The Last Days of Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ)

The Last Days of Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ)

Br. AbdelRahman Murphy

Opening

"[Peace, mercy, and blessings of Allah be upon you]"

"[All praise is due to Allah who has sent down the Book to His servant and has not placed in it any crookedness.]"

"[And all praise is due to Allah who has not begotten a son nor was He begotten, and there is none co-equal to Him.]"

"[Then all praise is due to Allah]"

Khutbat al-Hajah (Opening Khutbah)

"[When the victory of Allah has come and the conquest,]"

Main Khutbah

He went to the battlegrounds of Uhud. And he offered two raka'a. And he asked Allah at that spot for the forgiveness of his brothers and his companions and his sisters and anyone who had suffered or harmed or been lost that day. The next day he went to Jannat al-Baqi' the graveyard of the companions in Medina.

And he took his servants from his house, Muwahhiba. And he went and he sat there at the grave and he wept and he asked Allah to forgive his companions. And then on the way home the Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) suffered an extremely powerful headache.

The headache began his illness, his fever which eventually carried him until his return to Allah. The Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) on that way home he went to his wife's house, Maimuna (may Allah be pleased with her) and he asked her, he said, which house am I going to go to next because the Prophet (ﷺ) as an amazing husband as he was, he used to alternate nights at his wife's houses so that he would treat them justly and she picked up from that, that hint as he was suffering from this fever Maimuna (may Allah be pleased with her) picked up from that that he wanted to be at the house of his beloved wife Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) and so she told him to go to her house and he couldn't even walk on his own two feet he needed the help of Abbas and Ali (may Allah be pleased with them) to walk to his own house and they put him in her house in the apartment of Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) and his body was so hot (ﷺ) his body was so hot that he asked his companions and his family to put him in a tub filled

with cold water filled with water so that it would cool his temperature down finally when his temperature had cooled down after being soaking in this tub of water because his body was so burning up he went and he sat and he took a cloth and he tied it around his head really tight because you know when you get a headache and you just need to take away the pressure so he applied all this pressure to it so that the pain would subside a little bit and so he went to the member of the masjid much like this, he went to the pulpit and he sat in front of his companions much like you all are sitting today.

The Prophet's Final Questions to His Community

And he said, do I owe anyone anything? he said, do I owe anyone any money? and one person stood up and said Ya Rasulullah, you owe me three dirhams which is not a lot of money back then and the Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) he said, someone pay him back from the savings and he said, have I hit any of you? have I ever struck any of you on your back? he said, if I have then he lifted up his own shirt and he said come and take what is your right come and strike me on my back and no one got up which shows you what about the Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) that he was not an abuser he was not someone who used to hit he wasn't a ruler either of a community or of a household through physical strength and then he said have I ever offended anyone of you? have I ever hurt any of your feelings? have I ever made you feel insignificant? have I made you feel less than what you are? have I ever hurt any of you emotionally? and no one responded.

Because as Amr ibn Asr said he said that the Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) used to make us feel as if we were each his favorite person so whenever he encountered anyone of us we were convinced 100% that we were the Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ)'s favorite so much so that Sayyidina Amr he went to in front of all the companions he asked the Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) he said, Ya Rasulallah who is your most favorite person from the people? and the Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) in front of everyone because remember Amr is thinking that the Prophet is going to say you Amr you are my favorite because that is what he believed he honestly felt the Prophet loved him the most the Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) responded and said Aisha and all the companions were kind of like wow, you just got treated and he goes, No Rasulallah from the men obviously your wife is your favorite but from the men, who is your favorite? and he said, Abuha her father so the interesting point that we are taking away here is that the Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) had this ability this talent to be able to make everyone feel like they were his favorite no one felt as if the next person was more beloved to the Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) than him (اللَّهُمَّ صَلِّ عَلَى سَيِّدِنَا مُحَمَّدٍ) and so he never made anyone feel inferior ever.

The Prophet's Final Days

And then he left the pulpit and he went back to the house the apartment of his wife Aisha which was right next door and he laid back down and he was still suffering from his fever so much so that the temperature was so hot and the pain was so strong that he would go in and out of consciousness and one day they were waiting they were waiting for the Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) to lead prayer and he was getting ready for prayer and he began to get up to go and lead the jamaah for prayer and he fainted and when he came to the first question he asked his wife was had the believers prayed had the faithful brothers and sisters had they performed the salah and Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) said no ya

Rasulallah they are waiting for you and he tried to get up again and he fainted and that is when he appointed Sayyidina Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) to go and lead the prayer.

