The Reality of the Garden of Fadak
Rana Abdul Rehman Khan from Kuala Lumpur has asked a question.
['Assalamu Alaikum']. Walaikum Assalam.
'I have a question for you. I have put this question to many different scholars but nobody was able to answer it to my satisfaction.'
'[My question is about] the Garden of Fadak.'
'I have listened to what the Shiite, Sunni and Ahle Hadith scholars have to say about it but they all have contradicting answers about it.'
'When the issue of the Garden of Fadak was being handled, if Moula Ali was there, why didn't he say anything?'
'And did Bibi Fatima really have to return empty-handed, due to which the Shiites speak ill of the caliph of the time?'
Yes.
Moula Ali was there [when this was happening].
But certain things -
- the wrong thing could be being said, however the issue is so sensitive
that even an honourable man like Moula Ali has [no choice but to] stand and watch it unfold silently.
When the caliph of the time summoned Bibi Fatima and the issue of the Garden of Fadak was brought up,
he said that the Garden of Fadak is the property of the Muslims.
He told her, 'It is the property of Muslims. It will be used to support Islam. It is not your property.'
Now this issue was sensitive that a personality like Moula Ali,
who was well-aware that Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) gave the Garden of Fadak to his daughter as a gift,
[because] he was there when it happened.
However, when the caliph of the time summoned him and said that the Garden of Fadak belongs to the Muslims,
it was against his esoteric honour and grandeur to argue with [the caliph] for the sake of his own property.
Especially after hearing the words, 'This does not belong to you. It will be used to support the cause of Islam.'
He stayed silent because of this sentence: 'It will be used to support Islam.'
He thought it better to endure this injustice and tyranny [for the sake of Islam].
Otherwise, there is no doubt that the Garden of Fadak was obtained by [the Muslims] as war loot.
And war booty -
- now, since you people look at the Companions as if they are God,
there are many things you don't understand very easily.
Perhaps at that time, the caliph did not remember that verse of the Koran
in which [God] asks Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) a question about war loot.
The Chapter Anfal is on this subject.
[The question asked is:] 'Who has the rights to the war loot?'
What is Maal-e-Ghanimat? The loot.
Two armies fight. The property that is abandoned by the losing army
or their women -
- the property left behind as well as the men and women with it -
- these days they become prisoners of war.
However, at that time, they were all included in the war loot.
The soldiers fighting for the Muslims' side
they thought that because they were the ones who fought and defeated the enemy, they were the ones with rights to the war loot.
This is what many Companions used to think.
And it was with this notion in mind
that many [Companions] took items from the war loot for themselves.
When Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) found out, he said, '[So-and-so who stole from the war loot] has become a hypocrite.'
One man stole a necklace.
Do you understand?
When Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) was there, the war loot was being used to benefit the Muslims.
Then the question was raised, 'Who has rights to the war loot? What shall we do with it?'
So people asked Prophet Mohammad (PBUH).
Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) waited from a verse from God to be revealed on this subject.
Then the Chapter Anfal was revealed.
And it clearly states, 'O' Prophet Mohammad (PBUH), people ask you questions about the war loot.'
'Tell them that God and his Messenger have the rights to the war loot.' - Koran 8:1
Now when God say that he and his Messenger have rights to it,
this means that Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) [has the exclusive rights] because God is not on Earth.
It's not like you can hand the loot to God.
So we come to know that in light of the Koran, the one with complete rights to the war loot
is Prophet Mohammad (PBUH).
So in light of the Koran, who has complete rights upon the war loot? Prophet Mohammad (PBUH).
And Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) gifted the Garden of Fadak, which was war loot, to his daughter.
Obviously, in that era, there was no paperwork [or deeds].
It was not as if Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) would have drawn up a document and given it to his daughter [to prove she owned the Garden of Fadak].
He was living in an era when the world was not that civilised.
There were no courts or documentary proof or anybody talking about evidence [of ownership].
Physical evidence and documents are things of today.
They have been used for just a few centuries.
At that time, there weren't even marriage certificates.
Let alone a document about the Garden of Fadak.
It was all done verbally.
So Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) said, 'I am giving it to my daughter.'
Perhaps this wasn't in the knowledge of the caliph at the time
that the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) have complete rights over the war loot.
And that if Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) has given something from it to his daughter, it now belongs to her. You cannot take it back.
If he knew that this was written in the Koran, he wouldn't have done what he did.
So what was the result?
The caliph of the time - whoever he was -
- when the caliph of the time took the Garden of Fadak from Bibi Fatima,
he blasphemed the Koran.
He blasphemed God's Messenger.
Neither did he honour the daughter of the Prophet nor the Prophet himself.
Nor did he honour the Koran in which God clearly stated that Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) has complete rights over the war loot.
Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) has complete rights over it and he gifted it to his daughter.
Now it belongs to the daughter. You have no right to seize it from her and use it for Muslims.
This is your own mindset as the caliph to take the Garden from the Prophet's daughter and use it for Muslims.
That is fine.
But you do not have the authority to take back something from someone
when it was Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) himself who gave it to that person in the first place.
This was tyranny. Whoever did it committed injustice.
Whoever that personality was, the caliph of the time committed injustice and went against the Koran [in this matter].
It is written in the Koran.
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