Islam: A Guide for Jews and Christians - Electric Scotland

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