178-572: Fatima bint Muhammad ( Arabic : فَاطِمَة بِنْت مُحَمَّد , romanized : Fāṭima bint Muḥammad ; 605/15–632 CE), commonly known as Fatima al-Zahra' ( Arabic : فَاطِمَة ٱلزَّهْرَاء , romanized : Fāṭima al-Zahrāʾ ), was the daughter of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and his wife Khadija . Fatima's husband was Ali , the fourth of the Rashidun Caliphs and the first Shia Imam . Fatima's sons were Hasan and Husayn ,
356-478: A Medinan wife, presumably because they did not embrace Islam's approval of marrying multiple women and its curtailment of their right to inheritance. Although Muslims are religiously limited to having only four wives at the same time , Muhammad was exempted from this ruling and was allowed to have an unlimited number of wives due to his status as an Islamic prophet and messenger . Additionally, Muhammad's wives were not allowed to remarry after his death; all men of
534-575: A collection of related dialects that constitute the precursor of Arabic, first emerged during the Iron Age . Previously, the earliest attestation of Old Arabic was thought to be a single 1st century CE inscription in Sabaic script at Qaryat al-Faw , in southern present-day Saudi Arabia. However, this inscription does not participate in several of the key innovations of the Arabic language group, such as
712-486: A companion of Muhammad. Zaynab bint Jahsh was Muhammad's cousin, the daughter of one of his father's sisters . In the Pre Islamic Era , Arabs used to consider children who had been sponsored exactly the same as their biological children as far as rights such as inheritance and sanctities were concerned. However, after marriage the sponsored children lost their inheritance rights and were henceforth known as
890-556: A complete break with the past. Thus Muhammad, confident that he was strong enough to face public opinion, proceeded to reject these taboos. When Zaynab's waiting period was complete, Muhammad married her. An influential faction in Medina, called " Hypocrites ", a term that refers to those who convert to Islam while secretly working against it in the Islamic tradition, did indeed criticize the marriage as incestuous. Attempting to divide
1068-435: A corpus of poetic texts, in addition to Qur'an usage and Bedouin informants whom he considered to be reliable speakers of the ʿarabiyya . Arabic spread with the spread of Islam . Following the early Muslim conquests , Arabic gained vocabulary from Middle Persian and Turkish . In the early Abbasid period , many Classical Greek terms entered Arabic through translations carried out at Baghdad's House of Wisdom . By
1246-496: A devoted Muslim, had none but her young children. Her plight of being without a man reportedly saddened the Muslims, and after her iddah some Muslims proposed marriage to her; but she declined. She was the paternal cousin of Khalid Ibn Al Waleed , the military commander who fought against Muhammad in many battles. Her marriage made Khalid take an indecisive attitude at the battle of Uhud . When Muhammad proposed her marriage, she
1424-1081: A dialect of Arabic and written in the Latin alphabet . The Balkan languages, including Albanian, Greek , Serbo-Croatian, and Bulgarian , have also acquired many words of Arabic origin, mainly through direct contact with Ottoman Turkish . Arabic has influenced languages across the globe throughout its history, especially languages where Islam is the predominant religion and in countries that were conquered by Muslims. The most markedly influenced languages are Persian , Turkish , Hindustani ( Hindi and Urdu ), Kashmiri , Kurdish , Bosnian , Kazakh , Bengali , Malay ( Indonesian and Malaysian ), Maldivian , Pashto , Punjabi , Albanian , Armenian , Azerbaijani , Sicilian, Spanish, Greek, Bulgarian, Tagalog , Sindhi , Odia , Hebrew and African languages such as Hausa , Amharic , Tigrinya , Somali , Tamazight , and Swahili . Conversely, Arabic has borrowed some words (mostly nouns) from other languages, including its sister-language Aramaic, Persian, Greek, and Latin and to
1602-470: A house next to Muhammad's quarters in Medina. Their marriage lasted about ten years until Fatima's death. Fatima's age at the time of her marriage is uncertain, reported between nine and twenty-one. Ali is said to have been about twenty two. As with the majority of Muslims, the couple lived in severe poverty in the early years of Islam. In particular, both had to do hard physical work to get by. Shia sources elaborate that Ali worked at various jobs while Fatima
1780-487: A lesser extent and more recently from Turkish, English, French, and Italian. Arabic is spoken by as many as 380 million speakers, both native and non-native, in the Arab world, making it the fifth most spoken language in the world, and the fourth most used language on the internet in terms of users. It also serves as the liturgical language of more than 2 billion Muslims . In 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked Arabic
1958-574: A livelihood for widows; he noted that remarriage was difficult for these women in Arabian society, which emphasized and was hyper-focused on female virginity and sexual purity . American academic Francis Edward Peters says that it is hard to make generalizations about Muhammad's marriages; many of them were political, some compassionate, and some perhaps affairs of the heart. American historian John Victor Tolan writes that Muhammad's marriages were mainly attempts at forging political alliances. Thus,
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#17327768235872136-690: A millennium before the modern period . Early lexicographers ( لُغَوِيُّون lughawiyyūn ) sought to explain words in the Quran that were unfamiliar or had a particular contextual meaning, and to identify words of non-Arabic origin that appear in the Quran. They gathered shawāhid ( شَوَاهِد 'instances of attested usage') from poetry and the speech of the Arabs—particularly the Bedouin ʾaʿrāb [ ar ] ( أَعْراب ) who were perceived to speak
2314-591: A name of God) as the earthly symbol of the divine creative power. A kunya or honorific title of Fatima in Islam is Umm Abiha ( lit. ' the mother of her father ' ), suggesting that Fatima was exceptionally nurturing towards her father. Umm al-Aima ( lit. ' the mother of Imams ' ) is a kunya of Fatima in Twelver sources, as eleven of the Twelve Imams descended from her. Fatima
2492-678: A pious believer. Ibn Kathir said, "she was one of the best women in her worship, piousness, ascetism, devoutness, and charity". According to Ibn Sa'd, Safiyyah was very charitable and generous. She used to give out and spend whatever she had; she gave away a house that she had when she was still alive. Upon entering Muhammad's household, Safiyya became friends with Aisha and Hafsa. Also, she offered gifts to Fatima. She gave some of Muhammad's other wives gifts from her jewels that she brought with her from Khaybar. However, some of Muhammad's other wives spoke ill of Safiyya's Jewish descent. Muhammad intervened, pointing out to everyone that Safiyya's "husband
2670-481: A raid on Ali's home. A typical Shia response is that Ali gave up his rights and exercised restraint for the sake of a nascent Islam, according to Abbas. Fatima died in 11/632, within six months of Muhammad's death. She was 18 or 27 years old at that time according to Shia and Sunni sources, respectively. The exact date of her death is uncertain but the Shia commonly commemorates her death on 13 Jumada II . The Sunni belief
2848-404: A raid on her house to subdue Ali, ordered by Abu Bakr. It is believed that Fatima's dying wish was that the caliph should not attend her funeral. She was buried secretly at night and her exact burial place remains uncertain. Her most common epithet is al-Zahra ( lit. ' the one that shines, the radiant ' ), which encodes her piety and regularity in prayer. This epithet is believed by
3026-594: A result, many European languages have borrowed words from it. Arabic influence, mainly in vocabulary, is seen in European languages (mainly Spanish and to a lesser extent Portuguese , Catalan , and Sicilian ) owing to the proximity of Europe and the long-lasting Arabic cultural and linguistic presence, mainly in Southern Iberia, during the Al-Andalus era. Maltese is a Semitic language developed from
3204-403: A rumor. Watt doubts the accuracy of this portion of the narrative since it does not occur in the earliest source. He thinks that even if there is a basis of fact underlying the narrative, it would have been subject to exaggeration in the course of transmission as the later Muslims liked to maintain that there was no celibacy and monkery in Islam. Rodinson disagrees with Watt arguing that the story
3382-462: A script derived from ASA attest to a language known as Hasaitic . On the northwestern frontier of Arabia, various languages known to scholars as Thamudic B , Thamudic D, Safaitic , and Hismaic are attested. The last two share important isoglosses with later forms of Arabic, leading scholars to theorize that Safaitic and Hismaic are early forms of Arabic and that they should be considered Old Arabic . Linguists generally believe that "Old Arabic",
3560-597: A similar view. Madelung suggests that the caliphate of Abu Bakr was inherently inconsistent with maintaining the privileged status of Muhammad's kin and applying the Quranic rules of inheritance to them. As phrased by Mavani, if the Banu Hashim had inherited Muhammad's material property, then they might have also been expected to inherit the spiritual authority of Muhammad. Similar views are voiced by Jafri , Margoliouth , Ayoub , and Lalani, while El-Hibri does not view
3738-470: A single language, despite mutual incomprehensibility among differing spoken versions. From a linguistic standpoint, it is often said that the various spoken varieties of Arabic differ among each other collectively about as much as the Romance languages . This is an apt comparison in a number of ways. The period of divergence from a single spoken form is similar—perhaps 1500 years for Arabic, 2000 years for
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#17327768235873916-646: A sister of Khadija. According to Abbas , most Shia Muslims hold that Fatima was Muhammad's only biological daughter, whereas Fedele limits this belief to the Twelver Shia. Hyder reports that this belief is prevalent among the Shia in South Asia . Fatima also had three brothers, all of whom died in childhood. Fatima grew up in Mecca while Muhammad and his few followers suffered the ill-treatment of disbelievers. On one occasion, she rushed to help Muhammad when filth
