The ten companions, the five chastisements and the fall from the mount

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.