27.1
ʿAbd al-Razzāq, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of al-Zuhrī, on the authority of Mālik ibn Aws ibn al-Ḥadathān al-Naṣrī, who said:
27.1.1
ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb sent me a message saying, “The leaders of the households of your tribe have convened in Medina, and before us lies the task of giving them a small bit of compensation. You are to divide it between them.”
“O Commander of the Faithful,” I objected, “ask someone else!”
“Come now, man, take it,” he responded.
While I was thus occupied, ʿUmar’s slave-client came to him and said, “It’s ʿUthmān, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf, Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ, and al-Zubayr ibn al-ʿAwwām”—I don’t know if he mentioned Ṭalḥah or not—“and they all request permission to see you.”
“Bid them enter, then,” said ʿUmar.
After a while ʿUmar’s slave-client came again and said, “It’s al-ʿAbbās and ʿAlī requesting permission to see you.”
“Bid the two to enter,” ʿUmar answered.
After a while, al-ʿAbbās entered and said, “O Commander of the Faithful, render your judgment between me and this man!” Indeed, in those days he and ʿAlī were embroiled in a dispute over the spoils that God had granted to his Messenger from the properties once belonging to the Naḍīr clan.
Those present said, “Give them your judgment, O Commander of the Faithful, for their dispute has lasted far too long.”
“I abjure you by God, by Whose leave the Heavens and the Earth stand!” ʿUmar then declared. “Do all of you not know that the Messenger of God said, ‘We prophets leave no heirs; whatever we leave behind is for charity.’?”269
“Yes,” they affirmed, “he indeed said that.”
Next he said something similar to ʿAlī and al-ʿAbbās, and they too answered, “Yes.”
27.1.2
ʿUmar then said to them, “I will tell you about these spoils. God, the Almighty and Exalted, sanctified his Prophet by these spoils by granting him a portion that He bestowed on none other. Thus He decreed «You believers did not have to spur on your horses or your camels for whatever spoils God turned over to His Messenger from them. God gives authority to His messengers over whomever He will.»270 Hence these spoils were for God’s Messenger specifically, and then, by God, he did not hoard them from you and claim them as his alone; rather, by God, he divided it all between you and distributed it among you until nothing remained of it save this property. His household would receive payment from it annually”—or he perhaps said, “His household would take their nourishment from it annually”—“then he would consecrate what remained for God’s charitable cause. When the Messenger of God was taken from this world, Abū Bakr said, ‘I am the steward of the Messenger of God’s property after his death, and I shall act in accordance with the actions of the Messenger of God.’”
ʿUmar then turned to face ʿAlī and al-ʿAbbās and declared, “You two claim that in doing so he acted as a brazen usurper! But God knows that he acted devoutly and earnestly while following the Truth.”
“After this,” ʿUmar continued, “I became steward over the property after Abū Bakr, and two years of my rule have now passed. I acted in accordance with the actions of God’s Messenger and Abū Bakr, and you claim that I too act as a brazen usurper! But God knows that I have acted devoutly and earnestly while following the Truth. Now this man”—by whom he meant al-ʿAbbās—“has come to me asking for his inheritance from his nephew; and this man”—by whom he meant ʿAlī—“has come to me asking for the inheritance of his wife from her father. So I said, ‘The Messenger of God said, “We leave no heirs; whatever we leave behind is for charity.”’ To me it seemed prudent to hand it over to the two of you after I had taken your oath and bond that you would manage it in accordance with the practices of the Messenger of God, Abū Bakr, and myself while I acted as its steward.271 You two answered, ‘Hand it over to us on that condition.’ Now do you want us to render a different judgment? I swear by Him by Whose leave the Heavens and Earth stand, I shall not grant any further judgment than that. If you are unable to manage the property, then hand it back to me.”
27.1.3
Al-Zuhrī added: ʿAlī would later seize control of the estate, and thus it fell into his hands. Later it fell into hands of al-Ḥasan, then al-Ḥusayn, then ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn, then Ḥasan ibn al-Ḥasan, and finally into the hands of Zayd ibn al-Ḥasan.
