Sayyida Nafissa- PART III

[أبو الحسنيين]

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IN THE NAME OF GOD THE COMPASSIONATE THE MERCIFUL

Subject: THE BLESSED AHL AL BAYT OR PROPHET MOHAMED’S HOUSEHOLD “SAYYIDA NAFISA”
PART III

“And Allah only wishes to remove all abomination from you, ye members of the family, and to make you pure and spotless” Holy - Quran 33-33.


Sayyida Nafisa was renowned for asceticism and for living a life of hardship (zuhd). When asked what her meals consisted of, Zaynab, daughter of her brother, replied, “My auntie used to eat once every three days, she had a basket hanging in her niche and whenever she wanted something small to eat she would find something in that basket, sent from Almighty Allah, and she never ate anything other than food from her husband and that which Allah sent her as a gift.”.

One day the governor of Egypt sent Sayyida Nafisa 100,000 Dirhams (equivalent to perhaps millions of dollars in today's money), he said, “Take this money from me, I ask nothing in return, but I thank Allah for this opportunity to repent. I give this money to you because of your piety.”, she took that money as her own and distributed it to the poor until nothing remained. Princes, nobles and many ordinary people sent her gifts, she accepted them, and then distributed them in whatever way she liked.

Historians report her niece Zaynab saying, “I served my auntie Sayyida Nafisa for forty years, I never saw her sleeping at night and I never saw her eating during the day, except the days forbidden to fast: the two “Eids and the Days of Tashriq (11th - 13th of Dhul Hijja).”, Zaynab once said to Sayyida Nafisa, “You must take care of yourself”, she replied, “How shall I take care of myself before I reach my Lord? Ahead of me are so many barriers which no one can cross except the successful Ones (Al- Faizun).” The Servant Returned to The Master When she began to feel her death approaching, Sayyida Nafisa dug her grave with her own hands inside her home, and every day she would enter the grave and worship in it, as a reminder of the coming afterlife.

She used to pray all her supererogatory prayers inside that grave. Al-Allama al-Ajhuri said, “She completed the Holy Quran while sitting in her grave six thousand times, and she granted the rewards of that recitation to all deceased Muslims.” , When Sayyida Nafisa’s illness worsened she wrote to her husband Ishaq al-Mu`taman, who was living in Madina al-Munawwara, asking him to return to Egypt. He came with their son Qassim and daughter Umm-Kulthum, she became very ill at the beginning of Ramadan, 208 AH, and her companions asked her to stop fasting to keep her strength. She refused, saying, “I have been asking Allah to die fasting for thirty years; now you want me to break the fast?”


Upon her passing, her husband prepared to move her body to Madinat al-Munawarra, to be buried in Jannat al-Baqi, but the people of Egypt asked him not to do that, but to bury her in the grave she had dug with her own hands. The governor of Egypt along with many people asked Ishaq al-Mu`taman to bury Sayyida Nafisa in Egypt. They collected a large sum of money and offered it to him. Returning the next day, they asked for his decision. He replied, "I have decided to bury her here. I saw the Blessed Prophet (PBUH) in a dream last night, and he told me, “Give them back their money and bury your wife in Egypt”.

The night Sayyida Nafisa died was an immense tragedy for the people of Egypt, who were stunned at the news , coming from every village in Egypt, people gathered at her house in Cairo, lighting candles and weeping , for them Sayyida Nafisa was a beacon of knowledge and a source of blessing, Baraka, from the Progeny of the Holy Prophet , it was a day of sorrow and mourning throughout Egypt , the day they attempted to bury her, it was very difficult to move her body to her final resting place, due to the crowds of people lamenting, crying, and calling on Allah by His Names and Attributes. The like of that gathering was unprecedented in all of Egypt.

It would be worth mentioning that according to Imam Ibn Hajar Al Asqalani who recorded more than 150 miracles or Karamat upon Sayyida Nafisa, among these Karamat:

*The story is related that when Sayyida Nafisa arrived in Egypt and settled in her home, there was a non-Muslim family living beside her, whose daughter was paralyzed from the waist down , one day the girl’s mother brought her to Sayyida Nafisa to watch while she went shopping ,she left her daughter in one corner of Sayyida Nafisa's house. Sayyida Nafisa began making ablution and water from her ablution flowed towards the girl. As the water touched the body of the girl, she experienced something strange. She began to take the water from Sayyida Nafisa’s ablution and rub it on her paralyzed feet and legs, suddenly by Allah's Mercy, the paralysis disappeared completely and she was able to stand.

Meanwhile Sayyida Nafisa was busy in prayer. The girl stood up and seeing her mother just returning from the market ran to meet her to tell her what had happened. Her mother cried with joy declaring, “That woman is truly holy and her religion is the truth” , she came in, hugged Sayyida Nafisa, thanked her for healing her daughter and asked her to pray that she be guided from darkness to light. Sayyida Nafisa then taught her to recite the Shahada.

When the father of the girl returned home that evening, whose name was Ayyub Abu Surraya, and saw his daughter cured, he was overjoyed, he asked his wife about what happened and she told him the whole story. He raised his head heavenwards saying, “O Allah! You guide whom you like and
I now know that Islam is the true religion, completing what we believe in”, He went to the home of Sayyida Nafisa. Speaking to her from behind a veil he said, “I believe in your religion, and I accept it. I testify that there is none to worship except Allah and that your grandfather Mohamed is the Prophet of Allah.”, that miracle was the cause for the entire tribe of Sayyida Nafisa's neighbours to enter Islam.

*One of Sayyida Nafisa's miracles relates to a Muslim man married to a Christian woman , they had a son , when he grew up he began to travel , while travelling in a country far from home he was captured and held prisoner. After hearing of his capture, his mother used to frequent the church, praying that her son be released and returned to them, years passed but he was not released, and one day she told her husband, “I heard that there is a saintly woman Nafisa Bint al-Hasan al-Anwar whose prayers are always answered. Since you are Muslim go and ask her to pray for the return of our son.” he went and asked Sayyida Nafisa for her Du`a.

Late that night they heard a knock at the door, waking and wondering who it could be they went and opened the door, to their great surprise they found their son standing there, they asked him, "How did you come here?" He said, "Tonight I was sitting there in prison, in chains, suddenly I felt a spiritual presence, and I heard a voice saying, “Free him! Nafisa Bint al-Hasan interceded for him”, suddenly I found myself standing here at the door of our house.” that day his mother went to visit Sayyida Nafisa, thanking her for saving her son, then accepting Islam at her hand.

*Source: Nafisa At-Tahira the Rare Lady Saint of the Egyptians - Excerpted from the Light of Ahl Al-Bayt: My Spiritual Experiences Unveiled, by Imam Sheikh Metwalli ash-Sha`rawi.
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