Fatima Texts

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Articles on Holy Lady Fatima

A Heavenly Lady
The Tasbih (Rosary) of Hazrat Fatima
Lady of the Women of the Worlds
Secret Books of Shias
Mushaf of Fatima

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# A Heavenly Lady


The highest degree of humanity is Infallibility, where the consent and anger is based solely upon the anger and consent of Allah. An infallible person shows content to whatever Allah is content with, and shows anger to whatever angers Allah. Lady Fatimah is one whom the Almighty Allah is content when she is satisfied, and is angry when she is angry. This position has astonished many complete people.

As stated in John's bible, she is a grand sign who appears in the sky: a woman who has control over the sun, whom the moon is beneath her feet, and who wears a crown holding twelve stars.

As stated in the Torah, the book of Genesis, Allah informs Abraham that she is the wife of one and mother of eleven divine leaders from the sons of Ishmael.

She is the meaning of "the blessed night" mentioned in the Holy Quran, in which " Therein the detail of every affair which is to happen is made distinct."

She is the unique woman in the history whom Allah has considered her prayer in the same status as that of the Prophet and Amir al-Muminin's prayer on the day of Mubahilah.

It is her whom on the night of ascension (Miraj) the Messenger of Allah read this sentence on the door of Paradise: "Fatimah is chosen by Allah."

Upon explaining her merits, this in itself can show her excellence, that the Prophet has said, "Fatimah is the first one who enters the Paradise."

She is the one pearl whom the Almighty Allah has said these words about her to Prophet Muhammad, "We have granted you Kawthar. So worship your Lord and make sacrificial offerings." (Quran)

Considering the previous statements, then what took place after the demise of Prophet Muhammad that Lady Fatimah said with a broken heart, "I experienced such sufferings that if bright days would have experienced them, they would turn into dark nights." When she was going to be buried, all that was left from her body was nothing but merely a figure like a body. Amir al-Mu'minin experienced such great grief in this suffering that he addressed Prophet Muhammad saying:

"As for my grief (in the loss of Lady Fatimah), it knows no bounds; and from now on, each of my nights will pass with me staying awake till dawn."

[alhassanain.com]

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Fatima Tasbih

The Tasbih (Rosary) of Hazrat Fatima

By: Mansooreh Gharib #


Explanation of Hazrat Fatima’s Tasbih:

It is quoted from Imam Ali, saying: “Fatima, the apple of the Prophet’s eyes was in my house. She ground with the mill so much that her hands formed calluses, and drew water from the well with the bucket so much that the rope marked her chest, and swept the house so much that her clothes became dusty. So, she was in difficulty and trouble. One day I heard a slave had been brought to the Prophet. I said to Fatima: “When you go to visit your father ask him for a servant to help you in doing your daily work.” The next day she went to her father, She saw a group of people talking to him. So, she came back without saying anything for the sake of decency.”

Imam Ali said: “The Prophet knew that Fatima had come to his house for a need, so he came to our house and asked her: “Dear Fatima, what did you want?” She remained silent. He asked again and she didn’t say anything. I said: “O Messenger of Allah, I’ll tell you. Fatima has ground with the mill so much that her hands formed calluses, and drew water from the well so much that the rope marked her chest and she swept the house so much that her clothes became dusty and got the smell of smoke. We heard that some slaves were brought to you. So, I told her to come to you and ask for a servant to help her.”

The Prophet said: “I’ll teach you something that is much better than a servant you asked for. When you get up (when you go to bed, according to some books) recite these praises unto the Lord:

Say 34 times “Allah-u-Akbar” (Allah is the Greatest).
Say 33 times “Alhamd-u-Lillah” (Praise is for Allah).
Say 33 times “Subhan-Allah” (Glory to Allah).

Teaching the Tasbih to the Children:

The Prophet taught her daughter, Fatima, the best lesson, which was the Tasbih. From that time, millions of people have been saying that Tasbih after their prayers. They have been asking the Lord for help via the Tasbih.

In the book “Qorb-al-Asnad”, it is quoted from Imam Jafar as-Sadiq: “We instruct our children to say the Tasbih just as we instruct them to pray. You, too (addressing Abu Haroon) do it, because whoever doesn’t recite the Tasbih, falls into misery.”

The Tasbih with a Long Presence of Heart:

Sheikh Ali bin Jazaeri, said the Tasbih for one hour because with each word of the praises he said, his tears flowed down his cheeks.

The Tasbih, the Sign of a Faithful Person:

It is written in “Makarem-ul-Akhlaq” that the Tasbih of Fatima is one of the five signs of a faithful person.
The Tasbih and Imam Sajjad:

It is said that when Imam Sajjad was taken to Yazeed, he decided to kill Imam. So, he started speaking to Imam and intended to make him say something that would give him a pretext to cause his death. But the Imam said nothing more than Yazeed had said. In his hand, there was a Tasbih and while speaking he turned it.

Yazeed said: “I speak to you and you answer me while your fingers turn the Tasbih. How do you permit yourself to do that?”

The Imam said: “My father informed me that the Prophet didn’t move from his place after the morning prayers and didn’t say anything. Sometimes he took the Tasbih and said: “O Lord! I entered morning while I was praising You equal to the number of the beads of the Tasbih that is in my hand.” Then he turned the Tasbih and spoke without praising.

The Imam continued: “This will be counted for me and will protect me till bedtime.” When he went to bed he also gave a special praise to Allah. “I follow my great grandfather and do the same thing.”

Then Yazeed looked at the people around him and said: “He defeated me by his answer,” and ordered them to let him go.

The Favors of the Angels:

When one of you goes to bed an honorable angel and a mulish Satan come to you quickly. The angel says: “End your day in a good way and start your night doing the right.” At the same moment the Satan says: “End your day committing sins and start your night with wrongdoings.” If the person obeys the angel and ends his day and begins his night in Allah’s name and says the Tasbih, that angel drives the Satan away and protects the person till he/she gets up.

When the person gets up, the Satan comes to him again and repeats what it said the night before. If the person recites the Tasbih, the Satan flees and Allah gives the reward a heavenly reward equal to the reward of the one who has prayed the whole night.

Fatima’s Tasbih (Rosary):

It is written in “Makarem-ul-Akhlaq” that Fatima had a Tasbih made of woolen thread, which had 100 knots, and she used it to recite the Tasbih. When Hazrat Hamzah (Prophet’s uncle) was martyred, she used his soil for making Tasbih.

After the martyrdom of Imam Hussain, the people used his soil to make Tasbih.

Imam Sadiq said: “The first Tasbih was our mother’s (i.e. Fatima’s) which was made of blue thread and after that, she made beads of Tasbih from the soil of Hamzah’s grave.

The Soil of Imam Hussain’s Grave:

Imam Sadiq said: “Prostration on the soil of Hussain illuminates the seven layers of the earth, and if somebody keeps a Tasbih made of Imam Hussain’s soil, they are considered the prayers of Allah, even if they don’t say anything.

The Value of Tasbih:

Imam Baqir said: “Allah has not been praised in any way better than saying the Tasbih. If there had been something better, the Prophet would have taught Fatima.”

The Effects of the Tasbih:

Imam Sadiq said: “Two brothers went to the Prophet and said: “We want to go to Syria for trading. What shall we do to be protected from dangers?”

He (Prophet) said: “When you go to bed, say the Tasbih, and after that say Ayat-ul-Kursi (A verse of the Holy Qur’an, surah Baqara). Then, you will be protected from all the dangers.”

On the way thieves followed them, and when they entered the caravanserai, the thieves sent their slave to see what they were doing.

When the slave reached them, the two brothers went to bed and did whatever the Prophet had told them. Suddenly, the slave saw walls surrounding the brothers. He came back to the thieves and told them the story, but they didn’t believe him and went in the caravanserai themselves. They also didn’t see anything but walls.

The next morning the thieves went to the brothers and said: “We wanted to steal your goods but last night we didn’t see anything but walls.”

The brothers told them the whole story and the thieves said: “We will not follow you anymore because with what you say nobody can rob you of your goods.

