FADAK - PART TWO

 

When Sayyida Fatima (s.a.) saw that Abu Bakr was bent upon taking away Fadak from her, she said that, if not by gift, then Fadak was hers by inheritance. Abu Bakr came with an ingenious reply. He said, “I have heard that the Messenger of Allah saying, “We the group of prophets, are not inherited from; whatever we leave is ‘Sadaqa’ (Charity)” This supposed saying of the Prophet is against many Ayahs of the Glorious Quran and all the accepted principles of Islam, as Sayyidah Fatimah herself pointed in her address in which she says inter alia: “And now you hold out falsely that I have no inheritance from my father. Do you want the custom of (the days of) ignorance? And who is better than Allah, in giving the Law, for the people who do believe? Do you know? Surely, it is clear for you like the midday sun that I am his daughter. Would I be prevailed over my inheritance? O son of Abu Qahafa! Is it in the book of Allah, that you should inherit from your father, and I will not inherit from my father? Is it intentionally that you have discarded the book of Allah and thrown it behind your back? Ayah 16 of Surah al-Namal, “Sulayman (Solomon) inherited from Daud (David). Ayahs3 to 6 of Surah Maryam, “When he (Zechariah) called out to his Lord with a secret cry. He said, ‘My Lord! Indeed, my bones have become feeble, and my head had turned white with age, yet never have I, my Lord, been disappointed in supplicating You! Indeed, I fear my kinsmen, after me, and my wife is barren. So, grant me from Yourself an heir who may inherit from me and inherit from the House of Yaqoob (Jacob), and make him, my Lord, pleasing (to You).” Ayah 75 of Surah al-Tawbah, “…but the blood relatives are more entitled to inherit from one another in the Book of Allah.” Ayah 11 of Surah al-Nisa, “Allah enjoins you concerning your children: for the male shall be the like of the share of two females,” and Ayah 180 of Surah al-Baqarah, “Prescribed for you, when death approaches any of you and leaves behind any property, is that he makes a bequest for his parents and relatives, in an honorable manner, -an obligation on the God wary.” And you hold out falsely that there is no right for me nor any inheritance for me from my father. Well, has Allah sent any Ayah specially for you, and from which my father was excluded? Or do you say that people of two different religions do not inherit from each other? (In Islam, an unbeliever is not entitled to inherit from a Muslim) Are not my father and I people of one religion? Or are you more knowledgeable of the particularity and generality of the Qur’an than my father and my cousin (Ali)?

These arguments were and are irrefutable, but the khalifah did not pay heed to them. The supposed hadith was against so many Ayahs of the Glorious Qur’an. There is a universally accepted hadith of the Noble Messenger (s.a.w.a.s.) that ‘verily, there have appeared many who tell lies attributing to me; so, when a narration attributed to me comes to you, refer it to the Book of Allah; and what is in conformity with the Book of Allah, accept it and what is against it throw it on the wall. Therefore, that hadith must be thrown to the wall.

Abu Bakr was the claimant, and he produced a hadith, which up to that time no companion of the Prophet had ever heard. As he was so fond of formalities and procedures, why did not he produced two male witnesses to vouch his narration.?   

Source: Fadak by Allama Sayyid Saeed Akhtar Rizvi