The death of the Prophet

The Prophet died in Medina, in the house of Aisha, on a Monday, after an illness that began in late Safar or early Rabi' al-Awwal of the eleventh year of the Hijra, as Ibn Ishaq relates. ⁵ This page gives Ibn Hisham's transmission of Ibn Ishaq on the illness and the death, and attributes each saying to its narrator.

Ibn Ishaq says that the complaint began "on some nights left of Safar, or at the beginning of Rabi' al-Awwal". ⁵ What was first begun, it is mentioned, was that he went out to al-Baqi' in the depth of the night and asked forgiveness for its people, then returned, and when morning came his pain began. ⁵ In a report of Abu Muwayhiba, his freedman, he was commanded to ask forgiveness for the people of al-Baqi', and he said to him that he had been given the keys of the treasuries of the world and immortality in it, then Paradise, and was given the choice between that and meeting his Lord and Paradise, and he chose meeting his Lord. ⁶

Aisha relates that he came back from al-Baqi' while she was complaining of a headache, and he said to her: "Rather, I, by God, O Aisha, my head!" ⁶ He would go round among his wives until the pain grew severe while he was in the house of Maymuna, and he asked their leave to be nursed in her house, and they gave him leave. ⁶ He went out to her house walking between two men, one of them al-Fadl ibn al-Abbas, and the other Ali ibn Abi Talib, as Ibn Abbas reported, though Ubayd Allah relates the hadith from Aisha without naming him. ⁷

The pain grew more severe, and he ordered water to be poured over him from seven waterskins drawn from different wells, until he could go out to the people and charge them. He was seated in a tub belonging to Hafsa and water was poured over him until he said: "Enough, enough." ⁸ Then he went out with his head bound and sat on the pulpit. The first thing he spoke was to pray over the martyrs of Uhud and ask forgiveness for them. He then said that a servant of God had been given the choice by God between the world and what is with Him, and he had chosen what is with Him. Abu Bakr understood that he meant himself, and wept. ⁸ Then he ordered the open doors onto the mosque shut, except the door of Abu Bakr. ⁹ He also counselled the Muhajirun concerning the Ansar. In one report he said: "If I were to take any of the servants as a close friend, I would have taken Abu Bakr as a close friend." ⁸

He had been slow to see the people set out on the dispatch of Usama ibn Zayd. People had spoken of his command, saying that he was a young man over the elite of the Muhajirun and the Ansar. He preached and said: "Send out the dispatch of Usama," even if his father had been fit for command before him. ⁹ Usama set out with his army until they halted at al-Jurf, and they remained there waiting for what God would decree concerning the Prophet. ⁹ Then Usama came down to Medina when the illness grew heavy. He came in to him when he had become unable to speak. He began to raise his hand to the sky and then place it on him, and Usama knew that he was praying for him. ¹⁰

Some of his wives and some Muslim women gathered, and his uncle al-Abbas was with him. They agreed to give him a laddu, that is, to pour medicine into the side of his mouth. When he recovered he said: "Who did this to me?" They said: "Your uncle." Al-Abbas said: "We feared that you had pleurisy." He said that this was a disease God would not have sent upon him, and he ordered that everyone in the house be given the laddu, except his uncle, as a punishment for what they had done. ⁹-¹⁰

Aisha relates that he said: "Command Abu Bakr to lead the people in prayer." She said that Abu Bakr was a tender man, weak of voice, who wept much when he recited the Qur'an. He returned and repeated the order, and she repeated her words, and he said: "You are the companions of Joseph." ¹⁰ She says she only said that because she wished that he might be turned away from Abu Bakr, and she knew that people did not love a man who had stood in his place and would think ill omens of him. ¹¹ In the report of Abd Allah ibn Zam'a, when Bilal called the people to prayer, the Prophet said: "Tell someone to lead the people in prayer." Umar prayed, since Abu Bakr was absent. When the Prophet heard his voice he said: "Where is Abu Bakr? God and the Muslims refuse that." Abu Bakr came and prayed. ¹¹ Umar later told Ibn Zam'a that he had thought only that the Messenger of God had commanded it. ¹¹

Ibn Ishaq relates on the authority of al-Qasim ibn Muhammad that had it not been for a saying of Umar at his death (that is, Umar's death), the Muslims would not have doubted that the Prophet had appointed Abu Bakr as successor. But Umar said: "If I appoint, one better than me has appointed; and if I leave them, one better than me has left them." So the people knew that the Prophet had appointed no one, and Umar was not suspected of partiality toward Abu Bakr. ¹² (See the gathering at Saqifa for the disagreement on this.)

