The Last Look

The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was now extremely tired because of his illness, and he was not going out to the ṣalāh. But on the Monday, when the Companions were in ṣalāh, being led by Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq, the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) lifted the curtain between him and the masjid. Anas ibn Mālik narrates — and this is in al-Bukhārī (680): ḥattā idhā kāna yawmu al-ithnayni wa hum ṣufūfun fī al-ṣalāh — when it was Monday, and they were lined up in ṣalāh, fa-kashafa al-nabiyyu sitra al-ḥujrah — the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) lifted the curtain — yanẓuru ilaynā wa huwa qāʾimun, kaʾanna wajhahu waraqatu muṣḥaf — he looked at us, and he was standing; and Anas ibn Mālik says: as if his face were a page of a book of the Qur'an — meaning clear, and clean, and beautiful — as if his face were a piece of the moon. And then Anas ibn Mālik said: thumma tabassama yaḍḥak — and then the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) smiled, laughing. Fa-hamamnā an naftatina min al-faraḥi bi-ruʾyati al-nabiyy — it was almost going to be a fitnah for us, because of our happiness at seeing the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him). What he meant by fitnah was that we were going to break off the ṣalāh: because we were in ṣalāh, and we saw that, and it was so beautiful and such a joy for us, we almost lost our ṣalāh.

And Abū Bakr was stepping back so that the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) could lead the ṣalāh; but the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) had Abū Bakr pray in his place. However, the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) did come out at a certain time, and he would sit, while Abū Bakr would be standing. And some narrations say that it was actually Abū Bakr leading the ṣalāh; but others say that it was the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) leading Abū Bakr, and Abū Bakr standing and leading the rest.

Back to this narration of Anas ibn Mālik. He said that when the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) saw them, he was smiling with joy. Why? And by the way, this is the last scene the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) saw of his ummah: the last thing the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) saw of his ummah was them in ṣalāh — in Ṣalāt al-Jamāʿah. When you are praying to Allah (ʿazza wa jall) — and for the brothers on whom Ṣalāt al-Jamāʿah is wājib — when you are in Ṣalāt al-Jamāʿah, this is the sight that pleases the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him). When the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) lifted that curtain, he saw the result; he saw the fruit of his effort and his daʿwah: the Muslims lined up in ṣalāh — the most important deed in Islam after ashhadu an lā ilāha illā Allāh wa ashhadu anna Muḥammadan rasūlu Allāh. And the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) smiled with happiness.

Because the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) had now been seen standing up, they assumed that the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) had got better. So Abū Bakr sought permission to go to al-Sunḥ, where his other wife was, a little way outside Madīnah — because he had been tied up in Madīnah by the illness of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him); but now he thought that the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was better, so he left.

And al-ʿAbbās met ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib after he came out of the house of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) — and this is in al-Bukhārī (4447). He met ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib and said to him: yā Abā al-Ḥasan, kayfa aṣbaḥa Rasūlu Allāh? — how is the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) this morning? So ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib said: aṣbaḥa bi-ḥamdi Allāhi bāriʾā — by the praise of Allah, he is much better. Al-ʿAbbās took ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib by the hand and told him: anta wa-llāhi baʿda thalāthin ʿabdu al-ʿaṣā — three days from now you will be a slave ruled by the stick. What did al-ʿAbbās mean by this — you will be a slave ruled by the stick? Meaning: you will be a person without any authority; you will be a follower without any authority. And this is the firāsah of al-ʿAbbās ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib; firāsah is intuition. Al-ʿAbbās said: innī wa-llāhi la-aʿrifu al-mawta fī wujūhi banī ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib — I can read death in the faces of the sons of ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, and I can see death in the face of the Messenger of Allah.

Everybody was thinking that the Messenger of Allah was better. Al-ʿAbbās said: no; I recognise death in my family; I can see it in their faces; and I can actually see it now in the face of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), and I think that the Messenger of Allah will die quite soon. Al-ʿAbbās did not know the unseen — death is something that only Allah knows — but al-ʿAbbās had this intuition by which he could recognise when the sons of ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib were approaching death. So he said to ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib: go and ask the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) whether we are to have authority over the ummah after him. ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib refused, and he said: I will not ask him that, because if he refuses it, then the ummah will not give it to us until the end of time. And ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib refused to go and talk to the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) about it.