Friday, September 29, 2017

Fatima Fatir: The Divine Feminine within Islam


Years before on the night of my Sufi initiation, I had dreamed of Fatima who initiated me in the Mundus Imaginalis, or the Imaginal World. I dreamed I had entered the sacred precincts of the Ka'aba, in Mecca, on a Night of the Full Moon and there was no one there but me. The doors of the Ka'aba suddenly opened up and a female voice bade me to enter the inner sanctum of the Ka'aba. I entered the Ka'aba and there seated dressed in emerald green and wearing a white headdress, with the words Al-Hayy, translated as “the Living” written in Arabic on the headdress, was Fatima. She bade me to sit in front of Her and then commanded me to open my mouth. Laying next to Her was the double-edged sword of 'Ali, Zu'l-Fiqar. I opened my mouth and She grabbed my tongue and pierced it with Zu'l-Fiqar. Instead of pain, however, I felt ecstasy and was transported in the next scene of the dream to a dazzling desert landscape whose sands consisted of flakes of pure lustrous gold. I stood in this desert watching the Sunrise and as the Sun rose Fatima's face shone from within it fully unveiled. The higher this Imaginal Sun rose to its meridian, the more it formed itself into various shapes and forms, until it finally became the World Tree, the Tree of Life, or the Tree of Reality as I call it, whose roots reached into every expanse of Heaven and earth. I woke up! It was such a vivid dream I can never forget it!

- Wahid Azal, Fatimiyya Sufi Order


Fatima tul Zehra (Fatima the Radiant, Fatima the Brightest Star, Fatima-Star of Venus, Fatima-The Evening Star) the daughter of the Prophet, is the secret in Sufism.

She is the Hujjat of 'Ali:
In other words, she establishes the esoteric sense of his knowledge and guides those who attain to it. 


Through her perfume, we breathe Irfan. 
Fatima (the daughter of the Prophet Muhammad) was considered to be of pure angelic essence by Sufi mystics----- several variations of a major hadith describe how she was conceived on the night of Mi'raj (ascension) and was given to Prophet as a divine gift of Allah's blessing.On this night Gabriel took Muhammad( PBUH) to Jerusalem and then to Heaven. 
I have always taken solace in her symbology even before my Sufic initiation because her biography contained threads for me to hold on to. She grew up motherless like me and then she died at a very young age( martyred)  because patriarchy could not accept that she ( a woman) was Prophet's spiritual and legal heir. So laws were passed to disinherit her, a false history was written( is still being written ) to show she was not Prophet (PBUH) only daughter -----and grave markings are removed from her grave so you cant even pray at her grave. Such was the envy of her station, that her funeral was in the dark of the night and attended by very few because a heavily attended burial would have been a cause for insecurity for men who had become guardians of her father's message.

Lady Fatima (as) has various names , they are: 


  • Siddiqah (the honest) 
  • Al-Mubarakah (the blessed one)
  •  Al-Tahirah (the pure) 
  •  Az-Zakiyah (the chaste)
  •  Ar-Radhiatul Mardhiah (she who is gratified and who shall be satisfied)
  •  Al-Mardiyyah (the one pleasing to Allah ) 
  •  Al-Muhaddathah (a person other than a Prophet, which the angels speak to) 
  •  Az-Zahraa (the splendid)
  •  Fatir ( the createrix) 

Her Divine Feminine soul is concealed within the name  'Fatima Fatir'. 


Only very few Sufi Circle's know the secret of this mystery( the Bektasi & Mvelvi) . I met them in Washington DC, and during  Zikars of her name,  I was opened to receive the mysteries of her station. 
To understand Hazrat Fatima's special role in Sufism and the sacred mysteries of Imamat and transmission of sacred knowledge--- you have to first grasp that the process of giving birth to the spirit is the feminine principle( as explained by Sufi Frithjob Schuon in hos books about Hazrat Maryam and Fatima)
That to which has been given birth is the masculine. Its the sacred Yin and Yang dance of creation. Which is why, in spiritual transformation and rebirth, only the masculine principle can be born, for the feminine principle is the process itself. Once birth is given to the spirit, this principle remains as Fatima, the Creative Feminine, the Daughter of the Prophet, in a state of potentiality within the spirit reborn. The spirit of Imamat was born within her and the line of sacred knowledge ( transmitted to Sufi's) starts from her.


This is the secret of a cryptic Hadith in which Prophet Muhammad( PBUH) called her Um Abi'ha (mother of her father).
What mystery was the Prophet hinting at by this statement?
While Fatima Zehra was Prophet Muhammad's daughter, the Rasulullah (Prophet of God ) understood that his gnosis was bestowed upon him from the Divine Feminine source.
As such, Hazrat Fatima is directly associated with Sophia, the divine wisdom, which gives birth to all knowledge from God. She has thus become another symbolic equivalent of the Great Mother. 
Lady Fatima was chosen from all women to be The Mother source of Prophet Muhammad's lineage, the core of the generation of Prophet. Through her, the progeny of the Prophet multiplies — through a woman and became guardians of his message. 
She is considered to be the source of the Imam's wisdom because she is lawh mahfuz or 'the hidden tablet; upon which Allah wrote. She is the source of Imamat and Batini!
It is said by some Sufis that there is another great secret regarding Fatima(AS)
After the Prophet's death, Fatima lived seventy-five days. During this time the Archangel Gabriel came to her and consoled her by telling her what her father was doing in the spiritual worlds, what his status was, and what would come about in the Islamic community after her death.Imam 'Ali wrote down what Fatima dictated to him. Her words were collected into what is known as Fatima's book: it contains what makes people need us and makes us in need of no one,' stated Imam Sadiq. 

When you are alone, feel helpless and oppressed by a man tormenting you --- call upon her by feeding to an orphan for 10 days. 
Legend says, that after 10, 30, and 60 days ---she would appear on your dream and heal your soul from despair.
 Laila tul qadar is her night, Sufi's believe she is Qadr and calling out to her can guarantee redemption.

She is the helper of the alone woman; the grieving mother and the suffering daughter because she has been all three: she lost her mother as a child: she lost her father when quite young and then she lost her sons.



Her sons were martyred; her daughter lived alone atop a mountain and descendants of Yazid still try to bomb her shrine.

But she will be revered till all the Muslims has not become Isis robots because she is the personification of divine feminine of Islam. 


She is the soul of the mysteries!
The wife of the door to all the unknowable!
The mother of the king of martyrs!
She contains multitudes within her!
Ponder upon her life and your heart would open and you will surrender your pain to her!
Send salam to her and she would light up your dark nights and perfume your solitude!
Call her when the world of men pushes you down and she will give you strength!

And if you ever get a chance
, visit her grave and say Fatiha for Fatima Fatir!

1 comment:

  1. Thats for sure a matter of belief... if she was.. as the secret claims, then it is a good example of the subtle and the apparent, and if it is not, it is an example of how people will find for themselves signs of the divine feminine present in temporal life events. and maybe the truth is both, and Allah SWT knows best.

    ReplyDelete