on His Final Pilgrimage
to Ka'aba
The farewell Pilgrimage
of the Holy Prophet may rightly
be called the culminating point in his Prophetic career. It was the sixty-third
year of the Prophet’s life which coincided with the close of the 10th of
Hijra that he decided to perform Hajj, which in history, goes by the name
of Hajja-tul-Wada. The Prophet’s mission, had, by this time, been completed
to all intents and purposes. To a people steeped in ignorance, he gave
light and inspired them with belief in Allah, the sole Creator, Master
and Sustainer of the Universe. To a disunited mass, engaged in perpetual
warfare, he gave unity of thought and action. He had revealed the love
of God and His will to mankind and had given it a visible expression by
founding a society on the basis of righteousness, piety and God-consciousness,
the like of which is not to be found in the whole history of mankind. In
short, Syedna Muhammad had delivered
to human race the final Truth with all its necessary implications.
The completion of His
prophetic mission implied His departure from this earthly home to the heavenly
abode. The Holy Prophet had clearly
visualised it. He, therefore, decided to give the finishing touch to his
massive work and imprint its salient points on the minds of his devoted
followers so that they might always keep before them the system of life-values
enunciated by Islam. It was with this object in view that messages were
sent to all parts of Arabia inviting people to join him in this great Pilgrimage.
Five days before Dhu-al-hijjah,
the Holy Prophet put on Ahram,
the pilgrim’s garb, and set out to Makkah with more than 114,000 Muslims.
All his wives accompanied him. As he rode, he recited "Labbaik! Allahumma
Labbaik! Labbaika Laa shareeka Lak, Inna lHamda wan na'imata lakaa wal
mulk, laa shareeka lak" signifying, "Here I am at Thy service, here I am,
O’ Lord, here I am to declare that there is no partner with Thee. All praise
and blessings belong to Thee and all sovereignity is Thine. I am here at
Thy service, and Thou hast no partner, O’ Allah." As the Holy Prophet recited
the above call, all his Companions repeated the same loudly.
The Holy Prophet
reached Makkah on the 5th of Dhu-al-Hijjah. He made seven circuits (tawaf)
of the Ka’bah, offered two rak’ats of prayer at ‘Maqam-e-Ibrahim’ and climbing
the Mount of Safa declared, "There is no god but Allah, He has no partner,
all sovereignty and praise belong to Him. He gives life and brings death.
He is All-Powerful and Supreme over everything."
On the 8th of Dhu-al-Hijjah,
the Prophet left with his Companions
for Mina and spent the night there, and on the 9th, after the Fajr, morning
prayer, He proceeded to Plains of Arafat where he delivered the famous
sermon which we have the honour to present below.
The sermon of the Holy
Prophet is not only remarkable
for its eloquence, but it contains a sublime message for the whole of the
human race. It was a declaration of Human Rights and moral values, a charter
of Women Rights. The world has not been able to lay down better principles
of ethics and morality than those enunciated in it. Every word of it breathes
a spirit of magnanimity and aims at establishing righteousness and fair
dealing among men on a workable basis. It establishes brotherhood among
Muslims irrespective of the divergence of their geographical, racial and
colour backgrounds and provides an outline of a social order, perfectly
free from oppression and injustice. It was the declaration of Finality
of Syedna Muhammad's Prophethood, the religion was being perfected by this
Final Message from The Creator to his creatures for all times to come.
"All praise is due
to Allah, so we praise Him, and seek His pardon and we
turn to Him. We seek
refuge with Allah from the evils of ourselves and
from the evil consequences
of our deeds. Whom Allah guides aright there is
none to lead him astray;
and there is none to guide him aright whom Allah
leads astray. I bear
witness that there is no God but Allah, the One,
having no partner
with Him. His is the sovereignty and to Him is due all
praise. He grants
life and causes death and is Powerful over everything.
There is no God but
Allah, the One; He fulfilled His promise and granted
victory to His bondsman,
and He alone routed the confederates (of the
enemies of Islam).
O’ People! Listen to
my words, for I do not know whether we shall ever
meet again and perform
Hajj after this year. O’ Ye people! Allah says, O’
people We created
you from one male and one female and made you into
tribes and nations,
so as to be known to one another. Verily in the sight
of Allah, the most
honoured amongst you is the one who is most
God-fearing. There
is no superiority for an Arab over a non-Arab and for a
non-Arab over an Arab,
nor for the white over the black nor for the black
over the white except
in God-conciousness.
