Ali Ibn Abi Talib - Volume 1 of 2

262 'Ali ibn Abi Ttlib at the time of the Rightly Guided Caliphs
her. News of that reached 'Umar (&), and he entered upon Ficimah
(I&) and said: '0 daughter of the Messenger of Allah, no one in this
w&ld is dearer to us than your father, and no one after your Father is
dearer to us than you,' and 11e spoke to her. 'Ali and az-Zubayr came
to Fgtimah (a), and she said: 'You may leave. May Allah guide
yon.' They didnot come back to her until they had sworn allegiance
(to Ahu ~akr)."'~~ This is what is proven and sound; in addition to
the soundness of its chain of narration, it is in hannony with the spirit
of that generation and the fact that Allah (&) praised them.
The R&@s added to this report and fabricated lies and
falsehoods. They said that 'Umar (&,) said: "If these people meet
with you, I am going to burn this house down with them inside,
because they want to divide the Muslims by delaying their oath of
allegiance." Then he went out, and it was not long before they came
back to her, and she said to them: "Do you know that 'Umar (&)
came to me and swore by Allah (&) that if you returned to this
house, he would burn it down with you inside? By Allah, he will
fulfil his oath, so leave and do not come back to me." So they did
that, and they did not come back to her until after they had sworn
allegiance.16' This story is not proven from 'Umar, and the claims
that 'Umar thought of burning down the house of Fitimah (&) is one
of the lies of the R%@s, the enemies of the companions of the
Messenger of Allah. It was narrated, along with other lies, by at,
Tabari at-Tubrusi in his hook Dal6'il al-~rntrnah,'~~ from Jgbk al-
Ja'fi, who is a lying RZ@ according to the imams of hadith, as it
says in al-~eezcin'~~ by adh-Dhahabi and Tahdheeb at-~ahdheeb.'~'
Some of the R%i$is claimed that 'Umar struck Fgtimah (&)
and caused her to miscarry her son Muhsin, who was in her wokb,
but this is another R%i@ lie that has no basis in truth. They failed to
realise that they were implicitly condemning 'Ali (&) by accusing
him of cowardice and keeping quiet about 'Umar (&), when he was
one of the bravest of the Companions of the Prophet (33).171 Indeed,