The Year of Sorrow

Painful incidents were to follow the joy of being freed from the three-year period of life under boycott. Eight months after the boycott had been lifted, Abu Talib fell seriously ill. One day, a group of Qurayshi leaders came to visit him and said the following, “O Abu Talib! You know that we are proud of you. Nowadays, you have fallen very ill and we are afraid for you. The things that have been going on between us and your nephew are all obvious. Call him to your side and tell him to leave us at peace with our religion.”

When Abu Talib summoned our Prophet to his side and told him of their offer, our Prophet said to the non-believers, “All right, let it be, but I want you to promise me one thing. This is a promise that will unite all Arabs and Persians under your rule.”

Abu Jahl replied, “I swear upon your father that for this I would give not one but ten promises.” When the Messenger of Allah said, “You must say, there is no deity but Allah, and you must give up on everything else you worship besides Him,” in response, they clapped their hands in rejection and exclaimed, “O Muhammad! Are you going to turn all the gods into one single God?

Your suggestion is truly bizarre.” Then, among themselves, they said, “This man is not going to give us anything we want. Let us go on our own path then and continue following the religion of our fathers until the day Allah makes His judgment between us.”

After the others had left, Abu Talib said to our Prophet, “O my brother’s son! As far as I can see, you did not ask for anything bad from them.”

These words filled Allah’s Messenger’s heart with a longing for his uncle to become Muslim. He drew near and said to his uncle, “My uncle! Say those words so that I will be able to help you in the Day of Judgment.” However, Abu Talib’s response was, “O my brother’s son! If I didn’t fear that the Quraysh would think that I said those words because I was afraid of death, I would say them and I would make you happy.”

Our Prophet became very sad. He did not want his beloved uncle to die before embracing faith. A few days later, Abu Talib’s illness grew even worse. Our Prophet and his uncle, Abbas, were at Abu Talib’s side. Just before Abu Talib closed his eyes and deceased, his brother Abbas noticed that his lips were moving and so, listened carefully. When he felt that he was uttering the words of the declaration of Allah’s Oneness, he turned to our Prophet and said, “My brother Abu Talib was saying the words that you wanted him to say.” Our Prophet, though, replied, “I did not hear him,” as he was full of tears.

The Messenger of Allah was truly sorry that his uncle had died before accepting the faith. Abu Talib had loved our Prophet even more than he loved his own sons. He had protected our Prophet against the non-believers despite all odds. From now on, our Prophet was left without his greatest protection.

Following Abu Talib’s decease, the Messenger of Allah was going to be shaken with another great sorrow. His loyal, faithful spouse, his companion for life, Khadija was very ill. Our Prophet’s heart was full of indescribable sorrow. His blessed wife was lying down in her bed worn out and exhausted. Once the richest woman in Mecca, she was now bent over in pain and hunger. There was a deep distress hidden in her eyes. She was not worried about dying; on the contrary, she welcomed it as a way to becoming eternal. Her only concern was that she was going to be separated from Allah’s Messenger, leaving him alone with the many difficulties of life. Nonetheless, this was Allah’s will. They were both saddened as they thought of the other’s condition.

Only three days after Abu Talib’s decease, Khadija’s illness grew even worse. The blessed mother of the believers closed her eyes on the night of Qadr (Power), on the month of Ramadan in the tenth year of Prophethood. After all, she had been the first of many things. She had been the first to believe in Allah and His Messenger, the first to make ablution together with Allah’s Messenger, and the first to perform the Prayers behind him. Now, she became the first martyr from Allah’s Messenger’s household.

Our Prophet himself lead the Funeral Prayer for his blessed wife and also placed her into her grave at the cemetery of Al-Hajun with his own hands. He covered the top of the grave with soil. With tears in his eyes, he watched the black soil for a long while, the soil which now covered over his beloved wife. The death of our blessed mother Khadija deepened the sorrow of our Prophet and the Muslims. Because of all the sorrow they endured, one after the other, the Messenger of Allah called that year “the Year of Sadness.”

After his blessed wife passed away, our Prophet started coming out of his house less frequent than before. During the times that he did come out, he would be relating the new teachings that the Archangel Gabriel had brought. Other times, he would be inviting the non-believers to the religion of Islam, by reading to them from the Qur’an. The non-believers, however, were still set on denying him. The fact that Abu Talib and Khadija were no longer around had given them much more courage. They started harming Allah’s Messenger even more.

On the other side, the fact that Khadija was not with him anymore had really affected the Messenger of Allah. He was always thinking of their memories together. The Messenger of Allah was now both a mother and a father to his daughters, and with their mother’s death they too were deeply saddened and sorrowful. Especially the youngest of our Prophet’s daughters, Fatima, was frequently asking about her mother. The Messenger of Allah comforted his daughters by telling them that the Archangel Gabriel had brought greetings from their Lord to Khadija and had given the glad tidings of a house in Paradise, a house made of pearls. Khadija was a virtuous woman very much worthy of Allah’s greetings and His Messenger’s praise. She was a faithful and devout wife and a role model for mothers, in all aspects. The Messenger of Allah commended her by saying, “The most auspicious woman of the heavens is Mary, the daughter of Imran, and the most auspicious woman of the worlds is Khadija, the daughter of Khuwaylid.” He always remembered his blessed wife. He spoke of her virtues for as long as he lived.