The Issue of “Beit-ol-Ahzan”
According to Islamic history, the holy prophet’s only daughter Sayedah Fatima (SA) was mourning continuously after him both for missing her father and for what people did to her husband and deviated Islam from its true path. As the people of Madinah were feeling the atmosphere of grief and sadness resulting from her continuous crying which affected their daily lives, instead of returning to the true Islam and following the orders of the holy prophet (SAA), they complained this to her husband, Amir-ol-Momenin Ali (SA). Therefore, Amir-ol-Momenin Ali (SA) prepared a small place outside of the city (apparently near the graves of the martyrs) for Sayedah Fatima (SA) to go there and mourn. This place is known as “Beit-ol-Ahzan”, meaning the house of sorrow. This event has been under special attention by Shia Muslims as they are intended to follow the orders of the prophet (SA) and real Islam, which guided them to obey and love his household, the most important figures of whom being Amir-ol-Momenin Ali (SA) and Sayedah Fatima (SA).
Recently, a (fake) scholar calling himself Shia claimed that this story was not true and we don’t have trustable narrations, even inside Shia school of taught, to accept it. He claims that the continuous mourning of Sayedah Fatimah (SA) after her father and the complaints of people of Madinah and existence of a place for her to grief, are all based on a made-up narration!!! Similar claims have already been done before this and the great scholar Sayed Jaafar Mortaza Ameli[1] has given a complete response to them[2]. As he mentioned, many books confirm the occurrence of this event, including Khesal[3] , Amali Sheikh Sadouq[4] , Tafsir Ayyashi[5], Kashf-ol-Ghommah[6], Manaqeb Ale-Abi-Taleb[7] , etc. In addition to the narration books, there are also many history books stating the existence of Beit-ol-Ahzan. Just to mention a few, Ibn-Jobair[8] , Ali-ibn-Abibakr-ibn-Ali Heravy[9] , and Samhoudi Shafie[10] all reported the existence of a place called Beit-ol-Ahzan in which Sayedah Fatimah used to mourn for her father.
Once again, we have to emphasize that our understanding is it wasn’t the voice of crying that bothered the people of Madinah, but its effect and the sadness atmosphere resulting from it. Such effects were not strange for those people as they had already seen so many miracles from the prophet (SAA) and his Ahl-ol-Bait (as it can be proved using both Shia and Sonni narrations, the term “Ahl-ol-Bait” which means the household of the prophet (SAA) refers to Amir-ol-Momein Ali, Sayedah Fatimah and their successors). Actually, it has been always the same in the history of religion: some people stood against the prophets even though they had already seen a lot of miracles from them. The point is, the prophets and their true successors always tried to guide people to the path of God by several different means. This mourning and crying of Sayedah Fatimah could also have similar effects on people who wanted to follow the truth. Sadly however, only a few were faithful and the rest didn’t accept the guidance given by Ahl-ol-Bait. Instead of rethinking of what they did to Amir-ol-Momenin Ali (SA) and Sayedah Fatimah (SA) and trying to compensate part of their injustice and unfaithful deeds, they complained to the grief of Sayedah Fatimah (SA)!!! This was their great sin which resulted into the deviation of real Islam, the effects of which can still be seen, for example in the appearance of terrorist groups like ISIS, etc.
________________________
1. سیدجعفر مرتضی عاملی
2. «مأساة الزهرا سلام الله علیها», V1, p 336 -343
3. خصال, V2, P 272
4. امالی, V2, P121
5. تفسیر عیاشی, V2, P188
6. کشف الغمه, V2, P 124
7. مناقب آل ابیطالب, V3, P322
8. رحله ابن جبیر, P 144
9. الاشارات, V1, P 79
10. وفاء الوفاء بأخبار دار المصطفى, V3, P918, and also the footnote at P498
@kalam_shia