Lady of the luminous lamp

In the Name of God, the All-Merciful, the All-Compassionate.Our heartiest congratulations to dear readers on a very auspicious occasion. Today is the birthday of a very blessed lady who reposes in peace in Iran, and here we present you a special feature in this regard.
Today, on the first of Zilqa'dah the city of Qom wears a festive look. There is fragrance in the atmosphere. There is joy on the faces of the people, especially of those who are streaming in and out of the golden-domed shrine, bustling this day with hundreds of thousands of pilgrims. Many of the visitors have come from different parts of Iran. There are people from other countries of the world as well. They have assembled to celebrate an auspicious event that occurred in the Prophet's city, Medina, a millennium, two centuries and fifty-eight years ago. They are displaying their devotion to the immortal legacy of the Last and Greatest of Divine Messengers, Prophet Mohammad (blessings of God upon him and his progeny), which has transformed Qom, on the edge of the Iranian desert, into the centre for diffusion of the teachings of the Ahl al-Bayt – the exclusive group, which along with the God's Revealed Word, the Holy Qur'an, is known and revered as the Saqalayn. And the reason the destiny of Qom was changed for good forever was the arrival in this city and final repose of the noble lady of the Prophet's Household, who was born this day in 173 AH and whose birthday not just the people of this city are celebrating, but also all Iranians are marking as "Daughter's Day", in order to show the high respect Islam attaches, espeically to worthy and virtuous daughters.
She was Fatema (peace upon her) – the namesake of her great ancestress, the noblest lady of all times, the Prophet's immaculate daughter, Hazrat Fatema az-Zahra (peace upon her), whose resting place in Medina remains a secret till this day since her husband, the Commander of the Faithful, Imam Ali (PBUH), did not want it to be desecrated in a distant future by the Wahhabi heretics like the other sanctified tombs of the Prophet's progeny in the land of revelation. She was the daughter of the Prophet's 7th Infallible Heir, Imam Musa al-Kazem (PBUH) – the Bab al-Hawa'ej or the Gateway of Boons – and the sister of Imam Ali ar-Reza (PBUH), whose shrine in Mashhad is the holiest spot in Iran. However, what makes her shrine the rendezvous of the faithful, from near and far, is not merely because of her peerless pedigree or for the matter that the soil of Iran – where graves are not desecrated – happened to be her place of eternal repose. In fact, it is because of her personal virtues that she has earned immortality as Ma'soumah or the Innocent Lady. To cite one single instance of her knowledge and outstanding merits is the famous incident in her homeland Hejaz that made her father remark: Fidaha Abuha (may her father be her sacrifice).
It happened that a group of pilgrims from Iran had called at the threshold of the Ahl al-Bayt in Medina for answers to their queries, unaware that Imam Musa al-Kazem (PBUH) was away on a journey. They were, however, not sent away empty-handed, for an attendant asked for their papers, saying the 7th Imam's little daughter could provide the answers. To their surprise the replies which they received from a girl of less than 8 years were not just satisfactory but beyond whatever they could comprehend. During their return journey to Iran they had a chanced encounter on the highway with Imam Kazem (PBUH). They greeted the Prophet's Heir, told him what had happened and showed him the answers provided by his little daughter, Fatema (peace upon her), to their complicated jurisprudential queries. It was then that the Imam expressed the above-mentioned phrase that further confirmed their faith in Islam and in the wisdom beyond years of the youngsters of the Prophet's Household. Over two decades later in 202 AH, the 29-year old Fatema al-Ma'soumah (peace upon her), who had remained a spinster since no man of her time was worthy of her impeccably meritorious hand, arrived in Iran to meet her brother, Imam Reza (PBUH), who was forced to come to the Khorasani city of Merv (presently in Turkmenistan) by the crafty Abbasid caliph, Mamoun.
Divine Providence willed that she break her journey in Qom. After a brief 17-day sojourn, the fatigue of the long journey, plus the attack on her caravan near Saveh by rogues in the service of the Abbasid regime, took the toll, and she departed for the ethereal heavens, thereby making Qom a Stairway to Paradise. Ever since, the Kareemat al-Ahl al-Bayt or Munificent Lady of the Prophet's Household, has continued to soothe souls, strengthen spirits, firm up hearts with faith, and enlighten minds – as testified by the famous Safavid era philosopher, Mullah Sadra (Sadreddin Shirazi), who says that whenever he got stuck up in his academic studies he would visit the shrine of Ma'soumah (peace upon her) to supplicate to God Almighty for answers to his queries. No wonder, Qom has blossomed into the main centre for seekers of exegetic, jurisprudential, theological, philosophical and all other branches of Islamic knowledge from all over the globe – a demonstration of which was given by Our Innocent Lady as a toddler in Medina. No wonder, both her brother Imam Reza and later her nephew Imam Jawad (peace upon them), had remarked: “Whoever visits her (tomb), aware of her position, Paradise is the reward.”