After the sermon, the Prophet and the pilgrims stayed on `Arafat praying and supplicating the whole day. After sunset the Prophet mounted his camel and rode down from the hill and across the valley in the direction of Makkah. When the pace of the pilgrims quickened he told them, "Gently! Gently! In all quietness! And let the strongest among you have a care for the weak!" Whenever he found an opening among the pilgrims he outpaced <sup>32</sup> them gently, until they reached Muzdalifah. There the Prophet and the pilgrims prayed Maghrib (Sunset prayer) and `Isha (Night prayers) in combination; and the whole multitude slept the night there, after collecting some pebbles for the stoning of Satan the next day. The Prophet allowed some women to leave Muzdalifah before dawn and go to Mina to perform the rite of stoning at relative ease.

After dawn prayer the Prophet spent the early hours of the morning supplicating until near sunrise, and then he led the pilgrims to Al-'Aqabah where he and the pilgrims performed the stoning of the First Pillar after sunrise. The Prophet had brought with him a hundred camels, of which he slaughtered 63, and `Ali slaughtered the rest at Mina after they had thrown the pebbles. He and the pilgrims went to visit Al -Ka'bah to perform the seven circumambulations of Ifadah and returned to spend that night and the next two nights in Mina.

After the preparation of Usamah's Syrian expedition, the Prophet's mission was fulfilled, and he began to feel that the end of his life on earth was near. So he went with one of his Companions to pray forgiveness for the people of the cemetery at the Baqi'. When they reached the cemetery, the Prophet said, "Peace be upon you, O people of the graves. Rejoice in your State, how much better off you are than men now living. Dissensions come like waves of darkest night, the one following hard upon the other, each worse than the last." Then the Prophet turned to his Companion and said, "I have been offered the keys of the treasuries ³⁴ of this world and immortality therein followed by Paradise, and I have been given the choice between that and meeting with my Lord and Paradise." "O dearer than my father and my mother" said his Companion, "Take the keys of the treasuries of this world and immortality therein followed by Paradise." But the Prophet answered saying, "I have already chosen the meeting with my Lord and Paradise." Then the Prophet prayed for forgiveness for the people of the Baqi'.

Then the Prophet began to suffer seriously from illness. Once in his illness he went to the Mosque and, affer leading the prayer, he asked for forgiveness and blessings for the people of Uhud. Then he said "There is a servant among the servants of Allah to whom Allah has offered the choice between this world and that which is with Him, and the servant has chosen that which is with Allah." Abu Bakr perceived ³⁵ that he meant himself, and he wept saying, "No, we and our children will be your ransom." The Prophet saw that Abu Bakr understood, and telling him not to weep, he said, "O people, the most faithful of men to me in his companionship and in that which his hand bestows ³⁶ is Abu Bakr; and if I were to take from all mankind an inseparable ³⁷ friend he would be Abu Bakr; but companionship and brotherhood of faith is ours until Allah unites us in His presence.

Then the Prophet looked at the many entrances into the Mosque, and said: "Behold these doors that open up inside the Mosque. Let them be walled up, ³⁸ except only the door of Abu Bakr." Before leaving the pulpit he said, "I go before you, and I am your witness. Your appointment with me is at the Pool (a celestial River), which surely I behold from here where now I stand. I fear not for you that you will set up gods besides Allah; but I fear for you this world, lest ³⁹ you seek to rival one another in worldly gains."

The Prophet continued to lead the prayers in the Mosque as usual; but his illness increased and he began to pray sitting and he told the Companions to pray sitting also. When he felt that he could not lead the prayers sitting, he said to his wives, "Tell Abu Bakr to lead the people in prayer." But `A'ishah said, "O Messenger of Allah, Abu Bakr is a very sensitive man with a weak voice and much given to weeping when he reads Al-Qur'an." "Tell him to lead the prayers," repeated the Prophet, and `A'ishah repeated her objection, ⁴⁰suggesting that `Umar should take his place. "Tell Abu Bakr to lead the prayers," the Prophet reiterated. You are even as the women that were with Yusuf (Joseph). Tell Abu Bakr to lead the people in prayer. Allah and the believers will not have it otherwise."

On the day the Prophet died, he was very weak, but when he heard the call for dawn prayer, he decided to go to the Mosque. The prayer had already begun when he entered, and the Muslims were almost drawn away from prayer for the joy of seeing the Prophet, but he motioned them to continue. For a moment he stood to watch them and his face shone with gladness at their demeanor ⁴¹ in prayer. Abu Bakr had been conscious of the stir  ⁴²behind him, and he realized that the Prophet himself must have come out of his house. So, without turning his head, Abu Bakr stepped back, but the Prophet placed his hand on Abu Bakr's shoulder and pushed him gently forwards again in front of the congregation, saying, "You lead the prayer," while he himself sat on the right of Abu Bakr, and prayed seated.

