 Oppression, a prolonged cruel or unjust treatment or exercise of authority. Living in the West means that many individuals from the Muslim community must often face oppression due to Islamophobia and the rejection of the religion of peace Islam by the society. Similarly, Fatima Zahra alaihi salam had to battle oppression against the Meccans. Many individuals today use her as a guide to speak out against oppressive individuals within Western societies and their false perceptions of Islam. I hope to investigate the aspects that are often neglected surrounding the life of Fatima Zahra alaihi salam and to understand the idea presented in both the Shi'i and Sunni school of thoughts. Did Fatima Zahra alaihi salam go through oppression to shape the people of this day and age? Is there a story behind her death? And is there a reason for her grave to be hidden? The great moon of Islam, Fatima Zahra, peace be upon her, is the greatest and best lady that Allah had ever created on this planet Earth. She is the chief of the moon of the world. Sayyidat Nisa al-Alamin, salamullahi alaihi salam. Now, with regard to her martyrdom and Shahada, there are different sources in the Islamic books and textures in which indicates that this great lady was murdered and killed and she did not pass away naturally, a normal death. She passed away at the age of 18, so young, and she was in her best health. Now, if we begin with the sources of the non-Shia scholars, when they clearly mention this calamity, this tragedy against the house of the Prophet of Allah, the house of Ahlul Bayt, alaihum salam, this divine house of Ahlul Bayt, alaihum salam, in which was attacked Ahlul Bayt, alaihum salam, they have the sanctity and the asma and purity. No one has the right to enter without their permission, but sadly the enemies of Ahlul Bayt, they entered without the permission of Ahlul Bayt, alaihum salam, and they did what they did as a result. Let's begin with the narration of the non-Shia, i.e. the Ahlul Sunnah scholars. So we begin with one of the scholars in the third century of Hijrah, Tariqat Tabari, for example, in his third volume. He mentions clearly the attack on the door of Fatima, alaihum salam. He says that, I'll just take part of the narration. A person called for the wood to be gathered and to be brought before the house of Fatima, alaihum salam, and he said, He said, I swear by the one who owns my soul, this house would be burned over you, or you come out and you give the pledge of allegiance, the bay'ah. They say to that man who threatened to burn the house of Fatima, alaihum salam, that in the house there is Fatima. He responds, so what? Even though I will burn it. He was insisting on burning the house of Fatima, alaihum salam, and he did so. In the other narration, historical narration by another scholar from the Sunni sect with the name of Ibn Qutaybah in the book of Al-Imamah wa Siasah, he again mentions the attack on this sacred door. He mentions it on his first volume, again he calls for the wood to be gathered and brought before the door of Fatima, alaihum salam, In this narration, he brings the name of the person who ordered to burn the house of Fatima, and that is Umar, according to this Sunni scholar, Ibn Qutaybah in Al-Imamah wa Siasah. He threatens that either you come out or if you don't, then I will burn the house over whoever is inside it. And then the historian, he brings the name Umar, that he threatened to burn the house over Ahlul Bayt, alaihum salam, and over Fatima. As-salamu alayhi alayhi. Indeed, Allah is angry when Fatima gets angry, and is pleased when Fatima is pleased and satisfied. So Allah is angry when she is angry, and she is satisfied and pleased, then Allah is pleased and satisfied with the satisfaction and ridah of Fatima, alaihum salam. Great Hadith, great narration, and it is narrated in Sahih al-Bukhari, one of the most important Sunni books, that Allah gets angry in one sight, if Fatima gets angry and he gets satisfaction and pleased when Fatima is pleased. And then in the same book, Al-Bukhari mentions that Fatima, alaihum salam, she passed away while she was angry on Abu Bakr. And Fatima died while she was standing on Abu Bakr, imagine. So if Fatima is angry, then Allah is angry. So if that person, Fatima is angry upon that person, would that person deserve to be in paradise? The Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, and his pure family, states with regard to his daughter Fatima, peace be upon him, that Allah does not get angry upon Fatima, and he is pleased when she is pleased. Sheikh Abbas Panjw is an English lecturer that recites lectures regarding the tragedies of the Ahlul Bayt. I spoke to him to analyze the oppression of Fatima to Zahra, alaihum salam, and to understand her stance within the Muslim community. In regards to the decision of Seyda Fatima, alaihum salam, to be buried at night, whether she chose to be buried at night as a gesture