Abu Bakr's Love and Understanding

Now there is an interesting story about Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) and this shows us something about the love for the Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) which is today's khutbah topic and I know that we hear this khutbah a lot we hear about loving Allah, loving the Prophet but today we are going to talk about something really interesting we are talking about the Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ)'s last days we are talking about the last days that he spent his blessed body spent on this earth with us and the advices that he gave us if you only had one day left forget that if you only had one hour left what would your Facebook status update be? what would you tweet? what would you tell your loved ones? what advices would you give those people who look to you for advice if you only had a little bit of time left the Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) only had a small amount of time left and he knew this he knew that he was about to return to his Lord Allah and so he gave us a certain list of advices and today we are going to talk about these advices because these are the last pieces of advice that he left us with thus they have a high importance in our lives.

The Prophet Muhammad later that day was sitting on the pulpit again and he was giving the companions advices he was telling them, don't oppress people the people that work for you don't oppress them treat your women kindly do not be mean, do not be negligent of your women and then he stood and he said Allah has given one of his servants the choice between that which is on this earth and that which is near to Allah Allah has given one of his servants that a choice right between that, those riches and the fame and the wealth that is on this earth and that which is near to Allah and he said his servant has chose that which is near to Allah no one in the audience knew who this servant was except for one person and that was Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) he burst into tears, he started crying because he knew that the Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) was talking about himself he knew that that servant was a Rasul (ﷺ) he knew that the Prophet was saying my time is almost done my time on this earth, the end of it is near no one else knew that and Abu Bakr al-Siddiq (may Allah be pleased with him) started crying because his friend hadn't even left him yet but just the thought of the Prophet (ﷺ) leaving him caused him to cry.

The Love of the Companions

You know there is a famous story of the Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) he used to give khutbah on a tree stump that used to be his member and the companions felt as if the Rasul (ﷺ) should have something more honourable as a member, not just a tree stump and so one week they built him a proper like mahrab and a member that he used to give jum'ah from and he started giving the khutbah from them from that place and the companions said, this is in Sahih Bukhari the companions said, wallahi we heard the tree, it was crying the tree was crying because it missed the proximity of the Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) it just missed him and the Prophet (ﷺ) had to get off of the member and go and pat the tree and console it.

Imam al-Qutb says a very interesting statement about this story, he says that if a tree which is hard if you go outside and you feel the bark of a tree it's rough, it's tough, it's difficult if a tree had the emotion to cry because it missed the Prophet (ﷺ) then what is, he says what is the state of the heart of mankind that the Prophet (ﷺ) is not 14 feet but 1400 years away from us do we feel sad that we miss him do we sometimes, maybe we don't get moved to tears, not everyone has to sit and cry all the time, this isn't the way of the companions but, do we at least feel in our heart sadness that I wish I knew this man all these great stories of this amazing person I wish I was able to spend one time with him.

Example of the Companions' Love

One time they were going out to battle and the Prophet (ﷺ) was lining up the companions with a stick he's walking by them and he's tapping them with a stick and one of the companions when the Prophet (ﷺ) lined them up right, and he wasn't hitting them, he was just kind of like using a stick to line them you know when you take a ruler and you line people up so he was doing that, and he tapped one of the stomach of one of the companions and the companion like keeled over and was like Ya Rasool Allah, why did you hit me so hard and the companions were like dude, he didn't hit you that hard, he hit all of us the same way it didn't hurt that much, calm down and the companion was like, no he hit me, I want my revenge right, an eye for an eye you strike me, I get to strike you back and all the companions were like, chill dude, you're asking to hit the Prophet (ﷺ), like that's not cool and the Prophet goes, no no no, he's right if I struck him, then he has the right to strike me and all the companions were like what is going on right now right, they were shocked and the Prophet (ﷺ), no he has the right he said he has the right, so the Prophet lifted up his shirt and gave him the stick and said strike me, and the man took the stick and he wound up, and then he dropped the stick, and he hugged the waist of the Prophet (ﷺ), and he kissed his stomach, and he said Ya Rasool Allah we're about to go to battle I don't know if I'm ever going to see you again this is the kind of love they had for him, a lot of us might feel weirded out, this is true brotherly love this is the love that someone has for someone that they really cherish in their life the priority of this person in their life is so high, he said I don't know if I'm ever going to see you again Ya Rasool Allah and my love for you is so much that I wanted the last thing that I touched on this earth to be you.

