[1][2][3] In this sermon, Fatima protested Abu Bakr's succession to Muhammad and criticized Muslims for descending to what she described as their pre-Islamic habits.
[7] In her remarks, Fatima also chastised Abu Bakr for denying her right of inheritance to the agricultural lands of Fadak, which she considered to be in violation of the Quran and Sunna (prophetic precedence).
[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,[11][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][11] who were forbidden from receiving general alms.
Her husband Ali and a maid at Muhammad's house, named Umm Aiman, are reported to have offered their testimonies in support of Fatima.
[18] Abu Bakr, however, did not find their testimonies sufficient to establish the ownership of Fatima,[1][11] requiring two men or one man and two women as witnesses per Islamic law.
[15][24] Abu Bakr added that he would administer those properties like Muhammad and that his kin should henceforth rely on general alms,[25] which was forbidden for them in his lifetime because of their status of purity in the Quran.
[26] Abu Bakr thus deprived Muhammad's kin also of their Quranic share of the booty and fay,[15] in verses 8:41 and 59:7, respectively, to which they were previously entitled instead of general alms.
[26] 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.
[27] In particular, he includes in these chains some prominent Hashimites, such as Ali and Ibn Abbas, who are both reported to have vehemently disputed this claim of Abu Bakr in other sources.
[29] 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.
[35] This first part of her speech is quoted often as religious teachings in the literature of Twelver Shia, where Fatima is viewed as an infallible possessor of divine knowledge.
[36] Balaghat al-nisa' reports that Fatima then rejected the authority of Abu Bakr in favor of Ali and criticized Muslims for reverting after Muhammad's death to what she described as their pre-Islamic habits.
[38] Based on this source, Fatima then chastised Abu Bakr for denying her right of inheritance to Fadak, which she considered to be in violation of the Quran and Sunna (prophetic precedence).
And: "... if he leaves any goods, that he make a bequest to parents and next of kin, according to reasonable usage; this is due from the pious ones..."[42]Fatima then accused Abu Bakr of injustice, alongside his ally Umar and the Muhajirun (Meccan Muslims):[43] Shall my inheritance be wrested from me in a tyrannical and oppressive manner?
[10] In his Shafi fi al-imama, the famed Twelver theologian Sharif al-Murtaza (d. 436 AH) provides a short version of the sermon with a complete Sunni chain of transmission.
[53][24] 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.
[55] 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.
[61] Aslan suggests that Abu Bakr intended to strip the House of Muhammad from its privileged status, weaken its political might,[54] and particularly undermine Ali's claim to the caliphate.
[62][63][64][65] Some sources report that Fatima never reconciled with Abu Bakr,[66][67][65][42] partly based on a tradition to this effect in the canonical Sunni collection Sahih al-Bukhari.