Here is Gabriel informing me that Allah gave Fatema to you in marriage, and made forty thousand angels testify to her marriage. He also revealed to the Tree of Tooba to sprinkle them with gems, rubies, jewelry and embellishments. When it had done this, the Houris rushed to collect these gems, rubies, jewelry, and embellishments to exchange them for gifts until the Day of Resurrection."
These are the tidings that Prophet Muhammad (SAWA) gave to his dear ward and cousin while conferring upon him yet another divinely-decreed status, this time of son-in-law – a status which only one deserving person could achieve, since the Messenger of Mercy had only one real daughter whom God had bestowed as wife in the celestial heavens on the One and Only Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali Ibn Abi Taleb (AS).
Today is the 1432nd anniversary of the marriage that was made in heaven, and which laid the foundation of the fabulous family whose offspring were four peerless children – two immaculate sons and two impeccable daughters – who remain exemplary for all virtuous persons, all over the world, till this day.
That is the reason, we in Iran celebrate the 1st of Zil-Hijja as "Family Day" in honour of the start of conjugal life for the most excellent and exemplary family that no one else in the history of mankind could ever build.
True, Prophet Muhammad (SAWA) and Khadija (SA) the Chaste made an excellent husband-and-wife pair for 25 long years, and were indeed the model of emulation for the neo Muslim society, but it was the fruit of this blessed marriage, Fatema az-Zahra (SA), who was destined to play the immortal role as the core of pristinely pure family, the spotless purity of whose members have been vouchsafed in the holy Qur'an by God Himself (33:33).
No wonder, according to the famous Hadith Qodsi, known as the Narration of the Cloak, the Almighty has introduced to the angels the gathering of the Prophet, his daughter, her husband and her two sons as:
"Hom Fatema, wa Abuha, wa Baluha, wa Banuha (They are Fatema, her Father, her Husband, and her Two Sons)."
The Ayah of the Qur'an and the Hadith Qodsi are indicative of the fact that all the five persons assembled under the cloak – Prophet Muhammad (SAWA), Imam Ali (AS), Hazrat Fatema (SA), Imam Hasan (AS) and Imam Husain (AS) – were Infallible and totally removed from any form of impurity, qualities which others like the wives of the Prophet did not possess.
Perhaps those of weak faith who in violation of the clear wordings of God in the Qur'an attempt in vain to thrust non-illegible persons into Ayah 33 of Surah Roum, might say Fatema (SA) was the Prophet's daughter and thus her sons were part of the Prophet's blood and flesh, but what about Ali who was one of the more than a dozen cousins the Prophet had!
Here another famous hadith comes to our rescue: "If there was no Ali, Fatema would have remained a spinister." – Like the Virgin Mary, the mother of Prophet Jesus, who couldn't find anyone worthy of her spotlessly pure hand.
This is proof of the fact that Imam Ali (AS), whom God calls in the holy Qur'an "Saleh ol-Mominoun" (Most Virtuous of the Believers), and the Prophet says: "I and Ali are of the same light," was and remains to this day the next creation of the All-Wise Creator after the Prophet.
The two sons and two daughters of Hazrat Fatema (SA) and Imam Ali (AS) carved out immortal niches in the history of mankind through their faith, patience, prudence, piety, valour, wisdom, forbearance and sacrifices, the peak of which is the heartrending tragedy of Karbala. If the elder son, Imam Hasan Mujtaba (AS) had relinquished the rule of a vast realm for the sake of preservation of the values of Islam, the younger son, Imam Husain (AS) gave his lifeblood in defence of all humanitarian values. The daughters too excelled in the social arena, as is evident by the epoch-making sermons of Hazrat Zainab (SA) in Kufa and Damascus and the role this dynamic lady played in the aftermath of the tragedy of Karbala to immortalize and universalize the message of her martyred brother. The younger daughter, Hazrat Omm Kulthoum (SA), also played a unique role during the journey of the caravan of captives from Karbala, to Kufa, to Damascus and to Medina.
Thus, the blessed union that took shape today on earth as well as in the heavens, produced the progeny of perpetual abundance (Kowthar of the holy Qur'an), whose most prominent member in our age is the Awaited Saviour of mankind, the Prophet's 12th and Last Successor, Imam Mahdi (AS) who will appear in the end times to cleanse the world of vestiges of corruption and oppression by establishing the global government of peace, prosperity and justice.
source : irib
