Unveiling the Secret
But Since You Have Named Her Fatimah!
One day I was at the luminous table of one of the eminent figures of the Umma and its men of insight, as we sheltered in the shade of one of the honored shrines of our pure masters, and he cast into our awareness a judicious idea drawn from a comprehensive, deep understanding of the words of the Household of Prophethood (a), as he directed his advice to us, saying: Ask of every Imam whom you are honored to visit that of which he was deprived in this world, for heaven will pour forth its blessings through this luminous code.
He said it, and moved on to another aspect of guidance..
So then, let the visitor stand in reverence before the Stranger of Tus (a) to ask to be spared what estrangement leads to in a person’s life: the loss of intimate companionship, deprivation of children, and being cut off from the homelands of freedom. And let him ask, at the thresholds of Imam al-Kazim (a), for relief and liberation from the oppression of prisons of all kinds—the prisons of the ruler, or the prisons of the self, or the prisons of illnesses. And in this way, follow the trail at the doors of the rest of the Infallibles.
Turn your gaze about, cast your thought, probe the depth of events, and discover the wrongs that the wrongdoers inflicted upon the Ahl al-Bayt (a), so that they may be, for a person in his difficult struggle, a relief and a way out.
Imam al-Husayn (a) made this insight clear with regard to himself, without confining its secret to his own ziyarah, and without preventing its range from being repeated with regard to his descendants, when he said: “I am the slain one of tears. I was killed in anguish, and it is incumbent upon me that no one in anguish ever comes to me but that Allah returns him and sends him back to his family joyful.”
So then, the secret of entering the precincts of divine mercy, which was manifested in the Ahl al-Bayt (a), is that we open the records of dark, unjust history and count the pains that befell them, so that we become aware of the baseness of their enemies and the vileness of their opponents; then we reap the communal entitlements that heaven has poured forth, by virtue of the standing of the people of heaven, upon the loyal ones among the people of the earth. And that is one branch of the branches of the saying of the Prophet (s): (“Say, ‘Whatever reward I may have asked you is for your own good.’”) (Qurʾan 34:47).
And because the wonders of the speech of the People of Prophethood never come to an end, and its benefits never run dry; and because they are the princes of eloquence and the masters of conveying; and because the mark of the jurist—the complete jurist—lies in drawing out the allusions of their words, establishing the definitive sense of their ambiguous expressions, and deriving branches from their principles, I attempted, among my attempts—as a child struggles at the beginning of his speech—to open up the volumes of their divinely imparted sciences, and to untie that by which the tongue of truth has been tied in their radiant conduct, with a shy, bashful question concerning what befell the Mistress of the Universes, the guardian of the Imams and their proof, the mother of her father, the Messenger of Allah (s): Fatimah al-Zahraʾ, the muhaddatha, the martyr.
And because history has not disclosed most of the realities, let alone all of them; and because the ink of the historians issued from the palace of the hostile ruler; and because their lines were the vomit of the nasibi, the rancorous and the envious, the volumes of history were the most unjust, hostile and belittling of things toward the right of the Household of Prophethood, the station of the Message and the mines of mercy. So the books of hired history will increase the researcher in nothing but loss, and in more ignorance and obfuscation.
So I returned to what I mentioned at the beginning of the discussion, followed the trail of insight in the folds of the statement, and came upon a glimmer of guidance in what reflection on the speech of the masters of mankind can reveal, in order to bring forth anew realities that sinful hands thought they had worn away. Yet can a mine be worn away that, in its reality, has supplied all other mines with their essence and their realities? No; otherwise, how would the mines be known if that which supplies them with their value were lost?!
So, returning to the beginning, let us lay out the statement and close the circle of wisdom and gnosis, so that there may appear before us the birth of ideas that their people preserved like embryos concealed in the womb of their noble clear statements.
From the aforementioned hadith of Imam al-Husayn (a), there has become clear to us a reality facing which are blessings. The reality is that he (a) (was killed in anguish); and as for the blessings that Allah the Exalted has prepared for his visitors, they are (the removal of their anguish) and their return from his ziyarah joyful at the grace from Allah that has reached them.
The import of that and its result: that from the Imamic (realities) there gush forth (blessings) for the loyal ones, of the same kind as those realities..
The circle is not yet complete, and in order to complete it let us have recourse to the hadith of the Sadiq of the Imams (a), in his words concerning the ziyarah of Imam al-Husayn (a): “When you wish to visit al-Husayn (a), visit him while you are dejected, grieving, in anguish, disheveled, covered in dust, hungry and thirsty, for al-Husayn was killed grieving, in anguish, disheveled, covered in dust, hungry and thirsty.”
So, by proceeding along the course of the aforementioned insight, we perceive another reality and a second wilaʾi equation, namely that he (a) mentioned (the realities) and followed them with (counsels) for the loyal ones. The realities told that what befell Imam al-Husayn (a) was that he was killed in a hard condition and reality, having passed through grievous times, his heart filled with (grief); (anguish) had befallen him from what happened to him, and his pure body was (disheveled) and (covered in dust); and added to this state is that he passed away writhing with (hunger) and twisting with (thirst). These realities, which the Imam recounted in his hadith—he made clear to us the conduct that ought to parallel them when we set out to visit him, and he formulated it in counsels consistent with the realities, imitating what befell him and imprinting the reality with its image, namely that the visitor should visit him while (dejected, grieving, in anguish, disheveled, covered in dust, hungry, thirsty).
