Fadak

Fadak; The property of Fatima al-Zahra (s.a)

Preface

Fadak is a controversial issue that has since the death of Rasulullah (s) created an open wound between the Sunni and Shi'a schools of thought. The best summary exists from Sahih Bukhari Volume 4, Book 53, Number 325:

Narrated Ayesha(mother of the believers),'After the death of Allah's Apostle Fatima,the daughter of Allah's Apostle asked Abu Bakr As-Siddiq to give her the share of inheritance from what Allah's Apostle had left of the Fai (i.e. booty gained without fighting)which Allah had given him. Abu Bakr said to her, "the Holy Prophet (saww) had said, 'Our property will not be inherited, whatever we (i.e. prophets) leave is Sadaqah (to be used for charity)." Fatima, the daughter of Allah's Apostle got angry and stopped speaking to Abu Bakr, and continued assuming that attitude till she died. Fatima remained alive for six months after the death of the Holy prophet(saww).

we read further down in the same Hadith:

Narrated 'Aisha: "…She used to ask Abu Bakr for her share from the property of Allah's Apostle which he left at Khaibar, and Fadak, and his property at Medina (devoted for charity). Abu Bakr refused to give her that property and said, "I will not leave anything Allah's Apostle used to do, because I am afraid that if I left something from the Prophet's tradition, then I would go astray." …

Abu Bakr sought to base his decision on two things:

- A saying of the Prophet (s)

- The action of the Prophet (s)

Before proceeding into the matter, we would invite our readers to just ponder over our initial questions, based on the traditions that we have quoted:

• Can the non-distribution of assets be evidence by any of the other Prophets?
• If not, can it be evidence from history, the Quran or Hadeeth literature?
• Are there any Hadeeth wherein the Prophet made reference to any past Prophets (as) giving away their assets to the Ummah?
• Does any such evidence exist from the books of history?
• Which verse negating the inheritance rights of the descendants of Prophets exists in the Quran?
• If no evidence of previous Prophets distributing their assets to the Ummah can be produced from the said sources, can we not argue that this hadeeth was only cited to dispossess the descendants of Prophet Muhammad (s)?
• Does this tradition contradict the text of the Quran?
• Can one accept a tradition that conflicts with a Quranic ruling?
• Why did the Prophet (s) choose to tell Abu Bakr and not his daughter?
• Was Abu Bakr’s citation of the action of the Prophet (s) not evidence that he himself did not trust the Hadith?
• Can the action of the Prophet (s) evidence that whatever the Prophets leave becomes Sadaqa?
• When the claim of Fatima (as) was struck out, she left the earth angry with Abu Bakr, can we see any other evidence of Sayyida Fatima (as) ever exhibiting such extreme anger towards anyone?
• Was Fatima (as) ignorant of the fact that a believer cannot be angered with his fellow Muslim for more than three days?
• Did Fatima (as) accept Abu Bakr as the Khalifa after the Prophet (s)?
• If she did not, is one that rejects the Khilafath of Abu Bakr a Murtad?
• If one that rejects the Khilafath of Abu Bakr is a Murtad what is the Fatwa on Sayyida Fatima (as)?
• If one that rejects the Khilafath of Abu Bakr is not a Murtad where does that leave the Khilafath of Abu Bakr?
• Was the anger of Fatima (as) solely on her being denied her inheritance rights?
• If Fatima (as) was fond of material possessions can any evidence during the life of the Prophet (s) be produced to corroborate this?
• If no evidence of her love of material possessions can be evidenced, then why did she get so angry over the loss of a piece of land, anger that never subsided over the remainder six months of her life?
• Could it be than her anger towards Abu Bakr was due to him ruling on a matter that contradicted the ruling of the Quran?

