as-Saiyida Nafīsa

as-Saiyida Nafīsa ( Arabic السيدة نفيسة; * 760 in Mecca ; † January 825 in Fustat ) is mainly in Egypt revered folk saint of Islam ( popular Islam ).

ancestry

According to tradition, Nafisa was descended from the Prophet Mohammed on both his father's and mother's side . Her mother, Sayyida Sukaina, was a daughter of Hussain ibn Ali , the grandson of the Prophet, her father, al-Hasan al-Anwar, a grandson of his brother Hasan ibn Ali .

Life and legend

Nafisa was born in Mecca on the birthday of Muhammad in the year 145 Islamic, 760 Christian era . When she was five years old, she came to Medina with her father . As a child she began to study the Koran and Islamic law. She lived ascetic and fasted every day, except for two public holidays a year. She is said to have consumed food only every third night.

At the age of 16 she married her cousin Ishaq al-Mu'tamin. They had two children, a son named al-Qassim and a daughter they named Umm Kulthum.

Her entire life is shrouded in legends; she is said to have made thirty pilgrimages to Mecca, mostly on foot, and also to have visited the tomb of Abraham . He appeared to her in a vision and admonished her to take better care of her health and to be moderated in prayer.

At the age of 44, Nafisa went to Cairo . Many Egyptians came to receive their blessings. She taught law and interpretation of the Koran to students, including the famous Imam al-Shāfiʿī . When he was sick, he would send a messenger to her, and her intercession, it is believed, made him well. Among her students were the scholars Imam Uthman ibn Saʿid al-Misri, Dhu n-Nun , Masri al-Samarkandi, Imam Abu Bakr al-Adfawi and Abu l-Hasan ibn Ali ibn Ibrahim.

She asked her husband to come to Cairo with the children. When she felt her end approaching, she dug a grave cave in her house where she last lived sitting. This is where she was buried and the Egyptians mourned her. Over 150 legendary miracles are reported by her. Her healing of a sick Jewish girl is famous. When the flood of the Nile did not come in a year , she gave her veil to be thrown into the Nile, which then began to rise. Most recently, she is said to have recited the Koran 199 times and finally died at the word “mercy”. Her grave mosque ( qubba ) is located in Cairo on the northwest edge of the north cemetery al-Qarafa.

literature

• Rudolf Kriss, Hubert Kriss-Heinrich: Popular belief in the area of ​​Islam. Volume 1: Pilgrimage and Adoration of Saints. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1960, p. 58f.
• Yūsuf Rāġib: Al-Sayyida Nafīsa, sa légende, son culte et son cimetière. In: Studia Islamica. Volume 44, 1976, pp. 61-86.
• R. Strothmann: Nafīsa. In: The Encyclopaedia of Islam. New Edition . Volume VII, p. 879.

Web links

• Imam Metawalli ash-Sha`rawi: Nafisa at-Tahira Rare Lady Saint of the Egpytians . Excerpt from From the Light of Ahl al-Bayt. My Spiritual Experiences Unveiled
• Photo of the Sayyida Nafisas Mosque on Panoramio