SERMON 202
What Amir al-mu'minin said on the occasion of the burial of
Sayyidatu'n-nisa' (Supreme lady) Fatimah (p.b.u.h.) while addressing the
Holy Prophet at his grave.
O' Prophet
of Allah, peace be upon you from me and from your daughter who has come to
you and who has hastened to meet you. O' Prophet of Allah, my patience
about your chosen (daughter) has been exhausted, and my power of endurance
has weakened, except that I have ground for consolation in having endured
the great hardship and heart-rending event of your separation. I laid you
down in your grave when your last breath had passed (when your head was)
between my neck and chest.
...
Verily we are Allah's and verily unto Him shall we return. (Qur'an
2:156)
Now, the
trust has been returned and what had been given has been taken back. As to
my grief, it knows no bounds, and as to my nights. They will remain
sleepless till Allah chooses for me the house in which you are now
residing.
Certainly,
your daughter would apprise you of the joining together of your
(1)
ummah (people) for oppressing her. You ask her in detail and get all the
news about the position. This has happened when a long time had not
elapsed and your remembrance had not disappeared. My salam (salutation) be
on you both, the salam of a grief stricken not a disgusted or hateful
person; for if I go away it is not because I am weary (of you), and if I
stay it is not due to lack of belief in what Allah has promised the
endurers.
(1).
The treatment meted out to the daughter of the Prophet after his death was
extremely painful and sad. Although Sayyidatu'n-nisa' Fatimah (p.b.u.h.)
did not live in this world more than a few months after the death of the
Prophet yet even this short period has a long tale of grief and woe (about
her).
In this connection, the
first scene that strikes the eyes is that arrangements for the funeral
rites of the Prophet had not yet been made when the contest for power
started in the Saqifah of Banu Sa`idah. Naturally, their leaving the body
of the Prophet (without burial) must have injured Sayyidatu'n-nisa'
Fatimah's grief-stricken heart when she saw that those who had claimed
love and attachment (with the Prophet) during his life became so engrossed
in their machinations for power that instead of consoling his only
daughter they did not even know when the Prophet was given a funeral
ablution and when he was buried, and the way they condoled her was that
they crowded at her house with material to set fire to it and tried to
secure allegiance by force with all the display of oppression, compulsion
and violence.
All these excesses were with
a view to so obliterate the prestigious position of this house that it
might not regain its lost prestige on any occasion. With this aim in view,
in order to crush her economic position, her claim for (the estate of)
Fadak was turned down by dubbing it as false, the effect of which was that
Sayyidatu'n-nisa' Fatimah (p.b.u.h.) made the dying will that none of them
should attend her funeral.
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