"We Felt Our Hearts Had Changed"

And there was fitnah after the death of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him): many of the tribes became murtadd. Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq says: wa lammā tuwuffiya Rasūlu Allāhi irtaddat al-ʿArab, wa-shraʾabbat al-yahūdiyyatu wa al-naṣrāniyyah, wa najama al-nifāq, wa ṣāra al-muslimūna ka-al-ghanami al-maṭīrati fī al-layli al-shātī li-faqdi nabiyyihim, ḥattā jamaʿahumu Allāhu ʿalā Abī Bakrin al-Ṣiddīq. The Arabs became apostates; and the Jews and the Christians began to raise their heads again; and hypocrisy became widespread; and the Muslims were like sheep caught in the rain on a cold winter night, after the loss of their Prophet (peace be upon him) — until they were brought together again under Abū Bakr.

And Anas ibn Mālik (may Allah be pleased with him) says: I witnessed two days in my life; one of them was the best day, and one of them was the worst day. The best day was the day the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) came to Madīnah, and that was a day when everything was bright; and the worst day was the day the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) passed away, and that was a dark day. And Anas ibn Mālik (may Allah be pleased with him) says: wa mā nafaḍnā ʿan Rasūli Allāhi al-aydī ḥattā ankarnā qulūbanā — by the time we were dusting off our hands after the burial of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), we already felt that our hearts were different (al-Tirmidhī 3618). The hearts were different because of the death of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him).

One day Abū Bakr and ʿUmar decided to visit Umm Ayman, and she started to cry. And they said to her: why are you crying? She said: I am crying because there is no more revelation (Muslim 2454). So it was not only the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) they were missing; they were also missing the revelation that used to come from the heavens. Imagine living at a time when the Qur'an was being revealed — āyāt that you would hear for the first time in your life.

What did the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) leave behind? The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) did not leave behind any inheritance. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) lived for his ummah; he lived serving Allah (swt); and the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) passed away from this dunyā clean. He left behind only a white mule, and his weapons, and a piece of land that he left for travellers as ṣadaqah (al-Bukhārī 2739). That was all the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) had: his arms, which he would use to fight, and that was it. No property, no land, no wealth, no gold, no silver: a mule, and arms.

Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq says that the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) passed away on the twelfth of Rabīʿ al-Awwal, the same day on which he had made hijrah to Madīnah ten years before; so the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) lived exactly ten years in Madīnah. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) died at the age of sixty-three; Abū Bakr died at the age of sixty-three; and ʿUmar died at the age of sixty-three: they followed in the footsteps of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) even in his death.