Fatima bint Asad ( ar, فَاطِمَة بِنْت أَسَد ', 555–626 CE), was the mother of
Ali ibn Abi Talib
ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib ( ar, عَلِيّ بْن أَبِي طَالِب; 600 – 661 CE) was the last of four Rightly Guided Caliphs to rule Islam (r. 656 – 661) immediately after the death of Muhammad, and he was the first Shia Imam. ...
, married to
Abu Talib, and an aunt to the Islamic prophet
Muhammad
Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 Common Era, CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Muhammad in Islam, Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet Divine inspiration, di ...
.
Fatima 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
ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib ( ar, عَلِيّ بْن أَبِي طَالِب; 600 – 661 CE) was the last of four Rightly Guided Caliphs to rule Islam (r. 656 – 661) immediately after the death of Muhammad, and he was the first Shia Imam. ...
, Fatima's youngest child, as his son.
Giving birth to Ali is recorded as a miraculous event, by Shia and Sunni, in the life of Fatima 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
Khadijah bint Khuwaylid ( ar, خَدِيجَة بِنْت خُوَيْلِد, Khadīja bint Khuwaylid, 555 – November 619 CE) was the first wife and is considered to be the first follower of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Khadija was the da ...
, Fatima bint Asad was the second woman who entered the fold of Islam.
Ali ibn Abi Talib
ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib ( ar, عَلِيّ بْن أَبِي طَالِب; 600 – 661 CE) was the last of four Rightly Guided Caliphs to rule Islam (r. 656 – 661) immediately after the death of Muhammad, and he was the first Shia Imam. ...
was given the name of Haydar, meaning lion, by his mother Fatima bint Asad.
Ancestry
Fatima bint Asad was the wife of Abu Talib, who was
Muhammad
Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 Common Era, CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Muhammad in Islam, Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet Divine inspiration, di ...
's uncle.
She was the daughter of
Asad ibn Hashim Asad ibn Hāshim () was the son of Hashim ibn Abd Manaf and the brother of Abd al-Muttalib. He was the father of Fatima bint Asad, the mother of Ali and the cousin and wife of Abu Talib. Asad was a very respectful person among the Qureshi Arab tri ...
and
Fatima bint Qays, hence a member of the
Hashim
Hashim ( ar, هاشم) is a common male Arabic given name.
Hashim may also refer to:
*Hashim Amir Ali
*Hashim (poet)
*Hashim Amla
*Hashim Thaçi
*Hashim Khan
* Hashim Qureshi
* Mir Hashim Ali Khan
*Hashim al-Atassi
*Hashim ibn Abd Manaf
*Hashim ib ...
clan of the
Quraysh
The Quraysh ( ar, قُرَيْشٌ) were a grouping of Arab clans that historically inhabited and controlled the city of Mecca and its Kaaba. The Islamic prophet Muhammad was born into the Hashim clan of the tribe. Despite this, many of the Qur ...
.
The maternal grandfather of
Muhammad's wife Khadija bint Khuwaylid
Khadijah bint Khuwaylid ( ar, خَدِيجَة بِنْت خُوَيْلِد, Khadīja bint Khuwaylid, 555 – November 619 CE) was the first wife and is considered to be the first follower of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Khadija was the da ...
, Za'ida ibn al-Asamm ibn Rawaha, was the cousin of Fatima's mother.
Biography
Raising Muhammad
Muhammad
Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 Common Era, CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Muhammad in Islam, Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet Divine inspiration, di ...
's father,
Abdullah
Abdullah may refer to:
* Abdullah (name), a list of people with the given name or surname
* Abdullah, Kargı, Turkey, a village
* ''Abdullah'' (film), a 1980 Bollywood film directed by Sanjay Khan
* '' Abdullah: The Final Witness'', a 2015 Pakis ...
died before he was born. Then at the age of six, was orphaned from his mother too. After that, his grandfather,
Abd al-Muttalib
Shayba ibn Hāshim ( ar, شَيْبَة بْن هَاشِم; 497–578), better known as ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, ( ar, عَبْد ٱلْمُطَّلِب , lit=Servant of Muttalib) was the fourth chief of the Quraysh tribal confederation. He was ...