Imam Sadiq said: “Whoever says the Tasbih after saying his prayer, before moving from his place the heaven is their reward.

Tasbih in the Qur’an:

Imam Sadiq said about the Verse: “Praise Allah a lot.”

The one who says the Tasbih has obeyed Qur’anic verses and has praised Allah a lot!


[imamreza.net]

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[Excerpts]

"Lady of the women of the worlds" - Ruth E. Rowe (2008) #


ABSTRACT

This thesis seeks to explore and survey the different understandings of Fatima bint Muhammad “al-Zahra” in different Shia social, religious, and political contexts. This investigation situates Fatima within a larger Islamic conceptualization of the saint or holy figure. Her liminal status in close proximity to the divine grants her a potency that facilitates her continued importance to Shia Muslims, though her memory differs in time and place. The contexts for this discussion range from Arabia in the centuries after her death, Safavid and Qajar Persia and modern Iran, and South Asia. Memories of Fatima reflect the concerns of Shia communities, political and religious leaders, and individuals for whom she remains a saint; she serves as a mechanism by which holiness is accessed and communities and persons are created, consolidated, preserved, and understood. For the scholar, Fatima provides invaluable insight into creative religious change through the lens of the Shia Islam.


A brief introduction

In his prayer-book Mafatih al-jinan, which contains centuries of traditional Shia devotions, Abbas al-Qummi (d. 1941) includes a prayer of salutation to be read at the grave of Fatima al-Zahra. The daughter of the Prophet Muhammad is described within it as the “lady of the first and last women of the worlds” (sayyidat nisa al-alamin min alawwalin wa al-akhirin). This is an especially appropriate title for Fatima, given that she has served as a holy figure for many Muslim communities since the 7th century, a saint in many “worlds.” But, Fatima is relevant not only to women in different historical contexts, but to a variety of people: pious persons, kings, politicians, and scholars, among others. Fatima also brings into question the desire of any historian to define a historical figure based on a single life-narrative, and she reflects those worlds over which she is sayyida as much as she is honored by people in them.

This paper is not, in any sense, an exhaustive survey of Fatima’s roles and importance in Shia piety and religious politics. I will provide, instead, a series of examples and varying historical contexts in which there exist paradoxically disparate but contiguous “Fatimas.” It is through an exploration of these contexts that one can understand not only Fatima al-Zahra herself, but also the “space,” “text” and historical figure that such a person represents: the “holy subject,” in a sense, because Fatima’s potency, I will argue, is tied inextricably to notions of God and human holiness. Fatima is a tool in Muslim piety that believers can use to relate to God; she exists at the interface between the divine and the profane, as does any saint. In occupying such a space in Shia piety, then, Fatima “lives” unbounded by any “historical,” human lifetime. She is therefore of interest to historians not only for how she was, but for how she is remembered to have been (how she is, how she becomes). It is by means of her memory that notions of Shia identity, community, and power can be elucidated in various historical contexts.

While I will briefly describe early biographies of Fatima and occasionally make mention of her role among Sunni Muslims, this paper will focus upon a survey of her prominence and importance in Shia society and discourse from the birth of the Shia community in the late 7th century to post-revolutionary Islamic thought in Iran at the turn of the 21st century. Fatima is in many ways a figure who is at the center of a negotiation of identity and of past and present within Shia society. This negotiation is, in Fatima’s case, centered on a person within and as tradition. I will explore Fatima as invented tradition, but without implying any inauthenticity in the ways in which she is invoked.

She is a figure in history who is socially creative, who provides a means by which social actors situate themselves within their given present. She was and is a means of engagement with the past, present, and future, whether for political legitimacy, religiosity, or the definition of idealized womanhood. In that sense, Fatima is a historical being whose importance cannot be contained within a single biography, time-period, devotional practice, or even gender. Fatima, in being remembered in countless ways and for various purposes, brings to the fore questions about the nature of the historical subject itself, and specifically the nature of the holy subject. It is with this holiness that one must begin.


HOLY FIGURES AS THE VEILS OF GOD

Regarding Islamic holiness and Fatima’s subsequent role in history

From al-Miswar b. Makhrama, the Messenger of God said:

“Fatima is part of me, so whoever angers her, angers me.”

[al-Bukhari’s Sahih]

How can the temporal tell about the eternal? ...God transcends form and letters.
His speech is outside of letters and voices, but He implements His speech through whatever words, voices, or languages He wills.

[Rumi]

Fatima al-Zahra, as a Shia figure of devotion, might be said to have as many faces as there are communities and individual believers; her relevance is not limited to or determined by her single, human lifetime. As the wife and mother of imams and the daughter of Muhammad, she occupies a space in sacred genealogy and religious memory that would afford her even a vicarious holiness were she not believed to possess any herself. However, Fatima is not without her own sanctity in the memories and practices of the generations of Muslims who have lived in the millennia after her death. Before discussing specific examples of how Fatima has been remembered in different historical contexts and what such varied memories have facilitated or illustrated, I want to begin with an exploration of how one might conceptualize holiness and the holy person, in addition to how one might study such a person historically. This discussion will provide the theoretical and religious substrate and framework with which I will engage the investigation of Fatima’s historical role and presence.

On the level of Shia piety as one of the Masumeen, the “Infallible Ones,” I would suggest that Fatima serves for Muslims as a human vehicle for God’s holiness on earth. I propose, then, that it is within her role as an Islamic “saint” that she makes accessible the divinity of God to those who lack familial closeness to the Prophet or mystical closeness to God. Margaret Smith, in her work on the celebrated female Sufi Rabia al- Adawiyya (d. 801), notes that before Sufism arose as a mode of Islamic practice, women like Fatima and Amina (the Prophet’s mother) were recognized as saints. What is “saint” in Islam?

And do only Sufis occupy that space? Frederick Denny, in his discussion of Sufi sainthood, notes that the English term “saint” is problematic in describing the Islamic holy person. The Arabic word that is often being translated, wali, is concerned more with the relationship (with God) embodied in the saint than a quality or virtue. However, the early Christian saint – the category of which colours the English-language understanding of the term – was positioned in this intercessory space. Because Sufism developed as a means by which mystics might move closer to God, so must the veneration of those Sufi saints be located in a similar context.8 Sainthood is as much an attribution as a quality, based upon the holy person’s perceived and actualized closeness with God. And surely, not only Sufis can be remembered as occupying such an intermediary space!

[ Note: In Imami Shiasm, the holiest of spiritual leaders are the Fourteen Infallible Ones (or the “Fourteen Very-Pure,” as Henry Corbin translates): Muhammad, Fatima, her husband Ali, their sons al-Hasan and al-Husayn, and the subsequent nine imams. Their holy infallibility, isma, is inherited, and the bloodline’s holiness is guaranteed as it is linked directly to Fatima (and thus her father) and first imam Ali. The original family of Muhammad, Fatima, Ali, al-Hasan, and al-Husayn are also often called the ahl al-kisa’ (“those of the cloak,” based on various hadiths in which Muhammad wraps the other four in his cloak), or, in the South Asian context, the Panjtan Pak for both Imami and Ismaili Shia.

Wali, in Arabic, comes from the verb waliya, “to be close to.”

Thus, when not translated as “saint,” wali has been also translated as “friend” (and wali Allah as “friend of God”). I will discuss the term wali in more detail shortly.]


In this paper I will refer to Fatima as a saint, though she was never a Sufi shaykha. I use the term with the recognition that she has been located historically as an intermediary and intercessory figure whose holiness stems from her liminal position between the created, human world and the divine. Traditionally, it is through saints like Fatima that Muslims have accessed the divine power of God, whether for pious or political reasons.

When a deity cannot be experienced directly by those whose religious practice is not explicitly mystical, figures like Fatima are the loci for an individual or a community’s connection to and experience of that divine reality. To use a metaphorical framework drawn from Islamic discourse, Fatima’s position in Shia religiosity has been, throughout history, like that of a human veil covering a god who might otherwise be inaccessible.

