20.1
ʿAbd al-Razzāq, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of al-Zuhrī, who said: Abū Bakr ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Ḥārith ibn Hishām related to me on the authority of Asmāʾ bint ʿUmays, who said:
The onset of the Messenger of God’s illness occurred while he was in the chamber of his wife Maymūnah. His illness became so severe that he lost consciousness. His wives then gathered to discuss whether or not they should treat him by pouring medicine into the corner of his mouth.212 They administered the medicine, but when the Prophet had regained consciousness, he said, “This is the work of the women who came from those people!”—and he pointed in the direction of Abyssinia. Indeed, Asmāʾ bint ʿUmays was there in their midst.
“O Messenger of God,” they declared, “we suspected that you had pleurisy!”
“God would never cast such an affliction upon me,” he retorted. “Leave no one untreated by this medicine except for the Messenger’s uncle,” by whom he meant ʿAbbās. Even Maymūnah was given the medicine orally that day, though she was fasting, because the Messenger of God had commanded it.
Al-Zuhrī said: ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUtbah related to me that ʿĀʾishah informed him, saying:
The Messenger of God first fell ill in Maymūnah’s chamber. He asked his wives’ permission to be nursed in my quarters, and they granted him his request. When he set out, he placed one of his hands on al-Faḍl ibn al-ʿAbbās and the other in the hand of another man, and his feet dragged along the ground.
ʿUbayd Allāh said: Ibn ʿAbbās related to me the following, saying:
“Do you know who the person ʿĀʾishah did not name was? It was ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib,” he answered, “but ʿĀʾishah found it displeasing to say so.”213
20.3
Al-Zuhrī said: ʿUrwah related to me on the authority of someone else, on the authority of ʿĀʾishah, who said:
During his fatal illness, the Messenger of God said, “Take seven waterskins whose strings have been unfastened and pour them over me so that I might recuperate and announce my testament to the people.”
ʿĀʾishah continued: We sat him down in a copper tub that belonged to Ḥafṣah and poured the water over him until he began gesturing to us as if to say, “You have done enough.” Then he came out.
20.4
Al-Zuhrī said: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Kaʿb ibn Mālik—whose father was one of three whose repentance was accepted214—related to me on the authority of one of the Prophet’s Companions:
That day the Prophet stood up addressing the people. He offered praise to God and extolled His glory. Asking God to forgive those martyrs slain during the battle of Uḥud, he declared, “You, O assembly of Emigrants! You shall continue to increase, but the Allies shall not increase. The Allies are my trusted companions in whom I found refuge, so extol their noble deeds and overlook their misdeeds.”
20.5
Al-Zuhrī said: I heard a man recall:
The Prophet said, “One of God’s servants has been given a choice between the life of this world and that of the Hereafter, and he has chosen to be with his Lord.” Abū Bakr surmised that the Prophet was speaking of himself and wept. “Be at ease,” said the Prophet. Later he would also say, “Close the doors of the mosque that face the street except for the door of Abū Bakr, may God have mercy on him, for in my view, I know of no other man among the Companions who has so greatly aided me as has Abū Bakr.”
20.6
Al-Zuhrī said: ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUtbah related to me that ʿĀʾishah and Ibn ʿAbbās both related to him:
Once the Prophet’s illness descended upon him, he began placing a cloak215 over his face. Whenever his body was racked with pain, he would remove it from his face and declare, “God’s curse be upon the Christians and the Jews, for they have adopted the graves of their prophets as places of worship!”
ʿĀʾishah said: The Prophet was warning us against the like of what they actually did.216
20.7
Maʿmar said: al-Zuhrī said:
The Prophet said to ʿAbd Allāh ibn Zamʿah, “Convey my command to the people that they ought to pray.” ʿAbd Allāh ibn Zamʿah set out and, upon meeting ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, he told him, “Lead the people in the prayer.”
ʿUmar then prayed with the people, but as he lifted his voice in prayer—for he had a booming voice—the Messenger of God overheard, so he asked, “Isn’t this ʿUmar’s voice?”
“O Messenger of God,” they said, “indeed it is.”
“God and the Believers reject this,” he declared. “It is Abū Bakr who shall lead the people in prayer.”
Later ʿUmar said to ʿAbd Allāh ibn Zamʿah, “What a foul thing you’ve done! I thought the Messenger of God had ordered you to command me.”
