Fatima bint Muhammad · Islam Museum

Depth

At a glance

Counted among: Sunni · Venerated by Twelver Shia
Era: The Prophetic Era
Region: Arabia
Identifiers: Wikidata
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Contested: This record includes matters on which scholars differ. The speaker's views are labelled as his, and other views are marked where no cited source yet exists.

Life in time

Pre-Islamic Arabia · The Prophetic Era · The Rashidun Caliphate · The Umayyad Period Contemporaries: al-Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib · Abdullah ibn Mas'ud · Abdullah ibn Salam · Abu Bakr al-Siddiq · Abu Dharr al-Ghifari

In space

Map: Natural Earth, public domain · places and route from the graph

Women Family, marriage and kinship Sects and schools

Place in the story

Family of the ProphetTradition

Sunni (transmitted)

Roles are dated and sourced; the museum describes the act and attributes the judgement.

Reading levelSprouts (4–6)Explorers (7–9)Scholars (13+)Read it in the Kids' Wing

Fatima bint Muhammad is the daughter of the Prophet ﷺ and Khadija; she married Ali ibn Abi Talib (may God be pleased with him) and their children were Hasan, Husayn, Zaynab and Umm Kulthum. The Prophet loved her dearly and she resembled him in simple living, and the hadiths tell of her standing with him.

Fatima al-Zahra, daughter of the Prophet ﷺ Muhammad and Khadija bint Khuwaylid (may God be pleased with her), was his youngest daughter and the only one to outlive him. She married Ali ibn Abi Talib (may God be pleased with him) after Badr, and their children were Hasan, Husayn, Zaynab and Umm Kulthum; through her children spread the line of the Prophet's household across the Muslim world. She kept a house of ascetic work; the sira books record her mourning her brother, serving her house, and dying a few months after the Prophet in 11 AH. The Prophet called her 'the mother of her father' and spoke of her standing, and accounts differ on her age at death.

Storytellers (10–12) read the Explorers text, then cross to the Scholars text.

Fatima, daughter of the Prophet ﷺ Muhammad and Khadija bint Khuwaylid (may God be pleased with her), his youngest daughter on the common account and the only one to survive him, is called al-Zahra, al-Batul and 'the mother of her father'. She married Ali ibn Abi Talib (may God be pleased with him) after Badr; their children Hasan, Husayn, Zaynab and Umm Kulthum spread the household's line through the Muslim world. The sira and hadith books record her household of ascetic work, her hand marked by the millstone, and accounts of nearness to the Prophet that most exegetes place within the people of the house in the purification verse, and the mubahala hadith counts her in many readings. She died about six months after her father in 11 AH, with her age reported variously between eighteen and twenty-eight or more. The sources also tie her to the succession debates of Abu Bakr's caliphate — Fadak and the inheritance question — where jurists and historians differ by school: Sunni writing frames her within love of the Prophet's household, while Shia traditions make her central to larger doctrines.

Brief

Fatima, the youngest daughter of the Prophet Muhammad by Khadija, the wife of Ali ibn Abi Talib, and the mother of al-Hasan and al-Husayn. Through her two sons the Prophet's lineage continues.

Life

She was born in Mecca at some point between about 605 and 615 CE; the sources differ ¹. She is recorded as a girl washing from her father the harm that the opponents in Mecca used to throw on him. She migrated to Medina at the hijra and married Ali around 624 CE. Their household lived in hardship and patience ¹.

After the Prophet's death in June 632 CE, the early sources record her grief and her dispute with the new leadership over an inheritance she claimed from her father's estate at Fadak. She died a few months after him, between three and six months according to differing reports, and was buried in Medina in an unmarked grave, as the tradition relates ².

Legacy

Every lineage traced back to the Prophet, including the sharifs and honoured notables across the Islamic world, goes back to Fatima and Ali. Her name is borne by towns, mosques, a whole Fatimid dynasty and millions of women.

For young visitors

Fatima was the daughter of the Prophet. Her two sons were the Prophet's only grandchildren who grew up, so everyone who today says he is a descendant of the Prophet is a descendant of hers.

On the marriage to Khadija (The Sealed Nectar p. 61)

The Sealed Nectar, in its chapter on the marriage, says that Fatima was among the children of Khadija, the fifth in order after al-Qasim, Zaynab, Ruqayya and Umm Kulthum. All of the Prophet's daughters died during his lifetime except Fatima, who came after him six months later and then joined him ³ ⁴ ⁵.

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Opinions on the question

The question: How are Fatima's standing and the events after the Prophet's death that concern her described?

First opinion · Sunni tradition (the museum's frame)Main reference

Sunni tradition reveres Fatima as the foremost woman of the Prophet's household, the wife of Ali and mother of Hasan and Husayn, holding her among the most virtuous women.

More opinions (2)

Academic viewSecondary opinion

Historians note that early sources record few independent details of her life, and that the disputed events after the Prophet's death — the succession and the estate of Fadak — are reported through later, partisan accounts.

Shia (Twelver) viewOther opinion

Twelver Shia tradition venerates Fatima as the Mistress of the Women of the Worlds, holds that she was wronged over the succession and over Fadak, and remembers her grief after the Prophet's death as part of her sanctity.