The Prophet went back into the house helped by two Companions and he lay on his bed. Then `A'ishah's brother `Abd ar-Rahman, entered the room with a green siwak (a tooth stick) in his hand; and she saw the Prophet looking at it and she knew that he wanted it. So she took it from her brother and chewed it to soften it. Then she gave it to the Prophet, who rubbed his teeth with it vigorously ⁴³  despite his weakness.

Soon he began to lose consciousness; but after an hour, his eyes opened and became fixed; and `A'ishah heard him murmur, "Nay, the most Exalted Companion in Paradise!" These were the last words she heard him speak before his death. That was on Monday 12, Rabi' 1 in the eleventh year of Hijrah (8 June 632 A.C.)

When the Prophet was dead, `Umar stood up and said, "Some hypocrites think that the Messenger of Allah has died; but the Messenger of Allah is not dead; but he has gone to his Lord as Musa (Moses), son of `Imran had gone to his Lord, and he had been absent from his people for forty nights, and he (Musa) returned to them after it was said he had died. By Allah, the Prophet will return as Musa had returned, and he will surely cut off the hands and feet of men who allege ⁴⁴  that the Prophet is dead." When Abu Bakr heard what was happening he came to the door of the Mosque as `Umar was speaking. He went into `A'ishah's house where the Prophet was lying and uncovered his face and kissed him, saying, "You are dearer than my father and mother. You have tasted the death which Allah had decreed; a second death will never take you." Then Abu Bakr went out while `Umar was still talking to the people, and Abu Bakr said, "Gently `Umar, be quiet." But `Umar went on talking, and Abu Bakr began talking, and the people came to him and left `Umar. Praising Allah, Abu Bakr said, "O men, if anyone worships Muhammad, surely Muhammad, is dead; if anyone worships Allah; surely Allah is alive and will never die." Then he recited the verse:

"And Muhammad is only a messenger, and messengers have passed away before him. Will you then, if he dies or is killed, turn upon your heels? And who soever turns upon his heels will thereby do not harm to Allah; and Allah will reward the thankful." (Al-Imran- 144).

Then `Umar said, "By Allah when I heard Abu Bakr recite that verse, it was as if I had never heard it before, and I was so astounded ⁴⁵ that I fell to the ground. My legs would no longer carry me, and I knew that the messenger of Allah had died."

Then `Ali and `Abbas washed the body of the Prophet with his garment upon him. As `Ali passed his hands over the garment, he said, "Dearer than my father and my mother, how excellent you are alive and dead!" When the Companions disagreed where to bury him, Abu Bakr said he remembered the Prophet having said, "No Prophet dies but is buried where he dies." So the grave was dug in the floor of `A'ishah's room near the bed where the Prophet was lying.

Then the people came in groups and prayed the funeral prayer over him: first the men, then the women, and then the children. No man acted as Imam (leader) in the prayer over the Prophet, and the burial took place in the middle of the night on Wednesday. Amid all the grief and sorrow, the words of Umm Ayman express most adequately the reasons for such deep feelings. "Not for him do I weep," she said, "Do I not know that he has gone to that which is better for him than this world? But I weep for the Revelation from Heaven which has been cut off from us."

The Search for Truth:

When Ibrahim (Abraham), the father of Ishaq (Isaac) and Isma'il (Ishmael), left Sarah in Syria and came with Hajar to Arabia, he, together with his son Isma'il, built the inviolable Mosque in Makkah. The House was dedicated to Allah, and erected for the worship of the One God, Allah. But gradually polytheism began to creep in after the death of Ibrahim and Isma'il. The first idol to be brought inside the House was called Hubal; other idols were gradually brought into the House, and by the time the Prophet was born the number of idols inside the House was about 360.

