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Case file s859 · Scripture and the ancient world · 632
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632
Map of Saudi Arabia, marked on the globe
Map of Saudi Arabia. Keepscases, perlshaper. CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons.
Died
Muhammad, 632; Fatima about six months later
Place
Fadak oasis and Medina, Saudi Arabia
Field
date-palm land and the Prophet's share of Khaybar
Legal tradition
Islamic law; the hadith "we do not leave inheritance; what we leave is charity" · Islamic law
Historical event
The Sunni-Shia split over succession
Religion
Fatima: Muslim (recorded as Islam on Wikidata)
Member of
Ahl al-Bayt (Wikidata)
Scripture and the ancient worldSeized by the stateGiven awayMedievalMiddle EastSaudi Arabia

Fatima asked Abu Bakr for her inheritance from Muhammad; he refused, she did not speak to him again, and caliphs returned and seized the land of Fadak for 200 years

Fadak surrendered to Muhammad without a fight, so its income was his alone. Al-Bukhari records that after his death his daughter Fatima asked Abu Bakr for her share of his property: land in Medina, Fadak and the rest of the Khaybar fifth. Abu Bakr cited Muhammad's saying that prophets' property is not inherited and what they leave is charity, from which his family may eat. He refused. Fatima stopped speaking to him and died about six months later. Her husband Ali buried her at night without telling Abu Bakr. Only then did Ali pledge allegiance. Al-Baladhuri records another version: Fatima said Muhammad had given her Fadak in his lifetime, and Ali and Umm Ayman testified; Abu Bakr said that was not enough witnesses. He also records that Muhammad's widows asked for their inheritance and Aisha stopped them. Under the Umayyads Mu'awiya gave Fadak to Marwan, and it passed down to Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz, who restored it to its former use. In the year 210 (AD 826) the caliph al-Ma'mun wrote to his governor in Medina that Muhammad had given Fadak to Fatima and ordered it delivered to her heirs, naming two descendants of Ali as managers. Al-Mutawakkil reversed the order. Shia Muslims cite Fadak as a seized inheritance; Sunnis cite the hadith.

What the law took from it

One hadith turned a daughter's inheritance into a public endowment, and each new caliph could reverse the last one's reading.

Family version vs. the record

Fatima's side: Muhammad gave her Fadak in his lifetime (al-Ma'mun's letter, in al-Baladhuri): | Abu Bakr's side: prophets leave no inheritance (al-Bukhari 4240):

Internet Archiveihadis.com
Sources
  1. Internet ArchiveGovernment record
  2. ihadis.comPress
  3. en.wikishia.netPress

Cite as: celebrity.estate, “Fatima asked Abu Bakr for her inheritance from Muhammad; he refused, she did not speak to him again, and caliphs returned and seized the land of Fadak for 200 years,” story s859, https://www.celebrity.estate/fatima-fadak-632, updated 30 October 2026.

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Where this case sits

Scripture and the ancient worldSeized by the stateGiven awayMedievalMiddle EastIslamic lawSaudi Arabia