 The mysteries of Islam fascinate us time and time again. This is no different from the life story of the Prophet. Who was Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa alihi wasallam, an illiterate dozen merchant who one day stumbled upon amazing Arabic rhetoric, or was he the creation of Allah's greatest light? Sent down to earth to pull man out of ignorance and bring them to the purest of truths. I Ali Burji am on a journey to discover the real story behind the Prophet, the real story behind our religion, the roots, the beginning, the cradle of civilization. Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. So, Doctor, we have a lot of people coming to the Holy Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa alihi and offering for her hand in marriage. Now, the Holy Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa alihi wasallam clearly stated that the marriage is only appointed by Allah sallallahu alaihi wa alihi himself and not by him. And Allah sallallahu alaihi wa alihi ordered Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa alihi to give his daughter to Amirul Mu'mineen. Now, what we can touch on this is, if you can provide just a bit of details as to how it came forth, I understand you had a hadith you'd like to share. Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. As we mentioned the previous episode on the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa alihi when he received complaints from the people, from the men of Quraish, he said, I swear by Allah that I didn't reject you and marry her to Ali, but it was Allah who rejected you and it was Allah who married her to Ali. There's another hadith which is very interesting and really we need to sort of like reflect on it. Which gives a shed some light on the status of Fatima al-Zahra, alaihi salam. It's narrated from in Qafi volume 5 page 568. Imam al-Baqra alaihi salam writes that the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa alihi said, I am a human being like you, I marry like women from you and I marry my, like it doesn't say but my daughters or step daughters to you accept Fatima. So Fatima is an exception. Her marriage is as I received according to instructions from Allah, from the heavens. So this is quite significant. Because it once again shows the importance and the rank of these personalities that they're basically they're stressing out both the Holy Prophet and Allah to us, that they are not normal people like everyone else. Exactly, the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa alihi categorically stating that he can marry his other daughters which are step daughters and he can marry himself to marry any of the women in Quraish or in Muhajir-e-Nansar. But the issue of the marriage of Fatima al-Zahra alaihi salam is out of his hand. If you like he doesn't have willaya if you like that case. So this is something which is quite significant. That Allah has instructed the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa alihi that you, I make the decision if you like about the marriage of Fatima al-Zahra alaihi salam. And this reflects the great status of Fatima al-Zahra, the like of which we have none before or after her. For any man or woman we don't have that Allah sallallahu alaihi salam says as far as marriage is concerned I am responsible or I make the decision for this individual. We don't have the except for Fatima al-Zahra alaihi salam. In another hadith says in the book Kashf al-Humma volume one page three six three that the noblemen of Quraish or the noblemen sought the hands of Fatima al-Zahra in marriage from the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa alihi and his reply was if like her business is goes back to Allah sallallahu alaihi wa alihi we have to await his instruction we have to await the instruction of Allah sallallahu alaihi insha'a yuza wujjah zawjah whenever Allah wills he would marry her to her who would be the husband and so it shows that there were numerous attempts numerous occasions when people came forward not only if you like average people but according to this al-ashraf al-ashraf the noble people normal noble men came forward to ask for the hands of Fatima al-Zahra in marriage and his response was very clear so going back to this issue that Allah sallallahu alaihi wa alihi instructed the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa alihi that he Allah will decide and the Prophet always said that I await instruction from Allah sallallahu alaihi wa alihi as far as marriages her marriage is considered which again that goes to show basically is to point to the status of Fatima al-Zahra al-Isra of course we have when the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa alihi married his daughters when they say his daughters they're not really his daughters Zainab and Rukaya if you like they were the nieces of Sayyid al-Hadija that is the daughters of Sayyid al-Hadija's sister and did Sayyid al-Hadija's sister pass away? pass away and they were taking care of them and then they were at least in the care of Sayyid al-Hadija and when she married the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa alihi they were in the care of him and when he married them to different people he didn't say you know their business is in the hands of Allah sallallahu alaihi wa alihi you only said that for Fatima al-Zahra al-Isra was just out the importance and the significance of this personality and one thing I wanted to discuss is regarding a very important misconception with regards to how old was Fatima al-Zahra when she got married to Amir al-Mu'mineen as you've mentioned unanimously we all agree that she was about nine years old now nine years old one automatically will think that when you say nine year old in the street that's a baby that's a child so realistically would not be a norm for a child to marry an adult then correct me if I'm wrong would would they practice this even in Ayam Jahiliya would they marry children to adults yeah well the question is was that the norm yeah at that time to marry children of that age or girls of that age we know that from the religious point of view it becomes permissible from that age if you like to for them to marry but in the case of Fatima al-Zahra let's be specific and as I showed you the hadith which I can read from Imam al-Sadiq alaihi salam is that when Fatima al-Zahra was born talking about the case of the birth of Fatima al-Zahra alaihi salam and it said that she would grow in a day like a child would grow in a month a normal child would grow in a month and Fatima al-Zahra would grow in a month like a normal child would grow in a year so if you like her physical apart from her maturity when she was nine her mental intellectual maturity her physical growth was something of the extraordinary and it wasn't a normal growth so it was like a supernatural so by the time she was nine years old she probably didn't look like a nine years old of course we have something similar in the case of Imam Zaman in case of Imam Mehdi when he was born his aunt say the Hakima