Giving water and food to the pilgrims was an honour for which different Arab tribes rivaled; ⁴⁶  finally this honour was conceded  ⁴⁷ to Al-Muttalib, and then to his nephew, `Abdul Muttalib. One night, as he was sleeping near Al-Ka'bah, he heard a voice telling him to dig Zainzam to provide water for the pilgrims. `Abdul Muttalib had only one son, Al-Harith, and both of them began digging Zamzam. At first they were stopped by the crowd which gathered round them; but the father was determined to go on digging. He told his son to stop digging and to stand by him and see that no one interfered with his digging. As `Abdul Muttalib alone went on digging, he did not find water at first, but, instead, a treasure which had been buried there a long time before. This treasure was divided among the different clans; <sup>48</sup> and finally Zamzam had been restored and `Abdul Muttalib became in charge of providing water for the pilgrims. But the effort to stop him from digging at first made him eager to have more sons. So he made a vow ⁴⁹ that if Allah would bless him with ten sons who would grow to manhood, he would sacrifice one of them to Him at Al-Ka'bah.

The vow had to be fulfilled, because `Abdul Muttalib did eventually have ten sons. The one to be sacrificed was no other than his youngest, `Abdullah, because the lots were cast and it was `Abdullah's arrow that came out. But the people told `Abdul Muttalib not to sacrifice his son; and it was suggested that he should cast lots for ten camels and for his son; if the lot fell against his son, he should add more camels, until his son escaped death. Every time the lots fell against `Abdullah, until finally `Abdullah was saved and a hundred camels were sacrificed.

After the sacrifice of the hundred camels, `Abdul Muttalib decided to find a wife for `Abdullah; and his choice fell on Aminah, daughter of Wahb.

The Prophet was born on a Monday, Rabi'ul-Awwal in the Year of the Elephant. His father had gone to Syria and Palestine for trade, and on his way he was taken ill and died in Yathrib (Al- Madinah). So the Prophet was born an orphan. After birth he was taken by his grandfather to the Mosque, where the grandfather prayed and praised Allah for His gift.

After his birth, his mother entrusted him to Halimah of Bani Sa'd in the desert not far from Makkah until he was weaned ⁵⁰ at the age of two. Then the foster-mother took the child with her to his mother in Makkah, and asked the mother to allow her to take him for more stay in the desert; and he stayed with his foster-mother for some more months.

When he was six years old, his mother took him on a visit to his relatives in Yathrib (Al-Madinah). On the return journey, his mother fell ill and died at Al-'Abwa', not far away from Yathrib, and his old servant Barakah took him back to Makkah where his grandfather took charge of him. His grandfather took great care of him, and even seated him on his couch near Al-Ka'bah, for he always said, "By Allah, a great future is my son's (grandson's)."

After `Abdul Muttalib's death, the Prophet was entrusted to his uncle Abu Tahb. While in his uncle's house, he used to pasture sheep and goats in the hills above Makkah, and once he was taken by his uncle with a merchant caravan to Syria. In the following years, the Prophet attended one of the wars in which Quraysh took part, and in which there was not much fighting. This was called the (Impious war) "Harb ul Fujjar," because it was started in one of the sacred months. He also was present at the Pact of "The Fudul," where many tribes, besides Quraysh, gathered to promise to stand against any act of oppression or injustice in Makkah. Present at the meeting was another young man, younger than the Prophet by about two years, and that was `Abu Bakr. In after years, the Prophet said about that Pact, "I was present in the house of `Abdullah Ibn Jud'an at so excellent a pact that I would not exchange my part in it for a herd of red camels; and if now, in Islam, I were invited to take part in it, I would gladly respond."

The birth of the Prophet was in the same year that Abrahah, ruler of Yaman, came with the intent ⁵² to destroy Al-Ka'bah, and to force the Arabs into performing the pilgrimage to the cathedral he had built in his country. He led a big army with an elephant in the vanguard ⁵³ from Yaman until he reached the outskirts of Makkah. Abrahah sent a message to `Abdul Muttalib saying that he did not want war with the Makkans, and he only wanted to destroy the Ka'bah; and so if the Makkans do not try to stop him from destroying it, there will be no fighting. The message was delivered to `Abdul Muttalib, the leader of his people at that time; and `Abdul Muttalib went to see Abrahah. He was welcomed by the Yamanite ruler, but Abrahah was surprised when he heard the Makkan head say that he wanted the King to return two hundred camels of his which the enemy had taken. The Yamanite answered, "Do you wish to talk to me about two hundred camels of yours which I have taken and say nothing about your temple and the temple of your forefathers which I have come to destroy?" `Abdul Muttalib replied, "I am the owner of the camels and the temple has an Owner Who will defend it".

