Home > Sira > The Eleventh Year of the Hijra: the Death of the Prophet
The year 11 of the Hijra: the signs of the approach of death, the Prophet's illness, his last prayer, his death, the events between his death and his burial, his grave in the chamber of Aïcha, his children, servants and scribes.
Updated on 07 September 2026 at 11:07 PM
The eleventh year of the Hijra opened while the noble prophetic rider had settled in purified Medina, returned from the pilgrimage of farewell. That year witnessed momentous things, the greatest of them the death of the Messenger of Allah: yet Allah transferred him from this perishing abode to eternal bliss, in a high and sublime station, at the highest degree of Paradise, according to the word of the Most High: and the Hereafter is better for you than the present life; and your Lord will soon give you, and you will be content (ad-Douha, 4-5). That after he had completed the conveyance of the message Allah commanded him to convey, counselled his community, guided them to the best he knew for them, and warned them of what would harm their world and their Hereafter.
The two Sahihs report, from Oumar ibn al-Khattab, that the verse: this day have I perfected for you your religion, completed My favour upon you, and chosen for you Islam as religion (al-Ma’ida, 3), came down on a Friday while the Messenger of Allah stood at Arafat. It is related by a good route that Oumar wept when that verse came down; he was asked: what makes you weep? He said: after perfection there is nothing but decline! As though he had sensed the Prophet’s death. The Prophet himself alluded to it: Mouslim reports from Jabir that he stood at the pillar of al-’Aqaba and said: "Take from me your rites: for I may not make pilgrimage after this year!" And the Boukhari reports from Zayd ibn Arqam that the sura: when comes the help of Allah and the conquest, came down in the middle of the days of at-tachriq: the Messenger of Allah knew it was the farewell, ordered his camel al-Qaswa saddled, and delivered his discourse of that day. Likewise, when Oumar asked Ibn Abbas, before many companions, the interpretation of that sura, the companions said: we were commanded, at the conquest, to remember Allah, praise Him and seek His forgiveness. Ibn Abbas said: it is the term of the Messenger of Allah announced to him! Oumar said: I know of it only what you know. Ahmad reports too, from Abou Hourayra, that the Messenger of Allah, having made pilgrimage with his wives, said: "This pilgrimage only, then the time of women with child."
Before the death, the imams Mohamed ibn Ishaq, Abou Ja’far Ibn Jarir and the Bayhaqi enumerated his pilgrimages, campaigns, expeditions, letters and envoys to the kings. The two Sahihs report, from Zayd ibn Arqam, that the Messenger of Allah made nineteen campaigns, and after the emigration made the pilgrimage of farewell, making none after. Jabir reports he made three pilgrimages, two before the emigration and one after, with an umra, driving sixty-three sacrificial beasts which Ali brought him from the Yemen. Anas reports, in the two Sahihs, his four umras: Houdaybiya, Fulfilment, Ji’rana and that of the pilgrimage of farewell. As for campaigns, Salama ibn al-Akwa’ said: I campaigned with the Messenger of Allah seven times, and went out on nine of the companies he sent, once commanded by Abou Bakr and once by Usama ibn Zayd. Al-Bara’ said: the Messenger of Allah made fifteen campaigns. Zayd ibn Arqam said: nineteen, of which he witnessed seventeen, the first being al-OUCHAYRA.
Ibn Bourayda said: sixteen; or nineteen, in eight of which he fought: Badr, Ouhoud, the Trench, al-Muraysi’ and Qoudayd, Khaybar, Mecca and Hunayn; and he sent twenty-four expeditions. Jabir said: twenty-one, of which I joined nineteen, having missed neither Badr nor Ouhoud, held back by my father; when he was killed at Ouhoud I missed no campaign after. Qatada said: nineteen campaigns, he fought in eight, sent twenty-four expeditions: total forty-three. The imams Urwa, az-Zouhri, Moussa ibn Oqba and Ibn Ishaq establish that he fought Badr in Ramadhan of the year two, Ouhoud in Shawwal of the year three, the Trench and Banu Qurayza in Shawwal of the year four or five, Banu al-Moustaliq at al-Muraysi’ in Cha’bane of the year five, Khaybar in Safar of the year seven: the correct being at the start of the seventh and the end of the sixth; then the conquest of Mecca in Ramadhan of the year eight, Hunayn in Shawwal, Ta’if, and Tabouk in Rajab of the year nine: and that was his last campaign.
Ibn Ishaq relates that all that the Messenger of Allah undertook in his own noble person was twenty-seven campaigns: Waddan, which is al-Abwa’; Bouwat toward Radwa; al-Ouchayra in the valley of Yanbo’; the first Badr, pursuing Kurz ibn Jabir; the great Badr in which Allah slew the champions of Quraysh; the Banu Sulaym as far as al-Koudr; the army of sawiq pursuing Abou Soufyan; Ghatafan, which is Dhou Amr; Najran, a mine of the Hijaz; Ouhoud; Hamra’ al-Asad; the Banu an-Nadir; Dhat ar-Riqa’ at Nakhla; the latter Badr; Doumat al-Jandal; the Trench; the Banu Qurayza; the Banu Lihyan of Hudhayl; Dhou Qarad; the Banu al-Moustaliq of Khouza’a; Houdaybiya, intending no fight, barred by the polytheists; Khaybar; the Umra of Fulfilment; the conquest; Hunayn; Ta’if; and Tabouk. He fought in nine of them: Badr, Ouhoud, the Trench, Qurayza, al-Moustaliq, Khaybar, the conquest, Hunayn and Ta’if. And his companies and expeditions were thirty-eight in number.
Among the sendings Ibn Ishaq details, several carry stories of their own: Dihya ibn Khalifa, returning from César with gifts, was robbed at the valley of Chanar by al-Hounayd ibn Aws and his son; converts of Jouzam rescued the property, and the Prophet sent Zayd ibn Haritha, who killed the two aggressors; Rifa’a ibn Zayd, having received a letter from the Prophet, brought part of his people to Islam, and when Zayd asked: what shall I do with the slain? three times, they answered: release those who live! Ali rejoined them bearing the Prophet’s marked sword and returned all that had been taken. And Zayd, sent a second time to Wadi al-Qoura after his wound, captured Oum Qirfa Fatima bint Rabi’a: Qays ibn al-Mousahhar killed her and spared her daughter, whom the Prophet gave to his maternal uncle Hazn ibn Abi Wahb, and she bore him a son, Abd ar-Rahman. Ibn Ishaq mentions also the sending of Abdallah ibn Rawaha to Khaybar against al-Yousayr ibn Rizam, that of Abdallah ibn Atik against Abou Rafi’, of Abdallah ibn Unays against Khalid ibn Soufyan, of Ouyayna ibn Hisn against the Banu al-’Anbar, and the three envoys of Mouta.
