood up with guidance among the people. And saved them from perversion and aberration, and turned their blindness into enlightenment and guided them towards the firm religion. And called them to the straight way.
You the servants of God, are the ones to maintain His injunctions and prohibitions, and the carriers of His religion, and His revelation, and the trustees of God upon your souls, and the propagators of His religion among the other nations.
Oh the servants of God! Know the real leader from God is present among you and the commitment has previously been made to you and the remaining and left over of the prophet hood has been appointed for your guidance. That is the speaking book of God the truthful Quran, and a beaming and gleaming light, in which all the secrets and facts about the completion of man and his prosperity have been exhibited and illuminated. It guides from darkness towards light of guidance. It s followers are the subject of envoy of others.
The book of God is the guide of it's followers towards the pleasure of God. Heeding it leads to the salvation. The enlightened and conspicuous evidences and proofs of God can be obtained through it; as well as the meaning of His intentions and fear invoking constraining prohibitions; and , His sufficing testimonies and conspicuous arguments, and desired virtues and allowed endowments and gifts and obligatory divine laws.
God made the faith for you as a purity from polytheism. And prayer is the cause of your getting away from arrogance. And rendered alms for the purity of your soul and flourishment and expansion of your sustenance. And rendered fasting for the maintenance and firmness of your sincerity. And God set pilgrimage for the consolidation and reinforcement of the religion. God executed and rendered justice for the sake of putting together and harmonization of the hearts. And the subordination and obedience of us (the holy family) for the security of society's system, and Imams as a safety from disunity. And Jihad the honour and glory for Islam and abjectness and humbleness for the infidels and the hypocrites. And patience as a help for getting reward. And commanding goodness and forbidding evil for the amendment and correction of society and the public. And kindness to parents as a protection to His wrath and displeasure. And joining and connecting with the kinship and cognation, the cause of lengthening of life. And retaliation as the security of blood. And vows as a medium for forgiveness. And the correct use of weights measure a medium for stopping from selling less. And prohibition of alcohol the cause of taking distance from contaminations. And prohibition of false accusation of adultery a protection for avoiding the curse. And refraining from theft for the sake of positiveness and affirmation for modesty. And prohibited polytheism for the sake of sincerity in adoration and worship.
Certainly, a messenger has come to you from among yourselves; grievous to him is your falling into distress, excessively solicitous respecting you; to the believers compassionate, merciful. So if you assay and recognise him you will find he is my father not the father of your women. and the brother of my cousin not that of your men. And how nice a relation I have to him. So he propagated his mission. He always used to turn his face from the polytheists. And fought against them till he beat them up. He would invite people towards God by wisdom, and beautiful admonition. He broke the idols and scattered the aggregation of polytheists in a way that they fled, so that finally the hidden secret of oneness of God became manifested by him. And he made the logic of religion reach the people and settled down the foam of the camels of satan and turned the slogan yelling of those devils silent. And downed the agents of hypocrisy and mutual commitments of the infidels got dissolved till such time that, you spoke to a group of enlightened and modest men with the words of oneness of God and sincerity.
You were on the edge of a fire ditch, and were a cup of drink and the morsel of a greedy one and a firebrand of every hasty one and were being trampled on (by other nations) and drank from the contaminated waters gathered over in ditches and your energy (food) was (secured by) the leaves of trees and desert grass. And for your abjectness and abasement you were always afraid that those around you might abduct you in the winking of an eye. So, God liberated you through my father Mohammed. In spite of it that he was involved and at war against the intrepid and the hungry wolves of Arab and the stubborn refractories of the people of the books (Jews and Christians). Whenever his opponents would lit the fire of war, God extinguished it to your benefit.
Imam Hassan said: “On the Friday night I saw my mother standing in her arch of prayer. She was continuously kneeling and performing prostration till the dawn broke. I would hear her pray for the faithful men and women, but she did not at all pray for herself. I said, Oh mother why did you not pray for yourself like you prayed for others? so she replied, Oh my son, first thy neighbour and there after your own house.”
The Prophet asked Fatima “what is the thing which is a blessing for woman?” She said: “She must not see a (strange) man and a man must not see her.”
One day a lady came to Fatima said 'I have a weak old mother who does not know a few problems about her prayers. She has sent me towards you to ask you.” Fatima replied to her queries. And the number of her queries reached to ten and Fatima replied to all her questions. Then she felt ashamed asking so many questions and said, 'Oh daughter of the Prophet, 'I do not put you to more inconvenience than this.' Fatima said, 'Ask me what you do not know. Have you ever seen a person who is one day hired to carry a heavy thing to the roof top from ground for a thousand dinnars of gold and he may feel himself tired.' She said 'No'. Fatima said, 'I have been hired by God to get a wages which if the space between the earth and sky is filled up with pearls still would be more than it for each of the questions I may answer you. Therefore, I deserve it that I must not feel tired exhausted.'
Oh God! Belittle me in my eyes and glorify and magnify Your station to me. And inspire me Your obedience and the practice which may cause Your pleasure and the shunning and evading from things (matters) which are the cause of Your wrath, oh the most merciful of all! Oh God! Content me with the sustenance you have granted me. And till such time that you keep me alive, hide me and make me sound and prosperous. And forgive me and take pity upon me when I die. Oh God! Do not help me in something that you have not predestined for me. And facilitate the achievement of that thing which you have predestined for me. Oh God! Bestow upon my parents and all those persons who have rights of their blessings and beneficences upon me, the best of Your rewards. Oh my God, spare me the leisure and respite for the object for which You have created me. And do not let me be busy and absorbed in my own commitments. And do not torment me when I ask forgiveness. And do not deprive me of what I yearn and question you for.
The person who smells the sweet fragrance of the grave of the Prophet so what if he does not smell any other fragrance for long times to come?
Agonies and anguishes and grief poured upon me in such a way that had they poured upon days those would have turned into nights.
The dust of sorrow covered the space of sky and the sun has faded and the bright day turned bleak. The earth has become dark and gloomy after the death of the Prophet Woe! Alas! what the earth will have much of Jolting upon being separated and parted from him. It is meritorious and befitting that the east and west of the world may weep upon the parting of Prophet and the persons of Muzzir tribe and all of they rest of the Yemen tribes shed tears.
And the great magnificent mountain of the existence and the hidden and covered Kaba (House of GOD) and its pillars should shed tears. Oh last of the prophets, whose light is the source of blessing for the worlds inhabitants, Be the salutation and blessings of God the revealer of Holy Quran upon you. After you inequities took shape and variant voices were raised so that if you were present and supervising all these differences and deviations would not have taken place. You went from among us and now our condition is like the earth which becomes devoid of the beneficial rains. And your nation upset the order and discipline of matters. So be a witness and do not let their matter get out of your sight.
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Her Authority
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POSITION AND AUITHORITY OF FATIMA AL ZAHRA
see below notes 1 and 2.
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The Authority of the Feminine and Fatima's Place in an Early Work by the Bab
Dr. Todd Lawson (2007)
The power and authority of the millennial or apocalyptic imagination is fully evident in the success of the Babi movement of nineteenth-century Iran. Among the most striking and memorable features of Babism is surely the prominence, prestige, and religious authority acquired by the woman disciple of the Bab known as Tahirih. The famous Babi cleric, poet, martyr, and symbol of Iran's encounter with both its own history and the version of modernity proffered by the West is possibly more noted by posterity than the founder of the Babi movement himself because she represents both an apparent anomaly and a heroic symbol of modern female liberation. Tahirih after all left an unhappy marriage and her children to follow her revolutionary vision for a more just society. She was accomplished in a virtually completely male dominated milieu, the clerical. She traveled widely throughout Iran preaching to audiences of men and women the dawn of a new day, and most dramatically, she threw off her veil in public in direct defiance of social and religious norms. She was also a martyr. After the attempt on the life of the shah in 1851, Tahirih was strangled by her own silk scarf and buried in a well in the courtyard of a religious official in Tehran.
However much the story of Tahirih is appreciated by modern and contemporary feminists and suffragists, it is important to recognize that while her heroism may have inspired many in far-flung salons of Europe and eventually America, she is very much a daughter of her own culture, history, mythology, and religion. This assertion will perhaps be received with cynicism, for how could such a paternalistic and male-dominated religion and culture as Iranian Islam of the first half of the nineteenth century produce such a woman celebrity and champion of women's rights? Indeed, it has never been established that Tahirih was a champion of women's rights3. What we know is that she was a deeply religious mystic who felt a new day arising in the world. She was a messianic player. But it was not accidental that she was a woman, and it is not without consequence for the history of the Babi movement, which though it passed from the stage of history more or less a failure, it nonetheless gave rise to several other trends and movements in Iran whose influence may still be felt. Tahirih the Babi walked, it seems, right out of the poems, songs, and higher forms of religiocultural literature as the return of Fatima. It was a sacred performance. Tahirih, whose full name was Fatima Zarrin Taj Baraghani, Qurrat al-'Ayn, was seen by a large number of her fellow Babis as the "return," or reincarnation, of Fatima, the daughter of the prophet Muhammad and wife of the first Imam, 'Ali. Whether this exemplifies reincarnation or transmigration remains to be addressed. It is indisputable, however, that Baraghani was seen by the Babis (and perhaps herself) as the personification of those virtues and attributes that Fatima had come to symbolize for the Iranian Shia community. At the most superficial level, her name was Fatima and her cognomen Tahirih was first applied to her holy ancestor, as was the other name by which she is so widely known, Qurratu'l-'Ayn, "Solace of the eyes." As an antitype of the Fatima known and venerated by nineteenth-century Iranian Muslims, she may be expected to be rather distinctive. The Fatima of the Bab's Quran commentary is particularly useful as a function of many different factors: she is a bearer of religious authority (walaya: see the discussion that follows for a further elaboration of the meaning of this term); she is a focus of religious devotion and meditation, an icon, as it were, without which the spiritual and religious life may be considered incomplete; she is seen as the embodiment of the spiritual reality of the earth itself, a cosmogonic principle, and at the same time a recurrent actor in a historical drama that will lead ultimately to the long-awaited Day of Resurrection. An examination of the Fatima in this commentary, written before the actual formation or founding of the Babi movement, will help us to understand how many of the Bab's contemporaries saw Tahirih (i.e., the nineteenth-century religious scholar and poet) and, perhaps most important, how Tahirih saw herself. On this latter question, Abbas Amanat has offered the following interesting suggestion:
Frustrations in her family life and persecutions in her Babi career both served as impetuses for inspirations that she transposed into a religious paradigm; what she terms "the state of primal truth." By assuming the symbolic role of Fatima, she envisaged a feminine model – a "primal truth," as she called it – that substantially differed from the role assigned to Fatima in the Islamic, more particularly Shia, tradition as the daughter of the Prophet, the wife of 'Ali, and the mother of Hasan and Husayn; the role that guaranteed her sanctitude (sic) by lineage, marriage, and motherly love. Qurrat al-'Ayn's Fatima was one of independent will and action. The leadership she assumed in the 'Atabat and later at Badasht was the realization of this paradigm.... The only solution she saw, for women and men alike, was a break with the past, and as the first step, a deliberate infringement of religious norms. To find her in the forefront of Babi radicalism and an advocate of progressive revelation is only logical. Her initiation in the Letters of the Living, on the other hand, was anacknowledgment of her equal place with men in the first unit of the ideal Babi order of All-Beings.4
This study suggests that it was not so much a break with the past – that is, the past as "primal truth" – as the revivifying of it that is really at work in the rise of the Babi movement and perhaps its most famous proponent, the woman Tahirih. Fatima, the daughter of the Prophet Muhammad and wife of 'Ali was, according to tradition, something of an activist, such as it could be expressed within the confines of seventh-century Arabia. And it seems clear that tradition honors Fatima for her heroism, a brief outline of which is offered below. In the introduction to his Persian Bayan, written after 1848, the Bab specifies that his first followers, the eighteen Letters of the Living, are the return of the Fourteen Immaculate Ones, the Family of God plus the historical four emissaries of the disappeared twelfth Imam, Muhammad ibn Hasan al-`Askari (disappeared in 873-74) who successively represented the highest authority in the Shia world from that time until 949-50.5 Thus Tahirih not only "assumed the role" of Fatima. She was Fatima.
In the course of this article I also demonstrate that the Bab did not invent such doctrines out of whole cloth, but rather his ideas are, in the main, consonant with the general position of Fatima in Shi`i religiosity, piety, and mysticism. Most important is Fatima's recognized status as an equal bearer of religious authority (walaya) along with the Imams and Muhammad the prophet.6 In order to demonstrate more fully how someone like Tahirih could acquire the prestige and power she undoubtedly had within her milieu, I delineate the main features of the doctrine of walaya as it had developed within Ithna Ashari Shiasm by the first half of the nineteenth century.
Walaya
In the course of this examination of the religious authority of Fatima, I clarify that however much the eventual course of the Babi movement was at odds with the religious status quo of mid-nineteenth-century Iran, at its core was a cluster of beliefs shared in common with orthodox Shia Islam. The heart of all Shiasm centers on the strong veneration of the first Imam, 'Ali ibn Abi Talib (d. 661) (and his wife and the Prophet's daughter, Fatima) as the guardian, protector, and true friend of those who have acknowledged his station as the immediate successor of the Prophet Muhammad. For this reason he is known as wall, and the quality of his authority is called walaya, frequently (and inadequately) rendered "sainthood."7 There is in Shiasm no notion more fundamental than this. It will be seen, perhaps not surprisingly, that the idea was just as central to the Bab's thought, as it is to Shiasm in general. Also, it will be seen that belief or faith (iman) is conditioned by the degree to which one accepts and testifies to the walaya of the so-called Family of God (al Allah).8 This family consists of the Prophet Muhammad, 'Ali, and Fatima, and the eleven other Imams. No deed, no matter how meritorious, is acceptable unless it has been performed by one who has fully confessed the truth of this walaya as borne by the Family of God. Moreover, such walaya has existed from eternity, much like the so-called "Muhammadan light" and numbers among those who have recognized it the prophets Abraham, Moses, and Jesus. As an eternal principle, it remains an imperative for all would-be believers at all times: through acceptance or rejection of this spiritual authority, one determines the fate of one's soul.
Walaya is implicated in the fourth of five pillars of belief of traditional Ithna Ashari Shiasm, which are (1) Divine Unity (tawhid), (2) Prophethood (nubuwwa), (3) the Resurrection/Return (ma’ad), (4) the Imamate (imama), and (5) Divine Justice (`adl). In Shiasm prophetic authority ended with the death of Muhammad (632), but the Prophet is understood as having two types of mutually complementing authority: the one, connected with the office of prophethood (nubuwwa); the other, in some ways a more general, yet at the same time purer (and therefore higher) type of authority connected with the office of guardianship (walaya). This teaching is based on the Quran, where the noun wall occurs in several important contexts. Most important for this discussion are all those Quranic verses that describe God as the wall of the believers9 or the single verse that says that walaya belongs to God alone (18:44). The general meaning of wall in these instances is "protector," "friend," and "guardian." By extension, and in the context of the most urgent doctrinal need of the Shia community, namely to explain the system of distinctive leadership which it developed, walaya came to mean "religious authority": believers are bound to obey what God, their best friend and guardian, ordains. The "Family of God," to use the Bab's distinctive terminology, are the only conduits of this divine protective friendship, particularly in the context of the earliest struggles for leadership within the Islamic community where one could make the error of choosing the wrong "protecting friend" as a leader. Shiasm says that this is precisely what happened to those Muslims who chose Abu Bakr and the other two early caliphs as leaders.10 While prophethood is in some sense superior to guardianship because only a prophet receives revelation through direct inspiration (wahy) and the task of a prophet is to establish a code of law (shari'a), walaya is essential because only through this office or institution can true religious authority be continued beyond the death of the prophet. Furthermore, it is thought to be superior to nubuwwa because unlike that institution, it is related directly to God. God is frequently called a wali in the Quran, but never a nabi. In this way walaya is seen to be a divine attribute certainly shared by all prophets, with nubuwwa representing in some ways a subfunction of walaya. Postprophetic guardians (awliya') do not have nubuwwa; it is only by virtue of their walaya that they have authority in the community to interpret (never reveal) scripture. But their interpretation has the authority of revelation.
Another complementary meaning of the term walaya is kinship, closeness, allegiance and, in some ways, intimacy. A bearer of walaya is thus seen to enjoy an especially close relationship to, in this case, God. This feature of the word has lent it so well to all those contexts in the Islamic tradition which have to do with sanctity and saintship.11 To take a recent example, it was on the basis of these factors that Ayatollah Khomeini (d. 1989) formulated the influential and politically astute doctrine known as "The Guardianship of the Jurist" (Vilayat-i faqih), through which he demonstrated to the satisfaction of his numerous followers that the decisions and opinions of the godly jurist are guided by the unerring (ma `sum) hand of the Hidden Imam and would therefore be identical with His teaching. Furthermore, these rulings and opinions would somehow represent the very presence of God and the Hidden Imam, a figure with almost ineffable sacral and charismatic authority and power. Earlier examples of the usage have been recently singled out as possibly the most important factor at play in the spiritual authority of the Sufi shaykh or pir from very earliest times in Islam.12 It is something of a truism that the Shia Imam is the analogue of the Sufi shaykh (or vice versa). One reason is that the basic understanding and function of the term walaya seems to be fairly constant across the borders that otherwise separate the two. The point is that concern with walaya means concern with power and authority. In the early work by the Bab, there is a great deal of concern with walaya. In this study we are interested mainly in the walaya and spiritual authority of Fatima. It is with an enhanced appreciation of this topic that the remarkable life of Tahirih, and the religious leadership of women, can be better understood within the context of nineteenth-century Iran.
Usuli/Akhbari Debate
Before we turn directly to the writings of the Bab on this topic, it is important to summarize, in very general terms, some of the pertinent historical developments in Shia legal theory that serve as immediate background to his career. By the time the Bab was writing, which was very close to the time of the fulfillment of the Shia eschaton, a thousand years having elapsed since the disappearance of the Twelfth/Hidden Imam, Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-`Askari, a long-standing dispute among religious scholars had been rumbling for a number of decades. This dispute had to do precisely with the way religious authority (walaya) would be expressed and recognized among the believers and is known as the Akhbari/Usuli debate. Although the Usuli position eventually won the day, it is important to know what was at stake. In one sense, this dispute can be characterized as "reason vs. revelation." The Akhbari position was against the institutionalization of "independent jurisprudence" (ijtihad), and the Usuli position upheld it. At stake, then, was not only a more or less abstract legal theory, but also the potentially powerful office of mujtahid, independent legal scholar, whose findings in all aspects of religion would be binding upon the believers. These findings were derived through resort to so-called sources (usul: roots) by the legal thinker or jurisprudent (faqih): (1) Quran, (2) Sunna, or (3) Qiyas/Analogy. The process whereby these elements were employed to derive a solution for a legal problem is called ijtihad- "independent intellectual exertion." The Akhbaris asserted that there was only one legal authority, namely, the Hidden Imam, the bearer of walaya for this time, and that in such a circumstance there was in effect only one mujtahid whom the faithful were required to emulate and follow, namely the Hidden Imam. Thus the Akhbari position threatened the social standing of an elite group of highly qualified legal experts by asserting that each believer was to work out their own "salvation" through contemplation of the sources of religion: 1) the Quran and 2) the Sunna. The name Akhbari comes from the word used to refer to the thousands of traditions – akhbar, sing. khabar, sometimes called hadith – that preserve the Sunna of not only the Prophet, but the other thirteen immaculate ones, the twelve Imams and Fatima. The Akhbaris taught that each believer had direct access to the truth through reading the Quran and this supplementary material. The Usuli position was eventually to lead to the establishment of the important institution known as marja `-i taqlid, "one who is to be [blindly] imitated in matters of religion."13
In the process of winning the battle, Usulis argued heavily against the kind of mystical or intuitive communion with the Hidden Imam that made the Akhbari position feasible. In so doing, they argued very persuasively for the superiority of the rational faculty and the use of reason. One response to this argument would come in the form of the teachings of Shaykh Ahmad al-Ahsa'i (d. 1826) and his successor, Sayyid Kazim Rashti (d. 1843), who throughout their works cautioned against the elimination of the mystical or intuitional aspects of religion and argued, in compelling language, for an epistemology composed of equal parts of reason and "revelation." The Shaykhi position won many supporters precisely because it rescued, in a reasonable manner, the mystical noetic so dear to the Persian soul.14 The Bab's writings, especially the ones examined in this article, are perhaps an equally strenuously (if differently) argued mysticism. As we will see, the Bab's source of authority is the Quran and the Family of God and no one or nothing else.15
The Bab's Writings
There has been a tendency to regard the Tafsir surat Yusuf as the first work of any significance written by the Bab, but this is wrong.16 The Tafsir surat al-Baqara – a work that has been habitually ignored by persons writing on the Babi religion – is really the Bab's first major religious work. It first became known in the West through E. G. Browne, who discussed it and the circumstances under which he received a copy, in an article written in 1892.17 (It had been sent to him by Mirza Yahya Subh-i Azal, who had received it from a scribe in Tehran.) By virtue of the number of existing manuscripts of this work that he enumerated, Denis MacEoin rekindled interest in it as a valuable source for the history and doctrines of the Babi movement.18 Through further research it has become clear that the Bab's Tafsir surat al-Baqara enjoys a unique and heretofore unappreciated significance for a study of the growth and development of the Babi religion. MacEoin may have been correct when he suggested that it is much less likely to have been corrupted by partisans of the later Baha'i/Azali dispute because of its status as a preproclamation work.19 On the other hand, such corruption may be a red herring, since a study of a number of manuscripts of the later and much more famous and pivotal Tafsir surat Yusuf reveals very little willful tampering with the text.20 But MacEoin is certainly correct in his assertion that "since this tafsir is the only extended work of the Bab's written before May 1844 [when he made his momentous claims public] and still extant, it is indisputably of unique importance as a source of concrete evidence for the development of his thought in the six months or so that led up to the initial announcement of his prophetic claim."21 Insofar as this first major work was also a tafsir, its interest goes beyond the confines of a study of a specific heresy to engage with the greater Islamic tradition itself on the common ground of the Quran.
Indeed, it is of some significance that this first major work by the Bab is a commentary on the Surat al-Baqara, or Sura of the Cow (in actual fact, it is a commentary on both the Surat al-Fatiha, the first sura and the Surat al-Baqara, the second sura), a sura sometimes regarded by exegetes as "the Quran in miniature" because in it are found many of the same concerns, ordinances, conceits, and images found throughout the book. A commentary on this sura by any given author would therefore tend to reveal the way he would approach the entire Quran. It may be, in fact, that the Bab had intended to produce a commentary on the whole Quran at this time. He is said to have later produced no less than nine complete commentaries on the Quran during his incarceration in Azerbaijan.22 Why he would have suspended such a project at this earlier date is open to speculation. We do know, however, that it was shortly after the completion of the commentary on the first part23 of the Quran that Mulla Husayn Bushru'i made his visit to Shiraz, during which time the Babi movement may be said to have been born. Such a dramatic occurrence might possibly have had the effect of deflecting the Bab's attention from such a "merely literary" project to concentrate on newer and more important developments. One of these developments was the composition of another tafsir (the Qayyum al-Asma or Tafsir surat Yusuf) of such a startlingly different nature from this earlier work that the two might be thought to have been written by two different authors, though in reality this is probably not the case.24
The radical interpretation of several passages in the Surat al-Baqara as speaking directly to the subject of walaya is not an innovation of the Bab's but has characterized a strong tendency in Shia exegesis from the earliest times.25 This is clarified in notes in the following text that direct the reader to similar interpretations in classical literature. Of interest here is that such a commentary was written by one who was not a member of the ulama class, but rather a young merchant. The nature of the commentary shows that there was a perceived need to reassert, revalorize, relocate, or perhaps take possession of this cardinal Shia doctrine. Why such a need was felt at this particular time and within the Iranian merchant class, has been discussed at length by scholars concerned with the social history of late-eighteenth- and early-nineteenth-century Iran. The following discussion attests to the degree to which this need was felt, and the consequences it had for the interpretation of scripture. Here we begin to understand why the Tafsir surat al-Baqara provides invaluable information about the development of the Bab's religious ideas.
Walaya in the Bab's Earliest Work
The subject of walaya is introduced very early in the tafsir where reference is made to the Absolute Walaya (walayatuhu al-mutlaqa) of `Ali. In the following pages, Quran citations are presented in small capital letters in order to make as clear as possible the connection between the words of the commentator and the sacred text. In the course of the Bab's commentary on the second verse of the Fatiha, "Praise be to God, the Lord of the Worlds," the verse is said to be the book (kitab) of `Ali, in which God has placed all the principles (ahkam) of Absolute Walaya pertaining to it. It is designated here, the Paradise of the Inclusive Unity (jannat al-wahidiya), whose protection has been reserved for all those who affirm 'Ali's walaya.26
In this very brief statement, certain important terms are introduced, which play a key role throughout the rest of the tafsir. Apart from the word walaya (guardianship, friendship), the designation wahidiya occurs over and over again throughout the work. It is descriptive of one of the degrees of divinity which constitute the whole hierarchical metaphysical structure of the world. It is the degree immediately inferior to the divine Exclusive Unity (ahadiya). Such terminology betrays the influence of the so-called wahdat al-wujud school associated with Ibn 'Arabi. Suffice it here to say that the Absolute Walaya represents a theoretical position at least one remove from the Ultimate. A third ontic level, "existence as an expression of divine mercy," is associated with Fatima. We will return to this presently.27
The choice of the word principles (ahkam) has several connotations. In this short introductory sentence to the tafsir on the Fatiha, the Bab characterizes this opening chapter of the Quran as containing seven clear verses (ayat muhkamat). The hermeneutic polarities of mutashabihat/muhkamat represent one of the oldest concerns of tafsir in general and have occasioned much speculation on the part of exegetes of all schools and attitudes. The primary idea is that the Quran contains both ambiguous and unambiguous verses. At the most basic level, these are thought to be divided between straightforward legal prescriptions and the rest of the book. The terminology here is taken from Quran 3:7: He it is who has sent down to thee the Book. In it are verses basic or fundamental (of established meaning) [muhkamat]. They are the foundation of the Book [umm al-kitab]. Others are allegorical [mutashabihat]. But those in whose hearts is perversity follow the part thereof that is allegorical, seeking discord, and searching for its hidden meanings [ta'wil]. But no one knows its hidden meanings [ta'wil] except God. And those who are firmly grounded in knowledge say: "We believe in the Book, the whole of it is from our Lord." And none will grasp the message except those who have understanding. With this aya comes one of the more fundamental differences between the Sunni and Shia exegetes who disagree about its grammar and syntax. The above translation represents the "Sunni" reading. A Shia reading would be: "And none knows its interpretation save God and those firmly rooted in knowledge" (al-rasikhun fi'l -'ilm). These rasikhun are of course the Imams, in the first place, and in the second place, at least amongst the Usulis, the mujtahids. So understood, the designation of the verses of the Fatiha as unambiguous strongly suggests that the Bab read them as having a positive and binding relationship with a true understanding of the Book. Seen in this light, his statement that verse 2 of the Fatima ordains belief in the Absolute Walaya of `Ali must be taken as divine law, binding upon the believer in the same way as legal prescriptions for the terms of inheritance, or even prayer and fasting, are obligatory.