of modesty, this is a notion that is not entirely accurate. What we do understand from historical text is that during the times of Jahiliyyah, whenever a death used to happen, and particularly the death of a woman, her funeral procession, her dead body, even though it would be covered up in a shroud, it would be placed on something like an open stretcher and then taken to the graveyard for burial. Therefore, all the people attending the funeral procession would have a glimpse at the body, and even though it was covered in a shroud, it was very possible in the way that the woman's body, or in the way that any dead body is wrapped within the shroud, the features of a body may become evident, the shape of the body, the length of the body. All these things become very apparent for all the people that are there. And what we do know is that Sayyidah Fatimah al-Zahra, alaihi salam, was at the peak of modesty and was at the peak of hijab such that she liked the way she was unseen and just like the way she was the manifestation of modesty and hijab in its entirety, she was absolutely concerned about in the event of her death, she did not want to be the object of everybody's eye in order for people to see her body, just like the way she had remained covered while she was alive, she wanted to remain covered even after her death. And on this basis, she asked Asma bint Umayus and she told her that in the event of my death, I would like for you to construct for me like a coffin such that if her body was placed in the coffin, she would be protected and people would not be able to see her body in that way. So when we talk about modesty, the issue of modesty is in regards to the construction of a taboot or a na'ash or her blessed body being put in a coffin such that the general people from the Sahaba and them would not see her actual physical body. But the reason for Seyda Fatimah al-Zahra insisting on being buried at night in the darkness of the night, this in itself resembled a protest. The decision of Seyda Fatimah al-Zahra to be buried at night was a protest and we understand this from historical texts. So if we refer back to the text and I read this to you by way of example to assert our point, this is found in the text Rawdat al-Wa'idin and in Bihar al-Anwar and the same indication is made in Ila al-Shara'ih in Kitab al-Manakib, in Kitab al-Misbah, Kitab al-Kafi of Sheikh al-Kolayni and Amali of Sheikh Mufid. The narration goes like this. Seyda Fatimah al-Zahra al-Hassalam is talking to Ameer al-Mu'minin Ali ibn Abi Talib giving her the final will. Where she says to him, I give you my final wish, my final wasiyah, my final testimony, that my will is that no one should be allowed to come to my funeral from amongst those who oppressed me and from amongst those who usurped my right for indeed she goes on to say they are my enemies and the enemies of Rasulullah. So we understand the fact that Seyda Fatimah al-Zahra was buried in the night and the fact that nobody except from four or apart from four or five who were approved by Seyda Fatimah al-Zahra, none of the ashab of Rasulullah attended the funeral of the only daughter of Rasulullah and she used this as a form of protest. She goes on to say or she goes on to say I do not want any of them, neither do I want any of their followers to pray over my body. She did not want them to be a part of their funeral prayers. Salatul Mayit, she did not want them to be a part of the burial process. As a protest for the injustices that they performed against her. She requested Amir al-Mu'mineen as a part of a final will to be buried in the darkness of the night and to not allow any one of those people who oppressed her and those who followed the oppressors. She did not want even those people who were neutral in this issue of her right and the oppression of Amir al-Mu'mineen, none of them to be present at her funeral as a way to protest of this great injustice that was done to Islam. Seyda Fatimah al-Zahra's oppression in the sense that upon the martyrdom of Rasulullah this land of Fadak that was gifted to her by the Holy Prophet of Islam upon the command of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala the ownership of this land was usurped from her and the people who were employed to work on that land were then taken away from this land and total ownership of the land of Fadak was taken. Seyda Fatimah al-Zahra appealed this decision and appealed this move and she categorized this as an injustice and an act that is contradictory to the teachings of the Quran in terms of even through the door of inheritance. So therefore, when we talk about the oppression of Seyda Fatimah al-Zahra it is not a personal issue over a personal inheritance between Haran Abu Bakr ibn Abi Kahafa. La, this is an issue that symbolizes oppression against an individual A who is infallible and the nature of the injustice is that it is a violation of the Quran itself. So when Seyda