4094-559: A slave girl from the captives; he gave permission, so Dihya went and took Safiyya. However, a man then came to Muhammad reporting that Dihya had taken Safiyya, who was the chief mistress of the Qurayza and the Nadir, which he thought was only suitable for Muhammad. Thus, Muhammad gave the order to call them. When Safiyya was brought, she was with another woman, and when the woman saw the headless bodies, she screamed wildly, struck herself in
4272-554: A son in 630 (his seventh child), but none of his sons survived to adulthood. Traditionally, two epochs delineate Muhammad's life and career: pre-Hijrah Mecca between 570 and 622; and post-Hijrah Medina between 622 and his death in 632. " Hijrah " refers to Muhammad's migration, alongside the early Muslims , from Mecca to Medina due to the Meccans' persecution of the early Muslims . All but two of his marriages were contracted after this migration. Khadija , Muhammad's first wife,
4450-507: A type of Arabic. Cypriot Arabic is recognized as a minority language in Cyprus. The sociolinguistic situation of Arabic in modern times provides a prime example of the linguistic phenomenon of diglossia , which is the normal use of two separate varieties of the same language, usually in different social situations. Tawleed is the process of giving a new shade of meaning to an old classical word. For example, al-hatif lexicographically means
4628-507: A variety of regional vernacular Arabic dialects , which are not necessarily mutually intelligible. Classical Arabic is the language found in the Quran , used from the period of Pre-Islamic Arabia to that of the Abbasid Caliphate . Classical Arabic is prescriptive, according to the syntactic and grammatical norms laid down by classical grammarians (such as Sibawayh ) and the vocabulary defined in classical dictionaries (such as
4806-476: A wider audience." In the wake of the industrial revolution and European hegemony and colonialism , pioneering Arabic presses, such as the Amiri Press established by Muhammad Ali (1819), dramatically changed the diffusion and consumption of Arabic literature and publications. Rifa'a al-Tahtawi proposed the establishment of Madrasat al-Alsun in 1836 and led a translation campaign that highlighted
4984-420: Is Muhammad, father is Aaron , and uncle is Moses ", a reference to revered prophets. Muhammad once went to hajj with all his wives. On the way, Safiyya's camel knelt down, as it was the weakest in the caravan, and she started to weep. Muhammad came to her and wiped her tears with his dress and hands, but the more he asked her not to cry, the more she went on weeping. When Muhammad was terminally ill, Safiyya
5162-737: Is a Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world . The ISO assigns language codes to 32 varieties of Arabic , including its standard form of Literary Arabic, known as Modern Standard Arabic , which is derived from Classical Arabic . This distinction exists primarily among Western linguists; Arabic speakers themselves generally do not distinguish between Modern Standard Arabic and Classical Arabic, but rather refer to both as al-ʿarabiyyatu l-fuṣḥā ( اَلعَرَبِيَّةُ ٱلْفُصْحَىٰ "the eloquent Arabic") or simply al-fuṣḥā ( اَلْفُصْحَىٰ ). Arabic
5340-590: Is a minimum level of comprehension between all Arabic dialects, this level can increase or decrease based on geographic proximity: for example, Levantine and Gulf speakers understand each other much better than they do speakers from the Maghreb. The issue of diglossia between spoken and written language is a complicating factor: A single written form, differing sharply from any of the spoken varieties learned natively, unites several sometimes divergent spoken forms. For political reasons, Arabs mostly assert that they all speak
5518-559: Is a sister language rather than their direct ancestor. Arabia had a wide variety of Semitic languages in antiquity. The term "Arab" was initially used to describe those living in the Arabian Peninsula , as perceived by geographers from ancient Greece . In the southwest, various Central Semitic languages both belonging to and outside the Ancient South Arabian family (e.g. Southern Thamudic) were spoken. It
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5696-433: Is also known for narrating 2210 hadith, not just on matters related to Muhammad's private life, but also on topics such as marriage , Islamic inheritance , Hajj and Islamic eschatology , among other subjects. She was highly regarded for her intellect and knowledge in various fields, including poetry and medicine, which received plenty of praise by the traditionist al-Zuhri and by her student Urwa ibn al-Zubayr . Aisha
5874-488: Is also said to have praised his other son-in-law, possibly Uthman or Abu al-As . Soufi notes that the reference to the third caliph Uthman might reflect the Sunni orthodoxy, in which Uthman is considered superior to his successor Ali. Buehler suggests that such Sunni traditions that place Ali in a negative light should be treated with caution as they mirror the political agenda of the time. In Shia sources, by contrast, Fatima
6052-478: Is believed that the ancestors of the Modern South Arabian languages (non-Central Semitic languages) were spoken in southern Arabia at this time. To the north, in the oases of northern Hejaz , Dadanitic and Taymanitic held some prestige as inscriptional languages. In Najd and parts of western Arabia, a language known to scholars as Thamudic C is attested. In eastern Arabia, inscriptions in
6230-763: Is cited in a Sunni tradition by Aisha as the reason Umar was excluded from a supposed attempt at reconciliation between Ali and Abu Bakr. Kelen describes an incident of Umar's violence against his sister when she professed Islam (before Umar). It is uncertain what followed the above altercation at Fatima's house. Shia sources allege that Fatima suffered injuries and miscarriage during a raid on her house led by Umar. In particular, Shia alleges that Fatima miscarried her son Muhsin , whose name had been chosen by Muhammad before his death, according to Abbas . These claims are categorically rejected by Sunnis, who maintain that Muhsin died in infancy of natural causes. The allegations of violence and miscarriage appear in some Shia works, including
6408-408: Is credited with establishing the rules of Arabic prosody . Al-Jahiz (776–868) proposed to Al-Akhfash al-Akbar an overhaul of the grammar of Arabic, but it would not come to pass for two centuries. The standardization of Arabic reached completion around the end of the 8th century. The first comprehensive description of the ʿarabiyya "Arabic", Sībawayhi's al - Kitāb , is based first of all upon
6586-472: Is credited with standardizing Arabic grammar , or an-naḥw ( النَّحو "the way" ), and pioneering a system of diacritics to differentiate consonants ( نقط الإعجام nuqaṭu‿l-i'jām "pointing for non-Arabs") and indicate vocalization ( التشكيل at-tashkīl ). Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi (718–786) compiled the first Arabic dictionary, Kitāb al-'Ayn ( كتاب العين "The Book of the Letter ع "), and
6764-456: Is known to have alluded to the violent arrest of Ali in a letter to him before the Battle of Siffin . Madelung is uncertain about the use of force. Still, he notes that there is evidence (in Sunni sources) that Fatima's house was searched. According to Madelung, Ali later repeatedly said that he would have resisted (Abu Bakr) had there been forty men with him. Alternatively, Buehler suggests that
6942-426: Is not mentioned in the Quran by name, some verses are associated with her in classical exegeses. An example is verse 3:61 of the Quran. After an inconclusive debate about Jesus with a Christian delegation from Najran in 10/631–2, it was decided to engage in mubuhala , where both parties would pray to invoke God's curse upon whoever was the liar. This is when Muhammad is reported to have received verse 3:61 of
7120-519: Is not present in the spoken varieties, but deletes Classical words that sound obsolete in MSA. In addition, MSA has borrowed or coined many terms for concepts that did not exist in Quranic times, and MSA continues to evolve. Some words have been borrowed from other languages—notice that transliteration mainly indicates spelling and not real pronunciation (e.g., فِلْم film 'film' or ديمقراطية dīmuqrāṭiyyah 'democracy'). The current preference
7298-855: Is official in Mali and recognized as a minority language in Morocco, while the Senegalese government adopted the Latin script to write it. Maltese is official in (predominantly Catholic ) Malta and written with the Latin script . Linguists agree that it is a variety of spoken Arabic, descended from Siculo-Arabic , though it has experienced extensive changes as a result of sustained and intensive contact with Italo-Romance varieties, and more recently also with English. Due to "a mix of social, cultural, historical, political, and indeed linguistic factors", many Maltese people today consider their language Semitic but not
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7476-423: Is reported to have had a happy marital life, which continued until her death in 11 AH . In particular, Ali is reported to have said, "Whenever I looked at her [Fatima], all my worries and sadness disappeared". The Sunni al-Hakim al-Nishapuri ( d. 1014 ) and al-Khwarazmi ( d. 1173 ), and the Shia al-Qadi al-Nu'man ( d. 974 ) and al-Tabari al-Shia (eleventh century), have likened Fatima to
7654-517: Is said to have relinquished his claims to the caliphate for the sake of the unity of a nascent Islam, which faced internal and external threats, according to Mavani. In particular, Jafri notes that Ali turned down proposals to forcefully pursue the caliphate, including an offer from Abu Sufyan . In reference to Abu Bakr's caliphate, Madelung writes that a poem later began to circulate among the Banu Hashim ending with, "Surely, we have been cheated in
7832-403: Is stressed in the traditional texts and that it would not have aroused any adverse comment or criticism. Muhammad, fearing public opinion, was initially reluctant to marry Zaynab. The marriage would seem incestuous to their contemporaries because she was the former wife of his adopted son, and adopted sons were considered the same as biological sons. According to Watt, this "conception of incest
