The Final Prophet by Mohammad Elshinawy

‘Āishah  narrates, “As the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم lay on his deathbed, with all of his wives present, his daughter Fāṭimah  came forward, walking just as the Messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم would walk.

He صلى الله عليه وسلم received her, saying, ‘Welcome, my dear daughter.’ He then sat her down beside him and uttered a secret to her which caused Fāṭimah to weep. He then uttered another secret to her, making her laugh. I asked her what made her cry, but she said, ‘I would never disclose the Messenger of Allah’s صلى الله عليه وسلم secret.’ I had never seen a joy and grief so closely as I saw on that day, so I said to her when she wept, ‘The Messenger of Allah صلى الله عليه وسلم privileges you with his words, and not us, and then you weep?’ I asked her again what he said, but she responded, ‘I would never disclose the Messenger of Allah’s صلى الله عليه وسلم secret.’ When he صلى الله عليه وسلم died, I asked her again, and she said he told her, ‘Gabriel used to review the Qur’an with me one time each year, and he reviewed it twice with me this year. I cannot understand from this except that my time has arrived, and you will be the first of my family to catch up with me.’ Fāṭimah said, ‘I cried at this, and so he discreetly said to me, ‘Are you not pleased to be the queen of the believers [in Paradise]?’ And that is what caused me to laugh.’”288 Imam al-Nawawī (d. 1277) points out that this is actually two prophecies in one. The first is that he صلى الله عليه وسلم foretold that this sickness, and not any other illness before it, was a harbinger that his time had come, and that the young Fāṭimah—in her early twenties at that time—would die before any other member of his family.