A Scholarly Exposition on Fatimi Knowledge
Fatimah al-Zahraʾ (a)
The Reality and the Conduct
(1)
There is no dispute about the merit of al-Zahraʾ and her stations. The statement of the Greatest Prophet (s) is the clearest of statements and the most lucid in meaning concerning the greatness that al-Zahraʾ (a) possesses—indeed, concerning whatever loftiness can be grasped at the human level—because the reality, none can comprehend its vastness except its Creator, or one whom Allah created with a wider reach than it; and no one can be conceived of within this circle other than her father and her husband. So the loftiness of her meaning, the extent of her merit and the eminence of her greatness are plainer than the sun at high noon.
It suffices in this regard that we recite the words of al-Mustafa (s) in his description of her (a), when he said: (Were goodness a person, it would be Fatimah; indeed, she is greater. For Fatimah, my daughter, is the best of the people of the earth in essence, nobility and generosity).
Goodness (ḥusn), by which things are measured so as to be ordered within the scope of (good intention, good action, the best action, good deeds, beneficence, the best, and a good destination)—that measure which gives deeds their title, in which there is no blemish, which no inclination befalls and no crookedness bends—is lesser in standing than Fatimah (a). So were that (value: the measure) a person, it would be none other than Fatimah, by an explicit text from the Messenger of Allah (s). (Indeed), she, in her reality, cannot be contained by that value, nor can its measures encompass her, for she is (greater). This preference is a secret whose essence the intellect cannot grasp, nor can it untie its knot. So it may be said that Fatimah is (the value of values), or that she is (the spirit of values), or that she is (the secret of values); indeed, it may be said that she (a) is (the wellspring of values). Whether this or that is said, the conclusion drawn from this noble prophetic statement is that she is not measured by any measure except the intrinsic measure of her greatness, which her father (s) expressed: (the best of the people of the earth in essence, and nobility, and generosity).
So she (a) is the best in terms of her (essence) and the very being of her luminous creation as a sacred being; and the best in her (nobility), for she went about among those who prostrate and descended to the world of this life from the best of the prophets; and she is the best in her attributes and her character, until she rose above all (noble qualities).
(2)
In the course of grasping something of the greatness of Fatimah (a), we attempt to gain clarity by depicting two aspects of her dimensions, namely her being (a houri, human). The (houri) aspect belongs to the world of light that Allah the Exalted created, in its exalting, elemental dimension—and it is not of the same kind as the Essence of Allah the Exalted—but it is a breath of His creation that rose above all other creatures; and another aspect, (human), overflows with greatness in conduct and performance.
These two dimensions shape faith and awareness, and, in an attempt at classification, they are:
1- (Her reality): she is the houri. This is a heading for her greatness, her station and her merit, and it is the dimension of the building of faith in its epistemic foundations.
2- (Her conduct): she is the human one. This is the heading of her interaction with life in its various paths, and it is the dimension of emulation and being guided.
The two dimensions to which we have pointed can be nourished through the thematic classification of the narrations, which constitutes an important building block in constructing wilaʾi knowledge, and indeed in reading the religious text in general. The narrations can be classified—as a scholarly preliminary to understanding them—according to the different perspectives on them: a (definitive) category and an (ambiguous) category, like the ambiguous [verses] of the Qurʾan, whose ambiguous must be referred back to its definitive in order to reach guidance; and a (foundational) category from which (derivation of branch rulings) and (the issuing of fatwas) can be, or have actually been, undertaken; and, as some have divided [them], into (administrative) and (wilaʾi), or (apparent) and (actual); and other such classifications, which require a system in which a theory is formulated commensurate with the size of the heritage of narrations transmitted from the Ahl al-Bayt (a).
(3)
Returning to (the reality) and (the conduct) in the personality of the Mistress of the Women of the Worlds, Fatimah (a): the source for crystallizing the doctrinal outlook in the teachings—which is what shapes a person’s faith and belief concerning her (a)—is the narrations of (the reality), which bring out her merit and her station in heaven. In this group of narrations she is (a luminous creation blazing in its greatness), and she is (tested before she was created, and so she was the emblem of patience and readiness), and she is (the one around whose pleasure and anger the pleasure and anger of Allah revolve), and other such loftiness that sights do not apprehend and hearts do not comprehend.
As for the source for crystallizing the outlook on her fragrant (conduct), it is the narrations relating to the Message-bearing role that descended upon the earth, embodied in those days and nights that the Mistress of Women spent in struggle and efforts to convey the Message and spread its outpourings upon mankind. In this station she is (a radiant Zahraʾ), (a muhaddatha, learned), (a Batul devoted to worship), (pure and purified), and (the Mistress of Women and the exemplar of mankind), and she is (truthful, a martyr).
