Fatimah bint Asad

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Fatimah bint Asad
فَاطِمَة بِنْت أَسَد
Bibi Fatimah bint Asad (A.S.).png
Arabic text with the name of Fatimah bint Asad
Born
Fatimah bint Asad

(c. 555 CE)
Died(c. 626 CE)
Known forMother of Ali ibn Abu Talib, Aunt of Muhammad
Spouse(s)Abu Talib ibn Abd al-Muttalib
Children(see below)
Parent(s)Asad ibn Hashim
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Fatimah bint Asad (Arabic: فَاطِمَة بِنْت أَسَد‎ Fāṭimah ibnat ʾAsad, c. 555–626 CE) was the mother of Ali ibn Abi Talib, married to Abu Talib, and an aunt to the Islamic prophet Muhammad.

Fatimah bint Asad and her husband, Abu Talib, acted as prophet's adopted parents for fifteen years, since Muhammad had lost his mother, when he was six (his father had died before he was born). Years later Muhammad got the chance to pay back the love he got from Fatima bint Asad, by adopting Ali, Fatima's youngest child, as his son.

Giving birth to Ali, is recorded as a miraculous event by Shia and Sunni,[a] in the life of Fatimah bint Asad. Since, as it is said, Kaaba's wall split open in order for Fatima to get in the house and give birth to her son, Ali. After Muhammad's wife, Khadija bint Khuwaylid, Fatima bint Asad was the second woman who entered the fold of Islam. Ali ibn Abu Talib was given the name of Haidar –meaning lion, by his mother Fatimah bint Asad.


Ancestry[]

Fatimah bint Asad was the wife of Abu Talib, who was Muhammad's uncle. She was the daughter of Asad ibn Hashim and , hence a member of the Hashim clan of the Quraysh.[1]

The maternal grandfather of Muhammad's wife Khadija bint Khuwaylid, Za'ida ibn al-Asamm ibn Rawaha, was the cousin of Fatimah's mother.

Biography[]

Raising Muhammad[]

Muhammad's father, Abdullah died before he was born. Then at the age of six, was orphaned from his mother too. After that, his grandfather, Abd al-Muttalib, took after him for a couple of years before he, himself died when Muhammad was eight. Then at the year 578, Muhammad was adopted by Fatimah bit Asad and Abu Talib as their son. It is said that Fatima loved Muhammad more than her own children.[b][2] In his later years, Muhammad, used to say of her that she would have let her own children go hungry rather than him.[c][3]

Years later, Muhammad got the opportunity to pay back the love he received from the family, as he and his wife, Khadija, adopted Ali as their son, to help Abu Talib, go through the famine affected Mecca.[4] Moreover, it is said that Muhammad named his own daughter Fatimah after Fatima bint Asad, although Khadija's mother was also called Fatima.[5]

Giving birth to Ali[]

Fatima bint Asad has already three sons -Talib, Aqeel and Jafar – and a daughter, Fakhitah (also known as Umm Hani)-, when she gave birth to Ali. She is estimated to be in her late thirties at the time, while Muhammad, her adopted son was about 23.[6] So Ali was her youngest child, who was born in the year 599.[7] Her giving birth to Ali has a miraculous story. When she got the pain of labor, he reached to Kaaba, praying "Oh God, for the sake of the one who built this house, Abraham, and the child inside me, I beseech you to make this delivery easy."[8] Then, the wall of Kaaba slivered open from a corner and Fatima got inside, and delivered her child, Ali, in the house. After three days, according to both Shia and Sunni narrations[d] she walked out of Kaaba, with the child in her arms. Fatima named the child, Haidar, which means Lion in Arabic, while his cousin, Muhammad, called him Ali.[9]

Second woman to embrace Islam[]

After Muhammad became prophet, Fatimah bint Asad was the second woman, after Khadijah, who entered the fold of Islam. Thus she is described as a "righteous woman".[1] Following Abu Talib's death in 620,[10][11]:243 Fatimah emigrated to Medina with Fatima bint Muhammad and her son Ali in 622.[12][13]:686 Muhammad would regularly visit her home and would have his afternoon rest there.[1]

Death[]

Fatimah bint Asad died in the year 625/626.[13]:811 It is narrated by Anas bin Malik, that when Muhammad learned that Fatimah had died, he went to her house to sit beside her body and prayed her funeral prayers,[citation needed] he then gave his shirt to be incorporated into her shroud, and personally helped inspecting her grave and placing her in it in the Jannatul Baqee cemetery in Medina.[13]:475

Family[]

She married her paternal cousin, Abu Talib ibn Abd al-Muttalib. Their marriage was notable for being the first between two members of the Banu Hashim.[14] They had seven children:

