Abu Hurairah’s superiority over others when it came to narrating hadith. In his old age, his memory was frequently put to the test by the people of Madinah in order to ascertain the veracity of his narrations. When Marwan ibn Hakam was the governor of Madinah, he once asked Abu Hurairah to narrate a number of hadith, which, unbeknown to Abu Hurairah, he had had transcribed by one of his secretaries, word for word, behind a screen. A year later, he recalled him and asked him to relate the same hadith again. To Marwan’s astonishment, Abu Hurairah narrated the ahadith word for word, without a single mistake. This way Abu Hurairah was able to silence all his critics.
According to the scholars of hadith (muhaddithun), Abu Hurairah’s authenticity as a narrator of hadith is beyond reproach. This does not mean to say, however, that other unscrupulous people did not later fabricate hadith and attribute them to him. Abu Hurairah’s reputation as a narrator of a vast quantity of hadith made this a very attractive proposition for the fabricators of hadith. This is why all the great scholars of hadith, including Muhammad ibn Ismail al-Bukhari and Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj, pursued a thorough and rigorous methodology in order to ascertain the veracity of each and every hadith they incorporated in their famous anthologies. The fact that Abu Hurairah was an unsually learned, very pious and highly respected companion of the Prophet, who devoted all his life to the acquisition and dissemination of Islamic knowledge and wisdom, is today acknowledged by the majority of Muslims. But what is not known so widely is that he was also a hugely popular teacher, who personally taught and mentored more than eight hundred students and scholars of hadith. And like the Prophet, he used to divide his nights into three parts: he used to sleep during the first part, pray during the second and study during the third part.
According to the historian and traditionist Abd al-Rahman ibn Ali ibn al-Jawzi, Abu Hurairah narrated five thousand three hundred and seventy-four hadith in total, more than any other companion of the Prophet, including his wife, Aishah. During the reign of Caliph Umar, Abu Hurairah served as governor of Bahrain for a period, and also acted as governor of Madinah for a while during the early Umayyad period. Abu Hurairah’s selfless devotion to Islamic learning and his efforts to disseminate hadith have today turned him into a household name throughout the Muslim world. Is it any wonder that an Abu Hurairah radi Allahu anhu qala qala rasulullahi sallallahu alaihi wa sallam (Abu Hurairah, may God be pleased with him, narrated that the Messenger of God, may the peace and blessings of God be on him, said…) has become the most famous introductory statement in the history of hadith literature? He breathed his last at the age of seventy-eight and was buried in Madinah, the city of the Prophet.
PROPHET MUHAMMAD HAD six children (two sons and four daughters) by his first wife, Khadijah. The sons were al-Qasim and Abdullah, both of whom died in their infancy, and the four daughters were Zainab, Ruqayyah, Umm Kulthum and Fatimah. All four daughters of the Prophet lived, grew up, married and became shining examples of Islamic piety and goodness. Zainab was born when the Prophet was thirty-one and she married Abul As, who was a noble citizen of Makkah and they had three children. She died at the age of thirty-one – as a result of a wound she sustained during her migration from Makkah to Madinah. Ruqayyah, the Prophet’s second daughter, was born when he was thirty-three and she was known to have been exceptionally beautiful and intelligent. When she reached maturity, all the prominent Makkan chiefs vied with one another to make her their daughter-in-law, but the Prophet married her to Utba, the son of Abu Lahab.
However, after Muhammad assumed Prophethood, Abu Lahab became his most inveterate opponent and ordered his son to divorce Ruqayyah. She was subsequently married to Uthman ibn Affan, a highly respected and wealthy businessman of the banu umayyah clan, who later became the third Caliph of Islam. Ruqayyah bore him a son called Abdullah, who died at the tender age of six. Soon afterwards, she died at the age of twenty-three. The Prophet’s third daughter, Umm Kulthum, was born when he was thirty-eight. She was married to Uthman after Ruqayyah’s death. Umm Kulthum was twenty-five at the time of her marriage. After almost seven years of blissful marital life, she passed away at the age of thirty-two; she had no children. Of all the Prophet’s children, it was his fourth daughter, Fatimah, who was destined to leave her mark in the annals of Islam, so much so that her name and fame continues to reverberate throughout the Muslim world to this day.
