 I seek refuge with Allah from Satan the accursed. In the name of Allah, the Gracious, the Merciful. May Allah bless Muhammad and his family. Peace be upon you. Dear viewers and welcome to this show on Imam Hussein TV where we are analyzing various aspects of the life and legacy of Fatima Tzahra on the occasion of her martyrdom. Insha'Allah in today's episode we'll be looking at the injustices faced by Fatima Tzahra. Not only in her life but far after her death and we are referring to of course the legacy that she left behind and the fact that unfortunately it is not very apparent to circles outside of Shia Muslims both in the non-Shia community and also in the non-Muslim community. Insha'Allah to help me tackle this topic I'm joined by Sheikh Mohammed Al-Halli. Peace be upon you. Peace be upon you. Thank you so much for joining us once again. Thank you. So when we speak about the injustice against Fatima in terms of how much her legacy is apparent in the eyes of non-Shia circles what do we mean, what are we referring to exactly? Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Raheem. Alhamdulillah ar-Rabbi al-Alamin. Wa sallallahu ala Muhammadin wa aalihi al-tayyibin al-tahireen. One of the titles of the Holy Lady Fatima Tzahra Peace and Blessings be upon her is Al-Maksoobat Haqquha the one who is right where you served from her. Of course, some of the viewers, respected brothers and sisters, others may be familiar with the life of this Holy Lady and how she was treated while she was alive in that not only her house was attacked and of course she was severely injured and her unborn child was miscarried and her house was burnt but also her right was taken away, the land of Fadak but also her husband's legitimate divine right of Khilafa was also stolen. Now, that is injustice on a very huge scale and it really breaks the heart when you remember the Masaib and the calamities that this Holy Lady went through to the extent that of course when she was sitting next to the blessed grave of Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam her father she would weep and cry and talk about what happened and of course she would say this famous line Sobbat alaiya Masaib Allahu anna ha sobbat ala al-ayyam sarna layalia that the darkness of the hardship and the tragedies is so severe that they would turn daylight into night. So that is certainly something that needs to be constantly described and discussed and not necessarily put aside or ignored. However, there is another form of oppression and injustice that this great lady experienced and is continuously going through today and that is what happened after she left this world, after her martyrdom and that is in specific terms the narrations that talk about her life that talk about what happened to her that describe her characteristics. You see, Bani Umayyan, Bani Abbas worked tirelessly to de-fame, to distort to damage the reputation of the Ahl al-Bahit alaiya Masaib. I could not tell you of one individual from the 14 ma'as omeen who survived this in essence every single person today if we talk about Sayyidah Fatima or Amir al-Mu'mineen or Rasool Allah or Imam al-Sadaq or Imam al-Qadim or Imam al-Jawad or Imam al-Askari every single one was the recipient of character assassination after he left this world and that is something that a lot of money was spent a lot of people were purchased in that sense to write and fabricate and distort to spread these things because remember these people are the greatest threat to Shaytan and his devilish plans on this earth. So what better way and that is to go and tell people look they did this way they did that way but another reason why the Ahl al-Bahit such as Sayyidah Fatima were attacked in such a manner after they left this world is to say look we're not as bad because these people did this kind of thing so when you bring down the level of certain individuals and when you are so low yourself as Bani Umayyar Bani Abbas were you kind of can then say well they're not as much better than us they're like similar to us in that sense and so you can see that they invested a lot in this. Sayyidah Fatima al-Salam's legacy as far as the school of Ahl al-Bahit is concerned is very clear our remembrance of her our commemoration of her martyrdom our celebration of her birth but also the understanding of the short period of time she lived in this world and what she set out to achieve is a bright very empowering very illuminating legacy but unfortunately the moment we look outside the school of Ahl al-Bahit many will be shocked and in this episode I would like people's patience because some of what I will mention may be unfortunately inappropriate in the sense that it is more of an academic discussion I will quote certain individuals because there is one thing talking about emotionally there's one thing saying yeah these people talk this way and that way people will say okay give me demonstrations where can we find these kind of references that are there depicting Sayyidah Fatima in such a horrible way and how do we deal with them We need to understand the wider conversation We definitely need to present it in a scientific academic manner so that people can see that such texts actually exist I think it's very