Fāṭima al-Zahrāʾ
The youngest of the Prophet’s daughters and the dearest to him, wife of ʿAlī and mother of al-Ḥasan and al-Ḥusayn. The only one of his children to outlive him — and only by six months.
In brief
- Her name
- Fāṭima bint Muhammad ibn ʿAbdullāh ﷺ; her mother was Khadīja bint Khuwaylid.
- Her titles
- Al-Zahrāʾ, the radiant; al-Batūl; and Umm Abīhā, “her father’s mother” — a name he gave her for her care of him.
- Her birth
- In Mecca, about five years before the call; some place it after.
- Her marriage
- To ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib in year 2 AH after Badr; her dower was his shield.
- Her children
- Al-Ḥasan · Al-Ḥusayn · Zaynab · Umm Kulthūm — through her alone the Prophet’s line continued.
- Her death
- In Medina six months after the Prophet ﷺ, in 11 AH, aged about twenty-nine.
His story
He ﷺ said of her: “Fāṭima is a part of me; whoever angers her angers me.” And: “The mistress of the women of Paradise is Fāṭima.” When she came to him he would rise, take her hand, kiss her, and seat her in his own place.
She lived austerely in her husband’s house, grinding grain until the mill marked her hand and carrying water until the skin marked her chest. She came asking the Prophet ﷺ for a servant and he gave her none, teaching her instead to glorify God thirty-three times after each prayer, praise Him thirty-three, and magnify Him thirty-four — known ever since as “Fāṭima’s glorification”.
In his final illness he whispered to her and she wept, then whispered again and she laughed. Asked afterwards she said: he told me he would die of this illness, so I wept; then he told me I would be the first of his household to follow him, so I laughed.