Question:
As-salaam Alaikum
My Dear Shaikh Hisham and Hajja Naziha
There is a question in my heart which I have not heard before from anyone nor I am sure if any one other than you or my dear Shaikh Nazim Sultan Ul Awliya can answer this….
I want to know that by what name Seyyidina Fatima Zehra RA used to call Our Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) and Mother Seyyida Khadija RA ?
( was that Abba, baba or any other name? )
Many Thanks ….
Dear seyyidi, Please pray for me as I and my husband really want to visit Sultan ul Awliya in Cyprus. We are saving Insha Allah . Please pray for us.
With All our love to you and the Blessed Family
Answer:
wa `alaykum salam,
Mawlana Shaykh Hisham will pray for you and may you be with Allah’s Awliya here and hereafter.
Our lady Fatimat al-Zahra’ (Allah be well-pleased with her) would call her father the Prophet (upon him and his Family blessings and peace) “Abataah” (Father of mine) as shown in the following reports:
(i) In al-Hakim when the Holy Prophet (upon him blessings and peace) asked permission for himself and some company to enter to see her as she was bedridden, she said: “By Allah, Abataah, I don’t have a khimaar on my head!” whereupon someone gave her one. Narrated by al-Hakim and others.
(ii) Some war captives reached the Prophet (upon him blessings and peace) whereupon our liegelord `Ali (Allah be well-pleased with him) suggested to his wife to request one as home help for them, so she visited the Prophet repeatedly but each time would not dare speak out to him. In the end he said: “What is the matter little daughter? (bunayya) She said: “Nothing Ya Abataah, I came to see how you were this evening…” Al-Nasa’i in the Sunan al-Kubra and others.
(iii) in Sahih al-Bukhari after the Prophet (upon him blessings and peace) left this life in the wording:
Ya Abataah! Ajaaba Rabban da`aah! Ya Abataah! Man Jannatul Firdawsi ma’waah! Ye Abataah! ila Jibrila nan`aah!
which means:
O Father of Mine! He responded to his Lord Who called him! O Father of Mine! He whose refuge is Jannat al-Firdaws! O Father of Mine! to Jibril we express his loss!
and in al-Darimi and others:
Ya Abataah! Min Rabbih ma Adnaah!
which means:
O Father of Mine! To his Lord how near he is!
The switch from the vocative (O my father) to the third person (he, him, his) in each line is a well-known rhetorical device in Arabic style, see the translation of al-Baydawi’s tafsir of Iyyaka na`budu wa-iyyaka nasta`in in the Post: Meaning of Iyyaka Na`budu wa Iyyaka Nasta`in.
Shi`i sources also mention Ya Abatee, Ya Abee, and Ya Abaah or Ya Abbaah, but none of these forms is as high or respectful as Abataah; and Allah knows best.
As for our Mother Khadijat al-Kubra (Allah be well-pleased with her), there are no explicit reports but other reports mention that our liegelord `Ali addressed his mother Fatima bint Asad with the words Ya Ummaah and thus did also the Sahaba address our Mother `A’isha (Allah be well-pleased with all of them). When Fatima bint Asad the wife of Abu Talib and mother of `Ali died, the Prophet (upon him blessings and peace) descended in her grave, lay for a while in her empty side-niche before her body was brought down, then received her body and laid her to rest, then addressed her with the words: Rahimakillah Ya Ummi ba`da Ummi… May Allah Most High grant you mercy O my second Mother. Then he made his famous du`a of tawassul:
“O Allah who lives and never dies, who gives life and gives death, forgive the sins of my mother Fatima bint Asad, make wide the place wherein she enters through the intercession of me, your Prophet, and the Prophets who came before me. For You are the most Merciful of those who have mercy.” Narrated from Anas by al-Tabarani in al-Kabir and al-Awsat (1:152) and Abu Nu`aym in the Hilya all through a good chain.
Hajj Gibril Haddad
