Fatima bint Asad
فَاطِمَة بِنْت أَسَد
Born
Fāṭima bint ʾAsad

c. 555 or 568 CE
Hejaz, Arabia
Diedc. 626 CE
Medina, Hejaz, Arabia
Burial placeJannat al Baqi, Medina
Known for
SpouseAbu Talib ibn Abd al-Muttalib
Children(see below)
Parents
FamilyBanu Hashim

Fatima bint Asad (Arabic: فَاطِمَة بِنْت أَسَد Fāṭima bint ʾAsad c. 555–626 CE), was the mother of Ali ibn Abi Talib, married to Abu Talib, and an aunt to Muhammad.

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

Giving birth to Ali is recorded as a miraculous event in the life of Fatima bint Asad by both Shias and Sunnis.[lower-alpha 1] According to some traditions, the Kaaba's wall split open in order for Fatima to go 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 Abi Talib was given the name of Haydar, meaning lion, by his mother.

Ancestry

Fatima bint Asad was the wife of Abu Talib, who was Muhammad's uncle. She was the daughter of Asad ibn Hashim and Fatima bint Qays, 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 Fatima's mother.

Biography

Raising Muhammad

Muhammad's father, Abdullah, died before he was born. Then at the age of six, he was orphaned by the death of his mother. After that, his grandfather, Abd al-Muttalib, took care of Muhammad for two years before he too died when Muhammad was eight. Then in the year 578 Muhammad was adopted by Fatima bint Asad and Abu Talib as their son.

It is said that Fatima loved Muhammad more than her own children.[lower-alpha 2][2] In his later years, Muhammad used to say of her that she would have let her own children go hungry rather than him.[lower-alpha 3][3]

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

Giving birth to Ali

Ali was her youngest child, who was born in the year 599.[4] Fatima bint Asad already had three sons - Talib, Aqil and Ja'far – and two daughters, Jumanah and Fakhitah (also known as Umm Hani) - prior to giving birth to Ali. She is estimated to be in her late thirties at the time, while Muhammad, her adopted son, was about 23.[2]

Her giving birth to Ali has a miraculous story. When she began experiencing labour pains, she travelled to the 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."[6] A wall of the Kaaba then slivered open from a corner and Fatima went inside and delivered her child in the house of God. After three days, according to both Shia and Sunni accounts,[lower-alpha 4] she walked out of the Kaaba, with the child in her arms. Fatima named the child, Haydar, which means Lion in Arabic.

Second woman to embrace Islam

After Muhammad became prophet, Fatima bint Asad was the second woman, after Khadija, who entered the fold of Islam. Thus she is described as a "righteous woman".[1]

Following Abu Talib's death in 620,[7][8]: 243  Fatima emigrated to Medina with Fatima bint Muhammad and her son Ali in 622.[9][10]: 686  Muhammad would regularly visit her home and take his afternoon rest there.[1]

Death

Fatima bint Asad died in the year 625/626.[10]: 811  It is told by Anas bin Malik that when Muhammad learned that Fatima had died, he went to her house to sit beside her body and prayed her funeral prayers, then gave his shirt to be incorporated into her shroud, and personally helped inspect her grave and place her in it in the Jannat al-Baqi cemetery in Medina.[10]: 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.[11] They had seven children:

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

The orphaned Muhammad, who was Abu Talib's nephew and Fatima's cousin, came to live in their house in 579, when he was eight years old.[7][8]: 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
Qusayy ibn KilabRawaha ibn Hajar
Abd Manaf ibn Qusayy
Hashim ibn Abd ManafQaylah bint Amr
(Banu Khuza'ah)		Qays or Haram ibn Rawaha
Asad ibn HashimFatima bint Qays
(bint Haram)
Fatima 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. 1 2 3 4 5 ibn Sa'd, Muhammad (1995). Kitab at-Tabaqat al-Kabir (The Book of the Major Classes). Vol. VIII The Women of Madina. Translated by Bewley, Aisha. London: Ta-Ha Publishers. ISBN 978-1-897940-24-2.
  2. 1 2 Abbas 1399, p. 15
  3. ↑ Abbas 1399, p. 24
  4. 1 2 Abbas 1399, p. 29
  5. ↑ Abbas 1399, p. 33
  6. ↑ Abbas 1399, pp. 14–15
  7. 1 2 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.
  8. 1 2 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.
  9. ↑ Abbas 1399, p. 46
  10. 1 2 3 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.
  11. ↑ 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.

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