In this same commentary on the seven verses of the Fatiha, we first encounter Fatima. In line with his method and the structure of this section, the Bab designates the third verse, "the merciful the compassionate" (ar-rahman ar-rahim), as "the book of Fatima" (kitab Fatima salat allah 'alayha).28 That Fatima is associated with rahma, "mercy," is in line with the general idea of existence as mercy and the role of the feminine articulated in the writings of Ibn `Arabi.29 It should also be noted that rahma is a feminine noun constructed on the root rhm, which is also the basis for the word rahim, "uterus, womb." Fatima is associated with this verse because it is gender-specific so that grammar reflects reality – a basic axiom of the worldview we are investigating. That it is also the third verse of the sura means that the order: Muhammad, `Ali, Fatima (ahadiya, wahidiya, rahmaniya) is corroborated both through the gender reference and chronological order of birth.30 The remainder of the commentary runs:
And God has put in [this verse] all that is hers and all that pertains to her. [This verse] is the Garden of Divine Grace (jannat al-na'im). God has ordained its shade for the one who believes in her and loves her after he has recognized her as she deserves (ba `da ma 'arafaha bima hiya ahluha), as she appeared to the seeker (or: knower/Gnostic, „arif) through his own self (kama tajallat li'l 'arif lahu bihi). Then this garden will open to him.31 While there is no explicit mention of walaya here, it is nonetheless assumed throughout the tafsir that Fatima is, as a member of the Family of God, one of the fourteen bearers of walaya. The Bab, it seems, wishes to highlight various nuances of this religious authority according to the particular bearer/wali he is discussing. In the case of Fatima, this religious authority is clearly associated with love (mahabba) and knowledge/gnosis ('irfan), and as we already saw, mercy. For example, in his commentary on 2:25, the Bab states that Paradise or "the Garden" is indeed the love of the form of Fatima (mahabbat shabah Fatima). Before we look further at this material, it may be helpful to offer a brief summary of the general place of Fatima in Islam and Shiasm.
Fatima of History
Fatima (11/633), the daughter of Muhammad and wife of the first Imam `Ali ibn Abi Talib (40/661) enjoys an exalted position in Shia piety and is thought by some to function for the Shi'a much the same way that Mary functions in the Catholic tradition.32 She is depicted in the histories as the long-suffering darling of her father, to whom she was born through Muhammad's first wife, the incomparable Khadija. She was married to `Ali, which sources say was a difficult marriage.33 But while she lived, she was his only wife. She is venerated as the mother of the second and third Ithna `Ashari Imams, Hasan and Husayn (and by extension all of the Imams). She is held up to the believers by the sources as a model of suffering, patience, generosity, wisdom, and valiant heroism ending in martyrdom.
During the Prophet's Meccan and early Medinan period, when the Banu Hashim imposed a ban upon dealings with Muhammad, Fatima is singled out as having endured the privations with great dignity and patience.34 Of all the Prophet's children, Fatima lived the longest (although she died only a few months after the Prophet's death) and gave Muhammad, who would have otherwise been bereft of male progeny, many descendants. Indeed, one of the many calumnies directed at Muhammad was that he was without male progeny. Such a man was known derisively in this milieu as “cut off” (al-abtar).35 Muhammad was cruelly taunted with this epithet by his fellow Meccans because of the death of his and Khadija's two infant sons, Qasim and Abdallah. Fatima is seen by the tradition as being the one responsible for giving the lie to this cruel insult by providing the Prophet his two grandsons, Hasan, Husayn, and their sisters Zainab and Umm Kulthum.36 Shia religious literature delights in demonstrating how this epithet, recorded in the sura The Abundance (Quran 108, as it happens, the shortest sura in the book), was turned against Muhammad's enemies because through Fatima Muhammad's lineage not only continued but multiplied greatly in the Imamate that is the institutional sanctuary of walaya in Shiasm.37 Ironically, it was Muhammad's enemies who were “cut off” (al-abtar) by the will of God.
Fatima is greatly venerated by all Muslims who, when speaking of her, typically add the honorific al-Zahra' (the shining one, the luminous, the gloriously radiant). Among the Shi'a this veneration reaches its greatest intensity. Two Western scholars, Henri Lammens and Louis Massignon, studied the historical basis for this reverence and reached diametrically opposite opinions: Lammens argued that the historical Fatima was "a woman devoid of attraction, of mediocre intelligence, completely insignificant, little esteemed by her father, ill-treated by her husband.... anaemic, often ill, prone to tears, who died perhaps of consumption."38 Massignon has made Fatima "sublime, elevating her to a position often reminiscent of that which the Virgin Mary holds among Christians. For Massignon, she represents the beginnings of Universal Islam" because of her care for the non-Arab converts.39 Massignon's study improves upon Lammens by offering a "psychologico-religious explanation for the origin and development of the legend of the daughter of the Prophet and bridges the gap between legend and reality as Lammen's book fails to do;” however, "[Massignon's work] cannot escape the objection of the historian, who will consider that the author subordinates the facts to beliefs about Fatima which appeared only later."40 This statement obviously represents a certain historiographical approach. Beliefs, it is clear, have frequently been as crucial to history as facts. Indeed, in this article beliefs are of primary interest; whether or not they represent, in the case of Fatima, "true historical reality" is immaterial. This is so precisely because we can see how much such belief actually influenced the unfolding of radical religious activity in nineteenth-century Iran. But it is also true – and this is a historiographical element of consequence – that Fatima's life was so obscure that Ibn Hisham and the other earlier historians had little occasion to concern themselves with her.
Fatima died in the eleventh year of the hijra, six months after the death of the Prophet. Today (because her grave is unknown), Shias visit three places in Medina in order to pay homage to her: her house, the Baqi' cemetery, and the space in the Great Mosque between the rawda and the tomb of the Prophet.41 Her nickname, "Mother of her father" (Umm Abiha) has several explanations: she learned through a revelation that the name of her very last descendant would be Muhammad, perhaps as a logical inference from the story of her heavenly, luminous origin and birth. Her name Creator (Fatir), which is one of the names listed in an eleventh-century source, represents a glorification of Fatima that seems to be characteristic of the extreme Isma'ilis and of "aberrant" sects such as the Nusayris rather than of the Imamis. Have we here a borrowing of the latter from the former? Veccia Vaglieri asks.42 The belief that Fatima is Fatir, Creator, would also help explain her kunya Umm Abiha. Another explanation for the name is that it became Fatima's as a result of her providing comfort to Muhammad during the darkest times.43 It has been suggested that because of the connections between the cult of Mary among Christians and that of Fatima among Muslims, it is possible that the title arose as a counterpart to that of "Mother of God," especially since the name seems to be found only in later (that is, twelfth-century) sources.44
Islam has honored 'Asiyah bint Muzahim, (Pharoah's wife), Maryam bint 'Imran (Mary, mother of Jesus), Khadija, and Fatima as the four perfect women of the world, the best women of Paradise.45 By the twelfth century, Shia scholars had compiled a list of nearly a hundred names and attributes by which Fatima should be honored46 This veneration may be best seen in three of the titles by which she is most frequently designated: al-Zahra', "the luminous"; Fatir, "Creator"; and Umm Abiha, "Mother of her Father." Others include the masculine form Fatim, al-Tahira, al-Zakiya, al-Muhaddatha, al-Siddiqa, al-Batul, and Maryam al-Kubra, and especially significant in connection with Tahirih, Qurrat al-'Ayn – one of the most common names by which Tahirih the Babi was known. Official occasions for honoring her are her birth (20 Ramadan), marriage to 'Ali, and the public feast of Mubahala (21, 24, 25 Dhu'l-Hijja). This last deserves a special word because it is in connection with the Mubahala that Fatima becomes known as one of the Ahl al-Kisa', "People of the cloak." These are Muhammad, 'Ali, Fatima, Hasan, and Husayn, a group that represents an "elite within an elite" in Shiasm.47 The anniversary of her death (3 Jumada II and 2 Ramadan) is also befittingly observed. These are all public holy days in Iran and observed around the world. Other holy days, such as the Day of al-Ghadir (18th of Dhu' 1-Hijja) and the Muharram observances – tradition has Fatima making a post mortem appearance at Karbala (which the Bab mentions in his tafsir) to lament the cruel fate of her son and his family and companions48 – are public and private occasions for honoring her memory.
Other events in her life have particular interest here: she is depicted as threatening to remove her head covering twice: on one occasion to protest the treatment of 'Ali after the death of the Prophet,49 and another time as threatening to remove her head covering in order to stop Abu Bakr and 'Umar from forcibly entering her house after the so-called election of the first caliph.50 This will bring to mind Tahirih's removal of the veil that so scandalized even the Babis themselves.51 In another tradition, she is presented as defiantly turning her back to the intruders to express her repugnance;52 she is also seen traveling on horseback with `Ali to ask for the support of the Ansar (who, unfortunately had already committed themselves to Abu Bakr);53 she is quoted as having challenged 'Umar himself: "You have left the body of the Apostle of God with us and you have decided among yourselves without consulting us, without respecting our rights."54
Thus we clearly see the figure of a politically active woman, one who could easily inspire others to similar action. It is curious, in light of this that one of the prevailing images associated with Fatima is that of a sickly and timid victim. Another element in Fatima's political biography is the troublesome Fadak affair. Abu Bakr, according to Shia sources, deprived Fatima of inheriting this productive oasis that the Prophet had promised her. This deprivation caused great hardship for her and her family and also deprived the cause of `Ali essential material support. In addition, there is the legend of the mushaf of Fatima, the book that Gabriel brought her for consolation after the death of her father.55 As Veccia Vaglieri points out, the material on Fatima remains to be systematical studied. Once it is, however, it will be most interesting to notice whether or not these conflicting images are the result of confessional influences. In the meantime, the question posed by Veccia Vaglieri, did Imami Shiasm borrow from Isma'ili Shiasm in the veneration of Fatima? is quite pertinent to the study of the literature of the Shaykhi school in general. As I demonstrate, it is also pertinent in the study of the writings of the Bab, who, as far as we know, was an Imami Shia, born in Shiraz on 20 October 1819 (1 Muharram 1235).
The Bab's Fatima
Many of the events or topics recounted above are touched upon and elaborated in the Bab's tafsir. It is crucial, however, first to establish some idea of what is to be expected. To do this, I rely upon the studies of Henry Corbin, who is the one Western scholar to have penetrated many of the mysteries that this kind of literature holds. In this case, we are particularly fortunate that Corbin devoted an entire book to the study of the spiritual feminine in Iranian religion. In Corbin's distinctive approach, Mazdean religious ideas are connected with Islamic Shiite gnosis, first in the work of Suhrawardi and finally, and more resoundingly, in the corpus of the Shaykhis, a corpus that remains lamentably understudied, though progress has been achieved since Corbin's time.56 In any case, Corbin saw the founder of the Shaykhi school, Shaykh Ahmad al-Ahsa'i (1826) and his successor, Sayyid Kazim Rashti, as revivers of "primitive Shiite gnosis."57 It is even more fortunate that part of this book is a study of Fatima in the writings of Hajj Karim Khan Kirmani (1870), the Shaykhi leader who was, in some respects, the Bab's (1850) most bitter opponent. Both had been avid students of the teachings of Ahsa'i and Rashti (as had Tahirih herself). Corbin's reading of Kirmani's works will be shown to resonate with the image of Fatima in this early commentary by the Bab. It is still too soon to determine on what doctrinal grounds they might have differed with regard to Fatima, or indeed, if they differed at all. The main area of disagreement between the two was not a matter for scholasticism.
In this school of thought the Family of God, the Fourteen Very-Pure, function, according to Corbin, in a way "analagous to the Aeons of the pleroma in Valentinian gnosis." One of the distinctions between the Suhrawardian and Shaykhi cosmologies is discerned in the shift from a threefold to a fourfold cosmology. For Suhrawardi these were 1) the earthly, human world, "the object of sensory perception"; 2) the world of Soul or Malakut, "the world of imaginative perception" and 3) the cherubinic or angelic world of Jabarut, "the object of intelligible knowledge."58 Consonant with the motif of quaternity by which much of their thought is distinguished, Shaykhism added a fourth realm (as did Ibn 'Arabi), namely the sphere of deity, the world of lahut. For the Shaykhis, however, this realm was "occupied" only by the Family of God – not, as it were, God Himself. Fatima is located first and foremost in this supracelestial realm. As Corbin says, using one of his favorite metaphors:
One might say that [Shaykhi thought] allows us to hear the theme of the celestial Earth... in a still higher octave. Each octave is a new world, a new beginning, where everything is rediscovered, but at a different height, that is, in a higher mode of being. This succession of octaves is what allows the ta'wil, or spiritual hermeneutics, to be practiced authentically. Moreover, in the transcendent Person of Fatima as a member of the supreme Pleroma, we shall be hearing something like the motif of the supracelestial Earth ...59 The four universes or realms "symbolize with" each other so that the "historic dimension" is a means of discovering the sacred relationship between and among these worlds.
This will be essentially the esoteric hermeneutic, the ta'wil; it will be a discovery of the true and hidden meaning, the spiritual history that becomes visible through the recital of external events. It will mean to "see things in Hurqalya.."60
In this quaternary world the relationship between male and female is accorded the highest possible value. Hurqalya is, of course, the abode of the Hidden Imam who is alive there and "in hiding" since his disappearance in 260/874. There is ample evidence throughout the works of the Bab, and particularly in the one under study here, that he himself shared a similar, if not identical, approach to history and scripture (although he does not use the word Hurqalya here). But we will see more of this later in this essay.61
There is no need to dwell further here on Corbin's harmonic rendition of the history of Iranian mythology and religious symbolism62 whereby he can see the ancient Spendarmat in the Fatima of the Shi'a, except to say that the apokatastasis, the "restoration of all things to their primordial splendor and wholeness, to the state in which they were before the invasion of the Ahrimanian Counterpowers" that he perceives in Shaykhism,63 is very much a feature of the clan of Babism. As we have already indicated, the authority and power of Tahirih (and the other Babis) is a result of three simultaneous events: a fulfillment of the past, a reenactment of the past, and a break with the past.
Day of the Covenant
One of the more important controlling myths in Islam, whether Sunni or Shia, is the drama of God's establishing a covenant (`ahd, mithaq) between Himself and humanity through the prophet Adam. The Quran tells the story in a characteristically terse passage at Quran 7:172. At a time before the creation of the world, God summoned Adam to His presence whereupon he caused the "seeds" (al-dharr) of all future generations to come forth from Adam's loins. God confronted Adam – and this vast company thus arrayed before Him – with the question "Am I not your Lord?" (a-lastu bi-rabbikum). The immediate response was "Yea, verily!" (bala). The Quran explains that this was done so that no human would be able to say on the Day of Resurrection, when all would be given their just deserts, that they should be excused for their sins because they were not aware of their obligation to God. The "Yea verily!" constitutes humanity's primordial assent to the divine covenant.64 Within this covenant myth dwells the explanatory theory of all Islamicate religious authority. It has been particularly instrumental in justifying the mediation and negotiation of charismatic power and authority in a Sufi milieu, but no less in the Shia milieu.65 In Shia communities throughout the world, the eighteenth day of Dhu' l-Hijja, the pilgrimage month, is commemorated as the Day of the Covenant (yawm al-mithaq) and anniversary of the public appointment by the Prophet Muhammad of `Ali as his successor at a small oasis known as Ghadir Khumm, "the pool of Ghadir." (In Iran, a Shi`i state, this date is an official public holiday.) This oasis was a way station between Mecca and Medina and it was here, during a rest on the way back from his last pilgrimage, that the Prophet made his famous speech, the words of which are preserved in both Sunni and Shia books of Tradition:
We were with the Apostle of God in his journey and we stopped at Ghadir Khumm. We performed the obligatory prayer together and a place was swept for the Apostle under two trees and he performed the mid-day prayer. And then he took `Ali by the hand and said to the people: 'Do you not acknowledge that I have a greater claim on each of the believers than they have on themselves?' And they replied: 'Yea verily!' [bala] And he took 'Ali's hand and said: 'Of whomsoever I am Lord [Mawla], then `Ali is also his Lord. O God! Be Thou the supporter of whoever supports 'Ali and the enemy of whoever op-poses him.' And 'Umar [the future second caliph] met him ['Ali] after this and said to him: 'Congratulations, O son of Abu Talib! Now morning and evening [i.e., forever] you are the master of every believing man and woman.66
This passage (along with its several variants) is important for two main reasons; 1) the establishment of the continuance of religious authority by the Prophet "the covenant"; 2) the use of the exquisitely polyvocal term mawla, which is a derivative of the root wly, upon which the word walaya is built. Mawla is a particularly interesting Arabic word in that it can mean either "master" or "client" – diametrically opposite denotations, according to usage. As such, it represents admirably the mutuality and reciprocal nature of walaya. But it also gives rise to alternate interpretations of this sermon, as the entire history of Islam will attest. It is as the de facto and de jure establishment of the sacred covenant that this sermon occupies us for the moment. This covenant functions as the raison d'être of Shiasm. Those who recognize, subscribe to, uphold, and defend the appointment of 'Ali as Muhammad's rightful successor and leader – both spiritual and temporal – of the community of Muslims, are faithful to the covenant and may be considered believing Muslims (muslim mu'min). Those who acknowledge anyone else as the successor of Muhammad and leader of the community is accounted a breaker (naqid) of this covenant and an infidel (kafir). A natural starting place, then, for a detailed examination of the person/figure/symbol of Fatima in the Bab's Quran commentary is the Covenant. The Bab draws a comparison or homologue between the Quranic primordial yawm al-mithaq, the events of which are narrated in Quran 7:172, and the Day of al-Ghadir. The first Quranic cue for this comparison is in verse 2:8: "Of the people there are some who say: 'We believe in God and the Last Day'; but they do not really believe." The people specified here, according to the Bab, are those whom God will cause to forget faith in 'Ali's walaya on the Last Day. They are not believers because their faith is flawed, even though they may consider themselves true believers in 'Ali's spiritual authority:
Whoever knows that `Ali is the sign of God in the station of the Exclusive Divine Unity ... is one of the believers "in God and the Last Day," which is really the First Day, and it is the beginning of the mention of the created thing in the world of contingency, and it is the day God made to shine with light, and it is the light of `Ali. Such a one is one of the believers. And whoever abandons this station enters into the category: "and he is not an exalted believer." May God protect us through Muhammad and his family from entering into this error!67 It will become clear below that "the day God made to shine with light, and it is the light of `Ali" is an indirect reference to Fatima, who is the source of all light. The Bab strengthens the connection or homology between the Last Day mentioned here and the Day of the Covenant and the Day of al-Ghadir Khumm by quoting a long hadith from the eleventh Imam al-Hasan al-'Askari’s tafsir, in which the occasion of revelation (known in some circles as sabab al-nuzul) for this verse is established as the Day of al-Ghadir. In this verse, the Imam says God was warning Muhammad about those who feigned allegiance to `Ali following the sermon just quoted. The Bab says:
That place of testimony is the same as the "dimension" (dharr) of the primordial covenant, when the covenant of lordship was taken: whoever was recognized [then] was recognized [for all time]. Indeed, "those possessed of minds" know what happened there by what happened here (Ghadir Khumm), the realm of this world (or "religion" tashri) is in accord with the realm of that world (or "divine creation" takwin). But this place of testimony (viz. the Day of al-Ghadir) is greater than the first place of testimony, the dimension of the affirmation of Divine Unity, while the second place of testimony is the dimension of the affirmation of Prophethood – nay, rather it is the essence of the Divine Cause. This place of testimony of the Day of al-Ghadir is the third place of testimony and the greatest dimension. The remaining place of testimony is the last: it is the dimension of the Fourth Support, the rising of the Qa'im, may God hasten his glad advent. This occasion of testimony will occur in the beginning of his appearance (or emergence, zuhur) and it is the di-mension of the affirmation by their Shi'a that the Family of God are the worn of magnification in the midmost sanctity of praise.” 68
Thus the fourfold structure of the Bab's approach. The Bab says that the shahada, the true testimony to the truth of this, is none other than the Imams and Fatima.69 The Bab demonstrates how Fatima is implicated in this covenant in his commentary on Quran 2:83. Here he says that the esoteric meaning of the word kindred is a clear designation of Fatima, just as the word orphans is a reference to al-Hasan and al-Husayn. "God has spoken here about the taking of the covenant with all created things in the eight Paradises, in affirmation of the walaya of 'Ali"70The Quranic verse is: And remember We took a Covenant from the Children of Israel: Worship none but God; treat with kindness your parents and kindred, and orphans and those in need; Speak fair to the people; be steadfast in prayer; and practice regular charity. Then did ye turn your back, except a few among you, and ye backslide even now.” [Quran 2:83] In another quaternary interpretation, the phrase: "those who broke the covenant" [Quran 2:27] refers to the covenant ('ahd) of Muhammad vis-à-vis the signs (ayat) of `Ali. This covenant was instituted in the world of the Unseen (al-ghayb), the spiritual realm. Although the term lahut is not used, nor the word hurqalya, it is clear that the realm of al-ghayb is a spiritual "space" with its own "time."
These signs were placed within (fi) the dimension (dharr) of the hearts [which represents] the station (maqam) of Divine Unity (tawhid), and [in] the dimension of the intellects [which represents] the level (rutba) of Prophethood (nubuwwa), and [in] the atoms of souls [which represents] the abode of the Imamate (imama), and [in] the dimension of the bodies [which represents] the place (mahall) of the love of the Shi'a after God imposed this solemn binding upon all created things [which is] faith (iman) in Muhammad, `Ali, Hasan, Husayn, Ja'far, Musa, and Fatima.71 The first who "broke the covenant" was Abu Bakr.
He broke the covenant of God concerning His friends (awliya) in the unseen worlds and he violated the walaya of `Ali in its [future] apppearances in the visible Imams . . . and he [broke the covenant] by taking the land of al-Fadak away from Fatima after he knew very well that the Apostle of God had specified it for her during his life and forbidden its produce to go to anyone else.72
In Kirmani's treatment of the Quranic Day of the Covenant when God demanded from the seed of Adam absolute obedience, this drama was originally played out in the realm of lahut, "long before" it achieved its first earthly iteration at the time of Adam. Its second, and most important iteration occurred at the pool called Ghadir Khumm when Muhammad appointed `Ali his successor and took a pact with all of the Muslims to this effect.73 Fatima's response in this divine setting is precisely the "theurgic ac-complishment" of becoming the Earth for the production of the cosmos. None can have access or perception of this realm, it is too ratified, powerful in its beauty and luminous beyond mortal ability to perceive. "The beings of the pleroma of the lahut are visible only in their apparitional forms [ashbah], which are the receptacles of their theophanies."74 According to Kirmani, Fatima is the Earth of the sacred lahuti universe,75 which is related to the mysterious earth of Hurqalya.
The Bab describes Fatima as the "Universal earth," "heaven" and "the Sabbath." This same idea may be evident in a particularly vivid passage of the Bab's tafsir. At verse 60 of Surat al-Baqara, for example, the water that gushed forth from the rock at twelve different places after Moses struck it with his staff, is said to represent the walaya of all the Imams. The Bab says that although the water issued from these various places, it was in fact the same water. The station of Fatima is further defined here as that without which walaya could not have appeared in the world: And remember Moses prayed for water for his people; We said: "Strike the rock with thy staff." Then gushed forth therefrom twelve springs. Each group knew its own place for water. So eat and drink of the sustenance provided by God, and do no evil nor mischief on the (face of the) earth. [Quran 2:60]
The Bab says, the striker here is Muhammad, the staff is `Ali, and the stone [from which the water came forth] is Fatima. And the springs are the twelve Imams. `Ali, by virtue of walaya, is counted among them and by virtue of the rank of staff is also distinguished from them. The point of this Quranic passage is that it corroborates the history of Islam. Or, more important, the Bab, through this interpretation, demonstrates that in the eternal word of God, the story of Muhammad and his family had been established or "prophesied." History, according to this approach (as Corbin observed), is best seen as a subject for ta’wil: it is symbolic (as distinct from allegorical). God commanded Muhammad to give his daughter Fatima in marriage to `Ali so that all people "at all times" might be able to recognize their Imam, to "eat and drink of the splendours of the knowledge dispensed by your Imam through the grace (fadl) of Muhammad."76 Some sources even suggest that at this marriage (which occurred "first" in the spiritual realm) God himself was wali for Fatima.77 Such a myth nicely supplies a narrative explanation for those verses in the Quran, mentioned above, which say that God is a wali or protector of the believers. In the Bab's commentary at 2:29, we encounter another instance of the historical event used as a subject of ta'wil. And here we also encounter Fatima as the spiritual reality of a heavenly earth. The Quranic verse is: "It is He who hath created for you all things that are on earth; then He turned Himself to heaven, and he gave order and perfection to the seven heavens; and of a[[ things he hath perfect knowledge" [Quran 2:291. Fatima here is described as being this "universal earth" out of which the Imams will appear.
God made the real meaning of this "comprehensive earth" to be Fatima, upon her be God's blessing and peace. And [He made] what was in her to be the Imams, upon them be God's blessing and peace. He is the One who created, through the angels, all that is in the Earth of the Divine Exclusive Unity, which is Fatima, for Muhammad, upon him be God's blessing and peace.
