A Concealing Bier

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It is related that Fatimah told Asma b. Umays, “I do not like how they carry the corpse of women, they place a cloth upon their beir and their body is visible from underneath it. Whoever sees it, knows that it is the body of a man or a woman. I have turned feeble and the flesh of my body has melted, then will you not make something to conceal my body?” Asma replied, “When I was in Abyssinia, the people had a beir that would conceal the body, if you desire I shall make it for you.” Fatimah said, “Make it for me.”

Asma called for a plank and placed it down, then she called for some wood of the palm-tree and fixed it upon the plank. Then she placed a cloth upon it and said, “The beir of the people of Abyssinia was similar to this.” Fatimah was pleased and said, “May Allah save you from the fire of hell. Make a similar kind for me and conceal me in it (after my death).”

It is also related that when the sight of Sayyidah Zahra fell upon the beir, she smiled though she had never smiled after the death of the Prophet of Allah. Then she said, “What a fine beir is it that it prevents from recognition whether it (the body) is of a male or a female.”

House of Sorrows Translation of Baytul AhzanShaikh Abbas Al – Qummi