THE PROPHET'S (PEACE BE UPON HIM) HAJ SERMON HIS FAREWELL MESSAGE TO MUSLIMS A UNIQUE DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS THE ASCENT OF ARAFAT TODAY MARKS THE CLIMAX OF THE HAJ AND THE ULTIMATE IN A MUSLIM'S LIFE. WHAT BETTER MESSAGE A MUSLIM CAN OFFER TO HIS/HER BROTHER/SISTER ON THIS AUSPICIOUS OCCASION THAN THE ONE PROPHET MUHAMMAD (PEACE BE UPON HIM) DELIVERED TO THE GATHERING AT ARAFAT MORE THAN 14 CENTURIES AGO. On the eighth day of Dhul Hijja, the Day of Tarwiyah, the Prophet (peace be upon him) went to Mina and spent the day and night there. There he performed all the prayers incumbent during the period. The following day he performed his Fajr prayers and at sunrise proceeded on his camel Al-Qaswa to Arafat followed by all the pilgrims. As he ascended the mountain he was surrounded by thousands of his companions reciting talbiyah and takbir. The Prophet (peace be upon him) naturally heard their recitation but made no attempt either to stop them or to encourage them. He commanded some of his companions to put up a tent for him on the east side of the Mount of Mercy at a spot called Namirah. When the sun passed the zenith he ordered his camel to be saddled and rode on it until he reached the Valley of Uranah. There he, while sitting on his camel, delivered his sermon in a load voice to his people. Rabi'ah Bin Umayyah Bin Khalaf repeated the sermon after him word by word. "All praise be to Allah. We glorify Him and seek His help and pardon; and we turn to Him. We take refuge with Allah from the evils of ourselves and from the evil consequences of our deeds. There is none to lead him astray whom Allah guides aright, and there is none to guide him aright whom He leads astray. I bear witness that there is no god but Allah; having to partner with Him, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His bondsman and His messenger. I admonish you, O bondsman of Allah! To fear Allah and I urge you to His obedience and I open the speech with that which is good. "Ye people! Listen to my words: I will deliver a message to you, for I know not whether, after this year, I shall ever be among you here again. O people! Verily, your blood, your property and your honor are sacred and inviolable until you appear before your Lord, as this day and this month is sacred for all. Verily, you will meet your Lord and you will be held answerable for your actions. Have I not conveyed the message? O Allah! Be my witness. "He who has any trust with him should restore it to the person who deposited it with him. Beware, no one committing a crime is responsible for it but himself. Neither the son is responsible for the crime of his father, nor the father is responsible for the crime of his son. "O people! Listen to my words and understand them. You must know that a Muslim is the brother of the Muslim and they form one brotherhood. Nothing of his brother is lawful for a Muslim except what he himself allows willingly. So you should not oppress one another. O Allah! Have I not conveyed the message? "Behold! All practices of paganism and ignorance are now under my feet. The blood revenges of the days of ignorance are remitted. The first claim on blood I abolish is that of Ibn Rabi'ah Ibn Hearth who was nursed in the tribe of Sa'd and whom the Hudhayl killed. "Usury (interest) is forbidden, but you will be entitled to recover your principal. Do not wrong and you shall not be wronged. Allah has decreed that there should be no usury and I make a beginning by remitting the amount of interest which Abbas Ibn Abd Al-Muttalib has to receive. Verily, it is remitted entirely. "O people! Fear Allah concerning women. Verily, you have taken them on the security of Allah and have made their persons lawful unto you by words of Allah! Verily you have got certain rights over your women and your women have certain rights over you. It is incumbent upon them to honor their conjugal rights and, not to commit acts of impropriety which, if they do, you have authority to chastise them, yet not severely. If your wives refrain from impropriety and are faithful to you, clothe and feed them suitably. "Behold! Lay injunctions upon women but kindly. "O people! Listen and obey though an Abyssinian slave is your amir if he executes (the ordinance of) the Book of Allah among you. "O people! Verily, Allah has ordained to every man the share of his inheritance. The child belongs to the marriage-bed and the violator of wedlock shall be stoned. He who attributes his ancestry to other than his father or claims his clientship to other than his masters, the curse of Allah, that of the angles, and of the people be upon him. Allah will accept from him neither repentance nor righteousness. " O people! Verily, the Satan is disappointed at never