"Then He lifted Himself to heaven," that is, He married her [Fatima] to `Ali and thus she is equated with heaven as far as honor (sharfa) is concerned. Thus God made her ... "one of the mighty portents, a warning to mankind, to any of you that chooses to press forward or to follow behind" [Quran 74:36-37].78
In Corbin's summary of Kirmani, we discern the logic of the Bab's hermeneutic: Since all earthly events are reflections of a pre-eternal order, the earthly marriage of `Ali and Fatima also had its purest and holiest occurrence in the supracelestial realm. The earthly marriage in Medina thus symbolized the original union that was itself "the manifestation of an eternal syzygy originating in the eternity of the pleroma of the lahut. The First Imam and Fatima are related to each other in the same reciprocal way as the first two hypostases [of neoplatonism], `Aql and Nafs, Intelligence and Soul, or in terms more familiar to us (because they go back to Philo): Logos and Sophia."79 It is also of some interest to note that Kirmani "finds" Fatima in the Quranic verse quoted here by the Bab (74:36-37).80 An examination of more traditional commentaries discloses that this exegesis is quite old indeed. Thus the interpretations of both the Bab and Kirmani represent in this instance a revivification of ancient religious ideas.81 Whether the following striking development also has its roots in the early history of Shia Quran interpretation remains to be established. The Bab continues his commentary on Quran 2:29:
So, in reality it was she who turned to the heaven and fashioned them seven heavens that is, the seven proofs who are equal to `Ali, upon him be God's blessing and peace, with regard to their Origination. The seven, when they go through the processes of Origination and Invention become fourteen manifestations of Origination. And they are seven heavens.82
The words fashioned and equal do not convey the exegetical device of paranomasia with which the Bab conveys this interpretation. The Quranic sawwahunna ("he gave order and perfection") is formed from the same root as the Quranic istawa ("then He turned Himself"). This root, sawiya, can be variously translated as "leveling," "making smooth," "making equal," "ordering." That the world is orderly – cosmos rather than chaos – is a classic Quranic argument for the existence and function of God as orderer and sustainer. How this ordering and creation is to be explained is of course controversial. The Bab holds to a distinctive cosmogony entailing twin creative processes;83 through these the seven heavens are rendered fourteen – the number of the Family of God. This is a perfect example of the otherworldly potency of Fatima's creative status: she is not only the "Mother of her Father" (umm abiha) but the creatrice of her own self and the twelve Imams as well. Kirmani, as recounted by Corbin, seems acutely apt in this instance:
Without the person of Fatima there would be neither the manifestation of the Imamate, nor Imamic initiation. For the pleroma of these entities of light is the very place of the divine mystery. Their light is the divine light itself; their transparency allows it to shine through, retaining none of their own ipseity [viz "ego"] ... they are the very substance of pre-eternal Love; they are the identity of love, lover, and beloved, that identity which all Sufis have aspired to live…84
As Corbin summarizes; Fatima is the Soul of creation, the Soul of each creature, "the constitutive part of the human being." Fatima is "the eternally feminine in man, and that is why she is the archetype of the heavenly Earth; she is both paradise and initiation into it, for it is she who manifests the divine names and attributes revealed in the theophanic persons of the Imams."85
The ontological rank of the Soul and the reality of the Soul are the rank of Fatima. The Imams are masculine as agents of cosmogony, since relation is their soul; as authors of spiritual creation they are feminine, since they are the Soul and since the Soul is Fatima.... the theophanic and initiatic function of the holy Imams is precisely their "Fatimic" degree of being (their fatimiya, which we faithfully translate as "Sophianity"), and this is how Fatima comes to be called Fatima Fatir, Fatima Creator.86
"Without the person of Fatima there would be neither the manifestation of the Imamate, nor Imamic intitiation."87 Corbin points out that it is in the light of such theories the Isma'ili epithet Fatima Fatir (Fatima the Creator) begins to be heard and understood, but this time in a new "key." Fatima, the "queen of women " – a frequent honorific – should really be understood as the "sovereign of feminine humanity" where "feminine" equals "meaning,"88 or "the totality of the beings of the Possible [al-imkan]! All creatures have been created out of the Soul itself, out of the Anima of the holy Imams."89 The Bab will echo this second idea below in his commentary on Quran 2:35. Whether the Bab recognized anything like a Jungian "feminine dimension of humanity" is difficult to say with any certainty at this times.90
Kirmani says the Imams are the brides of the prophet inasmuch as they have been created from the soul or are the soul of the Prophet. As the Quran [16:74 and 30:20] says, "He has made wives for you out of your own souls." The real "mother of the believers" is the initiatic function of the Imams. But this "motherhood" ultimately has its source in Fatima. Spiritual birth happens through the "Fatimic" agency of the Imams. The Prophet has said, "I and `Ali are the father and the mother of this community." The Bab quotes this tradition in his commentary on Quran 2:83.91
At Quran 2:65-66 Fatima as the creative element par excellence appears as both the true meaning of "the Sabbath" and the primary principle of creation or "primal command." It is reasonable to ask if Tahirih the Babi was referring to this when she spoke of "the primal truth" mentioned by Amanat. There, she is presented as seeing Fatima as a role model.92 It is possible that she was referring to Fatima as the cosmogonic principle we are discussing. This is not to say that Tahirih the Babi did not see in Fatima (the mother of the Imams) a role model. But in line with the metaphysical mood of the time and place which our texts reflect, it is probable that she was interested in Fatima's ontological value before her sociological value. We also see in this commentary a reappearance of the idea introduced at verse 3 of the Fatiha above: a soul perceives according to its capacity, through himself. It sees what it is. The comprehensive or universal dimension of the Fatimid reality is brought out again in the Bab's commentary on 2:37: "Thereafter Adam received certain words from his Lord, and turned towards him; truly he turns, and is All-compassionate" [Quran 2:37]. The Bab introduces his discussion by pointing out that words are "single letters that have been combined." The Family of God represent several stations with regard to these letters: Muhammad is the point, Ali, Hasan, and Husayn are each different kinds of alif (viz., layniya, mutaharraka, ghayr ma`tuf), the letters that do not change form in the Arabic script (dal etc.) represent the remainder of the Imams. Finally, the status of word is reserved for Fatima alone, the point being that "meaning" itself is implicated and articulated through the Fatimid reality. The belief in the Divine unity taught by the other prophets is in fact created by God himself from this word. In actual fact, the Bab says, "Adam received certain words" of acknowledgment of the walaya of the Tree of the Divine Exclusive Unity that God had forbidden "all other than itself from approaching." But when the visible form of Fatima was manifest to him, by means of his own self, God cast into his soul (his huwiya) the likeness of repentance and "He turned to him."
Typically, the Bab here cites, in rapid and skillful succession, a Tradition and another Quranic verse supporting his tafsir: "The Imam, upon whom be peace, said:
'We are the words of God.'" "God (al-Haqq)," says the Bab, "confirms this statement in His mighty Book with the following words."93 Say: 'If the sea were ink for the Words of my Lord, the sea would be spent before the Words of my Lord are spent, though We brought replenishment the like of it." [Quran 18:109] And the "replenishment" (madad) is origination (ibda') and invention (ikhtira`) which God placed under the grade of their lordship. And this origination is spent before the light of Fatima is spent. "And [this light] is inexhaustible" [wa ma lahu min nifad = Quran 38:54].
Fatima is also "the Sabbath": And well you know there were those among you that transgressed the Sabbath, and We said to them, "Be you apes, miserably slinking!" (2:65) In the presence of the Lord, the meaning (al-murad) of Sabbath is Fatima the Resplendent (al-Fatima al-Zahra), because she is the Day of the Book. Verily, God has caused all created things to appear through her; this is clear. And verily God knows that the people of the contingent world are not the Family of Muhammad, because their realities are the shadows of her body, according to the degree to which she appeared to them through their own souls (la-hum bi-him). But they transgressed what God had taught them concerning true doctrine (i`tiqad) [namely, they thought] "our [human] realities are in the station of unity and gnosis (maqam al-wahda wa'l-ma 'rifa), and thus more exalted than her body." God said to them: "The wage of their [meager] knowledge concerning the gnosis of Fatima is 'Be you apes, miserably slinking.'
He who claims that the prophets have become unified in the region of their own hearts as the body of Fatima was unified, his Creator has made him, at the very moment of this arrogant claim, an ape. The wage of sin is justice from God for what they claimed.94
Kirmani has elaborated on the epithet al-Zahra in a discussion of the Logos/Intellect. Corbin summarizes: The Intellect is the suprasensory calling for visible Form, while the station of Fatima corresponds exactly to this visible Form: "[The logos] is like the archetypal body, the inner astral mass of the sun, invisible to human perception, in relation to the visible Form, which is its aura, brilliance and splendor.... this is why Fatima has been called by a solar name: Fatima al-Zahra ... the totality of the universe consists of this light of Fatima.... "95Fatima is furthermore the soul (nafs, "Anima") of the Imams, "she is the Threshold or Gate (bab) through which the Imams effuse the gift of their light" she is "all thinkable reality." "Her eternal Person, which is the secret of the world of the Soul, is also its manifestation (bayan), without which the creative Principle of the world would remain unknown and unknowable, forever hidden."96 The Bab's commentary on 2:66 is similar: “And We made it a punishment exemplary for all the former times and for the latter, and an admonition to such as are godfearing.” [Quran 2:66]
God tells about the evildoers who are opposed [to the true walaya] namely, that they allude to God by means of a triple allusion (isharat al-tathlith).97 God says that they are apes referring to those who turn to the sign of their own tawhid with worldly eyes (bi'lnazar al-imkani).... Those who "fear" what God commanded vis a vis drawing near to [Fatima] by attaining the depth of the Fatimid Exclusive Unity (lujjat al-ahadiyat al-fatimiya) without modality or allusion (bila kayf aw ishara),98 and fear what God commanded, namely that none would draw near to her/it [lujja is feminine] except by clinging to knowledge of Fatima (bi'l-i `tigad fi ma `rifat Fatima). This itself is impossible in the contingent world, except to the degree that she appears to whatever is other than her by means of whatever is other than Him. And she is the Primal Command (al-amr al-awwal; cf. Amanat’s “primal truth”), and nothing else. Therefore God made His admonition compelling for the godfearing.99
In his discussion of the various levels of the "return" to God (thumma ilayhi turja una, Quran 2:28), the Bab says that God created Fatima from the light of His essence (nur dhatihi) and that all the prophets have their beginning, and therefore their return in the Depth of the Exclusive Unity which Depth was "invented" (ikhtira’) from the light of the body of Fatima. "And as for the generality of believers, God originated them from the shadows of the realities of the prophets (zill haga'iq al-anbiya). So their return is to these."100
The beginning of the Act (al-fi'l) is the Depth of the Exclusive unity (lujjat al-ahadiya) and its return is to it. And the beginning of passivity (that which is receptive of act: infi'al) is the sea of the inclusive unity (tamtam al-wahidiya), and its return is to it. And for each grade there is a station in [the cosmic process of] Origin and Return.101 Another interesting appearance of Fatima in this commentary is her identification with the Tree that Adam and Eve were commanded to avoid at Quran 2:35. Here the Bab says that the Tree is "absolute contingency – because all of the manifestations (tajalliyat) are enfolded in it. "Tree," shajara, it will be noted, is feminine, so that the Arabic reads "enfolded in her." This is perfectly analogous to the Imams being enfolded within Fatima as discussed earlier. Continuing, the Bab says, "As for Adam, God created the beginning of his existence from the superabundance of the luminous rays of the body of Fatima."
And a [created] thing may not “draw nigh” to [anything] beyond its origin. So, when Adam “drew nigh” to the Tree of Reality shining forth from Fatima by means of the “drawing nigh” of existence, he disobeyed his Lord, because God commanded him to not to approach it, except through an instance of ecstatic consciousness (al-wijdan). At the time of such an experience, the "thing drawn nigh unto" is the Tree itself and nothing other than it.102 Adam's disobedience is also related to Fatima in the commentary at Quran 2:6: "Verily as for those who disbelieve, it is all the same to them whether ye warn them or ye warn them not, they will not have faith." Adam's repentance after his expulsion from the Garden is the result of his having been made aware of the generosity of Fatima. Adam had shown covetousness, one of the three sources of kufr according to Ja'far alSadiq, when he wanted to eat from the Tree.
The first disobedience of Adam was his desire for the Tree of the Divine Inclusive Unity. Indeed, his desire was the very creation of this Tree! Otherwise, he would have remained a dweller in the Divine Exclusive Unity, not desiring anything else. He would not have abandoned the Garden of Muhammad and his Family. At the time of this desire came shirk. And when this desire came about he abandoned the Garden and the Divine Will became attached to the Divine Purpose, and this is Eve and Adam. God created her from the Divine Will for the comfort of Adam. When he disobeyed, he left the Garden of the Divine Ipseity (huwiya) and he entered the black sea of this world below-a veritable fire of duality where even the qualities of submissiveness and humility fight with one another. He perceived the generosity (jud) of Fatima. Then he lamented and he affirmed to God his belief in al-bada' [viz., the distinctively Shia belief that God can change His mind, or "start anew"] and attested to the prohibition of wine and he wept thirty days, then he repented towards God by clinging to the love of the recognition of the Family of God. God accepted his repentance, and thus did Adam become one "of those who do good."103
Love and Authority
We close this survey of Fatima in the Bab's tafsir with the subject that opened the study, namely walaya, "spiritual authority," and its dimension of love (mahabba). At verse 3 of Surat al-Baqara, the subject of Absolute Walaya is encountered. Here the Quranic statement "those who perform the prayer" is said by the Bab to imply general obedience to Muhammad and his Trustees (or: Legatees, awsiya) and his Progeny (nabt) through the Most Great Absolute Walaya (al-walaya almutlaqa al-kubra). While in other statements Absolute Walaya was linked to 'Ali alone,104 here it includes all of the Imams. In the same section walaya is identified with tawhid, affirmation of the divine unity. The Bab says that the act of prayer (salat) "from beginning to end" is the "form for affirming divine uniqueness" (surat al-tafrid), the "temple (haykal) for affirming the divine unity (tawhid)," and the "visible form (or: pre-vivified form, shabah) of walaya." This being the case, only the actual bearers of walaya are able to perform it properly because it is the foremost station of distinction between the Beloved (mahbub, i.e., God) and the lover. The Family of God (al Allah = Muhammad, Fatima, and the 12 Imams) are the true bearers of the meaning of the divine love mentioned in the famous hadith qudsi: "I was a hidden treasure and desired to be known, therefore I created mankind in order to be known." This love (mahabba) was manifested (tajalla) by God to them by means of their own selves (la-hum bi-him), to such a degree of exclusivity that this divine love subsists only through them, and pure servitude appears only in them. The Bab continues to say that the Family of God are the places (mahall) where servitude and all lordship ('ubudiyat and rububiyat) distinguish themselves, implying that it is through their act of servitude that they have been invested with the rank of lordship in relation to others.
Whoever, then, confesses the truth of their walaya in “the region of pure servitude” has in fact performed the prayer according to all the stations of the Merciful One. And he who performs the prayer [this way] also "pierces the veils of glory” (subuhat al-jalal) and enters the house of glory (bayt al-jalal), where such a one will eternally dwell in the protecting shade of their walaya.105 At verse 62, the term Absolute Walaya is associated again with the entire Family of God, because they are sanctified servants who do nothing of their own wills, but rather the will of God: "Surely they that believe, and those of Jewry, and the Christians, and those Sabaeans, whoso believes in God and the Last Day, and works righteousness – their reward awaits them with their Lord, and no fear shall be on them, neither shall they sorrow."
The "works of righteousness" mentioned in this verse therefore are described as being represented, par excellence, by the act of recognizing the Absolute Walaya of the Family of God; and "their reward awaits them with 'Ali." In the context of the verse itself, the suggestion is that non-Muslims are implicated in the responsibility of recognizing the authority of 'Ali and the Family of God. This may offer an indication of the way in which "absolute" (mutlaq) is to be understood. It should be noted that the last phrase of the above verse is repeated at Quran 10:62 , where it is specifically "the friends of God" (awliya' allah) who will neither grieve nor sorrow. Such cross references and correspondences are most certainly not accidental, particularly in this case where the later verse corroborates this interpretation by virtue of its vocabulary (awliya'plural of wali).106
Love as a synonym for walaya is of course not new with the Bab, but it is important that this aspect of walaya be constantly kept in mind as a means of holding the other connotations of the term, such as "authority" and "power," in perspective. This equivalence led Corbin to state that Shiasm is pre-eminently a religion of spiritual love107 – a very large assertion that must be considered in the somewhat ratified context of Corbin's preoccupations. However, insofar as devotion to the walaya of the Imam represents, in essence, an act of love, the assertion seems to stand.
In the commentary on Quran 2:23, "love" is again associated with walaya. The Bab says: None can attain to the Depth of the Exclusive Divine Unity (lujjat al-ahadiya) except by means of his ('Ali’s) walaya. It is the goal (maqsud) of your existence (wujudi-kum), because God has made you for the sake of this love (mahabba). And He has put His life (hayat) and His might ('izz) in it, to the extent that such is possible in the contingent world – if only you understood.
Love is related to the idea of knowledge/ma' rifa (gnosis), by virtue of the "theosophical" axiom: the more one knows the more one loves, and the more one loves the more one knows. This axiom is represented in the Islamic instance by the Tradition of the Hidden Treasure, quoted above: God's love or desire to be known set the terms of spiritual development for "all time." True knowledge is attained through love and devotion, and if this devotion be tested through hardship, the love, and therefore the attendant knowledge (or vice versa) is the purer. All of the Family of God suffered, but perhaps none more than Fatima, who as the mother of all suffers doubly. In his commentary on Quran 2:25, the Bab states that "the Garden," that is, Paradise, is indeed the love of the visible form of Fatima (mahabbat shabah Fatima). But give glad tidings to those who believe and work righteousness, that their portion is Gardens beneath which rivers flow. Every time they are fed with fruits therefrom, they say: "Why, this is what we were fed with before." For they are given things in similitude (mutashabihan); and they have therein companions pure (and holy); and they abide therein forever. [2:25]
For the people of inner knowledge "God gave glad tidings to those who believe" in Muhammad and do righteous deeds with regard to his Trusteeship by means of allegiance to 'Ali. For them await gardens, and these [gardens] are the love (hubb) of Fatima underneath which are rivers, meaning the two Hasans [ i.e., al-Hasan and al-Husayn). ... the fourth [river] is of red wine, flowing for the fragmentation (kasr) of all things and their refashioning (sawgh) according to the divine signs and tokens. And by it the love bodies (al-ajsad ab-mahabba) of the Shi'a of the Pure Family of God are reddened. And God fashioned in this river the forms of the believers. And God wrote at its head; "Love of the Shi'a of Ali is My fortress (hisni). Therefore, he who enters My fortress is secure from My chastisement." Every one who drinks from a river: they say, "This is that" in which God has put all the lights of the four signs [i.e., tawhid, nubuwwa, imama, shi'a).... And there for them shall be spouses purified and virtuous ... And they shall dwell forever in the love of Fatima.108
Given the dramatic role played by Tahirih – as the reappearance of Fatima-in the formation and development of the Babi religion, such words as these of the Bab's give us an enhanced understanding of the sources of her authority and influence and raise the question, Must a challenge to the status quo entail a break with the past?
NOTES:
1 In remembrance of Elizabeth Martin.
2 The following is a revised version of an article that originally appeared in The Most Learned of the Shi„a: The Institution of the Marja„ Taqlid, edited by Linda Walbridge, Oxford University Press: New York, 2001, pp. 94-127.
3 Susan S. Maneck, "Women in the Baha'i Faith" Religion and Women, Arvind Sharma (ed.), Albany, N.Y.: SUNY Press, 1994, 211-27.
4 Amanat, Abbas. Resurrection and Renewal: The Making of the Babi Movement in Iran, 1844-1850. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1989, 331
5 The Persian Bayan of Sayyid Ali Muhammad Shirazi, the Bab, 1.2, tr. Dr. Denis MacEoin, The Second Chapter of the First Unity: [H-Bahai] Translations of Shaykhi, Babi and Baha'i Texts (July, 1997-)
6 Such a status is reflected in the words of Ali Shariati: "She herself is an Imam...." ('Ali Shariati, Fatima Is Fatima, trans. L Bakhtiu [Tehran: The Shariah Foundation, (1980)], p. 225. For important recent scholarship on Fatima see the writings of Muhammad Ali Amir Moezzi: “Aspects de l’Imamologie Duodécimaine I: Remarques sur la Divinité de l’Imam”, Studia Iranica, 1996, 25(2), 193-216; “Cosmogony and Cosmology in Twelver Shiasm,” Encyclopedia Iranica, vol. 6, pp. 317-322; (in collaboration with Jean Calmard), “Fatimah, daughter of the Prophet Mohammad,” Encyclopedia Iranica, vol. 9, pp. 400-404; The Divine Guide in Early Shi`ism: The Sources of Esotericism in Islam. Tr. David Streight. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1994, passim. The recent lucid discussion of the general development of the religio-literary image of Fatima will also be of interest: Verena Klemm, "Image Formation of an Islamic Legend: Fatima, the Daughter of the Prophet Muhammad," in Sebastian Günther (ed.), Ideas, Images, and Methods of Portrayal: Insights into Classical Arabic Literature and Islam, Leiden & Boston: E. J. Brill, 2005, 181-208.
7 This word is sometimes voweled as wilaya and frequently nice distinctions are made between the two spellings in which walaya refers to spiritual authority and wilaya refers to political authority. Linguistically and etymologically there is no basis for this distinction. One important Shia lexicon states that the voweling is optional and the word connotes both political/temporal and spiritual power. A. Isfahani, Tafsir Mir' at al-Anwar wa Mishkat al-Asrar ,Tehran: Chapkhaneh Aftab, 1874/1954, 337-38).
8 I prefer "Family of God" as a translation for this term to "clan of God" found throughout Amanat, because of the obvious differences in connotation and denotation it carries: nearness, intimacy, and familiarity. These persons are seen as the Holy Family in Shiasm, not the Holy Clan.
9 E.g., Quran 2:107; 2:160; 2:257; 3:68; 6:51; 6:70; 9:112; 13:37; 18:26; 29:22; 32:4; 42:8; 42:9; 42:28; 42:31.
10 The most recent scholarly treatment of the key events and personalities in the drama that unfolded after the death of the Prophet is Madelung, Wilferd. The Succession to Muhammad: A Study of the Early Caliphate. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.
11 Hermann Landolt, "Walayah," Encyclopedia of Religion, and now the appropriate passages in Amir-Moezzi, Divine Guide, index s.v. walaya, wali, awliya'.
12 Bernd Radtke and John O'Kane, The Concept of Sainthood in Early Islamic Mysticism, London: Curzon Press, 1996.
13 On this topic see Kohlberg, Etan. "Abu Turab." Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 1978, 347-52.;"From Imamiyya to Ithna-`Ashariyya." Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 39 (1976), 521-34.; "The Development of the Imami Shia Doctrine of jihad." Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgandlandischen Gesellschaft 1976, 126, 64-86.; Newman, Andrew Joseph III. The Development and Political Significance of the Rationalistic (Usuli) and Traditionalist (Akhbari) Schools in Imami Shia History from the Third/Ninth to the Tenth/Sixteenth Century A.D. Ann Arbor: UMI Dissertation Service, 1986.
14 On the Shaykhi teachings see Juan R. I Cole, "Individualism and the Spiritual Path in Shaykh Ahmad al-Ahsa'i." H-Bahai Occasional Papers in Shaykhi, Babi and Baha'i Studies 1/4 (September, 1997).; "The World as Text: Cosmologies of Shaykh Ahmad al-Ahsa'i," Studia Islamica, 1994, 80, 1-23; Henry Corbin,.Spiritual Body and Celestial Earth: From Mazdean Iran to Shiite Iran. Translated by Nancy Pearson, Princeton:Princeton University Press, 1977.[Hereafter Corbin]; Corbin, Henry. En Islam iranien. 4 vols. Paris: Gallimard, 1971-72.[Hereafter EII]; Rafati, Vahid. The Development of Shaykhi Thought in Shia Islam. Ann Arbor: University Microfilms, 1979
15 On the subtle, amphibolous, and powerful relationship between Imam and Text, see Todd Lawson, "Reading Reading Itself: The Bab's 'Sura of the Bees,' A Commentary on Quran 12:93 from the Sura of Joseph-Text, Translation and Commentary H-Bahai Occasional Papers in Shaykhi, Babi and Baha'i Studies 1/5 (November, 1997).
16 Even as recently as 1989, we find the following statement on the date of the Tafsir surat Yusuf: “As far as can be verified, up to this time [when he produced the Tafsir surat Yusuf] the Bab had not produced any work of significance, and it was only during his encounters with his early believers that he became fully aware of his talent for producing Quranic commentaries." Amanat, Resurrection, 172-73.Manuscript: Tafsir Surat Yusuf by the Bab" (1) Haifa, Baha'i World Centre: (QA)
17 Edward , 637-710, "A Catalogue and Description of 27 Babi Manuscripts," Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1892, 24, 493-99. Azal, like his half-brother Baha'u'llah, had been a follower of the Bab from the early days. As a result of disagreements between himself and Baha'u'llah, he became the leader of the Azali faction of the Babis. Browne received a great number of Babi manuscripts from him.In this article Browne quotes a passage from the Tarikh-i Jadid which recounts the conversion of the young Shaykhi Mulla Husayn Bushru'i to the cause of the Bab in May 1844. While Mulla Husayn was visiting the Bab in the latter's home, he discovered a commentary on the Surat al-Baqara. Reading some of it, he was impressed by the merits of the work and asked his host who its author was. The Bab said that he in fact had written the work. This story relates that Mulla Husayn was puzzled by one of the passages in the work: "the explanation of the inmost of the inmost" (tafsir-i batin-i batin). Mulla Husayn is reported to have said: This appeared to me to be an error, and I remarked, "Here it should be 'the inmost,' and they have written 'the inmost of the inmost.'" "What can I say?" [the Bab] answered, "the author of the Commentary lays claim to even more than this of greatness, glory, and knowledge. Consider the passage attentively." I did so, and said, "It is quite correct. But I am wearied. Do you read and I will listen." He read for a time, and then, as men are wont, I said, "It is enough. Do not trouble yourself further.". Browne, Catalogue, 496-97. While this account is important for the history of the Tafsir Surat al-Baqara, it raises the question of why Mulla Husayn should have been stopped by such an expression. The tafsir does in fact employ it, although Browne was unable to locate it in his manuscript. It also seems logical to assume that Mulla Husayn would have been quite conversant with such language. The writings of both Shaykh Ahmad and Sayyid Kazim contain many allusions not only to the batin al-batin, but also to the batin batin al-batin, Whir al-batin, and so forth. The young Mulla may have wanted to say that this particular passage deals only with the batin and should not therefore have been referred to as an explanation of the "inmost of the inmost." It may be that the passage was left out of Browne's manuscript because it was thought to damage the credibility of the Bab. Or it could be an apocryphal tale designed to present the Bab as more learned than Mulla Husayn. Tafsir surat al-baqara (ms.) by the Bab, Sayyid `Ali Muhammad Shirazi, Tehran Bahai Archives 6014C [Baq]. Additional manuscripts: Cambridge University Library, Browne Or. Ms. F8. (C); Leiden University Library, Or.4971 (Ar.2414). Item No. 8. (L); Majmu 'ah-ye Athar Hadrat-i A'la, 156-410. (1).
