Death of the Prophet ﷺ

Oh, my head! Oh, my head!

Said while lying beside the Prophet ﷺ during his illness, complaining of her own headache.

Ya Rasulullah, how I wish I could take your fever upon myself.

Said as the Prophet ﷺ lay in his final illness in the house of Aisha RA, before the wives knew he was dying.

Allah gave one of His servants the choice between this world and what is with Him, and that servant chose what is with Allah.

Said from the minbar in his final illness, as his head was bound with a cloth.

If there is anybody who has any right that I have not fulfilled, or any debt that I have not paid, come now and ask me before the Day of Judgment. If I have hit anybody unjustly in my whole life, then here is my back; come and hit me now before the Day of Judgment.

May Allah's curse be upon the Jews and Christians, because they took the graves of their prophets as places of worship.

Said in his final illness, as he covered his face with his cloak and then uncovered it when short of breath; Aisha RA said he was warning his followers against doing the same with his own grave.

Let all of the doors of the Masjid that go in from the private houses be closed, except for the door of Abu Bakr.

A decree given from the minbar; understood as an honor singling out Abu Bakr RA above the other sahaba.

I urge you to take care of the Ansar, for they are my close companions to whom I confided my secrets. They have fulfilled what was due upon them, and what is due to them remains. So accept the good from those of them who do good, and overlook the faults of those who do wrong.

Said from the minbar in his final illness, the last time he ascended it.

Expel the polytheists from the Arabian Peninsula.

One of three instructions he gave from his sickbed in his final illness; the narrator forgot the third.

Honour the delegations with gifts, as you have seen me do.

One of three instructions he gave from his sickbed in his final illness.

None of you should die except while thinking well of Allah.

Heard from him by Jabir ibn Abdullah RA three days before his death.

The prayer, the prayer, and fear Allah regarding those whom your right hands possess.

Reported by Ali RA as among the very last words he spoke.

O people, whoever amongst my ummah suffers a calamity, let him take consolation for that calamity from the calamity that befell him because of me; for there is no calamity that anyone shall experience that is greater than the calamity experienced because of me.

Said when he drew back the curtain and saw the people praying behind Abu Bakr RA.

Ya Rasulullah, it's time for Isha.

Bilal RA's customary announcement before the iqama, at the Prophet ﷺ's door beside the Masjid.

Stay where you are.

Motioned to Abu Bakr RA, who had begun to step back when he saw him come out for Zuhr, to stay in his place; the Prophet ﷺ was seated beside him and led the prayer sitting, with Abu Bakr RA following him and the people following Abu Bakr RA.

O Aisha, what happened to the gold?

Asked of Aisha RA during his final illness.

We were about to break our salah in happiness. The last time we saw the face of the Prophet ﷺ was when he had lifted the curtain.

Anas ibn Malik RA's recollection of Fajr on Monday, 12 Rabi' al-Awwal, 11 AH, when the Prophet ﷺ lifted the curtain of Aisha RA's house to see the sahaba praying.

Stay where you are.

Motioned to Abu Bakr RA from behind the curtain at Fajr on Monday, 12 Rabi' al-Awwal, when the sahaba mistakenly thought he was coming out to lead the prayer himself.

O my father, how painful is your suffering.

Said on seeing her father in pain during his final illness.

How is the Prophet ﷺ bearing this pain?

Said on seeing the severity of the Prophet ﷺ's fever.

Do you want the miswak?

Asked after the Prophet ﷺ, too weak to speak, looked at the miswak her brother Abd al-Rahman ibn Abi Bakr RA was using.

There is no god but Allah. Verily, death has its pangs. O Allah, help me to overcome the pangs of death.

Repeated as he wiped his brow with water during the pangs of death, Monday morning.

How I wish that I could meet my ikhwan.

النَّبِيِّـۧن، الصِّدِّيقِين، الشُّهَدَآء، الصَّـٰلِحِين -- اللَّهُمَّ اغْفِرْ لِي وَارْحَمْنِي وَأَلْحِقْنِي بِالرَّفِيقِ الْأَعْلَى

[I ask to be] with those on whom Allah has bestowed His grace: the prophets, the truthful, the martyrs and the righteous. O Allah, forgive me, have mercy on me, and join me with al-Rafiq al-A'la.

Repeated three times; these were the Prophet ﷺ's last words, heard by Aisha RA.

Passed away in the house of Aisha RA, in the heat of midday on Monday, in Rabi' al-Awwal of the 11th year of the Hijrah.

Some of the hypocrites will claim that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ has died, but by Allah he has not died. He has gone to his Lord as Musa AS went and was hidden from his people for forty days. By Allah, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ will return as Musa AS returned, and cut off the hands and feet of those who claim he has died!

Umar RA's reaction on first hearing of the Prophet ﷺ's death, in the Masjid.

How I would give my mother and father for you, ya Rasulullah. Allah has spoken the truth: you shall taste death but once, and this is your death, ya Rasulullah. How beautiful are you in life and in death, ya Rasulullah.

Said on uncovering the Prophet ﷺ's face and kissing his forehead at Aisha RA's house, after riding back from Awali.

I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say: "No prophet dies but he is buried where he died."

