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 05 October 2026 at 10:56 AM
Part of: The Year 11 of the Hijra: the Prophet's Illness and his Death
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.