for Muhammad’s aʃection, and in such a competition,
Fatima stood no chance.
It became known throughout Medina that if you
wanted a favor from Muhammad, the best time to
approach him was after he had been with Aisha because
then he was guaranteed to be in a good mood. The
young wife had inɻuence, and in one way or another,
she used it in a barrage of small slights and insults that
Fatima was helpless to counter. Things came to a head
when Muhammad’s other wives begged Fatima to go to
her father and protest against his favoritism of Aisha.
She felt she had no choice but to comply yet must have
known that in doing so, she would be setting herself up
for humiliation. And indeed, the moment she broached
the subject, Muhammad stopped her short.
“Dear little daughter,” he said, “do you not love who I
love?”
To which Fatima could only meekly reply, “Yes,
surely.”
His question was rhetorical, of course, and though it
was phrased in loving terms, you can almost hear the
impatience in his voice, the desire to put a stop to this
constant bickering among those close to him and have
them leave him alone to get on with important matters
of state. But he also seemed to be saying that his love for
Aisha trumped his love for everyone else.
That is certainly what Ali heard when his wife came