8010-467: Is that Fatima died from grief after Muhammad's death. Shia Islam, however, holds that Fatima's injuries during a raid by Umar directly caused her miscarriage and death shortly after. Al-Tabari mentions the suffering of Fatima in her final days. Shia traditions similarly describe Fatima's agony in her final days. In particular, the Isma'ili jurist al-Nu'man similarly reports a hadith from the fifth Imam to
8188-536: Is that the loss of Fatima was so traumatizing for Ali that he threatened Umar with violence for the first time, despite his previous restraint. Fatima's exact burial place in Medina remains uncertain, with often contradictory reports. The two most probable locations for her grave are the al-Baqi' cemetery and her home, which was later annexed to the Prophet's Mosque . The former location is reportedly supported by her son Hasan's wish to be buried next to his mother. On
8366-572: Is the third most widespread official language after English and French, one of six official languages of the United Nations , and the liturgical language of Islam . Arabic is widely taught in schools and universities around the world and is used to varying degrees in workplaces, governments and the media. During the Middle Ages , Arabic was a major vehicle of culture and learning, especially in science, mathematics and philosophy. As
8544-600: Is the Shia view. Among Sunnis, the charge of usurpation appears, for instance, in the works of Ibn Hajar al-Haythami ( d. 1566 ) and Ibn Sa'd ( d. 845 ). Among others, the Sunni al-Baladhuri ( d. 892 ) reports that Fatima objected to Abu Bakr, saying that Fadak was a gift from her father. Her husband Ali and a maid at Muhammad's house, named Umm Aiman , are reported to have offered their testimonies in support of Fatima. By some accounts, Fatima also brought her two sons as witnesses. Abu Bakr, however, did not find their testimonies sufficient to establish
8722-590: Is the variety used in most current, printed Arabic publications, spoken by some of the Arabic media across North Africa and the Middle East, and understood by most educated Arabic speakers. "Literary Arabic" and "Standard Arabic" ( فُصْحَى fuṣḥá ) are less strictly defined terms that may refer to Modern Standard Arabic or Classical Arabic. Some of the differences between Classical Arabic (CA) and Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) are as follows: MSA uses much Classical vocabulary (e.g., dhahaba 'to go') that
8900-581: Is through Fatima that Muhammad's progeny has spread throughout the Muslim world. Fatima's descendants are given the honorific titles of sayyid ( lit. ' lord, or sir ' ) or sharif ( lit. ' noble ' ) and are respected by Muslims. The Fatimid dynasty ( r. 909–1171 ) in North Africa claimed descent from Fatima via the Isma'ili imam Muhammad ibn Isma'il , though this claim has been challenged. While Fatima
9078-413: Is to avoid direct borrowings, preferring to either use loan translations (e.g., فرع farʻ 'branch', also used for the branch of a company or organization; جناح janāḥ 'wing', is also used for the wing of an airplane, building, air force, etc.), or to coin new words using forms within existing roots ( استماتة istimātah ' apoptosis ', using the root موت m/w/t 'death' put into
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#17327768235879256-524: Is used to denote concepts that have arisen in the industrial and post-industrial era , especially in modern times. Due to its grounding in Classical Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic is removed over a millennium from everyday speech, which is construed as a multitude of dialects of this language. These dialects and Modern Standard Arabic are described by some scholars as not mutually comprehensible. The former are usually acquired in families, while
9434-463: Is usually regarded as his second wife and she was living with him before Aisha joined the household. Sawda was about 30 years old at the time. As Sawdah got older, and some time after Muhammad's marriage to Umm Salama , there are reports that Muhammad was neglecting Sawdah and had planned to divorce her. But Sawdah stopped him in the street and begged him to take her back, offering to give up her turn for his nightly conjugal visits to Aisha , whom he
9612-445: The Lisān al-ʻArab ). Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) largely follows the grammatical standards of Classical Arabic and uses much of the same vocabulary. However, it has discarded some grammatical constructions and vocabulary that no longer have any counterpart in the spoken varieties and has adopted certain new constructions and vocabulary from the spoken varieties. Much of the new vocabulary
9790-519: The Ahl al-Bayt , including Fatima, for those who empathize with their divine cause and suffering. Multiple sources report that Fatima never reconciled with Abu Bakr and Umar, partly based on a tradition to this effect in the canonical Sunni collection Sahih al-Bukhari . There are some accounts that Abu Bakr and Umar visited Fatima on her deathbed to apologize, which Madelung considers self-incriminatory. As reported in al-Imama wa al-siyasa , Fatima reminded
9968-593: The Banu Nadir tribe. In 627, the Banu Qurayza tribe was defeated and Rayhana was enslaved. Ibn Sa'd wrote that Rayhana went on to be manumitted and subsequently married to the prophet upon her conversion to Islam. Al-Tha'labi reports that the prophet paid a mahr for her and Ibn Hajar makes reference to Muhammad giving Rayhana a home upon their marriage. An incident happened in which Aisha left her camp to search for her lost necklace, and returned with
10146-651: The Battle of Khaybar . Fatima was at some point given a maidservant, named Fidda. Following the Battle of Uhud , Fatima tended to the wounds of her father and regularly visited the graves to pray for those killed in the battle. Later, Fatima rejected Abu Sufyan 's pleas to mediate between him and Muhammad. Fatima also accompanied Muhammad in the Conquest of Mecca . Among others, the Sunni al-Suyuti ( d. 1505 ) ascribes to Muhammad that, "God ordered me to marry Fatima to Ali." According to Veccia Vaglieri and Klemm, Muhammad also told Fatima that he had married her to
10324-603: The Prophet's Mosque , known as the Sermon of Fadak , Among other sources, this sermon appears in Balaghat al-nisa' , a collection of eloquent speeches by Muslim women, though the attribution of this speech to Fatima is rejected by Sunnis. Fatima is said to have upheld Ali in her speech as the rightful successor to Muhammad. She is also reported to have chastised Abu Bakr for denying her inheritance and accused him of (hadith) fabrication, saying that Muhammad could have not contradicted
10502-568: The Xth form , or جامعة jāmiʻah 'university', based on جمع jamaʻa 'to gather, unite'; جمهورية jumhūriyyah 'republic', based on جمهور jumhūr 'multitude'). An earlier tendency was to redefine an older word although this has fallen into disuse (e.g., هاتف hātif 'telephone' < 'invisible caller (in Sufism)'; جريدة jarīdah 'newspaper' < 'palm-leaf stalk'). Colloquial or dialectal Arabic refers to
10680-405: The companions , including Abu Bakr and Umar , had earlier asked for Fatima's hand in marriage but were turned down by Muhammad, who said he was waiting for the moment fixed by destiny. It is also said that Ali was reticent to ask Muhammad to marry Fatima on account of his poverty. When Muhammad put forward Ali's proposal to Fatima, she remained silent, which was understood as a tacit agreement. On
10858-465: The mosque at Medina . Each of these were six to seven spans wide (1.7 metres) and ten spans long (2.3 meters), and the height of the ceiling was equivalent to that of an average man standing. Blankets were used as curtains to screen the doors. According to an account by Anas ibn Malik , one of Muhammad's companions : "The Prophet used to visit all his wives in a round, during the day and night and they were eleven in number." I asked Anas, "Had
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#173277682358711036-494: The northern Hejaz . These features are evidence of common descent from a hypothetical ancestor , Proto-Arabic . The following features of Proto-Arabic can be reconstructed with confidence: On the other hand, several Arabic varieties are closer to other Semitic languages and maintain features not found in Classical Arabic, indicating that these varieties cannot have developed from Classical Arabic. Thus, Arabic vernaculars do not descend from Classical Arabic: Classical Arabic
11214-477: The paternity of Khadija's daughters , as they view the first three of them as the daughters from previous marriages and only Fatimah as the daughter of Muhammad and Khadija. During their marriage, Khadija purchased the slave Zayd ibn Harithah , then adopted the young man as her son at Muhammad's request. Muhammad's uncle Abu Talib and Khadija died in 620 and the Islamic prophet declared the year as Aam al-Huzn ('Year of Sorrow'). Before he left for Medina, it
11392-419: The "learned" tradition (Classical Arabic). This variety and both its classicizing and "lay" iterations have been termed Middle Arabic in the past, but they are thought to continue an Old Higazi register. It is clear that the orthography of the Quran was not developed for the standardized form of Classical Arabic; rather, it shows the attempt on the part of writers to record an archaic form of Old Higazi. In
11570-786: The "purest," most eloquent form of Arabic—initiating a process of jamʿu‿l-luɣah ( جمع اللغة 'compiling the language') which took place over the 8th and early 9th centuries. Kitāb al-'Ayn ( c. 8th century ), attributed to Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi , is considered the first lexicon to include all Arabic roots ; it sought to exhaust all possible root permutations —later called taqālīb ( تقاليب ) — calling those that are actually used mustaʿmal ( مستعمَل ) and those that are not used muhmal ( مُهمَل ). Lisān al-ʿArab (1290) by Ibn Manzur gives 9,273 roots, while Tāj al-ʿArūs (1774) by Murtada az-Zabidi gives 11,978 roots. Muhammad%27s wives A total of eleven women are confirmed as having been married to Muhammad ,
11748-454: The 11th and 12th centuries in al-Andalus , the zajal and muwashah poetry forms developed in the dialectical Arabic of Cordoba and the Maghreb. The Nahda was a cultural and especially literary renaissance of the 19th century in which writers sought "to fuse Arabic and European forms of expression." According to James L. Gelvin , " Nahda writers attempted to simplify the Arabic language and script so that it might be accessible to