He relates further the sending of Salim ibn Oumayr, one of the weepers, against Abou Afak of the Banu Amr ibn Awf, who had displayed his hypocrisy in satires against the Prophet after the death of al-Harith ibn Souwayd: the Prophet said: "Who will rid me of this wicked one?" and Salim killed him. Then the sending of Oumayr ibn Adi al-Khatmi against Asma bint Marwan, who satirized Islam and its people: "Is there none to take me the daughter of Marwan?" He killed her by night and said at morning: O Messenger of Allah, I have killed her! He said: "You have helped Allah and His messenger, O Oumayr." And he added: "Two goats shall not clash over her." That was the first day Islam became mighty among the Banu Khatma: many of them embraced Islam at that proof of its strength. Hassan ibn Thabit answered in verses the elegies her death had raised.
He finally mentions the story of Thoumama ibn Uthal al-Hanafi, taken captive then freed, who barred the grain caravans to Mecca until the Prophet wrote him to release them; he is thought to be the man of the hadith: "The believer eats in one gut, and the unbeliever in seven"; and the account of al-Alqama ibn Mujazziz sent to avenge his brother; that of Abdallah ibn Hudhafa, some of whose men were ready to enter the fire their commander kindled as a test: the Prophet said: "Whoever commands you to disobey Allah, obey him not!"; and the affair of the men of Bajila who drugged themselves on camel milk and urine, killed the shepherd Yasar and seared his eyes: the Prophet had their hands and feet cut and their eyes seared, and they are, apparently, the men of Oukl or Ourayna of the concordant hadith of Anas. And Ali was sent to the Yemen with Khalid, being told: "If you gather, the commander is Ali ibn Abi Talib": he campaigned there twice.
Abdallah ibn Omar relates that he was with ten companions in the mosque of the Prophet: Abou Bakr, Oumar, Outhman, Ali, Abd ar-Rahman ibn Awf, Ibn Mas’oud, Mou’adh ibn Jabal, Houdayfa ibn al-Yaman and Abou Sa’id al-Khoudri, when a young Ansari came, greeted and sat, and asked: who is the best of believers? He said: "He of the best character." And the most prudent? He said: "He who remembers death most and prepares for it best before it comes to him: those are the prudent." Then the Prophet turned to them and said: "O assembly of emigrants, five things when they befall a people: obscenity never appears among a people until they proclaim it, but plague and pains unknown to their forefathers appear among them; they do not shorten the measure nor the balance, but they are seized by famine years and the injustice of rulers; they do not withhold the zakat of their wealth, but the rain of the sky is withheld: were it not for the beasts, they would not be rained upon; they do not break the covenant of Allah and His messenger, but Allah sets over them an enemy from outside them, taking part of what their hands held; and their imams judge not by the Book of Allah and divide over what Allah revealed, but Allah makes their violence reign among themselves." He then showed Abd ar-Rahman ibn Awf, setting out on a campaign, how to enter the state of ihram, handed him the banner and commanded: "Go in the name of Allah, fight in the path of Allah whoever disbelieves in Allah: transgress not the limits, betray not, mutilate not, kill not a child."
As for the cause of his last illness, the Boukhari mentions it: the Messenger of Allah, on the return from the pilgrimage of farewell, in the time of delegations, fell from his mount and split his side, and from that came his malady. Anas relates that his last prayer with the people was the dhouhr, which he prayed seated while they prayed standing behind him, and Abou Moussa relates that he prayed so when his pain kept him from standing. He had said during his illness, to his gathered wives who sought to bar him from going out to the mosque: "You are indeed the companions of Youssouf": they disputed, and it is not for a prophet to dispute thus; then he went out dragging his feet and said: "O people, I am only a man: I have heard what you say." And he ordered: "Close before me every gap of this mosque, except the door of Abou Bakr." And he said further: "Allah has given a servant the choice between this world and what is with Him: and he chose what is with Allah." Ahmad alone reports this account.
The illness of the Messenger of Allah began, on the soundest account, at the end of Safar of the eleventh year. He came out at Bilal’s call for the dawn prayer in the year of elation, his head bandaged with a cloth: he mounted the pulpit, sat, praised Allah and said: "O people, I have sensed what you have not sensed. I was given the choice between the servants and the remaining goods of this world: I chose to meet my Lord and Paradise." Abou Bakr wept and said: we sacrifice for you, our fathers and mothers! And the Prophet said: "Gentleness upon Abou Bakr!" Then he said: "Indeed, he to whom I was closest in the veil is Abou Bakr. Were I to take an intimate friend other than my Lord, I would take Abou Bakr; but prophetic brotherhood remains: and no door beside his shall remain open to this mosque: close the door of anyone but him." Then he descended and his illness seized him. In the Sahih of al-Boukhari, Aïcha relates that during his illness, which became severe, he said: "O Aïcha, I still feel the pain I felt at Mecca." She said: the Prophet at that time was staying at the house of Maymouna, and his wives gathered: two or three of them agreed to remain with him. His paternal aunt would come and say: what is the matter with you, my children? And we would say: he is better than he was yesterday!
The Prophet ordered Abou Bakr to lead the prayer during his illness. Aïcha relates, in the Sahih, that during his illness the Prophet said: "Let Abou Bakr pray with the people." She said: O Messenger of Allah, Abou Bakr is a tender man: when he stands in your prayer-place his voice will not be heard! Command Oumar then. He said: "Let Abou Bakr pray with the people!" She repeated, and he said again: "You are indeed the companions of Youssouf! Let Abou Bakr pray with the people!" And he sent word to Abou Bakr to lead the prayer: hearing it, Abou Bakr said: "O Aïcha, what has a camel’s tenderness to do with the affair of the Messenger of Allah?" The people prayed during his illness behind Abou Bakr: he approved and rejoiced in it. Imam Ahmad relates that during his illness he said: "Pilgrimage and jihad are no longer obligatory; send forth the remainder of the campaign of Usama: whoever of you desires the blessing, let him go out with Usama." Then his illness worsened.
On the day of his death, when the heat was fierce, he came out supported between two men, one of them al-Fadl ibn al-’Abbas, barefoot, leading the dhouhr prayer and praying it seated: the people prayed standing behind him, and he signalled to the people to sit at the end of his life. He returned thereafter, leaning on the two men until he sat beside Aïcha. Abou Bakr saw him and said: "May my father and mother be your ransom: you have preceded me in emigration and mutual aid, and do you precede me today in prayer?!" The Messenger of Allah said: "It is so!" Then he entered his house and his fever increased: he said to Aïcha: "Pour on me seven water-skins: let them be seen by the people at their homes." And Aïcha put him in a house-garment, laid him down and covered his head, then sat beside him weeping. His last word to the world was: "The highest companion!" That is: with the prophets, the truthful, the martyrs and the righteous: and they are the highest of creation.