We have simply posed these here, to get our readers minds focused on the significance of this event, and the issues / discussion points that flow thereof. Whilst we will inshallah seek to discuss all of the above in the subsequent chapters, what is clear is that the scholars of Ahl’ul Sunnah have fought tirelessly to uphold the decision of Abu Bakr as correct. The reason that they do so is because so much hangs on upholding Abu Bakr's stance. After all if he is proven wrong then they will have to admit that the Khalifa coined a tradition to justify the usurpation of Fadak from Sayyida Fatima (as). The matter would not just end there it will raise more serious issues such as:

1. The Justice of the Sahaba - If the 'best friend' of the Prophet (s) could behave in such an unjust manner what can we expect of the other Sahaba?
2. If Abu Bakr ruled in such an unjust manner then how can he be deemed the rightly guided Khalifa of the Prophet (s)?
3. If hatred for Abu Bakr is a sin then why did Sayyida Fatima (as) hate Abu Bakr until her dying day?

This is why Fadak is such a 'taboo' subject for the Ahl'ul Sunnah.The scholars prefer not to openly discuss it with their followers, if they are ever forced to do so they present the matter in such a simplified shallow manner, gleaming over facts such as Qur'anic verses, so as to ensure that Abu Bakr comes out of the dispute as perfect as possible. At the forefront of this attitude are Ansar.org and in their publication "Fadak area between Abu Baker and Fatima" the author Muhammad Al-Khider provided a concise discussion on the topics of Fadak and inheritance. He had sought to counter the wrong things that are said against Abu Bakr on this matter. As far as the issue of Sayyida Fatima (as)'s right to Prophetic inheritance was concerned, Al Khider failed to cite a word in her favour, on the contrary this advocate of Abu Bakr dedicated his entire efforts on proving that Abu Bakr's approach was the correct one. He was undeterred even if it meant denying the Qur'an and Sunnah in the process.

Not to be hard done an unknown author of 'The Issue of Fedek: A rebuttal to common lies propagated against Ahl al-Sunnah regarding Ahlul-Bayt' advanced all manner of defence to prove that Sayyida Fatima (as) had no claim to Fadak.

Then we have the efforts of the founder of Sipah-e-Sahaba, Haq Nawaz Jhangvi in his article'Alleged Row Between Hadhrat Fatimah & Hadhrat Abu Bakr Over Share In Fadak' whose net conclusion was that Sayyida Fatima (as) was wrong in making her claim.

Reviving Islam produced an article ‘The Truth About the Land of Fadak’, which for the most part is just a summary of Ansar.Org’s article but in it, the Nasibi authors have also sought to attack the noble character of Sayyida Fatima (as).

Not to be left out, the modern day beloved son of the Cyber Takfeeris Ibn al Hashimiwww.ahlelbayt.com wrote a series of articles wherein he rejected the Sayyida Fatima (as) and desperately sought to offer an array of defences for Abu Bakr. In truth there was nothing new in his articles they were plagiarised from Al Khider’s article with a little fine tuning. We could have ignored this plagiarism and focused on Al Khider but since this Nasabi author is showered with glowing accolades from the followers of Muawiyah we felt it only right, to bring him back to earth his dishonest style of advocacy.

All of the above were merely following in the footsteps of their early scholars of the likes of al Muhaddith Shah Abdul Aziz and Ibn Taymeeya who wrote vehemently against the concept of Prophetic inheritance. The net conclusion of all these efforts are one that Abu Bakr was correct and the claim that had been brought by Sayyida Fatima (as) was wrong.

We shall present the complete picture from the esteemed works of Ahl'ul Sunnah, and shall analyse the correctness of Abu Bakr's judgement against the Qur'an, Sunnah and Books of Seerah, Tareekh and Fiqh. Our aim is two fold, to clarify any doubts that are brought up by these articles and to uphold the claim of Sayyida Fatima (as) as correct and truthful. We shall also address and refute the excuses that Al Khider and Co. had made on the topic of Prophetic inheritance. By the end of the book readers will need to ask themselves 'Which party was wrong in this dispute, Sayyida Fatima (as) or Abu Bakr?' They will need to make the difficult choice, in relation to which side of the fence they wish to sit on. They will have to decide where their affiliations lie. With the School of Ahl'ul Bayt (as) or the School of the Companions.

http://shiamomin.wix.com/trueislam

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