The Final Year

One of the main kings of Yemen, from the tribe of Himyar, accepted Islam. A few months after the Hajj of 9 AH, the Prophet ﷺ sent Mu'adh ibn Jabal RA to Yemen as his deputy and judge. The Prophet ﷺ went with Mu'adh RA for part of the way south of Madinah. Mu'adh RA rode while the Prophet ﷺ walked beside him, which was a great honour. On the way, the Prophet ﷺ gave him advice. Mu'adh RA would be going to People of the Book. He was to call them first to tawhid, the worship of Allah alone. If they accepted, he was to teach them the prayer, and after that the zakat, taken from their rich and given to their poor. The Prophet ﷺ also sent Abu Musa al-Ash'ari RA to another province of Yemen. As he said farewell to Mu'adh RA, the Prophet ﷺ told him it was possible that he would not see him again. So it proved, for the Prophet ﷺ passed away before Mu'adh RA returned from Yemen.

Placed here because: ~ A few months after Abu Bakr RA's Hajj; no month is given.

Toward the end of the 9th year after the Hijrah, the Prophet ﷺ sent many sahaba (companions) out across Arabia as governors and teachers of Islam, especially to the north and the south. Among them were Mu'adh ibn Jabal RA, who was sent to Yemen, and Abu Musa al-Ash'ari RA, who was sent to another province of Yemen. At the start of the 10th year, the Prophet ﷺ sent Khalid ibn al-Walid RA to the province of Najran, just north of Yemen. He told Khalid not to attack until he had given the people three days to choose. They could accept Islam, or pay jizya (a tax on non-Muslim subjects) if they were Christians or Jews, or leave. Khalid RA sent out criers with this message, and the whole province of Najran accepted Islam without any fighting. Khalid RA had brought an army but now had no one to fight, and he was unsure what to do. He wrote to the Prophet ﷺ to report that the people had all become Muslim and to ask for instructions. The Prophet ﷺ told him to send a delegation to Madinah, so that he could test them himself. When the delegation arrived, the Prophet ﷺ did not recognise them. It is reported that he remarked that they looked like the people of Hind (India). They told him they were from Najran. The Prophet ﷺ then questioned them, at times sharply, to test whether their faith was genuine, and they passed the test. He then asked them the secret of how they always defeated anyone who attacked them. They gave two reasons. Once they made a decision, they never fought among themselves, and they never wronged other people.

Placed here because: ~ Beginning of 10 AH; its order against Mu'adh's departure is not settled.

Ibrahim was the infant son of the Prophet ﷺ and Maria al-Qibtiyya RA. He fell ill and died in the first quarter of the 10th year of the Hijrah. He had lived a year and four months, or by other reports a year and six months. It was the age when a child is walking, laughing and recognising the people around him. When word came that Ibrahim was dying, the Prophet ﷺ went with some of the companions to Maria's home in al-Awali, a part of Madinah. He held Ibrahim, who was wheezing and coughing as the pangs of death began. The Prophet ﷺ's tears began to fall. One of the companions asked whether he too cried. The Prophet ﷺ replied, "The eyes cry and the heart is sad, but we only say that which pleases our Lord."

Placed here because: First quarter of 10 AH.

On the day that Ibrahim, the young son of the Prophet ﷺ, died, a solar eclipse occurred within a few hours of his death. People in Madinah began to say that the sun was grieving and crying at the Prophet ﷺ's sorrow. When the Prophet ﷺ heard this, he gathered the people and gave a khutbah (sermon) to correct this mistaken belief.

Placed here because: The same day as the child's death.