interesting this whole topic generally because in our communities we're very well aware of this great lady and she's such a big part of her life but I feel like the minute we step out of our communities very slightly people at the very least haven't even heard of her and I think that perhaps sometimes maybe that's a discussion we can have at the end about how much we as a Shia of Fatima have done in trying to spread the legacy of Fatima Zahara to the wider public so I think just beginning off firstly looking at the non-Muslim academic community I know you mentioned that you had some sources of what academics have said about Fatima do you want to get into that and just present what you have? Yes, yes there are some Orientalists and scholars who looked into the religion of Islam in the past they perhaps were inspired by literature that were non-Shia perhaps which is likely that they were but their depiction of individuals like say the Fatima Alayhi Salam leaves a lot to be desired in fact it's quite insulting and offensive let me quote to you this particular individual by the name of father Henri Lamans he died in 1912 in the 20th century he has a book in French in which he talks about Sayyida Fatima Alayhi Salam it's regarding her life he says he understands a thoroughly gloomy portrait of the daughter of the prophet he describes her Fatima becomes a woman devoid of attraction of mediocre intelligence completely insignificant little esteemed by her father ill treated by her husband often ill prone to tears who died perhaps of consumption so when I read this passage I can think that there isn't anything left insulting that he hasn't mentioned from the physical appearance to psychological description and so on here we have an individual who is a scholar trying to discuss this particular holy lady and describing her in such a manner which of course for some of us when they look at this they might immediately feel a great sense of hurt for us the followers and the lovers of Fatima Alayhi Salam she means much more than our parents our spouse, our children 100% much more than ourselves so she's greater in our eyes than we are to ourselves and so when we hear such a description or read such a description in literature that exists out there in academic circles of course it does hurt but one thing that we have to realize is this is not only Sayyidah Fatima there are similar descriptions regarding the holy prophet or for example Imam Alayhi Salam that is found in literature and what is interesting is I was very much delighted with the work of father Christopher Clohisi who has a wonderful book by the name of Fatima it's very academic but of course as a non-muslim he has to bring these references and he has to look at non-shia references as well so because he has to look at it overall he has included descriptions not this one in particular but for example as we will describe the relationship between Sayyidah Fatima and Imam Alayhi Salam that is unfortunately depicted in such a negative manner in literature of our brothers Dahlah Sunnah and so he's included passages, quite a few passages that show this marriage was full of arguments full of disputes full of disagreements and sometimes even hatred between Sayyidah Fatima and Imam Alayhi Salam something which we completely reject let's let someone cuts this and puts it on YouTube there's something that we completely unacceptable however we need to analyze it and provide evidence why we don't accept it what I'm really interested in is what led this scholar to I don't know if we know the reason as to why he sought to almost character assassinate Lady Fatima because I think it's one thing to academically criticize someone but here he just seems like he's speaking out pure and so on, hatred I mean do we know why his context was for this or what the reasoning was? Of course when you read the life of this particular individual I think you realize that some of these orientalists had a broader objective and that is to demonize Islam and Muslims and to portray as negative as an image as possible regarding the holy figures and personalities that are associated with the religion they had certain missions out there to establish and to distance people away from the religion of Islam and some of them perhaps were paid to do so however when we look at some other literature that is present not necessarily by orientalists by scholars and academic researchers and professors in the academic world today unfortunately when they come to analyze for example Imam Ali alaihi salam the viewpoint is through an academic lens so for example one academic here in the United Kingdom quite a known professor came forward and said Ali ibn Abi Talib was not a good leader he's a failed leader why? because in his watch four years and nine months there were three civil wars Jamal, Safin and Nahrawan whereas in the watch of the other Khulafa there wasn't as such for example and so he wasn't able but that's a very narrow very superficial look at the life of Ali alaihi salam because he was a man of justice he would not be feeding people and giving them what they wanted he stood for principles he was a man driven by principles he was a godly individual but of course sometimes in academia