Sayyida Zainab (sa) and her dream at young age
One day, when Sayyida Zainab (sa) was about five years old, she had a strange and terrible dream. A violent wind arose in the city and darkened the earth and the sky. The little girl was tossed hither and thither, and suddenly she found herself stuck in the branches of a huge tree. But the wind was so strong that it uprooted the tree. Sayyida Zainab (sa) caught hold of a branch but that broke. In a panic she grabbed two twigs but these too gave way and she was left falling with no support.
Then she woke up. When she told her grandfather, Prophet Muhammad (saws), about this dream he wept bitterly and said, "O my daughter that tree is me who is shortly going to leave this world.
The branches are your father Ali and your mother Fatima al Zahra, and the twigs are your brothers Hassan and Hussain. They will all depart this world before you do, and you will suffer their separation and loss."
Sayyida Zainab (sa) was only five or six when her grandfather, Prophet Muhammad (saws) was martyred. Just six months later, she lost her mother, the Prophet's daughter, Sayyida Fatima al Zahra (sa). When on her death bed, Sayyida Fatima al Zahra (sa) said: "My dear, do not leave your brothers alone, take good care of them, be a loving sister and be so kind to them as if you were a mother to them." Sayyida Zainab (sa) followed her mother's advice as long as she lived.
It is important to note that both Sayyida Fatima al Zahra (sa) and Sayyida Zainab Kubra (sa) lost their respective mothers at the age of only five years old. Sayyida Umme-Kulthoom (sa) was four years old at the time of her mother's martyrdom.