11926-571: The 4th to the 6th centuries, the Nabataean script evolved into the Arabic script recognizable from the early Islamic era. There are inscriptions in an undotted, 17-letter Arabic script dating to the 6th century CE, found at four locations in Syria ( Zabad , Jebel Usays , Harran , Umm el-Jimal ). The oldest surviving papyrus in Arabic dates to 643 CE, and it uses dots to produce the modern 28-letter Arabic alphabet. The language of that papyrus and of
12104-779: The 8th century, knowledge of Classical Arabic had become an essential prerequisite for rising into the higher classes throughout the Islamic world, both for Muslims and non-Muslims. For example, Maimonides , the Andalusi Jewish philosopher, authored works in Judeo-Arabic —Arabic written in Hebrew script . Ibn Jinni of Mosul , a pioneer in phonology , wrote prolifically in the 10th century on Arabic morphology and phonology in works such as Kitāb Al-Munṣif , Kitāb Al-Muḥtasab , and Kitāb Al-Khaṣāʾiṣ [ ar ] . Ibn Mada' of Cordoba (1116–1196) realized
12282-691: The Ansar was likely beaten into submission by Umar, those gathered at Saqifa agreed on Abu Bakr as the new head of the community. The Saqifa event is said to have excluded Muhammad's family, who were preparing to bury him, and most of the Muhajirun. To protest the appointment of Abu Bakr, al-Baladhuri ( d. 892 ) reports that the Banu Hashim (Muhammad's clan) and some of his companions gathered at Fatima's house. Among them were Muhammad's uncle Abbas and his companion Zubayr , according to Madelung. The protesters, including Fatima, held that her husband Ali
12460-514: The Islamic state after Muhammad's death. Safiyya, for example, aided the Caliph Uthman during his siege. During the first fitna, some wives also took sides. Umm Salama, for example, sided with Ali, and sent her son Umar for help. The last of Muhammad's wives, Umm Salama lived to hear about the tragedy of Karbala in 680, dying the same year. The grave of the wives of Muhammed is located at Al-Baqi Cemetery , Medina . The vertical lines in
12638-412: The Middle East and North Africa have become a badge of sophistication and modernity and ... feigning, or asserting, weakness or lack of facility in Arabic is sometimes paraded as a sign of status, class, and perversely, even education through a mélange of code-switching practises." Arabic has been taught worldwide in many elementary and secondary schools, especially Muslim schools. Universities around
12816-469: The Muslim community, they spread rumors as part of a strategy of attacking Muhammad through his wives. According to Ibn Kathir, the relevant Qur'anic verses were a "divine rejection" of the Hypocrites' objections. According to Rodinson, doubters argued the verses were in exact conflict with social taboos and favored Muhammad too much. The delivery of these verses, thus, did not end the dissent. One of
12994-473: The Prophet the strength for it?" Anas replied, "We used to say that the Prophet was given the strength of thirty (men)." And Sa'id said on the authority of Qatada that Anas had told him about nine wives only (not eleven). Although Muhammad's wives had a special status among the early Muslims , he did not allow them to use his status as a prophet and messenger to obtain special treatment in public. Around
13172-690: The Qur'an is referred to by linguists as "Quranic Arabic", as distinct from its codification soon thereafter into " Classical Arabic ". In late pre-Islamic times, a transdialectal and transcommunal variety of Arabic emerged in the Hejaz , which continued living its parallel life after literary Arabic had been institutionally standardized in the 2nd and 3rd century of the Hijra , most strongly in Judeo-Christian texts, keeping alive ancient features eliminated from
13350-483: The Qur'an, God forbade anyone to marry the wives of Muhammad, because of their respect and honour, after he died. ...And it is not right for you to annoy the Messenger of Allah, nor ever marry his wives after him. This would certainly be a major offence in the sight of Allah. The extent of Muhammad's property at the time of his death is unclear. Although Qur'an [2.180] clearly addresses issues of inheritance, Abu Bakr,
13528-544: The Quran, also known as the verse of mubahala , which reads And to whomsoever disputes with thee over it, after the knowledge that has come unto thee [about Jesus], say, "Come! Let us call upon our sons and your sons, our women and your women, ourselves and yourselves. Then let us pray earnestly, so as to place the curse of God upon those who lie." Madelung argues that 'our sons' in the verse of mubahala must refer to Muhammad's grandchildren, Hasan and Husayn . In that case, he continues, it would be reasonable to also include in
13706-580: The Quran. To support her claim, she is believed to have quoted verse 27:16 of the Quran in which Solomon inherits from his father David and verse 19:6 in which Zechariah prays for a son who would inherit from him and from the House of Jacob . As reported in Balaghat , Fatima also quoted verses 8:75 and 33:6 about the rights of every Muslim to inheritance. Abu Bakr terminated the status of purity of Muhammad's kin by forcing them to rely on general alms which
13884-576: The Romance languages. Also, while it is comprehensible to people from the Maghreb , a linguistically innovative variety such as Moroccan Arabic is essentially incomprehensible to Arabs from the Mashriq , much as French is incomprehensible to Spanish or Italian speakers but relatively easily learned by them. This suggests that the spoken varieties may linguistically be considered separate languages. With
14062-417: The Shia to be a reference to her primordial creation from light that continues to radiate throughout the creation. The Shia Ibn Babawahy ( d. 991 ) writes that, whenever Fatima prayed, her light shone for the inhabitants of the heavens as starlight shines for the inhabitants of the earth. Other titles of her in Shia are al-Ṣiddiqa ( lit. ' the righteous ' ), al-Tahira ( lit. '
14240-476: The Sunni Ibn Sa'd in his Kitab al-Tabaqat al-Kubra suggests that Fatima was born when Muhammad was about thirty-five years old. The Sunni view is that Fatima had three sisters, named Zaynab , Umm Kulthum , and Ruqayyah , who did not survive Muhammad. Alternatively, a number of Shia sources state that Zainab , Ruqayyah , and Umm Kulthum were adopted by Muhammad after the death of their mother, Hala,
14418-518: The Sunni al-Tabari, her dying wish was that Abu Bakr should not attend the funeral, and this request was fulfilled by Ali. Fatima's wish is believed to be at odds with the common practice of Muslims, who are encouraged to join funerals. In Shia sources, her wish for a secret burial is viewed as a sign of the disassociation of Muhammad's daughter with the Muslim community who largely failed to support her against Abu Bakr. The prominent Twelver traditionist al-Tusi ( d. 1067 ) reports an account of
14596-464: The absence of the Muhajirun (migrants from Mecca ) from this meeting suggests that the Ansar gathered to re-establish the control of the Ansar over their city Medina, under the belief that the Muhajirun would mostly return to Mecca after Muhammad's death. Abu Bakr and Umar , both companions of Muhammad, hastened to the gathering upon learning about it. After a heated session, in which a chief of
14774-644: The age of 25, Muhammad wed his wealthy employer, Khadija , the 28-or 40-year-old widow, and daughter of a merchant. Muhammad used to manage her caravans; and Khadija, being impressed by the skills of Muhammad, sent a proposal to the Islamic prophet. Around 595, the couple married, and this marriage, his first, would be both happy and monogamous; Muhammad would rely on Khadija in many ways, until her death 25 years later. They had two sons, Qasim and Abd Allah (nicknamed al-Ṭāhir and al-Ṭayyib respectively), both died young, and four daughters— Zaynab , Ruqaiya , Umm Kulthum and Fatimah . Some Shia scholars dispute
14952-507: The agricultural land of Fadak was considered fay and belonged to the prophet, in line with verse 59:6 of the Quran. There is some evidence that Muhammad gifted his share of Fadak to Fatima when verse 17:26 was revealed, and her agents managed the property when Muhammad was alive. This is the Shia view. Among Sunnis, al-Suyuti ( d. 1505 ) and al-Dhahabi ( d. 1348 ) are of this view, while al-Jurjani ( d. 1078 ) and Ibn Kathir ( d. 1373 ) are uncertain if
15130-450: The allegations of violence should be treated with caution as they reflect the political agendas of the time. In contrast, Veccia Vaglieri is of the view that the Shia allegations are based on facts, even if they have been exaggerated. Abbas writes that some well-regarded Sunni sources mention Umar's raid and Fatima's injuries. Khetia believes that there are known instances where sensitive information has been censored by Sunni authors, such as
15308-482: The anger of Sunnis. In his al-Saqifa wa Fadak , al-Jawhari ( d. 935 ) includes a tradition to the effect that Umar and his men first threatened to set Fatima's house on fire. Then they entered the house, despite her pleas, and forced Ali and his supporters out of the house. The remainder of the account in al-Imama wa al-siyasa describes that Ali was pulled out of his house by force and threatened with death, according to Khetia. Mu'awiya ( r. 661–680 )
15486-497: The authority of the first caliph , Abu Bakr . The couple and their supporters held that Ali was the rightful successor of Muhammad, possibly referring to his announcement at the Ghadir Khumm . Controversy surrounds Fatima's death within six months of Muhammad's. Sunni Islam holds that Fatima died from grief. In Shia Islam , however, Fatima's (miscarriage and) death are said to have been the direct result of her injuries during
15664-414: The basis of this report, woman's consent in marriage has always been necessary in Islamic law. Muhammad also suggested that Ali sell his shield to pay the bridal gift ( mahr ). Muhammad performed the wedding ceremony, and they prepared an austere wedding feast with gifts from other Muslims. Shia sources have recorded that Fatima donated her wedding gown on her wedding night. Later, the couple moved into
