‘Umar (la) b. al-Khattab (la) wrote a letter to Mu’awiyah (la), the contents of which were as follows, ‘I went to the house of ‘Ali (as), after having decided with others to bring him out of the house. Fidhdhah came out and I told her, ‘Tell ‘Ali (as) to come out and swear the oath of allegiance to Abu Bakr (la) for all Muslims have done so.’ Fidhdhah replied that ‘Ali (as) was busy (in arranging the Qur’an).’ I said, ’Keep this talk aside, tell ‘Ali (as) to come out or else we will forcefully enter the house and bring him out!’
At that moment, Fatimah (sa) came and stood with her back towards the door and said, ‘O misled liars! What do you say and what do you want from us?’ I addressed her and she said, ‘What do you want O ‘Umar (la)?’ I replied, ‘Why has your cousin sent you here to reply while he remains seated behind veils?’ Fatimah (sa) said, ‘Your rebellion has brought me out O ‘Umar (la) and I have ended my proof upon you, and every misled is erroneous.’ I said, ‘Keep these vain and womanish words aside and tell ‘Ali (as) to come out of the house.’ She replied, ‘You are not worthy of love and generosity. Do you make us fear the ‘Party of the Devil’ O ‘Umar (la)? Verily the Party of the Devil are the losers!’(1) Hearing this I said, ‘If ‘Ali (as) does not come out of the house, I will bring fuel and kindle a fire and burn down the house along with its dwellers or I will take ‘Ali (as) to the Masjid for (the oath of) allegiance.’ Then I took the whip (of Qunfudh (la)) and struck Fatimah (sa) with it and told Khalid b. al-Walid (la), ‘Bring firewood’, then again I told her, ‘I will burn down the house!’
Fatimah (sa) said, ‘O enemy of Allah and enemy of the Prophet of Allah and the enemy of the Commander of the Faithful!’
Two hands came out from behind the door to stop me from entering the house, however I pushed back the hands and then pushed the door with force, while striking at her hands with the whip, so that she would let go of the door. She wailed and wept due to the intense pain of the whip and her weeping was such a heart-rendering scream that it was as if my heart was going to melt and I almost retreated. Suddenly, I recalled the envy and avarice which I had towards ‘Ali (as) because he was the one that had shed the blood of the eminent Quraysh apostates and thus, I kicked at the door, however she had grasped the door such that it would not open. When I kicked at the door, I heard the cry of Fatimah (sa) and thought that this cry would topple the entire city of Madinah.
In this state Fatimah (sa) called out, ‘O Father! O Prophet of Allah! How do they treat your beloved and your daughter! O Fidhdhah! Hasten to my aid, for by Allah, the child in my womb has been killed.’
I presumed that Fatimah (sa) had stood with her back to the wall due to the extreme pain of labour and at this point, I pushed at the door with intense force and the door opened. When I entered therein, Fatimah (sa) came and stood in front of me (even though she was in immense pain), but my intense anger had overwhelmed me as if a veil was cast before my eyes. In this state, I slapped her on her face, striking her veil, and she fell down to the ground.’”(2)
(1) Noble Qur’an, Suratul Mujadilah (58): 19
(2) This letter is quoted by ‘Allamah al-Majlisi in his work, Bihar al-Anwar in which he says that I have related this letter from Dalail’ul Imamah vol. 2 of al-Tabari that after the martyrdom of Imam al-Husayn (as) at Karbala, ‘Abdullah b. ‘Umar (la) (b. alKhattab) along with a group of people from Madinah came to Syria. They protested in front of Yazid (la) regarding his atrocities at Karbala and in this gathering, Yazid (la) told ‘Abdullah b. ‘Umar (la), “Do you wish to see the letter of your father”, saying this he brought forth the letter (quoted in the text) of ‘Umar (la) which was kept in a case and then he gave it to ‘Abdullah (la).
Ref : Bayt al-ahzan fi masa’ib Sayyidat al-Niswan, Pg.109