Abu Bakr RA's recollection, cited to settle where the Prophet ﷺ should be buried; he was buried beneath the spot in Aisha RA's room where he died.

How could your souls have allowed you to throw sand upon the Prophet ﷺ.

Said to Anas ibn Malik RA in grief, on seeing the fresh grave where the Prophet ﷺ's bed used to be.

ما بال عينك لا تنام كأنما كحلت مآقيها بكحل الأرمد جزعا على المهدي أصبح ثاويا يا خير من وطئ الحصى لا تبعد وجهي يقيك الترب لهفي ليتني غيبت قبلك في بقيع الغرقد بأبي وأمي من شهدت وفاته في يوم الاثنين النبي المهتدي فظللت بعد وفاته متبلدا متلددا يا ليتني لم أولد أأقيم بعدك بالمدينة بينهم يا ليتني صبحت سم الأسود أو حل أمر الله فينا عاجلا في روحة من يومنا أو من غد فتقوم ساعتنا فنلقى طيبا محضا ضرائبه كريم المحتد يا بكر آمنة المبارك بكرها ولدته محصنة بسعد الأسعد نورا أضاء على البرية كلها من يهد للنور المبارك يهتدي يا رب فاجمعنا معا ونبينا في جنة تثنى عيون الحسد في جنة الفردوس فاكتبها لنا يا ذا الجلال وذا العلا والسودد والله أسمع ما بقيت بهالك إلا بكيت على النبي محمد يا ويح أنصار النبي ورهطه بعد المغيب في سواء الملحد ضاقت بالأنصار البلاد فأصبحوا سودا وجوههم كلون الإثمد ولقد ولدناه وفينا قبره وفضول نعمته بنا لم نجحد والله أكرمنا به وهدى به أنصاره في كل ساعة مشهد صلى الإله ومن يحف بعرشه والطيبون على المبارك أحمد

Why is it that my eyes cannot go to sleep? It is as if the rivers of crying have become permanent as dark as kuhl. This is because of my sadness at the one who has gone on, the one who was the rightly guided one. O the best human being who has ever walked on the face of this earth. How I would give my own face to save yours. How I wish I was buried in Baqi' al-Gharqad before they buried you. My mother and father be given for you. Whose death did I see, on that Monday, none other than the Prophet ﷺ who is rightly guided. As soon as he passed away, for the rest of that time, I stayed confused and grief-stricken. Woe to me. How I wish I was never born to suffer this pain. Am I supposed to live in Madinah when you are not here? O woe to me. Why didn't someone just give me poison so I don't have to live this day? Or why doesn't Allah's Command come soon, come today or tomorrow, so that the Hour comes immediately? So that I can finally meet the one whose characteristic was nothing other than generosity. O beautiful son of Aminah, the one you gave birth to, the one who was the best of all and purest of pure; the Prophet ﷺ was a light for this whole world. Whoever took that light would indeed be rightly guided and blessed. O Allah, combine me with the Prophet ﷺ, in Jannat that are so beautiful that even the eyes of the jealous people will be averted away. Reunite me with the Prophet ﷺ in Jannat al-Firdaws. O Allah, the Majestic, the Mighty. I swear by Allah, as long as I live, I shall not cry for anyone who has died, except for the crying that I have done for the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. Woe to us, the Ansar of the Prophet ﷺ and his Companions. After he has been buried in the grave, how are we going to live? The whole land has become tight for the Ansar; their faces have become dark like the kuhl. We were the ones who gave birth to him (meaning the Prophet ﷺ's great-grandmother was from Madinah), and yet we ended up having his grave. And the blessings he showed us, nobody can deny. Allah blessed us with him and guided us through him, at every point in time. May Allah have salat and salam upon him, and the angels around His Throne, upon the Mubarak, the one who is Ahmad.

A ritha' (elegy) composed by Hassan ibn Thabit RA, the Prophet ﷺ's poet, narrated by Ibn Hisham; several other sahaba, including Abu Bakr RA, also composed elegies.

When the Prophet ﷺ died, there was nothing in his house of gold and silver. The only thing left was some morsels of barley in a small cup. And I continued using from this cup for a long period of time until it occurred to me that it was never finishing, so I measured it one day, and within a short time, it finished.

A later recollection by Aisha RA of the Prophet ﷺ's possessions at his death.

When the Prophet ﷺ passed away, his armour was pledged to a Jew for thirty sa' of barley. In his last illness we had no oil for the lamp, so on the night his pain grew severe I sent the lamp to one of the women and asked her to drip some ghee into it for us.

A later recollection by Aisha RA of the Prophet ﷺ's possessions at his death.

What does this Surah mean?

Asked of the sahaba during his khilafa, about Surah al-Nasr.

After we buried the Prophet ﷺ, Madinah became dark for us. It was as if we could not see each other, and if we were to extend our hand, we could not see it. And by the time we finished burying him, we could not recognize our own selves.

A separate later recollection by Anas ibn Malik RA, narrated by al-Bayhaqi in his Dala'il al-Nubuwwah; the darkness described is of grief and shock, not physical darkness.

The day that the Prophet ﷺ entered Madinah, everything in it was lit up; and the day that he died, everything in it went dark.

Recalled by Anas ibn Malik RA years after the Prophet ﷺ's death.