The religious metaphor of the veil appears in Sufi theological writings, most often with regard to how the earthly world and its inhabitants are positioned in contrast and connection to the divine world and the creator. In his seminal and influential Sufi manual, al-Risala al-qushayriyya, Abu al-Qasim al-Qushayri (d. 1072) of Khorasan devotes a small section to describing the mystic’s understanding of al-satr, the veil. He notes that “the ordinary folk are covered by concealment, whereas the elect are witnessing the permanent self-manifestation [of God].” However, even the elect (the Sufis/mystics) cannot bear direct witness to the True Reality that is God without being “completely annihilated;” even Muhammad asked that his heart be veiled.

Scholar and Sufi Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (d. 1111) also treats Sufis as a spiritual elite able to better perceive a god who is veiled from humanity. He spends a whole chapter of his short, mystical work Mishkat al-anwar (“The Niche of Lights”) to explore the notion of God’s veiled concealment as expressed in an allegedly prophetic hadith: “God has seventy veils of light and darkness; were He to lift them, the august glories of His face would burn up everyone whose eyesight perceived Him.” Al-Ghazali places these veils between God and his creatures (the mahjubun, “the veiled”), and the composition of the veil, hiding God from human view, is dependent upon the human being. These veils are reflective of the person’s soul; if a soul exists in “sheer darkness,” that darkness will veil the person from God, for example. Al-Ghazali’s understanding of the veil locates its origins in the (faulty, non-divine) human experience, though he also recognizes that were the veils absent, as in a pure mystical experience, the face of God would “burn up everything perceived by the sights and insights of the observers.”

Such an annihilation of all phenomena, including self, is not an intended or possible goal for all Muslims. They must then, using Al-Ghazali’s metaphor, live and relate to God within a veiled state by means of those veils, which are symbolic of their apparent separation from God.

Writing in Damascus in 1227, the great Andalusi shaykh Muhyi al-Din Ibn ‘Arabi (d. 1240) likens Paradise, al-janna, to God’s veil and then that veil to the human being.

God, speaking to his created, says,

And my paradise is nothing other than you, for you veil me with your essence (dhat). For I am not known except by you, just as you are not [existent] except by me. For whoever knows you, knows me, while I am not known [if] you are not known.

God is known via human beings, his creations, a sentiment that is mirrored commonly in other Sufi works; in a popular divine hadith, God claims that he was a hidden treasure and created man to be known.17 In both this hadith and in Ibn ‘Arabi’s thought, humans act as mechanisms by which other human beings might access and comprehend the divine, providing a concept and a form to what is otherwise non-conceptual and formless.
Fatima, saintly in a general sense, occupies this space more explicitly as an intercessor/intermediary to Muslim devotees; it is through her, for example, that God might be known to humanity (and humanity might relate itself to God, ultimately).

Saints and prophets are the result of an inevitable rift between the holy and earthly realms, however much such a rift is illusory for its human presumption of duality. Holy persons are necessary, however, not only because they provide an interface between earth and heaven for the benefit of other human beings, but also in that God cannot be comprehended or experienced by humans without his “veils.” The celebrated Persian poet-shaykh Jalal al-Din Rumi (d. 1273) engages this understanding of the veil in his recorded Discourses (Fihi ma fihi). At times he treats the device of the veil metaphorically to indicate all human desires (for food, companionship, etc.), which “veil” and stand as substitute, in a sense, for the ultimate human craving for God. Even the mystic’s desire to experience God is a kind of veil because of its fundamental humanness, 18 though it is a necessity, as normal humans cannot experience God directly: God has created these “veils” for a good purpose. If He showed His beauty without a veil, we would not be able to bear it or benefit from it because we are benefited and strengthened indirectly.

The veils of desire, then, both conceal and connect the divine to human beings. In another discussion, Rumi describes Muhammad’s prophetic “intoxication,” wherein he would speak “while beside himself, [and then say] ‘God spoke;’” while Muhammad’s tongue moved, it was God that directly animated it. The Prophet’s earthly form served as a vehicle for the divine, just as the Quran, for instance, serves as such a vehicle in the declaration that it was deliberately composed in the Arabic language to guide believers. Presumably as it implies a duality of believer/God that would, eventually, be dissolved.

In the second quotation that prefaces this section, Rumi rhetorically asks if it is possible for something temporal to speak of the eternal. How does the earthly describe or access the divine? In his answer, he says that God uses earthly forms – human words and speech, for example – to connect to his creatures. God inspires his prophets and saints so that ordinary people who are caught up in the mundane world might remember the pure nature within them that is ever mindful of God. The function, then, of these holy persons is to remind humans of God and of the fact that his face is everywhere, despite all that veils it from human sight and experience.

[ note: “And God’s is the east and the west: and wherever you turn, there is God’s countenance (wajh). Behold, God is infinite (wasi), all-knowing (alim)” (Quran 2:115). ]

Later in the Discourses, Rumi asserts that form is to be attacked as only a shell.
As a veil separating the Sufi from God, form is something to be rent in one’s mystical search for God’s omnipresent face and reality.

At the start of this section I suggested that one could liken holy human beings – “saints” in a generic sense – to veils. One can characterize them as intermediary figures who provide a non-abstract link between the holy (God) and the profane (this world).

However, many of the Sufi shaykhs just discussed consider the veil a hindrance that must be dissolved in the mystical quest for divine union. What role, then, can the saint have as a veil, if the veil might be seen as an obstruction? In Sufi thought, in a very general sense as we have seen, the world and its constructs (desires, speech, even Paradise) serve as conceptualizations that veil the direct reality of God from mankind; this veiling is both a blessing and a cause for forgetfulness. In the ordinary understanding of phenomena, God exists separate from his believers. Mystics are those who seek to bridge or deny this separation, even at the cost of their own “separate” existence from God – but how might others connect to him if theirs is not an explicitly mystical path?

That I have selected a Sufi concept to frame an otherwise largely “exoteric” discussion of Fatima al-Zahra is not without cause. Sufis, as mystics, are personally and directly concerned with experiencing God, an activity that mirrors, in some ways, how Shia Muslims (and lay-people, more generally) relate to their saints: as a means of getting closer to the divine via wholly created and constructed concepts (the saint and his or her charisma). Rumi notes that the body (“form”) is important in that “without it neither can works be effected nor can the goal be reached.” In the 13th century Persian work, Rawda-yi taslim, a compilation of the teachings of Shia scholar Nasir al-Din Tusi(d. 1274), a Shia view of sainthood is put forth with regards to the prophets and imams:

In so far as human beings are unable to be receptive to His Almighty Command without mediation, it was necessary that there should be intermediaries vis-à-vis the Divine Command. Those people whose consciousness (khatir) behaved as does a [translucent] glass held up to the sun were the Prophets.

The likening of prophets to transparent glass through which the light of God is known is parallel to my use of the veil metaphor. The imam, in turn, is that person who allows that prophetic, holy light to be realized in the intellects of gnostics.

Furthermore, the 20th century Iranian religious scholar, Allama Sayyid Muhammad Husayn Tabatabai (d. 1981), does not hesitate in considering the “esoteric” aspects of Shia Islam. The ‘Allama, who studied (both on his own and with a teacher) the Fusus alhikam of Ibn ‘Arabi, writes that the gnostic is one who sees the world as a mirror of divine Reality, a visible means of comprehending and making apparent the “Invisible Deity.” He notes that such an individual recalls, the Quran in mind, that “the world and its phenomena are all and in every aspect signs and portents of God.”

While the Shia tradition has never been wanting for esoteric interpretation, Shia Sufis have been somewhat scarce, comparatively. Shia tariqas (orders) did arise in Persia from the 13th century onward alongside Sunni orders who mystically favored Ali, Fatima’s husband and the first Shia imam, and his family. The sectarian affiliation of these orders was often ambiguous; for example, the Safaviyya order, named for Shaykh Safi al-Din Ishaq (d. 1334), would produce the messianic Shah Isma‘il (d. 1524), the first Safavid emperor who declared Ithna ashari Shiasm the state religion. But the order did not originate as Shia, and when it “changed” is unknown. Nur al-Din Muhammad Nimatullah b. Abdallah (d. 1431), founder of the Shia Nimatullahiyya order, writes in his poems that the selfhood of the world is but the world-as-veil, and that world “arises from the diffusion of His universal Being.” His conception of how creation relates to God (as a mere sign of God’s being) is very much the sort of theology found in Ibn Arabi’s or Rumi’s thought. Can we then conflate Shia and Sufi conceptions of holiness and, then, conceptions of “sainthood?”

