|
TWO HISTORIC AND MEMORABLE SPEECHES OF
THE PROPHET AFTER HAJJATUL WIDA
AND BEFORE HE LEFT THIS WORLD
On the 25th of Zu'l -Ka'da
(23rd Feb 632 A.C.), the Prophet left Madina with an immence concourse
of Muslims. On his arrival at Mecca, and before completing all the rites
of the pilgrimage, he addressed the assembled multitude from the top of
Jabal-ul-Arafat (8th Zu'l-Hijja, 7th March), in words which should ever
live in the hearts of moslems.
"ye people! listen to my words, for I know not whether another year will
be vouchsafed to me after this year to find myself amongst you at this
place".
"Your lives and property are sacred and inviolable amongst one another
until ye appear before the Lord, as this day and this month are sacred
for all; and (remember ) ye shall have to appear before your Lord who
shall demand from you an account of all your actions....Ye people, ye
have rights over your wives, and your wives have rights over you.....
Treat your wives with kindness and love. Verily you have taken them on
the security of God" "Keep always faithful to the trust reposed in you,
and avoid sins" "Usury is forbidden. The debtor shall return only the
principal; and the beginning will be made with (the loans of) my uncle
Abbas, son of Abd-ul-Muttalib.... Henceforth the vengeance of blood
practiced in the days of paganism (jahilyat) is prohibited; and all
blood-feud abolished, commencing with the murder of Ibn Rabi'a son of
Harith son of Abd-ul-Muttalib.
"And your slaves! see that ye feed them with such food as ye eat
yourselves,and cloth them with the stuff ye wear; and if they commit
fault which you are not inclined to forgive, then part with them, for
they are the servants of the Lord, and are not be harshly treated".
"Ye people ! listen to my words and understand the same. Know that all
Moslems are brothers unto one another. Ye are one brotherhood. Nothing
which belongs to another is lawful unto his brother, unless freely given
out of goodwill. Guard yourselves from committing injustice". Towards
the conclusion of the sermon, the Prophet, overcome by the sight of the
intense enthusiasm of the people as they drank in his words, exclaimed,
"O Lord! I have delivered my message and accomplished my work, "The
assembled host below with one voice cried, "Yes, verily thou hast" "O
Lord, I beseech Thee, bear Thou witness unto it.
" Ibid. pp113-114.
According the other
source : On the 9th of Dhil-Hajj of 10 A.H., the Prophet gave a
historic speech in the plain of Arafat in which summed up the main
points of his teachings. The Prophet first thanked God for his countless
mercies and blessings and then said :
"O
Muslims ! Listen to me with attention. This may be the last occasion
when I am with you, and I may not be alive to perform another Haj.
God is one and He has no partners. Do not associate anyone or anything
with Him. Worship Him, fear Him, obey Him and love Him. Do not miss your
mendatory prayers. Observe faithfully the month of fasting. Pay Zakat
(poor tax) regularly, and visit the House of God whenever you can.
Remember that every one of you is answerable to God for everything you
do on this earth, and very soon you will find yourselves in His
presence.
I
am abolishing all the customs, practices and traditions of the Times of
Ignorance. I disclaim the right of retaliation for the blood of my
cousin, Ibn Rabi'a and I disclaim the interest on the loans given by my
uncle, Abbas ibn Abdul Muttallib.
I
call upon you all to show respect to the honour, life and property of
each other in the same manner as you show respect to the sanctity of
this day. All believers are brothers of each other. If something belongs
to any one of them, it is unlawful for others to take it without his
permission.
Be
sincere in your words and deeds and be sincere to each other, and remain
united at all times.
You have rights to regard women; so also you have duties towards them.
Treat them with love, kindness, respect and affection.
The slaves you own are also created by God. Do not be cruel to them. If
they err forgive them. Give them to eat what you eat and give them to
wear the same kind of clothes as you wear.
The members of my family are like the pole-star. They will lead to
salvation all those who will obey them and follow them. I leave among
you a composite heritage - the Book of God (Quran) and the members of
my family. Both of them are complementary to each other and are
inseparable to each other. If you defer to both of them you will never
go astray.
And remember that I am the last of the Messengers of God. After me there
will be no other messenger or messenger of God."
Mohammad Mustafa
concluded his speech with another short prayer of thanks giving to his
creator, and called upon Him to be Witness that he has discharge his
duty and had delivered the message of Islam to his people. "Ali Asghar
Rizwy.
pp 211-212
The Second speech
delivered by the Prophet at a place, short distance from Makkah, called
Khumm, is also narrated by authentic sources. Ibid p 213-214 When the
Prophet arrived in the vicinity of Ghadeer, he received a new - the
following revelation from Heaven:
O
Apostle! Proclaim the message which hath been sent to thee from the
Lord. If thou didst not, Thou wouldst not have fulfilled and proclaimed
His Mission. And Allah will defend thee from Men (who mean mischief) for
Allah guideth not Those who reject truth.
(Quran :
Chapter 5 - Verse 70)
The command of
Heaven was seldom, if ever, so peremtory as this worse, and related,
obviously, to some vitally important matter to which the Apostle had to
address himself - there and then. He, therefore ordered his own caravan
to halt, and he recalled all those caravans which had either gone ahead
or had gone to other directions. He himself waited until the last
caravan that left Makkah, also arrived near the well in Khum.
