Muhsin ibn Ali

Al Muhsin or Mohsin, in Shi'a belief, was the unborn child of Fatima Al Zahra, the daughter of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and wife of Ali ibn Abu Talib. Shi'a say that she miscarried after being crushed behind a door by men who had come to threaten her husband. Sunnis disagree and insist upon that Muhsin ibn Ali died in his infancy of natural causes.

The death of Muhammad

Muhammad died in the city of Medina in 632 CE. In the ten years between the Hijra (the flight of the small Muslim community from Mecca to Medina) to the death of Muhammad, Islam had grown by leaps and bounds. It had become the greatest power in the Arabian peninsula.

The question of who was to succeed Muhammad was thus both a religious and a political question. Shi'a Muslims believe that Muhammad had settled the question before his death, by indicating that he wanted Fatima's husband Ali as his successor. The majority Sunni Muslims believe that Muhammad had not made any formal arrangements, leaving it up to the Muslim community to choose their own leader -- as was the usual practice (called shura) in Arabian tribes at that time.

A small, informal gathering of Muslim notables, which Ali did not attend, ended up throwing its support behind Abu Bakr as the new leader. Ali protested this arrangement. He and his supporters refused to swear allegiance to Abu Bakr. His supporters at that time were known as the Shi'at Ali, the party of Ali.

Pressure against the Shi'at Ali

It is not clear how many of the early Muslims supported Ali, or how long they held out against pressure from Abu Bakr's supporters. One source, quoted in Madelung (The Succession to Muhammad, p. 43), says that Ali and another prominent Muslim, Al-Zubayr, resisted for six months.

Nor is it clear exactly how the pressure was applied. Sunni versions of the events of this time tend to say that Ali resisted for only a short time, or even deny that he resisted at all, and insist that the only pressure applied was peaceful persuasion. Shi'a sources, on the other hand, depict a lengthy, violent persecution in which roving gangs of armed bullies threatened Ali and his supporters with instant death if they did not submit to Abu Bakr.

The searching of Ali's house

Sunni view

While some early sources hint that Fatima's house was searched (Madelung p. 43), no early source suggests that Fatima was injured in the search, or that she miscarried due to the search, or that she died of the miscarriage. Sunnis regard this part of the tale as later embroidery. ^{[citation needed]} They argue that if this story had been true, Ali could not possibly have done the following:

Ali married one of his daughters to Umar. ^{[citation needed]}
Ali named several of his sons (by wives he married after the death of Fatima) "Umar" and "Abu Bakr." ^{[citation needed]}

Shia View

Shi'a sources say that two days after Muhammad's death, Umar al-Khattab led a party of armed men to Ali's house. They called for the men of the house to come out and swear allegiance to Abu Bakr, and also threatened to burn the house down. No one came out, so the armed men pushed their way into the house. Fatima, who was pregnant at the time, was standing behind the door. Umar al Khattab pushed Fatima behind the burning door. He broke her ribs and wrist. Later, she miscarried a boy child, who was called Al Muhsin or Mushabbar. Fatima was gravely injured in the attack and died of her injuries some time later.

The Shi'a believe that both Abu Bakr and Umar were responsible for killing both Muhammad's daughter and grandson.

As Fatima was dying, she asked Imam Ali to bury her in secret; she did not want Abu Bakr and Umar at her funeral.

Some Shi'a believe that Fatima was buried in the Jannat al-Baqi cemetery, in Medina, and that her grave there is now marked.[1] Others believe that she might have been buried in other locations in Mecca and that Shi'a should pray at all three locations to be sure of honoring her grave. [2]

Who is right?

The whole question of the events surrounding the Succession to Muhammad is an extremely vexing one, discussed at length in the article of that name. When both sides to the argument are marshalling competing oral traditions, or hadith, it comes down to a question of which hadith are true. For a longer treatment of the difficulty of evaluating the sources, see Historiography of early Islam.

Sources

Madelung, Wilferd -- The Succession to Muhammad, Cambridge University Press, 1997.