The Prophet's Final Moments

And so the Prophet Muhammad(ﷺ) he's sitting in his apartment in the chest of his, in the chest in the lap of his wife, in between her neck and her chest is the hadith says and his head is burning up and so he tells everyone that this is the state that, this is what's going to happen, the companion has chosen, and only Abu Bakr gets it, and Abu Said Al Khudri he's narrating this and he says, none of us knew what he was talking about, but when Abu Bakr started crying, some of us started realizing that the Prophet (ﷺ) was talking about himself, and so we started crying and the Prophet (ﷺ) returned back to his house, and that was the last time he would ever leave his apartment, Aisha () and Aisha () was putting his head on her lap and she was stroking her fingers through his hair and she was rubbing his forehead look at the love look at the love between a husband and wife, this love is not just given, it's not just you know, it's not just for example just automatic, this love is the love of a couple that really spent time investing in each other and loving each other, that's why she's sitting there with his head on her lap because he spent his

entire life loving her so much that she didn't want him to leave some couples nowadays, when you say you know, your spouse might, you know, get hurt or pass away, there's no emotion of fear or shock or anger, it's just like, good right but Aisha was like, she couldn't bear the thought of her husband leaving her and so she wanted him, she's holding him close and she's rubbing her fingers through his hair to give him some semblance of relief in this very painful time.

And it was a Monday morning and the companions, they thought that the Prophet was going to join them again, none of them thought he was going to pass away except for a couple, few select companions because he opened his curtain and he looked he looked out at the companions as they were gathering for prayer and he smiled at them he smiled at them because he saw that these people that he spent years and years and years with training them and teaching them and loving them, they were assembling the prayer on their own, they were practicing this faith on their own, they were proving after all those practices it was game time and they were proving that all the practices had worked and they were doing well in the game, right all the jump shot drills, all the layup drills it was all working, it was all clicking, they were all about to pray together, the Prophet (ﷺ) had so much happiness at that time and that was the last time that a lot of the companions saw him.

Fatima's Visit

After that morning the Prophet (ﷺ) laid back down and he began to go in and out of consciousness again and his daughter Fatima came in, his daughter Fatima came in crying because she saw her father was in a very very feeble state, in a very weak painful state and she went up to him and she was crying and he called her over and said yeah Fatima and he brought her close and he whispered to her, he said don't cry don't worry because after today your father is not going to be suffering anymore and she realized what he was saying and she began to cry even more and then he brought her closer and he whispered in her ear something that made her laugh he said yeah Fatima he said how would you feel if I told you that you're going to be joining your father soon in Jannah, in Paradise and you're going to be the queen of all the women there and she began to laugh because the thought of being reunited with her father, remember to the companions and to the wives, he was a prophet but he was also one of them he was also one of them, they loved him for his prophecy but they also loved him for his character so when she starts laughing and when she starts saying that she's excited to be reunited with him it's not purely out of the fact that he's a prophet it's because she loves her dad she loves her father, so she begins to laugh and he gives her the good news that she'll be joining him soon and this prophecy came true, she died shortly after.

Final Preparations

And then his friends came in, Abu Bakr and Umar and they begin to start talking about, should we write things down that he's saying, and they begin to discuss and have an argument, and the prophet says, don't argue, I don't like seeing you argue, and then later that day everyone leaves and he's there with his wife Aisha and Aisha's brother Abdur Rahman bin Abu Bakr walks in, bin Abu Bakr, and he walks in and he has a siwak and the prophet, his eyes look at the siwak and he can't even speak now because he's so weak from the fever, he motions for the siwak, he says, I want the siwak and Aisha asks, can I please have

it and he says yes, and so she wets it with her own mouth, and she gives it to him and the prophet, (ﷺ), with surprising energy, starts cleaning his own teeth starts cleaning his own teeth, and then he finishes cleaning.

The Prophet's Final Words

And after a few moments he quotes an ayah in the Quran where Allah talks about people who will be in Jannah, and they will be joined with the prophets, and the shuhada and the salihin, and he says, what a great gathering of people this will be, and then he whispers three times under his breath (إِلَى الرَّفِيقِ الأَعْلَى إِلَى الرَّفِيقِ الأَعْلَى إِلَى الرَّفِيقِ الأَعْلَى - ila al-rafiq al'aelaa) to the most high companion to the most high companion and Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her), she narrates that she felt his arm become limp and she felt his head become heavy and those were the last breaths that the prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) took on this last day of his life.