Vincent Cornell, in his seminal work on Moroccan Sufism, notes that it is essential to understand sainthood as it functions socially and doctrinally, and he distinguishes (but does not separate) an individual’s state of being a saint (walaya) from how his or her saintly actions are experienced by others (wilaya). In that sense, we can see the wali as a person who has sainthood from within and is given sainthood by his or her followers.

The holy person exists, then, in a circle of affirming and re-affirming relationships with the divine and mundane worlds. Ibn Arabi discusses walaya, in particular, at length in his writings, and he locates it as a spiritual position occupied by those saints (awliya) in following Muhammad’s prophetic example, though the former cannot be prophets themselves. So, “sainthood” is based upon both a connection to the divine and also the ordinary people who seek that connection and accomplish it by the mediation of others.

As I mentioned briefly above, the Sufi “saint” is often translated from the Arabic wali (friend), whose holiness results from personal spiritual practice. In Shiasm, the imam is also considered the wali Allah, but by benefit of sacred genealogy, following in Muhammad’s footsteps and acting as an intermediary figure between Muslims and the divine. For example, in a prayer to Fatima in the Mafatih al-jinan, one recites, “Witness, [O Fatima], that I am pure by your walaya and the walaya of the descendents of your house, upon them all may God grant blessings.” Thus, the walaya of the Masumeen, their holy post, is the means by which the Shia Muslim is purified, as they mediate that access to the divine. J. Spencer Trimingham distinguishes Shia and Sufi Islam based on this apparent difference in the conception of human holiness: the Shia require the “mediatory” imam while the Sufis do not, accessing God directly. This distinction ignores, however, the fact that tombs of Sufi saints are venerated by non-Sufis in the same sense that imams’ tombs are often venerated (by non-imams); the Sufi himor herself might not need an intermediary, but those non-mystics venerating his or her memory do. So, we might approach the Shia Masumeen and Sufi shaykhs in a similar manner with regards to what appears to be a parallel if not entirely identical sainthood.

In his consideration of holy “charisma” in Islam, Liyakat N. Takim states, “it is through [the imams] that God can be worshipped and known.” Takim goes on to locate the holy figure – whether Shia, Sunni, or Sufi – in this intermediary position between God and mankind. Takim particularly relies on Rudolf Otto’s articulation of holiness in his consideration of divine charisma. Otto (d. 1937) was an influential Lutheran theologian and philosopher who understood the divine both in terms of its rational/moral aspects and its wholly irrational/”numinous” qualities. Otto views the mystical path to be a particular but not exclusive method of religious experience. It is not only the mystics who might access non-rational holiness in addition to its moral aspects. The numinous divine “comes into being in and amid the sensory data and empirical material of the natural world and cannot anticipate or dispense with those, yet it does not arise out of them, but only by their means.” A prophet is therefore to the religious sphere what the artist is to art; he (or she) is a creative force realizing something non-rational and abstract. I propose, then, that the prophet or saint becomes a means of rationalizing holiness by which the non-mystic relates him- or herself to God/the Holy. In Allama Tabatabai’s words, noted previously, the world mirrors God; thus, it will be through that veil of the world that one can access the numinous divine, if indirectly. Holy persons are positioned in this liminal space of the world-veil.

In the Quran, God encourages Muhammad, the exemplar of Islamic sainthood, to say to mankind, “If you love God, follow me, [and] God will love you and forgive you your sins.” A Muslim is encouraged then, to relate to God through obedience to the Prophet’s message and example. Muhammad was divinely inspired in order to guide people, to provide a model by which believers might become close to God (or, mystically-speaking, in us (Otto, 12-13). Fascinatingly, Otto is also concerned with “veils,” though he never uses the term as such. He stresses that all the “Greek words” and categories that he or anyone uses to describe the holy/numinous are not real; the divine is, fundamentally, a priori and non-rational, however much we try to rationalize it to benefit our understanding (Otto, 116). Again, we find that human conceptualization veils God/the divine, though such concepts are necessary. realize their natural closeness to him).

Annemarie Schimmel locates the figure of the Prophet at the center of Islamic practice, as it is through his being a “beautiful model” (uswa hasana) that Muslims are able to be Muslim through what she terms the “ideal of the imitatio Muhammadi.” Muhammad is the “intermediate principle,” the “suture between the Divine and created world... the isthmus between Necessary and contingent existence.” Muhammad is the ultimate, earthly link between Muslims (as creatures) to God, and so drawing near to Muhammad (by honoring him or following his example) is a means of drawing near to God. “Muhammadan” emulation/practice, as a pious act, is one that is therefore creative, as it is the cultivation of the pious person through contact and interaction with the Prophet’s holy character.

Muhammad’s holiness is not held exclusively in his particular person or memory, however. Indeed, it is through the posthumous perpetuation of his holiness (his baraka, often) that Shia religious identity formed. The Prophet’s role as intermediary between God and mankind is preserved historically in the Fourteen Infallible Ones, who inherited his holy position of mediator between God and mankind by way of his daughter Fatima and his cousin and her husband, Ali b. Abi Talib. Takim notes that for the Shia “religious identity is conceived in terms of devotion to the imams,” who also serve as exemplary models of piety for mankind. Like Muhammad, whose baraka they share and make available on earth, the Fourteen Masumeen function as intermediary figures linking the profane to the divine. Fatima al-Zahra, though not an imam, is such a figure.

How might we approach Fatima, in particular, as an Islamic saint? Many scholars of Fatima, as I will discuss in the next section, have sought to locate her varying roles in Islamic piety as indicative of a changing ideal of womanhood as espoused by (male) historiographers. In such historiography, female figures are “preserved” historically (by men) as models for women in a given present. Just as Muhammad and the other male Masumeen might be considered moral and pious models for Shia men and remembered in such a light, Fatima is the figure of emulation available for women. Subsequently, some modern historians seek a “true” Fatima underneath layers of what is perceived as a historiographical bias, wanting to reveal Fatima’s “her-story.” Fatima’s being female is thus conceived as a central factor in how she is considered a saint.

Jamal Elias, in his treatment of women mystics in Islam, similarly distinguishes female holiness from male. He describes two paradigms of Muslim womanhood: the profane “female” and the ideal, divine “feminine.” The former is the ordinary woman, subordinate in nature to man, who aspires to emulate the celestial, saintly woman who is characterized by her purity. He discusses an array of women saints in the Islamic tradition who embody the holy feminine, mentioning briefly, for instance, that Fatima is an object of pious contemplation in Shia theosophic thought, whereby an individual (man) might access or know God. Elias asserts that “through contemplating and emulating the example of a saintly woman, an ordinary woman, the trivialized female, can attain the level of glorified feminine.” But, while he focuses on male Sufi views of “woman” (female/feminine), Elias describes Islamic practice as fundamentally gendered, wherein gender is explicit and central to an understanding of God.

[ note: This particular practice is based upon the assertion that “he who knows Fatima knows God,” explicitly supporting her relevance to male mystics seeking closeness to God.]

How critical is Fatima’s gender and her embodiment of Elias’ divine “feminine” to an understanding of her historical positions and functions in Shia piety? This question will be a central consideration throughout this paper. One can argue that Fatima’s gender is important as it relates to women within a greater Muslim community (the Shia in particular) that has developed long after her life and death. I want to suggest, however, that Fatima is also a means of political legitimization and devotional reverence as much as symbol of ideal womanhood. She is a multi-functional, multi-potent subject (both as woman and as human being) and it is through the various ways that she has been “reimagined” that we might more fully understand her role in various negotiated “presents” throughout history... presents of women, men, and communities as a whole.

