Fatimah bint Muhammad

Daughter of the Prophet ﷺ

Fatimah was the youngest and most beloved daughter of the Prophet ﷺ, born of Khadija in the early years of Prophethood. It is said her very name — Fatimah, “she who is kept safe from the Fire” — was given from on high. Of all his children she was dearest to him: whenever he set out on a journey she was the last he parted from, and when he returned she was the first he met. 1 Stories of the Sahabah · pp. 262–263 — Zakariyya Kandhlawi — Fatimah the youngest and most beloved daughter; the meaning of her name; she was first to meet him on return and last to part on departure.

Marriage to Ali and a Household of Patience

In 2 AH she was married to Ali ibn Abi Talib, beginning her home with him some seven months later when she was about fifteen and he about twenty-one. 2 Stories of the Sahabah · pp. 262–263 — Zakariyya Kandhlawi — Fatimah married to Ali in 2 AH; their ages at marriage. Their means were so slight that her dowry was Ali’s chain-armour and their home held almost nothing. 3 The Life of Caliph Ali · pp. 33–34 — Nadwi — the marriage to Fatimah; the dowry of his armour and their poverty. Ali himself recounted how she ground grain until her hands blistered, carried water until it marked her chest, and swept the house until her clothes were soiled. When captives came to Madinah he sent her to ask the Prophet ﷺ for a servant, but in her shyness she could not. The next day the Prophet ﷺ came to them and, instead of a servant, taught them a tasbih to recite at bedtime — Subhan Allah thirty-three times, al-Hamdu lillah thirty-three, Allahu Akbar thirty-four — telling them it was better for them than a helper; and she answered that she was content with whatever pleased Allah and His Messenger ﷺ. 4 Stories of the Sahabah · pp. 206–207 — Zakariyya Kandhlawi — Fatimah's labour at home, the request for a servant, and the Prophet teaching her the tasbih in its place. From this marriage came Hasan and Husayn, through whom the Prophet’s ﷺ line continued.

Virtues in the Hadith

The Prophet ﷺ made her honour inseparable from his own:

فَاطِمَةُ بَضْعَةٌ مِنِّي، فَمَنْ أَغْضَبَهَا أَغْضَبَنِي

”Fatimah is a part of me; whoever angers her angers me.”

Sahih al-Bukhari 3714 · Book 62 (Virtues of the Companions), Hadith 63 · USC-MSA: Vol. 5, Book 57, Hadith 61 · narrated by al-Miswar ibn Makhrama

In his final illness he whispered to her that Gabriel had reviewed the Qur’an with him twice that year, a sign his death was near and that she would be the first of his household to follow him — then consoled her:

أَمَا تَرْضَيْنَ أَنْ تَكُونِي سَيِّدَةَ نِسَاءِ أَهْلِ الْجَنَّةِ ـ أَوْ نِسَاءِ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ

”Are you not pleased to be the chief of the women of Paradise — or of the believing women?”

Sahih al-Bukhari 3623–3624 · Book 61, Hadith 129 · USC-MSA: Vol. 4, Book 56, Hadith 819 · narrated by Aisha

Death & Legacy

True to the Prophet’s ﷺ word, Fatimah was the first of his family to follow him. About six months after his passing she fell ill; one day she bathed, put on fresh clothes, lay down facing the qiblah with her right hand beneath her cheek, said that she was now going to die — and was gone. 5 Stories of the Sahabah · pp. 263–264 — Zakariyya Kandhlawi — Fatimah falls ill about six months after the Prophet's death and her serene passing. Through her sons Hasan and Husayn the household of the Prophet ﷺ continued, as he had foretold.