In the report of Ibn Abi Mulayka, the Prophet went out on Monday, his head bound, at dawn, while Abu Bakr was leading the people in prayer. The people made way, and Abu Bakr stepped back, and the Prophet pushed him in the back and said: "Lead the people in prayer," and he sat beside him and prayed sitting on the right of Abu Bakr. ¹² In another report he lifted the curtain and opened the door, and the Muslims almost lost themselves in their prayer out of joy at seeing him. He signalled to them to stand firm, smiled, and went back. ¹² On that day Abu Bakr told the Prophet that he saw him well that morning by grace and bounty from God, and that the day was the day of the daughter of Kharija, so might he go to her? He said: "Yes." So Abu Bakr went out to his family at al-Sunh. ¹³

Abd Allah ibn Abbas relates that Ali went out that day from the Prophet's presence, and people asked him how he had risen. He said: "He has risen, praise be to God, in health." Then al-Abbas took him by the hand and said: "By God, after three days you will be a servant of the staff." He said that he had recognised death in the Prophet's face as he used to recognise it in the faces of the Banu Abd al-Muttalib, and he asked Ali to go with him to ask him who would have the command. Ali said: "By God, if we are refused it, no one will give it to us after him." ¹³ Ibn Ishaq relates the report without comment, and the readings of scholars of its meaning vary. See Saqifa.

Aisha says that he returned to her that day when he came in from the mosque and lay down in her lap. A man of the family of Abu Bakr came in with a green toothstick, and the Prophet looked at it in a way that she knew he wanted it. She chewed it for him until it was soft, and he used it to clean his teeth as strongly as she had ever seen him do. Then she found him growing heavy in her lap, and his gaze was fixed, and he was saying: "Rather, the Highest Companion in Paradise." She said: "You were given the choice and you chose." And the Messenger of God was taken. ¹³-¹⁴ Aisha says: "He died between my sahr and my nahr, and in my turn." ¹⁴ She also related that he often said that God does not take a prophet until He gives him the choice. ¹⁰ His death was "when the forenoon grew intense" of that day, ¹³ and it is traditionally dated to the twelfth of Rabi' al-Awwal; see the date field.

When he died, Umar stood up and said that men of the hypocrites claimed that the Messenger of God had died, and that he had not died, but had gone to his Lord as Moses son of Imran went, and that he would return. ¹⁴ Abu Bakr came when the news reached him, and he went in to the Prophet, who lay covered in a corner of the house, and uncovered his face, kissed it and said: "My father and my mother are your ransom. As for the death that God has written for you, you have tasted it, and no death will touch you after it, ever." ¹⁵ Then he went out while Umar was speaking to the people, and said: "Gently, O Umar, be silent." When Umar refused, Abu Bakr turned to the people and they left Umar. ¹⁵ He said: "Whoever worshipped Muhammad, Muhammad has died; and whoever worshipped God, God is living and does not die," and then recited the verse 3:144. Abu Hurayra (may God be pleased with him) said that Umar said that when he heard Abu Bakr recite it, he was struck until he fell to the ground, unable to bear his legs, and knew that the Prophet had died. ¹⁵ In another report from Ibn Abbas, Umar explains that what moved him to his statement was that he was reading the verse about the middle community (ummah wasat), and thought that the Prophet would remain among them until he bore witness over their last deeds. ¹⁶; the verse is 2:143.

