Al Zahraa (pbuh): Embodies a Model and Educates by Values

Providing a good model in front of others, especially the educators, is a very important point. In reality, it is a Quranic method where God almighty says in his holy book:” Certainly, you have an excellent model in the Messenger of God for one who hopes (to meet) Him and the Last Day and who remembers God again and again”. 1 Educators recently affirm the effect of this method because a mankind self is attracted to being optional and repels from being obliged. Educating through providing a model is more effective on a man’a self than permanent preaching and indoctrination, especially on children. In this context, we find Al Sayyida Fatima (pbuh) provides his children and the whole mankind a complete model. She, by showing values and religious teaching through her life, gives the educators a practical model which was general and inclusive in her whole life and a method being repetitive in her behaviors with her children. For example, we see her awake at night, worshiping God and praying the late night voluntary prayer which is called Al Tajahhod. He spent her night praying until her feet were swollen knowing that she didn’t mention this about herself and didn’t use to wake her children to pray like her. We got this news from Al Imam Al Hasan (pbuh) when he woke up and saw his mother standing in her prayer location, praying the whole night, supplicating for her neighbor’s needs without mentioning herself. So when Al Imam Al Hasan (pbuh) asked her about that she said: the neighbor first and then the house. By saying that, she showed him practically the value of loving others and praying for them2 . She also taught her children how to abstain from life’s pleasures: oneday, Al Imam Ali (pbuh) brought her two bracelets, so she sent her two children for their grandfather, the prophet Mohammad (pbuh), to sell them and spend their cost on the poor to abstain from the mortal pleasures of life3… There are many other stories where Al Zahraa (pbuh) was a perfect model and idol. In that way, she was able to plant the right values in the selves of her children. She raised them on glorifying and defending these values as much as possible, even if they are obliged to sacrifice themselves and souls; and this is what really happened.

Values Education
When a man glorifies an issue, makes it a part of his personality and a source of his behaviors, this issue will become a rooted value for him because values are those issues that we believe in, respect, and those standards that we behave according to. As much as the value we owe is more important for us and his risk is more, we defeat it more. In addition, values are the most rooted issue in a man’s self because it is not important to change an idea or belief into a human value. Furthermore, it is not easy to lose the value because issues related to values exceed the thought. For example, an individual should first believe in the importance of knowledge to behave in a way suitable with that belief such as learning, reading, sitting with scholars, glorifying the educated people, repelling from ignorance and rejecting it.. Hence, this behavior stemming from the belief gives a firmness in the soul, adding a kind of sanctity in the human person, added to the sanctity that this belief can possess, especially if it is derived from sacred sources such as religion, for example. In this case, this value’s sanctity increases, changes into a value, and becomes rooted in self. Therefore, a man will have the will to sacrifice the most precious for its sake. This is what distinguishes value issues from others where the soul becomes immersed in that value and shapes its identity. Then, values education is the most important method. In this context, we can understand the content of the Fatimid education for her children as a value education based on implanting values in their souls. Those values stemming from religion, and embodied by Al Zahraa (pbuh) constituted the content of her education to her children, such as educating them on the value of worship, the value of cleanliness, and the value of being connected to God, the value of asceticism, the value of piety, and the value of helping others.

Al Sayyida Fatima Al Zahraa (pbuh): a Model and Ideal, Al Maaref Islamic and Cultural Institution

[1] Surah Al Ahzab, Verse 21.
[2] Sheikh Al-Saduq, The Reasons of the Laws, previous source, vol. 1, p. 182.
[3] Al Tabarsi, Shaikh Al Hassan bin Al Fadl, Makarim Al-Akhlaq, Publications of Al-Sharif Al-Radi, Iran - Qom, 1412 AH, 4th edition, p. 94.