the shared supervision between the two of them.
The Companions whom they had placed before ʿUmar said, “O Commander of the Believers, pass judgment between them and relieve (1) one of them from the other.”
It was as though ʿUmar—may Allah be pleased with him—felt constrained about apportioning the oversight between them in a way that resembled a (2) division of inheritance, even if only outwardly, out of his determination to comply with the Prophet’s statement ﷺ:
“We prophets are not inherited from; whatever we leave behind is charity.”
Accordingly he refused all of them and declined most emphatically—may Allah be pleased with him and may He be pleased with him.

ʿAlī and al-ʿAbbās therefore continued as they had been, exercising joint supervision until the time of ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān. ʿAlī then prevailed over him in the matter, and al-ʿAbbās relinquished it to him on the advice of his son ʿAbd Allāh—may Allah be pleased with him—in the presence of ʿUthmān, as Aḥmad relates in his Musnad (3). From that point on it remained in the hands of the Alids.

I have traced the various channels and wordings of this ḥadīth in the Musnads of the two Shaykhs, Abū Bakr and ʿUmar—may Allah be pleased with them. Indeed, by Allah’s grace, I compiled for each of them a large volume containing what he narrated from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and what he regarded as sound, beneficial jurisprudence, arranging it according to the legal chapters recognized today.

It has also reached us that Fāṭimah—may Allah be pleased with her—initially argued by analogy and by the general wording of the noble verse, whereupon al-Ṣiddīq answered her with the specific text that bars inheritance in the case of the Prophet, and she accepted his answer—just as one would expect of her, may Allah be pleased with her.

Imām Aḥmad (4) narrated: ʿAffān related to us; Ḥammād ibn Salamah, from Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr, from Abū Salamah, that Fāṭimah said to Abū Bakr:
“Who will inherit from you when you die?”
He replied, “My children and my family.”
She said, “Then why do we not inherit from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ?”
He answered, “I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say, ‘A prophet is not inherited from.’ Yet I shall maintain those whom the Messenger of Allah ﷺ used to maintain and spend on those upon whom the Messenger of Allah ﷺ used to spend.”

Al-Tirmidhī also related it in his Jāmiʿ (5) from Muḥammad ibn al-Muthannā, from Abū al-Walīd al-Ṭayālisī—who said, “Ḥammād ibn Salamah narrated to us” (6)—from Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr, from Abū Salamah, from Abū Hurayrah… and he mentioned it, completing (7) the ḥadīth. Al-Tirmidhī said: “It is ḥasan, ṣaḥīḥ, and gharīb” (8).

As for the ḥadīth in which Imām Aḥmad (9) said: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn Abī Shaybah related to us; Muḥammad ibn Fuḍayl, from al-Walīd ibn Jumayʿ, from Abū al-Ṭufayl, who said: “When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ passed away, Fāṭimah sent word to Abū Bakr: ‘Are you…’”