15842-449: The battle of Badr. She was the wife of Ubaydah ibn al-Harith , a faithful Muslim and from the tribe of Al-Muttalib, for which Muhammad had special responsibility. When her husband died, Muhammad aiming to provide for her, married her in 4 A.H. She was nicknamed Umm Al-Masakeen (roughly translates as the mother of the poor), because of her kindness and charity. Close to Aisha's age, the two younger wives Hafsa and Zaynab were welcomed into
16020-483: The best member of his family. There is another version of this hadith in the canonical Sunni collection Musnad Ahmad Ibn Hanbal , in which Muhammad lauds Ali as the first in Islam, the most knowledgeable, and the most patient of the Muslim community. Nasr writes that the union of Fatima and Ali holds a special spiritual significance for Muslims, as it is seen as the marriage between the "greatest saintly figures" surrounding Muhammad. Ali did not marry again while Fatima
16198-414: The burial that vividly describes the suffering of Ali after the death of his wife, attributed to their son Husayn . Al-Mufid ( d. 1022 ), another notable Twelver scholar, includes in his Ikhtisas a related tradition ascribed to Ja'far al-Sadiq , the sixth Imam . This tradition describes that the next morning Abu Bakr and Umar berated Ali for the secret burial of Fatima. After learning that this
16376-570: The caliph. Abu Bakr was initially the sole witness to this statement, referred to as the hadith of Muhammad's inheritance . In his al-Tabaqat al-kubra , the Sunni traditionist Ibn Sa'd ( d. 845 ) furnishes the hadith of inheritance with two chains of transmission which include numerous prominent companions of Muhammad, such as Umar , Uthman , and Zubayr . In particular, he includes in these chains some notable Hashimites , such as Ali and Ibn Abbas , who are both known to have vehemently disputed this claim of Abu Bakr in other sources. On
16554-506: The canonical Kitab al-Kafi , Kamil al-ziyarat , Kitab al-Irshad , Tarikh al-Ya'qubi , and Dala'il al-imama. Of these, Tarikh al-Ya'qubi does not mention miscarriage, while Kitab al-irshad by al-Mufid ( d. 1022 ) is quiet about any violence. For the latter, considering that al-Mufid writes about violence against Fatima elsewhere, Khetia suspects that he refrained from controversial topics in his Kitab al-Irshad to render it accessible to most Twelvers without provoking
16732-861: The captives from the skirmish with the Banu Mustaliq was Juwayriya bint al-Harith , who was the daughter of the tribe's chieftain. Her husband, Mustafa bin Safwan, had been killed in the battle. She initially fell among the booty of Muhammad's companion Thabit ibn Qays ibn Al-Shammas . Upon being enslaved, Juwayriyya went to Muhammad requesting that she - as the daughter of the lord of the Mustaliq - be released, however, he refused. Meanwhile, her father approached Muhammad with ransom to secure her release, but Muhammed still refused to release her. Muhammad then offered to marry her, and she accepted. When it became known that tribes persons of Mustaliq were kinsmen of
16910-433: The children of their biological parents. After attaining puberty, they could not live with the sponsoring family but were still subsidised. This was to reduce the enmity of biological children towards sponsored children and to prevent the mingling of male sponsors with adult sponsored females. In Medina Muhammad arranged the widowed Zaynab's marriage to his adopted son Zayd ibn Harithah. Caesar E. Farah states that Muhammad
17088-495: The choice of returning to the defeated Banu Nadir, or becoming Muslim and marrying him, and Safiyyah opted for the latter choice. W. Montgomery Watt and Nomani believe that Muhammad married Safiyya as part of reconciliation with the Jewish tribe and as a gesture of goodwill. John L. Esposito states that the marriage may have been political or to cement alliances. Haykal opines that Muhammad's manumission of and marriage to Safiyaa
17266-536: The contemporary era were strictly warned against attempting to marry these widowed women, with this intent being classified as " a major offence in the sight of Allah " in the Quran . Scottish academic William Montgomery Watt states that all of Muhammad's marriages had the political aspect of strengthening friendly relationships and were based on the Arabian custom . American professor John Esposito points out that some of Muhammad's marriages were aimed at providing
17444-574: The conversion of Semitic mimation to nunation in the singular. It is best reassessed as a separate language on the Central Semitic dialect continuum. It was also thought that Old Arabic coexisted alongside—and then gradually displaced— epigraphic Ancient North Arabian (ANA), which was theorized to have been the regional tongue for many centuries. ANA, despite its name, was considered a very distinct language, and mutually unintelligible, from "Arabic". Scholars named its variant dialects after
17622-408: The deed written by Abu Bakr. Probably after Abu Bakr rejected Fatima's claim, she demanded her inheritance from the estate of her father. Abu Bakr rejected this too, claiming that Muhammad had disinherited his family. More specifically, he maintained that Muhammad had personally told him that prophets do not leave inheritance, and what they leave behind is public property that should be administered by
17800-401: The effect that "whatever had been done to her by the people" caused Fatima to become bedridden, while her body wasted until it became like a specter. This hadith seems to contain a reference to Fatima's injuries during the raid. Ayoub describes Fatima a symbol of quiet suffering in Islamic piety. In particular, the Twelver Shia believe in the redemptive power of the pain and martyrdom endured by
17978-587: The emergence of Central Semitic languages, particularly in grammar. Innovations of the Central Semitic languages—all maintained in Arabic—include: There are several features which Classical Arabic, the modern Arabic varieties, as well as the Safaitic and Hismaic inscriptions share which are unattested in any other Central Semitic language variety, including the Dadanitic and Taymanitic languages of
18156-728: The eve of the conquests: Northern and Central (Al-Jallad 2009). The modern dialects emerged from a new contact situation produced following the conquests. Instead of the emergence of a single or multiple koines, the dialects contain several sedimentary layers of borrowed and areal features, which they absorbed at different points in their linguistic histories. According to Veersteegh and Bickerton, colloquial Arabic dialects arose from pidginized Arabic formed from contact between Arabs and conquered peoples. Pidginization and subsequent creolization among Arabs and arabized peoples could explain relative morphological and phonological simplicity of vernacular Arabic compared to Classical and MSA. In around
18334-424: The event their parents, Ali and Fatima. Madelung writes that their inclusion by Muhammad in this significant ritual must have raised the religious rank of his family. A similar view is voiced by Lalani. Of those present on Muhammad's side, Shia traditions are unanimous that 'our women' refers to Fatima and 'ourselves' refers to Ali. In particular, since the verse refers to Ali as the self of Muhammad, Shia holds that
18512-589: The events after Saqifa on his deathbed. In particular, al-Tabari states that Abu Bakr wished he had "never opened Fatima's house to anything, even though they had locked it as a gesture of defiance." This appears to have been a sensitive admission that has been censored by the Sunni author Abu Ubayd al-Salam in his Kitab al-amwal . Abu Bakr's regret is also cited by the Shia al-Ya'qubi ( d. 897-8 ). Sunni sources are nearly unanimous that Ali pledged his allegiance to Abu Bakr after Fatima's death. When it became clear that Muslims did not broadly support his cause, Ali
18690-492: The face, and poured sand on her own head. The woman was taken away, Muhammad then took Safiyya for himself and told Dihya to take any other slave girl from the captives. Reportedly, Dihya got seven slaves in exchange. After that, Muhammad married her and brought her into his bed that very night. She was 17 years old at the time and was known to be exceptionally beautiful. According to Martin Lings , Muhammad had given Safiyyah
18868-607: The fact that they participate in the innovations common to all forms of Arabic. The earliest attestation of continuous Arabic text in an ancestor of the modern Arabic script are three lines of poetry by a man named Garm(')allāhe found in En Avdat, Israel , and dated to around 125 CE. This is followed by the Namara inscription , an epitaph of the Lakhmid king Imru' al-Qays bar 'Amro, dating to 328 CE, found at Namaraa, Syria. From
19046-457: The former enjoys the same authority as the latter. In contrast, most Sunni accounts by al-Tabari do not name the participants of the event, while some other Sunni historians agree with the Shia view. Some accounts about mubahala add that Muhammad, Ali, Fatima, Hasan, and Husayn stood under Muhammad's cloak, and this five are thus known as the Ahl al-Kisa ( lit. ' people of the cloak ' ). On
19224-939: The founder of Islam . As a sign of respect, Muslims refer to each of these wives with the title Umm al-Muʼminin ( Arabic : أم ٱلْمُؤْمِنِين , lit. ' Mother of the Believers ' ), which is derived from 33:6 of the Quran . Muhammad's first marriage was to Khadija bint Khuwaylid in 595, when he was 25 and she was either 28 or 41. She was his only wife until her death in 619 (the Year of Sorrow ) ended their 24-year-long marriage. After Khadija, Muhammad went on to marry ten women: Sawdah bint Zam'ah in 619; Aisha bint Abi Bakr in 623; Hafsah bint Umar , Zaynab bint Khuzayma , and Hind bint Abi Umayya in 625; Zaynab bint Jahsh in 627; Juwayriya bint al-Harith and Ramla bint Abi Sufyan ibn Harb in 628; and Safiyya bint Huyayy and Maymunah bint al-Harith in 629. Additionally,
19402-510: The fourth most useful language for business, after English, Mandarin Chinese , and French. Arabic is written with the Arabic alphabet , an abjad script that is written from right to left . Arabic is usually classified as a Central Semitic language . Linguists still differ as to the best classification of Semitic language sub-groups. The Semitic languages changed between Proto-Semitic and
19580-413: The full moon, the sun hidden by clouds, or the sun that has come out of the clouds. The first expression is a common metaphor for beauty in Arabic and Persian. The Shia al-Majlesi ( d. 1699 ) explains that the second expression is a reference to Fatima's chastity, while the third expression refers to her primordial light. Soufi details that Fatima's manners closely resembled Muhammad's. Her gait
