She is a prominent and distinguished scholar in the sphere of knowledge too. The sermon that Fāṭima Zahrā (P.B.U.H.) delivered in Medina Mosque after the demise of the Prophet (P.B.U.H. & H.H.) is the same sermon that according to ‘Allāma Majlisī, all the elders, rhetoricians, studious men and scholars should come together to interpret its phrases and words. It is very rich in terms of artistic beauty and is like the most beautiful and sublime words of Nahj al-Balāgha. Fāṭima Zahrā (P.B.U.H.) went to mosque, stood in front of people and delivered an impromptu speech! Maybe an hour, she spoke using the best and most beautiful phrases and the most cognitive and selective meanings.
Mainly we–who usually deliver impromptu speeches, recognize how much these words are great. An eighteen, twenty or twenty-four year old girl–whose exact age is not clear because that noble Lady’s (P.B.U.H.) birthday is not clear and there is disagreement over it–went to the mosque with those hardships and difficulties, stood in front of a great mass of people, delivered such a speech while wearing a ḥijāb that each of its words has remained in the history.
Arabs were known for having a good memory. Someone recited an ode of eighty lines in a poetry session. When the session was finished, dozens of people wrote exactly the same lines on paper. Most of the remained odes have been survived in the same way. Lyrics were recited in the clubs–i.e. social centers–and preserved. These sermons and traditions were often preserved in the same way. Some attended, wrote down, and kept the sentences in mind and thus the sermons have been survived up to these days. Idle talks do not remain in the history, not every word remains. So many words have been said, so many speeches have been delivered, so many issues have been addressed, so many poems have been composed but none of them have survived because no one pays attention to. Indeed, this [sermon] is what history has kept in its hearts and after fourteen hundred years, whosoever looks at it, they have felt reverence and humbleness toward it. In my opinion, this is an exemplar for a young girl.
The life of Fāṭima Zahrā (P.B.U.H.) in all its aspects is a life tied with action, effort, and the development and spiritual transcendence of a human being. Her young husband served constantly on the battlefronts in battlefields, but despite all these problems of life and the environment, Fāṭima Zahrā (P.B.U.H.) was a source of support for the people and Muslims who turned to her. She was the problem solving daughter of the Prophet (P.B.U.H. & H.H.) and in such conditions, she led a great life with utmost honor; she brought up children like Zaynab, Ḥasan, and Ḥusayn (P.B.U.T.), had a husband like ‘Alī (P.B.U.H.) and gained complete satisfaction of a father like the Prophet (P.B.U.H. & H.H.)! At the time of conquests and the division of the spoils of war, the daughter of the Prophet (P.B.U.H.) did not pay attention to a bit of formality, luxuries, worldly pleasures, and the things which the hearts of young girls and women beat for.
The worship of Fāṭima Zahrā (P.B.U.H.) is a sample prayer. Ḥasan Baṣrī–one of the well-known devotees and ascetics of the Islamic world, said about Fāṭima Zahrā (P.B.U.H.), “The daughter of the Prophet (P.B.U.H. & H.H.) worshiped and stood at the altar of prayers to the extent that ‘her feet got swollen.’”, The feet of that honorable Lady (P.B.U.H.) got swollen due to standing a long time at the altar of prayers! Imam Ḥasan Mujtabā (P.B.U.H.) narrated, “One night–a Friday night–my mother stood up to pray and she was worshipping until morning. ‘Until dawn broke.’ My mother was worshiping, praying and supplicating from the dusk to the dawn.” Imam Ḥasan (P.B.U.H.)–according to the tradition–added, “I heard she constantly prayed for the faithful men and women, she prayed for the people, she prayed for the basic issues of the Islamic world. When the morning came, I said, ‘O’ my mother!’, ‘Why you have not prayed for yourself as you have prayed for others?!’, ‘You have not said a prayer for yourself! Dusk to dawn praying, and all for others?!’ She said, ‘My son, [first for the] neighbors and then the household’,, ‘First for others and then ourselves!’.” This is that high spirit. Her striving in various fields is an outstanding one: in defending Islam, leadership, and Wilāya, in support of the Prophet (P.B.U.H. & H.H.), in taking care of the greatest commander of Islam–the Commander of the Faithful (P.B.U.H.), her husband.
Once the Commander of the Faithful (P.B.U.H.) said about Fāṭima Zahrā (P.B.U.H.), “She never made me angry and never disobeyed my order.”, At home, Fāṭima Zahrā (P.B.U.H.) with such greatness and glory was a spouse and a wife as Islam orders.
That was her worship, her eloquence and rhetoric, her good sense and knowledge, her awareness and wisdom, her striving and jihād, her conduct as a daughter, her conduct as a wife, her conduct as a mother, her charity to the poor, that when the holy Prophet (P.B.U.H. & H.H.) sent a poor old man to ‘Alī’s (P.B.U.H.) house saying, “Seek to receive your need from them”, Fāṭima Zahrā (P.B.U.H.) gave the skin–which Ḥasan (P.B.U.H.) and Ḥusayn (P.B.U.H.) slept on and she used it as a mat for her children to sit on and had nothing at home except it–to the poor man and said, “Sell this and use the money!” This is the general character of Fāṭima Zahrā (P.B.U.H.). This is an exemplar. This is an exemplar for Muslim women.
A Muslim woman should make efforts to acquire knowledge and wisdom; she should make efforts in the arena of ethical and spiritual self-education; she should be a pioneer in the arena of various kinds of striving and struggling; she should be indifferent to worldly wealth and worthless luxuries; she should be modest, pious, and virtuous in such a way that the impure looks are automatically diverted from her; she should provide emotional support for her husband and children; she should be a source of peace and comfort in her family; she should bring up healthy children–without complexes, good-spirited and psychologically healthy–with wise and gentle words in her kind and compassionate lap; and she should nurture [these] future men, women and personages of the society [very well]. [The role of] a mother is more valuable and constructive than [the role of] any other person. The greatest scientists may build, for example, a highly sophisticated electronic tool or that they may build ballistic missiles but none of these matters as much as the one who raises a noble human being. And that very person is the mother. This is that true exemplar of a Muslim woman.
