Fatima bint Asad (Arabic: فَاطِمَة بِنْت أَسَدFāṭima 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.[a] 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]
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.[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 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,[d] 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]
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,[citation needed] 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:
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
^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.
^ 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.
^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
^ abcdeibn 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. ISBN978-1-897940-24-2.
^ abMuhammad 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.
^ abcAl-Majlisi, M. B. Hayat al-Qulub. Translated by Rizvi, S. H. (2010). Volume 2: A Detailed Biography of Prophet Muhammad (saww). Qum: Ansariyan Publications.
^Najeebabadi, Akbar Shah; Mubārakfūrī, Ṣafī al-Raḥmān; Abdullah, Abdul Rahman; Salafi, Muhammad Tahir (2001). The History of Islam, Volume I. p. 427.
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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