[1] The treatment meted out to the daughter of the Prophet after his death was extremely painful and sad. Although Sayyidatu’n-nisā’ Fāṭimah صلى الله عليه وعلى آله وسلم did not live in this world more than a few months after the death of the Prophet yet even this short period has a long tale of grief and woe (about her). In this connection, the first scene that strikes the eyes is that arrangements for the funeral rites of the Prophet had not yet been made when the contest for power started in the Saqīfah of Banū Sā‘idah. Naturally, their leaving the body of the Prophet (without burial) must have injured Sayyidatu’n-nisā’ Fāṭimah’s grief-stricken heart when she saw that those who had claimed love and attachment (with the Prophet) during his life became so engrossed in their machinations for power that instead of consoling his only daughter they did not even know when the Prophet was given a funeral ablution and when he was buried, and the way they condoled her was that they crowded at her house with material to set fire to it and tried to secure allegiance by force with all the display of oppression, compulsion and violence. All these excesses were with a view to so obliterate the prestigious position of this house that it might not regain its lost prestige on any occasion. With this aim in view, in order to crush her economic position, her claim for (the estate of) Fadak was turned down by dubbing it as false, the effect of which was that Sayyidatu’n-nisā’ Fāṭimah صلى الله عليه وعلى آله وسلم made the dying will that none of them should attend her funeral.