Mrs. Nafisa is the daughter of Al-Hasan Al-Anwar bin Zaid Al-Ablaj bin Al-Imam Al-Hassan bin Imam Ali bin Abi Talib, and her mother is Zainab bint Al-Hassan bin Al-Hasan bin Ali bin Abi Talib, may God be pleased with them all. Her father, Sayyid Hassan Al-Anwar, was called the Sheikh of Al-Shuyoukh, and he was the governor of Medina by Abu Jaafar Al-Mansur, and he was an imam, a great scholar, and one of the elders of the family of the house. Al-Maqrizi mentiones in his book that Ms. Nafisa was born in Makkah Al-Mukarramah on the 11th of Rabi’ Al-Awwal in the year 145 AH, and she grew up in Madinah. She used to go to the mosque of her grandfather, peace be upon him, to memorize the Noble Qur’an and learn it at the hands of the scholars there. She excelled until they called her “the lady with precious of sciences.”

Mrs. Nafisa came to Egypt on the 26th of Ramadan in the year 193 AH, with her husband, children, and father, to visit those who were in Egypt from the pure Ahl al-Bayt “the prophet’s linage”.

Historians mentioned that the howitzers and horses came out to protect her and her husband until they stayed in the house of the chief merchant at the time, Jamal Al-Din Abdullah Al-Jassas, then moved to Cairo and stayed in the house of an Egyptian woman named Umm Hani. However people came to her seeking prayers and advice from her, which is what distracted her from her worship and her remembrances, so she resolved to return to the city of her grandfather, peace be upon him, again to devote herself to worship. And the collection of Zad Maadi and my longing for the kindergarten of my grandfather Al-Mustafa increased, so the people were astonished to hear her saying that, and they insisted on her to stay until the secret governor bin Al-Hakam intervened and said to her: O daughter of the Messenger of God, I am sure to remove what you complain about, and he gave her a spacious house, then he specified two days of A week, people visit her in them seeking knowledge and advice so that she can devote herself to worship for the rest of the week.

Concerning her worship, Zainab, the daughter of her brother Yahya al-Matuj, who was dedicated for her service, says: “I served my aunt for forty years, and I never saw her sleep at night, and she did not break her fast during the day except on the two Eids and the days of Tashreeq.” Ms. Nafisa has performed 30 pilgrimages and most of them are on her feet. And when the time of her transition to the supreme companion approached ( She felt it is the time for her to die), Mrs. Nafisa dug her grave in her courtyard with her own hand, and she used to go down there and pray a lot, so much so that she recited the Qur’an in it one hundred and ninety times while weeping very much.

And in the month of Rajab in the year 208 A.H., Mrs. Nafisa fell ill, and the disease kept getting worse and stronger until the first day of Ramadan, so they brought the doctor to her and he ordered her to break the fast, and she said: “Wow. I have been for thirty years and I ask God to take me while I am fasting, So should I break my fast?” Her grave was behind the curtain in which she worships, so she pointed to it and said, “This is my grave, and here I will be buried, God willing, and if I die, then enter me into it.” And while she was reciting Surat Al-An’am, even if she reached the Almighty’s saying: {لَهُمْ دَارُ السَّلاَمِ عِندَ رَبِّهِمْ وَهُوَ وَلِيُّهُمْ بِمَا كَانُواْ يَعْمَلُونَ} She died.

After her death, may God be pleased with her, her husband, Ishaq bin Imam Jaafar al-Sadiq, decided to carry her to Medina to bury her there, so the Egyptians asked him if she should stay with them, and it was said that her husband was not satisfied, and here the dream happened, he saw the prophet in his dear saying “ don’t oppose the people of Egypt, for mercy descends upon them with her blessing.” Ms. Nafisa was buried in her famous mosque in the place that was known as “The Path of Lions” in her home and in the tomb that she dug with her own hands and sealed the Qur’an in it more than 190 times.

Imam al-Maqrizi mentions in his book that the first to build on the tomb of Sayyida Nafisa was Ubaid Allah ibn al-Sirri, the governor of Egypt from the Abbasid state. Then the mausoleum was rebuilt during the era of the Fatimid state, where a dome was added to it, and the history of its buidling was written on a marble slab placed on the door of the shrine, and the name and titles of the Fatimid Caliph Al-Mustansir Bi-Allah and his titles.

It was renovated and developed more than once, and the copper cabin in the mausoleum was renewed during the reign of Abbas I of Egypt.