“Muḥammad, the Prophet of God, to Musailimah, the Liar. Peace be on those who follow the straight road. The earth is God’s, and He giveth it to whom He will. Those only prosper who fear the Lord.”
The opposition of Musailimah was, however, a formidable one, and after Muḥammad’s death he was slain by K͟hālid during the reign of Abū Bakr.
The health of Muḥammad grew worse, and he now requested that he might be permitted to remain in the home of ʿĀyishah, his beloved wife, an arrangement to which his other wives assented.
The account we now give of the closing scenes of Muḥammad’s life, is from the graphic pen of Sir William Muir (Life of Mahomet, new ed., p. 501 et seq.), and founded on the traditional histories of al-Wāqidī’s secretary, and Ibn Hishām.
“On the night of Saturday (11 Rabīʿu ʾl-Awwal, 6th June, A.D. 632), the sickness assumed a very serious aspect. The fever rose to such a pitch that the hand could hardly be kept upon his skin from its burning heat. His body was racked with pain; restless and moaning, he tossed about upon his bed. Alarmed at a severe paroxysm of the disease, Omm Salma, one of his wives, screamed aloud. Mahomet rebuked her:—‘Quiet!’ he said. ‘No one crieth out thus but an unbeliever.’ During the night, Ayesha sought to comfort him, and suggested that he should seek for consolation in the same lessons he had so often taught to others when in sickness: ‘O Prophet!’ she said, ‘if one of us had moaned thus, thou would’st surely have found fault with it.’ ‘Yes,’ he replied, ‘but I burn with the fever-heat of any two of you together.’ ‘Then,’ exclaimed one, ‘thou shalt surely have a double reward.’ ‘Yes,’ he answered, ‘I swear by Him in whose hands is my life, that there is not upon the earth a believer afflicted with any calamity or disease, but the Lord thereby causeth his sins to fall from him, even as leaves are shed in autumn from a tree.’ At another time he said, ‘Suffering is an expiation for sin. Verily, if the believer suffer but the scratch of a thorn, the Lord raiseth his rank thereby, and wipeth away from him a sin.’ ‘Believers,’ he would affirm, ‘are tried according to their faith. If a man’s faith be strong, so are his sufferings; if he be weak, they are proportioned thereunto. Yet in any case, the suffering shall not be remitted until he walk upon the earth without the guilt of a single transgression cleaving unto him.’
“Omar, approaching the bed, placed his hand on Mahomet’s forehead, and suddenly withdrew it, from the greatness of the heat: ‘O Prophet!’ he said, ‘how violent is the fever on thee!’ ‘Yea, verily,’ replied Mahomet, ‘but I have been during the night season repeating in praise of the Lord seventy Suras, and among them the seven long ones.’ Omar answered: ‘But the Lord hath forgiven thee all thy sins, the former and the latter; now, then, why not rest and take thine ease?’ ‘Nay,’ replied Mahomet, ‘for wherefore should I not be a faithful servant unto Him?’
“An attendant, while Mahomet lay covered up, put his hand below the sheet, and feeling the excessive heat, made a remark similar to that of Omar. Mahomet replied: ‘Even as this affliction prevaileth now against me, so shall my reward hereafter be enhanced.’ ‘And who are they,’ asked another, ‘that suffer the severest trials?’ ‘The prophets and the righteous,’ said Mahomet; and then he made mention of one prophet having been destroyed by lice, and of another who was tried with poverty, so that he had but a rag to cover his nakedness withal; ‘yet each of them rejoiced exceedingly in his affliction, even as one of you in great spoil would rejoice.’
“On the Sunday, Mahomet lay in a very weak and helpless state. Osâma, who had delayed his departure to see what the issue of the sickness might be, came in from Jorf to visit him. Removing the clothes from the Prophet’s face, he stooped down and kissed him, but there was no audible response. Mahomet only raised his hands to heaven in the attitude of blessing, and then placed them upon Osâma. So he returned to the camp.
“During some part of this day Mahomet complained of pain in his side, and the suffering became so great, that he fell into a state of unconsciousness. Omm Salma advised that physic should be given him. Asma, the sister of Meimûna, prepared a draught after an Abyssinian recipe, and they forced it into his mouth. Reviving from its effects, he felt the unpleasant taste in his mouth, and cried, ‘What is this that ye have done to me? Ye have even given me physic!’ They confessed that they had done so, and enumerated the ingredients of which Asma had compounded it. ‘Out upon you!’ he angrily exclaimed: ‘this is a remedy for the pleurisy, which she hath learned in the land of Abyssinia; but that is not a disease which the Lord will suffer to attack me. Now shall ye all partake of the same dose. Let not one remain in the house without being physicked, even as ye have physicked me, excepting only my uncle Abbâs.’ So all the women arose, and they poured the physic, in presence of the dying Prophet, into each other’s mouths.
“After this, the conversation turning upon Abyssinia, Omm Salma and Omm Habiba, who had both been exiles there, spoke of the beauty of a cathedral in that country, called the Church of Maria, and of the wonderful pictures on its walls. Mahomet listened quietly to them, and then said, ‘These, verily, are the people who, when a good man hath lived amongst them, build over his tomb a place of worship, and they adorn it with their pictures. These, in the eyes of the Lord, are the worst part of all the creation.’ He stopped, and covered himself with the bed-clothes; then casting them off in the restlessness and perhaps delirium of the fever, he said: ‘The Lord destroy the Jews and Christians! Let His anger be kindled against those that turn the tombs of their prophets into places of worship. O Lord, let not my tomb be an object of worship. Let there not remain any faith but that of Islam throughout the whole land of Arabia!’