ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Biography of Imam `alĪ Ibn AbĪ-tĀlib The Sons of the Prophet This alliance was of great importance that on the one hand, it was the origin of the progeny of the Prophet (a.s) and on the other, the enemies of Islam were quietened who were blaming him of being issueless.

Although the Prophet (a.s) male issues did not survive, Hasan (a.s) and Husayn (a.s) on account of being the sons of his daughter, Fatimah al-Zahra’, were accepted as his sons and through them his progeny prospered and spread throughout the world.

Therefore, the Prophet (a.s) said: “Allah has put the progeny of all other prophets in their backbones and my progeny in the backbone of `Ali ibn Abi-Talib (a.s)”[1] Whether the offspring is from the daughter or from the son, it is certainly the offspring of the parents! Not considering the children of daughters as the offspring of the father was the practice of the Days of Ignorance. In those days, some persons considered it a shame to give a daughter in marriage to another family.

They used to think that they were sending the daughter as a slave to the other house. In some tribes, they considered a great honor to bury the newborn daughters alive. When these daughters somehow survived and were married, their children were looked down upon as outcasts. Therefore, an Arab poet of those days has very nicely described this tendency: Our sons’ sons are our sons. Our daughters’ sons are but strangers!

The Prophet of Islam (a.s) termed the daughters’ offspring as the fathers’ offspring and abolished the practice of the Days of Ignorance that only the sons’ offspring deserve to be accepted as the offspring of a family. Therefore, whenever he mentioned about the sons of Fatimah al-Zahra’, he called them his own sons. Imam al-Hasan and Imam al-Husayn (a.s) too addressed him as father. They addressed `Ali (a.s) as Abul-Hasan.

But after the expiry of the Prophet (a.s), Imam al-Hasan and Imam al-Husayn (a.s) started calling `Ali [1] Al-Sawā`iq al-Muhriqah, Page 154 (a.s) as father. `Ali (a.s) too considered them as the sons of the Prophet (a.s) on account of being Fatimah al-Zahra'’s sons. Therefore, at the Battle of Siffin, when Imam al-Hasan (a.s) went forward to combat, `Ali (a.s) said, “Stop this youth from going to combat!