they look at only certain angles with what evidence exists today and I'd like to draw this point here and that is encourage our dear brothers and sisters to get into academic circles to do research based on Shia literature and to present the correct image of the Ahl al-Bayt Ali ibn Salam in these universities and colleges and these setups it's so important that we have a voice out there especially scholars who have been to Hausa established in the seminary to have academic qualifications the Masters and the PhDs and so on and so forth to be out there not to allow this literature to continuously poison the minds and do we have any more examples of Fatimah Zahar al-Islam in academic literature that you wanted to share with us? Well yes, we have examples unfortunately that exist in literature of for example a lady by the name of Vagliieri in a very well-known publication Encyclopedia of Islam Volume 2 in page 80 This is a very famous and well-referenced book It's a very famous book very well referenced in academic literature this individual she talks about the title Abu Turaab so she writes the name Abu Turaab the man of dust given to Ali has among other explanation one connecting it with the disputes between Ali and Fatimah instead of answering his wife in anger Ali would go out of the house and put dust on his head Muhammad seeing him do this gave him the famous nickname So this is actually in reference to a numerous number of narrations that exist in the so-called Sahih books Sahih Bukhari book 78 hadith number 228 we are told that Sahel ibn Sa'ad narrates that the most beloved name to Ali was Abu Turaab and he used to be pleased when we called him by it because Sahel ibn Sa'ad was a companion of Rasulullah he was amongst the ones who saw the caravan of Imam Hussain and Sayyida Zaynab and then helped Imam Zaynab he then says for none named him Abu Turaab but the prophet once he says Ali got angry with his wife Fatimah and went out of the house and slept near a wall in the mosque the prophet came searching for him and someone said he is there lying near the wall the prophet came to him and said where is Ali and he found him that he was covered with dust the prophet started removing the dust from his back saying come Abu Turaab get up Abu Turaab and what is interesting is Muawiyah one of the arch enemies of Amir al-Mu'mineen used to name him Abu Turaab so he would say to for example individuals why don't you curse Sa'ad ibn Abi Waqas was the father of Omar ibn Sa'ad companion of the holy prophet would refuse cursing Amir al-Mu'mineen but Muawiyah would say to him why don't you curse Abu Turaab because he thought Abu Turaab because of course it was Bani Umayyah who fabricated these narrations so he would think that Abu Turaab was a title that was given to Imam Ali because he would be angry would say to Fatimah leave the house and he would be covered in soil and dust Abu Turaab means the father of soil and so the prophet would be removing it and so he would label him as such thinking as derogatory whereas in our traditions Abu Turaab was one of the most beloved titles to Imam Ali al-Salam because it was given to him by the prophet and it wasn't in times where he got angry with Sa'ad ibn Fatimah because he never got angry with Sa'ad ibn Fatimah it was at times where for example some occasion says it was in the battle where he was sleeping under a tree next to him with Ammar ibn Yasir and Saul came on his face and the prophet came looking for him and wiped his face away from the soil and said so interestingly Bani Umayyah Bani Abbas what they used to do is take a title and fabricate a story about it and unfortunately it's not one or two numerous traditions exist in this particular regard I'll just quote to you another one that is unfortunately present in other works of literature of hadith that say the Fatimah al-Salam complains to Rasulullah this is in Sahih Muslim that complains to Rasulullah that you know Ali we had an argument and so he stormed out of the house and the prophet comes to Imam Ali and says to him why what happened let me hold your hand and take you back home and so I can reconcile between you and your wife Fatimah and eventually he does so and seeks to bring so unfortunately when we look at this literature that exists what kind of image is it presenting to Muslims and non-Muslims about the greatest lady in our view created by Allah SWT who is created not only she's created from the fruits of Jannah she's the best in terms of the choicest women of the world so Sayyidatul Nisa al-Alamin the one who brings the light of Imamah and prophethood sadly these do exist and we completely reject them so sheikh you mentioned how some non-Muslim sources look at say the Fatimah and also some sources outside of the school and how various factions sort to fabricate and defame the character how have the school of Ahlul Bayt responded to these kind of like allegations the school of Ahlul Bayt for 1400 years have been the voice and the defense of Ali Muhammad you see there is one thing claiming love of Ali Muhammad and another actually demonstrating it through works, through statements through speeches, through action throughout 1400 years there is no one or group of people who have