Fatimah al-Zahra comes forward with her oppression or fights the case for her oppression it is only because it denotes the fact that a person who claims to be the Khalifa of Allah the Khalifa of Rasul Allah, this person despite this claim is trampling upon the teachings of the Quran. So fight that Maat al-Zahra, Ali Hassan's oppression, this is what it symbolizes. Her oppression symbolizes the oppression of Amir al-Mu'mineen in the fact that his rightful position as the Khalifa of Allah and the Khalifa of Rasul Allah this position was usurped from him. The oppression of Seyda Fatimah al-Zahra denotes the oppression of Amir al-Mu'mineen. The oppression of Seyda Fatimah al-Zahra denotes the oppression of Rasul Allah. The oppression of Seyda Fatimah al-Zahra symbolizes the oppression of the religion. The fact that she was oppressed denotes the fact that Islam as a religion was hijacked at that time and therefore we see the seriousness of this issue because of the implications of what happened in regards to the religion. Despite the circumstances she faced she remained strong and stood firm in her protest and demonstrates the attributes necessary for us to respond to various types of aggressions in a manner befitting a perfect Muslim. Many use her as a moral model in the way they conduct themselves in both positive and negative situations. I met up with sister Leila Mehdi to learn the effects of Islamophobia on her as an individual and how society perceives her. Have you ever faced oppression by the Western community because of your beliefs or because of how you dress maybe? There's been around 37 attacks since 2014 done by ISIS and these are always portrayed in the media as something done by Muslims and Islam and they always show pictures of a Hajabi or a bearded man. Even if you put in on Google just ISIS attacks, the first hit you will get up will be a Wikipedia page and it's called Islamic Terrorism in Europe. It's literally referred to as Islamic. Your religion is suddenly linked to something so negative like terrorism and skipping the whole discussion about whether it's true or not, whether there are Muslims or not, all of that. At the end of the day, this is a type of oppression because it is affecting a whole community but it's also affecting us as individuals one by one. I remember when the Brussels attack happened in 2016, I was at work and we first got the news, we were watching the TV and when we got the news, I felt like everyone was looking at me and one of the people there said, how do you feel about this Leila? And I remember it felt like I had to justify the situation, I had to justify what was done and which in fact it's not the case but that's a type of oppression just being misunderstood and mispresented. So you feel your hijab is one of the reasons why it might emphasize on this oppression that you're facing or people, Muslim women in general? I mean the hijab is the first thing anyone sees. It's literally like you're bearing a flag that says, I'm Muslim. For a man it's probably the beard but it's a bit more general for men because other religions can also have beard or like Sikhs can look like Muslim but for women wearing the hijab except for maybe nuns that might look similar mostly it will tell you that you're a Muslim and that will cause people to react in a certain way. And it's a very human thing that what you see, you just connect the dots so you see terrorism, you see killing, you see blood and then you see hijab, you see Islam, you see you know and that's why in your brain you will just connect this picture, this image of this person looking like this to something bad and to fear and maybe not educated people that have, that maybe know a Muslim or have a Muslim friend or neighbor but in general there are people out there that might look at you and just get scared like if I give you an example of another situation it was the Rose event, the Rose campaign and I was giving a rose to a person and he said no I would never take a rose from a Muslim and I said what's wrong with the fact that I'm Muslim I'm just giving a rose to share happiness because it's the Prophet's birthday and it's Christmas and he said because you are, you're sharing an ideology that oppresses women and has terrorism so he referred to my religion as an ideology you know and it's just, it's all things negative but you cannot really, you can't say that it's their fault it's also how the media is portraying us so I feel like if I was in their position I would probably also be fearful Okay so when you're like in these kind of cases and when you have to face how do you apply Fatma al-Sihra al-Salam in these matters so what kind of aspects do you use from her to help you stand up to this kind of oppression? Fatma al-Sihra is like an inspiration definitely I think in this situation it is not to water down your beliefs so what I mean by that is it's so easy when you feel like the odd one out or when