Sermon of Fadak

Fadak is a land in Hejaz's desert in the surrounding of Madina (two or three days travel by walk) and close to Khaybar. It was a palm-grove and habitable land with enough water and produced a lot of crops.[1] The land had previously belonged to Banu Nadir's clan, the settlement of a Jewish agriculture, that Muhammad acquired peacefully in the conclusion of a campaign in Khaybar's war.[2]

Historians claim that on the way to the mosque, Fatimah's demeanor was calm and serene, while at the same time she was very angry. In that time women were not allowed to attend in social fields, however Fatimah with self-confidence and serenity tried to get back her right. Moreover, she put on her veil and gown and came, with her maids and some of her fellow women walking exactly like her father’s gait, to Abu Bakr, who was in the mosque among a crowd of the Muhajerin, the Ansar and others.[3] A curtain was put between women and men. She began to give a beautiful speech and told people that Abu Bakr took away her rights. Then she began to cry and people began to cry by her discourse. She waited until they stopped crying and became quiet and began her speech.[4]

The sermon could divided in several subjects and the main points are: praising Allah, declaring points through prophetic mission of Muhammad, the events that occurred after Muhammad's departure, and a speech about Fadak and bringing proofs about her prerogative.[5][6] As Fatima started her speech, people began to weep. She patiently waited for quiet, then she started her remarkable sermon by praising Allah:

“Praise be to Allah for that which He bestowed (upon us), and thanks be to Him for all that which He inspired, and tribute be to Him for that which He provided; from prevalent favors which He created, and abundant benefactions which He offered and perfect grants which He presented; that their number is much too plentiful to compute, and too vast to measure; their limit was too distant to realize. He recommended to them (His creatures) to gain more (of His bounties) by being grateful for their continuity. He ordained Himself praiseworthy by giving generously to His creatures, and promised, through supplicating Him, to give more like them. I bear witness that there is no God but Allah Who is One without partner; a statement which sincere devotion is made to be its interpretation, put into hearts its continuation, and illuminated in the minds its sensibility. He Who can not be perceived with vision, neither be described with tongues, nor can imagination surround His form."[7]

Then she witnessed to prophetic mission of her father and said:

I too bear witness that my father, Muhammad, is His slave and messenger, whom He chose before sending him, named him before creating him, and preferred him by missioning him; when creatures were still concealed in the unseen, guarded from that which was appalling, and associated with the termination and nonexistence. For Allah the Exalted knew that which was to follow, comprehended that which will come to pass, and realized the place of every event. Allah has sent him (Muhammad) as perfection for His commands, a resolution to accomplish His rule, and an implementation of His decrees. So he found the nations to vary in their faiths, obsessed by their fires, worshiping their idols, and denying Allah despite their knowledge of Him. Therefore, Allah illuminated their darkness with my father, Muhammad, uncovered obscurity from their hearts, and cleared the clouds from their insights. He revealed guidance among the people; So he delivered them from being led astray, led them away from misguidance, guided them to the proper religion, and called them to the straight path.[8]

And she delivered words about Fadak and her inheritance right:

O Muslims! Is my inheritance usurped? O son of Abu Quhafa, is it in the Book of Allah that you inherit your father and I do not inherit my father? Surely you have done a strange thing! Did you intendedly desert the Book of Allah and turned your back on it? Allah said: (And Sulaiman was Dawood's heir. 27:16) and said about Yahya bin Zachariah: (Grant me from Thyself an heir, who should inherit me and inherit from the children of Yaqoub. 19:5-6) and said: (And the possessors of relationships are nearer to each other in the ordinance of Allah. 8:75), and He said: (Allah enjoins you concerning your children: The male shall have the equal of the portion of two females. 4:11), and He said: (Bequest is prescribed for you when death approaches one of you, if he leaves behind wealth for parents and near relatives. 2:180). You claimed that I have no position, and no inheritance from my father, and there is no kinship between us. So did Allah distinguish you with a verse, from which He excluded my father? Or do you say: people of two religions do not inherit each other? Am I and my father not of one religion? Or are you more aware of the Qur'an than my father and his cousin?[9]

• Book of Fatimah
• Children of Muhammad
• Fatima the Gracious, biography of Fatimah
• Genealogy of Khadijah's daughters