while she was twenty-seven years old or thereabouts, and she was buried at night.

Yazīd ibn Abī Ziyād reported, through ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ḥārith, that Fāṭimah lived on for six months after the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, wasting away in sorrow.

Abū Jaʿfar al-Bāqir said: “She died three months after her father.” A similar report is transmitted from al-Zuhrī. Another narration, from Ibn Abī Mulaykah on the authority of ʿĀʾishah, states: “There were two months between her death and her father’s”—a report that is unusual.

I say: The soundest view is that she was twenty-four years old—may Allah be pleased with her.

Yet Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī related that she died at twenty-eight; she had been born when Quraysh were rebuilding the Kaʿbah, and ʿAlī performed the ritual washing of her body.

Qutaybah narrated to us, saying: Muḥammad ibn Mūsā told us, from ʿAwn ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, from his mother Umm Jaʿfar; and ʿImārah ibn Muhājir, from Umm Jaʿfar, that Fāṭimah once said to Asmāʾ bint ʿUmays: “I find it improper what is done to women: a cloth is simply thrown over the body, and it reveals the shape.” Asmāʾ replied, “O daughter of the Messenger of Allah, shall I show you something I saw in Abyssinia?” She brought fresh palm branches, bent them into a frame, and draped a cloth over it. Fāṭimah exclaimed, “How fine and becoming this is! When I die, wash me—you and ʿAlī—and let no one else enter.”

When she passed away, ʿĀʾishah came intending to enter, but Asmāʾ said, “Do not enter.” ʿĀʾishah complained to Abū Bakr, who came, stood at the door, and spoke with Asmāʾ. She said, “She herself instructed me.” He replied, “Then do what she ordered you,” and left. Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr commented: “She was the first person in Islam whose bier was covered in that…"