Chief Lady of All Women: Perfect Lady Fatima (SA) Characteristics
Fatima (SA) was different from all women, she was the noblest woman resembling her father in her deep faith in Allah, asceticism, and refraining from pleasures of this life.
She was the optimal role model for those who want to build a blessed life, by following her in faith, knowledge, sacrifice, courage, altruism and all other morals of her blessed life until her martyrdom.
As we are celebrating on Friday the blessed and auspicious birth anniversary of the beloved daughter of the Noble Prophet, it is worth looking into some of her best character traits.
Generous Lady Fatima (SA)
Besides being an ideal example in faith, worship, chastity, and purity, Fatima (AS) was also charitable and kind to the poor and the deprived.
She turned away from every material pleasure and preferred the satisfaction of Allah to everything.
“And they give food out of love for Him to the poor, the orphan, and the captive. We only feed you for Allah’s sake; we desire from you neither reward nor thanks.” [Quran 76:8-9]
Fatimah (SA) milled wheat and barley for her poor neighbors who were unable to do that. She carried water to her weak neighbors who could not get water.
The wedding dress
According to Shia sources on the night of her wedding, she had a new dress on. She donated her wedding gown to a poor young woman.
The following day, the Prophet (PBUH) visited her and found that she was not wearing her wedding dress. He asked why and she said, “O father, a poor young woman knocked the door asking for a dress. I wanted to give her my old dress but then I remembered this saying of Allah,
“You will not attain unto piety until you spend of that which you love.” [Quran 3:92)
Therefore, I gave her my new dress that I loved.”
The blessings of a necklace
Jabir ibn Abdullah Al-Ansari, a prominent companion of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) reported that:
One day, we were with the Prophet (PBUH) after offering afternoon prayer when an old immigrant man came by who was wearing worn out clothes and was barely able to walk because of his old age and weakness.
The old immigrant man said, "O Prophet of Allah! I am starving, so feed me; I am naked, so cloth me; and I am poor, so help me!"
Prophet Muhammed (PBUH) asked him to go to the house of Lady Fatima (SA) so the poor man went there and asker for her help.
This incident occurred at a time when Prophet Muhammed (PBUH), Imam Ali (AS) and Fatima had not eaten anything for three days.
When the poor man asked for her help, Fatima (SA) looked around the house. The only thing she could see in the house was a goatskin on which his two little children, Imam Al-Hassan (AS) and Imam Al-Hussain (AS) used to sleep.
She picked up the goatskin and came to door. She extended that goatskin to the old man from behind the door and said: "Please take this and fulfil your needs." However, the old man said, "O Daughter of Prophet Muhammad! I complain to you of hunger and you give me a goatskin? How can I eat this?"
Therefore, she gave her necklace, which was a wedding gift, to the old man to sell it and feed himself. The old man took the necklace, brought it to the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).
Ammar bin Yasir, another companion of Prophet (PBUH), who was present among the companions, asked the Prophet (PBUH) for his consent to buy the necklace.
Ammar bin Yasir gave the poor man 20 dinar and 200 Dirhams, a Yemeni shirt, wheat bread and meat, and a horse to take him to his home.
Ammar bin Yasir, then perfumed the necklace with musk and sent it to Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) with a slave named Sahm, saying, "Give this necklace to the Messenger of Allah and tell him that I gift you to him too."
When the slave delivered the necklace and the message, Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) said to him to "Take this necklace to Fatima and I gift you to her".
When the slave came to Fatima (SA), she took her necklace back and set the slave free. When the slave was set free, he laughed loudly.
People who had been watching the whole thing, asked Sahm why he was laughing. Sahm replied: "I laughed when I thought of the abundance of goodness in this glorious necklace - it came out of the house, fed a hungry man, clothed a naked man, and provided for a lost wayfarer. It then freed a slave from his bond and then returned to its rightful owner."
These are just some examples of Lady Fatima’s charitable conducts. Throughout the life of Fatima (AS) she would put the needs of others before herself.