  1. Talib.
  2. Fakhitah (aka "Hind" & "Umm Hani").
  3. Aqeel.
  4. Jumanah.
  5. Ja'far.
  6. Rayta (aka "Asmā’" & "Umm Ṭālib").
  7. Ali, who was the husband of Muhammad's daughter Fatimah.[1]

The orphaned Muhammad, who was Abu Talib's nephew and Fatimah's cousin, came to live in their house in 579 (when he was eight years old).[10][11]:131, 133

Ancestry Chart[]

Lu'ayy ibn Ghalib
Ka'b ibn Lu'ayyAmir ibn Lu'ayy[1]
Murrah ibn Ka'b'Abd ibn Amir
Kilab ibn MurrahHajar ibn 'Abd
Qusai ibn KilabRawaha ibn Hajar
Abd Manaf ibn Qusai
Hashim ibn Abd Manaf
(Banu Khuza'a)		Qays or Haram ibn Rawaha
Asad ibn HashimFatima bint Qays
(bint Haram)
Fatimah bint Asad

See also[]

Notes[]

  1. ^ For a Sunni source see Shah Wali ullah Muhadis Dehalvi, Izala Tul Khulafa, trans. Ishtiaq Ahmed, Vol. 4 (Karachi: Qadeemi Kutubkhana), pp. 405–6; also see Ibn al-Sabbagh al-Maliki, al-Fusul al-Muhimmah fi Ma’rifat al-A’immah, Ch. 1, p. 13; famous Arab historian and geographer al-Masudi also verifies this in his highly acclaimed book, Muroojudh-Dhahab was Madain al-Jawahar (The Meadows of Gold and Mines of Gems), Vol. 2, p. 76.
  2. ^ See Martin Lings, Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources (Vermont: Inner Traditions, 2006), p. 28. Also see Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, al-Isabah fi Tamyiz al-Sahabah, Vol. 4 (1856), p. 369.
  3. ^ See Lings, Muhammad, p. 28.
  4. ^ For a Sunni source see Shah Wali ullah Muhadis Dehalvi, Izala Tul Khulafa, trans. Ishtiaq Ahmed, Vol. 4 (Karachi: Qadeemi Kutubkhana), pp. 405–6; also see Ibn al-Sabbagh al-Maliki, al-Fusul al-Muhimmah fi Ma’rifat al-A’immah, Ch. 1, p. 13; famous Arab historian and geographer al-Masudi also verifies this in his highly acclaimed book, Muroojudh-Dhahab was Madain al-Jawahar (The Meadows of Gold and Mines of Gems), Vol. 2, p. 76.

Footnotes[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e ibn Sa'd, Muhammad (1995). Kitab at-Tabaqat al-Kabir (The Book of the Major Classes). VIII The Women of Madina. Translated by Bewley, Aisha. London: Ta-Ha Publishers. ISBN 978-1-897940-24-2.
  2. ^ Abbas 1399, p. 15
  3. ^ Abbas 1399, p. 24
  4. ^ Abbas 1399, p. 29
  5. ^ Abbas 1399, p. 33
  6. ^ Abbas 1399, p. 15
  7. ^ Abbas 1399, p. 29
  8. ^ Abbas 1399, pp. 14-15
  9. ^ Abbas 1399, p. 15
  10. ^ Jump up to: a b ibn Ishaq, Muhammad (1955). Sīrat Rasūl Allāh (The Life of Muhammad). Translated by Guillaume, Alfred. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-8369-9260-1.
  11. ^ Jump up to: a b Muhammad ibn Saad. Kitab al-Tabaqat al-Kabir vol. 1. Translated by Haq, S. M. (1967). Ibn Sa'd's Kitab al-Tabaqat al-Kabir Volume I Parts I & II. Delhi: Kitab Bhavan.
  12. ^ Abbas 1399, p. 46
  13. ^ Jump up to: a b c Al-Majlisi, M. B. Hayat al-Qulub. Translated by Rizvi, S. H. (2010). Volume 2: A Detailed Biography of Prophet Muhammad (saww). Qum: Ansariyan Publications.
  14. ^ Najeebabadi, Akbar Shah; Mubārakfūrī, Ṣafī al-Raḥmān; Abdullah, Abdul Rahman; Salafi, Muhammad Tahir (2001). The History of Islam, Volume I. p. 427.

References[]

Mahmood Ahmad Ghadanfar. Great Women of Islam. Translated by Jamila Muhammad Qawi. Darussalam Publishers & Distributors, Riyadh. Online at kalamullah.com. pp. 163–167. Retrieved 2013-06-22.

External links[]

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