Abu Bakr paid a visit to the Prophet, sat before him and said, “You know about my loyalty and my precedence in accepting Islam. I have done this and that and…”
The Prophet asked, “What do you want?”
Abu Bakr replied, “I have come to propose for the hand of Fatimah.
The Prophet did not say a word and turned his face away from him. Abu Bakr came to ‘Umar and said, “I am condemned to death!”
‘Umar asked him why and he told him that he had proposed for the hand of Fatimah but the Prophet turned his face away from him.
‘Umar said, “You look after the things here and I shall go to the Prophet to propose for the hand of Fatimah.” He too proposed, however the Prophet turned his face away from him as well. (Muhibuddin al-Tabari, “Riyadhun Nazarah”; Imam al-Nisa’i, “al-Khasais”; Muttaqi al-Hindi, “Kanzul ‘Ummal”)
. The strangest case was the proposal of ‘Abdul Rahman b. ‘Awf. He came to the Prophet saying, “If you give Fatimah to me in marriage, I will give her a dowry of one hundred camels with loads of precious material from Eygpt along with ten thousand dinars.”
Hearing this, the Prophet became enraged and threw a handful of gravel at him saying, “Do you think that I am a servant of wealth that you express pride in it (the dowry which you want to give to marry my daughter)?” (Sibt b. Jawzi, “Tadhkiratul Khawas al-Ummah”).
Such a person is considered to be one of the “Asharah Mubasharah” (one of the ten men promised paradise by the Prophet) by the Ahlus Sunnah! The Prophet truly said, “If ‘Ali was not born, Fatimah would have not had any one (to marry her).” (al-Manawi, “Kunizul Haqaiq”).
House of Sorrows Translation of Baytul AhzanShaikh Abbas Al – Qummi