The Prophet's Final Advices

Now the prophet (ﷺ) in these last days, he gave us some advices, and the story is very emotional, when you read it and you think about it, you begin to miss him but as we said in the beginning of the khutbah what are the last advices that he parted with us, because if you only had a day left to tell the people that you loved, something that you wanted to tell them, you would make sure it's the most important thing, you know you wouldn't call someone over and be like, I never liked your dinners right, like that's not something you would say you would call them closer and say be good to people, give them the parting advice of your death bed and this is what the prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) did till his last breath he was concerned about us, and so I think it serves him right, that we should be concerned about what he told us in the second khutbah inshallah, we're gonna discuss these advices and how to practically implement them in our lives inshallah.

Second Khutbah

Three Methods of Oppression to Avoid

Number two, have I ever emotionally harmed you? and number three, have I ever financially borrowed and not paid back? these are three methods of oppression that we must be very vigilant in our lives can't take them lightly can't take them lightly number one is physical, obviously we know we shouldn't hit people and financial, we know that we shouldn't remain in debt, it's not a good thing we should always clear our debts but the one that I want to highlight for us today is emotional abuse emotional pain some of us feel sometimes like making fun of people is a way of showing love and affection, but wallahi it's not Allah says in the Quran, in surat al-hujurat:

"O you who have believed, let not a people ridicule [another] people; perhaps they may be better than them"

And then he says the same thing says don't make fun of people, don't call each other bad nicknames if Allah is saying this in the Quran not to make fun of someone then don't you think that generally speaking people get hurt we think no, they're not they won't get affected, he knows that I love up until a point but

making fun of people is very very rough especially spouses a lot of us, if we're married some people they develop like weird nicknames for their spouses that are actually really offensive right? like fatso and stuff like that you know the prophet, he had a nickname for his wife it was Aish it was a cute little nickname for her to show his love her name was Aisha, he used to call her Aish just to show his love for her he didn't call her any mean nicknames he didn't call her any negative names that made her feel or she never called him any names that made him feel less of a husband or he never made her feel like less of a wife no, the nicknames were always positive always loving so we have to be very careful about emotional abuse especially within the family especially with our friends because it's interesting we always abuse the people that are closest to us it's very ajib it's very interesting the people who we don't know we're very cautious about not offending them someone that works at a restaurant someone that works at a store we're always like, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bump into you but you bump into your mother at home she's cooking and you bump into her and she burns herself you're like, oh, watch out why don't you say sorry? you bump into your dad as he's carrying something in and you're like, dad, move, I'm trying to go I have to go update my Facebook status again but when we bump into someone at the store oh, I'm so sorry, can I buy something? did I offend you? we have to treat the people closest to us the best that doesn't mean that we treat other people badly no, but it's very strange to treat those who are closest to you with lack of respect we need to make sure we don't emotionally abuse people this is one of the advices of the Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ).

Warning Against Love of Worldly Things

One other thing that was very interesting that he said Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) is when he knew that he was going to pass away he said to the believers he said, I fear not for all of you returning back to polytheism he says, I'm not scared that you all are going to commit shirk that's not my fear he was talking to the Muslims he said, I know you guys came from that I know you guys came from shirk and kufr, I understand but you know what, I'm not scared about that but he said, you know what I am scared of? I'm scared that you're going to fight over money I'm scared that money is going to become your number one goal you know that phrase, they say money over everything Allah is Al-A'la, there is no money over everything Allah is over everything (جَلٌ وَلَا - Jalla wa 'Ala) he says, I'm scared that you're going to fight over money and the commentators of hadith, they say that not just money, but what comes with money power, fame, status so they say, you're not only going to fight over money, but you'll fight over popularity, you'll fight over status even in Muslim organizations and families even people want to be the top you can't say dog, but the top cat, right? they want to be like the top one the best person, he says, this is what I fear for you, that your heart will become disillusioned by all of these dunya objects that you're not going to go back to shirk and kufr like directly, you're not going to say that I leave Allah, may Allah protect us but what you will do is you'll say, I'd rather get that cash, I'd rather get that cream over worshipping or praying maghrib that's what he was scared about, that's what he was concerned about, so this advice is very telling, because if we look honestly and reflect, even on ourselves, we have to be very vigilant and careful over this sickness.