Historiography, hagiography, and history itself are exercises of the present. Eric Hobsbawm asserts that scholars must constantly encounter... [Rowe]

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Mushaf of Fatima, Book of Ali and and hidden books


# Secret Books of Shias


[[Book of Fatimah

Shia Muslims believe the Book of Fatimah or Mushaf is a book written by the daughter of Muhammad.

Traditions found in Usul al-Kafi talk about a book called "Mushaf of Fatimah". It is said that when Prophet Muhammad died, the angel Gabriel appeared to Fatima and consoled her by telling her many secrets including what is to happen in the future and about her children. Fatima had all these things written in a book. Her husband Ali wrote down all that she had told him. Mushaf did not survive. It is said that when the Messiah comes in the last days he will reveal Fatima’s book. The book is said to be three times longer than Quran in length. Sunnis say Fatimah never received divine revelations and as a result they also deny the existence of the Book of Fatimah.]]



Some anti-Shi'i booklets published by Wahhabis groups allege that based on Usul Kafi, Shia believe there is a Quran called "Quran of Fatimah"! This is a malicious accusation. There is no tradition in Usul Kafi saying "Quran of Fatimah". There are however, very few traditions in one chapter of Usul Kafi which assert that Fatimah wrote a book (mushaf). The tradition states "The book of Fatimah". Surely Quran is a book (mushaf), but any book is NOT Quran. This allegation is as silly as saying "Quran of al-Bukhari" instead of "book of al-Bukhari"!

Also those few traditions in al-Kafi clearly state that there is NO single verse of Quran in the Book of Fatimah. This shows that the book of Fatimah is TOTALLY different than Quran. Of course, it was three time bigger than
Quran in length.

In one tradition it said that Fatimah, after the Prophet passed away, used to write what she was told that would happen to her descendants and stories about other rulers to come (up to the day of resurrection). Fatimah recorded (or asked Imam Ali to record) those information, which was kept in her family of Imams, and was called "The Book (Mushaf) of Fatimah".

A tradition which follows this one clearly states that what is referred to by "The Book of Fatimah" is not a part of Quran and has NOTHING to do with Allah's commandments/halals/harams. It does NOT have anything to do with Shari'ah (divine law) and the religious practices. Let me give you some of those traditions:

Abu Abdillah said: "... We have with us the Book of Fatimah, but I do not claim that anything of the Quran is in it." (Usul al-Kafi, Tradition 637)

Abu Abdillah also said about the book of Fatimah: "There is nothing of what is permitted and what is forbidden (al-Halal and al- Haram) in this; but in it is the knowledge of what will happen." (Usul Kafi, Tradition 636)

Abdul Malik Ibn Ayan said to Abu Abdillah: "The Zaydiyyah and the Mu'tazilah have gathered around Muhammad Ibn Abdillah (Ibn al-Hasan, the second). Will have they any rule?" He said: "By Allah there are two books in my possession in which every prophet and every ruler who rules on this earth (from the beginning of the earth till the day of Judgment) has been named. No, by Allah, Muhammad Ibn Abdillah is not one of them." (Usul Kafi, Tradition 641)

"Mushaf" refers to a collection of "Sahifa" which is singular for "page". The literal meaning of Mushaf is "The manuscript bound between two boards". In those days they used to write on leather and other materials. They
either rolled the writings -- what is known as scroll in English. Or they kept the separable sheets and bound them together, in what could be called as "Mushaf", a book in today's terms. The equivalent to the word book
"Kitab" used to (and still is) refer to either a letter (e.g. of correspondence) or to an document that was written down or recorded. The Arabic word for wrote "Kataba" is a derivative of the same word.

Although the Quran is commonly called a "Mushaf" today, perhaps referring to its "collection" after it was dispersed. Quran is a Mushaf (book), but any Mushaf (book) is not necessarily the Quran! There is no Quran of Fatimah! As the above and many other traditions suggest, The book of Fatimah has absolutely no connection with Quran. This concept is commonly pulled out of context and published by anti-Shi'i groups due to their hatred toward the Followers of the Members of the House of Prophet. I have seen it mentioned in a book printed by the government of Saudi Arabia.

What is also *very* important to recognize and understand is that belief in Mushaf Fatimah is NOT a requirement of BELIEF to the Shia. It is just few traditions which report such a thing. It is nothing crucial for us, nor any one (except Imam Mahdi) has access to it. [A Shi'ite Encyclopedia]

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Other Secret Shia Books: Al Jafr and Al Jamia.

Al-Jafr (book)

Shias say Al-Jafr is a mystical holy book compiled by Ali and inherited by him from Muhammad. Al-Jafr is composed of two skin boxes in which were kept various books of the past Prophets and the books inherited from Muhammad, Ali and Fatimah to the their descendents, with each new Imam receiving them from his dying predecessor Imam, as well as the armour and weapons of Muhammad.

Al-Jafr was one of the sources and origins of knowledge acquired by the 12 Imams and Imam Jafar al-Sadiq took pride in having possession of al-Jafr, that comprised the hidden knowledge of Muhammad. The later Imams were accustomed to refer at times to the sacred and secret book of al-Jafr, which was left in their keeping by Ali and belief in the existence of al-Jafr with the Imams was firm, according to the Shia.

The Imams also learned the science of Huruf (letters of the alphabet) from al-Jafr and used this science to derive facts and rulings from al-Jafr.

Al-Jafr was handed down among the Imams until it is currently with Imam Muhammad al-Mahdi.

Etymology

The material of al-Jafr is parchment for writing made from animals skin for which the word “Jafr” can variously mean; numerical symbolism, science of numbers, numerical symbolism of letters, numerology, science of letters, alphabetical symbolism or divination. The prefix “al” means “the.”

Contents

The contents of al-Jafr include:

Secret teachings for the 12 Imams.

Knowledge of the past and future events, including the names of every king who would rule on earth.
The knowledge of Muhammad, the past Prophets and the 12 Imams.

The original Injil (holy book of Jesus), the original Torah (holy book of Moses), the original Zabur (holy book of David), the original Suhuf Ibrahim (Scrolls of Abraham) and the knowledge and history of the Prophets, life happenings, and other special mystical matters. These are all contained in one part of al-Jafr called al-Jafr al-Abyadh (the white al-Jafr). Al-Jafr al-Abyadh has 14 portions and each portion has 14 divisions.

A bag that contains the armour and weapons of Muhammad, including the sword Zulfiqar, and the Islamic rules, directives and matters about and involving wars. These are all contained in the other part of al-Jafr called al-Jafr al-Ahmar (the red al-Jafr).

The knowledge of the Israelite scholars.

Evidence of al-Jafr’s existence

The following are hadith evidences of the existence of al-Jafr:

Shaykh Kulayni narrates from Abu al-Hasan that Imam Musa al-Kadhim said, “My son, Ali, is the eldest and most beloved of my children. He reads Jafr along with me, while no one except the Prophet (i.e. Muhammad) and his successors look at it.”

It has been narrated on the authority of `Abdullāh ibn Sinān that Imam Ja`far al-Sādiq said when we mentioned before him the activities of the descendants of Imam al-Hasan and also the al-Jafr: “By Allah I swear; we keep two papers made of skins of goat and sheep. These two papers comprise the dictation of the Messenger of Allah with the handwriting of (Imam) `Alī.”

The Imam remained silent for a while and then said, "With us there is al-Jafr. Do they know what al-Jafr is?" I asked, "What is al-Jafr?" The Imam said, "It is a container made of skin that contains the knowledge of the prophets and the executors of their wills. It is the knowledge of the scholars in the past from the Israelites."

A number of our people have narrated from Ahmad ibn Muhammad from Ali ibn al-Hakam from al-Husayn ibn abu ‘Ala’who has said that he heard abu ‘Abdallah say the following: "With me is the white Jafr." The narrator has said that he asked the Imam "What is in it?" The Imam said, "In it there is the psalm of David, the Torah of Moses, The Gospel of Jesus, the Books of Abraham, the laws that explain the lawful and unlawful.”