Dying he said: "Prayer! Prayer! And what your right hands possess." Meaning: the prayer and charity. His hand was in the hand of Abou Bakr, saying: "Allah, the Supreme Companion!" And he said to Aïcha, among his last bequests: "Prayer! Prayer! And what your right hands possess." And he said: "Expel the Jews and Christians from the peninsula of the Arabs, and let none keep but one religion: Islam." And he said: "May Allah curse the Jews and Christians: they took the graves of their prophets as places of prayer." And he said: "Let none of you die but having good thoughts of Allah." When death came, his head was on the thigh of Aïcha: she raised his head and set it on the pillow, and said with the other women: we shall live on the replacement. He heard and said: "No: you are the first of them." Then his soul was taken, the third hour of Monday, the thirteenth of the month of Rabi’ al-Awwal, or at the end of Safar, in the year eleven, at the age of sixty-three years; and the consensus is that his mission lasted twenty-three years, ten in Mecca by one account and thirteen by another.
Important matters befell after his death and before his burial. Oumar ibn al-Khattab rose and said: "By Allah, the Messenger of Allah is not dead: he has gone to his Lord as Moussa ibn Imran went forty years, then returned after being told dead!" And he said: "By Allah, whoever worships Mohamed, Mohamed has died; and whoever worships Allah, Allah is alive and does not die!" And he recited: you are mortal, and they are mortal (az-Zoumar, 30). Abou Bakr uncovered his face, came, kissed the Messenger of Allah between his eyes, then said: "You are sweet, alive and dead!" Then he said: "Whoever worshipped Mohamed, Mohamed has died; and whoever worships Allah, Allah is alive and does not die!" And he recited the verse: Mohamed is only a messenger: messengers have passed before him; if he dies or is slain, will you turn on your heels? He who turns on his heels harms Allah not at all, and Allah will reward the thankful (Al Imran, 144). And the people were as if they had not known that verse until Abou Bakr recited it: the people took it from his mouth and recited it; and that day whoever heard it from Abou Bakr recited it.
The caliphate was settled at the Saqifa of the Banu Sa’ida: the Ansar proposed a commander from among them and a commander from among you; then Abou Bakr delivered his famous address on the unity of the Arabs and the excellence of Quraysh, and allegiance was pledged to him. Oumar later said: the pledge of allegiance to Abou Bakr was an oversight and a breach which Allah warded off its evil: whoever would imitate that oversight in his affairs shows himself disobedient. As for the people, they agreed that day on Abou Bakr, none having preference or aversion to granting him command. Then the affair of the Muslims among the Ansar and the emigrants was settled: Oumar said to Abou Bakr: go out to the people, that they may know you. The emigrants and Ansar pledged him allegiance, after which they assembled and agreed upon him without anyone dissenting. The Prophet was washed by his male kindred and by Ali ibn Abi Talib, al-’Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib, al-Fadl and Qoutham, sons of al-’Abbas, and Usama ibn Zayd.
The prayer over him was made without an imam, each group praying separately: the people entered in groups, prayed, then went out: no man, woman or child remained but prayed over him. Imam Ahmad relates that Ali said: the Messenger of Allah had forbidden that his washed body be renewed after his death; and he was washed in the garment in which he gave up his soul. His shroud was three white garments of the Yemen, without shirt or turban. He was buried in the chamber of Aïcha, where Allah took him, in the night of Tuesday or Wednesday, after midnight, and was buried where he gave up his soul. His grave was dug by al-’Abbas and Ali ibn Abi Talib, according to the hadith: it was made in the middle of the grave like the graves of the prophets; and it is also said he was buried at mid-leg. And that is the shrine where his blessed tomb lies today in the chamber of Aïcha, within the Mosque of the Prophet, peace and blessings upon him.
It is related that the people of the Book knew the day of his death, among them a Christian of the Levant who said: yesterday died the noblest of envoys, the most generous of men! And that the well of Zamzam dried up and the stars began to fall that year, as is related in the collections of portents. Aïcha likewise relates that the pulpit of the mosque groaned when he left it for the outskirts of Medina. Then the funeral sermons were delivered by Abou Bakr as-Siddiq, and the disciples relate that he said in the sermon after the Prophet’s death: "O people, whoever worshipped Mohamed: Mohamed has died; and whoever worships Allah: Allah is alive and does not die!" Then he recited the verse of the sura Al Imran. Then he said: "Allah chose Mohamed and raised him to His nearness: he died in the religion of Allah! Whoever of you would take an example, let him take the example of this one; and whoever would take the example of a dead man, let him take the example of the dead:
for the living are not safe from straying!" Distinctive traits have been related on this in the book of characteristics, and Allah is most knowing. The campaigns of Usama were sent after his death by Abou Bakr, and their news and that of the rest of the year eleven have been treated in their place. His children were: al-Qasim, Abdallah, Zaynab, Rouqayya, Oum Koulthoum and Fatima of Khadija; and Ibrahim of Marie the Copt; and he left no male descendant who survived. His servants were many: Anas ibn Malik served him ten years; Zayd ibn Haritha was his beloved freedman; Bilal ibn Rabah his muezzin; Abou Houlayfa, Rabah, Chouqran, Salma, and others. His scribes of the Quran and otherwise were, among others: Ali ibn Abi Talib, Oubayy ibn Ka’b, Zayd ibn Thabit, Mou’awiya, Khalid ibn Sa’id, Aban ibn Sa’id and Handhala ibn ar-Rabi’: may Allah be pleased with them all. And to Allah belong praise and favour, upon him and his family the best prayers and the purest salutation.
Abdallah ibn Mas’oud relates that he entered upon him during his fever and passed his hand over him: O Messenger of Allah, you suffer a violent fever! He said: "Yes: I suffer as two men among you suffer." Ibn Mas’oud said: you have two rewards? He said: "Yes, by Him in whose hand is my soul: no Muslim on earth is struck by an ailment or other but Allah casts down his sins by it as the tree casts down its leaves!" The two Sahihs reported it. Abou Sa’id al-Khoudri placed his hand on him and said: by Allah, I cannot bear to lay my hand on you, so hard is your fever! He said: "We, the company of prophets, are tried double as our reward is doubled: the prophet is tried until the louse kills him, and the believer until he picks up his cloak. And they rejoice in trial as you rejoice in ease." Aïcha said: never saw I pain harder upon anyone than upon the Messenger of Allah; and: the Messenger of Allah died between my palate and my throat, so never again shall I hate the severity of death for anyone after the Prophet. And it is related: the people most tried are the prophets, then the righteous, then the best, the best: a man is tried according to his religion; if he is firm in his religion, he is tried the harder.
The substance of the Messenger of Allah’s bequests at the approach of death was: "The prayer! The prayer! And what your right hands possess!" until he gurgled it in his breast, his tongue unable to finish it, according to Anas, Oum Salama and others. Ali relates that the Messenger of Allah ordered him to bring a tablet to write what would preserve his community from straying after him; Ali feared his soul might depart and said: I retain and remember! He said: "I bequeath the prayer, the zakat and what your right hands possess." He said also, according to Jabir: "Let none of you die but having good thoughts of Allah": for Allah says: I am as My servant thinks of Me. And he kept casting a garment over his face; when distress seized him he uncovered it, saying: "The curse of Allah upon the Jews and Christians: they took the graves of their prophets as places of prayer!" warning against what they had done: Malik relates these words from Omar ibn Abd al-Aziz, who held them to be of the Prophet’s last words: two religions shall not remain in the land of the Arabs.
