In Sunni sources, this hadith is narrated primarily on the authority of the first caliph, Abu Bakr, who is said to have cited it to reject the claims of Muhammad's daughter Fatima to Fadak.
[1] As part of a peace treaty with a Jewish tribe, half of the agricultural land of Fadak was considered fay and belonged to Muhammad,[2][1] in line with verse 59:6 of the Quran.
[1] The revenue of Fadak largely supported needy travelers, the poor, military expeditions, and Muhammad's family,[1][2] who were forbidden from receiving general alms.
[10] Abu Bakr, however, did not find their testimonies sufficient to establish the ownership of Fatima,[1][2] requiring two men or one man and two women as witnesses per Islamic law.
[1]Abu Bakr added that he would administer those properties like Muhammad and that his kin should henceforth rely on general alms,[16] which was forbidden for them in his lifetime because of their status of purity in the Quran.
[17] In his al-Tabaqat al-kubra, the Sunni traditionist Ibn Sa'd (d. 845) furnishes the hadith of inheritance with two chains of transmission which include numerous companions of Muhammad, such as Umar, Uthman, and Zubayr.
[20] Along these lines, Sajjadi writes that all (credible) versions of this hadith are narrated from Abu Bakr, his ally Umar, his daughter Aisha, and Malik ibn Aus Al-Hadathan,[1] though some primary sources have disputed the status of the last one as a companion of Muhammad.
[22] Similarly, that Muhammad would make a statement without informing the parties involved was doubted by his widow Umm Salama, reports the Twelver al-Qazvini (d. 1994) in his Fatima al-Zahra: min al-mahd ilaal-lahd.
[31][32] The ostensible contradiction of the hadith of inheritance with the Quran has been noted by some contemporary authors,[33][34][9] and also explained to Abu Bakr by Ali in the account of the Sunni Ibn Sa'd.
[39][15] By maintaining their status, Abu Bakr might have signaled to the Muslim community that his daughter Aisha and the rest of the widows were the true heirs of Muhammad, according to Aslan.
[41] Madelung suggests that the caliphate of Abu Bakr was inherently inconsistent with maintaining the privileged status of Muhammad's kin and applying the Quranic rules of inheritance to them.
[46] Aslan suggests that Abu Bakr intended to strip the House of Muhammad from its privileged status, weaken its political might,[40] and particularly undermine Ali's claim to the caliphate.