Muhammad ibn Yahya has narrated from Ahmad ibn Muhammad from ibn Mahbub from ibn Ri’ab from abu ‘Ubaydah who has said that the people from our group asked abu ‘Abdallah about Jafr and the Imam said the following: "It is the skin of a bull which is full of knowledge."

The Imam said, “I swear by Allah that with me there are two books in which there is the name of every prophet and the name of every king that would rule on earth.”

Ali ibn Ibrahim has narrated from Muhammad ibn ‘Isa from Yunus from the person that he mentioned from Sulayman ibn Khalid from abu ‘Abdallah who has said the following. "The Jafr of which they speak certainly disappoints them because they (the Zaydis) do not speak the truth while Jafr does contain the truth. Let them bring to light therefrom the judgments of Ali and his rules of inheritance if they are truthful. Ask them about (the inheritance) of paternal and maternal aunts. Let them show the Mushaf of Fatima. In it certainly there is the will of Fatima. With it there is the Armaments of the Messenger of Allah. Allah, the Most Holy, the Most High, has said, "Bring me a Book, revealed before this Quran, or any other proof based on knowledge to support your belief, if indeed you are truthful" (Qur’an 46:4).

A number of our people has narrated from Ahmad ibn Muhammad from Ali ibn al-Hakam from al-Husayn ibn abu ‘Ala’ who has said that he heard abu ‘Abdallah say the following: "With me is the white Jafr." The narrator has said that he asked the Imams "What is in it?" The Imam said, "In it there is the psalms of David, the Torah of Moses, the Gospel of Jesus, the Books of Abraham, the laws that explain the lawful and unlawful matters and Mushaf of Fatima in which, I do not think there is nay thing from the Holy Quran. In it there is all that people need us to do for them and so that we would not need any one else. In it there is information even about a lash, half of a lash and one forth of a lash and about the amount of compensation for a scratch caused to someone. "With me there is the red Jafr." The narrator has said that he asked the Imam, "What is in the red Jafr?" The Imam said, "In it there is the Armaments. It is because it only is opened for bloodshed. The owner of the sword opens it to kill." The narrator has said that ‘Abdallah ibn abu Ya‘fur asked the Imam, "May Allah keep you well, do the descendents of al-Hassan know this? The Imam said, "Yes, I swear by Allah, they know it just as they know the night that it is night and the day that it is the day but jealousy and worldly gains cause them to act in denial and rejection. Had they sought the truth with the truth it would have been better for them."

Ali ibn Ibrahim has narrated from his father from ibn abu ‘Umayr from ‘Umar ibn Udhayna from Fudayl ibn Yasar, Burayd ibn Mu‘wiya and Zurarah who have said that ‘Abdallah ibn ‘Abd al-Malik said the following to abu ‘Abdallah, "The Zaydi sect and al-Mu‘tazali group circle around Muhammad ibn ‘Abdallah. Does he have any authority?" The Imam said, "I swear by Allah that with me there are two books in which there is the name of every prophet and the name of every king that would rule on earth. No, I swear by Allah, the name of Muhammad ibn ‘Abdallah is not in the list as one of them."

Popular culture

Al-Jafr is mentioned in the storyline of One Thousand and One Nights and an accurate explanation of al-Jafr is offered by Richard Francis Burton in The Supplemental Nights to the Thousand Nights and a Night (six volumes 1886 – 1888). [wiki]

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Al Jamia

Al-Jamia (meaning “the encyclopedia” or “the comprehensive”) is a sacred and secret Shia text, the words of which were dictated by Muhammad to Ali, who then wrote down these words. Alternate spellings for al-Jamia include al-Jami’a, al-Jámi'a, al-Jami'ah, al-Jamea, al-Jami‘, al-Jami, or al-Jama, while alternate names for the text include Kitab al-Imam Ali (i.e. the Book of Imam Ali) and al-Sahifa (i.e. the Page). Al-Jamia was taught by Muhammad to Ali,[6] and the later Imams were accustomed to refer at times to al-Jamia, that Ali left in their keeping. Belief in the existence of this text with the Imams was firm.

Description of al-Jamia

Al-Jamia is a scroll made from rams skin which measures 70 cubits long (as measured by the arm of Muhammad) and the width of a sheepskin, the words of which Muhammad dictated to Ali, who then wrote them down in his own handwriting on the scroll.

Al-Jamia is currently in the possession of the 12th Imam Muhammad al-Mahdi, after he inherited it from his predecessors.

Contents

The contents of al-Jamia include:

Details and showing of all the permitted (halal) and forbidden things (haraam).

All the legal verdicts that people need to know.

In it is everything necessary for mankind until the end of time and all the sciences including even the blood-wit for wounding, and whether a full flogging or half a flogging is due and even the different compensation prices for a scratch, a whip and half a whip, were written.

All the happenings of the world until the end of the world are included according to the science of Huruf (letters of the alphabet) and the 12 Imams know this science and rule with it.

Evidence of al-Jamia’s existence

The following are hadith evidences of the existence of al-Jamia:

He Ja'far al-Sadiq ('a) used to say: "Our knowledge is of what will be (ghabir), of what is past (mazbur), of what is marked in hearts (nakt fi al-qulub) and of what is tapped into ears (naqr fi al-asma). We have the red case (jafr), the white case and the scroll of Fatima, peace be on her, and we have (the document called) al-jami'a in which is everything the people need." He was asked to explain these words and he said: … (The document called) al-jami'a is a scroll 70 yards long which the Apostle of God, may God bless him and his family, dictated from his own mouth and Ali b. Abi Talib, peace be on him, wrote in his own handwriting. By God, in it is everything which people need until the end of time, including even the blood-wit for wounding, and whether a (full) flogging or half a flogging (is due).

It is narrated from him from Muhammad from Yunus from Aban from abu Shaybah who has said the following: “I heard (Imam) abu ‘Abdallah saying, ‘ibn Shabrama’s knowledge has been lost (after his death). The al-Jami’ah, which belongs to us is secure, it is a large book that was dictated by the holy prophet to Imam Ali , who wrote it with his own hands. There is nothing, which has been left out from al-Jami’ah. In it, is the knowledge of all lawful and unlawful matters. The people of analogy (fatawa issuers) sought knowledge through analogy and as a consequence they kept going away from the divine knowledge. The religion of Allah does not consist of that which could be learnt through analogy.”

Imam al-Sadiq: The knowledge of ibn Shubruma comparing Al-Jamia, which is dictated by the Messenger of Allah and written down by Ali, is nought. Al-Jamia is a complete text by itself and it contains the knowledge of the lawful and the unlawful.

Imam Ja'fer al-Sadiq is quoted as saying, "We have the saheefa; it is dictated by the Messenger of Allah (Muhammad) and hand written by Ali; nothing permissible or prohibitive except that it is recorded in it, and nothing people need, nor any issue, except that it contains it, even the penalty for slightly scratching one's cheek."

A number of our people has narrated from Ahmad ibn Muhammad from ‘Abdallah ibn al-Hajjal from Ahmad ibn ‘Umar al-Halabi from abu Basir who has said the following: "I went to abu ‘Abdallah and said … The narrators has said that the Imam then said, "O abu Muhammad, with us there is al-Jami‘a. What do they know what al-Jami‘ is?" I then asked, "May Allah take my soul in service for your cause, what is al-Jami‘a? The Imam said, it is a parchment seventy yards by the yards of the Messenger of Allah long that contains his dictations that is in graved in to with the right hand writing of Ali. It contains all the lawful and unlawful and all matters that people need, even the law of compensation for a scratch caused to a person. He then stretched his hand to me and asked, ‘May I, O abu Muhammad?’ I then replied, "May Allah take my soul in service for your cause, I am all at your disposal." He pinched me with his hand and said, "Even there is the law of compensation for this." He seemed angry. The narrator has said, "I then said, "This, I swear by Allah is knowledge." The Imams said, "It certainly is knowledge but not that one."