Aïcha relates that people used to say the Prophet would not die before being given the choice between this world and the Hereafter, and that he used to say in health: "No prophet is taken until he sees his seat in Paradise, then is given the choice." Now, during his last illness, his head on her thigh, he fainted a moment, then recovered, raised his eyes to the ceiling of the house and said: "O Allah, the Highest Companion!" She said: we then understood that he had seen his place and chosen his Lord. Those were the last words of the Messenger of Allah: "the Highest Companion!" In one version he said while dying: "No, rather I ask Allah for the Highest Companion, happier with Jibril and Mika’il and Israfil!" And according to Oum Soulayman or her like: he dipped his hand in a cup of water and wiped his face saying: "O Allah, help me against the agonies of death!" And Ahmad relates that he said: "It is eased for me that I saw the white palm of Aïcha in Paradise!" A proof of his love for her.
Ibn Abi Mulayka relates that Abd ar-Rahman ibn Abi Bakr entered with a fresh siwak twig: the Prophet looked at it, knowing he loved the siwak; Aïcha took it, chewed it to soften it, and gave it to him: he brushed his teeth with it in the finest manner, then reached for it, and the twig fell from his hand. She said: Allah joined my saliva and his on the last day of this world and the first day of the Hereafter. And Usama ibn Zayd relates: when the Messenger of Allah grew heavy I went down with the people into Medina, entered upon him: he spoke no more, but he would raise his hands to heaven then pass them over me: I knew he was praying for me. And the Prophet said during his illness, according to Usama again: "Send forth the campaign of Usama": Abou Bakr carried it out at the start of his caliphate. And Aïcha said finally: he died in my house, between my palate and my throat, in my turn: and my folly, in my youth, was to rise to lament with the women after laying him on the pillow. And to Allah belong praise and favour.
There is no disagreement that he died on a Monday. Ibn Abbas said: "Your prophet was born on a Monday, given prophethood on a Monday, left Mecca emigrating on a Monday, entered Medina on a Monday, and died on a Monday." Ahmad and the Bayhaqi reported it. And Aïcha relates that Abou Bakr asked her: on what day did the Messenger of Allah die? She said: on a Monday. He said: then I hope to die on a Monday! And he died on one. In the Sahih, Anas says: "The last glance I cast on the Messenger of Allah that day: he lifted the curtain while the people stood behind Abou Bakr, and I saw his face like a page of a Mushaf. The people meant to disperse, and he signalled them to stay, then let the curtain fall: and he died shortly after." That hadith indicates the death came after midday. Al-Awza’i said: he died on a Monday before the day reached its half. And Urwa, Moussa ibn Oqba and az-Zouhri relate that he died in the lap of Aïcha, on her day, Monday, as the sun declined, at the crescent of Rabi’ al-Awwal.
As for the length of his illness, at-Taymi relates that he was ill twenty-two nights from Safar, that his ailment began with a freedwoman of his called Rayhana, of the captives of the Jews, on a Saturday, and that his death came on a Monday, two nights after the entry of Rabi’ al-Awwal: thus completing ten full years since his arrival in Medina. The Waqidi relates that he fell ill eleven nights before the end of Safar in the house of Zaynab bint Jahch, with violent suffering, that all his wives gathered to him, that he was ill thirteen days, and died on the Monday two nights after the entry of Rabi’ al-Awwal of the year eleven; in one version, twelve nights after the entry of Rabi’ al-Awwal, and he was buried Tuesday night. Ibn Ishaq says: he died twelve nights after the entry of Rabi’ al-Awwal, on the very day he had entered Medina as an emigrant, completing ten full years of his emigration. As-Souhayli objects that Monday the twelfth of Rabi’ al-Awwal cannot be reconciled with his standing at Arafat on a Friday: the answer lies in the differing sighting of the crescent between Mecca and Medina, supported by the word of Aïcha that he set out for the farewell pilgrimage with five days remaining of Dhoul-Qi’da, the correct being that he left on Saturday, as shown by his praying the dhouhr at Medina four rak’a and the asr at Dhoul-Hulayfa two rak’a.
The most widespread view is that he died at sixty-three. The two Sahihs report, from Aïcha: the Messenger of Allah died at sixty-three years. Mouslim reports through Jabir, from Mouawiya: the Prophet died at sixty-three, Abou Bakr died at sixty-three, and Oumar died at sixty-three. And Ibn Abbas used to say, in the versions of Mouslim and Ahmad: he was sent at forty, remained in Mecca thirteen years, then emigrated ten years, and died at sixty-three. Ammar, freedman of the Banu Hachim, reports from Ibn Abbas: forty years at his mission, fifteen years at Mecca between fear and safety, and ten years at Medina: making sixty-five. As for the hadith of Anas in the two Sahihs: "He was neither imposingly tall nor short; neither glaringly white nor brown; neither crisp-curly in tufts nor long and flowing; Allah sent him at the head of forty years: he remained ten years in Mecca and ten in Medina, and Allah took him at the head of sixty, with not twenty white hairs upon his head or beard": it does not contradict it, for the Arabs often omit fractions of numbers.
Other, weaker views are also related: sixty years (one version of Anas, held by Rabi’a as best preserved), sixty-five (again, from Ammar and from Daghfal ibn Hanzala, whom the Tirmidhi judges unknown in transmission), sixty-two (in Qatada), sixty-two years and a half (in Mak’houl), and the very strange report of al-Hasan: the Quran came down eight years at Mecca and ten after the emigration, which would make fifty-eight years on the majority view of his age at mission. Ahmad rules: what is established with us is sixty-three years. And the correct is the most widespread: sixty-three years, agreeing with the sound versions of Aïcha, Anas, Mouawiya, Ibn Abbas and Sa’id ibn al-Moussayyab.
The people were busy with the pledge of allegiance to the Truthful the rest of Monday and part of Tuesday; when the allegiance was settled and complete, they set about preparing the Messenger of Allah, taking for every difficulty their example from Abou Bakr. Sulayman ibn Bourayda relates that, as they washed the Messenger of Allah, a herald cried from within the house: "Strip not the Messenger of Allah of his shirt!" Ibn Majah reports it. And Aïcha says: when they wished to wash the Prophet, they said: we know not whether to strip him as the dead are stripped, or to wash him with his shirt upon him. Then they slept upon that, and one of them heard in sleep a voice saying: wash the Prophet with his shirt on him! They awoke and found him clothed in his shirt, and they washed him so, pouring water over him and rubbing him over the shirt.
His shroud was three white garments of the Yemen, without shirt nor turban, and to them was added, by one version, the Yemeni cotton garment he wore when he gave up his soul. The prayer over him was made without an imam: the people entered in groups, each group praying over him individually: no man, no woman, no child remained but prayed over him. Ali prayed over him in a particular manner, making wide supplications and pronouncing the takbir five times, as related. Then they dug the grave and laid him in the chamber of Aïcha, where his soul had been taken, on the night of Tuesday or Wednesday. The Prophet had said in his lifetime: "No prophet is taken but that he is buried where his soul was taken": so they buried him in the chamber, and his grave remains there to this day, within the Mosque of the Prophet, upon him the best prayer and the purest salutation. And to Allah belong praise and favour.