All mankind is the
progeny of Adam and Adam was fashioned out of clay.
Behold; every claim
of privilage whether that of blood or property, is
under my heels except
that of the custody of the Ka’bah and supplying of
water to the pilgrims,
O’ people of Quraish, don’t appear (on the Day of
Judgement) with the
burden of this world around your necks, whereas other
people may appear
(before the Lord) with the rewards of the hereafter. In
that case I shall
avail you naught against Allah.
Behold! All practice
of the days of 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 Rabiah bin Harith who was nursed in the
tribe of Sa’ad and
whom the Hudhayls killed. All interest and usurious
dues accruing from
the times of ignorance stand wiped out. And the first
amount of interest
that I remit is that which Abbas ibn Abd-al Muttalib
had to receive. Verily
it is remitted entirely.
O’ people! Verily yor
blood, your property and your honour are sacred and
inviolable until you
appear before your Lord, as the sacred inviolability
of this day of yours,
this month of yours and this very town (of yours).
Verily you will soon
meet your Lord and you will be held answerable for
your actions.
O’ people! Verily you
have got certain rights over your women and your
women have certain
rights over you. It is your right upon them to honour
their conjugal rights,
and not to commit acts of impropriety, which if
they do, you are authorised
by Allah to separate them from your beds amd
chastise them, but
not severely, and if they refrain, then clothe and feed
them properly.
Behold! It is not permissible
for a woman to give anything from the wealth
of her husband to
anyone but with his consent.
Treat the women kindly,
since they are your helpers and not in a position
to manage their affairs
themselves. Fear Allah concerning women, for
verily you have taken
them on the security of Allah and have made their
persons lawful unto
you by words of Allah.
O’ people! Allah, the
Mighty and Exalted, has ordained to every one his
due share (of inheritance).
Hence there is no need (of special) testament
for an heir (departing
from the rules laid down by the Shari’ah).
The child belongs to
the marriage-bed and the violator of wedlock shall be
stoned. And Reckoning
of their (deeds) rests with Allah.
He who attributes his
ancestry to other than his father or claims his
clientship to other
than his master, the curse of Allah is upon him.
All depts must be repaid,
all borrowed property must be returned, gifts
should be reciprocated
and a surety must make good the loss to the assured.
Beware! No one committing
a crime is responsible for it but himself.
Neither the child
is responsible for the crime of his father, nor the
father is responsible
for the crime of his child.
Nothing of his brother
is lawful for a Muslim except what he himself gives
willingly. So do not
wrong yourselves.
O’ People! Every Muslim
is the brother of every other Muslim, and all the
Muslims form one brotherhood.
And your slaves; see that you feed them with
such food as you eat
yourselves, and clothe them with the clothes that you
yourselves wear.
Take heed not to go
astray after me and strike one another’s necks. He who
(amongst you) has
any trust with him, he must return it to its owner.
O’ people! Listen and
obey, though a mangled Abyssinian slave is appointed
your Amir, provided
he executes (the Ordinance of) the Book of Allah among
you.
O’ people! No Prophet
would be raised after me and no new Ummah (would be
formed) after you.
Verily I have left
amongst you that which will never lead you astray, the
Book of Allah, which
if you hold fast you shall never go astray.
And beware of transgressing
the limits set in the matters of religion, for
it is transgression
of (the proper bounds of) religion that brought
destruction to many
people before you.
Verily, the satan is
disappointed at ever being worshipped in this land of
yours, but he will
be pleased by obedience in anything (short of worship
that is) in matters
you may be disposed to think insignificant, so beware
of him in your matters
of religion.
Behold! Worship your
Lord; offer prayers five times a day; observe fast in
the month of Ramadhaan;
pay readily the Zakat (poor due) on your property;
and perform pilgrimage
to the House of God and obey your rulers and you
will be admitted to
the Paradise of your Lord.
Let him that is present,
convey it unto him who is absent, for many people
to whom the message
is conveyed may be more mindful of it than the
audience.
And if you were asked about me, what would you say?"
They answered, "We
bear witness that you have conveyed the trust (of
religion) and discharged
your ministry of Prophethood and looked to our
welfare."
Thereupon Allah’s Messenger
(may peace be upon him) lifted his forefinger
towards the sky and
then pointing towards people said:
"O’ Lord: Bear Thou witness unto it.
O’ Lord: Bear Thou
witness unto it."
(Khutbat-ul-Hajjatul
Wida, Seerat Ibne Hesham)
Source: http://www.inter-islam.org/condex.htm