19758-430: The household. Sawda, who was much older, extended her motherly benevolence to the younger women. Aisha and Hafsa had a lasting relationship. As for Zaynab, however, she became ill and died about three months after her marriage. The death of Zaynab coincided with that of Abu Salamah, a devout Muslim and Muhammad's foster brother, as a result of his wounds from the Battle of Uhud . Abu Salamah's widow, Umm Salama , also
19936-597: The inclusion of new words into their published standard dictionaries. They also publish old and historical Arabic manuscripts. In 1997, a bureau of Arabization standardization was added to the Educational, Cultural, and Scientific Organization of the Arab League . These academies and organizations have worked toward the Arabization of the sciences, creating terms in Arabic to describe new concepts, toward
20114-613: The language. Software and books with tapes are an important part of Arabic learning, as many of Arabic learners may live in places where there are no academic or Arabic language school classes available. Radio series of Arabic language classes are also provided from some radio stations. A number of websites on the Internet provide online classes for all levels as a means of distance education; most teach Modern Standard Arabic, but some teach regional varieties from numerous countries. The tradition of Arabic lexicography extended for about
20292-408: The last one was a companion of Muhammad. Nevertheless, Soufi notes that Abu Bakr's testimony is strong enough for Sunnis to make an exception to the Quranic rules of inheritance. Twelvers, however, reject the authenticity of the hadith of inheritance based on their own traditions, pointing also to the contradictions of this hadith with the Quran. In protest, Fatima is said to have delivered a speech at
20470-604: The late 6th century AD, a relatively uniform intertribal "poetic koine" distinct from the spoken vernaculars developed based on the Bedouin dialects of Najd , probably in connection with the court of al-Ḥīra . During the first Islamic century, the majority of Arabic poets and Arabic-writing persons spoke Arabic as their mother tongue. Their texts, although mainly preserved in far later manuscripts, contain traces of non-standardized Classical Arabic elements in morphology and syntax. Abu al-Aswad al-Du'ali ( c. 603 –689)
20648-420: The latter is taught in formal education settings. However, there have been studies reporting some degree of comprehension of stories told in the standard variety among preschool-aged children. The relation between Modern Standard Arabic and these dialects is sometimes compared to that of Classical Latin and Vulgar Latin vernaculars (which became Romance languages ) in medieval and early modern Europe. MSA
20826-420: The love and honor Muhammad gave her, and said, "I have never seen a good-natured person as the Messenger of Allah". Safiyyah remained loyal to Muhammad until he died. According to Islamic tradition, Safiyya was beautiful, patient, intelligent, learned and gentle, and she respected Muhammad as "Allah's Messenger". Muslim scholars state she had many good moral qualities. She is described as a humble worshiper and
21004-883: The many national or regional varieties which constitute the everyday spoken language. Colloquial Arabic has many regional variants; geographically distant varieties usually differ enough to be mutually unintelligible , and some linguists consider them distinct languages. However, research indicates a high degree of mutual intelligibility between closely related Arabic variants for native speakers listening to words, sentences, and texts; and between more distantly related dialects in interactional situations. The varieties are typically unwritten. They are often used in informal spoken media, such as soap operas and talk shows , as well as occasionally in certain forms of written media such as poetry and printed advertising. Hassaniya Arabic , Maltese , and Cypriot Arabic are only varieties of modern Arabic to have acquired official recognition. Hassaniya
21182-423: The marriage of Aisha with ibn Mut'im was put aside by common consent. Muhammad converted friendship of his four friends who later became the four Islamic rulers or successors, into relationship through marriage. He married Aisha and Hafsa daughters of Abu Bakr and Umar and he gave his daughters to Uthman and Ali . Aisha was the only virgin he married. The majority of traditional sources state that Aisha
21360-473: The mosque. Jafri adds that those who initially supported Ali gradually turned and pledged their allegiance to Abu Bakr. It appears that only his wife Fatima and their four small children remained on his side, writes Hazleton, in line with a statement to this effect attributed to Ali in Nahj al-balagha . Umar has been noted for his severity and misogyny, especially in Shia sources. "Umar's toughness" ( shidda )
21538-506: The most monstrous way." Ali forbade the poet to recite it, adding that the welfare of Islam was dearer to him than anything else. In sharp contrast with Muhammad's lifetime, Ali is believed to have retired from public life during the caliphates of Abu Bakr, Umar, and Uthman. Anthony describes this change in Ali's attitude as a silent censure of the first three caliphs. While he reportedly advised Abu Bakr and Umar on government and religious matters,
21716-412: The mutual distrust and hostility of Ali with Abu Bakr and Umar is well-documented, though largely downplayed or ignored in Sunni sources. Their differences were epitomized during the proceedings of the electoral council in 644 when Ali refused to be bound by the precedence of the first two caliphs. A common Sunni argument is that Ali would have never continued his relations with Umar had the latter organized
21894-782: The need for a lexical injection in Arabic, to suit concepts of the industrial and post-industrial age (such as sayyārah سَيَّارَة 'automobile' or bākhirah باخِرة 'steamship'). In response, a number of Arabic academies modeled after the Académie française were established with the aim of developing standardized additions to the Arabic lexicon to suit these transformations, first in Damascus (1919), then in Cairo (1932), Baghdad (1948), Rabat (1960), Amman (1977), Khartum [ ar ] (1993), and Tunis (1993). They review language development, monitor new words and approve
22072-523: The new leader of the Muslim ummah , refused to divide Muhammad's property among his widows and heirs, saying that he had heard Muhammad say: We (Prophets) do not have any heirs; what we leave behind is (to be given in) charity. Muhammad's widow Hafsa played a role in the collection of the first Qur'anic manuscript. After Abu Bakr had collected the copy, he gave it to Hafsa, who preserved it until Uthman took it, copied it and distributed it in Muslim lands. Some of Muhammad's widows were active politically in
22250-402: The objectives of Muhammad's marriages have been described as: "Mother of the Believers" is a term by which each of Muhammad's wives came to be prefixed with over time. It is derived from Quran 33:6 : "The Prophet is closer to the believers than their selves, and his wives are (as) their mothers" is applied to all of these women. Muhammad and his family lived in small apartments adjacent to
22428-424: The one whose sound is heard but whose person remains unseen. Now the term al-hatif is used for a telephone. Therefore, the process of tawleed can express the needs of modern civilization in a manner that would appear to be originally Arabic. In the case of Arabic, educated Arabs of any nationality can be assumed to speak both their school-taught Standard Arabic as well as their native dialects, which depending on
22606-441: The other hand, Soufi holds that Abu Bakr is generally regarded as the only credible narrator of this hadith in Sunni sources, adding that similar reports attributed to other companions have been rejected by Sunnis. Along these lines, Sajjadi writes that all (credible) versions of this hadith are narrated from Abu Bakr, his ally Umar, his daughter Aisha , and Malik ibn Aus Al-Hadathan , though some primary sources have disputed whether
22784-617: The other hand, the Sunni al-Samhoodi ( d. 1533 ) concludes that Hasan is buried next to his grandmother Fatimah bint Asad , rather than his mother Fatima. This uncertainty in Shia sources again underscores Fatima's displeasure with the Muslim community. Fatima was survived by two sons, Hasan and Husayn , and two daughters, Zaynab and Umm Kulthum . Controversy surrounds the fate of her third son Muhsin . Some canonical Shia sources report that Muhsin died in miscarriage, following Umar's raid on Fatima's house. Alternatively, Sunnis hold that Muhsin died in infancy of natural causes. It
22962-549: The overhaul of Arabic grammar first proposed by Al-Jahiz 200 years prior. The Maghrebi lexicographer Ibn Manzur compiled Lisān al-ʿArab ( لسان العرب , "Tongue of Arabs"), a major reference dictionary of Arabic, in 1290. Charles Ferguson 's koine theory claims that the modern Arabic dialects collectively descend from a single military koine that sprang up during the Islamic conquests; this view has been challenged in recent times. Ahmad al-Jallad proposes that there were at least two considerably distinct types of Arabic on
23140-408: The ownership of Fatima, requiring two men or one man and two women as witnesses per Islamic law. Khetia adds that Fatima might have expected her closeness with Muhammad to strengthen her case. In the same vein, Shias argue the truthful Fatima would have not claimed something which was not hers. In another account, Abu Bakr agreed to return Fadak to Fatima but was dissuaded by his ally Umar , who tore up
23318-647: The personal enmity between Abu Bakr and Ali. Madelung, Abbas , and Anthony have noted the poor relations between the two men. In the immediate aftermath of Muhammad's death in 11/632, the Ansar (natives of Medina ) gathered in the Saqifa ( lit. ' courtyard ' ) of the Sa'ida clan. The conventional wisdom is that they met to decide on a new leader for the Muslim community among themselves. For Madelung , however,
23496-495: The poet Sallam ibn Mishkam , who had divorced her, and second to Kenana ibn al-Rabi , a commander. In 628, Muhammad attacked Khaybar and made the inhabitants, including the Banu Nadir, surrender. Kenana, who was Safiyya's husband at the time, was tortured and then beheaded after he refused to reveal the location of his tribe's treasure. One of Muhammad's companions, Dihya al-Kalbi , asked Muhammad to be allowed to take
