If Khadija was the ideal mother, Fatima Zahra was the ideal daughter.

If Khadija was the ideal mother, Fatima Zahra was the ideal daughter. Fatima Zahra, the ideal daughter of Muhammad Mustafa and Khadija, also became the ideal mother. She was the mother of two boys - Hasan and Husain - and two girls - Zaynab and Umm Kulthum. Khadija and Fatima Zahra - the mother and daughter - were two of the only four perfect women in the world. Both of them made motherhood sacrosanct. They brought glory and honor to motherhood.

As noted earlier in this book, women had no status in pre-Islamic Arabia. In the male-dominated Arab society they were ruthlessly exploited and were treated like cattle. Muhammad Mustafa, the Messenger of Allah, put an end to their exploitation by men, and gave them a status which they didn't have in any country, at any time. About mothers, he said: "Paradise is under the feet of one's mother." This means that no one may entertain the hope of entering paradise if one has displeased one's mother.

One's admission to paradise hinges upon one's ability to win salvation, and no one who has displeased one's mother, will ever win salvation. The Prophet of Islam has thus made the winning of the pleasure of one's mother - a woman - a condition-precedent for one to win salvation and to enter paradise. Previous…