The Cemetery of Baqie

Baqi’e Gharqad is the cemetery of Holy Medina. It is the place in which, during the Prophet’s (SAW) time, so many of his companions and after the Prophet (SAW), four of the Infallible Imams (AS) and also some of the great followers and the descendants of the Prophet (SAW) were buried.
From that period up until the present time about 1,000 scholars, pious and righteous personalities who died in Medina have been buried in this cemetery. The Holy Prophet (SAW) had special respect for those people buried in the cemetery. Baqi’e is called ‘Baqi’e Gharqad’ since a special tree with thorns grows there. Its name was Gharqad. This cemetery is situated to the east of the Prophet’s (SAW) Mosque (Masjid-un-Nabi). It held no special importance during the ‘Age of Ignorance’, but after the Prophet’s (SAW) Hijrah to Medina and the burial of so many famous personalities of Islam there, it became specifically important and holy. Baqi’e had no walls nor fences 1000 years ago, but today it is surrounded by a tall wall.
Among those buried in Baqi’e are: Imam Hasan ibn al-Mujtaba [AS] - born in Medina on the 15 th Ramadan, 3 AH, poisoned and martyred in 50 AH by his wife, Ja’da, (daughter of Ash’as ibn Qays); Imam Zaynul-Abedin, Ali ibn Hussain (Sajjad) (AS) born in 38 AH and poisoned and martyred by Valid ibn Abdul-Malik in 94 AH; Imam Muhammad ibn Ali ibn Hussain (Baqir) (AS) born in 58 AH and martyred by Hesham ibn Abdul-Malik in 114 or 117 AH; Imam Ja’far ibn Muhammad (Sadiq) (AS), Born in 80 or 83 AH and poisoned and martyred by Mansour Abbasi on 25th Shawwal, 148 AH; Abbas ibn Abdul-Motalib (who was two or three years older than the Prophet (SAW) and died in 33 AH); Fatima bint Asad [who was Abu Talib’s wife and mother of Ali ibn Abi Talib(AS)]. The Prophet’s infant son Ibrahim whose mother was Maria Qebtieh who was born in 8 AH in Medina and died in 10 AH, after a year and ten months is also buried in Baqi’e. Also there are the graves of the Prophet’s (SAW) wives (Umm-e Salama, Zainab bint Jahesh, Maria Qebtieh, Zainab bint Khuzaimah, Hafsa, daughter of Omar ibn Khattab, Joweirih bint Harith, Safieh, Soudeh bint Zamat, Reihaneh bint Zeid. The graves of the Prophet’s aunts are also included: (Safieh, Atekeh bint Abdul Mutalib). Other graves are: (Umm-ul Banin, daughter of Kharam ibn Khalid, who had four sons named: Abbas, Ja’far, Othman, and Abdullah, she was Imam Ali’s (AS) wife. All her sons were martyred in Karbala; Halimeh Sa’dieh who was the Prophet’s (SAW) foster mother; Aqil ibn Abi Talib who was Imam Ali’s (AS) brother; Abdullah ibn Ja’far whose mother was Athma bint Umays; Muhammad ibn Ali, called ibn Hanifah; Abu Sufyan ibn Harith who was the Prophet’s (SAW) cousin; Ismail ibn Ja’far who was Imam Sadiq’s (AS) son; Othman ibn Mazun; Asaed ibn Zarareh; Khanis ibn Khadofeh; Saed ibn Maaz; Osama ibn Zeid, and many others.
One can also find the graves of martyrs of the Harreh event. In the northern part of the Imams’ graves, there is a small place where Hazrat Fatima Zahra (SA) used to go after the Prophet’s (SAW) demise, and she would cry a lot at that place which had been well-known as ‘‘Bayt-ul-Ahzan (House of Grief), or, Fatima’s (SAW) Mosque. This Mosque existed up until the beginning of the last century and people would go there for performing their prayers.