Documents of the Right Word

hadrat Fâtimâ, offended, harboured a grudge against Abû Bekr till
her death. In fact, before her death she made a will that she should
be intered at night lest Abû Bekr and ’Umar should attend her
funeral.”
The so-called orchard contained only a few trees. Supposing it
were as vast and as lush as a jungle; what an ill-favored Jewish
slander and how sound a sleep of nescience it is to assert that
Fâtimat-uz-zehrâ ‘radiy-Allâhu anhâ’, Rasûlullah’s daughter, the
most honourable of all women, the Betûl, called so because she
would not even turn to look at worldly property, would bear
hostility to the three Khalîfas, who had been given the good news
by her father that they would enter Paradise, and would even curse
them and advise other Muslims to do so, too, on account of
something worldly. [May Allâhu ta’âlâ protect us from saying or
believing so!] This slander, which would bring discredit on hadrat
Alî and hadrat Fâtimâ’s universal high distinction, is perhaps a sign
of hostility, let alone love, towards them. A Jew only would
perpetrate such equivocation.
The huge book Qisâs-i-Enbiyâ (A History of Prophets), written
by Ahmed Cevdet Paşa of Lofja ‘rahmatullâhi aleyh’, who was
born in 1238, and passed away in Istanbul in 1312 [C.E. 1894] and
was buried in the graveyard to the south of the blessed mosque of
Fâtih, was printed in Istanbul in 1331. The following information is
given in its three hundred and sixty-ninth (369) page: “Rasûlullah
‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wa sallam’ devoted his date orchard named
Fedek in Hayber to the pious foundation and dictated how it was
to be utilized. He advised in his will that income from the orchard
should be given to foreign ambassadors, to visitors, guests and
travellers. Abû Bekr ‘radiy-Allâhu anh’ implemented this will
during his caliphate. When Fâtima ‘radiy-Allâhu anhâ’ asked for it
as (she thought it was) a share for her from the inheritance (her
father had left behind), he said: I heard the Messenger of Allah
say, ‘No one can inherit (property) from us [Prophets]. Whatever
we leave behind us is alms.’ I can never change something
established by Rasûlullah. Otherwise, I fear I may deviate into an
erroneous way. When hadrat Fâtima wanted to know who his
(hadrat Abû Bekr’s) inheritors were, he replied: My wife and
children are. Then she asked: Why am I not my father’s inheritor,
then? The Khalîfa’s answer was: I heard your father, the
Messenger of Allah say, ‘No one can be our inheritors.’ Therefore
you cannot be his inheritor. However, I am his Khalîfa. Whoever
he used to give when he was alive, I shall give. It is my duty to give
– 119 –