Burial place of Fatimah

Arabic calligraphy reading Fatimah az-Zahra

Burial place of Fatima is about the uncertainty in Fatimah's resting place. Fatimah was the daughter of the Islamic prophet, Muhammad, and wife of Ali, the fourth caliph after Muhammad and also the first Shia Imam.^[1]

Controversy surrounds Fatimah's death, within six months of Muhammad's demise.^[2] Sunni Islam holds that Fatimah died from grief.^[3] In Shia Islam, however, Fatimah's (miscarriage and) death are viewed as the direct result of the injuries that she suffered during an alleged raid on her house, ordered by the first caliph, Abu Bakr.^[4] Fatimah and her husband, Ali, had refused to acknowledge the authority of Abu Bakr. The couple and their supporters held that Ali was the rightful successor of Muhammad, appointed by him at the Event of Ghadir Khumm.^[5]

It is well-documented that Fatimah's dying wish was that Abu Bakr should not attend her funeral.^[6] She was buried under the cover of darkness and her exact burial place remains unknown to this day.^[7] This article describes the historical circumstances of Fatimah's secret burial and her uncertain resting place.

Fatimah's last wish is at odds with the common practice of Muslims in attending funeral services.^[8] In Shia sources, Fatimah's wish for a clandestine burial has been viewed as a sign of her anger at Abu Bakr and her disassociation with the Muslim community who largely failed to support her opposition to Abu Bakr.^[9] As Muhammad's daughter, Fatimah's discontent is famously linked to Muhammad's anger in hadith literature and she occupies a similar position in Islam that Mary, mother of Jesus, occupies in Christianity.^[10] In view of Fatimah's place in Islam, the circumstances of her death remain highly controversial, with beliefs primarily split along sectarian lines between Sunni and Shia denominations.^[11]

Background[]

Following Muhammad's death in 632 CE, Fatimah and her husband, Ali, refused to acknowledge the authority of Muhammad's successor, Abu Bakr, and opted for passive resistance.^[12] The couple maintained that Muhammad had appointed Ali as his rightful successor at the Event of Ghadir Khumm.^[13]

Fatimah also protested the confiscation of Fadak by Abu Bakr.^[14] Fadak was a plot of land that belonged to Muhammad and, after his death, was seized by Abu Bakr on the basis that Muhammad had personally told him that prophets do not leave inheritance.^[15] Abu Bakr's action is often considered as a political move to deprive Muhammad's clan, the Banu Hashim, of their financial means and to strip away the privileges of Ali and Fatimah as Muhammad's kins.^[16]

Fatimah died within six months of her father.^[17] Her death at a young age is subject of intense controversy with allegations against Abu Bakr.^[18] It is alleged that Fatimah suffered injuries in an attack on her house to arrest Ali, ordered by Abu Bakr.^[19] The injuries during the alleged attack caused the young Fatimah's miscarriage and death.^[19]

The above allegations are brought forward by the Shia and categorically rejected by the Sunni, the two largest branches of Islam.^[20] On the one hand, Shia historians list multiple early Sunni sources that corroborate these allegations and point out that sensitive information has been censored by Sunni scholars who were concerned with the righteous presentation of Muhammad's companions.^[21] On the other hand, for Sunnis, it is unimaginable that Muhammad's companions would violate the Quranic sanctity of Muhammad's family and home.^[22] In turn, Sunni Islam holds that Fatimah died from grief, following Muhammad's death, and that her child died in infancy of natural causes.^[23]

It is well-documented that Fatimah's dying wish was that Abu Bakr should not attend her funeral; she asked Ali to be buried at night, with only the family members and close friends present.^[24]

Unknown burial place[]

As the only surviving daughter of Muhammad, Fatimah's exact burial place remains uncertain, unlike most early Islamic figures.^[25]

Sunni sources report that the two most probable locations for Fatimah's grave are al-Baqi cemetery and her home, which was later annexed to Prophet's Mousque.^{[26][27][28][29][30][31]} The former location is primarily supported by Hasan's wish to be buried next to his "mother." However, the Sunni scholar Samhoodi concluded that Hasan is buried next to Fatimah bint Asad, his grandmother and not his mother, Fatimah.^[32] In Arabic, "mother" may also refer to grandmother. Shia sources are also inconclusive and suggest Fatimah's home or the proximity of Muhammad's tomb as the most likely resting places for Fatimah.^[33][34] The secret nature of Fatimah's burial further strengthens the view that she was buried at her home.