defended the prophet and his family like the Shi'a have in every aspect whether it's these malicious attacks orchestrated by these individuals or whether it is commemorating their dates, their martyrdoms their willadats, their legacies writing about their lives, learning from their lives and applying it to ours when I look at for example Muslim I find the narration that says that the distraught Fatima wept in protest at the time of marriage to Imam Ali because of poverty this is in Musnad Ahmad Ibn Hamal very well recognized source and so on in volume 4 of Bukhari Sahih Fatima Salamullahi Aleyha in that tradition complains to the prophet that Ali wants to marry the daughter of Abu Jahl and the prophet said Allah, the daughter of the prophet marries the daughter of enemy of God they don't go hand in hand that cannot happen and so he goes and he says to Imam Ali according to Bukhari which many Muslims said they consider today to be Sahih or completely authentic that he went and said to Imam Ali either my daughter or the daughter of Abu Jahl and so on this school of Ahlil Bayt responded it's all well and good saying yes, we reject it it's not acceptable, it's not something we agree on but we have to show evidence we have to show proof and we are clear in our proof number 1, the way we categorically reject any form of disrespect, dishonoring and something which puts in question the ismah the error free sinless nature of Sayyid-e-Fatima and the Ahlil Bayt aleyhm salam and the holy prophet and all the prophets and notice I did not use infallibility because infallibility is a term that is not in accordance with our understanding of Isma. Infallibility means unable to err, whereas they were able to make mistakes but they never did not even think about it. Error-free sinlessness is better. So, ayat al-Tatir, 33, 33. In accordance with Muslim Sunni and Shia, whether they believe that the women, the wives of the Prophet are included or not, of course we have evidence that they're not included. The evidence from the Qur'an, the wives of the Prophet disobeyed him and committed sins in Chapter 66 of the Qur'an, whereas 33, 33 says, إِنَّما يُرِيدُ اللَّهُ لِيُذِبَ عَنْكُمَ رِتْسَ أَهْلَ الْبَيتُ وَطَهْرَكُمْ تَطِيرَا شُوْلِ فَرِلِ اللَّهُ wants to protect you, O Ahl al-Bait, from all the kind of vices and impurities and thoroughly cleanse you of the purification. Notice I said, protect you, not remove from you, which many of the translations of the Qur'an sadly have. Remove for you means that they already had and then Allah removed it from them. We believe that they were born sinless and error-free. So Ayatul Tattahir definitely includes Fatima. How can we accept Fatima and Ali? And of course definitely includes Amir and Mu'mineen. How can we ever accept that Sayyida Fatima and Amir and Mu'mineen argued with each other, were angry with each other, disputed with each other and had fights, whereas the Qur'an says they were error-free and sinless. Fighting and disagreements are all vices. Things which people today may be able to stay away from in their marital lives, whereas we expect to somehow accept that Sayyida Fatima and Imam Ali had this going on, unacceptable. Secondly, Hadith al-Thakalain, that the holy prophet in a chain of narrations which is as sound as the Qur'an according to our Ulema. You know the Qur'an is so authentic, Hadith al-Thakalain is as authentic. As authentic as the Qur'an. There is no doubt about it. It's so sound, so mutawat, it's so strong. I leave for you two weighty things. I leave for you two weighty things. The book of Allah and my Ahlul Bayt, once you hold on to them, you will never go astray now. And we know that the Ahlul Bayt includes Sayyida Fatima and Imam Ali. This means that they're on power with the Qur'an. The Qur'an clearly comes forward and talks about good marital relationship, that you should treat your husbands and wives with respect and honor. You should not exercise this kind of disrespect both physical or verbal. So if they are on power with the Qur'an, how do we explain this kind of behavior? It cannot be explained because they are the walking Qur'an. They demonstrated Qur'an in their lives. In the life of Imam Ali, that's the third proof, he's the one and the life of Sayyida Fatima. You see their lives in authentic, reliable traditions. They did not exhibit such a thing whatsoever. And Imam Ali praises his wife and Sayyida Fatima praises her husband. We said in the previous episode that Imam Ali, when he was taking the will, Sayyida Fatima said, I never upset you, I never angered you. How could she say such a thing like this? And these narrations says that they were being somehow angry with each other. The story is very out of their character. Yeah. I need to mention this very important point. Some people might say, okay, what is your fourth response? As a school of al-al-bayt, we mentioned Qur'an, we mentioned hadith, we mentioned the life of these two individuals. But we believe the fourth response is very important. We have to study why such narrations exist. The motives behind them. Why do they fabricate traditions saying Ali and Fatima fought each other? The reason is because we have reliable traditions in the books of Shia Ansunni literature