The hadith about Fatima’s jealousy is not well understood

Many Muslims in the world degrade the daughter of the Holy Prophet (may the peace and blessings be upon him and his family) Fatima, knowingly or unknowingly by misquoting the following hadith

‘Ali bin Husain said that Miswar bin Makhramah told him that ‘Ali bin Abu Talib proposed to the daughter of Abu Jahl, when he was married to Fatimah the daughter of the Prophet.

When Fatimah heard of that she went to the Prophet and said: "Your people are saying that you do not feel angry for your daughters. This ‘Ali is going to marry the daughter of Abu Jahl."

Miswar said: "The Prophet stood up, and I heard him when he bore witness (i.e., said the Shahadah), then he said: ‘I married my daughter (Zainab) to Abu-As bin Rabi’, and he spoke to me and was speaking the truth. Fatimah bint Muhammad is a part of me, and I hate to see her faced with troubles. By Allah, the daughter of the Messenger of Allah and the daughter of the enemy of Allah will never be joined together in marriage to one man.’"

He said: So, ‘Ali abandoned the marriage proposed.
From the book - Sunan Ibn Majah

The hadith (above) contains a condensed summary of the event that supposedly took place in the time of the Holy Prophet (saw).

Recently, Basim (a ShiaChat Moderator), translated a lengthy hadith that shed some lights into the event that made Fatima (may peace be upon her) upset.

Please click here to see the original topic and references in Arabic, Urdu and English.

I am reproducing in its entirety a post by Basim from ShiaChat

From the book: Ilal Sharai by Shaykh Sadooq, Vol.1, Chapter on why Sayyida Fatimah (a) was buried at night, Hadith 2, page 185-189:

In the hadith a man comes to Imam Ja'far asking why Sayyida Fatima (as) was buried at night, and Imam Ja'far (as) himself opts to tell him the entire story. This shows how absurd it is to say that this a part of history we'd not like to talk about, since it gets no where near harming the status of any of the Infallibles (as).

Imam Ja'far tells the man that once a liar came to Sayyida Fatimah (a) and gossiped and lied to her about Imam Ali (a) marrying Abu Jahl's daughter. Sayyida Fatimah (a) would not believe him and repeatedly asked him if he was saying the truth, and he kept saying he did. So then she took Imam Hasan عليه السلام, Imam Hussain (a) and her daughter Kulthoom (a) with her and went to the Prophet (pbuh) where he was praying.

She was worried and troubled. So the Prophet (pbuh) took Fatima (a) with him to where Ali (a) was and asked Ali (a) to call Talha, Abu Bakr and Umar and reminded them all that whoever hurts his daughter, hurts him and whoever hurts him, hurts Allah.

The Prophet (pbuh) then asked him why Ali (a) had did what he did, and Imam Ali (a) replied that the news which has reached Fatima (a) is wrong and he can not even contemplate of such a thing.

The Prophet (pbuh) said Ali (a) has spoken the truth (which shows he already knew, and it wasn't really Imam Ali (a) standing in some kind of a court, being questioned, as some people like to portray it as!!), and Fatima (a) smiled so broadly that her teeth were shown! Umar and Abu Bakr secretly said to each other after this event that they were puzzled at why they were called there.

Imam Ja'far then goes on to tell the man about the after-events of the Prophet's (pbuh) death; of Fatima (a) refusing to talk to them. He tells the man that at one point she reminded both Abu Bakr and Umar of this incident where the Prophet (pbuh) explicitly said whoever hurts her, hurts him and whoever hurts him, hurts Allah so that people can bear witness that they were present when this was said to them.

Nowhere in the hadith is it said that Fatima (a) believed in what the man said. She was saddened and worried by what she had been informed of - yes. But it wasn't because she believed the Imam had proposed to Abu Jahl's daughter. It was because her husband, the future Caliph and Imam of the Muslims had really ugly rumors flying around about him! Isn't it completely normal for a woman to get worried, when her husband gets trash-talked?

Also, Abu Bakr and Umar were completely right to be puzzled about being called in the middle of the night for something that was between Ali and Fatima. But it wasn't something that was between Ali and Fatima! The Prophet (pbuh) wanted to make use of the opportunity (of a sad and worried Fatima (a) ) to send a message to them both of the consequences of hurting her. It's funny how people use this story in a way completely opposite to what it is meant for.