Pause,
and get to know the Companions, the scholars, and the foremost figures!
A new challenge: Who am I?
I am the daughter of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and a part of him,
and the quickest of his family to join him after his passing.
I am the leader of the women of Paradise and the mother of the two grandsons,
and the wife of the valiant Caliph.
I was born into Islam after the commissioning of my father (peace be upon him) as a prophet,
and I entered the mountain pass with him during the boycott,
witnessing firsthand some of the hardships my father endured for the sake of the call.
I resembled my father (peace be upon him) most closely in demeanor, guidance, and conduct.
Whenever I entered upon him, he would stand up for me,
take my hand, kiss me, and seat me in his own place.
And whenever he entered upon me, I would stand up for him, take his hand,
kiss him, and seat him in my place.
I was given the agnomen "the mother of her father."
One day, while my father (peace be upon him) was praying near the Ka'bah,
'Uqbah Ibn Abi Mu'ayt approached,
carrying the abdominal contents and fetal sac of a camel slaughtered the day before.
When my father prostrated, that wretched man placed that filth between his shoulders.
The polytheists burst into laughter,
leaning against one another in mockery,
while my father remained prostrated, unable to raise his head.
News of this reached me, so I came running as a young girl,
and threw the filth off him,
then turned upon them, rebuking and denouncing them.
I lived my married life in severe hardship and weariness,
for we had no servant.
When news reached me that captives had been brought to my father,
I went to him to complain of the sores the hand-mill caused to my hands,
and to ask him for a servant.
But he directed me to what was far better for me than a servant:
he directed me to glorify, praise, and magnify Allah before sleeping.
I was chaste and extraordinarily modest.
When death approached me,
I said to Asma' bint 'Umays (may Allah be pleased with her):
"I truly despise what is done with women's biers,
where a mere cloth is thrown over a deceased woman on her bier,
outlining the shape of her body."
So Asma' (may Allah be pleased with her) said to me:
"Shall I not show you something I saw in Abyssinia?"
I replied, "Yes, indeed."
She then called for fresh palm branches and bent them into an arched frame,
and draped a cloth over it,
creating a complete cover that revealed no bodily contours.
I said: "How splendid and beautiful this is!
When I die, let only you and my husband wash me,
and let no one else enter upon me;
then shroud me and place these branches
over my bier." And they did so.
Thus, I was the first woman in Islam whose bier was covered
in this manner, as the biers of women are covered today.
So, who am I?
The answer will be given in the next episode, if Allah wills.
The best of generations in deeds and in example,
following the Messenger in whatever he strove for or said.
They were here, showering our lives like rain clouds,
and among us, their remembrance ever ascends.
They departed, leaving in the conscience a question:
Has any star ever risen and shone brightly like them?
They filled this life with glories through their deeds,
and the world of mankind flourished through their grace.