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Fatima bint Hizam, known as Umm al-Banin ("mother of sons"), married Imam Ali عليه السلام after the passing of Sayyida Fatima سلام اللہ علیہا. All four of her sons fell with Imam al-Husayn عليه السلام at Karbala, and her laments for them at al-Baqi‘ are remembered as an act of loyalty to the family of the Prophet ﷺ.
Marriage to Imam Ali
Umm al-Banin came from the Kilab tribe, famed among the Arabs for its horsemen. Later genealogical works, such as Ibn Inaba’s Umdat al-Talib, relate that Imam Ali عليه السلام asked his brother Aqil, an expert in Arab lineages, to suggest a wife from a family of brave men, and that Aqil named her. She bore him four sons: al-Abbas, Abd Allah, Ja‘far and Uthman.
After Karbala
Umm al-Banin was not at Karbala. Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani records that, after the news of her sons’ deaths reached Medina, she would go to al-Baqi‘ and lament them in verse so movingly that the people gathered to weep with her. She died in Medina and is buried in al-Baqi‘.
Differing reports
- Date of death: the sources do not record it; 13 Jumada al-Thani 64 AH, often given today, comes from later works.
Sources
- Maqatil al-Talibiyyin — Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani, Ali ibn al-Husayn (d. 356 AH / 967 CE)
- ‘Umdat al-Talib fi Ansab Al Abi Talib — Ibn Inaba, Jamal al-Din Ahmad ibn Ali (d. 828 AH / 1425 CE)
- Kitab al-Irshad fi Ma‘rifat Hujaj Allah ‘ala al-‘Ibad — al-Mufid, Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn al-Nu‘man (d. 413 AH / 1022 CE). Part I