PART IX

 

“I KNOW NOT ABOUT THE NAIL...”

 

 

The Nail

The following paragraph appears in a book attributed to “Shibl al-Dawla” Muqatil ibn `Atiyyah known as “Conference of Baghdad’s Scholars,”

 

When Fatima (A.S.) came from behind the door in order to send `Omer and his party back, `Omer squeezed her hard between the wall and the door, causing her to miscarry, and a nail was planted in her chest. Fatima (A.S.) then screamed, “O Father! O Messenger of Allah!”^[1]

 

The philosopher-researcher Grand Ayatullah Shaikh Muhammed Husain al-Isfahani, may Allah sanctify his resting place, composed the following verses of poetry:

 

No I cannot tell the tale

Of the news of the nail.

So ask her very chest:

And leave out the rest;

It is the storing chest

Of every secret.

 

We cannot either confirm or deny this matter although we are discussing the attribution of the book titled Mu’tamar `Ulama’ Baghdad (Conference of Baghdad’s Scholars) to “Shibl al-Dawla,” and we think it is possible that someone who came after him wrote it. But this does not mean that its textual contents, be they historical or otherwise, are inaccurate.