Muhammad ibn Yahya has narrated from Ahmad ibn Muhammad from ibn Mahbub from ibn Ri’ab from abu ‘Ubaydah who has said that the people from our group asked abu ‘Abdallah about Jafr and the Imam said the following. "It is the skin of a bull which is full of knowledge." Then they asked the Imam about al-Jami‘a. The Imam replied, "It is a parchment that is seventy yards long with a width of hide like that of the leg of a huge camel. It contains all that people may need. There is no case for there is a rule in it. In it there is the law to settle the compensation for a scratch caused to a person."…

A number of our people has narrated from Ahmad ibn Muhammad from Salih ibn Sa‘id from Ahmad ibn abu Bishr from Bakr ibn Karib al-Sayrafi who has said that he heard abu ‘Abdallah say the following. " With us there are such things that because of which we do not need people [but] instead people need us. With us there is a book that the Messenger of Allah had dictated and Ali had written it down. It is a book. In it there are all laws of lawful and unlawful matters. You come to us with an issue and we know when you follow the guidance and when you disregard it." [wiki]



Traditions in AL KAFI about Book of Fatima and other mysterious books:

Hadith [Statements] about al-Jafr al-Jami and the Book of Fatima

H 635, Ch. 40, h 1

A number of our people has narrated from Ahmad ibn Muhammad from ‘Abdallah ibn al-Hajjal from Ahmad ibn ‘Umar al-Halabi from abu Basir who has said the following. "I went to abu ‘Abdallah and said, "May Allah take my soul in service for your cause, I like to ask you a question. Is there anyone else in this house who may hear my words?" The Imams then folded the curtain between his room and the other room next to it and looked into it. Then the Imams said, "O abu Muhammad, ask whatever you wish." I said, "May Allah take my soul in service for your cause, your followers say that the Messenger of Allah taught Ali a thousand chapter of knowledge and from each chapter there opens a thousand chapter. I then said, ‘This, I swear by Allah, is knowledge.’" He would mark the ground with his staff (a sign of thinking in normal people) for a while and said, "That is knowledge but it is not that." The narrators has said that The Imam then said, "O abu Muhammad, with us there is al-Jami‘a. What do they know what al-Jami‘ is?" I then asked, "May Allah take my soul in service for your cause, what is al-Jami‘a? The Imam said, it is a parchment seventy yards by the yards of the Messenger of Allah long that contains his dictations that is in graved in to with the right hand writing of Ali. It contains all the lawful and unlawful and all matters that people need, even the law to of compensation for A number of our people has narrated from scratch caused to a person. He then stretched his hand to me and asked, ‘May I, O abu Muhammad?’ I then replied, "May Allah take my soul in service for your cause, I am all at your disposal." He pinched me with his hand and said, "Even there is the law of compensation for this." He seemed angry. The narrator has said, "I then said, "This, I swear by Allah is knowledge." The Imams said, "It certainly is knowledge but not that one."

The Imams remained silent for a while and then said, "With us there is al-Jafr (the parchment). What do they know what al-Jafr is? I then asked, "What is al-Jafr (the parchment or a container) ?" The Imams said, "It is a container made of skin that contains the knowledge of the prophets and the executors of their wills and the knowledge of the scholars in the past from the Israelites." The narrator has said that he then said, "This certainly, is the knowledge." The Imam said, "It certainly is knowledge but not that knowledge."

The Imams remained silent for a while and then said, "With us there is the book (Mushaf) of Fatima,. What do they know what Mushaf of Fatima is? The Imam said, "Mushaf of Fatima is three times bigger than your Quran. There is not even a single letter therein from your Quran." The narrator has said, "I then said, "This, I swear by Allah, is the knowledge." The Imam said, "This certainly is knowledge, but it is not that."

The Imam remained silent for a while and then said, "With us there is the knowledge of whatever has been and the knowledge of whatever will come into being to the Day of Judgment." The narrator has said that he then said, "May Allah take my soul in service for your cause, this, I swear by Allah is, certainly, knowledge." The Imam said, "It certainly is knowledge but not that." The narrator has said that he then asked, "May Allah take my soul in service for your cause, What then is knowledge?" The Imam said, "Whatever takes place during the night and during the day, one matter after the other matter and one thing after the other thing to the Day of Judgment."

H 636, Ch. 40, h 2

A number of our people has narrated from Ahmad ibn Muhammad from Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz from ibn Uthman who has said that he heard abu Abdallah say the following. "The heretics will appear in the year one hundred twenty eight (745 AD) because I have found it in the Mushaf of Fatima." The narrator has said that he asked the Imams, "What is Mushaf of Fatima?" The Imams said, "When Allah took the Holy Prophet (s.a.) from this world, it caused such a degree of grief to Fatima that only Allah, the Most Holy, the Most High, knows its extent. Allah then sent an angel to her to offer solace and speak to her. She complained about it to Amir al-Muminin Ali who asked her to inform him whenever she would find the angel speak to her. She then informed him when the angel came to speak. Amir al-Muminin Ali then would write down all that he would hear of the conversations of the angel so much so that his notes took the shape of a whole book." The Imam then said, "There was nothing in it of the knowledge of the lawful and unlawful matters but it had the knowledge of things that had happened and things to happen in future."

H 637, Ch. 40, h 3

A number of our people has narrated from Ahmad ibn Muhammad from Ali ibn al-Hakam from al-Husayn ibn abu ‘Ala’who has said that he heard abu ‘Abdallah say the following. "With me is the white Jafr." The narrator has said that he asked the Imams "What is in it?" The Imams said, "In it there is the psalms of David, the Torah of Moses, the Gospel of Jesus, the Books of Abraham, the laws that explain the lawful and unlawful matters and Mushaf of Fatima in which, I do not think there is nay thing from the Holy Quran. In it there is all that people need us to do for them and so that we would not need any one else. In it there is information even about a lash, half of a lash and one forth of a lash and about the amount of compensation for A number of our people has narrated from scratch caused to someone.

"With me there is the red Jafr." The narrator has said that he asked the Imams, "What is in the red Jafr?" The Imams said, "In it there is the Armaments. It is because it only is opened for bloodshed. The owner of the sword opens it to kill." The narrator has said that ‘Abdallah ibn abu Ya‘fur asked the Imams, "May Allah keep you well, do the descendents of al-Hassan know this? The Imam said, "Yes, I swear by Allah, they know it just as they know the night that it is night and the day that it is the day but jealousy and worldly gains cause them to act in denial and rejection. Had they sought the truth with the truth it would have been better for them."

H 638, Ch. 40, h 4

Ali ibn Ibrahim has narrated from Muhammad ibn ‘Isa from Yunus from the person that he mentioned from Sulayman ibn Khalid from abu ‘Abdallah who has said the following. "The Jafr of which they speak certainly disappoints them because they (the Zaydis) do not speak the truth while Jafr does contain the truth. Let them bring to light therefrom the judgments of Ali and his rulles of inheritance if they are truthful. Ask them about (the inheritance) of paternal and maternal aunts. Let them show the Mushaf of Fatima. In it certainly there is the will of Fatima. With it there is the Armaments the Messenger of Allah. Allah, the Most Holy, the Most High, has said, "Bring me a Book, revealed before this Quran, or any other proof based on knowledge to support your belief, if indeed you are truthful" (46:4).

H 639, Ch. 40, h 5

Muhammad ibn Yahya has narrated from Ahmad ibn Muhammad from ibn Mahbub from ibn Ri’ab from abu ‘Ubaydah who has said that the people from our group asked abu ‘Abdallah about Jafr and the Imam said the following. "It is the skin of a bull which is full of knowledge." Then they asked the Imam about al-Jami‘a. The Imam replied, "It is a parchment that is seventy yards long with a width of hide like that of the leg of a huge camel. It contains all that people may need. There is no case for there is a rule in it. In it there is the law to settle the compensation for a scratch caused to a person." The narrator has said that he asked the Imams, "What is Mushaf of Fatima?" The Imam waited for quite a while. Then he said, "You ask about what you really mean and what you do not mean. Fatima lived after the Messenger of Allah for seventy-five days. She was severely depressed because of the death of her father. Jibril would come to provide her solace because of the death of her father. Jibril would comfort her soul. Jibril would inform her about her father and his place and of the future events and about what will happen to her children. At the same time Ali would write all of them down and thus is Mushaf of Fatima."