“No,” said ʿAbd Allāh ibn Zamʿah, “by God, he hadn’t asked me to give such an order to anyone.”
Al-Zuhrī said: ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar related to me on the authority of ʿĀʾishah, who said:
When the Messenger of God had become seriously ill, he said, “Command Abū Bakr to lead the people in prayer.” I said, “O Messenger of God! Abū Bakr is a frail man. Whenever he reads the Qurʾan, he can’t even hold back his tears—if only you would give the order to someone other than Abū Bakr.” By God, I only hated the thought that people might wish ill toward the first person to occupy the place of the God’s Messenger. I repeated this two times, or maybe three, but he said, “Abū Bakr shall lead the people in prayer. You women are like the mistresses of Joseph!”217
20.9
Al-Zuhrī said: Anas ibn Mālik related to me, saying:
On Monday the Messenger of God pulled the veil of his chamber aside and watched Abū Bakr lead the people in prayer.218 Anas said: I gazed at his face as though it were the page of a book, and he smiled.
Anas continued: We were almost tempted to abandon our prayer because of the joy we felt upon seeing the Messenger of God. Whenever Abū Bakr would turn, thus delaying his prayer, the Prophet would gesture to him, as if to say, “As you were.” Then the Prophet released the veil and was taken from us on that very day. ʿUmar stood up and said, “Verily, the Messenger of God has not died! Rather, his Lord has sent for him as He sent for Moses for forty nights! Thus did Moses remain away from his people for forty nights. By God, I expect the Messenger of God to live long enough to cut off the hands of the hypocrites and to cut out the tongues of those claiming”—or he said, “saying”—“that the Messenger of God has died.”
20.10
Maʿmar said: Ayyūb related to me on the authority of ʿIkrimah, who said:
Al-ʿAbbās ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib said, “I said to myself, ‘By God, I must know for certain how much longer the Messenger of God will remain among us.’ So I said to him, ‘O Messenger of God, if only you were to take a chair to sit upon, then God would spare you the dust and keep petitioners away!’
“‘I’ll let them contend with me over a spot to sit on my robe even if they tread upon my heels,’ the Prophet replied. ‘Their dust shall cover me until God grants me a respite from them.’ Then I knew that his time with us was short.”219
When the Messenger of God passed away, ʿUmar stood up and said, “The Messenger of God has not died! Rather, he has merely been made to slumber as Moses slumbered! By God, I expect that the Messenger of God will live until he severs the hands and cuts out the tongues of these hypocrites who say, ‘The Messenger of God has indeed died!’”
Then al-ʿAbbās ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib stood up and said, “O people! Do any of you possess a testament or covenant from the Messenger of God?”
“No, by God,” they replied.
Al-ʿAbbās then said, “The Messenger of God did not die until he had made what was lawful lawful. Then he waged war, persevered, and made peace; he married women and divorced; and he left you on a clear path and a well-marked course. If the matter be truly as Ibn al-Khaṭṭāb says, then it will not exceed God’s ability to exhume him and bring him back to us, so do not stand between us and our kinsman. For indeed, his flesh decays like any other person’s.”220
20.11
Al-Zuhrī said: Ibn Kaʿb ibn Mālik informed me that Ibn ʿAbbās said:
Al-ʿAbbās and ʿAlī went out from the Messenger of God’s home while he was still ill, and a man encountered the two and said, “Abū Ḥasan, how fares the Messenger of God this morning?”
“The Messenger of God has recovered,” ʿAlī replied.
Then al-ʿAbbās said to ʿAlī, “After three days, you will be the servant of the staff.”221
Al-ʿAbbās dismounted at the Prophet’s home and said, “I have this sense that I can perceive death in the faces of ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib’s progeny, and I fear that the Prophet will not recover from this affliction of his. Come with us to him so that we may question him. For if the right to rule is to be ours, then we will know for certain; and if it is not to be ours, then we will ask him to grant us his blessing.”
But ʿAlī said to him, “What would you think if we were to go to him and he did not give it to us? Do you believe that the people will then give it to us? By God, I’ll never ask it of him.”
20.12
Al-Zuhrī said: ʿĀʾishah said:
When the illness of the Messenger of God worsened, he said, “In the most exalted company!” three times and then went limp.
