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.

Anyone wanting further copies, please contact:
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