her father,, during the early days in Mecca and supporting him in any way she could. SSSSuuuuppppppppoooorrrrtttteeeerrrr ooooffff tttthhhheeee MMMMeeeessssssssaaaaggggeeee It is no coincidence that the only child of Prophet Muhammad to survive past infancy was a girl, his daughter, Given the era in which Islam came to the Arabian peninsula and the level of ignorance (jahiliya) of the Arabs, Lady Fatima not only served as a comfort and point of solace and strength for the Prophet, but she played a direct role in the socio-political-ethical revolution which her father was Fatima al-Zahra: The Spring of Inspiration In this Meccan period, the Prophet had to struggle for the hearts and minds of the Quraysh. He had to make them understand the futility of their worship of the false gods and their backward tribal customs - and this is where his daughter, Lady Fatima, played a prominent role. In a society which looked down upon daughters, such that the Quran is quoted as saying: “When one of them receives tidings of the birth of a female, his face remains darkened, and he is wroth inwardly (Q. 16:58),” it is no wonder that God willed that the only child of the Prophet of Islam to survive would be his daughter as together, they could counter the negative stigma attached to girls in that society and for generations to At a time when women were deprived of inheritance, and in fact were actually inherited by their male family members, Fatima al-Zahra became the conduit through which humanity was taught that women had a right to inherit and bequeath and that they were considered equals in the eyes of the law – albeit by maintaining a balance in the Divinely-sent When it comes to the real-world backing which Fatima al-Zahra provided, she not only saw, but also lived the calamities her father experienced. She felt the persecution and pains which her father endured – and perhaps even more than him as she was a She witnessed the actions of the people, including close family members as they insulted, mocked and physically It is mentioned in the books of history that the noted companion of the Prophet, Ibn Mas’ud has said, “One day when the Prophet was offering prayers in the precincts of the Ka’bah, Abu Jahl and a group of callous individuals of the Quraysh who were present, saw the Prophet. Abu Jahl said to his companions, ‘Which of you can bring the placenta of the camel belonging to so-and-so and put it on the shoulders of Muhammad when he prostrates in his prayers?’ One of them ran to bring the placenta along with blood and feces, and threw it on the Prophet’s shoulders while he Fatima al-Zahra: The Spring of Inspiration was prostrating. Seeing this, the harsh Meccans burst into Ibn Mas’ud noted that although he hesitated to remove the filth from the Prophet’s shoulder who st