20.13
Maʿmar said: I heard Qatādah say:
The last words of the Prophet were, “Fear God in matters concerning women and those slave women your right hands possess.”222
20.14
ʿAbd al-Razzāq, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of al-Zuhrī, who said: Abū Salamah ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān related to us, saying: Ibn al-ʿAbbās used to report that:
Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq entered the mosque while ʿUmar was speaking to the people. He proceeded to walk until he reached the chamber in which the Messenger of God passed away—ʿĀʾishah’s chamber—and pulled back the ḥibarah cloak223 in which his corpse had been shrouded. He gazed at the Prophet’s face, leaned over him, and kissed him. Then he said, “By God, God will not cause you to suffer two deaths. You have already died the death after which you shall never die again.”
Then Abū Bakr went out to the mosque while ʿUmar was still speaking to the people. Abū Bakr said to him, “Sit down, ʿUmar!” But he refused to sit. He told him two or three more times, but still he refused to sit. So Abū Bakr stood up and confessed the oneness of God, and the people turned toward Abū Bakr and left ʿUmar. When Abū Bakr had finished confessing God’s oneness, he said, “Now, whoever used to worship Muḥammad, truly Muḥammad has died; whoever among you worshipped God, truly God lives and has not died.” Then he recited this verse:
«Muḥammad is merely a messenger before whom many messengers have come and gone. If he died or was killed, would you revert to your old ways? If anyone does so, he will not harm God in the least. God will reward the grateful.»224
Abū Bakr, may God have mercy on him, recited the verse, and the people knew for certain that the Messenger of God had died. They received the verse from Abū Bakr in a way that caused some to declare that they had not known that this verse had been revealed until Abū Bakr recited it.
20.15
Al-Zuhrī said: Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab related to me, saying:
ʿUmar said, “By God, hardly a moment passed after Abū Bakr recited the verse before I, standing there, immediately dropped prostrate to the ground, for then I knew for certain that the Messenger of God had died.”
20.16
ʿAbd al-Razzāq related to us, saying: Maʿmar related to us on the authority of al-Zuhrī, who said: Anas ibn Mālik related to me that he heard the last sermon of ʿUmar, may God have mercy on him, which he delivered while seated on the Prophet’s pulpit that day following the passing of the Messenger of God. He said:
ʿUmar confessed the oneness of God, and Abū Bakr remained silent and did not speak. Then ʿUmar spoke,
“Now, I have said something that was not as I said it was. By God, I had neither found what I said in God’s Scripture, nor in a testament that the Messenger of God left to me. Rather, I expected that the Messenger of God would live until he outlasted us”—meaning that he would be the last of them—“but if it truly be that Muḥammad has died, then God has placed among you a light by which you might be guided: this Scripture of God. So hold fast to it, and take as your guide that by which God guided Muḥammad! Then hold fast to Abū Bakr. May God have mercy on him, the companion of the Prophet and the second of the two:225 he is the most deserving of the people to manage your affairs. So rise up and give him your oaths of allegiance.”
A group of them had given him the oaths of allegiance before that at the portico of the Sāʿidah clan, and the public oath was given at the pulpit.
20.17
Al-Zuhrī said: Anas related to me, saying:
I saw ʿUmar ardently urging Abū Bakr to ascend the pulpit.
20.18
ʿAbd al-Razzāq, on the authority of Maʿmar, on the authority of al-Zuhrī, on the authority of ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUtbah, on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, who said:
When death came to take the Messenger of God, a number of prominent men were in his chamber, among them ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, and the Prophet said, “Draw near to me so that I may write you a testament, lest you go astray after my death.” But ʿUmar said, “The Messenger of God has been overtaken by pain, and you all have the Qurʾan. The Scripture of God is sufficient for us.”226 The household of the Prophet disagreed and began to dispute with one another. Among them was one who said, “Draw near so that the Messenger of God may write his testament for you, lest you go astray after he dies.” Among them was another who said what ʿUmar had said. When the foolish talk and disagreements around the Messenger of God became acute, he commanded, “Leave, all of you!”
ʿUbayd Allāh said: Ibn ʿAbbās used to say, “A disaster! What a disaster! The only thing that prevented the Messenger of God from writing that testament down for them was the quarreling and clamor!”