Critical Analysis of the Report on the Context of Issuance of Lady Fatima’s Tasbihat in Sunni Sources

Lady Fatima al-Zahra’s Tasbihat have always been of great interest and importance to Muslims, enjoying an exceptionally high status and prestige. These invaluable Tasbihat were certainly granted to Lady Fatima by the Messenger of God and there is no doubt regarding their issuance and the famous details of their composition (34 times God is Great, 33 times Thanks be to God, 33 times Glory be to God). While emphasizing the authenticity and certainty of the noble issuance of Lady Zahra’s Tasbihat, the present paper takes a descriptive-analytical approach to analyze and critique a report considered in Sunni hadith and jurisprudential sources as the context of issuance of these Tasbihat. Along this course, after critiquing the chain of narrators and implications of this report, the perspectives of scholars of both sects towards it are compared and analyzed, concluding in results. The results of this research are that firstly, the report regarded in Sunni sources as the context of issuance of Lady Fatima’s Tasbihat, due to numerous evidential chains of narration, textual, and extra-textual reasons, lacks credibility and its text has been distorted and forged in various Sunni sources and books. Secondly, the goal behind these distortions has been to justify the confiscation of certain rights such as Fadak, Lady Fatima’s inheritance from the Prophet’s financial legacy, and especially the usurpation of the Ahl al-Bayt’s lawful Khums share by the caliphs. As a number of Sunni theologians have tried to justify the behavior of the first two caliphs regarding confiscation of the Ahl al-Bayt’s Khums share by referring to this report.