Ibn Abbas said: the people gathered to wash the Messenger of Allah, and in the house were only his own: his uncle al-Abbas ibn Abd al-Mouttalib, Ali ibn Abi Talib, al-Fadl ibn al-Abbas, Qoutham ibn al-Abbas, Ousama ibn Zayd, and Salih, his freedman. As they made ready, Aws ibn Khawli al-Ansari, a Badrite of the Banu Awf, called Ali from behind the door: O Ali, I adjure you by Allah and by our share in the Messenger of Allah! Ali answered: enter. He came in and attended the washing without directing any of it: Ali leaned him against his chest, shirt upon him, while al-Abbas, al-Fadl and Qoutham turned him with him, and Ousama and Salih poured the water. Ali kept saying: by my father and my mother, how sweet you are, living and dead! He was washed with water and sidr, then dried, and there was done to him what is done to the dead.
Sa’id ibn al-Moussayyab relates from Ali: I washed the Messenger of Allah and looked for what shows on the dead, but I saw nothing: he was fragrant, living and dead. Four had charge of his burial: Ali, al-Abbas, al-Fadl and Salih, freedman of the Messenger of Allah; they dug him a lachd and set bricks over it. Ali related further: the Messenger of Allah entrusted me that none but me should wash him: "whoever sees my nakedness, his eyes will be blotted out." Al-Abbas and Ousama handed me water from behind a screen. Every limb I took seemed to turn with me like thirty men, until I had finished. The Bayhaqi calls this version very strange, yet Ibn Abi Chayba and others related it.
He was washed with the water of the well called Ghars, at Qouba, that belonged to Sa’d ibn Khaythama, from which the Messenger of Allah used to drink: "What an excellent well is the well of Ghars, one of the springs of Paradise, whose water is the sweetest of waters", by the hadith. Mouhammad ibn Ali (Abou Ja’far) says: he was washed three times with sidr, his shirt upon him. And in the version of Ibn Abbas through Sayf: a screen of Yemeni garments was hung inside the house, al-Abbas brought Ali, al-Fadl, Abou Soufyan ibn al-Harith and Ousama into it, drowsiness overcame them, and they heard a voice: wash not the Messenger of Allah, for he was pure. Al-Abbas said: nay, but yes! We shall not abandon his Sunna for a voice whose nature we know not. The voice called a second time: wash him, his garments upon him. Then they washed him, perfumed him with camphor at the places of his prostration and his joints, wrapped him in his shroud and burned aloeswood and nadd with him; but this account is judged very strange. Haroun ibn Sa’d relates that there was musk with Ali, and he directed that he be embalmed with it: "it is of the surplus of the embalming of the Messenger of Allah".
The dominant version: he was wrapped in three white Sahuli garments of kursuf, without shirt and without turban. Malik related it from Urwa, from Aïcha; Boukhari and Mouslim gathered it through several chains. Abou Dawoud adds: three white garments of the Yemen, of kursuf, without shirt nor turban; and it was recalled to Aïcha that it was said "two garments and a habara burd": she answered: the burd had indeed been brought, but they sent it back and did not use it for his shroud. The Bayhaqi thereby explains why people wavered over the habara: it was set aside from him. In the Sahih of Mouslim likewise: a garment had been bought for the shroud, then left; Abdallah ibn Abi Bakr took it and said: I shall keep it for myself, to be shrouded in it; then he said: had Allah been pleased with it for His Prophet, He would have shrouded him in it: and he sold it and gave the price in charity.
Other versions exist, several of them judged weak or very strange: three Yemeni bands (Mak’houl, a sole report of Ahmad); his very shirt in which he died, with a Najrani suit of two pieces (Ibn Abbas through Miqsam, very strange); two white garments and a red burd (Ibn Abbas through al-Hakam and al-Fadl); two bands and a Najrani burd (Abou Hourayra through Sa’id ibn al-Moussayyab, also held by Oum Salama through Qatada). Al-Qasim says, from Aïcha: he was wrapped in a habara garment, then it was taken off him, and the remains of that garment are with us to this day; the chain meets the standard of the two sheikhs. And Abou Ishaq said he met the Banu Abd al-Mouttalib gathered and asked them: in how many garments was the Messenger of Allah shrouded? They answered: in three garments, without shirt, without qaba and without turban. He asked: how many of you were taken captive at Badr? They answered: al-Abbas, Nawfal and ’Aqil.
There is no disagreement: they prayed over him individually, none leading the prayer. Ibn Abbas said: when the Messenger of Allah died, the men were brought in and prayed over him unbound until they had finished; then the women were brought in and prayed over him; then the children prayed over him; then the slaves prayed over him unbound: no one led the people in prayer over the Messenger of Allah. The Waqidi specifies: the people entered in small bands, without an imam. In a version found by Moussa ibn Mouhammad in his father’s book: Abou Bakr and Oumar entered with a number of the Muhajirun and the Ansariyates that the house would hold, formed ranks facing him and said: "We bear witness that you conveyed what was revealed to you, counselled your community, strove in the path of Allah until Allah made His religion mighty and His word complete; we believe in Him alone, without associate; make us of those who follow the word revealed with him, and join us with him: he was toward the believers tender and merciful. We seek no exchange in the faith, nor ever buy it for a price." And the people answered: amine, amine! Then they went out and others came in, until the men, then the women, then the children had prayed.
They prayed over him, by one account, from the afternoon of Monday to its like on Tuesday; it is also said they spent three days praying over him. As-Souhayli gives the wisdom: Allah announced that He and His angels pray upon him, and commanded every believer to pray upon him; so it fell to each one to pronounce the prayer over him directly, from him to him; and the angels are for us in that, imams. As for prayer at his grave by those who are not of the Companions, the later Shafi’ites differed: some allow it, since his body is fresh in his grave, the earth having been forbidden to eat the bodies of the prophets; others forbid it, because the righteous successors after the Companions did not do it: had it been prescribed, they would have hastened to it and held fast to it. And Allah knows best.
The Companions differed over the place of the grave: some proposed al-Baqi’, for he never ceased seeking forgiveness for his people; some, beside his minbar; some, in his place of prayer; some, with his companions. Abou Bakr then said: I heard the Messenger of Allah say: "no prophet is taken but that he is buried where his soul is taken"; by another version: "Allah takes not a prophet but in the place he most loves to be buried"; "bury him at the place of his bed." The bed was lifted, and they dug beneath it. Salim ibn Oubayd, of the people of the Souffa, relates that Abou Bakr came out of the chamber and, asked about the prayer and the burial, answered: you will enter in bands and pray; as for the burial: where Allah took his soul, for He took it only in a pure place.
