…they were lying beneath a single blanket: whenever they covered their heads their feet were uncovered, and whenever they covered their feet their heads were exposed. They both sat up, whereupon he said, “Stay as you are.”

He then added, “Shall I not tell you something better than what you asked me for?”

They answered, “Indeed.”

He said, “Words that Gabriel taught me: after every obligatory prayer say subḥāna Allāh (Glory be to Allah) ten times, al-ḥamdu li-llāh (Praise be to Allah) ten times, and Allāhu akbar (Allah is Greatest) ten times; and when you retire to your bed say subḥāna Allāh thirty-three times, al-ḥamdu li-llāh thirty-three times, and Allāhu akbar thirty-four times.”

ʿAlī said, “By Allah, I have never abandoned them since the Messenger of Allah ﷺ taught them to me.” Ibn al-Kawwāʾ asked him, “Not even on the night of Ṣiffīn?” He replied, “May Allah fight you, people of Iraq—no, not even on the night of Ṣiffīn.”

The latter portion of this ḥadith is rigorously authenticated in the two Ṣaḥīḥs (1) through another chain. Fāṭimah endured, together with ʿAlī, the hardship and tightness of their worldly life, and he did not marry another woman until after she died. At one point, however, he wished to marry Badrah (2) bint Abī Jahl, but the Messenger of Allah ﷺ found this distasteful and addressed the people, saying:

“I do not declare the lawful unlawful, nor the unlawful lawful, yet Fāṭimah is a part of me; whatever disturbs her disturbs me, and whatever harms her harms me. I fear that her religion might be put to trial. I would therefore prefer that the son of Abū Ṭālib divorce her and marry the daughter of Abī Jahl, for by Allah, the daughter of the Prophet of Allah and the daughter of the enemy of Allah can never be united under one man.” (3)

ʿAlī thereupon abandoned the proposal.

When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ passed away, Fāṭimah asked Abū Bakr for her share of the inheritance. He informed her that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ had said, “We prophets do not leave an inheritance; whatever we leave behind is charity.” (4) She then requested that her husband be appointed custodian of that charity, but he refused, saying, “I will provide for those whom the Messenger of Allah used to provide for, and I fear that if I omit anything the Messenger of Allah ﷺ used to do I will go astray. By Allah, the kinship of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ is dearer to me than my own.” She felt hurt by this and remained displeased with him for the rest of her life.

When her final illness came, al-Ṣiddīq visited her, entered, and sought her acceptance, saying, “By Allah, I left my home, wealth, family, and clan only to seek the pleasure of Allah, the pleasure of His Messenger, and your pleasure, O People of the House.” She was then reconciled with him—may Allah be pleased with him.

Al-Bayhaqī (5) narrates this through the chain of Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Khālid from al-Shaʿbī, and then remarks, “This is a sound mursal report with an authentic chain.”

When death approached her, she instructed Asmāʾ bint ʿUmays—the wife of al-Ṣiddīq—to wash her body. Thus Asmāʾ, together with ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib and Salmā, the freedwoman of the Messenger, performed the washing; it is also said that al-ʿAbbās ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib assisted.