witness her sons’ suʃering and to weep for them. She is
the Holy Mother, whose younger son would sacriɹce
himself to redeem humanity just as had the son of that
other great mother, Mary. Like her, Fatima is often
called the Virgin as a sign of her spiritual purity. Like
her, she will mourn her oʃspring until the Day of
Judgment, when legend has it that she will reappear,
carrying the poisoned heart of Hasan in one hand and
the severed head of Hussein in the other.
Ali honored Fatima’s wishes. He buried her in the
dead of night, as he had so recently buried her father,
and then, after he had consigned her to the earth, he did
what he had refused to do since he had been passed over
as Caliph: He conceded, and pledged allegiance to Abu
Bakr. Many said he acted in grief or even in despair, but
in fact there were pressing reasons for him to do as he
did.
As the news of Muhammad’s death had spread
throughout Arabia, rebellion had spread with it. Many of
the tribes in the north and center of the vast peninsula
threatened to break away from Islam, or at least from its
taxes. This was not a matter of faith, they said, but of
tribal autonomy. To pay tribute to the Prophet was one
thing; to enrich the coʃers of the Quraysh tribe was
quite another.
As Muhammad had wished, Ali had been loyal to