The daughter of the Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon Him). Fatima married Ali Ibn Abi Talib and had two sons, al-Hassan and al-Husayn. She is especially venerated by the Shiites.

Ismaili Shiite dynasty of independent sovereigns who seized power in Ifriqiya in 909 AD, and later in Egypt in 969 AD where they reigned until 1171 AD. During the Fatimid period, Islamic art, literature and science flourished.

One of the great Egyptian architects, Hassan Fat'hy has achieved universal recognition. His numerous honors include the International Gold Medal Award from the International Union of Architects -- an honor not only for Fat'hy in particular but also for the entire Middle East.

Fat'hy's undeviating dedication to a clear vision -- that many once branded as overly romantic -- was buttressed by deep beliefs in concepts that have become so widely accepted today that their revolutionary character is sometimes forgotten. These concepts include the importance of learning from vernacular architecture, the use of local materials, and architecture for the poor. Such concepts were not widely accepted by the international architectural establishment when originally presented by Fat'hy in the 1940s.

Hassan Fat'hy's major contribution is essentially a profound humanism that transcends the forms and methods of his buildings and opens up broad avenues of awareness in the Muslim world today. The true contributions of Fat'hy are not just the quaint mud brick structures he built with such elegance and refinement but ideas -- the idea of empowering the disenfranchised to express themselves with the architect as catalyst for the refining of local sensibility; the idea of rooting architectural expression in local and regional contexts to ensure both relevance and authenticity; the idea of using rational, scientific methods to accept or reject elements of both the old and the new; and the idea of the architect as a decoder of a past legacy and the articulator of a new, symbolically charged environment.

Janazah (Funeral)

Muslims around the world bury the dead as quickly as possible, preferably before sundown on the day of death. Cremation is not practiced in Islam. The corpse is cleaned by a person of the same sex as the deceased and is given a ritual ablution, the ghusl. The ghusl is performed an even number of times and may be followed by a another ablution known as a wudu.

The bodily orifices are stopped with cotton and wool. The body typically is shrouded in a winding cloth. However, martyrs are buried as they died, in their clothes, unwashed, for their wounds bear testimony to their martyrdom.

A funeral prayer is performed for the recently dead by the mourners

and by anyone present in the mosque at the time. Funeral prayers are performed in mosques as a matter of course after the canonic daily prayers. The corpse may or may not be present.

As the mourners carry the corpse through the streets to a mosque for prayers or to its resting place, the shahada (Profession Of Faith) is spoken. Piety calls upon those whom the procession passes to rise, join in the chanting, and help carry the bier for a short distance. Lying on the right side with the face toward Mekka, the body is buried in a grave. There are no injunctions against the use of coffins, but burials with the body only in a wrapping are typical.

For several days after death, it is common to recite litanies in remembrance of the deceased. When a deceased person is mentioned, the words rahimahu Allah (for a man) or rahimaha Allah (for a woman) are spoken. This phrase asks that God be merciful upon the deceased. Other customary practices exist but differ from community to community and from nation to nation.

The Prophet’s disciple Ali ibn Abi Talib is quoted as having said, "Every day an Angel of heaven cries: 'O people there below! Produce offspring to die; build to be destroyed; gather ye together to depart!’"