This was the Prophet ﷺ's only Hajj after the Hijrah, and his last. He undertook it in the 10th year of the Hijrah. Once word went out that he intended to go, tens of thousands of people flocked to Madinah. They swelled the caravan the whole way to Makkah. The sahaba said they could see nothing but riders and people on foot in every direction. It was the largest gathering the Prophet ﷺ ever addressed, and most of those present are not known to us by name. He ﷺ left Madinah on 25 Dhu al-Qa'dah. He prayed and entered ihram at Dhu al-Hulayfah. He reached Makkah ten days later, on the 4th of Dhu al-Hijjah. He camped outside the city overnight and entered it the next morning. Just as the caravan was setting out from Dhu al-Hulayfah, Asma bint Umays RA gave birth to Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr there. The Prophet ﷺ told her to bathe, bandage herself, and enter ihram all the same. After performing tawaf and the sa'i, the Prophet ﷺ made an announcement at Marwah. Anyone who had not brought an animal for sacrifice, he said, should end their ihram and treat their pilgrimage as an Umrah. This was a new and startling instruction. The pilgrims had set out with different intentions. Some had come for Hajj alone, some for Hajj and Umrah together, and some for Umrah. Between them, they performed all three recognised forms of Hajj, known as Ifrad, Qiran and Tamattu'. The Prophet ﷺ had asked Ali RA to bring one hundred sacrificial camels from Yemen, and Ali RA now arrived with them. Ali RA found that Fatima RA had already come out of ihram on the Prophet ﷺ's instruction. But Ali RA had entered ihram intending to match whatever intention the Prophet ﷺ held, which was Qiran. So he stayed in ihram until the sacrifice. On the 8th of Dhu al-Hijjah, called Yawm al-Tarwiyah, the company moved to Mina. On the 9th, the Prophet ﷺ went on to Namirah and then to Arafah. On the way he passed by al-Mash'ar al-Haram at Muzdalifah. In pre-Islamic times the Quraysh had stopped there, so as not to go outside the sanctuary. The Prophet ﷺ went past it to stand on the open plain of Arafah itself, which is the essence of the Hajj. He stood there making du'a from just after Zuhr until sunset. Then he moved on, slowly and deliberately, to Muzdalifah. There he prayed Maghrib and Isha together and rested until Fajr. Sawda bint Zam'a RA was elderly and slow-moving. She asked permission to leave Muzdalifah early to avoid the crowds, and it was given. The Prophet ﷺ also sent the weak members of his family ahead during the night, and Ibn Abbas RA was among them. This is the basis for the ruling in fiqh that the elderly and the weak may leave before everyone else. From Muzdalifah the Prophet ﷺ went to Mina and stoned Jamrah al-Kubra. He sacrificed 63 camels with his own hand. Ibn al-Qayyim observes that this number matched the years of his life. Then he had Ali RA sacrifice the remaining 37 of the 100. After that he returned to Makkah for tawaf al-ifadah. There he drank from the Zamzam water that the Banu Abdul Muttalib drew for him. The Prophet ﷺ stayed in Mina through the days of Tashriq. He spent three nights there, one more than most pilgrims do, and left on the 13th. Aisha RA had begun her menses just before entering Makkah. She was told to perform every rite except tawaf. Once she was pure again and had completed her Hajj, she asked to perform an Umrah as well, like the Prophet ﷺ's other wives. So she was sent with her brother, Abd al-Rahman ibn Abi Bakr RA, to enter ihram at Tan'im for it. Then she rejoined the caravan back to Madinah. The name "Hajjat al-Wada'", the Farewell Hajj, was already in use during the Prophet ﷺ's own lifetime. On Yawm al-Nahr, while he was addressing the people, he asked Allah again and again to bear witness. The sahaba sensed that he was saying goodbye to them, though they did not yet fully grasp it. Later writers estimated the crowd at a round 100,000, but this figure is a guess. Every hadith on the fiqh of Hajj in the books goes back in the end to this one pilgrimage. That is because it was the only Hajj he performed after the Hijrah. On the night of the 13th, the last day of Hajj, the Prophet ﷺ performed Tawaf al-Wada', the Farewell Tawaf. Then he set out on the journey back to Madinah, and he arrived there in Dhu al-Hijjah, 10 AH. This was his final journey. Once he entered Madinah, he never left it again before his death.

Placed here because: Ep. 100: "he left Madinah on the 25th" of Dhul Qa'dah, 10 AH; "on the morning of Thursday, which was the 8th of Dhu al-Hijjah, he prayed Fajr" and went out to Mina.

