The Farewell Pilgrimage

The Farewell Pilgrimage was the only pilgrimage the Prophet performed after the Hijra, in the tenth year of the Hijra. In it he showed the people their rites and delivered his well-known sermon. It was called the "Pilgrimage of Proclamation" and the "Farewell Pilgrimage", because he did not perform the pilgrimage again after it. ¹ This page relays what Ibn Hisham relates from Ibn Ishaq (part 4, pp. 248–253), and for the text of the sermon refers to its own page, the Farewell Sermon at Arafat.

Ibn Ishaq says that when Dhu al-Qa'da began he prepared for the pilgrimage and ordered the people to make ready for him. ² Aisha relates that he set out "five nights before the end of Dhu al-Qa'da". ² Ibn Hisham says that he appointed Abu Dujana (may God be pleased with him) al-Sa'idi over Medina, and it is said Siba ibn Urfuta al-Ghifari. ²

Aisha says that they had mentioned only the pilgrimage until, when they were at Sarif, and the Prophet had brought the offering animals with him along with a group of notable men, he ordered the people to exit the state of ihram by making the umra, except those who had brought offering animals. ² Aisha had her period that day, and he came in to her while she was weeping, and told her that she was doing everything the pilgrim does except that she would not circle the House. ² After entering Mecca, whoever had no offering animal came out of ihram, and his wives came out of it through the umra, and on the day of sacrifice he sacrificed cattle on behalf of his wives. ² On the night of al-Hasba he ordered her brother Abd al-Rahman ibn Abi Bakr to make the umra for her from al-Tan'im in place of the umra she had missed. ³ Hafsa relates that his wives asked him why he did not come out of ihram with them, and he said that he had brought an offering animal and had put on the garland, so he would not come out until he had sacrificed his offering. ³

The Prophet had sent Ali to Najran to collect the alms and the poll tax ⁴, and Ali met him in Mecca when he was in ihram. Ibn Ishaq relates from Ibn Abi Najih that Ali went in to Fatima and found that she had come out of ihram, so the Prophet ordered him to circle the House and come out of ihram as his companions had done. Ali said that he had said when he entered ihram: "O God, I enter ihram as your prophet entered it." The Prophet asked him whether he had an offering animal. He said no, so the Prophet made him a partner in his offering, and he kept to his ihram until they had both finished the pilgrimage, and the Prophet sacrificed the offering on behalf of both. ³

Ibn Ishaq relates from Yazid ibn Talha ibn Rukana that Ali had hurried to the Prophet from Yemen, and had left a man over his troops who had clothed each of them with a garment from the cloth that he had with him. When Ali saw them and saw the garments, he ordered them taken off before he reached the Prophet, so the army complained of him. Abu Sa'id al-Khudri relates that the Prophet stood among them and said: "O people, do not complain of Ali, for by God he is more rough in the cause of God, or in the path of God, than to be complained of." ⁵ Ibn Hisham does not mention the account of Ghadir Khumm on these pages, and the dispute over its meaning has its place on its own page.

Then the Prophet went on with his pilgrimage, "showing the people their rites and teaching them the ways of their pilgrimage", and delivered his sermon to the people. ⁵ Ibn Ishaq gives its text. ⁵-⁶ In it are the prohibition of blood and property, the abolition of usury, the waiving of the blood-claim of the son of Rabi'a ibn al-Harith, the prohibition of the intercalation of months and the turning of time, the charge concerning women, and his saying that he left among them what, if they held fast to it, they would never go astray: the Book of God and the Sunna of His Prophet. ⁷ See the sermon on its own page and in the work attributed to it.

The man who shouted the words of the Prophet and repeated them to the people at Arafat was Rabi'a ibn Umayya ibn Khalaf. ⁶ Amr ibn Kharija (may God be pleased with him) relates that he heard the Prophet from beneath his she-camel saying that God has given every person with a right his right, that "there is no bequest to an heir", and he said: "The child belongs to the bed, and the adulterer gets the stone." ⁶-¹

The Prophet said at Arafat: "This is the standing place" at the mountain on which he stood, "and all of Arafat is a standing place", and he said the same at Muzdalifa at Quzah and at Mina at the place of sacrifice. ¹ Then he finished the pilgrimage, having shown them their rites and taught them what God had made obligatory on them: the standing, the stoning of the pillars, circling the House, what was made lawful to them of their pilgrimage and what was made unlawful to them. ¹

He turned back and stayed in Medina for the rest of Dhu al-Hijja, Muharram and Safar, and he called up people for an expedition to Syria, over which he set Usama ibn Zayd as commander. See the expedition of Usama. ¹ Then Ibn Hisham mentions his sending of envoys to the kings. ⁸

It was the last general gathering of the Prophet with the Muslims. In it the rules of the rites were announced to the people directly, and in the sermon he announced the principles on the sanctity of blood and property, family relations, and holding fast to the Book and the Sunna.

• There is disagreement among the accounts about the order of some events (such as coming out of ihram by the umra and the position of Ali). This page follows Ibn Hisham alone, and has not yet been checked against the two Sahihs (Muslim, from the report of Jabir in particular).
• On the question of the name: "Pilgrimage of Farewell" and "Pilgrimage of Proclamation" are both names that appear in the same printed edition (p. 253).
• The report of the complaint of Ali's army (p. 250) is two accounts from Ibn Ishaq, and should be read together with what is in the page on Ghadir Khumm.