So the following equation gushes forth before us: that the Imamic (realities) ought to have, facing them, educational (counsels) whose path the loyal ones follow.
And if we join what gushed forth first (as a rule) with what gushed forth second (as a rule), there is generated for us an equation complete in its data and results, firm in its statement and rules, consistent with the principles and the laws, namely:
That the Imamic (realities) require conduct in the form of (counsels) for the loyal ones, and so the doors of the divine (blessings) open before him.
An epistemic equation indicated—in addition to reflection on the likely places in their luminous words—by the doctrinal principles of whose purport minds have become certain, namely that there is a relationship of complementarity between the order of creation and legislation, that the Infallibles are the loci of Allah’s mercy, and that “the will of the Lord in the measures of His affairs descends to you and issues forth from your houses.”
Now that the disclosure of the knot of the statement is complete, and we have become aware of the interconnection between (the realities), (the counsels) and (the blessings), let us return to some of the obscure matters among the realities of history, to try to discover them through the lens of the reflection of (the blessings) or the shadows of (the counsels), so that the equations may be completed, and we may cut off the doubtful with the certain, and distinguish between the imagined and the known.
Let us set out on the path with our Imam al-Sadiq, Jaʿfar ibn Muhammad (a), whose mind treasures knowledge—all knowledge—and whose heart holds the realities—all the realities; his breast omits nothing of history, small or big, without enumerating it. This manifest Imam was besieged, prevented from making things manifest; eyes would devour him, and ears spied on him from every direction.
I wonder.. how could he disclose the realities of great history, and how could he quench the burning hearts of the loyal ones? Any skilled person shackled by all those restrictions surrounding him would be prevented from unveiling the plain truth, and the records of distant history would thereby be folded up into oblivion. But that does not deceive the likes of Jaʿfar ibn Muhammad—he is the Truthful (al-Sadiq), son of the truthful ones and father of the truthful ones, whose cloak Allah the Exalted has commanded us to wrap ourselves in, where He said: (“O you who have faith! Be wary of Allah, and be with the Truthful.”) (Qurʾan 9:119). And expression does not fail the truthful, nor are they deterred from conveying the truth to whomever it may be.. For aspirations reach their goals by a thousand and one paths; and therefore you see them giving minds the keys of insight, in following what they pointed to: that they have, in the tone of speech, ways out; in the ambiguous of allusions, definitive ones; and in the principles of the rules, branches.
So where, in the words of Imam al-Sadiq (a), can we distinguish between truth and falsehood, be decisive with knowledge rather than illusion, and be certain of the truth rather than distortion, concerning the reality of what befell our Lady Fatimah al-Zahraʾ (a)?
Let us narrate this story, and let us take guidance as our method:
Al-Sakuni came in to Imam al-Sadiq (a) grieved and in anguish, because a daughter had been born to him and he feared being unable to provide for her. The Imam eased the sorrow that filled his heart by reminding him that sustenance is upon Allah, who has guaranteed it for His creation. But the Imam later asked him about the name of that newborn, and he said: I named her Fatimah.
Fatimah?!.. This name is the element of goodness in the reckonings of heaven, and at its mention hearts tremble with love and pain.. Perhaps when the Imam heard the name of Fatimah strike his hearing, a state came over him that carried him to the past of the Messenger and his daughter and what befell her. The narration says: He began to sigh, “Ah, ah”.. then he placed his hand on his forehead, and gave al-Sakuni counsels appropriate for one who is blessed with a son or a daughter; then he followed them with another counsel of importance and particularity, without al-Sakuni asking him for that; rather, it is the making use of openings to make the realities clear to the insightful one who reflects. Let us listen to the Imam (a), saying:
“But since you have named her Fatimah, do not revile her, do not curse her, and do not strike her.”
Do you not see with me that these are (counsels) connected specifically with the name (Fatimah) (a)?
So when Allah blesses you with a newborn girl and you have named her with the name of Fatimah (a), you must (not revile her), (not curse her), and (not strike her). These are (counsels), behind which (realities) are hidden and from which (blessings) gush forth..
Returning to what we have established, and following the method we have adopted—that the Imamic (realities) have (counsels) of their own kind connected with them, and (blessings) of their own genus descend, so that each element reveals the other—we stand before (counsels) that the Imam (a) mentioned, as though he wished to teach us what we did not know, and to make us understand what we were perplexed about..
Could the realities be that they (cursed her)?! And what that implies of a creed of disbelief.
Could the realities be that they (reviled her)?! And what that implies of a knot of ingratitude.
Could the realities be that they.. that they (struck her)?! And what that implies of a binding of denial.
Here the fingertips froze, the ink dried up, and the pen broke.
Peace be upon you, O persecuted, oppressed one.
Sayed Mahmoud Al-Mosawi
30/1/2020
