Documents of the Right Word

hand out to Alî ‘radiy-Allâhu anhumâ’ and said: Give me your
hand! Let everybody see that the (paternal) uncle of the
Messenger of Allah ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wa sallam’ has made you
Khalîfa and obey you! He refused this.”
The commandment warning against offending Fâtima ‘radiy-
Allâhu anhâ’ is not an unexceptional commandment. For the Emîr
(Alî) ‘radiy-Allâhu anh’ offended her a couple of times, and these
behaviours of his were not considered culpable. By the same
token, Rasûlullah ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wa sallam’ said to some of his
wives: “Do not offend me by displeasing Âisha! Be it known that
in her bed I am being revealed the wahy.” On the other hand,
hadrat Âisha ‘radiy-Allâhu anhâ’ was really offended by hadrat
Alî ‘radîy-Allâhu anh’. We can therefore say that the injunction,
“Do not displease,” in the hadîth-i-sherîf, means, “Do not
displease by falling for the desires of your nafs or the tricks of the
devil.” Otherwise, it would not be forbidden in cases of
inevitability such as executing an Islamic principle or establishing
the truth. The reason why Fâtima ‘radiy-Allâhu anhâ’ was
offended with Abû Bekr ‘radiy-Allâhu anh’ was because he would
not give her a share of inheritance from Fedek. [Fedek was a
village rich in its date orchards in the vicinity of Hayber fortress.
According to a peace treaty made with the Jews, half of the village
had been given to Rasûlullah]. On account of a hadîth-i-sherîf,
which declared, “We, Prophets, do not leave inheritance. What we
leave will become alms (to be given) to the poor,” Abû Bekr
‘radiy-Allâhu anh’ divided the income from the dates and
distributed it to the poor. Obeying this hadîth-i-sherîf, he did not
give a share to Fâtima ‘radiy-Allâhu anhâ’. It would not be an
offense because this behaviour of his did not originate from his
nafs or from the devil. Should it be asked why Fâtima ‘radiy-
Allâhu anh’ was offended for something done with the sheer
intention of obeying hadîth-i-sherîf, our answer will be: Her taking
offence was the result of a frailty inherent in the human nature; it
was not an attitude assumed purposely. This offending, which is
inevitable, is not forbidden.
3- The scholars of Mâwarâ’un-nehr ‘rahmatullâhi ta’âlâ
alaihim ajma’în’ stated: “Allâhu ta’âlâ referred to Abû Bekr
‘radiy-Allâhu anh’ as the Prophet’s ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wa sallam’
sâhib, that is, companion, in the fortieth âyat of Tawba sûra. It
would not be permissible to censure, to curse the Prophet’s
companion.”
The booklet gives the following answer to this: The thirty-fifth
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