There were two gravediggers in Medina: one who dug a lachd, the manner of the people of Medina, and another who dug after the manner of the people of Mecca. Abou Talha Zayd ibn Sahl was the gravedigger of the Medinans: they sent also for Abou Oubayda, who dug the Meccan way; Abbas prayed: O Allah, choose for Your messenger! The emissary of Abou Oubayda found him not, that of Abou Talha brought him, and he dug the lachd for him. When the preparation was finished on Tuesday, he was laid upon his bed in his chamber. And the Messenger of Allah was buried in the middle of the night, the night of Wednesday. There descended into the grave Ali ibn Abi Talib, al-Fadl and Qoutham, the two sons of al-Abbas, and Chouqran, freedman of the Messenger of Allah. Chouqran took the velvet garment the Messenger of Allah wore and buried it in the grave: "by Allah, none shall wear it after you!"
By reports beyond counting it is known that he was buried in the chamber of Aïcha, which she held at the east of his mosque, in the west, qibla-side corner of the chamber; Abou Bakr was buried there after him, then Oumar. Boukhari relates, from Soufyan at-Tammar, that he saw the grave of the Prophet raised with a swelling. Al-Qasim said: I entered upon Aïcha and asked her to uncover for me the grave of the Messenger of Allah and his two companions; she showed me three graves, neither raised nor jutting, smoothed like the flat ground of the red arena; one version adds that the Prophet was foremost, Abou Bakr’s head between his two shoulders, Oumar’s head at the level of his feet. Al-Walid ibn Abd al-Malik had the mosque of Medina enlarged by his governor Oumar ibn Abd al-Aziz, and the prophetic chamber came within it; when the wall collapsed in the time of al-Walid and they rebuilt it, a foot appeared: they were alarmed, taking it for the Prophet’s, until Urwa said: by Allah, it is not the foot of the Prophet, it is the foot of Oumar. And Aïcha had directed Abdallah ibn az-Zoubayr not to bury her with them but with her companions at al-Baqi’: "let me never be glorified for that."
In the lachd was spread a red velvet garment he wore on the day of Khaybar: the Messenger of Allah had said: "spread my velvet in my lachd, for the earth has not been given power over the bodies of the prophets"; al-Hasan specifies that Medina is damp ground, and so it was spread beneath him. Ibn Abbas also says: a red velvet garment was placed in the grave of the Prophet; Wakei’ adds: this was particular to the Messenger of Allah. Over the grave water was sprinkled: Bilal ibn Rabbah did it with a waterskin, from the head, on the right side, down to the feet, then cast the water against the wall, unable to go around. Upon his lachd bricks were set; some count nine. Aïcha said at last: the Prophet died in my house, on my day, between my waking and my midday, and Allah joined my spittle and his in the last hour of this world and the first hour of the next. And he had said in his illness: "may Allah curse the Jews and the Christians: they took the graves of their prophets as mosques"; Aïcha comments: but for that, his grave would have been made prominent, for he feared it would be taken as a mosque.
Al-Moughira ibn Chou’ba used to say: I cast my ring into the grave of the Messenger of Allah, and when the people went out I declared my ring had fallen into the grave: I had touched the Messenger of Allah on purpose, that I might be the last of men to touch him. But Ali answered the one who cited him: the most recent of men in covenant with the Messenger of Allah is Qoutham ibn Abbas. In another version, al-Moughira remarked that something of his feet had not been put right; he was told: enter and set it right; he entered, put in his hand and touched his feet, then said: cast the earth upon me! They cast it to the middle of his shins, he went out, and would say: I am the most recent of you in covenant with the Messenger of Allah. The scholars note these accounts do not exclude each other: Ali may have ordered another to hand the object, and the one he ordered to hand it was Qoutham ibn Abbas.
As for the moment: the dominant, textually supported view is that he was buried in the middle of the night of Wednesday, as related by Ibn Ishaq, Moussa ibn Oqba, Souleyman at-Taymi and Ja’far as-Sadiq. It is also said: on Tuesday, before midday or in the morning (al-Awza’i, Ibn Jourayj, Abou Salama, Ibn Abbas through Oubayd Allah ibn Oumar); and Mak’houl’s very strange report of three full days of prayer in groups without ranks and without imam. The majority hold the first view. Aïcha said: we knew of the burial of the Prophet only by the sound of the shovels, in the depth of the night of Wednesday. And Oum Salama relates: we remained gathered weeping, sleepless, the Messenger of Allah in our houses, consoling ourselves with the sight of him upon his bed, when we heard at daybreak the voices of the masons; all Medina uttered a single cry, Bilal called the dawn and, coming to the name of the Prophet, wept and sobbed, which deepened our grief; then access to his grave was barred to the people. What a trial! We never met another but it seemed light when we recalled that one, his.
Anas said: when the Prophet was near death, anguish kept overcoming him in waves; Fatima said: alas, my father! He answered her: "your father will have no anguish after this day." When he died she said: O my father, who answered his Lord when He called him! O my father, the garden of Firdaws is his dwelling! O my father, to Jibril we announce his death! And when he was buried she said to Anas: did it seem good to you to cast earth upon the Messenger of Allah? Boukhari alone relates the whole account; Thabit wept whenever he transmitted it, until his ribs quivered. The scholars clarify: this was not the forbidden keening, but the true statement of his merits, for the Messenger of Allah forbade keening. Hakim ibn Qays said in his bequest to his sons: mourn me not with wailing, for the Messenger of Allah was not wailed over.
Anas also said: on the day the Messenger of Allah entered Medina, everything in it was lit up; and on the day he died, everything in it was darkened. We had not yet withdrawn our hands from the Messenger of Allah but our hearts turned strange. One version amplifies: the city darkened till we could not see one another, a man would stretch out his hand and not make it out, and no sooner had we buried him than our hearts turned strange. Oubayy ibn Ka’b said: we were with the Messenger of Allah and our face was as one; when he was taken, we looked this way and that. Oum Salama describes at last the waning of the gaze in prayer: in the Prophet’s time the worshipper’s eye went no further than the place of his feet as he stood; after his death, no further than the place of his brow; after Abou Bakr, the qibla; and when discord came, the people began looking right and left.
Oum Ayman wept; she was told: what makes you weep over the Prophet? She answered: I knew well that the Messenger of Allah must die; but I weep for the revelation that has been raised from us. Mouslim reports from Abou Moussa that the Prophet said: "when Allah wills mercy upon a community of His servants, He takes its prophet before it and makes it for it a precious foretaste and a precedent testifying for it; and when He wills its ruin, He torments it while its prophet lives, destroys it before his eyes, and He finds rest in its ruin when they denied him and disobeyed his command"; a sole report of Mouslim, in chain and text. And the Bazzar transmits from Ibn Mas’oud: "Allah has travelling angels who bear to me the salutations of my community"; the Nasai gathered it by several chains; and "my life is a good for you: you speak to me and I speak to you; my death is a good for you: your deeds are set before me; what I see of good therein, I praise Allah for it; what I see of ill, I seek pardon for you." And Aouss ibn Aouss: "the most excellent of your days is Friday: on it Adam was created, on it he was taken, on it is the Blast and the quaking; multiply prayers upon me on it, for your prayer is presented to me"; he was asked: how shall it be presented when you are but bones?