A Pulpit was
improvised with the howdahs of camels, and the Prophet took his position
on it so that everyone in the vast multitude could see him with his own
eyes. His cousin, Ali, was standing near him.
Muhammad Mustafa, the
Messanger of God, was now ready to make historic announcement in
compliance with the divine mandate quoted above. He thanked God for the
great blessing of Islam, and for his grace and His Mercy and then he
posed the following question to Muslims:
"Do I have or I do not have a greater right on your souls than you
yourselves have on them?"
The Muslims answered with one voice : The Appostle of God has greater
right on our souls than we ourselves have on them". "If that is so" he
said, "then I have a very important message to deliver to you"
and he put across the
message as follows :
"O
Muslims! I am mortal like any one of you, and I may soon be summoned
into the presence of my Lord. My most precious legacy to you is the
book of Allah and the members of my family, as I have told you before.
Now listen to this with attention that I am the Master of all of
you-all of beleivers. All those men and women who acknowledge me as
their Master, I want them to acknowledge (at this point he held Ali's
hand and lifted it high over his head) Ali also as their Master. Ali is
the Master of all those men and women whose Master I am ".
Having delivered this
message, Mohammad Mustafa lifted his hands towards the sky, and said :
“O
Allah! be Thou a Friend of him who is friend of Ali, and be thou an
Enemy of him who is his enemy. Help him whoever helps Ali, and forsake
him whoever forsake him (Ali)”.
Foregoing is a
summary of what Mohmmad Mustafa, the Messenger of God, said in Khum. The
full text and context of his speech is preserved in the famous book
Taudih-ed-Dala'el by the great Sunni Doctor, Allama Shahab - uddin
Ahmad.
Once the Speech was
over Ibada bin Samit, a companion, rose and asked; "O messenger of
Allah! when that time comes, whom should we look up for guidance?'
The Messenger of
Allah answered as follows :
"You should follow
and obey" the people of my House (Ahlul-Bait). "They are the heirs of
my Apostolic and prophetic knowledge. They will save you from going
astray, and they will lead you to salvation. They will invite you toward
the book (Al-Quran al Majid) and my Sunnah. Follow them because they are
never in doubt about any thing .Their faith in Allah is unshakable. They
are the rightly guided ones; they are the Imams and they alone can save
you from misbelief, heresy and innovation"
Rauzat-us-Safa p.761.
There is a second
authentic source where the second speech is narrated. Rauzat-us-Safa. pp
699-70
"When his holy and prophetic lordship, u.w.b. -- had terminated the
ceremonies of the pilgrimage, he remained for some days in the holy
city of Makkah, and then departed to the honoured town of Madinah.
After travelling the proper distance, he arrived in Ghadyr -e- Khumm,
which is in the vicinity of Hajfah. In that place he halted, held
matutinal prayers, turned his face to companions, and said : Are we not
above the believers themselves?' But according to another tradition, he
said' It seems to me that I am called to the eternal world, and that I
have complied. Let it be known unto you that I leave two important
matters with you, one of which is more important than the other; I mean
the Quran and the members of my house. Take care how you deal with
these things after my decease, and how you respect them. For these two
subjects will not be separated from each other until they meet me on the
bank of Kauther. Then he continued with his wonderfully eloquent tongue
: 'Verily, Allah the Most High is my lord, and I am the lord of the
believers.' He then took Ali's hand, exclaiming : Ali is the master of
those whose master I am.O Allah his family is my family; his friends are
my friends. I injure those who injure him, and I befriend those who aid
him. Truth is with him, where ever he is. The author of these pages says
that with reference to this matter, the statement in the A'all'amu-l-ward
and of the Rabyi'-l-abrar is as follows : When his holy and prophetic
lordship arrived in Ghadyr Khumm on his return from Makka, he ordered a
place to be cleaned under some trees, and the saddles of the camels to
be collected and placed in one heap. Then Bilal proclaimed prayers by
order of his lordship, the people assembled, that prince mounted the
heap of saddles and was at his own desire followed also by Ali, who
stood on his right side. After that his lordship the refuge of
termination-u.w.b.- poured forth with his propitious tongue praise and
gratitude to the Lord of Glory, exhorted the people, informed them of
his own (approaching) death, and said : 'I am called to the mansion of
eternity. I shall soon comply, and leave you. I leave, however, two
things with you, and if you take hold of them you will not go astray.
These two things are the book of Allah and my family, which will not
separate from each other until they join me on the bank of Kawther.'
Then he said : O ye multitude of people who is nearer to you than your
own souls? They all replied : God the Most High and his Apostle.' He
continued : 'to whomsoever I am nearer than his own soul, to him also
Ali is nearer than his own soul. Then he took off Ali from the
pack-saddles of the camels in such a manner that the foot of Ali was on
the top of the knee of the prophet, and said; Whose lord I am, Ali is
also his lord. O Allah, love him whom he loves and hate him whom he
hates. Assist anyone who befriends him and injure everybody who injures
him. Then he came down and sat in his own tent, ordering Ali to sit in
another. After that he ordered numbers of persons to go to the tent of
Ali and to congratulate him. After they have done so, the mothers of
believers also went to Ali - u.w.b. - by the order of the lord of
existances -u.w.b.- and felicitated him. Of the number of companions
present, O'mar B. Alkhattab said : Blessed art thou, O Ali; for thou
hast been exalted by my lord and by the lord of all the believers of
both sexes. |