18 Denis MacEoin, The Sources for Early Babi Doctrine and History: A Survey (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1992), 46-47.
19 Ibid., 41.
20 Todd Lawson, "Interpretation as Revelation: The Quran Commentary of Sayyid `Ali Muhammad Shirazi, the Bab (1819-1950)" In Approaches to the History of the Interpretation of the Quran, ed. Andrew L Rippin. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1988, 223-53.
21 MacEoin, Sources, 47. Extant works that were probably written by the Bab before the Tafsir Surat al-Baqara include the short Arabic Risalat fi al-Suluk (on which see MacEoin, Sources, 44-45). For a translation and description of this short epistle, see Todd Lawson, “The Bab’s „Journey towards God’: Translation and Text.” In H-Bahai Translations of the Shaykhi, Babi and Bahai Texts 2/1 (January, 1998b). .Manuscript: Tehran Baha'i Archives, 6006.C: (S)
22 Zarandi, Mulla Muhammad (Nabil). The Dawn-Breakers: Nabil's Narrative of the Early Days of the Baha'i Revelation, tr. and ed. Shoghi Effendi. Wilmette, Ill.: Bahai'i Publishing Trust, 1974, 31 23 Literally juz'. The Quran is divided in thirty more or less equal parts (ajza') for liturgical purposes, enabling the believer to read equal parts of the text on successive days of the sacred month of Ramadan, for example. The first part includes the first sura, al-Fatiha, the Opening, consisting of seven verses and the first 141 verses of the Surat al-Baqara. The Surat al-Baqara comprises roughly two and one-half parts. It is the longest sura of the Quran.
24 This much more famous second work, the Qayyum al-Asma, appears to be the first work written after the commentary on al-Baqara. By its special structure it actually may be considered a commentary on the entire Quran. Thus, if it had been the Bab's desire to produce a complete tafsir at this early stage, he may be seen as having accomplished this task though in a radically and unpredictably untraditional form. For a fuller description of this second commentary, see Lawson "Interpretation as Revelation."
25 If the basic conclusion of this paper is correct, namely that the Babi movement represents an efflorescence of themes, motifs, and religiosity associated with the earliest extremist Shias, then Halm's statement, referring to the Ahl-i Haqq and the Nusayris, needs to be reassessed: "Descendarts of the Kufan ghulat have survived to the present time in two mountainous areas of retreat, far from the centres of political power and from Sunni as well as Shiite orthodoxy.... The Nusayris are the only Islamic sect to preserve the unbroken tradition of the Kufan guluw." Heinz Halm, Shiism, trans. J. Watson, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1991, 158-59.
26 Baq., pp. 8 and 1, p. 156: qad ja 'alaha Allahu zillaha li-man aqarra bi-walayatihi; C, f.2b: qad ja'ala Allahu.... Repeated reference throughout this commentary to ahadiya, wahidiya, rahmaniya, and so on constitutes one of its more distinguishing characteristics. The terminology comes originally from Ibn 'Arabi (638/1240) and its use here by the Bab offers yet another example of how the work, if not the thought, of one of history's greatest mystics had thoroughly permeated Iranian Shia spiritual discourse (`irfan) by this time. For a study of these terms as they were received by Ibn 'Arabi's student Qunawi and others, see William Chittick, "The Five Divine Presences," Muslim World, 1982, 72, 107-28. (See also the critique of this article: Hermann Landolt “Review of W. Chittick, „The Five Divine Presences- From al-Qunawi to al-Qaysari.’ Studia Iranica, Suppl. 8, 1985, *488, p. 126.) Briefly, the term ahadiya represents the highest aspect of the Absolute about which we can notion (if one may use a noun as a verb) but does not, of course, define the Absolute that must always be beyond whatever occurs about It in our minds- The term wahidiya refers to the second highest aspect of the Absolute, the aspect that involves the "appearance" of the divine names and attributes. See also 'Abd al-Razzaq al-Kashani, al-Istilahat al-Sufiya, edited by Muhammad Kamal Ibrahim Ja„far, Cairo: al-Hai’at al-Misriyat al-„Amma li’l-Kitab, 1981, 25,47. The proper understanding of this technical terminology has been a subject of scholarly debate in Iran for centuries.
27 Etymologically feminine, rahmaniya, from the Arabic word for "womb," is the abstract noun mercifulness. Ibn Arabi seems to be the one responsible for characterizing the existentiation of creation as an act of mercy, an expression of rahmaniya.
28 In the commentary on the rest of the Fatiha, each verse of which is designated as "the book" or writing of one of the fourteen Pure Ones, that is the twelve imams, Fatima, and Muhammad. For specifics on the heptadic structure that reflects the realities of Family of God, see Lawson (1986). 29 See also Huda Lutfy, "The Mystical Dimensions of Literature" Alif: Journal of Comparative Politics Spring 1985, 5, 7-19.
30 It should be noted that we find no mention of Fatima at the corresponding place in the eleventh-century classical work by the otherwise influential Shia theologian Tusi, Muhammad al-Hasan, al-., al-Tibyan fi Tafsir al-Qur' an, Najaf ,1957-63, Vol. 1, 28-30. 31 Baq. p. 8, 11.4-8.The phrase "Garden of Grace" (jannat al-na'im) is determined by Quranic usage (see, e.g., 26:85). "Gnostic" translates 'arif. There are other choices: "recognizer," "knower," "seeker."
32 Ali's nickname Abu Turab is said to have originated because whenever he and Fatima would quarrel, he would leave the house and cover his head with dust, presumably out of the frustration at being married to the Prophet's daughter. Indeed, the Prophet himself bestowed this name upon him (Laura Veccia Vaglieri, "Fatima", Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed.). For other explanations of the distinctive nickname, see Kohlberg, Abu Turab, 347-52; and "The Dawning Places of the Lights of Certainty in the Divine Secrets Connected with the Commander of the Faithful, by Rajab Bursi (d. 1411)." In The Legacy of Mediaeval Persian Sufism, ed. Leonard Lewisohn, foreword by Javad Nurbakhsh, introduction by S. H. Nasr. London: Khaniqah Nimatullahi Publications in association with the SOAS Centre of Near and Middle Eastern Studies, University of London, 1992, 261-76, cf. 268. One of the key figures in the drama and legend of Tahirih the Babi is one Shaykh Abu Turab. For the most recent and quite penetrating study of this drama, see Negar Mottahedeh, "Ruptured Spaces and Effective Histories: The Unveiling of the Babi Poetess Qurrat al-`Ayn- Tahirih in the Gardens of Badasht." Occasional Papers in Shaykhi, Babi and Baha'i Studies 2/2 (February, 1998.
33 The bibliography on Fatima remains to be compiled. For this paper I have benefited from Laura Veccia Vaglieri's excellent Encyclopedia of Islam, 2nd ed., entry. See now (in collaboration with Jean Calmard), Fatimah, daughter of the Prophet Mohammad, 400-404. A study of Fatima in tafsir is Jane Dammen McAuliffe’s brief “Chosen of All Women : Mary and Fatimah in Quranic Exegesis,” Islamochristiana, 1981, 7, 19-28. Surprisingly, much early and later explicitly Shia material is ignored in this otherwise interesting article. For example, the very early Shia Tafsir Furat ibn Ibrahim mentions Fatima in over twenty places. The commentaries of the two famous classical Shia exegetes, Tusi and Tabrisi, also mention her at various points in their commentaries. The commentaries of Muhsin Fayd Kashani and others also frequently cite hadith, or more appropriately akhbar, which mention Fatima's name. 34 "She is usually depicted in the Shia sources as a bitter woman who spent her last days mourning the death of her father and refusing any contact with the outside world Mahmoud Ayoub,. Redemptive Suffering in Islam: A Study of the Devotional Aspects of 'Ashura' in Twelver Shiasm, The Hague: Mouton Publishers, 1978.,40. 35 The lack of descendants is a topos in Muhammad's biography and is reflected in the Quran as well. This meant that his progeny was destined to issue only from his daughters, which in his society meant that he was without descendants. 36 A third son, Muhsin, was stillborn. 37 Later on in his career, the Bab himself would compose a lengthy commentary on this very sura. See Todd Lawson, "Quran Commentary as Sacred Performance: The Bab's tafsirs of Quran 103 and 108, the Declining Day and the Abundance." In Iran im 19. Jahrhundert and die Enstehung der Baha'i Religion, ed. Christoph Burgel and Isabel Schayani. Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 1998, 145-58.
38 Veccia Vaglieri, Fatima. Cf. Lammens, Henri. Fatimah et les filles de Mahomet. Rome: Sumptibus Pontificii Institut Biblici, 1912. 39 "La notion du voe et la devotion musulmane a Fatima." In Studio orientalistici in onore di Giorgio della Vida. Rome: Instituto per l'Oriente, 1956, vol. 2, 102-26., p. 118f. But see the legend of the heavenly table being removed from the ahl al-bayt because they tried to share it with outsiders, Ayoub, Redemptive Suffering, 44-45. 40 Veccia Vaglieri, Fatima 41 Ibid. 42 Dala’ il al-Imama by Husayn ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab, Najaf, 1949/1369, 1-58. This source is used heavily by Veccia Vaglieri, Fatima. It is, unfortunately, unavailable to me. 43 `Ali Shariati, Fatima Is Fatima. Translated by Laleh Bakhtiar. Tehran: Shariati Foundation,[19801]. 160-61.
44 Veccia Vaglieri, Fatima 45 See McAuliffe, Chosen of All Women; and Ibn Shahrashub, Abu Ja'far Muhammad bin `Ali. Manaqib Al Abi Talib. 4 vols. Beirut: Dar al-Ida', 1405/1980 46 Ibn Shahrashub, Manaqib, vol.3 357-58 cited by Veccia Vaglieri, Fatima. For the name Qurrat al'Ayn, "Solace of the eyes," see also Abu'l-Layth al-Samarqandi (d373/983), Tanbih al-Ghafilin, 2nd ed. Taqqadum Press, 1324/1906, 7-25. 47 For details on the proper observance of this important day, see „Abbas Qummi, Mafatih al-jinan Beirut: Dar al-Ida', 1407/1987, 350-54. See also the related hadith al-kisa', Qummi, Mafatih, 386-89; cf, also Moojan Momen, An Introduction to Shia Islam, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1985, 14. 48 Baq, p. 211 in the course of the commentary on Quran 2:76; Veccia Vaglieri, "Fatima." 49 Veccia Vaglieri, Fatima 50 Ibid. 51 Mottahedeh, Ruptured Spaces
52 Veccia Vaglieri, Fatima 53 Ibid. 54 Ibid. 55 Ibn Shahrashub, Manaqib, vol. 3, 359. 56 See now Cole, Individualism, and World as Text, Rafati, Development, and parts of Todd Lawson, "The Quran Commentary of Sayyid Ali Muhammad, the Bab (1819-1850)." Unpublished Ph.D. thesis. McGill University, Montreal, 1987. Until the mid 1970s Corbin's was really the only effort in the West, apart from Nicolas' pioneering work (A. L M Nicolas,. Essai sur le Cheikhisme. 4 vols. Paris: Geuthner and Ernest Leroux, 1910-14), to devote serious attention to this intellectual development of the late eighteenth/early nineteenth century in Iran.
57 Corbin, 58; "primitive" here is both a formal and a chronological designation. By it such groups as the Nusayris, the early Isma'ilis, and other of the so-called ghulat are intended. 58 Ibid, 59. 59 The passage continues: "And through this supracelestial Earth, we are led to the idea of a Shia Sophiology, by which we shall perceive afresh something that Mazdean Sophiology already perceived in the Angel of the Earth, but this time at a new and higher level, since the progressio harmonica produces the resonance of harmonics which until then had remained silent." Corbin, 59-60).
60 Corbin, 60. 61 All of this may be found amplified in greater detail at Corbin, 60-73. 62 Nothing if not baroque, Corbin's interest in the theme of the "celestial earth" (a basic coincidentia oppositorum, it should be noted) went far beyond, yet somehow remained centered, in the figure of Fatima. He offered the metaphor of music, specifically the progressio harmonica of the pipe organ, to explain what he saw as a beautiful and compelling Iranian enrichment of intellectual history: "Whoever is somewhat familiar with the organ knows what are referred to as "stops." Thanks to these stops, each note can cause several pipes of different lengths to "speak" simultaneously; thus, besides the fundamental note, a number of harmonic overtones can be heard. Among the contrivances that regulate them, the progressio harmonica designates a combination of stops which allows more and more overtones to be heard as one ascends towards the upper register, until at a certain pitch the fundamental note also resounds simultaneously" (Corbin, p. 51). 63 On this see Todd Lawson, "A 'New Testament' for the Safavids: Interpretations of The Day of the Covenat (Quran 7:172) in Safavid Quran Commentary." Proceedings of the Safavid Roundtable, Edinburgh (1988)., forthcoming.
64 Corbin, 69. 65 See, e.g., Bowering, Gerhard, The Mystical Vision of Existence in Classical Islam: The Quranic Hermeneutics of the Sufi Sahl At-Tustari (d.283/896). Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1980; Kazemi-Moussavi, Ahmad. Religious Authority in Shiite Islam: From the Office of Mufti to the Institution of Marja'. Kuala Lumpur: International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization, 1996.; Dabashi, Hamid. Authority in Islam : From the Rise of Muhammad to the Establishment of the Umayyads. New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction, 1989; Arjomand, Sayyid Amir, ed. Authority and Political Culture in Shi`ism. Albany : State Universityof New York Press,1988.; Calder, Norman. The Structure of Authority in Imami Jurisprudence. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis. School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, 1980; Stewart, Devin J. Islamic Legal Orthodoxy : Twelver Shiite Responses to the Sunni Legal System. SaltLake City: University of Utah Press, 1998. 66 Ibn Hanbal, Musnad, tr. Momen, p. 15.
67 Baq, 47-48.
68 Ibid., 49-50. 69 Ibid., 52. 70 Ibid., 224.
71 Ibid., 94. kafirun instead of the Quranic "losers" (khasirun, all mss.). These seven names are used as a kind of shorthand to represent the Prophet, Fatima, and the twelve Imams because although they are twelve, they may be known by using only these seven names; That is, each of the names Muhammad, 'Ali, Hasan, and Husayn may be applied to more than one Imam while the names Fatima, Ja'far, and Musa can apply to only one person respectively. Earlier in this commentary, the Bab ad Quran 2:3 (Baq, 22-23), speaks of seven grades of faith (iman), taking his cue from yuminuna, "those who believe." One grade, the third, is faithfulness (wafa')- a near synonym -associated specifically with Fatima. 72 Ibid., 94-95. 73 For important background to the Shaykhi reading of Quran 7:172, see Lawson, A 'New Testament’ 74 Corbin, 63. A study of Shia akhbari tafsir on precisely the subject of the Day of the Covenant reveals that the apparitional forms of the "first" participants is more or less a standard topos. See Lawson, "A 'New Testament.'" This, of course, was one of Corbin's main points: the Shaykhis represent a revivification of very ancient modes of religiosity combined with a terminology that had more recently developed through the works of such important Iranian philosophers as Mulla Sadra (d.1640). 75 Formed on the Arabic word ilah (god), lahut refers to the divine realm. Three other similar words are encountered in such discussions: jabarut, malakut, mink to refer to three realms that issue in descending order from the lahut. All of these worlds symbolize with each other. A fifth term, nasut (humanity, human dimension), is frequently encountered. It is built on the word nas and is the polar opposite of lahut. Between lahut and nasut the whole spectrum of cosmic activity and events occurs.
76 Baq, 192-93. Veccia Vaglieri, "Fatima,” noticed this identification of Fatima with the rock "among Isma'ilis and the deviant sects" and says further that she has found no trace of such an idea in the Imami sources. According to Kashani,Muhsin Fayd. al-Safi fi Tafsir Kalam Allah al-Wafi. 5 vols. Beirut: Mu'assasat al-A`lami li-I'Matbu`at, 1979-82. Vol 1., 136-37, Moses struck the rock invoking the name of Muhammad and his family; there is no mention of Fatima’s being the rock in Kashani or Bahrani, two late-seventeenth-century Safavid works. But see Isfahani ,Tafsir, 244 where a somewhat rationalistic presentation of this reading is found. Isfahani avoids the extreme personifications and "allegorizing" found in the tafsir of the Bab. (n.b the possible connection between hajar "rock" and Hagar, the wife of Abraham and mother of the Arabs, as a manifestation of Fatima). 77 Veccia Vaglieri, Fatima
78 Baq, 112. 79 Corbin, 64. 80 Corbin, 66 81 Cf. Bahrani, al-Sayyid Hashim al-. Kitab al-Burhan fi Tafsir al-Quran. 4 vols. Tehran: Chapkhaneh Aftab, 1375/1955. Vol. 4, 402 and the hadith transmitted by al-Qummi, Mafatih, via the following isnad: al-Husayn b. Muhammad ... al-Baqir, the fifth Imam who it seems was the first to interpret the verse as such. The immediate translation for this interpretation would seem to be grammatical. "This is but one of the mighty portents" translates the Arabic: innaha l'ihda al-kubra modifies the previous litany of three portents: "the moon, the night, and the dawn." The Quran collapse all three in a not-uncharacteristic rhetorical gesture. The tension between plurality and singularity is represented in the grammatical convention that casts nonhuman plural objects in the feminine. The grammatical feminine is thus the exception rather than the rule. To the Shia exegete such an anomalous linguistic event is demystified by identifying it with one of the Family of God, in this case the only female member of that Family, Fatima. It should always be remembered in this context that the Arabic word for “earth” – ard – is grammatically feminine. That such otherwise superfluous considerations can have irreversible and long-range effects on doctrine is born out of the example from Christianity. It seems certain that the Johannine “In the beginning was the Word/logos” was an adjustment to the Septuagint’s preoccupation with wisdom/Sophia, precisely because it was felt inappropriate to refer to Jesus by means of a feminine noun. Note the interesting, if oblique, confirmation of this in the Arabic translation of the New Testament. Here, in the process of changing logos to kalmia a change in grammatical gender occurs. Yet, the resistance to referring to Jesus by means of a feminine noun is apparent in the Arabic: fi’l-bad’ kana „l-kalima… rather than the grammatical fi’l-bad’ kanat al-kalima… This anomaly is standard in all Arabic translations of the Bible.
82 Baq, 112-13 83 ibda' and ikhtira'. Briefly, the first is the action of God, and the second is the action of the demiurge. For a concise explanation of this terminology as it was used in a much earlier but apparently perfectly cognate context, see A Altmann & S. M. Stern. Isaac Israeli, A Neoplatonic Philosopher of the Early Tenth Century: His Works Translated with Comments and an Outline of His Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1958, 152-52. See now Amir-Moezzi, Cosmogony, 317-322. This scholar’s series of articles, published in various journals and books, entitled “Aspects d’Imamologie Duodécimaine” is essential reading for the present topic. It is hoped that it will be available in a single volume in the near future. See Amir-Moezzi, Aspects, 193-216. 84 Corbin, 63-64. See my translation of the Bab's Risalat fi'l-Suluk for an explicit mention of this same idea in the same vocabulary Lawson, Journey
85 Corbin, 66. 86 Ibid., 68. 87 Ibid., 63. 88 See the cognate idea carried, for example, in the phrase ara'is al-bayan (the brides of meaning), the title of an esoteric tafsir by the mystic Ruzbehan Baqli (d. 1209). Just as a verse of poetry is called a bayt (house, tent), the meaning of the verse is considered the bride waiting within the house or tent. 89 Corbin, 67. 90 However 'Abdu’l-Bahá, the Baha'i leader and thinker (and presumably influenced by the Bab's ideas), spoke of the "feminization of humanity" as a precondition for the establishment of universal peace: "The world in the past has been ruled by force, and man has dominated over woman by reason of his more forceful and aggressive qualities both of body and mind. But the balance is already shifting; force is losing its dominance, and mental alertness, intuition, and the spiritual qualities of love and service, in which woman is strong, are gaining ascendancy. Hence the new age will be an age less masculine and more permeated with the feminine ideals, or, to speak more exactly, will be an age in which the masculine and feminine elements of civilization will be more evenly balanced" (J. E. Esslemont, Baha u'llah and the New Era, 5th rev. ed. Wilmette: Baha'i Publishing Trust, 1987, 149). This could be a perfect example of how such an idea as "equality of the sexes," which appears incontestably modem and Western (i.e., foreign to Islam), is in reality a native outgrowth of Islamic culture.
91 Corbin, 67-68. The Bab's commentary, on Quran 2:83, is as follows: "And when We took compact the Children of Israel: 'You shall not serve any save God; and to be good to parents, and the near kinsman, and to orphans, and to the needy; and speak good to men, and perform the prayer, and pay the alms.' then you turned away, all but a few of you, swerving aside." The Bab says that God is speaking about His "taking compact" with all created things "in the eight paradises," to recognize the walaya of `Ali. The first of these paradises is the Depth of Unity (lujjat al-wahda) and is characterized by the command, "You shall not serve any save God ... [and this] without reference [to anything else]." In the second paradise the compact was taken by moans of recognizing the Universal Walaya (al-walayat al-kulliya) of the "parents," i.e., Muhammad and 'Ali who are, respectively, the symbols of universal fatherhood and motherhood. Such recognition, the Bab says, is in reality the good mentioned in the verse, because to do good means to do good to all according to what each merits. The good that these particular parents deserve has only been hinted at, because were the Bab to openly (bi'l-tasrih) describe it, the prattling enemies (mubtilun) would cavil at it. [Baq, 223-24.] 92 Amanat, Resurrection, 331. No source for this statement is given here.
93 Baq, 159-60. On shabah: The beings of the pleroma of the lahut are visible only in their apparitional forms, which are the receptacles of their theophanies (Corbin, 63; cf. Huwayzi, 'Abd `Ali, al-. Kitab Tafsir Nur al-Thaqalayn. 5 vols. Qum: n.p., 1383/1963-1385/1965,.Vol. 1, 56-57, *142-44). The words are a prayer; the names of the six (above) and an invocation of these names. *149: God created the light of Muhammad before the heavens and the earth and the throne and the kursi and the tablet and the pen and paradise and hell. 149, (cont. p. 58) contains reference to ring of Solomon (Bahrani, Burhan, vol. 1, 86, *2 as Huwayzi *3): Adam was expelled on 1 Dhu al-qa'da, and on the 8th of Dhu al-Hijja Gabriel sent him to Minna. See now Amir-Moezzi, Cosmogony cited above. 94 Baq, 198-99. The last two sentences are perhaps a reference to a specific controversy. Unfortunately, the details of this are unknown to me.
95 Corbin, 64. 96 Ibid., 65. 97 Baq, 200. This is possibly an allusion to the first three Sunni caliphs whom the Shi'a consider usurpers of 'Ali's position and breakers of the divine covenant. 98 That is through pure contemplation, without images or thoughts contaminated by "the world." This is a reference, one of many throughout the work, to the famous Hadith Kumayl. 99 Baq, 199-200.
100 Ibid., 109-110. 101 Ibid., 108-9. 102 Ibid., p. 154. Here it is perhaps an affirmation of the agency and efficacy of the specifically Shia form of “enlightenment” referred to by Corbin as “instase”. Cf., in this regard, Fritz Meier’s definition of wijdan as “being touched inside”. Meier, Fritz. Die “fawa’ih al-gamal wa fawatih al-galal” des Nagmuddin al-Kubra. Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner, 1957 fasl 41 & 95; 101 German text. The terms wijdan, derived from wujud “finding” denotes “ecstasy” in Arabic and “conscience” in Persian. I have combined the two meanings here in “ecstasy of consciousness” – a paradoxical event of awareness in which there is no distinction between object and subject, and therefore – according to the implied syllogism – no awareness. Wijdan can also connote an intensification or “thickening” of the experience of being/existence analogous, perhaps, to poetry (Dichtung) as a thickening of the experience of language. The language here is also another explicit reference to the Hadith Kumayl.
103 Ibid., pp. 45-46 Cf. Tusi, al-Tibyan, vol. 1, pp. 59-60: This verse was revealed about Abu Jahl according to al-Rabi' b. Anis, and al-Balkhi and al-Maghribi chose this; according to. Ibn Abbas, it was sent down about the Jewish leaders around Mecca; some say it was sent down about the Arab idolators. Tabari chose Ibn 'Abbas: "We say rather that the verse has a general meaning." 104 Baq, p. 195.
105 This is perhaps an example of the antinomian motif so prominent in certain so-called extremist Shia texts and teachings. 106 Baq, 195-96. 107 E.g., Encyclopedia of Islam, 1st ed., i, 285-303 and iii, 210.