, 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 Fatima bint Asad and
Abu Talib as their son. It is said that Fatima loved Muhammad more than her own children.
In his later years, Muhammad, ''used to say of her that she would have let her own children go hungry rather than him''.
Years later, Muhammad got the opportunity to pay back the love he received from the family, as he and his wife, Khadija, adopted
Ali
ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib ( ar, عَلِيّ بْن أَبِي طَالِب; 600 – 661 CE) was the last of four Rightly Guided Caliphs to rule Islam (r. 656 – 661) immediately after the death of Muhammad, and he was the first Shia Imam. ...
as their son, to help Abu Talib, go through the famine affected
Mecca
Mecca (; officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, commonly shortened to Makkah ()) is a city and administrative center of the Mecca Province of Saudi Arabia, and the Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red ...
. Moreover, it is said that Muhammad named his own daughter
Fatima
Fāṭima bint Muḥammad ( ar, فَاطِمَة ٱبْنَت مُحَمَّد}, 605/15–632 CE), commonly known as Fāṭima al-Zahrāʾ (), was the daughter of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and his wife Khadija. Fatima's husband was Ali, th ...
after Fatima bint Asad, although Khadija's mother was also called Fatima.
Giving birth to Ali
Fatima bint Asad already had three sons -Talib, Aqil and Ja'far – and 2 daughters , Jumanah and Fakhitah (also known as Umm Hani)-,prior to giving birth to
Ali
ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib ( ar, عَلِيّ بْن أَبِي طَالِب; 600 – 661 CE) was the last of four Rightly Guided Caliphs to rule Islam (r. 656 – 661) immediately after the death of Muhammad, and he was the first Shia Imam. ...
. She is estimated to be in her late thirties at the time, while Muhammad, her adopted son was about 23. So Ali was her youngest child, who was born in the year 599.
Her giving birth to
Ali
ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib ( ar, عَلِيّ بْن أَبِي طَالِب; 600 – 661 CE) was the last of four Rightly Guided Caliphs to rule Islam (r. 656 – 661) immediately after the death of Muhammad, and he was the first Shia Imam. ...
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."
Then, the wall of Kaaba slivered open from a corner and Fatima got inside, and delivered her child,
Ali
ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib ( ar, عَلِيّ بْن أَبِي طَالِب; 600 – 661 CE) was the last of four Rightly Guided Caliphs to rule Islam (r. 656 – 661) immediately after the death of Muhammad, and he was the first Shia Imam. ...
, in the house. After three days, according to both Shia and Sunni narrations she walked out of Kaaba, with the child in her arms. Fatima named the child, Haydar, which means ''Lion'' in Arabic, while his cousin,
Muhammad
Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 Common Era, CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Muhammad in Islam, Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet Divine inspiration, di ...
, called him
Ali
ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib ( ar, عَلِيّ بْن أَبِي طَالِب; 600 – 661 CE) was the last of four Rightly Guided Caliphs to rule Islam (r. 656 – 661) immediately after the death of Muhammad, and he was the first Shia Imam. ...
.
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".
Following Abu Talib's death in 620,
Fatima
emigrated to Medina with
Fatima bint Muhammad and her son Ali in 622.
[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.] Muhammad would regularly visit her home and would have his afternoon rest there.
Death
Fatima bint Asad died in the year 625/626.
It is narrated by
Anas bin Malik
Anas ibn Mālik ibn Naḍr al-Khazrajī al-Anṣārī ( ar, أنس بن مالك الخزرجي الأنصاري (c.612 – c.712 Finding the Truth in Judging the Companions, 1. 84-5; EI2, 1. 482 A. J. Wensinck J. Robson) was a well-known ''saha ...
