In His Name, the Most High
1. يَا مُمْتَحَنَةُ
2. امْتَحَنَكِ اللَّهُ الَّذِي خَلَقَكِ قَبْلَ أَنْ يَخْلُقَكِ
3. فَوَجَدَكِ لِمَا امْتَحَنَكِ صَابِرَةً
4. وَ زَعَمْنَا أَنَّا لَكِ أَوْلِيَاءُ
5. وَ مُصَدِّقُونَ وَ صَابِرُونَ
6. لِكُلِّ مَا أَتَانَا بِهِ أَبُوكِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَ آلِهِ
7. وَ أَتَى [أَتَانَا] بِهِ وَصِيُّهُ
8. فَإِنَّا نَسْأَلُكِ إِنْ كُنَّا صَدَّقْنَاكِ
9. إِلا أَلْحَقْتِنَا بِتَصْدِيقِنَا لَهُمَا
10. لِنُبَشِّرَ أَنْفُسَنَا بِأَنَّا قَدْ طَهُرْنَا بِوِلايَتِكِ.
O you who were tested —
God, who created you, tested you before He created you,
and found you, in all that He tested you with, patient.
And we have claimed that we are your friends,
and that we hold you true, and are patient
with all that your father brought us — God bless him and his family —
and all that his successor brought.
So we ask you — if we have held you true —
for nothing but this: that, for our holding the two of them true, you join us to them;
so that we may bring our own souls the glad news that we have become pure, through belonging to you.
From the Ziyarah (Visitation) of Sayyedah Fatimah al-Zahra
The Voice of the Awaited One
This maqtal is spoken, as every maqtal of various is spoken, in the voice of the Awaited Imam — the Mahdi, the son of Hasan, may our souls be his ransom and may God hasten his return — looking back across the veils of his long absence.
And he is not negligent of attending to us, and he is not forgetful of remembering him, therefore we too should not forget him.
Voiced in the series’ Mahdi-Maqtal-Voice — an imagining of the Awaited Imam’s voice, rendered in clear English by the means of our age, belonging to no living man.
Fatimiyyah Maqtal — “Two Mothers”
I. Where Is My Mother?
I was not there — but I remember.
I remember the year Khadija died, peace and blessings be upon her — my grandfather’s wife, and my grandmother’s mother.
And my grandmother Fatimah al-Zahra, peace and blessings be upon her, had been born five years after the mission began.So she was still a little girl.
I remember what my forefather Imam Ja’far al-Sadiq, peace and blessings be upon him, told.
When Khadija died, Fatimah would cling to the Messenger of God, peace and blessings be upon him, his family, and his righteous companions, and go round and round him, saying:Father — where is my mother?
Not once.
Round and round him, asking.And Gabriel, peace be upon him, came down to him, and said: your Lord commands you to give Fatimah His greeting of peace — and to tell her: your mother is in a house of reed, its joints of gold, its pillars of red ruby, between Asiya and Mary the daughter of Imran, peace be upon them both.
And the little girl answered:
God is the Peace.
From Him is peace.
And to Him is peace.A little girl.
Told where her mother is.
And she answers by giving the greeting back to God.
II. Her Father’s Mother
And from that day there was no mother in the house — and so she became one.
Umm Abiha.
Her father’s mother.
That is the name she was given.I remember how it was told of those years.
The years of hardship in the valley of Abu Talib. And then, within a short space of time, her father lost both Khadija and Abu Talib; his heart was broken, and he was left alone.And in those days she stood up — this little girl — and with her small hands she wiped the dust of grief from her father’s face.
That is where the name was born.
Her father’s mother.
His comfort.
III. The First to Walk to Him
And there was another woman who mothered him.
Fatimah bint Asad, peace and blessings be upon her — the wife of Abu Talib, and the mother of my forefather Ali, the Commander of the Faithful, peace and blessings be upon him.
Imam Ja’far al-Sadiq, peace and blessings be upon him, said of her: she was the first woman to emigrate to the Messenger of God from Mecca to Medina — on her own feet.
And she was among the most devoted of all people to him.She heard him say once that people will be raised on the Day of Resurrection unclothed, as they were born — and she cried out at the shame of it.
And he said: then I will ask God to raise you clothed.She heard him speak of the pressing of the grave — and she cried out at her weakness.
