The matter of donation of Fadak - Part 1

It was the dispute between the caliph and Fatima (s) when she argued that the Prophet (s) had donated Fadak to her. Imam Ali and Umm Aymen witnessed of that but the caliph refused Fatima’s claim[1] and was not satisfied with these two witnesses and asked her to bring two men or a man and two women as witnesses.

1. The first thing that we would blame Abu Bakr for was his situation in this case as a ruler in spite of that his caliphate did not gain the legal quality until that day at least. [2] But now we do not want to study this blame because such argument will take us to wider horizons.

2. The second note about the subject is that if Fadak was with Fatima, then she would not have to have any evidence. There were two things about this note:

First: in whose possession Fadak was? Was it really in Fatima’s possession? We could understand that from the letter of Imam Ali to Othman bin Hunayf: “Yes, Fadak (only) was in our possession away from all what were under the heaven but some people became stingy with it and others turned away from it”. [3] This means that Fadak was in the Prophet’s family’s possession. This was confirmed by the traditions of the Shia.

The meaning of Imam Ali’s speech showed that Fadak was in Imam Ali and Fatima’s possession and it could not be interpreted as it was in the Prophet’s possession; first because the Prophet’s possession meant the Prophet’s family’s possession and second because the Prophet had his own properties other than Fadak.

Second: was possession as evidence of ownership? Yes, the Muslims agreed on this unanimously. [4] If it was not so, the social system of the human life would be disordered.

Someone might object by saying that if Fadak was in Fatima’s possession, so why she did not protest with this evidence. It would suffice for her than to claim it was donated to her and to protest with the Quranic verses of the inheritance. In the documents of the Shia about this case there was an answer to this objection for they mentioned the protest of the Prophet’s family against the caliph by means of the very evidence but we did not want to study the case in the light of something of that.

But we should notice that Fadak was a very wide land and was not like small properties, whose possession would be known easily. If we supposed that Fadak was in Fatima’s possession and it was undertaken by her agent, who managed it, so who would know this other than the agent?

We knew well that Fadak was not near Medina so that the people of Medina would know about its affairs or the person, who managed it. It was at a distance of some days from Medina and it was a Jewish village. [5] It was not in the Islamic environment to be known among the Muslims that it was in Fatima’s possession.

Fatima thought if she claimed her possession of Fadak that the caliph would ask her for evidence as he asked her about the donation as long as he-in her opinion-was controlled by a prevailing power of his tendency that did not make him confess anything.

It was easy for the (whale) on that day to swallow Fatima’s agent of Fadak and anyone else, who knew the truth, as it swallowed Abu Sa’eed al-Khidri and prevented him from telling the truth of the donation of Fadak whereas he told of it after that as it was mentioned in the Sunni and Shia books, or it was easy for the jinn to kill as they killed Sa’d bin Obada and relieved the caliph Omar[6] from him, or to accuse anyone of being apostate if he refused to give the zakat to the caliph as those, who refused to give the zakat of the Muslims to the caliph Abu Bakr, were accused. [7]

3. Let us leave this argument aside to get to the basic matter, which is: did Abu Bakr believe in the infallibility of Fatima and the verse of purification, which purified the Prophet’s family, among which was Fatima, from any sin or not?

We do not want to discuss in details the concept of infallibility or to prove it for Fatima by the verse of purification because the books of the Shia about the virtues of the Prophet’s family suffice the task. We do not doubt that the caliph was aware of that because his daughter Aa’isha herself often narrated that the verse of purification concerned Fatima, her husband and her two sons[8] as it was declared by the Sunni and Shia books of Hadith. Whenever the Prophet (s) went to the mosque to offer the Fajr[9] prayer, after the revelation of this verse, he passed by Fatima’s house and called out: “O people of the house, it is the (time for) prayer. (Allah only desires to keep away the uncleanness from you, O people of the House! and to purify you a (thorough) purifying. Quran 33:33)” He kept on that for six months. [10]

 

Continued in part 2.........

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References:

1. Sharh Nahjul Balagha, vol.16 p.216.
2. After ten days of the caliphate that yet the Hashimites and some of the great companions did not pay homage to Abu Bakr to be the legal caliph. Refer to at-Tabari’s Tareekh, vol.2 p.233.
3. Sharh Nahjul Balagha, vol.16 p.208.
4. Refer to al-Qawa’id al-Fiqhiyya by Hassan al-Bajnawardi, vol.1 p.113, al-Muhalla by ibn Hazm, vol.9 p.436, al-Muhaththab by ash-Shirazi ash-Safi’ee, vol.2 p.312, al-Furooq by al-Qirafi al-Maliki, vol.4 p.78 and Tahreer al-Majalla by sheikh Muammad Hussayn Kashif al-Ghita’, vol.4 p.150.
5. Refer to Futooh al-Buldan by al-Balathari, p.42-43.
6. The tradition showed clearly that Omar sent a messenger to kill Sa’d if he did not pay homage (to Omar) and when Sa’d refused to pay homage, the messenger killed him. (They claimed that the jinn had killed him). Refer to al-Iqd al-Fareed by ibn Abd Rabbih, vol.4 p.247.
7. As in the story of Malik bin Nuwayra. Refer to at-Tabari’s Tareekh, vol.2 p.273 and the edited one, vol.2 p.28.
8. Muslim’s Sahih, vol.3 p.331, al-Mustadrak, vol.3 p.159 and at-Taj aj-Jami’ lil Ussool by Mansoor Ali Nassif, vol.3 p.333.
9. The dawn.
10. Ahmad’s Musnad, vol.3 p.295, al-Mustadrak, vol.3 p.172.