Fatimah is part of me

In another word by him (sawa), regarding the distinguished position of being the Doyenne of Women, he said: 'Fatimah is part of me, whoever makes her angry makes me angry.' 45 And: 'Verily my daughter Fatimah is only (and nothing else) a part of me, what hurts her hurts me.' 46

In its different forms, this narration which came from the Truthful and Trustworthy (al-Sadiq al-Amin) (sawa), who - as we said before - would only speak through an Islamic revelation, not through emotion, because his emotion was that of a human, who would embrace his daughter like any human would embrace his son or daughter. But when he gives a distinctive judgement, he gives it through revelation and message, and no one can ever claim it was not what Allah has said: 'And if (Our Apostle Muhammad) had fabricated against us any of the sayings. Certainly would We have seized him by the right hand. Then certainly would We have cut off his aorta!' (Qur'an 29:44-46)

These narrations express the spiritual intermixing and deep bond between him and her. His words 'a part of me' are not intended to mean the material side, for this is quite obvious to any one, but something that is deeper than that. For someone to be a part of the Messenger of Allah (sawa) means that they are related to the Messenger of Allah, in a missionary relationship, as if they are part of his body. This means that their mind contains some of the mind of the Prophet (sawa), their soul contains some of the soul of the Prophet (sawa) and their life contains the purity, spirituality, truthfulness and trustworthiness as exhibited by the Prophet (sawa).

He (sawa) adds 'whoever makes her angry makes me angry'. We recognise that the bearers of the Messages do not become emotional when people hurt their children; but also that a righteous father will not get angry and emotional if people rightfully make his son angry, because he does wrong to them. So, what is the meaning of 'whoever makes her angry makes me angry'?

It means that Fatimah is the woman who can never do wrong to any one, in words or in deeds, so that people have the right to hurt her or make her angry. In fact, if Fatimah becomes angry no one will have made her angry, because she will have become angry only for Allah. For the woman who can never harm anyone, sin or deviate, whoever makes her angry he is surely making Allah angry; and she is a person who does not get hurt unless Allah is disobeyed or people deviate from Allah's way. Therefore the Messenger of Allah is hurt if she is hurt.

By the same token, his saying as in some narrations 'What satisfies her satisfies me' means that she is satisfied only with what satisfies Allah and His Messenger. Had the Prophet (sawa) not been fully aware of the depth of the personality of Fatimah (as), and that she was an image of his soul, thinking, way and message, and that the Message was imprinted in her personality, and her personality dissolved in the Message, it would have been incorrect for him to bind his satisfaction to hers, and his anger to hers. This proves, very clearly, that Fatimah (as) is infallible, pure and has reached the summit of perfection.

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[45] Sahih al-Bukhari, al-Karmani commentary, vol. 15, p. 5.

[46] Sahih Muslim, vol. 4, p. 1903.

Adapted from the book: "Fatimah (as); a role model for men and women" by: "Sayyid Muhammad Husayn Fadlullah"