The hostility of early Islamic rulers towards Muhammad's family perhaps forced the latter to hide Fatimah's burial place: Al-Mutawakkil demolished the shrine of Husayn, Fatimah's son, in the third century AH.^[35] More recently, in 1802 CE, Wahhabis smashed the shrines of Ali and Husayn, and massacred thousands of pilgrims.^[36] Shia sources report that when Umar learned about Fatimah's secret burial, he threatened to locate and exhume Fatimah's body and then re-bury her after salat al-janazah.^[37] According to these sources, what prevented Umar from materializing his threat was Ali's warning, "By God, as long as I'm alive and Zulfiqar is in my hands, you will not reach her and you know best [not to do it]."^[38] It has been suggested that the loss of Fatimah was so traumatizing for Ali that, for the first time, he threatened Umar with violence, despite his earlier restraint.^[39]

See also[]

• Al-Baqi
• Alleged attack on Fatimah's house
• Fadak
• Sermon of Fadak
• Fatimiyya

References[]

Bibliography[]

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• Rogerson, Barnaby (2006). The heirs of the prophet Muhammad: And the roots of the Sunni-Shia schism. Abacus. ISBN 9780349117577.
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• Sajjadi, Sadeq (2021). "Fadak". Encyclopaedia Islamica. Brill Reference Online.
• The Editors of Encyclopaedia, ed. (2021). "Fatimah". Encyclopedia Britannica.
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• Bowering, Gerhard, ed. (2013). "Ali b. Abi Talib". The Princeton encyclopedia of Islamic political thought. Princeton University Press.
• Ruffle, Karen (2011). "May you learn from their model: The exemplary father-daughter relationship of Mohammad and Fatima in South Asian Shiʿism" (PDF). Journal of Persianate Studies. 4: 12–29. doi:10.1163/187471611X568267.
• Momen, Moojan (1985). An introduction to Shi'i Islam. Yale University Press. ISBN 9780853982005.
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• McAuliffe, Jane Dammen, ed. (2002). "Fatima". Encyclopaedia of the Quran. 2. ISBN 978-90-04-11465-4.
• Ahmed, Shahab (1998). "Ibn Taymiyyah and the Satanic Verses". Studia Islamica. 87 (87): 67–124. doi:10.2307/1595926. JSTOR 1595926.
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• Mavani, Hamid (2013). Religious authority and political thought in Twelver Shi'ism: From Ali to post-Khomeini. Routledge. ISBN 9780415624404.

Further reading[]

• Alamdar, Sayyid Hussein (28 July 2014). FATIMEH AL-ZAHRA. AuthorHouse. ISBN 978-1-4969-2695-1.
• Al-Jibouri, Yasin T. (24 October 2013). TRAGEDY OF FATIMA DAUGHTER OF PROPHET MUHAMMED: Doubts Cast And Rebuttals. AuthorHouse. ISBN 978-1-4918-2693-5.
• Calmard, Jean (1999). "FĀṬEMA". Encyclopaedia Iranica.
• Chittick, William C. (1980). A Shi'ite Anthology. SUNY Press. ISBN 978-0-87395-510-2.
• Dungersi, Mohammed Raza. A Brief Biography of Hazrat Fatima (s.a.). Bilal Muslim Mission of Tanzania. GGKEY:JL74BWK0FH3.
• Javdan, Mohammad Ali (2013). Daughter of prophet: An overview on the situations of Fatimah (a.s) after the prophet (in Persian). Allamah Askari.
• Madelung, Wilferd (15 October 1998). The Succession to Muhammad: A Study of the Early Caliphate. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-64696-3.
• Morrow, John Andrew (11 November 2013). Islamic Images and Ideas: Essays on Sacred Symbolism. McFarland. ISBN 978-0-7864-5848-6.
• Ordoni, Abu Muhammad (2012). Fatima (S.A.) The Gracious. Ansariyan Publications.
• Qurashi, Baqir Shareef (2006). THE LIFE OF FATIMA AZ-ZAHRA'. Ansariyan Publications. ISBN 964-438-817-8.
• Mousavi Zanjanrudi, Seyyed Mojtaba (2012). The missing grave (in Persian). Archived from the original on 8 January 2015.CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)