Birthday of the blessed Kowthar

Hearty congratulations to you all on a very blessed occasion.

Today is the 20th of Jamadi as-Sani, which is celebrated in the Islamic Republic of Iran as “Mother’s Day”, since it happens to be the birthday of the noblest of all mothers who gave to the world two immaculate sons and two impeccable daughters, who continue to serve as models-par-excellence for humanity. Yes, you are right today is the day when Prophet Mohammad (Blessings of God upon him and his progeny), was granted by God the Infallible Daughter, Hazrat Fatema Zahra (Peace be upon her), who remains the most virtuous ever lady who graced Planet Earth. Now we have a special feature in this regard:

 “Indeed We have granted you Kowthar;”

These are the tidings Almighty Allah has given to His Last and Greatest Messenger, and which form the first ayah of Surah 108 of the holy Qur’an. This phrase speaks of the perpetually abundant munificence granted to the Prophet of Islam. Such an inexhaustible fountain of divine bounties was not granted to any other Prophet. Note the words of Allah. The ayah doesn’t say that Kowthar will be granted to the Prophet in some distant future; perhaps on the Day of Resurrection. True, on the Day of Judgement, there will appear the blessed fountain of Kowthar from which the true believers will be allowed to quench their thirst, while the disbelievers and the hypocrites amongst the Muslims, including those that had deviated from the path of the Prophet’s Ahl al-Bayt will be turned away from its blessed waters. This ayah says that Kowthar has already been granted to the Prophet. Then follows the second ayah of this brief Surah asking the Prophet to thank God and offer sacrifice, while the 3rd and last ayah of this Surah reads:

“Indeed it is your enemy who is without posterity.”

Commentators of the holy Qur’an are unanimous that this ayah is a reference to the taunts of the Arab infidel Aas bin Wa’el, who prided on his male issue, and tried to ridicule the Prophet of Islam, who had lost his sons, Abdullah and Qasim, in infancy to the cold hands of death. Glory to God for granting Prophet Mohammad (blessings of God upon him and his progeny) the Glorious Kowthar in the form of his Immaculate Daughter, Hazrat Fatema Zahra (peace upon her)! Fatema (peace upon her) is thus the Prime Source of the pure and pristine everlasting progeny of the Prophet, whose existence ensures the survival of the world. In other words, the message of the Almighty to all people till the end of the world is crystal clear. It means that while the ignorant take pride in the birth of sons and frown upon the birth of daughters, the Prophet of Islam’s progeny is ensured eternal glory through his only surviving child, that is, the Impeccable Daughter, Hazrat Fatema Zahra (peace upon her). To be more precise, the peerless Fatema (peace upon her) through her blessed marriage to the equally matchless Imam Ali ibn Abi Taleb (peace upon him), is the firm link between Prophethood and Imamate. In turn, she is not just the mother of two spotlessly pure sons, Imam Hasan and Imam Husain (peace upon thenm), but through her younger son, she is the ancestress of Nine Infallible Imams, the Last of whom is her father’s 12th Divinely-Decreed Heir, the Lord of our Age, who will reappear in the end times as Mahdi al-Qa’em (peace upon him) to establish the global government of peace, prosperity and justice by ridding Planet Earth of all vestiges of oppression and corruption. Now we understand the meaning of Kowthar, and why this Noblest Lady of all times (Seyyedat-nisa al-alamin min al-awwalin wa’l-akherin) is also known as the “Baz’at ar-Rasoul” (Part of the Prophet).

Born in Mecca, five years after God formally appointed her father as Prophet, Hazrat Fatema az-Zahra (peace upon her) was often referred to as “Umm Abiha” or Mother of her own Father, for the care and concern she had for her widower father after the passing away of her mother. She was not an ordinary lady, nor was her birth an ordinary occurrence, and neither was her mother an ordinary woman. As a matter of fact, her mother Hazrat Khadija (peace upon her), who was a monotheistic lady in the days before the advent of Islam, was famous for her chastity and thus known as “Tahera”. For over 25 long years, Khadija and the Prophet lived a blissful life, and as long as the First Lady of Islam was alive, the Prophet never took another spouse. This is indicative of the arrangements Divine Providence had made for the birth of Hazrat Fatema (peace upon her), who was born five years after the Prophet had publicly proclaimed his universal mission. She was conceived of the Fruit of Paradise that God gave the Prophet to eat during his “Me'raj” or Ascension to the highest points in the ethereal heavens and back again to Planet Earth in the part of a single night.

No wonder, we read in the special salutation or Ziyarah for her, the phrase “Tuffahat-al-Firdows – which means Apple of Paradise. It is thus clear that the “Me'raj” was a physical journey transcending time and space, and certainly not a dream or spiritual ecstasy experienced by the Prophet, as the weak of faith conjecture.

The status of Hazrat Fatema Zahra (SA) is evident from the following narration found in one of the six famous Sunni compilations of hadith, the “Sihah as-Sitta”: “Whenever Fatema would enter the presence of the Messenger of Allah he would rise to his feet in her honour and seat her in his own place.”

Despite her lofty merits, Hazrat Fatema (peace upon her) used to personally do all household chores. After marriage and a very simple dowry given by her father consisting of basic amenities, the couple shared the blessings of a blissful life, whose fruits were four immaculate children –sons Imam Hasan and Imam Husain, and daughters Hazrat Zainab and Hazrat Umm Kulthoum (peace upon them). The husband was responsible for all outside work while the wife took care of household affairs. They made an excellent husband and wife pair. As the supreme symbol of feminine virtues, she displayed the highest ethical traits in marital life in view of the hadith: A woman’s jihad [or striving in the way of Allah] is to behave excellently with her husband.

She also enjoyed very cordial relations with her mother-in-law Fatema bint Asad (peace upon her), the lady who had brought up her father the Prophet as her own son and to whose care the Prophet had entrusted Hazrat Fatema (peace upon her) after she was orphaned on her mother’s death. She never allowed her mother-in-law to trouble herself with household chores and left to her the social relations for keeping the necessary contact with family members and friends. In 7 AH when the Prophet provided her with the virtuous Abyssinian maid, Fizza, she divided the work equally, by giving rest to her maid a whole day after a day’s work and discharging the duties that day herself. These are the qualities that make Hazrat Fatema (peace upon her), the Pride of the Virgin Mary, and the model par-excellence for all virtuous women to mould their life upon. That is the reason her blessed birthday is celebrated in the Islamic Republic of Iran as “Mother’s Day” and “Women’s Week”

AS/AS/ME