One of the greatest honours he gave her was: In her lifetime, he never married any other woman.
Just before her death when she was about to tell him of her last wishes, she said to him out of modesty, “Cousin, was I ever untruthful and ill-devoted or disobedient to you from the first day I started living with you.
The reply Imam AH (A.S) gave tells us how highly he valued her Imam AH said:
“Allah Forbid! You are so knowledgeable about Allah, so devoted, so pious and honourable, so Allah-fearing, that you could never disobey me.
It pains me to part with you and to lose you, but it is something that cannot be avoided. By Allah, you have started all over again that sorrow which I went through by losing the Prophet of Allah. Your death and loss are too much for me. But, we belong to Allah and to him Shall we all return.
“This is a misfortune for which I cannot be consoled and a tragedy for which there is no way to make it good.” Again, to show how much Hazrat Fatima (S.A) meant to him, Imam AH (A.S) expresses his feeling by saying the following words after he had buried her:
“Now what had been given to me as a trust has been taken back. My grief is limitless and I shall spend sleepless nights till Allah chooses for me the house in which you are resting (death)….. My Salams to you both, the Salam of one full of sadness.”
Again, after burying her and when he was about to return to his grieving daughters, he says:
“Friends live together for a short time and then depart; the time of living together is very short. My friends Ahmed and Fatima followed each other leaving me alone.
How short was the tide of love and tenderness, in this changing world where nothing lives forever”.
So long as he lived, he remembered her and wept for her saying, “Fatima (S.A) was the everlasting soul of heaven. Her smell still lives in my heart and soul though she physically is no more with me.”
No wonder, therefore, that whereas he kept quiet even though he lost everything that belonged to him after the death of the Prophet (S.A.W.W), he was very angry and was not ready to keep quiet when some people wanted to dig the grave of Hazrat Fatima (S.A) after she had been buried.
He dressed like he was going for a war saying, “Son of Sawada! I have given up my rights to stop people giving up their faith but as for Fatima’s grave, by him in whose control is my soul, if you and your followers try to do anything to it, I shall soak the ground with your blood.” He thus saved her grave from being dishounoured.
A good Muslim must therefore always show his or her respect to her and her progeny.
Source:
A Brief Biography of Hazrat Fatima (A.S.), [Pg. 40-41].
By: M.M. Dungersi Ph.D.
