By: Seyyed Ali Shahbaz

“In houses Allah has allowed to be exalted and wherein His Name is celebrated; He is glorified therein, morning and evening.” (Holy Qur’an 24:36)
The renowned Sunni scholar, Tha’labi, in his exegesis of the holy Qur’an titled “Tafsir al-Kabir” has mentioned on the authority of Anas bin Malik and Buraidah that when asked about the houses exalted by God, Prophet Muhammad (SAWA) said the reference is to the abodes of Divine Messengers. At this, Abu Bakr stood up and asked: ‘O Messenger of God! Is the house of Ali (AS) and Fatema (SA) also among those houses?’ The Prophet replied: “Yes, rather the greater one of those houses.”
God Almighty informs us in ayahs 3 and 4 of Surah Najm that Prophet Muhammad (SAWA) never speaks of his own desire, and whatever he says is Divinely-inspired.
In other words, the expressions of Prophet Muhammad (SAWA) are articles of faith, and any doubt about their meaning, intent, and purport, places a big question mark on the faith of the doubter. God knows the fate of the persons who directly heard from the Prophet and yet disobeyed him.
I am not in a position to say whether this particular person who was informed of the greatness of the house of Hazrat Fatema Zahra (SA) and Imam Ali (AS), wherein God is glorified day and night, believed in the words of the Prophet or not.
History, however, bears testimony that no sooner did the Prophet leave the mortal world, the deputy of this very person who was instrumental at the dubious gathering of Saqifa Bani Sa’da in installing him as caliph (in the absence of any Ayah of the Holy Qur’an in his favour or a Hadith of the Prophet), led a group of rowdies to violate the sanctity of the blessed threshold of the Immaculate Fatema (SA).
As all authentic books of Hadith have mentioned, this person did not stop at his loud threats and rude rapping of the door where the Prophet used to salute every morning after revelation of Ayah 33 of Surah Ahzab on the pristine purity of the Ahl al-Bayt, but he blasphemously set fire to it and smashed it upon Fatema (SA).
The result of this sacrilege was broken ribs and miscarriage for the noblest ever lady, as the stillborn Mohsin became the first martyr of the Ahl al-Bayt – ironically killed by those styling themselves the political heirs of the Prophet.
This is the reason we are clad in black today on the 13th of Jamadi al-Awwal to commemorate the death of the Pride of the Virgin Mary, who following this shocking incident had turned into a faded flower in the prime of youth, walking with the aid of a stick and reciting the heartrending elegy:
“O Father! Had the calamities that befell me after you were to fall on bright days they would have turned into dark nights.”
Why did the regime that had seized power in Medina desecrate the Divinely-decreed sanctity of Fatema’s (SA) blessed house? Why did the principal attacker threatened to burn down the whole house along with the four little grandchildren of the Prophet inside it – the boys Imam Hasan (AS) and Imam Husain (AS), and the girls Zainab (SA) and Omm Kolthoum (SA)?
Had he not seen the Prophet interrupting his sermon from the pulpit to come down and take his elder grandson in his arms when the boy tripped and fell while entering the Prophet’s Mosque? Was he not in the row of prostrating worshippers when the Prophet prolonged the prostration before lifting his head only after the toddler Husain (AS) had gotten off his back?
Didn’t he witness the triumph of Islam over Christianity at the historic field of Mubahela when as per God’s commandment (Holy Qur’an 3:61), the Prophet took with him for a novel challenge to sift truth from falsehood, no one else except his daughter, her two sons and her husband, the Impeccable Imam Ali (AS)?
Moreover, why did he confiscate Fatema’s (SA) patrimony of the orchard of Fadak that was given to her by her father in his lifetime – as a small compensation for the vast wealth of her mother, Omm al-Momineen Khadija (SA), who died penniless after spending all her riches to clothe feed, and shelter the persecuted neo Muslims of Mecca?
Many similar questions flash across our minds when we recall this first ever act of terrorism in the history of Islam by persons hailed as ‘Salaf” (progenitors) by today’s seditious Salafi Takfiri cannibalistic terrorists masquerading as Muslims to desecrate mosques and shrines, massacre innocent men, women, and children, and eat raw the freshly pulled out livers and other organs of their human victims.
The answer is obvious. The ‘Salaf”, who in pursuit of ulterior political motives had paid mere lip service to Islam from a freewheeling life of paganism, viewed the Prophet’s Ahl al-Bayt as bulwarks of monotheism, and hence the assault on the Greater of the Houses exalted by God.
Fatema Zahra (SA) thus did not court martyrdom without any cause, or for the loss of any earthly possession and worldly status.
In fact, the Lady whom God refers in the holy Qur’an as “Kowthar” (Spring of Perpetual Abundance), endured all these calamities for the sake of God, and in defence of the mission of her father, especially the fundamental principle of “Wilaya” or Divinely-decreed succession to “Nubuwwa” for the guidance of human societies that was vested in her husband, Imam Ali (AS) on the Day of Ghadeer (18th Zilhijja 10 AH) on revelation of Ayah 67 of Surah Ma’eda.
The ill-begotten terrorists did burst into her house to drag Imam Ali (AS) with a rope tied around his neck for forced swearing of allegiance to the coup leaders, but as pointed out by this Immaculate Lady in her famous sermon in the Prophet’s Mosque, they exposed themselves as usurpers of the political leadership of the Ahl al-Bayt for all time – as is evident by the mass murderers, fornicators, adulterers, drunkards, and the Godless who have posed as caliphs throughout history.
No wonder, Hazrat Fatema Zahra had predicted when she left the mosque after addressing the usurpers of her rights and that of her husband and children and delivering an electrifying sermon on the fundamentals of Islam and the facts of the neo-Muslim society that had barely emerged from centuries of “jahiliyya” (ignorance, idol-worship, dirtiness, and all kinds of sins):
“Now hang to this cheap dromedary of caliphate of yours and release it not. But beware; the hump of this camel is injured while there are blisters and holes in its feet. It carries the scars of ignominy and the sign of the wrath of Allah. Eternal shame is attached to it.”