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.
