It is narrated from Amr bin Maimoon that:
Umar bin Khattab said to his son, “Abdullah: Go to Ayesha, mother of
believers and say: Umar conveys his greetings to you – and don’t say ‘chief of
believers’, because today I am not the chief of believers – and seeks your
permission for my burial besides Messenger of Allah (s.a.w.a.) and his friend,
Abu Bakr.”
Abdullah went to Ayesha and greeted her and sought permission to enter.
When he entered, he saw Ayesha weeping and said:
“Umar conveys greetings to you and asks your permission for burial besides
Messenger of Allah (s.a.w.a.) and Abu Bakr.”
Ayesha said: “I myself wanted to be buried at that place, but now I prefer
him over myself.”
So, Abdullah returned from there. When people saw him, they remarked:
Abdullah has returned. Umar said: “Raise me up.”
People helped him to rise up. Umar asked: “What happened?”
Abdullah replied: “Permission is granted for what the chief of believers
requested.”
Umar said: “Praise be to Allah, nothing was more important to be than this
place of burial; thus, when I pass away, carry my body there and if Ayesha
changes her view and prevents the burial, take me to the cemetery of Muslims
and bury me there.”1
Allamah Amini says: Alas, if the Caliph had only mentioned for us the
reason of seeking permission from Ayesha. Did Ayesha inherit the chamber of
Prophet and became its owner? If it is as such, then what will happen to the
imaginary and fabricated tradition attributed to Messenger of Allah (s.a.w.a.)
that:
“We prophets do not leave anything in inheritance; and whatever we leave is
charity.”?!
The same tradition, on which they based their argument for usurpation of
Fadak from Lady Fatima Zahra (s.a.) and Abu Bakr deprived Ayesha and other
wives of Prophet from their one-eighth share of their inheritance.2
If Umar had understood at that time that this traditional report was not
authentic, he would have changed his previous view, then why did he not take
permission from heirs of daughter of Prophet? Because taking permission from
them was more important than taking permission from others. As they were the
actual owners and Ayesha was eligible for only one-ninth from one-eighth of
inheritance.
Because the Prophet was survived by nine wives and from this aspect one-ninth from one-eighth of the chamber would come in share of Ayesha and
perhaps her share was only one hand-span or less than two hand-spans and this
much was not sufficient to accommodate the body of Caliph.
Supposing even if the share of his daughter, Hafasa, is added to it, even then,
it will not have the capacity to accommodate his body. On the basis of this, for
Ayesha to exercise discretion over that house, owned by the holy progeny of Messenger of Allah (s.a.w.a.) and the mothers of believers, was not compatible to
Islamic law.
How often at this point the reader sees the statement of Ibne Battal, who
says:
“Umar sought permission of Ayesha, as her house was located at that place and she had a right to it.”3
And he imagines that Ayesha had a right in that house and from this aspect
her permission was necessary. But one should know that Ayesha only had the
right to live in that house and the house was only attributed to her and this does
not make her the owner of that place!
Ibne Hajar says in Fathul Bari:4 “In order to prove that Ayesha owned that
house, by her residence there and her inheriting, they have argued it through
Umar’s taking permission from her for burial over there.
But this reasoning is invalid; because at the most the right Ayesha had was
only the right of residing over there and to benefit from that. And right to benefit
is not like right to inherit (that she may allow it for Abu Bakr) and the order for
the wives of Prophet is same as order for women during waiting period, because
after passing away of Prophet, they cannot remarry. [That is why, they, like
wives during waiting period, had only the right of residence in the house of
husband].
Thus, the mother of believers, like wives during waiting period, only had the
right of residence in the chamber of Prophet and she had no right of ownership.”
The great tragedy is that scholars, without paying attention to the general
law of Islam regarding discretion on property, regard this taking of permission
and burial of Caliph there as an excellence of Umar!
And I don’t know by which right the holy grandson of Prophet – Imam
Hasan (a.s.) – made a bequest to be buried in that chamber?
Did Ayesha prevent the burial of Imam Hasan (a.s.) there Or not? Or she
gave permission, but they did not obey her?
And ‘one, who is not obeyed has no opinion’; because Bani Umayyah took
up arms and said:
“We will not allow him to be interred besides Messenger of Allah
(s.a.w.a.),” and discord was about to appear.5