The Last Counsels From the Minbar

One day the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) wanted to go to the masjid: laʿallī aʿhadu ilā al-nās — he wanted to give a covenant to the people. So he said: gather for me seven buckets of water from seven different wells, and pour them over me, so that I can go out to the people (al-Bukhārī 198). So they brought him this water, and they were pouring this cold water over the body of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) to cool it down, because of the temperature, and to give the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) the ability to go out to the masjid. And then the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was carried to the masjid, and his head was bound because of his headache; and he had to lean — he could not walk — so he had to lean on one of the sons of al-ʿAbbās, and on ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, to be taken to the masjid; and his feet were dragging on the ground, because he could not lift them up. And he went to the masjid, and he gave a naṣīḥah.

After praising Allah (ʿazza wa jall), the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) mentioned the shuhadāʾ of Uḥud and asked Allah to forgive them. Notice here: the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) went to al-Baqīʿ to ask Allah to forgive the Muslims who had died and lay in al-Baqīʿ; and now the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was asking forgiveness for the shuhadāʾ of Uḥud. This shows the loyalty the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) had to his Companions, the love he had for them, and the remembrance he had of them.

The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was concerned about his ummah. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) lived for us; he lived for you and me; he gave his life for you and me. He struggled; he went through difficulties; he suffered poverty; he suffered pain; he had to fight; he had to go through trials and tribulations, so that the religion could reach you and me. We owe the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) a great deal.

After mentioning the people of Uḥud, the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) then gave naṣīḥah to the Muhājirūn. He told them: yā maʿshara al-Muhājirīn, innakum qad aṣbaḥtum tazīdūna wa al-Anṣāru ʿalā hayʾatihā lā tazīd — O people of the Muhājirūn — the Muhājirūn are the ones who made hijrah — you are increasing in number, while the Anṣār are not increasing. That is because the population of the Anṣār stayed the same, while the Muhājirūn were increasing, because the hijrah was now not only from Quraysh but from all over Arabia. So the Muhājirūn were now the majority of the population of Madīnah — when in the beginning the Muhājirūn had been very few in number, and the majority of the people of Madīnah were the locals, the people of the Anṣār. So the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was telling the Muhājirūn that their numbers were growing, while the Anṣār were not increasing.

And then he said: wa innahum ʿaybatī allatī awaytu ilayhā, fa-akrimū karīmahum wa tajāwazū ʿan musīʾihim — they are the ones who supported me in the beginning; so honour the honourable among them, and pardon those among them who make mistakes (al-Bukhārī 3799). The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) did not want to die and have the Anṣār suffer, because now they were a minority in Madīnah. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was reminding the Muhājirūn to take care of them: the good among them, treat them very well; and those among them who make mistakes, forgive them.

And then the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: ayyuhā al-nās, inna ʿabdan min ʿibādi Allāhi qad khayyarahu Allāhu bayna al-dunyā wa bayna mā ʿinda Allāh — there is a servant from among the servants of Allah whom Allah has given the choice between this world and what is with Allah (al-Bukhārī 3654). That is all the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said; he did not indicate who this servant of Allah was. But Abū Bakr understood the meaning, and he started to cry: he understood that the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was speaking about himself. Because the prophets of Allah are given the choice before they die. It is not as with everybody else, to whom the angel of death just comes unannounced: the angel of death comes to the prophets and seeks their permission to take their souls. So the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was saying that there was a servant of Allah who had been given the choice of the dunyā or the Ākhirah. So Abū Bakr cried, and he said to the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him): bal naḥnu nafdīka bi-anfusinā wa abnāʾinā — rather, we will sacrifice ourselves and our children for you.

The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) told him: ʿalā rislik — the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) stopped Abū Bakr, and then told him — he told everyone. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: the person most faithful to me in his friendship and his wealth is Abū Bakr. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), now, towards the end of his life, was recognising Abū Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) in front of everyone, and letting the people know the status of Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq (may Allah be pleased with him). The person most faithful to me in his friendship and his wealth is Abū Bakr. If I were to take anyone other than Allah as a beloved one, a khalīl, I would take Abū Bakr; however, what I have with him is the companionship of Islam and his love. Every door in the mosque should be shut except that of Abū Bakr. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said khalīl here: khalīl is a higher level than friend; it is something that fills your heart with love. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: if I were going to choose a khalīl from this world, it would be Abū Bakr; but I am the khalīl of Allah; and Abū Bakr is my brother and friend; Abū Bakr is the one with whom I share love.

The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) gave some final advice to the ummah. In one hadith the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: laʿana Allāhu al-yahūda wa al-naṣārā, ittakhadhū qubūra anbiyāʾihim masājid — may Allah curse the Jews and the Christians, for they took the graves of their prophets as places of worship (al-Bukhārī 435); they turned the graves of the prophets into masājid. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: lā yabqā fī jazīrati al-ʿArabi dīnān — no two religions shall remain together in the Arabian Peninsula. This is a kufr-free zone: the Arabian Peninsula should be purely Islamic; no other religion should coexist with Islam in the Arabian Peninsula. And this is one of the final words of advice of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him).

The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) also said: ūṣīkum bi-al-ṣalāh — the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was giving them the advice of the ṣalāh. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) also advised us to take care of the slaves; the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) repeated this advice, to take care of the slaves. And the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) also said: ittaqū Allāha fī al-nisāʾ — fear Allah regarding the women. So the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was giving the ummah the advice not to take advantage of the weak among the ummah. And the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: mā taraka qawmun al-jihāda illā dhallū — whenever a people leave jihād, they will be humiliated. And the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) also ordered that the army of Usāmah be sent out — because the army of Usāmah was now camped outside Madīnah until all of the fighters were ready, and then they would set out. So the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was saying: anfidhū baʿtha Usāmah — send out the army of Usāmah.