108 Baq, 87: "love of the form of Fatima" (mahabbat shabah Fatima). Additional works consulted include: Abu Lawz, Yusuf. Fatima Tadhhabu Mubakkira ila al-Huqul. Damascus: Ittihad al-kuttab al-arab, 1983.;'Adawi, Muhammad Mustafa, al-.Qissat ar-Raha li's-Sayyida Fatima az-Zahra (Cairo, n.d.). Translated in Jeffery, Islam: Muhammad and His Religion, Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1958, 217-22.; Bani, Omol. Fatima statt Farah: Erfahrungen einer Frau in der iranischen Revolution. Tubingen: Iva-Verlag, 1980. Bayat, Mangol. Mysticism and Dissent: Socioreligious Thought in Qajar Iran. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1982, 1-58; Bursi, Rajab al-. Mashariq Anwar al.Yaqin fi Asrar Amir al-Mu'minin. Beirut: n.p, 1979. Furat al-Kufi, Furat ibn Ibrahim. Tafsir Furat al-Kufi. Ed. Muhammad `Ali al-Ghurawi Urdubadi. Najaf al Matba'a al-Huyderiya 1353/1934.; Gerstle, C. Andrew. "Text as Peformance: Tragedy in Japanese Drama." In Recovering the Orient: Artists, Scholars, Appropriations, ed. Andrew Gerstle and Anthony Milner. Singapore; Harwood Academic Publishers, 1994, 205-28; Hajajji-Jarrah, Soraya. "Women's Modesty in Quranic Commentaries: The Founding Discourse." In Women and the Veil in North America, eds. Sajjida Alvi, Homa Hoodfar, and Sheila McDonough. Toronto: Women’s Press, 2003.; Hermansen, Marcia K. "Fatimeh as a Role Model in the Works of Ali Shari'ati." In Women and Revolution in Iran, ed. Guity Nashat. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1983,. 87-96; Khamis, Muhammad Atiya. Fatima al-Zahra. Cairo, 1965.; Todd Lawson, Akhbari Shia Approaches to Tafsir." In Approaches to the Quran, ed. G. R. Hawting and Abdul- Kader A. Shareef. New York and London: Routledge, 1993, 173-210.; Massignon, Louis. "Der Gnostische Kult der Fatima im Shiitischen Islam." In Opera Minora. Beirut: 1963a, vol. 1, 514-22."La mubahala de Medine et l'hyperdulie de Fatima." In Louis Massignon, Opera Minora. Beirut: Dar el-Maaret Liban, 1963: vol. 1,. 550-72. Massignon, Louis. "L'Oratoire de Marie a l'Aqca, vu sous le voile de deuil de Fatima." In Louis Massignon, Opera Minora. Beirut: Dar el-Maaret Liban, 1963, vol. 1, 592-618.Massignon, Louis. "L'Experience musulmane de la Compassion ordonee a 1'Universel a propos de Fatima et de Hallaj." In Louis Massignon, Opera Minora. Beirut: Dar el-Maaret Liban, 1963, vol. 3, pp. 642-53; The Passion of al-Hallaj, Mystic and Martyr of Islam. Translated from the French with a biographical foreword by Herbert Mason. 4 vols. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1982; Milani, Fadil Husayni al-. Fatima al-Zahra umm abiha. Beirut: Dar al-Ta'rif lil'matbu'at wamuassasa Ahl al-Bayt, 1979; Qazwini, Muhammad Kazim al-. Fatima al-Zahra min al-Mahd ilal'l-Lahd, Beirut: Dar al-Sadiq,1977; Rashti, Sayyid Kazim. Sharh al-Qasida al-Lamiya. Tabriz; litho., n.p.,1270; Stumpel, Isabel. "Tahira Qurrat al-'Ain." In Iran im 19 Jahrhundert und die Enstehung der Baha'i Religion, ed. Christoph Burgel and Isabel Schayani. Hildesheim: Georg Olms Verlag, 1998, 127-43.Tabrisi, Abu `Ali, al-. Mamma' al-Bayan fi Tafsir al-Quran. Beirut: Dar al-Fikr wa Dar al-Kitab al Lubnani, 1377/1957.
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POSITION AND AUITHORITY OF FATIMA AL ZAHRA
see below notes 1 and 2.
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The Authority of the Feminine and Fatima's Place in an Early Work by the Bab
Dr. Todd Lawson (2007)
The power and authority of the millennial or apocalyptic imagination is fully evident in the success of the Babi movement of nineteenth-century Iran. Among the most striking and memorable features of Babism is surely the prominence, prestige, and religious authority acquired by the woman disciple of the Bab known as Tahirih. The famous Babi cleric, poet, martyr, and symbol of Iran's encounter with both its own history and the version of modernity proffered by the West is possibly more noted by posterity than the founder of the Babi movement himself because she represents both an apparent anomaly and a heroic symbol of modern female liberation. Tahirih after all left an unhappy marriage and her children to follow her revolutionary vision for a more just society. She was accomplished in a virtually completely male dominated milieu, the clerical. She traveled widely throughout Iran preaching to audiences of men and women the dawn of a new day, and most dramatically, she threw off her veil in public in direct defiance of social and religious norms. She was also a martyr. After the attempt on the life of the shah in 1851, Tahirih was strangled by her own silk scarf and buried in a well in the courtyard of a religious official in Tehran.
However much the story of Tahirih is appreciated by modern and contemporary feminists and suffragists, it is important to recognize that while her heroism may have inspired many in far-flung salons of Europe and eventually America, she is very much a daughter of her own culture, history, mythology, and religion. This assertion will perhaps be received with cynicism, for how could such a paternalistic and male-dominated religion and culture as Iranian Islam of the first half of the nineteenth century produce such a woman celebrity and champion of women's rights? Indeed, it has never been established that Tahirih was a champion of women's rights3. What we know is that she was a deeply religious mystic who felt a new day arising in the world. She was a messianic player. But it was not accidental that she was a woman, and it is not without consequence for the history of the Babi movement, which though it passed from the stage of history more or less a failure, it nonetheless gave rise to several other trends and movements in Iran whose influence may still be felt. Tahirih the Babi walked, it seems, right out of the poems, songs, and higher forms of religiocultural literature as the return of Fatima. It was a sacred performance. Tahirih, whose full name was Fatima Zarrin Taj Baraghani, Qurrat al-'Ayn, was seen by a large number of her fellow Babis as the "return," or reincarnation, of Fatima, the daughter of the prophet Muhammad and wife of the first Imam, 'Ali. Whether this exemplifies reincarnation or transmigration remains to be addressed. It is indisputable, however, that Baraghani was seen by the Babis (and perhaps herself) as the personification of those virtues and attributes that Fatima had come to symbolize for the Iranian Shia community. At the most superficial level, her name was Fatima and her cognomen Tahirih was first applied to her holy ancestor, as was the other name by which she is so widely known, Qurratu'l-'Ayn, "Solace of the eyes." As an antitype of the Fatima known and venerated by nineteenth-century Iranian Muslims, she may be expected to be rather distinctive. The Fatima of the Bab's Quran commentary is particularly useful as a function of many different factors: she is a bearer of religious authority (walaya: see the discussion that follows for a further elaboration of the meaning of this term); she is a focus of religious devotion and meditation, an icon, as it were, without which the spiritual and religious life may be considered incomplete; she is seen as the embodiment of the spiritual reality of the earth itself, a cosmogonic principle, and at the same time a recurrent actor in a historical drama that will lead ultimately to the long-awaited Day of Resurrection. An examination of the Fatima in this commentary, written before the actual formation or founding of the Babi movement, will help us to understand how many of the Bab's contemporaries saw Tahirih (i.e., the nineteenth-century religious scholar and poet) and, perhaps most important, how Tahirih saw herself. On this latter question, Abbas Amanat has offered the following interesting suggestion:
Frustrations in her family life and persecutions in her Babi career both served as impetuses for inspirations that she transposed into a religious paradigm; what she terms "the state of primal truth." By assuming the symbolic role of Fatima, she envisaged a feminine model – a "primal truth," as she called it – that substantially differed from the role assigned to Fatima in the Islamic, more particularly Shia, tradition as the daughter of the Prophet, the wife of 'Ali, and the mother of Hasan and Husayn; the role that guaranteed her sanctitude (sic) by lineage, marriage, and motherly love. Qurrat al-'Ayn's Fatima was one of independent will and action. The leadership she assumed in the 'Atabat and later at Badasht was the realization of this paradigm.... The only solution she saw, for women and men alike, was a break with the past, and as the first step, a deliberate infringement of religious norms. To find her in the forefront of Babi radicalism and an advocate of progressive revelation is only logical. Her initiation in the Letters of the Living, on the other hand, was anacknowledgment of her equal place with men in the first unit of the ideal Babi order of All-Beings.4
This study suggests that it was not so much a break with the past – that is, the past as "primal truth" – as the revivifying of it that is really at work in the rise of the Babi movement and perhaps its most famous proponent, the woman Tahirih. Fatima, the daughter of the Prophet Muhammad and wife of 'Ali was, according to tradition, something of an activist, such as it could be expressed within the confines of seventh-century Arabia. And it seems clear that tradition honors Fatima for her heroism, a brief outline of which is offered below. In the introduction to his Persian Bayan, written after 1848, the Bab specifies that his first followers, the eighteen Letters of the Living, are the return of the Fourteen Immaculate Ones, the Family of God plus the historical four emissaries of the disappeared twelfth Imam, Muhammad ibn Hasan al-`Askari (disappeared in 873-74) who successively represented the highest authority in the Shia world from that time until 949-50.5 Thus Tahirih not only "assumed the role" of Fatima. She was Fatima.
In the course of this article I also demonstrate that the Bab did not invent such doctrines out of whole cloth, but rather his ideas are, in the main, consonant with the general position of Fatima in Shi`i religiosity, piety, and mysticism. Most important is Fatima's recognized status as an equal bearer of religious authority (walaya) along with the Imams and Muhammad the prophet.6 In order to demonstrate more fully how someone like Tahirih could acquire the prestige and power she undoubtedly had within her milieu, I delineate the main features of the doctrine of walaya as it had developed within Ithna Ashari Shiasm by the first half of the nineteenth century.
Walaya
In the course of this examination of the religious authority of Fatima, I clarify that however much the eventual course of the Babi movement was at odds with the religious status quo of mid-nineteenth-century Iran, at its core was a cluster of beliefs shared in common with orthodox Shia Islam. The heart of all Shiasm centers on the strong veneration of the first Imam, 'Ali ibn Abi Talib (d. 661) (and his wife and the Prophet's daughter, Fatima) as the guardian, protector, and true friend of those who have acknowledged his station as the immediate successor of the Prophet Muhammad. For this reason he is known as wall, and the quality of his authority is called walaya, frequently (and inadequately) rendered "sainthood."7 There is in Shiasm no notion more fundamental than this. It will be seen, perhaps not surprisingly, that the idea was just as central to the Bab's thought, as it is to Shiasm in general. Also, it will be seen that belief or faith (iman) is conditioned by the degree to which one accepts and testifies to the walaya of the so-called Family of God (al Allah).8 This family consists of the Prophet Muhammad, 'Ali, and Fatima, and the eleven other Imams. No deed, no matter how meritorious, is acceptable unless it has been performed by one who has fully confessed the truth of this walaya as borne by the Family of God. Moreover, such walaya has existed from eternity, much like the so-called "Muhammadan light" and numbers among those who have recognized it the prophets Abraham, Moses, and Jesus. As an eternal principle, it remains an imperative for all would-be believers at all times: through acceptance or rejection of this spiritual authority, one determines the fate of one's soul.
Walaya is implicated in the fourth of five pillars of belief of traditional Ithna Ashari Shiasm, which are (1) Divine Unity (tawhid), (2) Prophethood (nubuwwa), (3) the Resurrection/Return (ma’ad), (4) the Imamate (imama), and (5) Divine Justice (`adl). In Shiasm prophetic authority ended with the death of Muhammad (632), but the Prophet is understood as having two types of mutually complementing authority: the one, connected with the office of prophethood (nubuwwa); the other, in some ways a more general, yet at the same time purer (and therefore higher) type of authority connected with the office of guardianship (walaya). This teaching is based on the Quran, where the noun wall occurs in several important contexts. Most important for this discussion are all those Quranic verses that describe God as the wall of the believers9 or the single verse that says that walaya belongs to God alone (18:44). The general meaning of wall in these instances is "protector," "friend," and "guardian." By extension, and in the context of the most urgent doctrinal need of the Shia community, namely to explain the system of distinctive leadership which it developed, walaya came to mean "religious authority": believers are bound to obey what God, their best friend and guardian, ordains. The "Family of God," to use the Bab's distinctive terminology, are the only conduits of this divine protective friendship, particularly in the context of the earliest struggles for leadership within the Islamic community where one could make the error of choosing the wrong "protecting friend" as a leader. Shiasm says that this is precisely what happened to those Muslims who chose Abu Bakr and the other two early caliphs as leaders.10 While prophethood is in some sense superior to guardianship because only a prophet receives revelation through direct inspiration (wahy) and the task of a prophet is to establish a code of law (shari'a), walaya is essential because only through this office or institution can true religious authority be continued beyond the death of the prophet. Furthermore, it is thought to be superior to nubuwwa because unlike that institution, it is related directly to God. God is frequently called a wali in the Quran, but never a nabi. In this way walaya is seen to be a divine attribute certainly shared by all prophets, with nubuwwa representing in some ways a subfunction of walaya. Postprophetic guardians (awliya') do not have nubuwwa; it is only by virtue of their walaya that they have authority in the community to interpret (never reveal) scripture. But their interpretation has the authority of revelation.
Another complementary meaning of the term walaya is kinship, closeness, allegiance and, in some ways, intimacy. A bearer of walaya is thus seen to enjoy an especially close relationship to, in this case, God. This feature of the word has lent it so well to all those contexts in the Islamic tradition which have to do with sanctity and saintship.11 To take a recent example, it was on the basis of these factors that Ayatollah Khomeini (d. 1989) formulated the influential and politically astute doctrine known as "The Guardianship of the Jurist" (Vilayat-i faqih), through which he demonstrated to the satisfaction of his numerous followers that the decisions and opinions of the godly jurist are guided by the unerring (ma `sum) hand of the Hidden Imam and would therefore be identical with His teaching. Furthermore, these rulings and opinions would somehow represent the very presence of God and the Hidden Imam, a figure with almost ineffable sacral and charismatic authority and power. Earlier examples of the usage have been recently singled out as possibly the most important factor at play in the spiritual authority of the Sufi shaykh or pir from very earliest times in Islam.12 It is something of a truism that the Shia Imam is the analogue of the Sufi shaykh (or vice versa). One reason is that the basic understanding and function of the term walaya seems to be fairly constant across the borders that otherwise separate the two. The point is that concern with walaya means concern with power and authority. In the early work by the Bab, there is a great deal of concern with walaya. In this study we are interested mainly in the walaya and spiritual authority of Fatima. It is with an enhanced appreciation of this topic that the remarkable life of Tahirih, and the religious leadership of women, can be better understood within the context of nineteenth-century Iran.
Usuli/Akhbari Debate
Before we turn directly to the writings of the Bab on this topic, it is important to summarize, in very general terms, some of the pertinent historical developments in Shia legal theory that serve as immediate background to his career. By the time the Bab was writing, which was very close to the time of the fulfillment of the Shia eschaton, a thousand years having elapsed since the disappearance of the Twelfth/Hidden Imam, Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-`Askari, a long-standing dispute among religious scholars had been rumbling for a number of decades. This dispute had to do precisely with the way religious authority (walaya) would be expressed and recognized among the believers and is known as the Akhbari/Usuli debate. Although the Usuli position eventually won the day, it is important to know what was at stake. In one sense, this dispute can be characterized as "reason vs. revelation." The Akhbari position was against the institutionalization of "independent jurisprudence" (ijtihad), and the Usuli position upheld it. At stake, then, was not only a more or less abstract legal theory, but also the potentially powerful office of mujtahid, independent legal scholar, whose findings in all aspects of religion would be binding upon the believers. These findings were derived through resort to so-called sources (usul: roots) by the legal thinker or jurisprudent (faqih): (1) Quran, (2) Sunna, or (3) Qiyas/Analogy. The process whereby these elements were employed to derive a solution for a legal problem is called ijtihad- "independent intellectual exertion." The Akhbaris asserted that there was only one legal authority, namely, the Hidden Imam, the bearer of walaya for this time, and that in such a circumstance there was in effect only one mujtahid whom the faithful were required to emulate and follow, namely the Hidden Imam. Thus the Akhbari position threatened the social standing of an elite group of highly qualified legal experts by asserting that each believer was to work out their own "salvation" through contemplation of the sources of religion: 1) the Quran and 2) the Sunna. The name Akhbari comes from the word used to refer to the thousands of traditions – akhbar, sing. khabar, sometimes called hadith – that preserve the Sunna of not only the Prophet, but the other thirteen immaculate ones, the twelve Imams and Fatima. The Akhbaris taught that each believer had direct access to the truth through reading the Quran and this supplementary material. The Usuli position was eventually to lead to the establishment of the important institution known as marja `-i taqlid, "one who is to be [blindly] imitated in matters of religion."13
In the process of winning the battle, Usulis argued heavily against the kind of mystical or intuitive communion with the Hidden Imam that made the Akhbari position feasible. In so doing, they argued very persuasively for the superiority of the rational faculty and the use of reason. One response to this argument would come in the form of the teachings of Shaykh Ahmad al-Ahsa'i (d. 1826) and his successor, Sayyid Kazim Rashti (d. 1843), who throughout their works cautioned against the elimination of the mystical or intuitional aspects of religion and argued, in compelling language, for an epistemology composed of equal parts of reason and "revelation." The Shaykhi position won many supporters precisely because it rescued, in a reasonable manner, the mystical noetic so dear to the Persian soul.14 The Bab's writings, especially the ones examined in this article, are perhaps an equally strenuously (if differently) argued mysticism. As we will see, the Bab's source of authority is the Quran and the Family of God and no one or nothing else.15
The Bab's Writings
There has been a tendency to regard the Tafsir surat Yusuf as the first work of any significance written by the Bab, but this is wrong.16 The Tafsir surat al-Baqara – a work that has been habitually ignored by persons writing on the Babi religion – is really the Bab's first major religious work. It first became known in the West through E. G. Browne, who discussed it and the circumstances under which he received a copy, in an article written in 1892.17 (It had been sent to him by Mirza Yahya Subh-i Azal, who had received it from a scribe in Tehran.) By virtue of the number of existing manuscripts of this work that he enumerated, Denis MacEoin rekindled interest in it as a valuable source for the history and doctrines of the Babi movement.18 Through further research it has become clear that the Bab's Tafsir surat al-Baqara enjoys a unique and heretofore unappreciated significance for a study of the growth and development of the Babi religion. MacEoin may have been correct when he suggested that it is much less likely to have been corrupted by partisans of the later Baha'i/Azali dispute because of its status as a preproclamation work.19 On the other hand, such corruption may be a red herring, since a study of a number of manuscripts of the later and much more famous and pivotal Tafsir surat Yusuf reveals very little willful tampering with the text.20 But MacEoin is certainly correct in his assertion that "since this tafsir is the only extended work of the Bab's written before May 1844 [when he made his momentous claims public] and still extant, it is indisputably of unique importance as a source of concrete evidence for the development of his thought in the six months or so that led up to the initial announcement of his prophetic claim."21 Insofar as this first major work was also a tafsir, its interest goes beyond the confines of a study of a specific heresy to engage with the greater Islamic tradition itself on the common ground of the Quran.
Indeed, it is of some significance that this first major work by the Bab is a commentary on the Surat al-Baqara, or Sura of the Cow (in actual fact, it is a commentary on both the Surat al-Fatiha, the first sura and the Surat al-Baqara, the second sura), a sura sometimes regarded by exegetes as "the Quran in miniature" because in it are found many of the same concerns, ordinances, conceits, and images found throughout the book. A commentary on this sura by any given author would therefore tend to reveal the way he would approach the entire Quran. It may be, in fact, that the Bab had intended to produce a commentary on the whole Quran at this time. He is said to have later produced no less than nine complete commentaries on the Quran during his incarceration in Azerbaijan.22 Why he would have suspended such a project at this earlier date is open to speculation. We do know, however, that it was shortly after the completion of the commentary on the first part23 of the Quran that Mulla Husayn Bushru'i made his visit to Shiraz, during which time the Babi movement may be said to have been born. Such a dramatic occurrence might possibly have had the effect of deflecting the Bab's attention from such a "merely literary" project to concentrate on newer and more important developments. One of these developments was the composition of another tafsir (the Qayyum al-Asma or Tafsir surat Yusuf) of such a startlingly different nature from this earlier work that the two might be thought to have been written by two different authors, though in reality this is probably not the case.24
The radical interpretation of several passages in the Surat al-Baqara as speaking directly to the subject of walaya is not an innovation of the Bab's but has characterized a strong tendency in Shia exegesis from the earliest times.25 This is clarified in notes in the following text that direct the reader to similar interpretations in classical literature. Of interest here is that such a commentary was written by one who was not a member of the ulama class, but rather a young merchant. The nature of the commentary shows that there was a perceived need to reassert, revalorize, relocate, or perhaps take possession of this cardinal Shia doctrine. Why such a need was felt at this particular time and within the Iranian merchant class, has been discussed at length by scholars concerned with the social history of late-eighteenth- and early-nineteenth-century Iran. The following discussion attests to the degree to which this need was felt, and the consequences it had for the interpretation of scripture. Here we begin to understand why the Tafsir surat al-Baqara provides invaluable information about the development of the Bab's religious ideas.
Walaya in the Bab's Earliest Work
The subject of walaya is introduced very early in the tafsir where reference is made to the Absolute Walaya (walayatuhu al-mutlaqa) of `Ali. In the following pages, Quran citations are presented in small capital letters in order to make as clear as possible the connection between the words of the commentator and the sacred text. In the course of the Bab's commentary on the second verse of the Fatiha, "Praise be to God, the Lord of the Worlds," the verse is said to be the book (kitab) of `Ali, in which God has placed all the principles (ahkam) of Absolute Walaya pertaining to it. It is designated here, the Paradise of the Inclusive Unity (jannat al-wahidiya), whose protection has been reserved for all those who affirm 'Ali's walaya.26
In this very brief statement, certain important terms are introduced, which play a key role throughout the rest of the tafsir. Apart from the word walaya (guardianship, friendship), the designation wahidiya occurs over and over again throughout the work. It is descriptive of one of the degrees of divinity which constitute the whole hierarchical metaphysical structure of the world. It is the degree immediately inferior to the divine Exclusive Unity (ahadiya). Such terminology betrays the influence of the so-called wahdat al-wujud school associated with Ibn 'Arabi. Suffice it here to say that the Absolute Walaya represents a theoretical position at least one remove from the Ultimate. A third ontic level, "existence as an expression of divine mercy," is associated with Fatima. We will return to this presently.27
The choice of the word principles (ahkam) has several connotations. In this short introductory sentence to the tafsir on the Fatiha, the Bab characterizes this opening chapter of the Quran as containing seven clear verses (ayat muhkamat). The hermeneutic polarities of mutashabihat/muhkamat represent one of the oldest concerns of tafsir in general and have occasioned much speculation on the part of exegetes of all schools and attitudes. The primary idea is that the Quran contains both ambiguous and unambiguous verses. At the most basic level, these are thought to be divided between straightforward legal prescriptions and the rest of the book. The terminology here is taken from Quran 3:7: He it is who has sent down to thee the Book. In it are verses basic or fundamental (of established meaning) [muhkamat]. They are the foundation of the Book [umm al-kitab]. Others are allegorical [mutashabihat]. But those in whose hearts is perversity follow the part thereof that is allegorical, seeking discord, and searching for its hidden meanings [ta'wil]. But no one knows its hidden meanings [ta'wil] except God. And those who are firmly grounded in knowledge say: "We believe in the Book, the whole of it is from our Lord." And none will grasp the message except those who have understanding. With this aya comes one of the more fundamental differences between the Sunni and Shia exegetes who disagree about its grammar and syntax. The above translation represents the "Sunni" reading. A Shia reading would be: "And none knows its interpretation save God and those firmly rooted in knowledge" (al-rasikhun fi'l -'ilm). These rasikhun are of course the Imams, in the first place, and in the second place, at least amongst the Usulis, the mujtahids. So understood, the designation of the verses of the Fatiha as unambiguous strongly suggests that the Bab read them as having a positive and binding relationship with a true understanding of the Book. Seen in this light, his statement that verse 2 of the Fatima ordains belief in the Absolute Walaya of `Ali must be taken as divine law, binding upon the believer in the same way as legal prescriptions for the terms of inheritance, or even prayer and fasting, are obligatory.
In this same commentary on the seven verses of the Fatiha, we first encounter Fatima. In line with his method and the structure of this section, the Bab designates the third verse, "the merciful the compassionate" (ar-rahman ar-rahim), as "the book of Fatima" (kitab Fatima salat allah 'alayha).28 That Fatima is associated with rahma, "mercy," is in line with the general idea of existence as mercy and the role of the feminine articulated in the writings of Ibn `Arabi.29 It should also be noted that rahma is a feminine noun constructed on the root rhm, which is also the basis for the word rahim, "uterus, womb." Fatima is associated with this verse because it is gender-specific so that grammar reflects reality – a basic axiom of the worldview we are investigating. That it is also the third verse of the sura means that the order: Muhammad, `Ali, Fatima (ahadiya, wahidiya, rahmaniya) is corroborated both through the gender reference and chronological order of birth.30 The remainder of the commentary runs:
And God has put in [this verse] all that is hers and all that pertains to her. [This verse] is the Garden of Divine Grace (jannat al-na'im). God has ordained its shade for the one who believes in her and loves her after he has recognized her as she deserves (ba `da ma 'arafaha bima hiya ahluha), as she appeared to the seeker (or: knower/Gnostic, „arif) through his own self (kama tajallat li'l 'arif lahu bihi). Then this garden will open to him.31 While there is no explicit mention of walaya here, it is nonetheless assumed throughout the tafsir that Fatima is, as a member of the Family of God, one of the fourteen bearers of walaya. The Bab, it seems, wishes to highlight various nuances of this religious authority according to the particular bearer/wali he is discussing. In the case of Fatima, this religious authority is clearly associated with love (mahabba) and knowledge/gnosis ('irfan), and as we already saw, mercy. For example, in his commentary on 2:25, the Bab states that Paradise or "the Garden" is indeed the love of the form of Fatima (mahabbat shabah Fatima). Before we look further at this material, it may be helpful to offer a brief summary of the general place of Fatima in Islam and Shiasm.
Fatima of History
Fatima (11/633), the daughter of Muhammad and wife of the first Imam `Ali ibn Abi Talib (40/661) enjoys an exalted position in Shia piety and is thought by some to function for the Shi'a much the same way that Mary functions in the Catholic tradition.32 She is depicted in the histories as the long-suffering darling of her father, to whom she was born through Muhammad's first wife, the incomparable Khadija. She was married to `Ali, which sources say was a difficult marriage.33 But while she lived, she was his only wife. She is venerated as the mother of the second and third Ithna `Ashari Imams, Hasan and Husayn (and by extension all of the Imams). She is held up to the believers by the sources as a model of suffering, patience, generosity, wisdom, and valiant heroism ending in martyrdom.