23674-594: The prominent jurist Abu Ubayd al-Salam ( d. 837 ), who was possibly concerned with the righteous representation of Muhammad's companions. Similar allegations have emerged against al-Tabari and al-Mas'udi ( d. 956 ). Along these lines, Lucas and Soufi both note the Sunni tendency to minimize and neutralize the conflicts among companions after Muhammad, particularly about the Saqifa affair, while these conflicts might have been amplified in Shia records. Both al-Tabari and al-Mas'udi note that Abu Bakr regretted
23852-568: The prophet had forbidden for them in his lifetime. At the same time, Abu Bakr allowed the prophet's widows to inherit his quarters in Medina. In particular, he granted his daughter Aisha some properties in the Aliya part of Medina and in Bahrain. By maintaining their status, Abu Bakr might have signaled to the Muslim community that his daughter Aisha and the rest of Muhammad's widows were the true heirs of Muhammad, according to Aslan . Madelung holds
24030-475: The prophet of Islam through marriage, the Muslims began releasing their captives. Thus, Muhammad's marriage resulted in the freedom of nearly one hundred families whom he had recently enslaved. Safiyya bint Huyayy was a noblewoman and the daughter of Huyayy ibn Akhtab , the chief of the Jewish tribe Banu Nadir , who was executed after surrendering at the Battle of the Trench . She had been married first to
24208-412: The prophet that, "If beauty ( husn ) were a person, it would be Fatima; indeed she is greater," while some Shia authors have likened her to a human houri . Fatima was severely bereaved after Muhammad's death in A.H. 11/632 C.E . Several elegies to Muhammad, attributed to Fatima, have survived and are collected in a diwan of poetry. At the same time, Fatima also actively contested
24386-454: The pure ' ), al-Mubaraka ( lit. ' the blessed ' ), and al-Mansura ( lit. ' helped by God ' ). Another Shia title is al-Muḥadditha, in view of the reports that angels spoke to Fatima on multiple occasions, similar to Mary , mother of Jesus . Fatima is also recognized as Sayyidat Nisa' al-Janna ( lit. ' mistress of the women of paradise ' ) and Sayyidat Nisa' al-Alamin ( lit. ' mistress of
24564-410: The region may be mutually unintelligible. Some of these dialects can be considered to constitute separate languages which may have "sub-dialects" of their own. When educated Arabs of different dialects engage in conversation (for example, a Moroccan speaking with a Lebanese), many speakers code-switch back and forth between the dialectal and standard varieties of the language, sometimes even within
24742-444: The saga of Fadak as a mere financial dispute. According to Aslan, Abu Bakr's actions are often regarded as a political move to weaken Muhammad's clan and strip his kin from their privileged status. Aslan also argues that Abu Bakr's efforts were intended to undermine Ali's claim to the caliphate. These efforts, writes Aslan, are partly explained by Abu Bakr's conviction that the caliphate must reside outside of Muhammad's clan and partly by
24920-467: The same occasion, Muhammad is also believed to have referred to them as the Ahl al-Bayt, according to Shia and some Sunni sources, including the canonical Sahih Muslim and Sunan al-Tirmidhi . Arabic language Arabic (endonym: اَلْعَرَبِيَّةُ , romanized : al-ʿarabiyyah , pronounced [al ʕaraˈbijːa] , or عَرَبِيّ , ʿarabīy , pronounced [ˈʕarabiː] or [ʕaraˈbij] )
25098-458: The same sentence. The issue of whether Arabic is one language or many languages is politically charged, in the same way it is for the varieties of Chinese , Hindi and Urdu , Serbian and Croatian , Scots and English, etc. In contrast to speakers of Hindi and Urdu who claim they cannot understand each other even when they can, speakers of the varieties of Arabic will claim they can all understand each other even when they cannot. While there
25276-628: The second and third Shia Imams, respectively. Fatima has been compared to Mary , mother of Jesus , especially in Shia Islam. Muhammad is said to have regarded her as the best of women and the dearest person to him. She is often viewed as an ultimate archetype for Muslim women and an example of compassion, generosity, and enduring suffering. It is through Fatima that Muhammad's family line has survived to this date. Her name and her epithets remain popular choices for Muslim girls. When Muhammad died in 632, Fatima and her husband Ali refused to acknowledge
25454-517: The sister-in-law of Abbas, a longtime ally of his. By marrying her, Muhammad also established kinship ties with the banu Makhzum, his previous opponents. As the Meccans did not allow him to stay any longer, Muhammad left the city, taking Maymuna with him. Her original name was "Barra" but he called her "Maymuna", meaning the blessed, as his marriage to her had also marked the first time in seven years when he could enter his hometown Mecca. According to
25632-458: The sole example of Medieval linguist Abu Hayyan al-Gharnati – who, while a scholar of the Arabic language, was not ethnically Arab – Medieval scholars of the Arabic language made no efforts at studying comparative linguistics, considering all other languages inferior. In modern times, the educated upper classes in the Arab world have taken a nearly opposite view. Yasir Suleiman wrote in 2011 that "studying and knowing English or French in most of
25810-563: The standardization of these new terms throughout the Arabic-speaking world, and toward the development of Arabic as a world language . This gave rise to what Western scholars call Modern Standard Arabic. From the 1950s, Arabization became a postcolonial nationalist policy in countries such as Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, and Sudan. Arabic usually refers to Standard Arabic, which Western linguists divide into Classical Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic. It could also refer to any of
25988-455: The statuses of Rayhanah bint Zayd and Mariyya bint Shamʿun are disputed, as there has been disagreement among Muslim scholars on whether they were concubines or wives. With the exception of Aisha, all of these women were previously widowed or divorced. The common view is that Muhammad had seven biological children (three sons and four daughters) and all but one of them were produced with Khadija between 598 and 611 or 615. Mariyya bore Muhammad
26166-422: The succession of Abu Bakr and maintained that Ali was the rightful successor to Muhammad. Fatima died within six months of her father and her death at a young age is subject of intense controversy with allegations against Abu Bakr and his ally Umar , as detailed below. Fadak was a village located to the north of Medina , at a distance of two days travel. As part of a peace treaty with a Jewish tribe, half of
26344-501: The towns where the inscriptions were discovered (Dadanitic, Taymanitic, Hismaic, Safaitic). However, most arguments for a single ANA language or language family were based on the shape of the definite article, a prefixed h-. It has been argued that the h- is an archaism and not a shared innovation, and thus unsuitable for language classification, rendering the hypothesis of an ANA language family untenable. Safaitic and Hismaic, previously considered ANA, should be considered Old Arabic due to
26522-427: The traditions cited by al-Tabari and al-Baladhuri do not have chains of transmission that reach back to the time of the conflict. Madelung believes that Abu Bakr later placed a boycott on Ali and, more broadly, on the Banu Hashim to abandon their support for Ali. As a result, prominent men ceased to speak to Ali, according to a Sunni hadith attributed to Aisha . Hazleton similarly writes that Ali prayed alone even in
26700-523: The two visitors of Muhammad's words, "Fatima is part of me, and whoever angers her has angered me." The dying Fatima then told the two that they had indeed angered her, and that she would soon take her complaint to God and His prophet, Muhammad. There are also Sunni reports that Fatima reconciled with Abu Bakr and Umar, though Madelung suggests that they were invented to address the negative implications of Fatima's anger. Following her will, Ali buried Fatima secretly at night and hid her burial plot. According to
26878-464: The verse was revealed to Muhammad in Medina. The revenue of Fadak largely supported needy travelers, the poor, military expeditions, and Muhammad's family, who were forbidden from receiving general alms. Following Muhammad's death in 632 and early in his caliphate , Abu Bakr is said to have seized Fadak from Fatima by evicting her agents, possibly as a show of authority to Muhammad's clan ( Banu Hashim ) who had not yet pledged allegiance to Abu Bakr. This
27056-423: The verse, but rather a compromise on divorce so long as she could remain his wife in name. Aisha was the daughter of Muhammad's close friend Abu Bakr . She was initially betrothed to Jubayr ibn Muṭʽim , a Muslim whose father, though pagan , was friendly to the Muslims. When Khawlah bint Hakim suggested that Muhammad marry Aisha after the death of Muhammad's first wife (Khadija), the previous agreement regarding
27234-448: The women of the worlds ' ) in Shia and Sunni collections of hadith, including the canonical Sunni Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim . The name Fatima is from the Arabic root f-t-m ( lit. ' to wean ' ) and signifies the Shia belief that she, her progeny, and her adherents ( shi'a ) have been spared from hellfire. Alternatively, the word Fatima is associated in Shia sources with Fatir ( lit. ' creator ' ,
27412-451: The world have classes that teach Arabic as part of their foreign languages , Middle Eastern studies , and religious studies courses. Arabic language schools exist to assist students to learn Arabic outside the academic world. There are many Arabic language schools in the Arab world and other Muslim countries. Because the Quran is written in Arabic and all Islamic terms are in Arabic, millions of Muslims (both Arab and non-Arab) study
27590-399: Was Fatima's wish, the account continues that Umar threatened to locate and exhume Fatima's body and then re-bury her after funeral prayer . According to this account, what prevented Umar from materializing his threat was Ali's warning, "By God, as long as I'm alive and [my sword] Zulfiqar is in my hands, you will not reach her, and you know best [not to do it]." For Khetia, the interpretation