you feel like you're looked at in a negative way it's very easy to change yourself it's very easy to, to you know watering down what you believe in you know changing your hijab, changing your, you know the way you speak with people about your religion and maybe just internally as well you know being a bit less proud, being a bit more doubtful I think from Fatma al-Sihra what we can learn is how to stand up for what you believe in what you believe in so for example like when Fatma al-Sihra when Fadak was taken away from her she spoke up she has the khutbah al-Fadakiyah which is so known now because she stood up and she said what she believed in or when they attacked her house and they had, she knew they had their went in mentality so what if Fatma al-Sihra is there we're so stronger, we can we can beat her, we can swear at her we can you know, we're more powerful she knew they had that mentality but she still stood up for what she knew was right when they dragged Imam Ali to the masjid and forced him to do bay'ah like you know she stood up she went and spoke up you know even though she knew she was in the less powerful position in that moment she did not water down her belief and I feel like we can so use that in our day and age because of the negative light that is portrayed upon the religion Muslims in many countries have become a subject of stereotypes based on their clothing or the way they act many of the western societies tend to generalize Muslims to be terrorists refusing to educate themselves about the true Islam that portrays nothing but peace and equality mainly I faced oppression when I left university and I started looking for employment and I was offered the opportunity to work abroad teaching English to foreign students and I was approached directly by this particular company and I said to them straight up that I'm a practicing Muslim I observe the hijab I pray five times a day I do all the wajibahs so it wasn't a shock to the system for them they already knew but they said to me oh no that's okay we respect people of all religions and all beliefs and cultures so I wasn't worried and I got on a plane I went over there and unfortunately from day one I was discriminated against very heavily to the point where I couldn't do the job that I was trying to do and even though I wasn't doing anything wrong and even though my students were they were progressing very well they were so fixated on my faith on how I looked differently from them that in the end I had to walk away from that job the one day I just turned to them and I said I'm not going to be treated like this and I left I got on a plane and I came back home when I arrived at the office in this particular country they took me in straight away and told me take off your head scarf now this was before I wore the abaya and the chadda every day and I would just wear the scarf with western clothes and I was very stubborn I said no I told you about this to begin with and the fact that you are worrying so much about a scarf that's on my head when it's not going to affect how I am as a teacher and I was always going to be professional I was never going to sit down there and preach Islam to these children that wasn't my job the thing that I wanted to do was just teach them English so yes the hijab was a very central part and the fact that I was very stubborn about it and I wouldn't compromise on it they really didn't like that and that was the beginning of kind of the end with that job as such Fatima Sahra, alaihi salam she's such an inspiration and a role model to me and the fact she inspired me in that situation because I knew that she never compromised on her hijab she loved her hijab and was devoted to it for example there's a beautiful narration that I'll never forget reading where the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa alaihi he came up to Fatima Sahra, alaihi salam and he said to her, my daughter I saw that you had a blind man come and visit you and you put a curtain between him and you why is that? and she said to him, Ya Rasulallah even though he is blind I can still see him and he can smell my fragrance so that is why I put the curtain between us even though she was fully covered and the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wa alaihi he said, I testify that you are from me and so many other ways Fatima Sahra, alaihi salam during her life showed her commitment to the hijab and probably one of the most powerful instances is when she was attacked in her own home and she stood behind the door even though she was covered but she didn't want the men to see her that was the quality of her modesty and her shyness, her devotion to the hijab throughout my life with many of the struggles that I've gone through, I've related to Fatima Sahra a lot whenever I've been out on the streets and I've had people stare at me or I've had people say particularly rude comments I remember how Fatima Sahra, alaihi