Then Abrahah proceeded to enter Makkah, with the elephant in front. But suddenly the elephant knelt and refused to go forward. The troops beat the elephant to make it get up but it would not; they beat its head with iron bars, but it would not get up. whenever they made it face the north or Yaman it would immediately get up and start off. Suddenly birds came from the sea; each carried three stones, and everyone who was hit by anyone of these stones died. So the army began to withdraw in flight towards Yaman, and Abrahah died on the way back. As a sign of the favour of Allah on the Makkans, this surah `chapter' was revealed at an early period of the Prophet's mission.

Halimah was the Prophet's foster-mother. It was a year of famine when she and her husband took the Prophet after his birth to live with them in the desert near Makkah. She had hesitated to take him at first, for he was an orphan and she did not think that his mother or his grandfather would be able to meet all the expectations of a foster-mother. However, Halimah finally said, "By Allah, I do not like the idea of returning without a suckling; I will go and take that orphan." Her husband replied, "Do as you please; perhaps Allah will bless us on his account." So she took him, and when she began suckling him, he drank his fill ⁵⁴ and slept; and his foster-brother also drank his fill and slept, while on the previnight her son could not sleep of hunger. When they started on their way from Makkah, she carried him with her on the back of her ass, which outstripped the whole group, whereas before this same ass was always lagging ⁵⁵ behind the others.

When they reached home, the child's presence with them was a source of abundance ⁵⁶and happiness, while famine was prevalent ⁵⁷ in the whole area. Then one day the Prophet's foster-brother came running to his mother, telling her that he saw two men clothed in white seize his Qurayshi brother, throw him down, and open up his chest . The father and mother ran towards their foster-son and found him standing there with a pale face. When they asked him what had happened, he told them that the two men dressed in white had come, thrown him down, opened up his chest and searched therein for what he knew not. Yet there was not a trace of a scar ⁵⁸on his breast.

Once, when Abu Talib was going in a merchant caravan to Syria, he decided to take his nephew with him. When the caravan reached Bostra in Syria, a monk ⁶⁰ called Bahira saw the young man. He was surprised to find traces of his description in the Christian books. He drew near to the young man and began to ask him several questions.

Bahira: Young man, by Allah and Al-'Uzza would you answer my questions?

The Prophet: Do not ask me by Allah and Al-'Uzza, for by Allah nothing is more hateful to me than these two.

Bahira: "Then by Allah, tell me what I ask."

The Prophet: "Ask me what you like."

Bahira "Do you like solitude?"

The Prophet: "Yes!"

Bahira: "Do you like contemplating ⁶¹ the sky and the stars?"

The Prophet: "Yes!"

Bahira: " Do you care for playing with your mates?"

The Prophet:" No!"

Bahira: Do you see in your sleep visions that come true when you wake up?"

The Prophet: "Yes!"

Bahira (to Abu Talib): "O Abu Talib! O Abu Talib!"

Abu Talib (looking surprised): "What is the matter, Bahira?"

Bahira (pointing to the Prophet): "Tell me, what is this boy to you?"

Abu Talib: "He is my son."

Bahira: "He is not your son. The father of this boy cannot be alive."

Abu Talib: "He is my brother's son."

Bahira: "What has become of his father?"

Abu Talib: "He died when his mother was pregnant."

Bahira (to himself): "You are right! (Aloud) Go back with your brother's son to his country and guard him carefully against the Jews, for, by Allah, if they see him and know about him what I know, they will contrive ⁶² evil against him. Great things are in store for your brother's son."

Abu Talib (amazed): "Great things in store for him! for this my brother's son?"

Bahira: "Yes, surely his face is the face of a Prophet, and his eye is the eye of a Prophet!"

Abu Talib: "A Prophet! What is a Prophet?"

At the age of twenty-five, the Prophet was married to Khadijah, a rich merchant woman, who had sent him before with her goods for trade in Syria. Because she had found him truthful and honest, she suggested to her uncle that she would be happy if Muhammad would accept her as a wife, although she was now about forty. Her uncle agreed, and the marriage soon took place. On the marriage day, Khadijah gave the Prophet a gift, a slave named Zayd. The Prophet lived with Khadijah in her house, and the result of the happy marriage was the birth of six children: two sons and four daughters.

Quraysh tried to rebuild Al-Ka'bah ten years after Muhammad's marriage. They were afraid to demol ish it, but they were encouraged when one of them began to demolish, and no harm befell ⁶³ him. They went on demolishing until they reached the foundations of Ibrahim. Then they built upon these foundations until it was time to put the Black Stone back in its place. Then there arose ⁶⁴ violent disagreement about who will lift the Black Stone in its place, each tribe determined to have the honour of placing it in the building. Soon each tribe was preparing to fight for that privilege ⁶⁵.