Childhoodبچپن

Lady Fatimah (pbuh) was raised in the lap of her most compassionate mother, Lady Khadijah (pbuh), and was nourished by pure milk drawn from a clear and pristine source of nobility, chastity, patience, and devotion to monotheism. The days of her infancy and childhood coincided with the most dangerous and critical period of early Islam. Part of her life was spent in Shi‘b Abi Talib, and for nearly three years she saw nothing beyond that confined valley. When she and the Banu Hashim were finally freed from the narrow gorge of Shi‘b Abi Talib and returned to their homes, the scenes of life and the blessing of freedom were a source of joy for her. Sadly, however, those days of happiness did not last long, for she was soon deprived of the loving shelter of her deeply compassionate mother, Lady Khadijah (pbuh), which left her sensitive soul in grief and sorrow. After being deprived of her mother’s affection, the love of the Prophet of Islam (pbuh) for her increased even more. It is narrated that the Messenger of Allah would not go to sleep until he had embraced her. Such trials and continuous hardships, for distinguished and great individuals, not only strengthen the soul, but also awaken inner capacities and hidden potentials, and become a cause of steadfastness and resilience in the face of adversity.

Yes, indeed, the crises and hardships present throughout the life of Lady Fatimah (pbuh) not only affected her spirit but also refined and strengthened her abilities, enabling her to face every kind of circumstance with resilience. Within her sacred being were qualities such as humanity, chivalry, chastity, and nobility traits that would seem impossible to be combined to such a degree in any woman. She would proudly say that she was nurtured in the school of Prophethood and attained perfection in the academy of the Divine Message. She was raised in a household that was the abode of the descent of angels and the place of revelation, and she benefited from her father and her husband, both of whom were the embodiments of the Perfect Human Being (al-Insaan al-Kaamil). During her discussions with Abu Bakr, the manner in which she drew upon Qur’anic verses reveals a clear truth: she possessed complete mastery over the Qur’an. How could it be otherwise, when she heard the Qur’an directly from the sacred tongue of the Messenger of Allah, witnessed its manifestations in the beings of the Prophet and ‘Ali, and aligned her own soul with the meanings of the Qur’an deriving from it its rulings and her own duties? Like the rest of the Ahl al-Bayt, she was endowed with eloquence and rhetorical excellence. Through the power of her speech, she ruled over hearts; with the force of her expression, she brought souls under her command; and she spoke in the most refined and compelling manner. All of these qualities became manifest in her debates with Abu Bakr concerning Fadak and the matter of the caliphate.