salam she went from being protected and loved by the people of Medina to being a shadow the fact that these people who claim to be Muslims some of them they had the audacity to hit the face of Fatima Sahra, alaihi salam and when I think of that and how brave she was in the face of that it helps me to go out into society with my head held high because I think if the lady of light can do it then I have no excuse it is apparent that women face the brunt of the prejudice against Muslims however men also face stereotyping within their communities through their religious garb and the way they conduct themselves with our knowledge of the prejudice that she has faced individuals fear to express themselves as a follower of Imam alaihi salam brother Minhal is an example of a male that has experienced negativity in his local community and used the lessons of Fatima Sahra, alaihi salam that's the way he approaches these situations so I've been the subject of many threats in the community for example when predominantly the area that I live in is surrounded by Wahhabi mosques so you know you always have these people that stand around and give they call it dawah and some of them are pretty angry and when they come up to you and they tell you the first thing they ask you is what's your name and I think that's the main thing because when you have a Shi'a name sometimes when you have those people you try to conceal your name in front of them because you never know what they could do to you so I feel like that's a kind of oppression that I've faced within the community the name emphasizes on this oppression because when you look at my name and its origins many of the enemies of the Shi'a school of thought don't like this name because of a certain personality that was loyal to al-Muhammad but when we talk about for example the dijdaasha and everything other schools in Islam or even the outside community for example if we start with the other schools in Islam their dijdaasha it has to be above the ankle whereas for us we tend to put it below the ankle because it doesn't look knee and tidy so from there they distinguish between a Shi'a and a Sunni the outside community they have this big stereotype of Muslims who wear this dijdaasha they stereotype them for a terrorist or someone who's going to do something but you kind of have to deal with that by showing them that you're not that person that they see on TV there's no doubt that the oppression of Fadah al-Mitazahra aleyhi salam breaks the heart of a believer when we look at her miscarriage when we look at how she was slapped it angers the person inside and when you have someone outside community coming and telling you that these people are good people at first you get quite angry because you know what they've done you know what they did after the death of the Prophet peace be upon him and his family but I also think that there's an element of where you need to educate them because sometimes they may not know what had happened their imams in their mosques every Friday may not shed light on these kinds of topics and I think also you need to be able to study their books in order to bring them direct evidence from their most trusted books and to prove your thoughts so when we look at for example Surah 2 verse 153 it says indeed Allah is with those who are patient now when Fadah al-Mitazahra was oppressed and arguably it's one of the biggest of oppressions that anyone could ever face she was patient throughout it and she showed us that Allah has a plan for everything so I think patience is the key thing and educating the opposing party in order to shed light on your religion brother Mahdi Taqi a youth lecturer in London provides reasoning for the death of the Prophet's daughter and what we can understand of it today because I'm still young I guess I haven't faced that much oppression from the outside community it's probably because I haven't really had that much you could say exposure to uni life or to the workplace because I'm still young however there's always some form of oppression or some form of restriction some may say with the title or the label of being a Shi'an Muslim particularly if you open the media or you see the news or you see anything you always see that there's a lot of Islamophobia targeting Muslims especially youthful Muslims who have to be integrated with our community every time you open the news for example you'll see a Muslim man killed him and Muslim man killed her and it hasn't really given us the best image but this is when Fadah al-Mitazahra's life becomes a lesson for us this is where Fadah al-Mitazahra stand against injustice because something that we can relate to so the same way that some may say we're being restricted because of our beliefs Fadah al-Mitazahra was also they tried to restrict her Fadah al-Mitazahra was this colossal figure in a society that didn't really want her that didn't really want women specifically that