(4)
The epistemic results that will accrue to the researcher through the classification of narrations can harmonize between outlooks that may seem divergent at first glance, or seem conflicting and discordant; likewise, those results can enable an awareness of the roles of the Mistress of Women (a) in their Message-bearing dimensions, without touching sanctity and without scratching the mirror of profound belief.
The epistemic classification of the narrations—through the expertise of the skilled practitioner, the inductive survey of the reliable, thorough investigator, and the discernment of the insightful and intelligent—will open from it doors onto the arena of realities, statements and subtleties. It is bound to generate new knowledge that the historian has not read with an insightful reading, or to reveal what the hand of the hired historian deliberately concealed; and it is bound to offer important insights in untying the knots of conflict between proofs and narrations. Thus the researcher gains an abundant quantity of narrations which, without it—that is, the classification—might be cast into the basket of what is dismissed out of hand, or those which the one who submits might leave in the hand of submission without their wisdom dawning.
(5)
Fatimah al-Zahraʾ (a) is human in her Message-bearing dimension, which is born of the holiest mission that the prophets and messengers brought. In the course of conveying it, bearing its burdens and carrying the weight of its concerns, she is as one stronger than the firm mountains. A concomitant of that is that her (humanity) interacts with life in all its events, and draws near, as a distinctive example, to the awareness of human beings and its core. In this she is like the humanness in the words of Allah the Exalted on the tongue of His Prophet: (“I am just a human being like you”) (Qurʾan 18:110). The likeness lies in that vital interaction—expending effort, feeling pains, and following the ways of what people understand in their customs and what their minds can comprehend. So the prophetic (humanness) and the Fatimi (humanity) are nothing but one kind from one origin.
Accordingly, the human dimension does not mean the slips and lapses to which human beings are exposed, nor does it mean that (inattention) or (forgetfulness) or any kind of weakness or feebleness befalls her, because these human dimensions only fulfill a message that is above considerations, and a mission that is the highest of missions; and because those narrations and human events in their human dimension are governed by the (definitive tenets) of belief, and refer back to the (foundations) of knowledge—that is, they are directed by the narrations of (the realities).
(6)
Fatimah (a) is learned; so if she asks, she is only bringing forth the fruits with the plough of questioning. Fatimah is a knower; so she does not complain except to show a remedy for the system of the suffering of mankind after her. Fatimah turns the millstone of existence with her palm; so she does not seek the help of a servant except to paint the picture of companionship for all nations. And if her father the Prophet (s) or her husband ʿAli (a) addressed her, or informed her of something unseen, or made a ruling clear to her, that is only so that the understandings of the Umma may be shaped in the manner of “It is you I mean, and listen, O neighbor.”
Here is a piece of history that tells of an account which conveys the meanings of the address and the necessity of spreading mercy, proceeding from their persons, because they are the loci of Allah’s mercy and His guidance.
Bashir ibn Zayd reported that one day the Messenger of Allah (s) said some words, which he directed to his daughter Fatimah (a), urging in them the importance of the pilgrim witnessing the slaughter of his sacrificial animal, so as to attain Allah’s mercy and His pardon. He said to her: Witness the slaughter of your sacrificial animal, for by its first drop every sin upon you, and every misdeed upon you, is expiated.
The Muslims heard these words from the Master of the Messengers addressing his daughter Fatimah, the Mistress of the Women of the Worlds. Jealousy, ill opinion and rancor may lead some of them to dare to claim that this text contains an indication or a hint that al-Zahraʾ had a fault—Allah forbid. As for the ordinary Muslim, he may come to think that this is a special privilege and a favor that every seeker of mercy, and everyone striving for pardon, hopes for. So, following this understanding, one of the Muslims stood up and said to the Prophet (s), inquiring: Is this for the people of your household in particular, or for the Muslims in general?
This Muslim feared that that mercy might be exclusive to the Mistress of Women or to the Household of the Prophet (s). But the answer of the Prophet (s) came like a thunderbolt, to turn thinking away from any blemish that might touch the essence of al-Zahraʾ (a), and to take thinking to the arena of (the realities) on the one hand, and to make it understand the arena of (the conduct), for teaching people and conveying the Message to them. He said to him: Allah has promised me concerning my progeny that He will not feed any one of them to the Fire; and this is for people in general.
The Prophet (s) has disclosed one of the secrets of address, and we have understood that among the narrations of the conduct there is that which is a gateway to teaching, in which the very person addressed is not intended; rather, what is meant by it is the shaping of the awareness of all people. And in this way the divine messages came.
Mahmoud Al-Mosawi
www.mosawy.com
