August 7-8 brings to mind Janab Syeda, the Noble Lady, whom we in India invoke for the health of our children. She is Hazrat Fatima Zehra, the Prophet’s daughter and her birthday is celebrated as ‘Women’s Day’ in Islam. Some of the complimentary epithets bestowed on her are az-Zehra, The Splendid One; al-Tahira, The Virtuous; az-Zakiya, The Chaste. When she was about to be born, the Prophet Mohammed told his wife, the lady Khadija, that “The angel Gabriel has given me the good news that this child is a daughter and all the infallible Imams will be from her generation.” Hazrat Fatima was born on Friday, Jumad-us-sani, five years after her father was declared Prophet (615 CE), when the Quraish were engaged in constructing the khana-e-Kaaba. Hazrat Fatima was to die at the age of eighteen in Medina in AH 11 (632 CE), the same year of her father’s demise, beloved wife of Imam Ali, having birthed five children: the Imams Hassan and Hussain, Hazrat Zainab, Hazrat Umm Kulthum and Hazrat Mohsin. The Prophet and his daughter shared an especially tender relationship. Hazrat Khadija had died when Fatima was barely six. At that time the Prophet faced a lot of political violence in Mecca and often came home bruised and battered. It was little Fatima who put aside her own grief for her mother and grew up overnight. She washed and dressed her father’s wounds and cheered him on with her love and belief. The Prophet took to calling the gentle, busy mite “the mother of your father”. When she came of age, it was necessary to marry her off to someone worthy. The Prophet’s seniormost followers, including Abu Bakr and Umar, applied for her hand, but the Prophet held back, waiting for an omen. Sure enough, God spoke to him: “O my Prophet, get the light (Noor) married to the light.” Thus, when Hazrat Ali asked for Fatima’s hand, the Prophet gladly got them married though Ali had no wealth as men count it, having spent his youth fighting in the Prophet’s cause. Once the Prophet’s wife Ayesha asked him: “Do you love Fatima Zehra so much that when she arrives you get up to give respect to her, kiss her hands and make her sit by you?” He replied, “O Ayesha! If you come to know why I love her so much, you shall also love her.” Umm Salma, another of the Prophet’s wives said, “Fatima Zehra resembled the Prophet most of all the people” (in both looks and behaviour). It is this extraordinary woman whom Islam wishes the rest of the world to appreciate as their Noble Lady.