Fatimah was born in Makkah when her father was in his late thirties. The title of az-zahra (or ‘radiantly beautiful’) was conferred on her on account of her breath-taking beauty, personal piety and nobility of character. A year after her birth, her beloved father began his Prophetic mission and this immediately created rifts between him and some prominent members of his tribe. Although his wife Khadijah and his three older daughters embraced Islam immediately after he announced his mission, at the time Fatimah was too young to understand and appreciate the true nature of Islam and the impact it had on her family. The one time al-amin (the trustworthy) and al-sadiq (the truthful) of Makkah, overnight became public enemy number one. Why? Because he proclaimed that there was none worthy of worship except the One True God (la ilaha illa Allah). The Makkan chiefs (including the Prophet’s uncle Abu Lahab) could not come to terms with the egalitarian and universal Islamic message which he preached, transcending as it did all political, social, economic and tribal categories, thereby connecting all people, irrespective of their racial and cultural backgrounds, to one common denominator, namely Islam. Fatimah grew up under the loving and tender care of her parents amidst the prevailing sociopolitical chaos and upheaval which the Prophet’s message created in Makkah. Thus it was a very testing time for the Prophet and his family, but they bore the brunt of their opponent’s cruelty and inhumanity with remarkable restraint and fortitude.
When all attempts to persuade the Prophet to stop propagating Islam failed, the Makkans instigated a three-year political and economic siege (shi’ab abi talib) on the Prophet’s extended family. This inhumane boycott not only inflicted tremendous suffering and hardship on the Prophet and members of his extended family, but also became a collective punishment for all the believers. Such was the severity of this siege that the Prophet and his family were even deprived of basic necessities like food and water. Even by Makkan tribal standards, this was unusually harsh treatment and particularly affected the children and babies. As a consequence, young Fatimah suffered severe malnutrition which made her physically very weak and frail; she became so weak that she developed serious health problems, including suffering from severe exhaustion even after minimal physical activity (such as cooking, grinding wheat, and collecting water from the well). When three years of total boycott failed to dissuade the Prophet from his mission, the Makkans eventually relented and lifted it. However, for young Fatimah, the joy was very short lived as her beloved mother, Khadijah, passed away soon afterwards. This was a terrible blow for the Prophet and his children. Khadijah was not only an exemplary wife to her husband, she was also respected throughout Makkah for her character, nobility and intelligence and, above all, she was a loving mother to her children. Thus her death deprived young Fatimah of much-needed motherly love, care and affection. To make matters worse, the Prophet also lost his uncle, Abu Talib, (who was his foremost supporter and benefactor) during this ‘year of sorrow’. Despite the death of his wife and uncle, the Prophet remained very firm and steadfast. He tried his utmost to ensure that his beloved daughter received proper care and attention. Three years later, in 622, the Prophet migrated (hijrah) from Makkah to Madinah and Fatimah followed suit; she was only fourteen at the time.
She grew up in Madinah under the direct care and supervision of her father. During this period she learned the Qur’an from the Prophet, and began to practise Islam in the same way her father practised it. According to Aishah, her stepmother, no one was more devoted and dedicated to Islam than Fatimah. Her qualities of truthfulness, sincerity, piety and generosity made her very popular with her kith and kin. In the second year of the hijrah, she played an active part in the Battle of Badr, where she treated the sick and injured. Her exemplary actions enhanced her reputation further; thus she became well known in Madinah as a caring, intelligent and understanding young lady. Since she was also very attractive, and one of the Prophet’s most beloved daughters, many distinguished companions asked for her hand in marriage, but the Prophet