During the Prophet's Meccan and early Medinan period, when the Banu Hashim imposed a ban upon dealings with Muhammad, Fatima is singled out as having endured the privations with great dignity and patience.34 Of all the Prophet's children, Fatima lived the longest (although she died only a few months after the Prophet's death) and gave Muhammad, who would have otherwise been bereft of male progeny, many descendants. Indeed, one of the many calumnies directed at Muhammad was that he was without male progeny. Such a man was known derisively in this milieu as “cut off” (al-abtar).35 Muhammad was cruelly taunted with this epithet by his fellow Meccans because of the death of his and Khadija's two infant sons, Qasim and Abdallah. Fatima is seen by the tradition as being the one responsible for giving the lie to this cruel insult by providing the Prophet his two grandsons, Hasan, Husayn, and their sisters Zainab and Umm Kulthum.36 Shia religious literature delights in demonstrating how this epithet, recorded in the sura The Abundance (Quran 108, as it happens, the shortest sura in the book), was turned against Muhammad's enemies because through Fatima Muhammad's lineage not only continued but multiplied greatly in the Imamate that is the institutional sanctuary of walaya in Shiasm.37 Ironically, it was Muhammad's enemies who were “cut off” (al-abtar) by the will of God.
Fatima is greatly venerated by all Muslims who, when speaking of her, typically add the honorific al-Zahra' (the shining one, the luminous, the gloriously radiant). Among the Shi'a this veneration reaches its greatest intensity. Two Western scholars, Henri Lammens and Louis Massignon, studied the historical basis for this reverence and reached diametrically opposite opinions: Lammens argued that the historical Fatima was "a woman devoid of attraction, of mediocre intelligence, completely insignificant, little esteemed by her father, ill-treated by her husband.... anaemic, often ill, prone to tears, who died perhaps of consumption."38 Massignon has made Fatima "sublime, elevating her to a position often reminiscent of that which the Virgin Mary holds among Christians. For Massignon, she represents the beginnings of Universal Islam" because of her care for the non-Arab converts.39 Massignon's study improves upon Lammens by offering a "psychologico-religious explanation for the origin and development of the legend of the daughter of the Prophet and bridges the gap between legend and reality as Lammen's book fails to do;” however, "[Massignon's work] cannot escape the objection of the historian, who will consider that the author subordinates the facts to beliefs about Fatima which appeared only later."40 This statement obviously represents a certain historiographical approach. Beliefs, it is clear, have frequently been as crucial to history as facts. Indeed, in this article beliefs are of primary interest; whether or not they represent, in the case of Fatima, "true historical reality" is immaterial. This is so precisely because we can see how much such belief actually influenced the unfolding of radical religious activity in nineteenth-century Iran. But it is also true – and this is a historiographical element of consequence – that Fatima's life was so obscure that Ibn Hisham and the other earlier historians had little occasion to concern themselves with her.
Fatima died in the eleventh year of the hijra, six months after the death of the Prophet. Today (because her grave is unknown), Shias visit three places in Medina in order to pay homage to her: her house, the Baqi' cemetery, and the space in the Great Mosque between the rawda and the tomb of the Prophet.41 Her nickname, "Mother of her father" (Umm Abiha) has several explanations: she learned through a revelation that the name of her very last descendant would be Muhammad, perhaps as a logical inference from the story of her heavenly, luminous origin and birth. Her name Creator (Fatir), which is one of the names listed in an eleventh-century source, represents a glorification of Fatima that seems to be characteristic of the extreme Isma'ilis and of "aberrant" sects such as the Nusayris rather than of the Imamis. Have we here a borrowing of the latter from the former? Veccia Vaglieri asks.42 The belief that Fatima is Fatir, Creator, would also help explain her kunya Umm Abiha. Another explanation for the name is that it became Fatima's as a result of her providing comfort to Muhammad during the darkest times.43 It has been suggested that because of the connections between the cult of Mary among Christians and that of Fatima among Muslims, it is possible that the title arose as a counterpart to that of "Mother of God," especially since the name seems to be found only in later (that is, twelfth-century) sources.44
Islam has honored 'Asiyah bint Muzahim, (Pharoah's wife), Maryam bint 'Imran (Mary, mother of Jesus), Khadija, and Fatima as the four perfect women of the world, the best women of Paradise.45 By the twelfth century, Shia scholars had compiled a list of nearly a hundred names and attributes by which Fatima should be honored46 This veneration may be best seen in three of the titles by which she is most frequently designated: al-Zahra', "the luminous"; Fatir, "Creator"; and Umm Abiha, "Mother of her Father." Others include the masculine form Fatim, al-Tahira, al-Zakiya, al-Muhaddatha, al-Siddiqa, al-Batul, and Maryam al-Kubra, and especially significant in connection with Tahirih, Qurrat al-'Ayn – one of the most common names by which Tahirih the Babi was known. Official occasions for honoring her are her birth (20 Ramadan), marriage to 'Ali, and the public feast of Mubahala (21, 24, 25 Dhu'l-Hijja). This last deserves a special word because it is in connection with the Mubahala that Fatima becomes known as one of the Ahl al-Kisa', "People of the cloak." These are Muhammad, 'Ali, Fatima, Hasan, and Husayn, a group that represents an "elite within an elite" in Shiasm.47 The anniversary of her death (3 Jumada II and 2 Ramadan) is also befittingly observed. These are all public holy days in Iran and observed around the world. Other holy days, such as the Day of al-Ghadir (18th of Dhu' 1-Hijja) and the Muharram observances – tradition has Fatima making a post mortem appearance at Karbala (which the Bab mentions in his tafsir) to lament the cruel fate of her son and his family and companions48 – are public and private occasions for honoring her memory.
Other events in her life have particular interest here: she is depicted as threatening to remove her head covering twice: on one occasion to protest the treatment of 'Ali after the death of the Prophet,49 and another time as threatening to remove her head covering in order to stop Abu Bakr and 'Umar from forcibly entering her house after the so-called election of the first caliph.50 This will bring to mind Tahirih's removal of the veil that so scandalized even the Babis themselves.51 In another tradition, she is presented as defiantly turning her back to the intruders to express her repugnance;52 she is also seen traveling on horseback with `Ali to ask for the support of the Ansar (who, unfortunately had already committed themselves to Abu Bakr);53 she is quoted as having challenged 'Umar himself: "You have left the body of the Apostle of God with us and you have decided among yourselves without consulting us, without respecting our rights."54
Thus we clearly see the figure of a politically active woman, one who could easily inspire others to similar action. It is curious, in light of this that one of the prevailing images associated with Fatima is that of a sickly and timid victim. Another element in Fatima's political biography is the troublesome Fadak affair. Abu Bakr, according to Shia sources, deprived Fatima of inheriting this productive oasis that the Prophet had promised her. This deprivation caused great hardship for her and her family and also deprived the cause of `Ali essential material support. In addition, there is the legend of the mushaf of Fatima, the book that Gabriel brought her for consolation after the death of her father.55 As Veccia Vaglieri points out, the material on Fatima remains to be systematical studied. Once it is, however, it will be most interesting to notice whether or not these conflicting images are the result of confessional influences. In the meantime, the question posed by Veccia Vaglieri, did Imami Shiasm borrow from Isma'ili Shiasm in the veneration of Fatima? is quite pertinent to the study of the literature of the Shaykhi school in general. As I demonstrate, it is also pertinent in the study of the writings of the Bab, who, as far as we know, was an Imami Shia, born in Shiraz on 20 October 1819 (1 Muharram 1235).
The Bab's Fatima
Many of the events or topics recounted above are touched upon and elaborated in the Bab's tafsir. It is crucial, however, first to establish some idea of what is to be expected. To do this, I rely upon the studies of Henry Corbin, who is the one Western scholar to have penetrated many of the mysteries that this kind of literature holds. In this case, we are particularly fortunate that Corbin devoted an entire book to the study of the spiritual feminine in Iranian religion. In Corbin's distinctive approach, Mazdean religious ideas are connected with Islamic Shiite gnosis, first in the work of Suhrawardi and finally, and more resoundingly, in the corpus of the Shaykhis, a corpus that remains lamentably understudied, though progress has been achieved since Corbin's time.56 In any case, Corbin saw the founder of the Shaykhi school, Shaykh Ahmad al-Ahsa'i (1826) and his successor, Sayyid Kazim Rashti, as revivers of "primitive Shiite gnosis."57 It is even more fortunate that part of this book is a study of Fatima in the writings of Hajj Karim Khan Kirmani (1870), the Shaykhi leader who was, in some respects, the Bab's (1850) most bitter opponent. Both had been avid students of the teachings of Ahsa'i and Rashti (as had Tahirih herself). Corbin's reading of Kirmani's works will be shown to resonate with the image of Fatima in this early commentary by the Bab. It is still too soon to determine on what doctrinal grounds they might have differed with regard to Fatima, or indeed, if they differed at all. The main area of disagreement between the two was not a matter for scholasticism.
In this school of thought the Family of God, the Fourteen Very-Pure, function, according to Corbin, in a way "analagous to the Aeons of the pleroma in Valentinian gnosis." One of the distinctions between the Suhrawardian and Shaykhi cosmologies is discerned in the shift from a threefold to a fourfold cosmology. For Suhrawardi these were 1) the earthly, human world, "the object of sensory perception"; 2) the world of Soul or Malakut, "the world of imaginative perception" and 3) the cherubinic or angelic world of Jabarut, "the object of intelligible knowledge."58 Consonant with the motif of quaternity by which much of their thought is distinguished, Shaykhism added a fourth realm (as did Ibn 'Arabi), namely the sphere of deity, the world of lahut. For the Shaykhis, however, this realm was "occupied" only by the Family of God – not, as it were, God Himself. Fatima is located first and foremost in this supracelestial realm. As Corbin says, using one of his favorite metaphors:
One might say that [Shaykhi thought] allows us to hear the theme of the celestial Earth... in a still higher octave. Each octave is a new world, a new beginning, where everything is rediscovered, but at a different height, that is, in a higher mode of being. This succession of octaves is what allows the ta'wil, or spiritual hermeneutics, to be practiced authentically. Moreover, in the transcendent Person of Fatima as a member of the supreme Pleroma, we shall be hearing something like the motif of the supracelestial Earth ...59 The four universes or realms "symbolize with" each other so that the "historic dimension" is a means of discovering the sacred relationship between and among these worlds.
This will be essentially the esoteric hermeneutic, the ta'wil; it will be a discovery of the true and hidden meaning, the spiritual history that becomes visible through the recital of external events. It will mean to "see things in Hurqalya.."60
In this quaternary world the relationship between male and female is accorded the highest possible value. Hurqalya is, of course, the abode of the Hidden Imam who is alive there and "in hiding" since his disappearance in 260/874. There is ample evidence throughout the works of the Bab, and particularly in the one under study here, that he himself shared a similar, if not identical, approach to history and scripture (although he does not use the word Hurqalya here). But we will see more of this later in this essay.61
There is no need to dwell further here on Corbin's harmonic rendition of the history of Iranian mythology and religious symbolism62 whereby he can see the ancient Spendarmat in the Fatima of the Shi'a, except to say that the apokatastasis, the "restoration of all things to their primordial splendor and wholeness, to the state in which they were before the invasion of the Ahrimanian Counterpowers" that he perceives in Shaykhism,63 is very much a feature of the clan of Babism. As we have already indicated, the authority and power of Tahirih (and the other Babis) is a result of three simultaneous events: a fulfillment of the past, a reenactment of the past, and a break with the past.
Day of the Covenant
One of the more important controlling myths in Islam, whether Sunni or Shia, is the drama of God's establishing a covenant (`ahd, mithaq) between Himself and humanity through the prophet Adam. The Quran tells the story in a characteristically terse passage at Quran 7:172. At a time before the creation of the world, God summoned Adam to His presence whereupon he caused the "seeds" (al-dharr) of all future generations to come forth from Adam's loins. God confronted Adam – and this vast company thus arrayed before Him – with the question "Am I not your Lord?" (a-lastu bi-rabbikum). The immediate response was "Yea, verily!" (bala). The Quran explains that this was done so that no human would be able to say on the Day of Resurrection, when all would be given their just deserts, that they should be excused for their sins because they were not aware of their obligation to God. The "Yea verily!" constitutes humanity's primordial assent to the divine covenant.64 Within this covenant myth dwells the explanatory theory of all Islamicate religious authority. It has been particularly instrumental in justifying the mediation and negotiation of charismatic power and authority in a Sufi milieu, but no less in the Shia milieu.65 In Shia communities throughout the world, the eighteenth day of Dhu' l-Hijja, the pilgrimage month, is commemorated as the Day of the Covenant (yawm al-mithaq) and anniversary of the public appointment by the Prophet Muhammad of `Ali as his successor at a small oasis known as Ghadir Khumm, "the pool of Ghadir." (In Iran, a Shi`i state, this date is an official public holiday.) This oasis was a way station between Mecca and Medina and it was here, during a rest on the way back from his last pilgrimage, that the Prophet made his famous speech, the words of which are preserved in both Sunni and Shia books of Tradition:
We were with the Apostle of God in his journey and we stopped at Ghadir Khumm. We performed the obligatory prayer together and a place was swept for the Apostle under two trees and he performed the mid-day prayer. And then he took `Ali by the hand and said to the people: 'Do you not acknowledge that I have a greater claim on each of the believers than they have on themselves?' And they replied: 'Yea verily!' [bala] And he took 'Ali's hand and said: 'Of whomsoever I am Lord [Mawla], then `Ali is also his Lord. O God! Be Thou the supporter of whoever supports 'Ali and the enemy of whoever op-poses him.' And 'Umar [the future second caliph] met him ['Ali] after this and said to him: 'Congratulations, O son of Abu Talib! Now morning and evening [i.e., forever] you are the master of every believing man and woman.66
This passage (along with its several variants) is important for two main reasons; 1) the establishment of the continuance of religious authority by the Prophet "the covenant"; 2) the use of the exquisitely polyvocal term mawla, which is a derivative of the root wly, upon which the word walaya is built. Mawla is a particularly interesting Arabic word in that it can mean either "master" or "client" – diametrically opposite denotations, according to usage. As such, it represents admirably the mutuality and reciprocal nature of walaya. But it also gives rise to alternate interpretations of this sermon, as the entire history of Islam will attest. It is as the de facto and de jure establishment of the sacred covenant that this sermon occupies us for the moment. This covenant functions as the raison d'être of Shiasm. Those who recognize, subscribe to, uphold, and defend the appointment of 'Ali as Muhammad's rightful successor and leader – both spiritual and temporal – of the community of Muslims, are faithful to the covenant and may be considered believing Muslims (muslim mu'min). Those who acknowledge anyone else as the successor of Muhammad and leader of the community is accounted a breaker (naqid) of this covenant and an infidel (kafir). A natural starting place, then, for a detailed examination of the person/figure/symbol of Fatima in the Bab's Quran commentary is the Covenant. The Bab draws a comparison or homologue between the Quranic primordial yawm al-mithaq, the events of which are narrated in Quran 7:172, and the Day of al-Ghadir. The first Quranic cue for this comparison is in verse 2:8: "Of the people there are some who say: 'We believe in God and the Last Day'; but they do not really believe." The people specified here, according to the Bab, are those whom God will cause to forget faith in 'Ali's walaya on the Last Day. They are not believers because their faith is flawed, even though they may consider themselves true believers in 'Ali's spiritual authority:
Whoever knows that `Ali is the sign of God in the station of the Exclusive Divine Unity ... is one of the believers "in God and the Last Day," which is really the First Day, and it is the beginning of the mention of the created thing in the world of contingency, and it is the day God made to shine with light, and it is the light of `Ali. Such a one is one of the believers. And whoever abandons this station enters into the category: "and he is not an exalted believer." May God protect us through Muhammad and his family from entering into this error!67 It will become clear below that "the day God made to shine with light, and it is the light of `Ali" is an indirect reference to Fatima, who is the source of all light. The Bab strengthens the connection or homology between the Last Day mentioned here and the Day of the Covenant and the Day of al-Ghadir Khumm by quoting a long hadith from the eleventh Imam al-Hasan al-'Askari’s tafsir, in which the occasion of revelation (known in some circles as sabab al-nuzul) for this verse is established as the Day of al-Ghadir. In this verse, the Imam says God was warning Muhammad about those who feigned allegiance to `Ali following the sermon just quoted. The Bab says:
That place of testimony is the same as the "dimension" (dharr) of the primordial covenant, when the covenant of lordship was taken: whoever was recognized [then] was recognized [for all time]. Indeed, "those possessed of minds" know what happened there by what happened here (Ghadir Khumm), the realm of this world (or "religion" tashri) is in accord with the realm of that world (or "divine creation" takwin). But this place of testimony (viz. the Day of al-Ghadir) is greater than the first place of testimony, the dimension of the affirmation of Divine Unity, while the second place of testimony is the dimension of the affirmation of Prophethood – nay, rather it is the essence of the Divine Cause. This place of testimony of the Day of al-Ghadir is the third place of testimony and the greatest dimension. The remaining place of testimony is the last: it is the dimension of the Fourth Support, the rising of the Qa'im, may God hasten his glad advent. This occasion of testimony will occur in the beginning of his appearance (or emergence, zuhur) and it is the di-mension of the affirmation by their Shi'a that the Family of God are the worn of magnification in the midmost sanctity of praise.” 68
Thus the fourfold structure of the Bab's approach. The Bab says that the shahada, the true testimony to the truth of this, is none other than the Imams and Fatima.69 The Bab demonstrates how Fatima is implicated in this covenant in his commentary on Quran 2:83. Here he says that the esoteric meaning of the word kindred is a clear designation of Fatima, just as the word orphans is a reference to al-Hasan and al-Husayn. "God has spoken here about the taking of the covenant with all created things in the eight Paradises, in affirmation of the walaya of 'Ali"70The Quranic verse is: And remember We took a Covenant from the Children of Israel: Worship none but God; treat with kindness your parents and kindred, and orphans and those in need; Speak fair to the people; be steadfast in prayer; and practice regular charity. Then did ye turn your back, except a few among you, and ye backslide even now.” [Quran 2:83] In another quaternary interpretation, the phrase: "those who broke the covenant" [Quran 2:27] refers to the covenant ('ahd) of Muhammad vis-à-vis the signs (ayat) of `Ali. This covenant was instituted in the world of the Unseen (al-ghayb), the spiritual realm. Although the term lahut is not used, nor the word hurqalya, it is clear that the realm of al-ghayb is a spiritual "space" with its own "time."
These signs were placed within (fi) the dimension (dharr) of the hearts [which represents] the station (maqam) of Divine Unity (tawhid), and [in] the dimension of the intellects [which represents] the level (rutba) of Prophethood (nubuwwa), and [in] the atoms of souls [which represents] the abode of the Imamate (imama), and [in] the dimension of the bodies [which represents] the place (mahall) of the love of the Shi'a after God imposed this solemn binding upon all created things [which is] faith (iman) in Muhammad, `Ali, Hasan, Husayn, Ja'far, Musa, and Fatima.71 The first who "broke the covenant" was Abu Bakr.
He broke the covenant of God concerning His friends (awliya) in the unseen worlds and he violated the walaya of `Ali in its [future] apppearances in the visible Imams . . . and he [broke the covenant] by taking the land of al-Fadak away from Fatima after he knew very well that the Apostle of God had specified it for her during his life and forbidden its produce to go to anyone else.72
In Kirmani's treatment of the Quranic Day of the Covenant when God demanded from the seed of Adam absolute obedience, this drama was originally played out in the realm of lahut, "long before" it achieved its first earthly iteration at the time of Adam. Its second, and most important iteration occurred at the pool called Ghadir Khumm when Muhammad appointed `Ali his successor and took a pact with all of the Muslims to this effect.73 Fatima's response in this divine setting is precisely the "theurgic ac-complishment" of becoming the Earth for the production of the cosmos. None can have access or perception of this realm, it is too ratified, powerful in its beauty and luminous beyond mortal ability to perceive. "The beings of the pleroma of the lahut are visible only in their apparitional forms [ashbah], which are the receptacles of their theophanies."74 According to Kirmani, Fatima is the Earth of the sacred lahuti universe,75 which is related to the mysterious earth of Hurqalya.
The Bab describes Fatima as the "Universal earth," "heaven" and "the Sabbath." This same idea may be evident in a particularly vivid passage of the Bab's tafsir. At verse 60 of Surat al-Baqara, for example, the water that gushed forth from the rock at twelve different places after Moses struck it with his staff, is said to represent the walaya of all the Imams. The Bab says that although the water issued from these various places, it was in fact the same water. The station of Fatima is further defined here as that without which walaya could not have appeared in the world: And remember Moses prayed for water for his people; We said: "Strike the rock with thy staff." Then gushed forth therefrom twelve springs. Each group knew its own place for water. So eat and drink of the sustenance provided by God, and do no evil nor mischief on the (face of the) earth. [Quran 2:60]
The Bab says, the striker here is Muhammad, the staff is `Ali, and the stone [from which the water came forth] is Fatima. And the springs are the twelve Imams. `Ali, by virtue of walaya, is counted among them and by virtue of the rank of staff is also distinguished from them. The point of this Quranic passage is that it corroborates the history of Islam. Or, more important, the Bab, through this interpretation, demonstrates that in the eternal word of God, the story of Muhammad and his family had been established or "prophesied." History, according to this approach (as Corbin observed), is best seen as a subject for ta’wil: it is symbolic (as distinct from allegorical). God commanded Muhammad to give his daughter Fatima in marriage to `Ali so that all people "at all times" might be able to recognize their Imam, to "eat and drink of the splendours of the knowledge dispensed by your Imam through the grace (fadl) of Muhammad."76 Some sources even suggest that at this marriage (which occurred "first" in the spiritual realm) God himself was wali for Fatima.77 Such a myth nicely supplies a narrative explanation for those verses in the Quran, mentioned above, which say that God is a wali or protector of the believers. In the Bab's commentary at 2:29, we encounter another instance of the historical event used as a subject of ta'wil. And here we also encounter Fatima as the spiritual reality of a heavenly earth. The Quranic verse is: "It is He who hath created for you all things that are on earth; then He turned Himself to heaven, and he gave order and perfection to the seven heavens; and of a[[ things he hath perfect knowledge" [Quran 2:291. Fatima here is described as being this "universal earth" out of which the Imams will appear.
God made the real meaning of this "comprehensive earth" to be Fatima, upon her be God's blessing and peace. And [He made] what was in her to be the Imams, upon them be God's blessing and peace. He is the One who created, through the angels, all that is in the Earth of the Divine Exclusive Unity, which is Fatima, for Muhammad, upon him be God's blessing and peace.
"Then He lifted Himself to heaven," that is, He married her [Fatima] to `Ali and thus she is equated with heaven as far as honor (sharfa) is concerned. Thus God made her ... "one of the mighty portents, a warning to mankind, to any of you that chooses to press forward or to follow behind" [Quran 74:36-37].78
In Corbin's summary of Kirmani, we discern the logic of the Bab's hermeneutic: Since all earthly events are reflections of a pre-eternal order, the earthly marriage of `Ali and Fatima also had its purest and holiest occurrence in the supracelestial realm. The earthly marriage in Medina thus symbolized the original union that was itself "the manifestation of an eternal syzygy originating in the eternity of the pleroma of the lahut. The First Imam and Fatima are related to each other in the same reciprocal way as the first two hypostases [of neoplatonism], `Aql and Nafs, Intelligence and Soul, or in terms more familiar to us (because they go back to Philo): Logos and Sophia."79 It is also of some interest to note that Kirmani "finds" Fatima in the Quranic verse quoted here by the Bab (74:36-37).80 An examination of more traditional commentaries discloses that this exegesis is quite old indeed. Thus the interpretations of both the Bab and Kirmani represent in this instance a revivification of ancient religious ideas.81 Whether the following striking development also has its roots in the early history of Shia Quran interpretation remains to be established. The Bab continues his commentary on Quran 2:29:
So, in reality it was she who turned to the heaven and fashioned them seven heavens that is, the seven proofs who are equal to `Ali, upon him be God's blessing and peace, with regard to their Origination. The seven, when they go through the processes of Origination and Invention become fourteen manifestations of Origination. And they are seven heavens.82
The words fashioned and equal do not convey the exegetical device of paranomasia with which the Bab conveys this interpretation. The Quranic sawwahunna ("he gave order and perfection") is formed from the same root as the Quranic istawa ("then He turned Himself"). This root, sawiya, can be variously translated as "leveling," "making smooth," "making equal," "ordering." That the world is orderly – cosmos rather than chaos – is a classic Quranic argument for the existence and function of God as orderer and sustainer. How this ordering and creation is to be explained is of course controversial. The Bab holds to a distinctive cosmogony entailing twin creative processes;83 through these the seven heavens are rendered fourteen – the number of the Family of God. This is a perfect example of the otherworldly potency of Fatima's creative status: she is not only the "Mother of her Father" (umm abiha) but the creatrice of her own self and the twelve Imams as well. Kirmani, as recounted by Corbin, seems acutely apt in this instance:
Without the person of Fatima there would be neither the manifestation of the Imamate, nor Imamic initiation. For the pleroma of these entities of light is the very place of the divine mystery. Their light is the divine light itself; their transparency allows it to shine through, retaining none of their own ipseity [viz "ego"] ... they are the very substance of pre-eternal Love; they are the identity of love, lover, and beloved, that identity which all Sufis have aspired to live…84
As Corbin summarizes; Fatima is the Soul of creation, the Soul of each creature, "the constitutive part of the human being." Fatima is "the eternally feminine in man, and that is why she is the archetype of the heavenly Earth; she is both paradise and initiation into it, for it is she who manifests the divine names and attributes revealed in the theophanic persons of the Imams."85
The ontological rank of the Soul and the reality of the Soul are the rank of Fatima. The Imams are masculine as agents of cosmogony, since relation is their soul; as authors of spiritual creation they are feminine, since they are the Soul and since the Soul is Fatima.... the theophanic and initiatic function of the holy Imams is precisely their "Fatimic" degree of being (their fatimiya, which we faithfully translate as "Sophianity"), and this is how Fatima comes to be called Fatima Fatir, Fatima Creator.86
"Without the person of Fatima there would be neither the manifestation of the Imamate, nor Imamic intitiation."87 Corbin points out that it is in the light of such theories the Isma'ili epithet Fatima Fatir (Fatima the Creator) begins to be heard and understood, but this time in a new "key." Fatima, the "queen of women " – a frequent honorific – should really be understood as the "sovereign of feminine humanity" where "feminine" equals "meaning,"88 or "the totality of the beings of the Possible [al-imkan]! All creatures have been created out of the Soul itself, out of the Anima of the holy Imams."89 The Bab will echo this second idea below in his commentary on Quran 2:35. Whether the Bab recognized anything like a Jungian "feminine dimension of humanity" is difficult to say with any certainty at this times.90
Kirmani says the Imams are the brides of the prophet inasmuch as they have been created from the soul or are the soul of the Prophet. As the Quran [16:74 and 30:20] says, "He has made wives for you out of your own souls." The real "mother of the believers" is the initiatic function of the Imams. But this "motherhood" ultimately has its source in Fatima. Spiritual birth happens through the "Fatimic" agency of the Imams. The Prophet has said, "I and `Ali are the father and the mother of this community." The Bab quotes this tradition in his commentary on Quran 2:83.91
At Quran 2:65-66 Fatima as the creative element par excellence appears as both the true meaning of "the Sabbath" and the primary principle of creation or "primal command." It is reasonable to ask if Tahirih the Babi was referring to this when she spoke of "the primal truth" mentioned by Amanat. There, she is presented as seeing Fatima as a role model.92 It is possible that she was referring to Fatima as the cosmogonic principle we are discussing. This is not to say that Tahirih the Babi did not see in Fatima (the mother of the Imams) a role model. But in line with the metaphysical mood of the time and place which our texts reflect, it is probable that she was interested in Fatima's ontological value before her sociological value. We also see in this commentary a reappearance of the idea introduced at verse 3 of the Fatiha above: a soul perceives according to its capacity, through himself. It sees what it is. The comprehensive or universal dimension of the Fatimid reality is brought out again in the Bab's commentary on 2:37: "Thereafter Adam received certain words from his Lord, and turned towards him; truly he turns, and is All-compassionate" [Quran 2:37]. The Bab introduces his discussion by pointing out that words are "single letters that have been combined." The Family of God represent several stations with regard to these letters: Muhammad is the point, Ali, Hasan, and Husayn are each different kinds of alif (viz., layniya, mutaharraka, ghayr ma`tuf), the letters that do not change form in the Arabic script (dal etc.) represent the remainder of the Imams. Finally, the status of word is reserved for Fatima alone, the point being that "meaning" itself is implicated and articulated through the Fatimid reality. The belief in the Divine unity taught by the other prophets is in fact created by God himself from this word. In actual fact, the Bab says, "Adam received certain words" of acknowledgment of the walaya of the Tree of the Divine Exclusive Unity that God had forbidden "all other than itself from approaching." But when the visible form of Fatima was manifest to him, by means of his own self, God cast into his soul (his huwiya) the likeness of repentance and "He turned to him."
