Fatima bint Asad and her husband, Abu Talib, acted as the Prophet's adopted parents for fifteen years, after Muhammad had lost his mother when he was six (his father had died before he was born).
Giving birth to Ali is recorded as a miraculous event in the life of Fatima bint Asad by both Shias and Sunnis.
[a] According to some traditions, the Kaaba's wall split open in order for Fatima to go in the house and give birth to her son, Ali.
[c][3] Years later, Muhammad got the opportunity to pay back the love he had received from the family, as he and his wife, Khadija, adopted Ali as their son to help Abu Talib get through the famine affecting Mecca.
[4] Fatima bint Asad already had three sons - Talib, Aqil and Ja'far – and two daughters, Jumanah and Fakhitah (also known as Umm Hani) - prior to giving birth to Ali.
When she began experiencing labour pains, she travelled to the Kaaba, praying "Oh God, for the sake of the one who built this house, Abraham, and the child inside me, I beseech you to make this delivery easy.
[10]: 811 It is told by Anas bin Malik that when Muhammad learned that Fatima had died, he went to her house to sit beside her body and prayed her funeral prayers,[citation needed] then gave his shirt to be incorporated into her shroud, and personally helped inspect her grave and place her in it in the Jannat al-Baqi cemetery in Medina.
[11] They had seven children: The orphaned Muhammad, who was Abu Talib's nephew and Fatima's cousin, came to live in their house in 579, when he was eight years old.