being worshiped in this and of yours, but if he can be obeyed in anything short of worship he will be pleased in matters you may be disposed to think is of little account, so beware of him in your matters of religion. "Verily, I have left among you the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of His Apostle which if you hold fast, you shall never go astray. And if you were asked about me, what would you say?" They replied: "We bear witness that you have conveyed the message, and discharged your ministry." The Prophet addressed the assembly again the next day (Dhul Hijja 10) and besides repeating some of the important points if the previous address, he threw a good deal of light on some new questions. As usual, he opened his oration with praising Allah and expressing his gratitude to Him. "O people! Verily, the intercalation (of a prohibited month) aggravates infidelity. Thereby the unbelievers are led to wrong. For they make it lawful one year and forbid it in another year to be in conformity with the number (of months) which Allah declared unlawful so they consider violable that which Allah declared to be inviolable and they consider inviolable what Allah declared to be violable. "Verily, the time has revolved in its own way from the day when the heavens and the Earth were created. The number of months to Allah is twelve of which four are sacred; three are consecutive: Dhul Qa'dah, Dhul Hijja, Muharram, and Rajab which is between Jumadah Thani and Sha'ban. "O people! Do you know what day it is, what territory it is, what month it is? To this the people answered: "The day is the day of sacrifice; and the territory is the sacred territory, the month is the sacred month." At each reply the Prophet said: "So I apprise you that your lives, your property and your honor must be as sacred to one another as this sacred day, in this sacred month, in this sacred town. "And your slaves! See that you feed them with such food as you eat yourselves; and clothe them with the cloth that your yourselves wear. And if they commit a fault which you are not inclined to forgive, then part with them for they are the servants of Allah and are not be chastised. "Behold! Listen to me. Worship your Lord: Offer prayers five times a day; observe fast in the month Ramadan; make pilgrimage to the House (Ka'aba); pay readily the Zakah on your property and obey whatever I command you, only then you will get into the heaven. "Let him that is present convey it unto him who is absent. For happily, many people to whom the msessage is conveyed may be more mindful of it than the audience." The Prophet took upon the thread of his oration the next day and added: "O people! Verily, your Lord is one and your father is one. All of you belong to one ancestry of Adam and Adam was created out of clay. There is no superiority for an Arab over a non-Arab and for a non-Arab over an Arab; nor for white over the black nor for the black over the white except in piety. Verily, the noblest among you is he who is the most pious. (49:13) "Behold, the nearer ones of you should convey the message to the remoter ones. I have conveyed the message." Then looking up to the heaven, he said: "O Lord! I have delivered the message and discharged my ministry." "Yes," cried all the people crowding round him, "Yes, verily, you have." "O Lord! I beseech Thee bear Thou witness unto it." And with these words, the Prophet concluded his address He alighted from his camel and performed the Dhuhar (noon) and Asr (afternoon) prayers together. It was at this time that the verse regarding the completion of religion was revealed to him: "Today, I have completed for you your religion, and granted you the last of My blessing. Today, I have accepted for you Islam as the religion." The Prophet immediately recited this verse to all those who were present. When Abubakr (May Allah be pleased with him) heard this verse he realized that with the completion of the Divine message, the Prophet's (peace be upon him) life was soon to come to a close. The Prophet (peace be upon him) left Arafat and spent his night at Muzdalifah. In the morning, he visited first the sanctuary of Al-Mash'ar and then Mina on the road to which he threw pebbles against the symbol of Satan. When he reached his tent he sacrificed 63 camels; one for each year of his life. Ali (May Allah be pleased with him) sacrificed the rest of the animals which the Prophet (peace be upon him) had brought with him from Madina. The Prophet (peace be upon him) then shaved his head and declared his Haj completed. -----------------------------End------------------------------------- Brothers/Sisters, Assalamualaikum wa rahamathullahi wa barakataho. Eid Mubarak to you all. 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