that talk about whoever angers Fatima, angers Allah, isn't that found in Sahih Bukhari and other traditions? So Fatima is part of me, whoever travels her travels me and whoever does so, of course, angers Allah. So when I was looking at hadith literature, I found that unfortunately, a lot of them outside the school of al-al-bayt used to quote this hadith of the Prophet after describing that Imam Ali angered Fatima. So they want to put two together. They want to attack Ali by attacking Fatima. So they want to say see Ali angered Fatima. If the first Khalifa was angry Fatima, that's okay. Because they're both angry Fatima. So don't be so hard on the first Khalifa. If you use this to say that she was angry with the first Khalifa because he took her right away, so did Ali, they said. So they had to fabricate something to justify the actions of others. This is why these particular traditions and fabrications are there to try and somehow legitimize the sadly, the wrongs that say the Fatima, Salamu alayhi alayhi, faced in her life. I think it's very interesting how so many people over the course of history have felt threatened by not just Fatima, as a person, but her legacy and generally the legacy of the al-bayt. We've spoken about all these various unfortunate narrations concerning and fabricated lies against this great lady. In the last few minutes that we have, what can we do as followers of Fatima, as people who claim to love Fatima and serve Fatima, what can we do in this day and age to not just tackle these misconceptions and ensure that a legacy is cemented in academic and study circles, but also just generally show Fatima to the wider side, to the wider world. If people knew about us, they would follow us, but of course knew about us in the right way, in the sense that the correct knowledge should reach them. Today, Alhamdulillah, we have organizations like who is Hussain, for example. We need who is Fatima. We need to have literature that is presented to the non-Muslim world about the legacy of Sayyidat-un-Nisa'a Fatima, from Shi'a traditions, stories written, plays, movies in the way that our Marajah have accepted, the way that our Marajah have allowed so that we are not keeping Sayyidah Fatima in our own mosques and centers. We are sharing her amazing lessons and teachings to the outside world. How many people, even in the Muslim Ummah, have heard of the sermon of Sayyidat-un-Nisa'a Fatima and the rich lessons that exist within it? Today, we hold a Muslim who is a non-Shia and say to him, tell me, can you speak for five minutes about Fatima to Zahra? Five minutes. Why is it that today the number one name given to females around the world in the Muslim countries as far as Muslim females is not Fatima? She comes way down. We haven't necessarily presented her teachings in the way that we should do or invested as much as we can, not only in the academic circles, but in every other way possible. We should have seminars and conferences and literature where we invite those of our brothers, school of thought, who are sympathetic and lovers of Ahal al-Bayt to talk about the greatness of this holy lady. We should have apps. We should have websites. We should have webinars, use technology. We should have these vlogs and small clips that should go viral. We should have podcasts as much as we can to illustrate what she means. And just like how the world today knows who Gandhi is. Just like how the world today knows who Nelson Mandela is, Mother Teresa. I'm pretty sure that these names are much more known than say the Fatima, unfortunately. We need to wake up and spread the light of Fatima as much as we can. And we are inspired by her life and we have a responsibility to do so. I think just leading on from that conclusion, when you mentioned some names like Mother Teresa, I think if you step outside the Muslim community, you see female figures who we really, you know, who are inspirations for us as well, like for example Mary, the mother of Jesus. And I feel that so many people outside of our own communities would benefit from Lady Fatima if they just knew about her and what she used to do for her and how she can inspire especially if you bring about this whole comparison or bring discussion of Mary and Fatima. There are, there's one or two books I saw from non-Muslims that are bringing these to how they are important, one in Christianity and one in Shia Islam. But what is interesting is that we can also speak about the greatness of Mary, and how she means so much to us as well. So bringing these two characters together will help also in interfaith programs as well. We can utilize these personalities in getting closer and strengthening community relations. Thank you so much. You are watching this show where we are remembering the legacy of Fatima and we discussed various injustices that exist against this wonderful role model now in the centuries after her death. And we hope that together, each of us, we hope that you at home as well are inspired to try your best to push forward and spread the legacy of Fatima and Zahra, in the wider world, whichever way you can. InshaAllah, we'll be back in the next episode. Please join us in. As-salamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.