Typically, the Bab here cites, in rapid and skillful succession, a Tradition and another Quranic verse supporting his tafsir: "The Imam, upon whom be peace, said:
'We are the words of God.'" "God (al-Haqq)," says the Bab, "confirms this statement in His mighty Book with the following words."93 Say: 'If the sea were ink for the Words of my Lord, the sea would be spent before the Words of my Lord are spent, though We brought replenishment the like of it." [Quran 18:109] And the "replenishment" (madad) is origination (ibda') and invention (ikhtira`) which God placed under the grade of their lordship. And this origination is spent before the light of Fatima is spent. "And [this light] is inexhaustible" [wa ma lahu min nifad = Quran 38:54].
Fatima is also "the Sabbath": And well you know there were those among you that transgressed the Sabbath, and We said to them, "Be you apes, miserably slinking!" (2:65) In the presence of the Lord, the meaning (al-murad) of Sabbath is Fatima the Resplendent (al-Fatima al-Zahra), because she is the Day of the Book. Verily, God has caused all created things to appear through her; this is clear. And verily God knows that the people of the contingent world are not the Family of Muhammad, because their realities are the shadows of her body, according to the degree to which she appeared to them through their own souls (la-hum bi-him). But they transgressed what God had taught them concerning true doctrine (i`tiqad) [namely, they thought] "our [human] realities are in the station of unity and gnosis (maqam al-wahda wa'l-ma 'rifa), and thus more exalted than her body." God said to them: "The wage of their [meager] knowledge concerning the gnosis of Fatima is 'Be you apes, miserably slinking.'
He who claims that the prophets have become unified in the region of their own hearts as the body of Fatima was unified, his Creator has made him, at the very moment of this arrogant claim, an ape. The wage of sin is justice from God for what they claimed.94
Kirmani has elaborated on the epithet al-Zahra in a discussion of the Logos/Intellect. Corbin summarizes: The Intellect is the suprasensory calling for visible Form, while the station of Fatima corresponds exactly to this visible Form: "[The logos] is like the archetypal body, the inner astral mass of the sun, invisible to human perception, in relation to the visible Form, which is its aura, brilliance and splendor.... this is why Fatima has been called by a solar name: Fatima al-Zahra ... the totality of the universe consists of this light of Fatima.... "95Fatima is furthermore the soul (nafs, "Anima") of the Imams, "she is the Threshold or Gate (bab) through which the Imams effuse the gift of their light" she is "all thinkable reality." "Her eternal Person, which is the secret of the world of the Soul, is also its manifestation (bayan), without which the creative Principle of the world would remain unknown and unknowable, forever hidden."96 The Bab's commentary on 2:66 is similar: “And We made it a punishment exemplary for all the former times and for the latter, and an admonition to such as are godfearing.” [Quran 2:66]
God tells about the evildoers who are opposed [to the true walaya] namely, that they allude to God by means of a triple allusion (isharat al-tathlith).97 God says that they are apes referring to those who turn to the sign of their own tawhid with worldly eyes (bi'lnazar al-imkani).... Those who "fear" what God commanded vis a vis drawing near to [Fatima] by attaining the depth of the Fatimid Exclusive Unity (lujjat al-ahadiyat al-fatimiya) without modality or allusion (bila kayf aw ishara),98 and fear what God commanded, namely that none would draw near to her/it [lujja is feminine] except by clinging to knowledge of Fatima (bi'l-i `tigad fi ma `rifat Fatima). This itself is impossible in the contingent world, except to the degree that she appears to whatever is other than her by means of whatever is other than Him. And she is the Primal Command (al-amr al-awwal; cf. Amanat’s “primal truth”), and nothing else. Therefore God made His admonition compelling for the godfearing.99
In his discussion of the various levels of the "return" to God (thumma ilayhi turja una, Quran 2:28), the Bab says that God created Fatima from the light of His essence (nur dhatihi) and that all the prophets have their beginning, and therefore their return in the Depth of the Exclusive Unity which Depth was "invented" (ikhtira’) from the light of the body of Fatima. "And as for the generality of believers, God originated them from the shadows of the realities of the prophets (zill haga'iq al-anbiya). So their return is to these."100
The beginning of the Act (al-fi'l) is the Depth of the Exclusive unity (lujjat al-ahadiya) and its return is to it. And the beginning of passivity (that which is receptive of act: infi'al) is the sea of the inclusive unity (tamtam al-wahidiya), and its return is to it. And for each grade there is a station in [the cosmic process of] Origin and Return.101 Another interesting appearance of Fatima in this commentary is her identification with the Tree that Adam and Eve were commanded to avoid at Quran 2:35. Here the Bab says that the Tree is "absolute contingency – because all of the manifestations (tajalliyat) are enfolded in it. "Tree," shajara, it will be noted, is feminine, so that the Arabic reads "enfolded in her." This is perfectly analogous to the Imams being enfolded within Fatima as discussed earlier. Continuing, the Bab says, "As for Adam, God created the beginning of his existence from the superabundance of the luminous rays of the body of Fatima."
And a [created] thing may not “draw nigh” to [anything] beyond its origin. So, when Adam “drew nigh” to the Tree of Reality shining forth from Fatima by means of the “drawing nigh” of existence, he disobeyed his Lord, because God commanded him to not to approach it, except through an instance of ecstatic consciousness (al-wijdan). At the time of such an experience, the "thing drawn nigh unto" is the Tree itself and nothing other than it.102 Adam's disobedience is also related to Fatima in the commentary at Quran 2:6: "Verily as for those who disbelieve, it is all the same to them whether ye warn them or ye warn them not, they will not have faith." Adam's repentance after his expulsion from the Garden is the result of his having been made aware of the generosity of Fatima. Adam had shown covetousness, one of the three sources of kufr according to Ja'far alSadiq, when he wanted to eat from the Tree.
The first disobedience of Adam was his desire for the Tree of the Divine Inclusive Unity. Indeed, his desire was the very creation of this Tree! Otherwise, he would have remained a dweller in the Divine Exclusive Unity, not desiring anything else. He would not have abandoned the Garden of Muhammad and his Family. At the time of this desire came shirk. And when this desire came about he abandoned the Garden and the Divine Will became attached to the Divine Purpose, and this is Eve and Adam. God created her from the Divine Will for the comfort of Adam. When he disobeyed, he left the Garden of the Divine Ipseity (huwiya) and he entered the black sea of this world below-a veritable fire of duality where even the qualities of submissiveness and humility fight with one another. He perceived the generosity (jud) of Fatima. Then he lamented and he affirmed to God his belief in al-bada' [viz., the distinctively Shia belief that God can change His mind, or "start anew"] and attested to the prohibition of wine and he wept thirty days, then he repented towards God by clinging to the love of the recognition of the Family of God. God accepted his repentance, and thus did Adam become one "of those who do good."103
Love and Authority
We close this survey of Fatima in the Bab's tafsir with the subject that opened the study, namely walaya, "spiritual authority," and its dimension of love (mahabba). At verse 3 of Surat al-Baqara, the subject of Absolute Walaya is encountered. Here the Quranic statement "those who perform the prayer" is said by the Bab to imply general obedience to Muhammad and his Trustees (or: Legatees, awsiya) and his Progeny (nabt) through the Most Great Absolute Walaya (al-walaya almutlaqa al-kubra). While in other statements Absolute Walaya was linked to 'Ali alone,104 here it includes all of the Imams. In the same section walaya is identified with tawhid, affirmation of the divine unity. The Bab says that the act of prayer (salat) "from beginning to end" is the "form for affirming divine uniqueness" (surat al-tafrid), the "temple (haykal) for affirming the divine unity (tawhid)," and the "visible form (or: pre-vivified form, shabah) of walaya." This being the case, only the actual bearers of walaya are able to perform it properly because it is the foremost station of distinction between the Beloved (mahbub, i.e., God) and the lover. The Family of God (al Allah = Muhammad, Fatima, and the 12 Imams) are the true bearers of the meaning of the divine love mentioned in the famous hadith qudsi: "I was a hidden treasure and desired to be known, therefore I created mankind in order to be known." This love (mahabba) was manifested (tajalla) by God to them by means of their own selves (la-hum bi-him), to such a degree of exclusivity that this divine love subsists only through them, and pure servitude appears only in them. The Bab continues to say that the Family of God are the places (mahall) where servitude and all lordship ('ubudiyat and rububiyat) distinguish themselves, implying that it is through their act of servitude that they have been invested with the rank of lordship in relation to others.
Whoever, then, confesses the truth of their walaya in “the region of pure servitude” has in fact performed the prayer according to all the stations of the Merciful One. And he who performs the prayer [this way] also "pierces the veils of glory” (subuhat al-jalal) and enters the house of glory (bayt al-jalal), where such a one will eternally dwell in the protecting shade of their walaya.105 At verse 62, the term Absolute Walaya is associated again with the entire Family of God, because they are sanctified servants who do nothing of their own wills, but rather the will of God: "Surely they that believe, and those of Jewry, and the Christians, and those Sabaeans, whoso believes in God and the Last Day, and works righteousness – their reward awaits them with their Lord, and no fear shall be on them, neither shall they sorrow."
The "works of righteousness" mentioned in this verse therefore are described as being represented, par excellence, by the act of recognizing the Absolute Walaya of the Family of God; and "their reward awaits them with 'Ali." In the context of the verse itself, the suggestion is that non-Muslims are implicated in the responsibility of recognizing the authority of 'Ali and the Family of God. This may offer an indication of the way in which "absolute" (mutlaq) is to be understood. It should be noted that the last phrase of the above verse is repeated at Quran 10:62 , where it is specifically "the friends of God" (awliya' allah) who will neither grieve nor sorrow. Such cross references and correspondences are most certainly not accidental, particularly in this case where the later verse corroborates this interpretation by virtue of its vocabulary (awliya'plural of wali).106
Love as a synonym for walaya is of course not new with the Bab, but it is important that this aspect of walaya be constantly kept in mind as a means of holding the other connotations of the term, such as "authority" and "power," in perspective. This equivalence led Corbin to state that Shiasm is pre-eminently a religion of spiritual love107 – a very large assertion that must be considered in the somewhat ratified context of Corbin's preoccupations. However, insofar as devotion to the walaya of the Imam represents, in essence, an act of love, the assertion seems to stand.
In the commentary on Quran 2:23, "love" is again associated with walaya. The Bab says: None can attain to the Depth of the Exclusive Divine Unity (lujjat al-ahadiya) except by means of his ('Ali’s) walaya. It is the goal (maqsud) of your existence (wujudi-kum), because God has made you for the sake of this love (mahabba). And He has put His life (hayat) and His might ('izz) in it, to the extent that such is possible in the contingent world – if only you understood.
Love is related to the idea of knowledge/ma' rifa (gnosis), by virtue of the "theosophical" axiom: the more one knows the more one loves, and the more one loves the more one knows. This axiom is represented in the Islamic instance by the Tradition of the Hidden Treasure, quoted above: God's love or desire to be known set the terms of spiritual development for "all time." True knowledge is attained through love and devotion, and if this devotion be tested through hardship, the love, and therefore the attendant knowledge (or vice versa) is the purer. All of the Family of God suffered, but perhaps none more than Fatima, who as the mother of all suffers doubly. In his commentary on Quran 2:25, the Bab states that "the Garden," that is, Paradise, is indeed the love of the visible form of Fatima (mahabbat shabah Fatima). But give glad tidings to those who believe and work righteousness, that their portion is Gardens beneath which rivers flow. Every time they are fed with fruits therefrom, they say: "Why, this is what we were fed with before." For they are given things in similitude (mutashabihan); and they have therein companions pure (and holy); and they abide therein forever. [2:25]
For the people of inner knowledge "God gave glad tidings to those who believe" in Muhammad and do righteous deeds with regard to his Trusteeship by means of allegiance to 'Ali. For them await gardens, and these [gardens] are the love (hubb) of Fatima underneath which are rivers, meaning the two Hasans [ i.e., al-Hasan and al-Husayn). ... the fourth [river] is of red wine, flowing for the fragmentation (kasr) of all things and their refashioning (sawgh) according to the divine signs and tokens. And by it the love bodies (al-ajsad ab-mahabba) of the Shi'a of the Pure Family of God are reddened. And God fashioned in this river the forms of the believers. And God wrote at its head; "Love of the Shi'a of Ali is My fortress (hisni). Therefore, he who enters My fortress is secure from My chastisement." Every one who drinks from a river: they say, "This is that" in which God has put all the lights of the four signs [i.e., tawhid, nubuwwa, imama, shi'a).... And there for them shall be spouses purified and virtuous ... And they shall dwell forever in the love of Fatima.108
Given the dramatic role played by Tahirih – as the reappearance of Fatima-in the formation and development of the Babi religion, such words as these of the Bab's give us an enhanced understanding of the sources of her authority and influence and raise the question, Must a challenge to the status quo entail a break with the past?
NOTES:
1 In remembrance of Elizabeth Martin.
2 The following is a revised version of an article that originally appeared in The Most Learned of the Shi„a: The Institution of the Marja„ Taqlid, edited by Linda Walbridge, Oxford University Press: New York, 2001, pp. 94-127.
3 Susan S. Maneck, "Women in the Baha'i Faith" Religion and Women, Arvind Sharma (ed.), Albany, N.Y.: SUNY Press, 1994, 211-27.
4 Amanat, Abbas. Resurrection and Renewal: The Making of the Babi Movement in Iran, 1844-1850. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1989, 331
5 The Persian Bayan of Sayyid Ali Muhammad Shirazi, the Bab, 1.2, tr. Dr. Denis MacEoin, The Second Chapter of the First Unity: [H-Bahai] Translations of Shaykhi, Babi and Baha'i Texts (July, 1997-)
6 Such a status is reflected in the words of Ali Shariati: "She herself is an Imam...." ('Ali Shariati, Fatima Is Fatima, trans. L Bakhtiu [Tehran: The Shariah Foundation, (1980)], p. 225. For important recent scholarship on Fatima see the writings of Muhammad Ali Amir Moezzi: “Aspects de l’Imamologie Duodécimaine I: Remarques sur la Divinité de l’Imam”, Studia Iranica, 1996, 25(2), 193-216; “Cosmogony and Cosmology in Twelver Shiasm,” Encyclopedia Iranica, vol. 6, pp. 317-322; (in collaboration with Jean Calmard), “Fatimah, daughter of the Prophet Mohammad,” Encyclopedia Iranica, vol. 9, pp. 400-404; The Divine Guide in Early Shi`ism: The Sources of Esotericism in Islam. Tr. David Streight. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1994, passim. The recent lucid discussion of the general development of the religio-literary image of Fatima will also be of interest: Verena Klemm, "Image Formation of an Islamic Legend: Fatima, the Daughter of the Prophet Muhammad," in Sebastian Günther (ed.), Ideas, Images, and Methods of Portrayal: Insights into Classical Arabic Literature and Islam, Leiden & Boston: E. J. Brill, 2005, 181-208.
7 This word is sometimes voweled as wilaya and frequently nice distinctions are made between the two spellings in which walaya refers to spiritual authority and wilaya refers to political authority. Linguistically and etymologically there is no basis for this distinction. One important Shia lexicon states that the voweling is optional and the word connotes both political/temporal and spiritual power. A. Isfahani, Tafsir Mir' at al-Anwar wa Mishkat al-Asrar ,Tehran: Chapkhaneh Aftab, 1874/1954, 337-38).
8 I prefer "Family of God" as a translation for this term to "clan of God" found throughout Amanat, because of the obvious differences in connotation and denotation it carries: nearness, intimacy, and familiarity. These persons are seen as the Holy Family in Shiasm, not the Holy Clan.
9 E.g., Quran 2:107; 2:160; 2:257; 3:68; 6:51; 6:70; 9:112; 13:37; 18:26; 29:22; 32:4; 42:8; 42:9; 42:28; 42:31.
10 The most recent scholarly treatment of the key events and personalities in the drama that unfolded after the death of the Prophet is Madelung, Wilferd. The Succession to Muhammad: A Study of the Early Caliphate. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.
11 Hermann Landolt, "Walayah," Encyclopedia of Religion, and now the appropriate passages in Amir-Moezzi, Divine Guide, index s.v. walaya, wali, awliya'.
12 Bernd Radtke and John O'Kane, The Concept of Sainthood in Early Islamic Mysticism, London: Curzon Press, 1996.
13 On this topic see Kohlberg, Etan. "Abu Turab." Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 1978, 347-52.;"From Imamiyya to Ithna-`Ashariyya." Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 39 (1976), 521-34.; "The Development of the Imami Shia Doctrine of jihad." Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgandlandischen Gesellschaft 1976, 126, 64-86.; Newman, Andrew Joseph III. The Development and Political Significance of the Rationalistic (Usuli) and Traditionalist (Akhbari) Schools in Imami Shia History from the Third/Ninth to the Tenth/Sixteenth Century A.D. Ann Arbor: UMI Dissertation Service, 1986.
14 On the Shaykhi teachings see Juan R. I Cole, "Individualism and the Spiritual Path in Shaykh Ahmad al-Ahsa'i." H-Bahai Occasional Papers in Shaykhi, Babi and Baha'i Studies 1/4 (September, 1997).; "The World as Text: Cosmologies of Shaykh Ahmad al-Ahsa'i," Studia Islamica, 1994, 80, 1-23; Henry Corbin,.Spiritual Body and Celestial Earth: From Mazdean Iran to Shiite Iran. Translated by Nancy Pearson, Princeton:Princeton University Press, 1977.[Hereafter Corbin]; Corbin, Henry. En Islam iranien. 4 vols. Paris: Gallimard, 1971-72.[Hereafter EII]; Rafati, Vahid. The Development of Shaykhi Thought in Shia Islam. Ann Arbor: University Microfilms, 1979
15 On the subtle, amphibolous, and powerful relationship between Imam and Text, see Todd Lawson, "Reading Reading Itself: The Bab's 'Sura of the Bees,' A Commentary on Quran 12:93 from the Sura of Joseph-Text, Translation and Commentary H-Bahai Occasional Papers in Shaykhi, Babi and Baha'i Studies 1/5 (November, 1997).
16 Even as recently as 1989, we find the following statement on the date of the Tafsir surat Yusuf: “As far as can be verified, up to this time [when he produced the Tafsir surat Yusuf] the Bab had not produced any work of significance, and it was only during his encounters with his early believers that he became fully aware of his talent for producing Quranic commentaries." Amanat, Resurrection, 172-73.Manuscript: Tafsir Surat Yusuf by the Bab" (1) Haifa, Baha'i World Centre: (QA)
17 Edward , 637-710, "A Catalogue and Description of 27 Babi Manuscripts," Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1892, 24, 493-99. Azal, like his half-brother Baha'u'llah, had been a follower of the Bab from the early days. As a result of disagreements between himself and Baha'u'llah, he became the leader of the Azali faction of the Babis. Browne received a great number of Babi manuscripts from him.In this article Browne quotes a passage from the Tarikh-i Jadid which recounts the conversion of the young Shaykhi Mulla Husayn Bushru'i to the cause of the Bab in May 1844. While Mulla Husayn was visiting the Bab in the latter's home, he discovered a commentary on the Surat al-Baqara. Reading some of it, he was impressed by the merits of the work and asked his host who its author was. The Bab said that he in fact had written the work. This story relates that Mulla Husayn was puzzled by one of the passages in the work: "the explanation of the inmost of the inmost" (tafsir-i batin-i batin). Mulla Husayn is reported to have said: This appeared to me to be an error, and I remarked, "Here it should be 'the inmost,' and they have written 'the inmost of the inmost.'" "What can I say?" [the Bab] answered, "the author of the Commentary lays claim to even more than this of greatness, glory, and knowledge. Consider the passage attentively." I did so, and said, "It is quite correct. But I am wearied. Do you read and I will listen." He read for a time, and then, as men are wont, I said, "It is enough. Do not trouble yourself further.". Browne, Catalogue, 496-97. While this account is important for the history of the Tafsir Surat al-Baqara, it raises the question of why Mulla Husayn should have been stopped by such an expression. The tafsir does in fact employ it, although Browne was unable to locate it in his manuscript. It also seems logical to assume that Mulla Husayn would have been quite conversant with such language. The writings of both Shaykh Ahmad and Sayyid Kazim contain many allusions not only to the batin al-batin, but also to the batin batin al-batin, Whir al-batin, and so forth. The young Mulla may have wanted to say that this particular passage deals only with the batin and should not therefore have been referred to as an explanation of the "inmost of the inmost." It may be that the passage was left out of Browne's manuscript because it was thought to damage the credibility of the Bab. Or it could be an apocryphal tale designed to present the Bab as more learned than Mulla Husayn. Tafsir surat al-baqara (ms.) by the Bab, Sayyid `Ali Muhammad Shirazi, Tehran Bahai Archives 6014C [Baq]. Additional manuscripts: Cambridge University Library, Browne Or. Ms. F8. (C); Leiden University Library, Or.4971 (Ar.2414). Item No. 8. (L); Majmu 'ah-ye Athar Hadrat-i A'la, 156-410. (1).
18 Denis MacEoin, The Sources for Early Babi Doctrine and History: A Survey (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1992), 46-47.
19 Ibid., 41.
20 Todd Lawson, "Interpretation as Revelation: The Quran Commentary of Sayyid `Ali Muhammad Shirazi, the Bab (1819-1950)" In Approaches to the History of the Interpretation of the Quran, ed. Andrew L Rippin. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1988, 223-53.
21 MacEoin, Sources, 47. Extant works that were probably written by the Bab before the Tafsir Surat al-Baqara include the short Arabic Risalat fi al-Suluk (on which see MacEoin, Sources, 44-45). For a translation and description of this short epistle, see Todd Lawson, “The Bab’s „Journey towards God’: Translation and Text.” In H-Bahai Translations of the Shaykhi, Babi and Bahai Texts 2/1 (January, 1998b). .Manuscript: Tehran Baha'i Archives, 6006.C: (S)
22 Zarandi, Mulla Muhammad (Nabil). The Dawn-Breakers: Nabil's Narrative of the Early Days of the Baha'i Revelation, tr. and ed. Shoghi Effendi. Wilmette, Ill.: Bahai'i Publishing Trust, 1974, 31 23 Literally juz'. The Quran is divided in thirty more or less equal parts (ajza') for liturgical purposes, enabling the believer to read equal parts of the text on successive days of the sacred month of Ramadan, for example. The first part includes the first sura, al-Fatiha, the Opening, consisting of seven verses and the first 141 verses of the Surat al-Baqara. The Surat al-Baqara comprises roughly two and one-half parts. It is the longest sura of the Quran.
24 This much more famous second work, the Qayyum al-Asma, appears to be the first work written after the commentary on al-Baqara. By its special structure it actually may be considered a commentary on the entire Quran. Thus, if it had been the Bab's desire to produce a complete tafsir at this early stage, he may be seen as having accomplished this task though in a radically and unpredictably untraditional form. For a fuller description of this second commentary, see Lawson "Interpretation as Revelation."
25 If the basic conclusion of this paper is correct, namely that the Babi movement represents an efflorescence of themes, motifs, and religiosity associated with the earliest extremist Shias, then Halm's statement, referring to the Ahl-i Haqq and the Nusayris, needs to be reassessed: "Descendarts of the Kufan ghulat have survived to the present time in two mountainous areas of retreat, far from the centres of political power and from Sunni as well as Shiite orthodoxy.... The Nusayris are the only Islamic sect to preserve the unbroken tradition of the Kufan guluw." Heinz Halm, Shiism, trans. J. Watson, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1991, 158-59.
