The Farewell Sermon

The Farewell Sermon was delivered by the Prophet ﷺ at Arafat on 9 Dhu al-Hijja, 10 AH, and he repeated its sentences on the Day of Sacrifice at Mina. It is the most comprehensive text attributed to him on rights and rites ¹.

The Prophet opened the sermon by saying: "O people, listen to my words, for I do not know whether I shall meet you again after this year of mine, at this place, ever." ² In it he said: "Your blood and your property are forbidden to you, as the sanctity of this day of yours, in this month of yours, in this town of yours." ³ He set aside everything from the time of ignorance: its blood-claims and its usury, beginning with the blood of Ibn Rabi'a ibn al-Harith and the usury of al-Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib (may God be pleased with him) ³. He enjoined care for women: "Fear God regarding women, for you have taken them under God's trust." ⁴ He told them that he had left among them what they would never go astray after if they held fast to it, the Book of God, and that there would be no prophet after him and no community after them ⁵. He closed by calling on the people to bear witness that he had delivered the message, raising his index finger to the sky: "O God, bear witness," three times ⁵. On the Day of Sacrifice at Mina, in a second sermon delivered from a white mule, he repeated: time has come round to its form on the day God created the heavens and the earth; the sanctity of blood, property and honour; and that no wrongdoer incurs guilt except against himself ⁶.

Ibn Ishaq gives the full text of the sermon over two pages. Its contents, in the museum's own words, are on the sermon page: the sanctity of blood and property; the discharge of trusts; the abolition of usury, beginning with the usury of al-Abbas; the abolition of the blood-claims of the time of ignorance, beginning with the blood of Ibn Rabi'a ibn al-Harith; Satan's despair; the nasi' (the manipulation of the months) and the turning of time and the sacred months; the injunction regarding women; holding fast to the Book of God and the Sunna of His Prophet; the brotherhood of Muslims; and then: "O God, have I conveyed? O God, bear witness." ^{7 8 9} In the transmission of Amr ibn Kharija (may God be pleased with him) he adds: "No bequest is valid for an heir; the child belongs to the marriage bed, and the adulterer has the stone" (an idiom meaning he has no claim). ¹⁰ One of the transmitted wordings is: "I have left among you that which, if you hold fast to it, you will never go astray: a clear matter, the Book of God and the Sunna of His Prophet." ⁸

• In Ibn Ishaq's transmission the wording is "the Book of God and the Sunna of His Prophet". In the Muslim transmission that al-Raheeq relays, it is "the Book of God" alone. ^{8 5}