Birth
See also: Genealogy of Khadijah's daughtersFatimah was born in Mecca to Khadija, the first wife of Muhammad. There are differences of opinion on the exact date of her birth (605), but the widely accepted view is that she was born five years before the first Qur'anic revelations, during the time of the rebuilding of the Kaaba in 605, although this does imply she was over 18 at the time of her marriage, which was unusual in Arabia. Shia sources, however, state that she was born either two or five years after the first Qur'anic revelations, but that timeline would imply her mother was over fifty at the time of her birth.
Fatimah as believed by Sunnis is the fourth of Muhammad's daughters after Zaynab, Ruqayya, and Umm Kulthum. While according to Shi'a scholars, Fatimah was Muhammad's only biological daughter, they further claimed, Ruqayyah and Umm Kulthum are actually, being the daughters of Hala, the sister of Khadijah, who were adopted by Muhammad and Khadijah at her death. A strong reason given by the Shi'a scholars for this belief is the event of (mubahala) mentioned in the Quran, in which there is no reference of the presence of any other female apart from Fatimah, however Sunnis accept that Muhammad had four daughters all from Khadijah.
Read more about this topic: Fatimah
Famous quotes containing the word birth:
“Some say that ever ‘gainst that season comes
Wherein our Saviour’s birth is celebrated,
The bird of dawning singeth all night long:
And then, they say, no spirit dare stir abroad,
The nights are wholesome, then no planets strike,
No fairy tale nor witch hath power to charm,
So hallow’d and so gracious is the time.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly.”
—Bible: New Testament, Matthew 1:18,19.
“Before the birth of the New Woman the country was not an intellectual desert, as she is apt to suppose. There were teachers of the highest grade, and libraries, and countless circles in our towns and villages of scholarly, leisurely folk, who loved books, and music, and Nature, and lived much apart with them. The mad craze for money, which clutches at our souls to-day as la grippe does at our bodies, was hardly known then.”
—Rebecca Harding Davis (1831–1910)