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.
Please
read above message, it is a perfect gift of a lifetime, give it to
your near
and dear ones. Jaza'ak Allah Khair.
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