, that when Muhammad learned that Fatima had died, he went to her house to sit beside her body and prayed her funeral prayers, he then gave his shirt to be incorporated into her shroud, and personally helped inspecting her grave and placing her in it in the
Jannat al-Baqi
''Jannat al-Baqīʿ'' ( ar, ٱلْبَقِيْع, "The Baqi'") is the oldest and the first Islamic cemetery of Medina in the Hejazi region of present-day Saudi Arabia. It is located to the southeast of the Prophet's Mosque, which contains the gr ...
cemetery in Medina.
Family
She married her paternal cousin,
Abu Talib ibn Abd al-Muttalib
Abu Talib ibn Abd al-Muttalib ( ar, أَبُو طَالِب بن عَبْد ٱلْمُطَّلِب '; ) was the leader of Banu Hashim, a clan of the Qurayshi tribe of Mecca in the Hejazi region of the Arabian Peninsula. He was an uncle of the ...
. Their marriage was notable for being the first between two members of the
Banu Hashim
)
, type = Qurayshi Arab clan
, image =
, alt =
, caption =
, nisba = al-Hashimi
, location = Mecca, Hejaz Middle East, North Africa, Horn of Africa
, descended = Hashim ibn Abd Manaf
, parent_tribe = Qu ...
.
They had seven children:
#
Talib.
#
Fakhitah (aka "Hind" & "Umm Hani").
#
Aqil.
#
Jumanah.
#
Ja'far.
#
Rayta (aka "Asmā'" & "Umm Ṭālib").
#
Ali
ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib ( ar, عَلِيّ بْن أَبِي طَالِب; 600 – 661 CE) was the last of four Rightly Guided Caliphs to rule Islam (r. 656 – 661) immediately after the death of Muhammad, and he was the first Shia Imam. ...
, who was the husband of
Muhammad
Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 Common Era, CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Muhammad in Islam, Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet Divine inspiration, di ...
's daughter
Fatima
Fāṭima bint Muḥammad ( ar, فَاطِمَة ٱبْنَت مُحَمَّد}, 605/15–632 CE), commonly known as Fāṭima al-Zahrāʾ (), was the daughter of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and his wife Khadija. Fatima's husband was Ali, th ...
.
The orphaned
Muhammad
Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 Common Era, CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Muhammad in Islam, Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet Divine inspiration, di ...
, who was Abu Talib's nephew and Fatima's cousin, came to live in their house in 579 (when he was eight years old).
[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.]
Ancestry Chart
See also
*
Abu Talib ibn Abd al-Muttalib
Abu Talib ibn Abd al-Muttalib ( ar, أَبُو طَالِب بن عَبْد ٱلْمُطَّلِب '; ) was the leader of Banu Hashim, a clan of the Qurayshi tribe of Mecca in the Hejazi region of the Arabian Peninsula. He was an uncle of the ...
*
Zubayr ibn Abd al-Muttalib
*
Abd Allah ibn Abd al-Muttalib
*
Barrah bint Abd al-Muttalib
Barrah bint ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib (Arabic: برة بنت عبد المطلب) was an aunt of Muhammad, regarded as the final prophet of Islam. She was born in Mecca, the daughter of Abd al-Muttalib and Fatima bint Amr.Ibn Hisham note 97. Her siblin ...
*
Arwā bint Abd al-Muttalib
*
'Ātikah bint Abd al-Muttalib
*
Umm Ḥakīm (al-Baiḍā) bint Abd al-Muttalib
*
Umayma bint Abd al-Muttalib
}
Umayma bint ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib ( ar, أميمة بنت عبد المطلب) was a paternal aunt of Muhammad.
Biography
She was born in Mecca, the daughter of Abd al-Muttalib ibn Hashim and Fatima bint Amr al-Makhzumiya.
She married Jahsh i ...
Notes
Footnotes
References
*
Mahmood Ahmad Ghadanfar
''Great Women of Islam''.Translated by Jamila Muhammad Qawi. Darussalam Publishers & Distributors, Riyadh. Online a
kalamullah.com pp. 163–167. Retrieved 2013-06-22.
External links
Fatima bint Asad & Kaaba
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fatima bint Asad
Women companions of the Prophet
550s births
620s deaths
6th-century Arabs
7th-century Arabs
Burials at Jannat al-Baqī