See the gathering at Saqifa for what passed between the Ansar and the Muhajirun before his burial, and the burial of the Prophet for his preparation, in which those who washed him were Ali, al-Abbas, al-Fadl, Qutham ibn al-Abbas, Usama and Shuqran, his freedman, and Aws ibn Khawli came in with them. ¹⁶

• The account rests on Ibn Hisham's transmission of Ibn Ishaq. Most reports are traced to al-Zuhri from Ubayd Allah ibn Abd Allah ibn Utba from Aisha. For comparison with the reports in the two Sahihs, see the Sahih pages.
• The beginning of the illness: "on some nights left of Safar, or at the beginning of Rabi' al-Awwal" (p. 291), which is Ibn Ishaq's own statement with doubt.
• On p. 304 the report about al-Abbas and Ali is one of the places where the reading of the text is disputed. We do not judge it here, and we refer to the section of views on Saqifa.

Ibn Ishaq relates that the Prophet went out at night to al-Baqi' and asked forgiveness for its people; then, when morning came, his pain began. Abu Muwayhiba woke him at the Prophet's command to accompany him, and he said to him: "I have been commanded to ask forgiveness for the people of al-Baqi', and I have been given the keys of the treasuries of the world and immortality in it, then Paradise, and was given the choice between that and meeting my Lord and Paradise." He said: "No, by God, I have chosen meeting my Lord and Paradise." ^{5 6}

He relates from Aisha that the Prophet came back from al-Baqi' and found her complaining of a headache in her head, saying: "O my head!" He said: "Rather, I, by God, O Aisha, my head!" Then he wished that he might die before her, so that he could shroud her and pray over her. She said: "By God, I can see you doing that, you would return to my house and marry some of your wives in it." ⁶

Then when the pain grew severe he asked his wives' leave to be nursed in Aisha's house, and they gave it. ⁶ Ibn Hisham gave a list of the wives of the Prophet and their names in a connected place, and that he did not consummate the marriage with two of them, and that he consummated it with eleven. He notes that Umm Habiba he married in Abyssinia, and that Zaynab bint Jahsh (may God be pleased with her) had been with Zayd ibn Haritha (may God be pleased with him) before him. Ibn Hisham says that the marriages of Sawda, Umm Salama and Hafsa were at different times, with dowries of four hundred dirhams in most of them. ^{17 18 19 20} See the list of wives according to Ibn Hisham and the choice of the Prophet's wives.

Ibn Ishaq relates from Aisha that the Prophet went out walking between two men, one of them al-Fadl ibn al-Abbas (may God be pleased with him) and the other Ali ibn Abi Talib (may God be pleased with him), until he entered her house. ⁷ Then the pain grew worse, and he said: "Pour upon me water from seven waterskins from different wells, until I go out to the people and charge them." They seated him in the tub of Hafsa and poured water on him until he began to say: "Enough, enough." ⁸

Then he went out with his head bound to the pulpit, prayed over the martyrs of Uhud and asked forgiveness for them, and said: "A servant of God has been given the choice by God between the world and what is with Him, and he chose what is with God." Abu Bakr understood it and wept, and said: "No, we will ransom you with ourselves and our sons." The Prophet said: "Gently, O Abu Bakr," and ordered that the doors opening onto the mosque be shut, except the door of Abu Bakr. ^{8 9}

In his speech that day he counselled concerning the Ansar: "O company of the Muhajirun, be good to the Ansar; for people increase and the Ansar remain as they are; they were my secret chamber to which I retired, so do good to their good ones and overlook the faults of their wrongdoers." ⁹

Ibn Ishaq relates from al-Zuhri that the Prophet ordered the dispatch of Usama to be carried out and said: "If you speak of his command, you have spoken of his father's command before him," and that the people hesitated in their preparations. Usama went out with his army until they halted at al-Jurf, a farsakh from Medina, and remained waiting for what God would decree concerning His Messenger. ⁹

• The report of al-Baqi' comes from Ibn Ishaq with a chain to Abu Muwayhiba from Abd Allah ibn Amr from Ubayd ibn Jubayr. The report of Aisha has a chain from Ya'qub ibn Utba from al-Zuhri from Ubayd Allah. ⁵
• The phrase "except the door of Abu Bakr" is in the book, and in Ibn Hisham's text it is also given as a variant reading ("it is narrated: except the door of Abu Bakr"). ⁹
• The well-known counsel concerning the Ansar comes from Ibn Ishaq with the chain of al-Zuhri to Abd Allah ibn Ka'b ibn Malik, and the text as in the edition. ⁹