Objection 8: Is it allowed for an infallible like Hazrat Fatima Zahra (sa) to
pray for death?
By reading the report, which was mentioned in the previous objection number 7 ,
it is possible that a doubt may appear in the mind of readers, that the report
in which Lady Zahra (s) has addressed Amirul Momineen (a):
Alas, if before this seclusion I was already dead![1]
Does a wish for death by an infallible like Lady Fatima Zahra (s)
not create a doubt?
In reply we say: Allah, the Mighty and Sublime says regarding
Lady Maryam (a) in the Holy Quran:
فَأَجَاءَهَا
الْمَخَاضُ إِلَىٰ جِذْعِ النَّخْلَةِ قَالَتْ يَا لَيْتَنِي مِتُّ قَبْلَ هَٰذَا
وَكُنْتُ نَسْيًا مَنْسِيًّا ﴿٢٣﴾
“And the throes
(of childbirth) compelled her to betake herself to the trunk of a palm tree.
She said: Oh, would that I had died before this, and had been a thing quite
forgotten!” (Surah Maryam 19:23)
Without any doubt, if desire of death in the conditions that Lady
Maryam (a) was placed and she saw her honor and position in danger, it is
doubtful whether Allah, the Mighty and Sublime refuted her and did not support
her through silence.
Lady Zahra (s) was also in similar circumstances; because she had
not expected the people, whom her father had saved from polytheism and idolatry
and imparted honor and success to, that just within a few days of his passing
away, they should forget everything and usurp the property of his daughter.
In these circumstances also, Lady Zahra (s) has expressed the same
desire that was mentioned by Lady Maryam (a), so that perhaps she might my have
the capacity to witness these severe tragedies; calamities, which according to
her own statement, if they had fallen on days, they would have been transformed
into dark nights.[2]
[1]
The complete text of this report was mentioned in the above objection.
[2]
Ibne Asakir in Tohfa on the authority of Tahir bin Yahya Husaini through
his chains from Amirul Momineen, Ali Ibne Abi Talib (a) that he said:
When the Messenger of Allah
(s) was buried, Fatima came to his holy grave
and taking a handful of dust from the grave put it to her eyes and wept and
recited the following couplets:
It is not surprising that
one who smells the dust of the grave of the Prophet and does not perceive
another fragrance. Such calamities have befallen me that if they had fallen on
days they would have transformed into nights.
Sobolul Huda war Rishad
fee Seerat Khairul Ibad, Vol. 12, Pg. 338, Muhammad bin Yusuf Salihi Shami
(d. 932 A.H.), Darul Kutub Ilmiya, Beirut, 1414 A.H. First edition, Edited:
Adil Ahmad Abdul Maujud & Ali Muhammad Maudh.