The Importance of Learning About the Prophet

Another point that I'd like to make, inshallah another point that I'd like to make and one more that we're going to finish up is the fact that Abu Bakr as-Siddiq (may Allah be pleased with him) and the fact that the tree even began to cry for the Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ). began to weep shed tears because they missed him and he was still there, we said this before, he's not even here with us do we feel sadness, you know a lot of people they come and they'll say, I've read about having dreams about the Prophet (ﷺ). may Allah show us him in our dreams inshallah, ameen I've read about having dreams about him I've read about following his sunnah, I've read about following the companions that are closest to him, and I want to do all these things, but you know what always supersedes all of that if you want to see the Prophet, if you want to love the Prophet (ﷺ). you have to learn about him how can you see the Prophet (ﷺ). in one of your dreams if you don't know what he looks like right, how can you be like him if you don't know how he was how can you love him if you don't know how he was lovable, you fall in love with the Prophet (ﷺ). because you know how he treated people that people would abuse him and he would respond with a smile people would come up to him and neglect him and he would respond by taking care of them, you fall in love with a character like that, you fall in love with someone like that and the Prophet (ﷺ). was Allah says in surah Qalam he says you are on top of good character so when you study and learn about the Prophet you have no choice your heart surrenders so I just Ya Rasulullah I love you so in order to love him and have that same reaction that Abu Bakr had, or have the same reaction that even a tree had we have to learn about the beloved Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ). we have to study him we have to learn about him and I know that you guys have classes here with Shaykh Jamal and other great scholars, Shaykh Muslim great people, take benefit insha'Allah and study from them.

The Quality of the Prophet's Ending

The last but not least is if you examine something that's very interesting you'll find a great advice for each and every one of us and all these advice I'm giving are not for you, I'm not like standing up here, no, it's for everyone insha'Allah and that is look at the situation that the Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ). passed away in, who was he surrounded by? He was surrounded by his wife, his daughter came in, sad, his friends were upset and distraught when he passed away Abu Bakr Siddiq walked in and said, Be Abi wa Ummi Ya Rasulullah said may my mother and father be given for your sake and then he kissed his forehead of his friend of his brother how many of us can say today with confidence that if we passed away all of our family and friends and everyone would be sad, you know Abu Bilal, the MuazzinBilal you know he couldn't even call the Adhan anymore because whenever he said ashadu anna Muhammad Rasulullah, he used to break down in tears do our friends have that kind of love for us you know he was being held in the lap, in the chest of his wife Aisha how many of us can say without a doubt certainly that our wife would spend days holding us if we were passing away but this didn't just come overnight the way that the Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) treated these people in his life, led to the situation that he was found in when he passed away, he treated his wife well, he treated his friends well he made them feel loved, so that way when he came at the end of his life who was he surrounded by, the people that he made feel loved.

Ibn Ataullah, a very famous scholar says that good endings are signs of good beginnings, that if someone has a good ending, that's a sign that they were good in the beginning, and so you see the Prophet (ﷺ)'s ending was the best of endings surrounded by family, going to meet Allah that shows you how good his whole life was, and we ask Allah to make us, enable us to copy his life and the lives of those who copy him until the end of time.

Closing Dua

We ask Allah to give us all a husnul khatima a good ending, and we ask Allah to make us all amongst those who will be joined with the Prophet (ﷺ) and will enter Jannah with no hisab.

We ask Allah to make us from those who remember death, not in a way that paralyzes us, nor in a way that frustrates us, but in a way that motivates us towards Allah.

We ask Allah to make this khutbah a reminder for all of us, including the speaker, and we ask Allah to grant us success in applying what was said and heard.

Our Lord, give us good in this world and good in the Hereafter and protect us from the punishment of the Fire.

Indeed, Allah orders justice and good conduct and giving to relatives and forbids immorality and bad conduct and oppression. He admonishes you that perhaps you will be reminded.

Remember Allah, the Great, He will remember you. And be grateful to Him for His favors, He will increase you. And the remembrance of Allah is greater. And Allah knows that which you do.

السَّلَامُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَرَحْمَةُ اللهِ وَبَرَكَاتُهُ