Doors of the House of Hadrat Fatimah (SBUH)

Part 1

An objection brought forth by the skeptics has been that the houses in those days had no doors and so was the House of Hadrat Fatimah Zahra (SBUH) and therefore the incident of attacking and burning the door of her House did not happen at all!

To answer this baseless claim let us first look in the Majid Qur’an; in Surah Baqarah (2) Verse 189 Allah SWT instructs:

“… and it is not righteousness that you enter the houses from their back side; but righteousness is that one should guard (against evil) and go into the houses from their doors.”

In this Qur’anic Verse Allah SWT is instructing us to enter houses through their doors; obviously for anyone to enter through the door, the house must have a door!

Let us also look at Surah Noor (24) Verse 61 in which Allah SWT mentions houses which have keys:

“…that you eat from your houses or your fathers’ houses or your mothers’ houses or your brothers’ houses or your sisters’ houses or your paternal uncles’ houses or paternal aunts’ houses or your maternal uncles’ houses or your maternal aunts’ houses or what you possess the keys of…”

Obviously the key of the house is the key of the door of the house!

Not only the Verses of Qur’an but even many SUNNI hadiths confirm that Mecca and Medina houses had doors (specifically wood doors and thus inflammable) and keys at time of the Prophet Mohammad (SBUH & HP); it is also noteworthy to mention that all doubts which are being instilled in the minds of people in regard to the AhlulBayt (SBUT) are not new rather they existed from the beginning thus many Shi’ah scholars have answered these doubts in their writings.

Here we are going to present a few both Shi’ah and Sunni hadiths gathered in a precious book by the late ‘Allamah Al-Sayyid Ja'far Murtada al-'Amili called مَأساةُ الزّهراء (سلام الله علیها) which addresses doubts raised in regard to what Hadrat Fatimah (SBUH) went through and presents documented undeniable responses.

It is important to mention that in addition to the original Arabic text of the book which is available on the internet, an English translation with the title:

"Tragedy of al-Zahra’: Doubts and responses is also available."

The book has also been translated to Persian with the title: 

"رنجهای حضرت زهرا علیهاالسلام"

by Mohammad Sepehri published by Tahdhib Publications in Qum Iran.

Let us now look at a few such hadiths:

Abu Fadik said that he asked Muhammad ibn Hilal regarding the characteristics of Aisha‘s place of residence. In the middle of his answer he stated: “Its door was toward Shaam” I asked: “Was it a double door or a single door?” He answered: “A single door” I asked: “From what material?” He answered: “Either from ailanthus tree or teakwood”.

(Sunni: Wafa’ al-Wafa’, vol. 2, pp. 456, 459, 542)

AbuMusa Ash’ari accompanying the Prophet said: “I sat next to a door made of palm wood.”

(Sunni: Sahih Muslim, vol. 7, p. 118; Sahih Bukhari, vol. 2, p. 187)

AbuDharr narrated from the Prophet (SBUH & HP) who said that if a person passing by a house whose door was not closed while it had a curtain too, and he happened to look in the house, the person was not at fault rather the people of the house (leaving the door open) were at fault.

(Sunni: Musnad Ahmad Hanbal, vol. 5, p. 153)

It has been narrated in the Hadith regarding the marriage of Hadrat ‘Ali and Hadrat Fatimah (SBUT) that the Prophet (SBUH & HP) instructed them to enter their house, and he (SBUH & HP) prayed for them, then he (SBUH & HP) rose and left and closed the door with his hands.

 (Bihar al-Anwar, vol. 4, pp. 122, 142; Sunni: Manaqib al-Khwarizmi, p. 243)

Abu Hamid narrated from the Prophet (SBUH & HP) that “He commanded us to place water dishes in a corner of the house during the night and also close the doors at night.”

(Sunni: Sahih Muslim, vol. 3, p. 1593)

Jabir and Abu Hurayra narrated that the Prophet (SBUH & HP) said: Close the door of your house for surely Shaitan does not open a closed door.

(Sunni: Sunan Abu Dawood, vol. 2, p. 339; Musnad Ahmad Hanbal, vol. 3, p. 386; Sunan ibn Majih, vol. 2, p. 1129)

Dukayn ibn Saeed al-Muzani narrates: We came into the presence of the Prophet (SBUH & HP) and asked him for some food. The Prophet instructed ‘Umar to give us food. So, ‘Umar ascended with us upstairs, took a key from his room and opened the door …

(Sunni: Sunan Abi Dawood, vol. 4, p. 361; Musnad Ahmad Hanbal, vol. 4, p. 174)

Ibn ‘Abbas said that the Prophet (SBUH & HP) closed all doors facing the Masjid except the door of ‘Ali’s house …

(Sunni: Khasa’is al-Nasa’I, p…. 14; al-Bidaya wa al-Nihaya, ibn Kathir, vol. 7, p. 338)

Al-Qastallani and ibn Najjar have written: … ‘Ali ibn AbiTalib did not make the two pieces of the door of his house except using nails …

(Sunni: al-muwahib al-Ladunniyyah, al-Qastallani, vol. 3, p. 409; al-Durrah al-Thamaniyyah, ibn Najjar, p. 205)

All these hadiths prove without a shadow of any doubt that the houses of that era definitely had doors, mainly made of wood, and that the doors had nails, locks and keys … These are only few of such hadiths gathered in the aforementioned research book by late ‘Allamah Al-Sayyid Ja'far Murtada al-'Amili …

Interested readers can refer to this book and similar books for responses to many risen questions …

To be continued …