26 Baq., pp. 8 and 1, p. 156: qad ja 'alaha Allahu zillaha li-man aqarra bi-walayatihi; C, f.2b: qad ja'ala Allahu.... Repeated reference throughout this commentary to ahadiya, wahidiya, rahmaniya, and so on constitutes one of its more distinguishing characteristics. The terminology comes originally from Ibn 'Arabi (638/1240) and its use here by the Bab offers yet another example of how the work, if not the thought, of one of history's greatest mystics had thoroughly permeated Iranian Shia spiritual discourse (`irfan) by this time. For a study of these terms as they were received by Ibn 'Arabi's student Qunawi and others, see William Chittick, "The Five Divine Presences," Muslim World, 1982, 72, 107-28. (See also the critique of this article: Hermann Landolt “Review of W. Chittick, „The Five Divine Presences- From al-Qunawi to al-Qaysari.’ Studia Iranica, Suppl. 8, 1985, *488, p. 126.) Briefly, the term ahadiya represents the highest aspect of the Absolute about which we can notion (if one may use a noun as a verb) but does not, of course, define the Absolute that must always be beyond whatever occurs about It in our minds- The term wahidiya refers to the second highest aspect of the Absolute, the aspect that involves the "appearance" of the divine names and attributes. See also 'Abd al-Razzaq al-Kashani, al-Istilahat al-Sufiya, edited by Muhammad Kamal Ibrahim Ja„far, Cairo: al-Hai’at al-Misriyat al-„Amma li’l-Kitab, 1981, 25,47. The proper understanding of this technical terminology has been a subject of scholarly debate in Iran for centuries.
27 Etymologically feminine, rahmaniya, from the Arabic word for "womb," is the abstract noun mercifulness. Ibn Arabi seems to be the one responsible for characterizing the existentiation of creation as an act of mercy, an expression of rahmaniya.
28 In the commentary on the rest of the Fatiha, each verse of which is designated as "the book" or writing of one of the fourteen Pure Ones, that is the twelve imams, Fatima, and Muhammad. For specifics on the heptadic structure that reflects the realities of Family of God, see Lawson (1986). 29 See also Huda Lutfy, "The Mystical Dimensions of Literature" Alif: Journal of Comparative Politics Spring 1985, 5, 7-19.
30 It should be noted that we find no mention of Fatima at the corresponding place in the eleventh-century classical work by the otherwise influential Shia theologian Tusi, Muhammad al-Hasan, al-., al-Tibyan fi Tafsir al-Qur' an, Najaf ,1957-63, Vol. 1, 28-30. 31 Baq. p. 8, 11.4-8.The phrase "Garden of Grace" (jannat al-na'im) is determined by Quranic usage (see, e.g., 26:85). "Gnostic" translates 'arif. There are other choices: "recognizer," "knower," "seeker."
32 Ali's nickname Abu Turab is said to have originated because whenever he and Fatima would quarrel, he would leave the house and cover his head with dust, presumably out of the frustration at being married to the Prophet's daughter. Indeed, the Prophet himself bestowed this name upon him (Laura Veccia Vaglieri, "Fatima", Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed.). For other explanations of the distinctive nickname, see Kohlberg, Abu Turab, 347-52; and "The Dawning Places of the Lights of Certainty in the Divine Secrets Connected with the Commander of the Faithful, by Rajab Bursi (d. 1411)." In The Legacy of Mediaeval Persian Sufism, ed. Leonard Lewisohn, foreword by Javad Nurbakhsh, introduction by S. H. Nasr. London: Khaniqah Nimatullahi Publications in association with the SOAS Centre of Near and Middle Eastern Studies, University of London, 1992, 261-76, cf. 268. One of the key figures in the drama and legend of Tahirih the Babi is one Shaykh Abu Turab. For the most recent and quite penetrating study of this drama, see Negar Mottahedeh, "Ruptured Spaces and Effective Histories: The Unveiling of the Babi Poetess Qurrat al-`Ayn- Tahirih in the Gardens of Badasht." Occasional Papers in Shaykhi, Babi and Baha'i Studies 2/2 (February, 1998.
33 The bibliography on Fatima remains to be compiled. For this paper I have benefited from Laura Veccia Vaglieri's excellent Encyclopedia of Islam, 2nd ed., entry. See now (in collaboration with Jean Calmard), Fatimah, daughter of the Prophet Mohammad, 400-404. A study of Fatima in tafsir is Jane Dammen McAuliffe’s brief “Chosen of All Women : Mary and Fatimah in Quranic Exegesis,” Islamochristiana, 1981, 7, 19-28. Surprisingly, much early and later explicitly Shia material is ignored in this otherwise interesting article. For example, the very early Shia Tafsir Furat ibn Ibrahim mentions Fatima in over twenty places. The commentaries of the two famous classical Shia exegetes, Tusi and Tabrisi, also mention her at various points in their commentaries. The commentaries of Muhsin Fayd Kashani and others also frequently cite hadith, or more appropriately akhbar, which mention Fatima's name. 34 "She is usually depicted in the Shia sources as a bitter woman who spent her last days mourning the death of her father and refusing any contact with the outside world Mahmoud Ayoub,. Redemptive Suffering in Islam: A Study of the Devotional Aspects of 'Ashura' in Twelver Shiasm, The Hague: Mouton Publishers, 1978.,40. 35 The lack of descendants is a topos in Muhammad's biography and is reflected in the Quran as well. This meant that his progeny was destined to issue only from his daughters, which in his society meant that he was without descendants. 36 A third son, Muhsin, was stillborn. 37 Later on in his career, the Bab himself would compose a lengthy commentary on this very sura. See Todd Lawson, "Quran Commentary as Sacred Performance: The Bab's tafsirs of Quran 103 and 108, the Declining Day and the Abundance." In Iran im 19. Jahrhundert and die Enstehung der Baha'i Religion, ed. Christoph Burgel and Isabel Schayani. Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 1998, 145-58.
38 Veccia Vaglieri, Fatima. Cf. Lammens, Henri. Fatimah et les filles de Mahomet. Rome: Sumptibus Pontificii Institut Biblici, 1912. 39 "La notion du voe et la devotion musulmane a Fatima." In Studio orientalistici in onore di Giorgio della Vida. Rome: Instituto per l'Oriente, 1956, vol. 2, 102-26., p. 118f. But see the legend of the heavenly table being removed from the ahl al-bayt because they tried to share it with outsiders, Ayoub, Redemptive Suffering, 44-45. 40 Veccia Vaglieri, Fatima 41 Ibid. 42 Dala’ il al-Imama by Husayn ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab, Najaf, 1949/1369, 1-58. This source is used heavily by Veccia Vaglieri, Fatima. It is, unfortunately, unavailable to me. 43 `Ali Shariati, Fatima Is Fatima. Translated by Laleh Bakhtiar. Tehran: Shariati Foundation,[19801]. 160-61.
44 Veccia Vaglieri, Fatima 45 See McAuliffe, Chosen of All Women; and Ibn Shahrashub, Abu Ja'far Muhammad bin `Ali. Manaqib Al Abi Talib. 4 vols. Beirut: Dar al-Ida', 1405/1980 46 Ibn Shahrashub, Manaqib, vol.3 357-58 cited by Veccia Vaglieri, Fatima. For the name Qurrat al'Ayn, "Solace of the eyes," see also Abu'l-Layth al-Samarqandi (d373/983), Tanbih al-Ghafilin, 2nd ed. Taqqadum Press, 1324/1906, 7-25. 47 For details on the proper observance of this important day, see „Abbas Qummi, Mafatih al-jinan Beirut: Dar al-Ida', 1407/1987, 350-54. See also the related hadith al-kisa', Qummi, Mafatih, 386-89; cf, also Moojan Momen, An Introduction to Shia Islam, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1985, 14. 48 Baq, p. 211 in the course of the commentary on Quran 2:76; Veccia Vaglieri, "Fatima." 49 Veccia Vaglieri, Fatima 50 Ibid. 51 Mottahedeh, Ruptured Spaces
52 Veccia Vaglieri, Fatima 53 Ibid. 54 Ibid. 55 Ibn Shahrashub, Manaqib, vol. 3, 359. 56 See now Cole, Individualism, and World as Text, Rafati, Development, and parts of Todd Lawson, "The Quran Commentary of Sayyid Ali Muhammad, the Bab (1819-1850)." Unpublished Ph.D. thesis. McGill University, Montreal, 1987. Until the mid 1970s Corbin's was really the only effort in the West, apart from Nicolas' pioneering work (A. L M Nicolas,. Essai sur le Cheikhisme. 4 vols. Paris: Geuthner and Ernest Leroux, 1910-14), to devote serious attention to this intellectual development of the late eighteenth/early nineteenth century in Iran.
57 Corbin, 58; "primitive" here is both a formal and a chronological designation. By it such groups as the Nusayris, the early Isma'ilis, and other of the so-called ghulat are intended. 58 Ibid, 59. 59 The passage continues: "And through this supracelestial Earth, we are led to the idea of a Shia Sophiology, by which we shall perceive afresh something that Mazdean Sophiology already perceived in the Angel of the Earth, but this time at a new and higher level, since the progressio harmonica produces the resonance of harmonics which until then had remained silent." Corbin, 59-60).
60 Corbin, 60. 61 All of this may be found amplified in greater detail at Corbin, 60-73. 62 Nothing if not baroque, Corbin's interest in the theme of the "celestial earth" (a basic coincidentia oppositorum, it should be noted) went far beyond, yet somehow remained centered, in the figure of Fatima. He offered the metaphor of music, specifically the progressio harmonica of the pipe organ, to explain what he saw as a beautiful and compelling Iranian enrichment of intellectual history: "Whoever is somewhat familiar with the organ knows what are referred to as "stops." Thanks to these stops, each note can cause several pipes of different lengths to "speak" simultaneously; thus, besides the fundamental note, a number of harmonic overtones can be heard. Among the contrivances that regulate them, the progressio harmonica designates a combination of stops which allows more and more overtones to be heard as one ascends towards the upper register, until at a certain pitch the fundamental note also resounds simultaneously" (Corbin, p. 51). 63 On this see Todd Lawson, "A 'New Testament' for the Safavids: Interpretations of The Day of the Covenat (Quran 7:172) in Safavid Quran Commentary." Proceedings of the Safavid Roundtable, Edinburgh (1988)., forthcoming.
64 Corbin, 69. 65 See, e.g., Bowering, Gerhard, The Mystical Vision of Existence in Classical Islam: The Quranic Hermeneutics of the Sufi Sahl At-Tustari (d.283/896). Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1980; Kazemi-Moussavi, Ahmad. Religious Authority in Shiite Islam: From the Office of Mufti to the Institution of Marja'. Kuala Lumpur: International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization, 1996.; Dabashi, Hamid. Authority in Islam : From the Rise of Muhammad to the Establishment of the Umayyads. New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction, 1989; Arjomand, Sayyid Amir, ed. Authority and Political Culture in Shi`ism. Albany : State Universityof New York Press,1988.; Calder, Norman. The Structure of Authority in Imami Jurisprudence. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis. School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, 1980; Stewart, Devin J. Islamic Legal Orthodoxy : Twelver Shiite Responses to the Sunni Legal System. SaltLake City: University of Utah Press, 1998. 66 Ibn Hanbal, Musnad, tr. Momen, p. 15.
67 Baq, 47-48.
68 Ibid., 49-50. 69 Ibid., 52. 70 Ibid., 224.
71 Ibid., 94. kafirun instead of the Quranic "losers" (khasirun, all mss.). These seven names are used as a kind of shorthand to represent the Prophet, Fatima, and the twelve Imams because although they are twelve, they may be known by using only these seven names; That is, each of the names Muhammad, 'Ali, Hasan, and Husayn may be applied to more than one Imam while the names Fatima, Ja'far, and Musa can apply to only one person respectively. Earlier in this commentary, the Bab ad Quran 2:3 (Baq, 22-23), speaks of seven grades of faith (iman), taking his cue from yuminuna, "those who believe." One grade, the third, is faithfulness (wafa')- a near synonym -associated specifically with Fatima. 72 Ibid., 94-95. 73 For important background to the Shaykhi reading of Quran 7:172, see Lawson, A 'New Testament’ 74 Corbin, 63. A study of Shia akhbari tafsir on precisely the subject of the Day of the Covenant reveals that the apparitional forms of the "first" participants is more or less a standard topos. See Lawson, "A 'New Testament.'" This, of course, was one of Corbin's main points: the Shaykhis represent a revivification of very ancient modes of religiosity combined with a terminology that had more recently developed through the works of such important Iranian philosophers as Mulla Sadra (d.1640). 75 Formed on the Arabic word ilah (god), lahut refers to the divine realm. Three other similar words are encountered in such discussions: jabarut, malakut, mink to refer to three realms that issue in descending order from the lahut. All of these worlds symbolize with each other. A fifth term, nasut (humanity, human dimension), is frequently encountered. It is built on the word nas and is the polar opposite of lahut. Between lahut and nasut the whole spectrum of cosmic activity and events occurs.
76 Baq, 192-93. Veccia Vaglieri, "Fatima,” noticed this identification of Fatima with the rock "among Isma'ilis and the deviant sects" and says further that she has found no trace of such an idea in the Imami sources. According to Kashani,Muhsin Fayd. al-Safi fi Tafsir Kalam Allah al-Wafi. 5 vols. Beirut: Mu'assasat al-A`lami li-I'Matbu`at, 1979-82. Vol 1., 136-37, Moses struck the rock invoking the name of Muhammad and his family; there is no mention of Fatima’s being the rock in Kashani or Bahrani, two late-seventeenth-century Safavid works. But see Isfahani ,Tafsir, 244 where a somewhat rationalistic presentation of this reading is found. Isfahani avoids the extreme personifications and "allegorizing" found in the tafsir of the Bab. (n.b the possible connection between hajar "rock" and Hagar, the wife of Abraham and mother of the Arabs, as a manifestation of Fatima). 77 Veccia Vaglieri, Fatima
78 Baq, 112. 79 Corbin, 64. 80 Corbin, 66 81 Cf. Bahrani, al-Sayyid Hashim al-. Kitab al-Burhan fi Tafsir al-Quran. 4 vols. Tehran: Chapkhaneh Aftab, 1375/1955. Vol. 4, 402 and the hadith transmitted by al-Qummi, Mafatih, via the following isnad: al-Husayn b. Muhammad ... al-Baqir, the fifth Imam who it seems was the first to interpret the verse as such. The immediate translation for this interpretation would seem to be grammatical. "This is but one of the mighty portents" translates the Arabic: innaha l'ihda al-kubra modifies the previous litany of three portents: "the moon, the night, and the dawn." The Quran collapse all three in a not-uncharacteristic rhetorical gesture. The tension between plurality and singularity is represented in the grammatical convention that casts nonhuman plural objects in the feminine. The grammatical feminine is thus the exception rather than the rule. To the Shia exegete such an anomalous linguistic event is demystified by identifying it with one of the Family of God, in this case the only female member of that Family, Fatima. It should always be remembered in this context that the Arabic word for “earth” – ard – is grammatically feminine. That such otherwise superfluous considerations can have irreversible and long-range effects on doctrine is born out of the example from Christianity. It seems certain that the Johannine “In the beginning was the Word/logos” was an adjustment to the Septuagint’s preoccupation with wisdom/Sophia, precisely because it was felt inappropriate to refer to Jesus by means of a feminine noun. Note the interesting, if oblique, confirmation of this in the Arabic translation of the New Testament. Here, in the process of changing logos to kalmia a change in grammatical gender occurs. Yet, the resistance to referring to Jesus by means of a feminine noun is apparent in the Arabic: fi’l-bad’ kana „l-kalima… rather than the grammatical fi’l-bad’ kanat al-kalima… This anomaly is standard in all Arabic translations of the Bible.
82 Baq, 112-13 83 ibda' and ikhtira'. Briefly, the first is the action of God, and the second is the action of the demiurge. For a concise explanation of this terminology as it was used in a much earlier but apparently perfectly cognate context, see A Altmann & S. M. Stern. Isaac Israeli, A Neoplatonic Philosopher of the Early Tenth Century: His Works Translated with Comments and an Outline of His Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1958, 152-52. See now Amir-Moezzi, Cosmogony, 317-322. This scholar’s series of articles, published in various journals and books, entitled “Aspects d’Imamologie Duodécimaine” is essential reading for the present topic. It is hoped that it will be available in a single volume in the near future. See Amir-Moezzi, Aspects, 193-216. 84 Corbin, 63-64. See my translation of the Bab's Risalat fi'l-Suluk for an explicit mention of this same idea in the same vocabulary Lawson, Journey
85 Corbin, 66. 86 Ibid., 68. 87 Ibid., 63. 88 See the cognate idea carried, for example, in the phrase ara'is al-bayan (the brides of meaning), the title of an esoteric tafsir by the mystic Ruzbehan Baqli (d. 1209). Just as a verse of poetry is called a bayt (house, tent), the meaning of the verse is considered the bride waiting within the house or tent. 89 Corbin, 67. 90 However 'Abdu’l-Bahá, the Baha'i leader and thinker (and presumably influenced by the Bab's ideas), spoke of the "feminization of humanity" as a precondition for the establishment of universal peace: "The world in the past has been ruled by force, and man has dominated over woman by reason of his more forceful and aggressive qualities both of body and mind. But the balance is already shifting; force is losing its dominance, and mental alertness, intuition, and the spiritual qualities of love and service, in which woman is strong, are gaining ascendancy. Hence the new age will be an age less masculine and more permeated with the feminine ideals, or, to speak more exactly, will be an age in which the masculine and feminine elements of civilization will be more evenly balanced" (J. E. Esslemont, Baha u'llah and the New Era, 5th rev. ed. Wilmette: Baha'i Publishing Trust, 1987, 149). This could be a perfect example of how such an idea as "equality of the sexes," which appears incontestably modem and Western (i.e., foreign to Islam), is in reality a native outgrowth of Islamic culture.
91 Corbin, 67-68. The Bab's commentary, on Quran 2:83, is as follows: "And when We took compact the Children of Israel: 'You shall not serve any save God; and to be good to parents, and the near kinsman, and to orphans, and to the needy; and speak good to men, and perform the prayer, and pay the alms.' then you turned away, all but a few of you, swerving aside." The Bab says that God is speaking about His "taking compact" with all created things "in the eight paradises," to recognize the walaya of `Ali. The first of these paradises is the Depth of Unity (lujjat al-wahda) and is characterized by the command, "You shall not serve any save God ... [and this] without reference [to anything else]." In the second paradise the compact was taken by moans of recognizing the Universal Walaya (al-walayat al-kulliya) of the "parents," i.e., Muhammad and 'Ali who are, respectively, the symbols of universal fatherhood and motherhood. Such recognition, the Bab says, is in reality the good mentioned in the verse, because to do good means to do good to all according to what each merits. The good that these particular parents deserve has only been hinted at, because were the Bab to openly (bi'l-tasrih) describe it, the prattling enemies (mubtilun) would cavil at it. [Baq, 223-24.] 92 Amanat, Resurrection, 331. No source for this statement is given here.
93 Baq, 159-60. On shabah: The beings of the pleroma of the lahut are visible only in their apparitional forms, which are the receptacles of their theophanies (Corbin, 63; cf. Huwayzi, 'Abd `Ali, al-. Kitab Tafsir Nur al-Thaqalayn. 5 vols. Qum: n.p., 1383/1963-1385/1965,.Vol. 1, 56-57, *142-44). The words are a prayer; the names of the six (above) and an invocation of these names. *149: God created the light of Muhammad before the heavens and the earth and the throne and the kursi and the tablet and the pen and paradise and hell. 149, (cont. p. 58) contains reference to ring of Solomon (Bahrani, Burhan, vol. 1, 86, *2 as Huwayzi *3): Adam was expelled on 1 Dhu al-qa'da, and on the 8th of Dhu al-Hijja Gabriel sent him to Minna. See now Amir-Moezzi, Cosmogony cited above. 94 Baq, 198-99. The last two sentences are perhaps a reference to a specific controversy. Unfortunately, the details of this are unknown to me.
95 Corbin, 64. 96 Ibid., 65. 97 Baq, 200. This is possibly an allusion to the first three Sunni caliphs whom the Shi'a consider usurpers of 'Ali's position and breakers of the divine covenant. 98 That is through pure contemplation, without images or thoughts contaminated by "the world." This is a reference, one of many throughout the work, to the famous Hadith Kumayl. 99 Baq, 199-200.
100 Ibid., 109-110. 101 Ibid., 108-9. 102 Ibid., p. 154. Here it is perhaps an affirmation of the agency and efficacy of the specifically Shia form of “enlightenment” referred to by Corbin as “instase”. Cf., in this regard, Fritz Meier’s definition of wijdan as “being touched inside”. Meier, Fritz. Die “fawa’ih al-gamal wa fawatih al-galal” des Nagmuddin al-Kubra. Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner, 1957 fasl 41 & 95; 101 German text. The terms wijdan, derived from wujud “finding” denotes “ecstasy” in Arabic and “conscience” in Persian. I have combined the two meanings here in “ecstasy of consciousness” – a paradoxical event of awareness in which there is no distinction between object and subject, and therefore – according to the implied syllogism – no awareness. Wijdan can also connote an intensification or “thickening” of the experience of being/existence analogous, perhaps, to poetry (Dichtung) as a thickening of the experience of language. The language here is also another explicit reference to the Hadith Kumayl.
103 Ibid., pp. 45-46 Cf. Tusi, al-Tibyan, vol. 1, pp. 59-60: This verse was revealed about Abu Jahl according to al-Rabi' b. Anis, and al-Balkhi and al-Maghribi chose this; according to. Ibn Abbas, it was sent down about the Jewish leaders around Mecca; some say it was sent down about the Arab idolators. Tabari chose Ibn 'Abbas: "We say rather that the verse has a general meaning." 104 Baq, p. 195.
105 This is perhaps an example of the antinomian motif so prominent in certain so-called extremist Shia texts and teachings. 106 Baq, 195-96. 107 E.g., Encyclopedia of Islam, 1st ed., i, 285-303 and iii, 210.
108 Baq, 87: "love of the form of Fatima" (mahabbat shabah Fatima). Additional works consulted include: Abu Lawz, Yusuf. Fatima Tadhhabu Mubakkira ila al-Huqul. Damascus: Ittihad al-kuttab al-arab, 1983.;'Adawi, Muhammad Mustafa, al-.Qissat ar-Raha li's-Sayyida Fatima az-Zahra (Cairo, n.d.). Translated in Jeffery, Islam: Muhammad and His Religion, Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1958, 217-22.; Bani, Omol. Fatima statt Farah: Erfahrungen einer Frau in der iranischen Revolution. Tubingen: Iva-Verlag, 1980. Bayat, Mangol. Mysticism and Dissent: Socioreligious Thought in Qajar Iran. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1982, 1-58; Bursi, Rajab al-. Mashariq Anwar al.Yaqin fi Asrar Amir al-Mu'minin. Beirut: n.p, 1979. Furat al-Kufi, Furat ibn Ibrahim. Tafsir Furat al-Kufi. Ed. Muhammad `Ali al-Ghurawi Urdubadi. Najaf al Matba'a al-Huyderiya 1353/1934.; Gerstle, C. Andrew. "Text as Peformance: Tragedy in Japanese Drama." In Recovering the Orient: Artists, Scholars, Appropriations, ed. Andrew Gerstle and Anthony Milner. Singapore; Harwood Academic Publishers, 1994, 205-28; Hajajji-Jarrah, Soraya. "Women's Modesty in Quranic Commentaries: The Founding Discourse." In Women and the Veil in North America, eds. Sajjida Alvi, Homa Hoodfar, and Sheila McDonough. Toronto: Women’s Press, 2003.; Hermansen, Marcia K. "Fatimeh as a Role Model in the Works of Ali Shari'ati." In Women and Revolution in Iran, ed. Guity Nashat. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1983,. 87-96; Khamis, Muhammad Atiya. Fatima al-Zahra. Cairo, 1965.; Todd Lawson, Akhbari Shia Approaches to Tafsir." In Approaches to the Quran, ed. G. R. Hawting and Abdul- Kader A. Shareef. New York and London: Routledge, 1993, 173-210.; Massignon, Louis. "Der Gnostische Kult der Fatima im Shiitischen Islam." In Opera Minora. Beirut: 1963a, vol. 1, 514-22."La mubahala de Medine et l'hyperdulie de Fatima." In Louis Massignon, Opera Minora. Beirut: Dar el-Maaret Liban, 1963: vol. 1,. 550-72. Massignon, Louis. "L'Oratoire de Marie a l'Aqca, vu sous le voile de deuil de Fatima." In Louis Massignon, Opera Minora. Beirut: Dar el-Maaret Liban, 1963, vol. 1, 592-618.Massignon, Louis. "L'Experience musulmane de la Compassion ordonee a 1'Universel a propos de Fatima et de Hallaj." In Louis Massignon, Opera Minora. Beirut: Dar el-Maaret Liban, 1963, vol. 3, pp. 642-53; The Passion of al-Hallaj, Mystic and Martyr of Islam. Translated from the French with a biographical foreword by Herbert Mason. 4 vols. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1982; Milani, Fadil Husayni al-. Fatima al-Zahra umm abiha. Beirut: Dar al-Ta'rif lil'matbu'at wamuassasa Ahl al-Bayt, 1979; Qazwini, Muhammad Kazim al-. Fatima al-Zahra min al-Mahd ilal'l-Lahd, Beirut: Dar al-Sadiq,1977; Rashti, Sayyid Kazim. Sharh al-Qasida al-Lamiya. Tabriz; litho., n.p.,1270; Stumpel, Isabel. "Tahira Qurrat al-'Ain." In Iran im 19 Jahrhundert und die Enstehung der Baha'i Religion, ed. Christoph Burgel and Isabel Schayani. Hildesheim: Georg Olms Verlag, 1998, 127-43.Tabrisi, Abu `Ali, al-. Mamma' al-Bayan fi Tafsir al-Quran. Beirut: Dar al-Fikr wa Dar al-Kitab al Lubnani, 1377/1957.
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