H 640, Ch. 40, h 6

A number of our people has narrated from Ahmad ibn Muhammad from Salih ibn Sa‘id from Ahmad ibn abu Bishr from Bakr ibn Karib al-Sayrafi who has said that he heard abu ‘Abdallah say the following. "With us there are such things that because of which we do not become need to people instead people need us. With us there is a book that the Messenger of Allah had dictated and Ali had written it down. It is a book. In it there are all laws of lawful and unlawful matters. You come to us with A number of our people has narrated from issue and we know when you follow the guidance and when you disregard it."

H 641, Ch. 40, h 7

Ali ibn Ibrahim has narrated from his father from ibn abu ‘Umayr from ‘Umar ibn Udhayna from Fudayl ibn Yasar, Burayd ibn Mu‘wiya and Zurarah who have said that ‘Abdallah ibn ‘Abd al-Malik said the following to abu ‘Abdallah, "The Zaydi sect and al-Mu‘tazali group circle around Muhammad ibn ‘Abdallah. Does he have any authority?" The Imam said, "I swear by Allah that with me there are two books in which there is the name of every prophet and the name of every king that would rule on earth. No, I swear by Allah, the name of Muhammad ibn ‘Abdallah is not in the list as one of them."

H 642, Ch. 40, h 8

Muhammad ibn Yahya has narrated from Ahmad ibn Muhammad from al-Husayn ibn Sa‘id from al-Qasim ibn Muhammad from ‘Abd al-Samad ibn Bashir from Fudayl ibn Sukra who has said that once I went to abu ‘Abdallah and he said the following to me. "O Fudayl, do you know what at did I look just awhile before?" The narrator has said that he said to the Imams, "No, I do not know." The Imam said, "I was looking at the book of Fatima. There is no king who would rule on earth with being listed therein by his name and the name of his father but I did not find the name of any of the descendent of al-Hassan therein." [al-shia.org]

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Bismillahir Rahmaanir Raheem

# Mushaf of Fatima

Syed H. Akhtar (Texas)

What is a Mushaf? It is a book or written sheets (scrolls) in between two boards (as described in Al-Kafi).

Mushaf of Fatima is three times the size of the Quran (three times as many words), but it does not contain any passage or Ayah of the Quran. It has been in possession of successive infallible Imams and currently it is with our twelfth Imam, Al-Mahdi. It has knowledge of the future until the Day of Judgment. It also contains the wasiyya (Last Will) of Fatima. Her Mushaf is part of the book or scrolls called “White Jifr” which was initially in possession of Imam Ali.

The White Jifr* contains previous scriptures, like Psalms, Torah, Injeel, scrolls of Ibrahim.

[A Jifr is a container made of hide].

There is also a Red Jifr, which contains the weapons of the Prophets. This and the White Jifr are in the possession of the twelfth Imam

It is related from the sixth Imam that when Prophet Muhammad passed away, Allah sent an angel to console Fatimah. The angel was probably Gabriel. She told Imam Ali about hearing voices from within. He told her to let him know when this happens. Subsequently she related to him what the angel was saying and he wrote it down, until he completed the Mushaf. Then he said: “Take note, there is nothing in it of what is permitted and what is forbidden (al Halal wal-haraam), but in it is the knowledge of what will happen (knowledge of the future events).”

Abu Abdillah said:

“We have with us the book of Fatimah, but I do not claim that anything of the Quran is in it.”

(Usul al-Kafi, tradition 637 Vol. One, Al-Usul-Part two, 4] The Book of Divine Proof (III))

Abu Abdillah also said about the book of Fatimah:

"There is nothing of what is permitted and what is forbidden (al-Halal and al-Haram) in this; but in it is the knowledge of what will happen."

(Usul Kafi, Tradition 636, see above)

One of the titles of Fatima is “Al-Muhaddatha” (The one who is spoken to). She received inspirational messages through Divine source or an angel spoke to her.

Furthermore, Sheikh Saduq narrated in Ilal Ash- Sharae'a that Zaid Ibn Ali said:

"I heard Abu Abdullah (Imam Sadiq) say:

"Fatima was called "Muhaddatha" because the angels descended from Heaven and called her as they called Maryam Bint Imran and said: "O Fatima! Allah hath chosen thee above the women of all nations"."

It has been narrated that Imam Sadiq said to Abu Basir:

"We also possess Fatima's book Mushaf, and had they known about the book of Fatima, it is three times the size of your Quran; and by Allah, it has not a letter of your Quran; rather it was dictated and revealed to her by Allah."(Bihar Vol. 5)

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*Jifr also written as “Jafr” by some translators

In addition, Hussain Ibn Abu al-Ala reported that Imam Sadiq said:

"Fatima's book, I don't claim that it is Quran, rather it contains what makes people need us and makes us in need of no one. It even mentions (the legal punishment for) a lashing, half a lashing, one fourth of a lashing, and the indemnity for a scratch mark."

(Bihar Vol. 6)

Criticism and misconceptions of members of non-Shia schools of Islam about Mushaf of Fatima.

1. “Mushaf of Fatima is ‘Shia Quran’.” This is totally false. The narrations of Imam Ali and Imam Jafar As-Sadiq clearly indicate that there is not a single passage or verse of the Quran in the Mushaf of Fatima.

2. “Shias consider Fatima as a Prophet.” Again, this is baseless. In the Quran, there are many references to individuals who were not prophets, who received inspirations through Divine agency. Below are some examples:

* 'And behold! I inspired the Disciples to have faith in Me and Mine Apostle." (5: 114)
* "Remember thy Lord inspired the angels (with the message): '1 am with you; give firmness to the Believers." (8: 12)
* "And thy Lord taught the bee to build its cells in hills." (16: 68)
* "So we sent this inspiration to the mother of Moses: 'Suckle (thy child)." (28: 7)
* About virgin Mary: “… She said: O! Would that I had become a thing passed into nothingness, forgotten! Then (a voice) cried to her from below, saying: Grieve not! Your Lord has placed a stream beneath you. And shake the trunk of the palm tree toward you. You will cause ripe dates to fall upon you. So eat, drink, and be comforted. And if you meet any person, say: I have vowed a fast to the Beneficent, and may not speak this day to any person. …” (Quran Chapter 19)

Moreover, the verses of the Quran state that revelation is not confined to humankind, but it also includes other creatures such as the Heavens, the Disciples, the angels, the bees, Musa's mother, etc.

Therefore, there can be no doubt that Allah, the Exalted, sent revelations to the Chief of Women of the Worlds and the Daughter of the Master of Prophets.

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Notes.

The difference between a Messenger of God, a Prophet of God and a Muhaddath is given in the hadith below.

Muhammad ibn Yahya, Ahmad ibn Muhammad, al-Hasan ibn Mahbub that al-Ahwal said:

“I asked Abu Jafar (pbuh) about messengers, prophets and those who are told (Muhaddath).

He said: ‘A messenger is one before whom Jibreel comes; he sees him (Jibreel), who speaks to him.

A prophet is one who sees in his dream, like the dream of Ibrahim and as was the (episodes) of the seeing by the Messenger of Allah before the (Quranic) revelations came to him. … When the message (The Quran) came from Allah to him, it was Jibreel who came to him with message and spoke to him, appearing in front (of him)’

A Muhaddath is one who is spoken to and he hears but does not see with his eyes, nor sees in his dream.”

(Hadith 441, Al-Kafi, vol.1, Al-Usul-Part two, 4) The Book of Divine Proof (I) WOFIS Tehran-Iran)

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References:
“Al-Kafi” by al-Kulyani
“Bihar-ul-Anwaar”
“Fatima the Gracious” by Abu Mohammad Ordoni

(The End)

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