And he said: then I will ask God to spare you that.And when she fell ill, she left her will with him.
Her tongue was held, and she could only point — and he accepted her will.
IV. And My Mother, by God
When she died, Ali came to my grandfather weeping.
What makes you weep? he asked.
And Ali said: my mother Fatimah has died.And the Messenger of God said: and my mother, by God.
He rose in haste, and went in, and looked at her, and wept.
He gave his own shirt — the one next to his body — for her shroud.
And he said to the Muslims: if you see me do anything I have never done before, ask me why.He carried her bier on his own shoulder, and did not come out from under it until he had brought her to her grave.
He went down into the grave, and lay down in it.
Then he took her in his arms and laid her in it, and bent over her a long time, whispering to her, and saying: your son — your son.
And when he had levelled the earth over her, he bent over her grave, and they heard him say: there is no god but God.O God, I entrust her to You.
V. The Kindness of Abu Talib
And the Muslims said to him: we saw you do things today you have never done before.
And he said: today I have lost the kindness of Abu Talib.
If she had anything, she would give it to me before herself and before her own children.And then he told them why.
She feared to be raised unclothed — so he shrouded her in his own shirt.
She feared the pressing of the grave — so he lay in it first.
And when she was asked in the grave about her Lord, she answered; and about her Messenger, she answered; and about her master and her Imam — her tongue faltered.And he told her: your son — your son.
VI. Two Answers
So I remember two mothers, and two questions.
A little girl asked where her mother was — and the answer was not her father’s own.
God sent it down, by Gabriel, for her father to give her, with a greeting of peace.And a mother was asked in her grave who her Imam was, and the word was held from her — and the Messenger of God gave it to her himself: your son.
One question asked by a daughter, and answered from Heaven.
One question asked of a mother, and answered by the Prophet at her side.
My brothers. My sisters.
I was not there. But I remember — because I am the one who carries the memory of my house, and these mothers are my own.
Two mothers: one she lost when she was small, and one who was a mother to her father.
And between them, a little girl who became her father’s mother.You know her answer, when she was told where her mother was.
God is the Peace.
Give it back to Him tonight, with her.And wait for me with the lamp lit.
Ask after me the way she asked after her mother — again, and again — until the answer comes.May our Lord hasten my return.
Pray ardently for my return, pray ardently for my return.
Sources Cited
Shaykh al-Tusi, al-Amali, the report numbered 294/46 in the edition (Fihrist record 336, graded clean; N2 Source Pack P42) — through Burayd al-Ijli, from Imam Ja’far al-Sadiq: when Khadija died, Fatimah would cling to the Messenger of God and go round him, asking Father, where is my mother?; Gabriel’s greeting from her Lord; the house of reed, its joints of gold and pillars of red ruby, between Asiya and Mary the daughter of Imran; and her answer, God is the Peace, from Him is peace, and to Him is peace.
Shaykh al-Kulayni, al-Kafi, Volume 1, hadith 1232 (thaqalayn; graded clean; N2 Source Pack P57) — from Imam al-Baqir: she was born five years after the mission.
Imam Sayyed Ali Khamenei, Insan-e 250 saleh, the chapter on Sayyedah Fatimah al-Zahra (Fihrist record 90, the book’s printed page 103; graded not quotable, so narrated), from his address of 24 November 1994 — Umm Abiha, her father’s mother; the hardships of the valley of Abu Talib; Khadija’s death and Abu Talib’s, close together; the small hands that wiped the dust of grief from her father’s face; and the name born of those days. His own note cites Bihar al-Anwar, volume 43, page 16.
Shaykh al-Kulayni, al-Kafi, Volume 1, hadith 1224 (thaqalayn; graded clean; told from its Arabic; N2 Source Pack P58) — from Imam Ja’far al-Sadiq: Fatimah bint Asad, the first woman to emigrate to the Messenger of God from Mecca to Medina on foot, and among the most devoted of people to him; her fear of being raised unclothed and of the pressing of the grave, and his two promises; her will, given by gesture when her tongue was held, and accepted; her death; and my mother, by God; his weeping over her; ask me why; his shirt for her shroud; her bier on his shoulder to the grave; lying in it, laying her in it, whispering your son, your son; O God, I entrust her to You; today I have lost the kindness of Abu Talib; and his reasons — the shirt, the grave, and the question she could not answer alone.
