Ahl-e-Bayt and Khanvada-e-Abu Bakr : The First Two Households that Accepted the Call of Muhammad ?
May Allah subhanahu wa’tala be pleased with the members of ahl-e-bayt and khanvada-e-Abu Bakr. The first two households that embraced Islam and directly became aal-e-Muhammad ? were ahl-e-bayt and khanvada-e-Abu Bakr. Fifteen children, eight boys and seven girls lived in these two households. Only one of the two wives of Abu Bakr and one of his three sons did not embrace Islam until Makkah was liberated by the Muslims twenty years later.
Abu Bakr separated from his reluctant wife and she moved into a separate house with their son Abdur Rehman. Muhammad ? had only one wife from whom he had two sons, who died in their infancy, and four daughters, three of whom died after childless marriages. Only one daughter Fatimah survived to become a mother. Ali was Muhammad‘s ? eight year old cousin living under his care whereas Zaid bin Haritha was his adopted son.
Ahl-e-Bayt included Muhammad ? and Khatijah, their two sons Qasim and AbdAllah; their four daughters; Ruqayya, Kulsoom, Zainab, and Fatimah. Ali married Fatimah and from her had two sons, Hasan and Husain. Zaid got married and moved out of the household. He fathered Usama. Muhammad ? married Hafza daughter of Umar, after khatijah passed away, after a marriage of twenty five years. Usman married Ruqayya first and after her passing away he married Kulsoom.
Khanvada-e-Abu Bakr included his second wife Umm-e-Ruman; and their children AbdAllah, Muhammad, Asma, Ayesha, and Kulsoom. Asma married Zubair and gave birth to AbdAllah bin Zubair whereas Kulsoom married Talha and gave birth to AbdAllah bin Talha. Muhammad ? married Ayesha but they had a childless marriage. In Madinah, after passing away of Umm-e-Ruman, Abu Bakr married Kharijah who gave birth to a daughter named Habibah.
All children spent their childhood together and spent the next fifty years of their lives at the center stage of the millat-e-Islamia and ummat-e-Muhammadia. The four sons-in-law of Muhammad ? and Abu Bakr; Ali, Usman, Talha, and Zubair played a central role in the early history of Islam. Umar the father-in-law of Muhammad ? and later son-in-law of Ali was another strong personality that played a critical role in the early development of Islamic history.
At the time of the grand children of Muhammad and Abu Bakr, seventy years after the commencement of nabuwat; millat-e-Islamia split and ummat-e-Muhammadia collapsed due to the usurpation of power by dynastic forces that caused the martyrdom of Umar, Usman, Talha, Zubair and their sons; and of Ali, Hasan and Husain.
A series of assassinations and conflicts that started in 656 CE ended with the massacre of ahl-e-bayt at Kerbala in 680 CE. Only one son of Husain survived. Khanvada-e-Abu Bakr regrouped and almost succeeded in restoring millat-e-Islamia and reviving ummat-e-Muhammadia but were defeated in 692 CE. All adult male members of khanvada-e-Abu Bakr died defending Makkah at the hands of Hajjaj bin Yusuf as-Saqafi the infamous commander of Ummayyad – al-Aas chief Abd al-Malik bin Marwan bin Hakam.
By 692 CE, all of the fifteen children of the two foremost households of Islam and their next generation had been killed by the usurpers. An amalgam of dynastic forces that collaborated to usurp the stewardship of Islam from the lifetime of Muhammad ? and Abu Bakr, finally succeeded after three generations of intrigues, assassinations, and rebellions.
Usurpers even killed AbdAllah bin Umar in 693 CE who had remained neutral. Ummayyads also killed the sons of Usman who had sided with them to avenge their father but opposed the transformation of the Stewardship of Islam into a dynastic imperial rule. Dynastic rule instead of Stewardship of Islam became the new norm among the Muslims.
In the next thirteen hundred years, one dynastic power replaced the other without reviving the Stewardship of Islam. After attaining power in the name of Allah subhanahu wa’tala, the usurpers never shared the wealth in the name of Allah subhanahu wa’tala because it would empower common people against their dynastic rule.