Those others were the two men who would lead the
challenge to Ali’s succession after Muhammad’s death:
Aisha’s father, Abu Bakr, who had been Muhammad’s
companion on the ɻight to Medina, and the famed
warrior Omar, the man who was to lead Islam out of the
Arabian Peninsula and into the whole of the Middle
East. But whereas Abu Bakr and Omar had given
Muhammad their daughters in marriage, he had refused
each of them when they asked for the hand of Fatima.
The meaning was clear: in a society where to give was
more honorable than to receive, the man who gave his
daughter’s hand bestowed the higher honor. While Abu
Bakr and Omar honored Muhammad by marrying their
daughters to him, he did not return the honor but chose
Ali instead.
It was a singular distinction, and to show how special
he considered this marriage to be, the Prophet not only
performed the wedding ceremony himself but laid down
one condition: the new couple would follow the example
of his own marriage to Khadija and be monogamous. Ali
and Fatima, he seemed to be saying, would be the new
Muhammad and Khadija, and would have the sons
Muhammad and Khadija never had.
Sure enough, the man who remained without sons of
his own soon had two adored grandsons, Hasan and
Hussein. Only a year apart, they instantly became the
apples of their grandfather’s eye. It is said that there is
no love purer than that of a grandparent for a