(98) The matter is determined when Taym[^1] is absent And...

(98) The matter is determined when Taym[^1] is absent And they[^2] are not asked permission when they are present. Yes! The matter had been determined in the Saqeefa[^3] while the Prophet (s) was lying between his family and his close companions for three days. They were around him mourning bitterly and their hearts were about to be cut into pieces with sorrow that might tear the livers and with fear that might move the mountains.

The world, with all its wideness, had become too narrow before them. And those people were away from the ordeal for three days being busy preparing their determinations to seize his (the Prophet’s) authority and to plunder his rule. They did not pay any attention to any affair of him until they had determined their matter without caring for anything else.

As soon as they finished burying him, they surprised his guardians and lovers with asking them either to pay homage or to be burned with their houses.[^4] The poet of the Nile, Hafidh Ibraheem had said in a famous poem: And a…