didn't want the daughter of the Prophet to be as successful or as influential as she was however one of the ways they tried to restrict her for example was they tried to take Fadah away from her one of the ways they tried to restrict her was try by crushing her between the door and the nail one of the ways they tried to restrict her was through their repression and through their propaganda against her however Fadah al-Mitazahra teaches us is that no matter how much you think you are restricted no matter how much you think you are oppressed you should always stand up for your own rights Fadah al-Mitazahra went out although she was a woman in that society she went out and she stood up against all the people who took Fadah away from her and she gave a speech which must have rattled them a speech which confused them they had never seen anything like that before so when we see these lessons from Fadah al-Mitazahra when we see her bravery we have no excuse anymore we have no reason to not stand up against these injustices and this oppression that sometimes we may face and this is where Fadah al-Mitazahra teaches us to stand up against anyone that tries to restrict you yes I do believe that there was a reason for the death of Fadah al-Mitazahra as I believe that the deaths of all the imams and all the actions that they undertook had the wisdom and had the reason behind it as we know our imams are all infallible they thought everything they did would have had a sort of lesson for us and the lesson in my opinion that Fadah al-Mitazahra taught us was that she set the standards for what is right and what is wrong if we see Imam Hussain many years later did the exact same thing he went out to Karbala and he showed people who was right and who was wrong he set a clear line between who was Shimmer and who was Imam al-Hussain he set who was on the haq and who wasn't on the haq and Fadah al-Mitazahra had done that before so nowadays when we always get questioned we always get scrutinized why do you follow these certain individuals why do you follow these certain people we will tell them because they set who was right they showed us Fadah al-Mitazahra stood behind the door and the Prophet said that Fadah al-Mitazahra is a part of me and whoever angers has angered me and whoever has angered me has angered Allah SWT so I asked them and I just wonder how can we follow someone who has angered Allah SWT while the person that we follow was the one who was busy taking care of the Prophet's body taking care of the Prophet's burial and of his death ceremony so that's what Fadah al-Mitazahra stood for she stood behind that door and she sent us a message and she told us the barometer for who was right and who was wrong yes I do believe it's very important to understand the reason for Fadah al-Mitazahra's death and one of these reasons that it was part of Allah SWT's plan so as we know Allah SWT has planned everything and when we see the oppression that the Ahlul Bayt go through we tend to be sometimes a bit confused about why Allah SWT would put some people which he loves so much under so much oppression the oppression that Fadah al-Mitazahra had gone through is a test to her from Allah SWT it's a test to her to prove to everyone and to all the Muslims why she is the role model that we follow because if we wouldn't have followed her if she didn't die in that way then these people who would have killed her then these people who did oppress her would never be exposed but now it's just set out Fadah al-Mitazahra's whole message Fadah al-Mitazahra's whole reason was to show the people who is right and who is wrong and that's part of Allah SWT's plan as we know Allah SWT is the one who is all wise and the one who is all knowing and he knows the plans and he sees the great images that we can't see and part of his image was Fadah al-Mitazahra and maybe even we could say that the Fadah al-Mitazahra incident had raised the Shia that we are today maybe her incident had kickstarted Karbala anyway maybe the Shia of Imam Hussain that had helped him that day maybe Fadah al-Mitazahra this incident had put that fire in their heart so that they have the love of the Ahlul Bayt and that fire that was started back then is still in our hearts right now and that is why we love Fadah al-Mitazahra oppression that Muslims face today can be seen in the life of Sayyidah Fadah al-Mitazahra and dare I say can be traced to Arab history whether it is taking their right to wealth their right to receive an education even a right to a political opinion Muslims can empathize with Sayyidah Fadah al-Mitazahra Sayyidah Fatima showed us how to address those who may want to cause us harm and come to us with negativity we stand up against injustice and stand firm with our beliefs Fatima al-Zahra al-Salam showed us how to rise to the occasion take a stand and demand what is Haq and the youth of our generation can learn a great deal from the lady of light