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CHAPTER 6. The Death of the Prophet and the Expansion of the Community
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43 The Farewell Pilgrimage In 632, 0 years after the Hijra, Muhammad led the pilgrimage to Mecca during dhū al-h . ijja, the month of pilgrimage. This was the Greater Pilgrimage of the Hajj. It was the first and last time that he would lead the Hajj pilgrimage, and as such it is called the “Farewell Pilgrimage.” It became paradigmatic for all subsequent pilgrimage rituals and was a means of Islamizing some of the pre-Islamic polytheistic pilgrimage practices by way of infusing them with monotheistic and Islamic symbolism. Much of the actual ritual was the same as practiced earlier under polytheism, but as with all religions, ancient acts became invested with new meanings and significance. Muhammad is understood to have made a dramatic speech to his followers in Mecca that was recorded in the sources. In it he reaffirmed the break with pre-Islamic political alliances and the institution of certain social and cultural changes that had already been established through the authority of revelation. It is an oration that is cherished to this day. Only parts can be included here: O people, listen to my word. I do not know whether I shall ever meet you in this place again after this year. Your blood and your property are sacrosanct until you meet your Lord, as this day and this month are holy. You will surely meet your Lord and He will ask you of your works. I have told you. He who has a pledge, let him return it to CHAPTER 6 The Death of the Prophet and the Expansion of the Community 44 A N I N T R O D U C T I O N T O I S L A M F O R J E W S the one who entrusted him with it; all usury is abolished, but you have your capital. Wrong not and you shall not be wronged. . . . All blood shed in the pagan period (jāhiliyya) is to be left unavenged. . . . You have rights over your wives and they have rights over you. . . . Lay injunctions on women kindly, for they are prisoners with you having no control of their persons. You have taken them only as a trust from God. . . . I have left with you something which if you will hold fast to it you will never fall into error—a plain indication, the book of God and the practice of His prophet, so give good heed to what I say. Know that every Muslim is a Muslim’s brother, and that the Muslims are brethren . It is only lawful to take from your brother what he gives you willingly , so do not wrong yourselves. O God, have I not told you? Death of a Prophet Muhammad returned to Medina, from which he sent emissaries to distant Arab leaders and to the emperors of the Persian and Byzantine Empires inviting them to Islam. This was during a period when those two empires were exhausting themselves through a generation of invasion and counterinvasion. Soon his followers would engage them in battle, but Muhammad is depicted in the sources as being in weakened health. He developed a severe headache and probably a fever, dying shortly afterward in the arms of his wife, `Ā’isha. It was a major blow to the community. His close companion `Umar remained in denial, but his dear friend Abū Bakr went out to the people and announced, “O people, if anyone worships Muhammad, Muhammad is dead. If anyone worships God, God is alive, immortal.”2 The Problem of Succession and the First Four Caliphs The sources and traditions depict the love and respect of Muhammad’s followers as overwhelming, and he remains the ultimate role model for Muslims around the world to this day. Multivolume compilations of his words and behaviors have been collected and published from early times, and they form the most important source for Islamic law and ethics after the Qur’an. Yet his death is depicted matter-of-factly, with no hyperbole or heroism. He was buried immediately in the home where he died—as was considered befitting of prophets—rather than in a cemetery. Since the very beginning of Muhammad’s prophethood, Islam has carried within it a tension between the inclination among many to adore him to the point of worship and the strict insistence of the religious establishment on a simple 45 C H A P T E R S I X and austere form of monotheism in which...