The Death of Abu Bakr al-Siddiq

Abu Bakr died on the night of Tuesday, eight nights before the end of Jumada al-Akhira 13 AH, aged sixty-three, as Aisha relates in al-Suyuti's "Tarikh al-Khulafa". ¹

Aisha says that his illness began when he bathed on Monday, the seventh of Jumada al-Akhira, which was a cold day. He had fever for fifteen days, during which he did not go out to the prayer. ¹

• The source relates from Ibn Umar that the cause of his death was his grief for the Prophet's death, so his body kept weakening until he died. ¹
• It also relates that he and al-Harith ibn Kalada ate a broth that had been given to him as a gift, and al-Harith said that there was poison in it for a year, and that they would die on the same day, and so it was. ¹
• It also quotes al-Sha'bi saying that the Prophet and Abu Bakr had been poisoned. ¹

These are differing accounts, and the source transmits them without weighing them against one another.

At his death he told Aisha to look at the milch-camel, the bowl and the blanket that they used to benefit from when he took charge of the affairs of the Muslims, and to return them to Umar when he died. When he died, she sent them to him. The account relates Umar's words: "You have tired whoever comes after you." ¹