QUESTION:
Can you please provide references to the sources that recount the incident in which Umar assaulted Lady Fatima (peace be upon her) at her house?
ANSWER:
In the Name of Allah, the All-Beneficent, the All-Merciful.
May Allah bless Muhammad and his Family and damn their enemies.
The sources that mention Umar’s brutal attack on Lady Fatima (peace be upon her) are many and would require a significant amount of time and effort to go through. Below you shall find a number of the sources that mention the incident:
- Al-Shahrastani reported of Ibrahim Ibn Sayyar al-Mu’tazili al-Nadham, who said:
Umar kicked Fatima’s stomach on the day of allegiance until she miscarried and he yelled: ‘Burn her house and whoever is in it!’ In it were Ali, Fatima, al-Hassan and al-Hussain.
al-Milal wa al-Nihal, by al-Shahrastani, volume 1, page 57
2. Al-Safadi, also reported of al-Nadham, who said:
Umar kicked Fatima’s stomach on the day of allegiance until she miscarried Muhsin.
al-Wafi bil Wafiyat, by al-Safadi, volume 6, page 17.
3. Al-Baladhuri, reported of Sulaiman al-Taymi, of Abdullah Ibn Aon – who are believed to be trustworthy by the ‘Sunnis’ – who said:
Abu Bakr asked Ali to join him, but Ali refused. Then Umar went towards Ali’s house while carrying a torch. At the door, he met Fatima, who said to him: ‘Do you intend to burn the door of my house?’ Umar said: ‘Yes!
Ansab al-Ashraaf, by al-Baladhuri Ahmed Ibn Yahya Ibn Jaber al-Baghdadi, volume 1, page 586
4. Ibn Abd Rabbih – whom the ‘Sunnis’ believe to be a very trustworthy traditionalist – reported with regards to the ones who did not pay allegiance to Abu Bakr (may the curse of Allah be upon him):
They are Ali, al-Abbas, Zubair and Sa’d Ibn Ubadah. As for Ali, Abbas, and Zubair, they stayed in the house of Fatima until Abu Bakr sent Umar to get them out of Fatima’s house, and he told him: ‘If they refuse, fight them.’ He took a torch to burn the house, and Fatima met him and told him: ‘O son of Khattab, are you here to burn our house?’ He said: ‘Yes, or you enter what the nation has entered in (i.e., pledge of allegiance to Abu Bakr)
All-Iqd al-Fareed, by Ibn Abd Rabbih al-Andalusi, volume 5, page 13
5. Ibn Qutayba reported:
Umar asked for wood, and told those people inside the house (i.e., Fatima’s house): ‘I swear by Allah who has my soul in His Hand, that if you do not come out, I will burn the house.’ Someone told Umar: ‘O Aba Hafs, Fatima is inside the house!’ Umar said: ‘So what! It does not matter to me who is in the house!
Al-Imama wa al-Siyasa, by Ibn Qutayba, page 12
6. Al-Juwayni al-Shafi’i, relying on the chain of narrators that ends at Ibn Abbas, reports that the Prophet (peace be upon him and his pure family) said:
As for my daughter Fatima when I saw her, I remembered what she would have to endure after me. It is as if humiliation entered inside her house, defiling her sanctity, confiscating her rights, depriving her of her inheritance, breaking her side, and causing her to miscarry as she will call: ‘O Muhammad!’ But there will be none to respond to her. She will seek help, but she will not find any. Her grief, misery, and cries will be endless after my passing.
Fara’id al-Simtayn, by al-Juwayni al-Shafi’I, volume 2, page 34.
7. Al-Suyuti was among the ones who reported that Abu Bakr (may the curse of Allah be upon him) regretted what he had done to Lady Fatima (peace be upon her), as he said:
I wish I had not gone for Fatima’s house and had not sent men to harass her.
Musnad Fatima, by al-Siyuti, page 34; Al-Mu’jam al-Kabeer, by al-Tabarani, volume 1, page 62; History of al-Tabari, Volume 3, page 430.; al-Iqd al-Fareed, by Ibn Abd Rabbih, volume 2, page 254, and many more.
The Office of Sheikh al-Habib