Ibn Majah relates, from Aïcha: the Messenger of Allah opened between him and the people a door, or lifted a curtain, and behold the people praying behind Abou Bakr: he praised Allah for the good state he saw in them, hoping Allah would succeed him among them in what he saw, and said: "O people, whoever among men or among the believers is struck by a trial, let him console himself, in his trial, by mine: none of my community shall meet after me a trial harder than mine."
The Bayhaqi cites also, marking them weak, tales of consoling voices: when the consolation came, the household heard a voice from within the house: "peace upon you, people of the house, and the mercy of Allah! In Allah is consolation from every trial, succession to every departed, reaching what escapes you: in Allah therefore trust, and on Him place your hope, for the stricken one is only he who is deprived of the reward"; Ali asked: do you know who this is? It is al-Khidr. Other versions relate that after the women entered, their weeping and cries rising, the consoling women heard within the house a voice that spoke to them these words, and they fell silent. A last account gives a grey-bearded man who strode over the necks of the Companions gathered around the body, consoled them and went away: Abou Bakr and Ali said: it is the brother of the Messenger of Allah, al-Khidr. The Bayhaqi rules: these accounts are not to be trusted, yet their two chains strengthen one another, so that they have a root in the words of Ja’far; and Allah knows best.
And the people of the Book knew the day of his death: Jarir relates that in the Yemen, two men named Dhou Kala’ and Amr told him: if what you say is true, your companion has died at his term three days ago; and a caravan from Medina confirmed: the Messenger of Allah has been taken, Abou Bakr has taken charge, and the people are righteous. The two Yemenites went back, sending word to Abou Bakr that they might yet come; one of them, Dhou Amr, confided later to Jarir: you Arabs will remain in good so long as, at the death of one ruler, you set up another in authority; Abou Bakr regretted that Jarir had not brought them along.
Several women offered themselves or were asked without the marriage being concluded. Oum Hani Fakhita bint Abi Talib: he asked her, but she had small children and he let her be: "the best of women mounted on camels are the righteous women of Qoraych, who nurse their little one tenderly and keep for their husband what they possess." Abou Hourayra specifies she answered: O Messenger of Allah, I have grown old and have dependants. By the Tirmidhi’s version she excused herself and he excused her, and the sura of the Partitions came down after; the scholars draw from it that a believing woman was licit to him only if she had emigrated, Qatada reading "those who emigrated with you" as "those who believed with you."
Layla bint al-Khatim came to him, laid her hand on his shoulder and said: I am the daughter of the one who feeds the birds, blessed of the wind; I am Layla bint al-Khatim, come to offer myself to you: marry me. He answered: "it is done." Her tribe reproached her for offering herself to one surrounded by jealous wives, fearing his supplication against her: she returned asking to be repudiated, and he granted it; she married Mas’oud ibn Aouss. Doubaa bint Amir, tall and beautiful, widow of Salama son of Hicham ibn al-Moughira: he asked her from her son Salama, who went to ask her consent; she answered: my son, you seek permission from the Messenger of Allah? The son returned without answering, judging his mother too old, and the Prophet kept silence over her. Safiyya bint Bachama, stricken with leprosy, was given the choice: myself or your husband; she chose her husband, he sent her away, and the Banu Tamim cursed her.
Oum Charik, a woman of the Banu Amir ibn Louayy, gave herself to him and he did not accept her, and she never married until she died; another version makes her a woman of Dous named Ghaziyya bint Jabir. Jamra bint al-Harith al-Mouzaniyya: her father reported an ill omen in her, he withdrew, and she was struck with leprosy; she became the mother of Chabib ibn al-Barssa, the poet. And Oum Habiba bint al-Abbas: he asked her, but it was found she was his milk-sister, Thouwayba, freedwoman of Abou Lahab, having nursed them both. There were then three sorts of wives: those he married and died leaving, forbidden after him to all men by consensus and by the sura of the Partitions, their waiting ending with their lives; those he married then repudiated in his lifetime, on whom the scholars differ, the strong view resting on the sura of the Choice; and those repudiated before consummation, licit to others without disagreement. As for those asked without conclusion, their marriage remains licit, and more fitting.
He had two concubines. The first: Maria bint Cham’oun, the Copt, gifted by the lord of Alexandria, Jourayj ibn Matna, with her sister Sirine, a eunuch named Mabour, and the mule Douldoul. He chose Maria for himself, fair and white, of the village of Hafn in the district of Ansina: Mouawiya later exempted that village from tribute in her honour, because she had borne Ibrahim. Sirine was given to the poet Hassan ibn Thabit, to whom she bore Abd al-Rahman. Talk arose of Mabour’s visits to the two sisters, before his castration was discovered. When Maria bore Ibrahim, the Prophet said: "her child has freed her"; the boy was born at Dhoul-Hijja of year eight, the head shaved on the seventh day, its weight in silver given in charity, the hair buried in the earth; the wives grew jealous. Once, in jealousy, she was accused of a Copt who visited her: he handed Ali the sword with orders to kill him if he found him with her; Ali asked: shall I be the red-hot blade that turns not aside, or does the witness see what the absent sees not? "The witness sees what the absent sees not"; Ali found the man among the palms, discovered his impotence, and the Prophet said: "praise to Allah who turned harm from our household."
The second: Rayhana bint Zayd, of the Banu Nadir or the Banou Qorayza, a captive of the siege of Qorayza, whom he chose for himself from each spoils. He offered her Islam and then marriage; she refused, holding to Judaism, and he kept her as a concubine. Ibn Sa’ya had her counselled by Ibn Sa’ya: "she will believe"; the sandals of Ibn Sa’ya came bringing the news of her conversion and the Prophet rejoiced. By the Waqidi’s account she left him the choice: to free and marry her, or keep her in his possession; she preferred remaining in his possession, saying it was lighter for him and for her, and he left her his concubine until his death. Other versions make her freed then married with a dower of twelve ounces, veiled, with her allotted share; az-Zouhri has her freed and returned to her people. She died, by some, before him; by others, on his return from the farewell pilgrimage, buried at al-Baqi’; his association with her lasted until death parted them in the month of Rabi’ al-Awwal of year eleven, as said before.
There is no disagreement: all his children are of Khadija bint Khouwaylid, save Ibrahim, born of Maria the Copt. The eldest was al-Qasim, then Zaynab, then Abdallah, then Oum Koulthoum, then Fatima, then Rouqayya. Al-Qasim, the first of his children to die, died at Mecca, then Abdallah died: and al-’As ibn Wa’il cried out: his line is cut, he is cut off! Allah then revealed: "surely it is you who have received al-Kawthar; pray to your Lord and sacrifice: your hater is the one cut off from all posterity." Other enumerations give the order: Zaynab, Rouqayya, al-Qasim, then at-Tahir, al-Mouttahir, at-Tayyib and al-Mouttayyab, then Oum Koulthoum, then Fatima, the youngest and dearest; Khadija gave her children out to a nurse, but none nursed Fatima but herself. It is said at-Tayyib is at-Tahir, and that he is Abdallah; and again that at-Tayyib and al-Mouttayyab were born of one womb, at-Tahir and al-Mouttahir of another. Various lifespans are related for al-Qasim: seven nights (a faulty version), seventeen months, two years; Qatada says he lived till he walked.