27768-421: Was alive. However, al-Miswar ibn Makhrama , a companion who was nine when Muhammad died, appears to be the sole narrator of an alleged marriage proposal of Ali to Abu Jahl's daughter in Sunni sources. While polygyny is permitted in Islam, Muhammad reportedly banned this marriage from the pulpit, saying that there can be no joining of the daughter of the prophet and the daughter of the enemy of God (Abu Jahl). He
27946-435: Was already hoping to marry Muhammad; or that she might have wanted to marry someone of whom Muhammad disapproved for political reasons. According to Maududi , after the Qur'anic verse 33:36 was revealed, Zaynab acquiesced and married Zayd. Zaynab's marriage was unharmonious. According to Watt, it is almost certain that she was working for marriage with Muhammad before the end of 626. "Zaynab had dressed in haste when she
28124-467: Was also a general who led thousands of Muslims to battle during the First Fitna . During the Muslim war with Mecca , many men were killed leaving behind widows and orphans. Hafsa bint Umar , daughter of Umar ibn Al-Khattab , was widowed at Battle of Badr when her husband Khunais ibn Hudhaifa was killed in action. Muhammad married her in 3 A.H./625 CE. Zaynab bint Khuzayma was also widowed at
28302-405: Was also similar to the prophet's, according to Veccia Vaglieri, who also argues that Fatima must have enjoyed good health on the account of bearing multiple children, her arduous house chores, and her journeys to Mecca. Her sources are silent about the appearance of Fatima, which leads her to the conclusion, "Fatima was certainly not a beautiful woman". In contrast, the Sunni al-Khwarazmi relates from
28480-496: Was betrothed to Muhammad at the age of six or seven, but she stayed in her parents' home until the age of nine, or ten according to Ibn Hisham , when the marriage was consummated with Muhammad, then 53, in Medina . Aisha's age at marriage has been a source of controversy and debate, and many non-Muslim historians, Islamic scholars, and Muslim writers have challenged the previously accepted timeline of her life by claiming that Aisha
28658-564: Was born in Mecca to Khadija , the first of Muhammad's wives . The mainstream Sunni view is that Khadija gave birth to Fatima in 605 CE, at age fifty, five years before the first Quranic revelations . This implies that Fatima was over eighteen at the time of her marriage, which would have been unusual in Arabia . Twelver sources, however, report that Fatima was born in about 612 or 615 CE, when Khadija would have been slightly older. The report of
28836-406: Was bound up with old practices belonging to a lower, communalistic level of familial institutions where a child's paternity was not definitely known; and this lower level was in process being eliminated by Islam." The Qur'an 33:37 however, indicated that this marriage was a duty imposed upon him by God. It implied that treating adopted sons as real sons was objectionable and that there should now be
29014-410: Was determined to establish the legitimacy and right to equal treatment of the adopted. Zaynab disapproved of the marriage, and her brothers rejected it, because according to Ibn Sa'd , she was of aristocratic lineage and Zayd was a former slave. Watt states that it is not clear why Zaynab was unwilling to marry Zayd as Muhammad esteemed him highly. He postulates that Zaynab, being an ambitious woman,
29192-436: Was disarmed and carried away. The mob, however, retreated without Ali's pledge after Fatima pleaded with them, as reported in al-Imama wa al-siyasa . Alternatively, al-Baladhuri states that Ali capitulated and pledged allegiance to Abu Bakr immediately after Umar's threat. In contrast, the canonical Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim relate that Ali pledged to Abu Bakr after Fatima died. Soufi comments that all but one of
29370-460: Was his employer and a woman of considerable wealth who reportedly supported him financially and emotionally, and she also became his first follower when he began preaching the message of Islam . Both her age and marital history at the time of her marriage to the 25-year-old Muhammad remain unclear; she was either 28 or 41 and may or may not have been a virgin , with the existence of any previous children also being disputed. Nonetheless, this marriage
29548-700: Was in Abyssinia at the time when she learned her husband had died. She had previously converted to Islam (in Mecca) against her father's will. After her migration to Abyssinia her husband had converted to Christianity . Muhammad dispatched 'Amr bin Omaiyah Ad-Damri with a letter to the Negus (king), asking him for Umm Habiba's hand—that was in Muharram , in the seventh year of Al-Hijra. Maria al-Qibtiyya
29726-463: Was in fact 18-19 years old when she consummated her marriage to Muhammad according to historical reviews. Both Aisha and Sawda, his two wives, were given apartments adjoined to the Al-Masjid al-Nabawi mosque . Aisha was extremely scholarly and inquisitive. Her contribution to the spread of Muhammad's message was extraordinary, and she served the Muslim community for 44 years after his death. She
29904-555: Was one of several slaves whom the Governor of Egypt sent as a present to Muhammad. He kept her as a concubine despite the objections of his official wives. It is said in early biographies of Muhammad that Mariyah is a slave girl or concubine. Mariyah bore Muhammad a son, Ibrahim who later died at 18 months. As part of the treaty of Hudaybiyah , Muhammad visited Mecca for the pilgrimage. There Maymuna bint al-Harith proposed marriage to him. Muhammad accepted, and thus married Maymuna,
30082-435: Was partly in order to alleviate her tragedy and partly to preserve their dignity, and compares these actions to previous conquerors who married the daughters and wives of the kings whom they had defeated. According to some, by marrying Safiyyah, Muhammad aimed at ending the enmity and hostility between Jews and Islam. Muhammad convinced Safiyya to convert to Islam. According to Abu Ya'la al-Mawsili, Safiyya came to appreciate
30260-559: Was profoundly upset. She said to him "I wish it was I who was suffering instead of you." In the same year, Muhammad signed a peace treaty with his Meccan enemies , the Quraysh effectively ending the state of war between the two parties. He soon married the daughter of the Quraysh leader and military commander, Abu Sufyan ibn Harb , aimed at further reconciling his opponents. He sent a proposal for marriage to Ramla bint Abi Sufyan , who
30438-419: Was reluctant for three reasons: she claimed to suffer from jealousy and pointed out the prospect of an unsuccessful marriage, her old age, and her young family that needed support. But Muhammad replied that he would pray to God to free her from jealousy, that he too was of old age, and that her family was like his family. She married Muhammad around the end of 4 AH. Rayhana bint Zayd was a Jewish woman from
30616-487: Was responsible for domestic chores. It has also been related that Muhammad taught the couple a tasbih to help ease the burden of their poverty: The Tasbih of Fatima consists of the phrases Allah-hu Akbar ( lit. ' God is the greatest ' ), Al-hamdu-lillah ( lit. ' all praise is due to God ' ), and Subhan-Allah ( lit. ' God is glorious ' ). Their financial circumstances later improved after more lands fell to Muslims in
30794-553: Was suggested by Khawlah bint Hakim that he should marry Sawdah bint Zam'ah , who had suffered many hardships after she became a Muslim. Prior to that, Sawdah was married to a paternal cousin of hers named As-Sakran ibn ‘Amr and had five or six children from her previous marriage. She along with her husband migrated to Abyssinia due to persecution of Muslims by Meccans. Her husband died in Abyssinia and hence Sawdah had to come back to Mecca. There are disagreements in Muslim tradition whether Muhammad first married Sawdah or Aisha , but Sawda
30972-489: Was the most significant by all accounts: six of Muhammad's seven biological children were produced with Khadija and the couple remained monogamous for the entirety of the 24 years that they were together. Khadija's death in 619, at the age of either 52 or 65, brought an end to the first marriage and the monogamy of Muhammad, who was 49 at this time. Upon his migration to Medina , he began actively practicing polygyny and acquired about one wife per year. He did not, however, have
31150-519: Was the rightful successor to Muhammad, possibly referring to Muhammad's announcement at Ghadir Khumm . Ali is believed to have explained this position to Abu Bakr. After the Saqifa affair, Abu Bakr reportedly tasked his ally Umar with securing Ali's pledge of allegiance. As noted by al-Tabari ( d. 923 ), the latter led an armed mob to Ali's residence and threatened to set the house on fire if Ali and his supporters would not pledge their allegiance to Abu Bakr. The scene soon grew violent, and Zubayr
31328-409: Was thrown over him at the instigation of Abu Jahl , Muhammad's enemy and a polytheist . Fatima lost her mother, Khadija, in childhood. When Khadija died, it is said that Gabriel descended upon Muhammad with a message to console Fatima. Fatima married Muhammad's cousin, Ali , in Medina around 1 or 2 AH (623–5 CE), possibly after the Battle of Badr . There is Sunni and Shia evidence that some of
31506-555: Was told 'the Messenger of God is at the door.' She jumped up in haste and excited the admiration of the Messenger of God, so that he turned away murmuring something that could scarcely be understood. However, he did say overtly: 'Glory be to God the Almighty! Glory be to God, who causes the hearts to turn!'" Zaynab told Zayd about this, and he offered to divorce her, but Muhammad told him to keep her. The story laid much stress on Zaynab's perceived beauty. Nomani considers this story to be
31684-450: Was very fond of. Sawdah pleaded that she was old anyway and did not care for men; her only wish was to be resurrected as the Prophet's wife on the Day of Judgment . Muhammad agreed to her proposal, and Qur'an 4:128-9 was revealed. Other traditions say that Muhammad did not really reject her, but that she was afraid that he would, and it was not rejection that was considered in the revelation of
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