Islam: A Guide for Jews and Christians - Electric Scotland
Islam: A Guide for Jews and Christians - Electric Scotland
Islam: A Guide for Jews and Christians - Electric Scotland
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90 t CHAPTER FOUR<br />
establish prayers <strong>and</strong> give the tithe, then open the way <strong>for</strong> them.<br />
Indeed, God is <strong>for</strong>giving, merciful” (Quran 9:4–5)<br />
Thus in the beginning of 632 Muhammad made his first hajj as a<br />
Muslim, <strong>and</strong>, as it turned out, his last. It was also in a sense the first<br />
Muslim hajj. Previously, at least in 631, Muslims <strong>and</strong> polytheists had<br />
side by side participated in the ritual as it had always existed, without<br />
any obvious modifications either in the liturgy itself or in the<br />
Muslims’ participation in it. In 632 only Muslims were present, according<br />
to the proclamation at the previous pilgrimage, <strong>and</strong> they<br />
were led by Muhammad himself, who seems to have carefully<br />
picked his way through the elaborate ritual, changing here <strong>and</strong> there<br />
as he went along. The umra <strong>and</strong> the hajj were, after a fashion, combined;<br />
the practice of intercalation was <strong>for</strong>bidden. All this occurred<br />
in connection with this famous “Farewell Pilgrimage” <strong>and</strong> it became<br />
a template <strong>for</strong> all that were to follow: the Prophet’s acts <strong>and</strong> instructions<br />
were recollected at length in the biographical sources.<br />
Muhammad returned from the hajj in March 632; three months<br />
later he was dead. Yet his death was not sudden, though it was<br />
unexpected. To all appearances he was still a vigorous man, hardly<br />
the sixty-two-year-old of the traditional dating, which at that time<br />
<strong>and</strong> place would have made him an old man. Indeed, he had led a<br />
dangerous military operation over a long distance less than two<br />
years earlier. We are not told precisely what his ailment was. He<br />
simply grew ill <strong>and</strong> died. He had time to make certain dispositions—<br />
he appointed Abu Bakr to lead the prayer during his illness—but not<br />
the most crucial of all: he appointed no successor to head the umma.<br />
Muhammad died in bed, at his own residence, in June 632, the tenth<br />
year of the new Muslim era, as it would soon be called, surrounded<br />
by his wives <strong>and</strong> family. He lies buried in a rich tomb within the now<br />
extraordinarily gr<strong>and</strong>iose Mosque of the Prophet at Medina. Next<br />
to him is an empty tomb that awaits Jesus.<br />
Collecting the Quran<br />
The Prophet of God was dead <strong>and</strong> the revelations had ceased. The<br />
Quran, as it existed at that moment, was in the hearts, memories,