she would report that he would grow this new born child he would grow in a day like a normal child would grow in a month or he would grow in a month like normal child would grow in a year so when he was if you like five years old at the time when they they killed his father Imam Hassan al-Askari in the year 260 as you mentioned earlier that they were looking for a small child but probably he had grown he he looked like far older than a five-year-old anyway in this case according to this Hadith from Imam Sadiq al-Salam which is narrated if I may I just look it up in here it's narrated on al-Mufadzal ibn Umar he asked about the the birth of Fatima al-Zahra it's a detailed Hadith I'm not going to go through it but it's very interesting but it would say that at the end of the Hadith that he would she would grow in a month she would grow in a month like a normal child would grow in a year and so if you like at least I can't tell you for sure that at that time it was the norm for nine-year-olds to marry but for Fatima al-Zahra she was definitely not a nine-year-old child she may have been nine years in age but she had the physique the body of a lady according to this yeah so she yes it probably whether it was a norm or not for other children we don't know but specifically as far as said the father was concerned she didn't look like a normal nine-year-old when she was nine years old and her growth was not a natural phenomenon if you like according to this which is very important to clarify so people can understand so when they hear regarding the marriage of Fatima al-Zahra they would not think that oh look for example if it's in the case of a non-muslim yeah that oh look they're promoting pedophilia oh look they're marrying adults to children you know barbaric things and whatever with regards to the marriage itself how did it come to be was was the holy prophet instructed by Allah and then the holy prophet went to Amir al-Mu'mineen or did Amir al-Mu'mineen alaihi salam come to the holy prophet yes the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa ala was instructed by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in fact according to one one narration Anas ibn Malik reports this and he says I was with the prophet because if you like Anas ibn Malik although um he was serving the prophet sallallahu alaihi wa ala and he said I realized that he went into a state which is the normal the state that he goes into when normally he receives wahi he receives revelation what state would that be would we know um a description maybe there's something physically would happen to the holy prophet sallallahu alaihi wa ala sometimes they say that you can see as if he's under um there's a weight on his body or sort of he as if he feints but he closes his eyes and he receives the instruction and um it says and then when he uh finished receiving the wahi um he said to Anas I don't know Anas I don't know do you know or Anas do you know what um jibreil has revealed to me from the owner of the arch that's from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and he said no what is it and he said that Allah ordered me to marry Fatima ibn Ali Allah has instructed had just instructed me to marry Fatima ibn Ali and um there are narrations in one narration say that um um some people used to say amongst them of Bakr Omar used to say to Imam Ali you go and um um ask for Fatima's had in marriage we have asked on numerous occasions and we were rejected and he said that Imam Ali used to be shy so um after a lot of pressure from these people he went on another occasion his brother came and if you like he interceded sort of he came forward um but in any case the Imam went and asked at least he went and sat he the Prophet says he knew what he has come for okay and he asked Mazzara and they agreed in another occasion in another occasion when Imam Ali came immediately the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa alaihi said to him that I've been instructed to marry you uh to marry Fatima to you and um and the dowry for that will be 400 silver coins do you agree and Imam Ali sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said I do I agree so if you like that in both cases whether they are similar in one case Imam Ali went and sat there at the um encouragement of others to go and sit him whether he just went on his own and the Prophet informed Imam Ali alaihi sallam that he has been instructed by Allah swt to marry Fatima to him and we've got a lot of details I don't know how much time we have we probably don't have much time but we have there are a lot of details about um uh the um the act the when you're carrying out the marriage contract um and the walima if you like the banquet that they held um there is one hadith from Imam Ali sallallahu alaihi wa sallam that they held a banquet for or the walima for for marriage and um they invited all the people of madina and um Imam Ali says in that uh hadith that more than four thousand people attended uh this banquet so that goes to show that roughly the population of madina at that time was about four thousand people just over four thousand people okay and um the food which uh remained um the the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam divided up put it in in in uh large plates and distributed it amongst the people and was the setting up the preparation of the wedding was it um organized by the community or was it alone left by Amir al-Mu'minin to so it was by the Prophet and Amir al-Mu'minin so we feel like the the person who was managing managing it was the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam but for organizing for example food for the entire city yeah that would be quite yeah that will require a lot of resources and time yeah so when he came to the resources uh did Amir al-Mu'minin take care of that Amir al-Mu'minin along with all the people who would come and help obviously okay so it was a team effort basically the community helped all together well to set up the marriage rather than community they must have appointed or ask individuals to come and help you know rather than to go upended okay uh Imam Ali would go or the Prophet would go an appointment ask certain individuals uh that you should come and help with this prepare food preparation and so on which as I said for more than four thousand people the whole entire city if you like which is uh uh it's not an easy task definitely inshallah in the next session we can go into more details inshallah walhamdulillahi rabbil alamin wa sallallahu alaihi wa sallam Fatma al-Zara' al-Salam um it's superior to um if you like uh we have very had various hadith that superior to all men and women except the Prophet al-Mu'minin al-Salam um so not only say that Nisa al-Alamin but she has uh she has superiority over other all other men and men except with the exceptions of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa sallam not only that in the case of marriage Fatma al-Zara' al-Mu'minin al-Salam they are the only couple in the history of mankind who are both ma'asum