Maʿmar added: And then the property fell into the hands of ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ḥasan. Later, those people would seize it—meaning the Abbasids.272
27.2
ʿAbd al-Razzāq, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of al-Zuhrī, on the authority of ʿUrwah and ʿAmrah, who said:
The Prophet’s wives sent a message to Abū Bakr requesting their inheritance from the Messenger of God. ʿĀʾishah replied to them, “Don’t you women fear God? Did the Messenger of God not say, ‘We leave no heir; whatever we leave behind is for charity’?” They were satisfied with her reply and abandoned their request.
27.3
ʿAbd al-Razzāq, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of al-Zuhrī, on the authority of ʿUrwah, on the authority of ʿĀʾishah:
27.3.1
Fāṭimah and al-ʿAbbās came to Abū Bakr demanding their inheritance from the Messenger of God. At the time, they were demanding his land in Fadak and his share of Khaybar. Abū Bakr said to them, “I heard the Messenger of God say, ‘We leave no heirs; whatever we leave behind is for charity.’ Only Muḥammad’s family can support themselves from this property, and by God, there is no policy pursued by the Messenger of God that I’ll neglect to pursue myself.”
Fāṭimah refused to meet with Abū Bakr after that, and she would not speak to him about the matter for the rest of her life. ʿAlī buried her at night and did not announce her death to Abū Bakr. ʿĀʾishah said, “ʿAlī enjoyed a certain amount of sympathy among the people who admired him while Fāṭimah was alive, but when Fāṭimah passed away, the sympathies of the people left him. Fāṭimah outlived the Messenger of God by six months, and then she passed away.”
Maʿmar said: A man asked al-Zuhrī, “So ʿAlī didn’t pledge his allegiance for six months?”
“No,” answered al-Zuhrī, “and neither did anyone else from the Hāshim clan until ʿAlī had pledged his allegiance.”
27.3.2
When ʿAlī saw that he had lost the sympathy of the people, he hastened to reconcile with Abū Bakr. He sent a message to Abū Bakr saying, “Come to us, but do not bring anyone else with you.” ʿUmar objected to Abū Bakr going to ʿAlī because he knew him to be relentless, so ʿUmar said, “Do not go to them alone.”
“By God,” replied Abū Bakr, “I will go see the Hāshim clan on my own—what could they possibly do to me?”
Abū Bakr set off to see ʿAlī at his residence, where all the Hāshim clan had gathered. ʿAlī then stood and, praising God as is His due, spoke:
“Now to the heart of the matter, Abū Bakr—it has not been due to any refusal to recognize your excellence, nor because of an effort to outstrip the virtue God has bestowed upon you, that we have not pledged our allegiance to you. Rather, we regard our leadership of this community as a right that you have usurped from us.”
ʿAlī then spoke of his own kinship with the Messenger of God and the rights of the Hāshim clan; he did not cease speaking until Abū Bakr wept.
When ʿAlī grew silent, Abū Bakr confessed the Oneness of God and praised God as is His due, and then he declared:
“Now, I swear by God, kinship with the Messenger of God is more precious to me than even my own ties of kinship. By God, I stopped at nothing to do right by you all and this property, but I had heard the Messenger of God say, ‘We leave no heir; whatever we leave behind is for charity.’ Only Muḥammad’s family can support themselves from this property. By God, I recall no policy pursued by God’s Messenger regarding this property that I myself will not pursue, God willing.”
ʿAlī then said, “Nightfall will be the time when you receive the pledge.”
When Abū Bakr had finished the noon prayer, he turned to address the people and proceeded to pardon ʿAlī for that for which he had previously sought pardon. Afterward, ʿAlī stood to speak. He extolled the right of Abū Bakr, may God be pleased with him, as well as his excellence and precedence in Islam, and then ʿAlī walked over to Abū Bakr and pledged his allegiance to him. The people turned to ʿAlī and said, “You have done what is right and good.”
ʿĀʾishah commented, “And thus did the people draw near to ʿAlī when he drew near to Abū Bakr’s rule and to right conduct.”