Zaynab, the eldest daughter, married Abou al-’As ibn ar-Rabi’, bearing Ali and Oumama, the one the Messenger of Allah carried in prayer: when he bowed he set her down, when he rose he took her up, perhaps after her mother’s death in year eight, as a little child. After Fatima’s death, Ali ibn Abi Talib married her in turn. Zaynab died in year eight: leaving Mecca, a man pushed her, she fell upon a rock and lost her child, and remained ailing till her death: she was held to have died a martyr. Rouqayya had first married her cousin Outba ibn Abi Lahab, as Oum Koulthoum had married Otayba: both were repudiated before consummation, out of hatred for the Messenger of Allah at the sura of the Blazing Flame. Othman ibn ’Affan married Rouqayya and emigrated with her to Abyssinia, said to be the first; then to Medina, where she bore him Abdallah, who lived six years and died of a cock that pecked his eyes: on him he first took his kunya. She died on the day of Badr, while Othman, kept by her at the Messenger of Allah’s command, kept her bed; Zayd ibn Haritha, bearer of the news of victory, found them finishing her grave. The Prophet married Othman to her sister Oum Koulthoum: hence he was called Dhou l-Nourayn, possessor of the two lights; and he said: "had I a third, I would give her to Othman," or even: "had I ten." Oum Koulthoum died with him in Chab’an of year nine, bearing him no child.
Fatima married her cousin Ali ibn Abi Talib in Safar of year two; she bore al-Hasan and al-Houssayn, it is said Mouhassin also, then Oum Koulthoum and Zaynab. Oumar ibn al-Khattab later married Oum Koulthoum daughter of Ali and Fatima, paying her forty thousand dirhams in honour of her kinship to the Messenger of Allah; she bore him Zayd, and after Oumar’s martyrdom she married ’Awn ibn Ja’far, then Mouhammad ibn Ja’far, then Abdallah ibn Ja’far, with whom she died. Fatima died six months after the Messenger of Allah, the best-established view from Aïcha in the Sahih; az-Zouhri says three months, Abou az-Zoubayr two, Amr ibn Dinar eight. As for Ibrahim, born of Maria at Dhoul-Hijja of year eight: Jibril had come to announce: "peace upon you, Abou Ibrahim; Allah has given you a boy of your concubine Maria, and commanded you to name him Ibrahim." He died, by the best-related version, at eighteen months, on Tuesday the tenth of Rabi’ al-Awwal of year eleven, among the Banou Mazin, in the house of Oum Bourda bint al-Moundhir; by others at sixteen months.
The Prophet took him: "wrap him not in his shroud till I have seen him"; he bent over him and wept, his cheeks and sides trembling, and said: "the eye weeps, the heart grieves, and we say only what pleases the Lord; and of you, O Ibrahim, we are grieved." The Prophet washed him and shrouded him, went out and the people went out with him; Ali laid him in the grave beside the house of Mouhammad ibn Zayd, descended, levelled the earth, then sprinkled water; the Messenger of Allah put his hand into the grave: "by Allah, he is indeed a prophet, son of a prophet." Bara relates he prayed over him, and Ibn Abi Awfa heard four takbir. And he had said: "bury him at al-Baqi’: he has in Paradise a nursemaid who will complete his weaning"; "had Ibrahim lived he would have been a truthful prophet, but your prophet is the last of the prophets." The sun eclipsed on the day of his death, and the Messenger of Allah mounted the pulpit: "the sun and the moon are two signs of Allah: they do not eclipse for the death of anyone nor for his birth."
The first of his freedmen named here is Ousama ibn Zayd ibn Haritha, son of his freedman and of his nurse Baraka, called Oum Ayman: "his beloved and the son of his beloved." The Messenger of Allah set him over an army in the last days of his life, at eighteen or nineteen, with Oumar in the ranks; when some took offence at his youth, he mounted the pulpit: "if you criticise his command, you have already criticised his father’s; by Allah, he was worthy of command, he was of the dearest of creation to me, and this one is of the dearest of creation to me after him." Abou Bakr upheld the army of Ousama after his death, releasing Oumar only to take his counsel: "by Allah, I shall not loose a banner the Messenger of Allah has tied"; Oumar would not greet him but with: peace upon you, O emir. And the two Sahihs relate of him: the Messenger of Allah would take Ousama and al-Hasan and say: "O Allah, I love them: love them"; and from Aïcha: "whoever loves Allah and His Messenger, let him love Ousama ibn Zayd"; hence at the register Oumar allotted him five thousand dirhams and his own son Abdallah four: "he was dearer to the Messenger of Allah than you, and his father dearer than yours."
Then Abou Rafi’, the Copt: Aslam, or Ibrahim, or Thabit, son of Hormouz; first freedman of al-Abbas, who gave him to the Prophet; he was a scribe, wrote under Ali at Koufa, was the Prophet’s stay in his cares, married to his bondwoman Salma. He refused a Makzoumite come to collect alms who asked him along to share in it: "alms are not licit to us, and a people’s freedman is of them"; at Khaybar, in bitter cold, the Prophet covered him with his own wrap; at the serpent by whose fangs they had slept: "O Abou Rafi’, kill it, kill it!" Then Anasa ibn Bada, called Abou Masrouh, of the Medinan freedmen, a Badrite by Urwa and az-Zouhri. And Anas ibn Malik, given by his mother to the Prophet’s service from the age of ten, who said of him: "I served the Messenger of Allah ten years, and he never said to me uff, nor why did you do it, nor why did you not do it."
Among those who wrote for him: the four caliphs Abou Bakr, Oumar, Othman and Ali ibn Abi Talib; Aban ibn Said ibn al-’As, converted after Khaybar or after Houdaybiyya, his conversion prepared by the word of a Syrian monk who described the Prophet to him and bade him carry the greeting; Oubayy ibn Ka’b, master of the reciters, a Badrite: "the first who wrote the revelation before the Messenger of Allah at Medina; and when he was absent Zayd ibn Thabit wrote, as did Othman, Khalid ibn Said and Aban ibn Said"; Arqam ibn Abi al-Arqam, in whose house near as-Safa the Prophet hid, a house later called of Khayzouran; Zayd ibn Thabit, and Mou’awiya, and Handhala ibn ar-Rabi’. Oubayy received one day this grace: "Allah has commanded me to recite the Quran upon you"; he asked: has He named me to you? "Yes"; his eyes flowed. And when he had doubted two readings of a sura, the Prophet had both recited, saying of each: "thus it was revealed", then laid his hand on Oubayy’s chest: Oubayy felt as if he were looking at Allah. The versions differ on the year each died, and Allah knows best.