Hadith 6138

`A'isha said: We, the Prophet's wives, were once with him when Fatima came along, her style of walking being indistinguishable from that of God's messenger. When he saw her, he said, "Welcome, my daughter," and made her sit down. He then said something privately to her and she wept bitterly, so when he saw her grief, he said something else privately to her and she began to laugh. When God's messenger got up and left, I asked her what he had said to her privately, but she replied, "I am not one to publish God's messenger's secrets." After his death I said, "I adjure you by my right over you to tell me," And she replied, "Now I am agreeable. When he spoke privately to me about the first matter, he informed me that Gabriel was in the habit of going over the Quran with him once annually but that he had done it twice that year, so he felt his appointed time was near. He then told me to fear God and show endurance, for he was a good forerunner for me. I wept, and when he saw my distress, he spoke to me privately a second time saying, `Are you not pleased, Fatima, that you will be the chief lady among the female inhabitants of paradise (or, of the women of the believers)'?" A version has, "He spoke to me privately informing me that he would die of his pain, so I wept. He then spoke to me privately informing me that I would be the first member of his family to follow him, so I laughed." (Bukhari and Muslim.)