On the 9th of Dhu al-Hijjah, 10 AH, the Prophet ﷺ stood in the Valley of Aranah at Arafah and addressed the huge crowd of pilgrims. That year the day fell on a Friday, and he called it the Day of al-Hajj al-Akbar (the Great Hajj). He asked his uncle Abbas RA and his cousin Ali RA to quieten the crowd so that his words could carry. Some sahaba reported that they could hear him even from their tents, which is counted among his miracles. It was on this occasion that Allah revealed the verse, "This day, I have perfected for you your religion and completed My favor upon you and have approved for you Islam as religion" [Qur'an, 5:3]. It was one of the last verses to be revealed, though not the very last. The Prophet ﷺ opened by saying, "O people, listen to me, for I know not whether I shall meet you again after this year." He declared that the blood, wealth and honour of every Muslim were sacred, as sacred as that day, that month and that land. He abolished the customs of the days before Islam (Jahiliyyah), and he began with his own family. First he cancelled the unpaid blood money his family was owed by the tribe of Hudhayl. Then he cancelled the riba (interest) still owed to his uncle al-Abbas RA. He told the people to fear Allah in how they treated women, and he set out the rights that husbands and wives have over each other. He told them that he had left them the Book of Allah, and that as long as they held to it they would never go astray. He then told them that they would soon be asked about him, and asked what they would say. The people replied that they would testify he had conveyed the message, done his duty and been sincere with them. He raised his hands and said three times, "O Allah, bear witness."

Placed here because: Friday, 9 Dhul Hijjah 10 AH.

During the Farewell Hajj, the Prophet ﷺ gave several sermons. Besides the Sermon of Arafah on the 9th of Dhu al-Hijjah, he gave sermons at Mina on the 10th, the 11th and, most likely, the 12th. On the 10th, Yawm al-Nahr (the Day of Sacrifice), he declared that the calendar had returned to its rightful order, as it was on the day Allah created the heavens and the earth. A year has twelve months, and four of them are sacred. Three of these come one after another, Dhu al-Qa'dah, Dhu al-Hijjah and Muharram, and the fourth is the Rajab of Mudar, between Jumada and Sha'ban. For a long time the Quraysh had swapped the months around whenever they wanted to fight in a sacred month, and this had jumbled the calendar. That year, by the decree of Allah, the months happened to fall in their proper order. The Prophet ﷺ was telling the people to keep the calendar as it was from then on. He then asked the people, "What month is this?" They answered, "Allah and His Messenger ﷺ know best." He stayed silent until they thought he might give it another name. Then he said, "Isn't this the month of Dhu al-Hijjah?" He asked about the city and the day in the same way, and confirmed that it was Makkah and Yawm al-Nahr. Then he said, "Verily, your lives, money, and honor, are haram upon you just as sacred as this month is upon you, this place is upon you, and this day is upon you." He warned them, "Woe to you. Do not return to being kuffar, killing one another." He told those present to pass his words on to those who were absent, since the absent might understand them better than the people listening. In one version, recorded by al-Tirmidhi, he said that Shaytan had given up hope of being worshipped in this land, but still hoped to be obeyed in matters the people thought trivial. In another version, he said that what Shaytan hoped for was to stir them up to fight one another. Other hadiths from these Mina sermons define the Muslim as the one from whose hands and tongue other Muslims are safe, and the Mu'min as the one whom people trust with their wealth. They define the muhajir as the one who has left sins behind, and the mujahid as the one who strives in the path of Allah. Another promises Jannah to whoever fears Allah, prays the five prayers, fasts Ramadan, gives zakat and obeys the rulers. Another declares that all people have one Lord and one father, Adam, and that no Arab is better than a non-Arab, and no skin color better than another, except by taqwa. Sh. Yasir Qadhi notes that no thinker before him had ever declared that all humans are equal. The name of this pilgrimage, Hajjat al-Wada', the Farewell Hajj, comes from this day. Ibn Umar RA reported that on Yawm al-Nahr the Prophet ﷺ kept saying, "O Allah, bear witness," and was bidding the people farewell. So the people began to call it the Farewell Hajj.

Placed here because: ~ Ep. 100: "this year in which the Prophet ﷺ did Hajj, it just so happened" the months had returned to their places; declared in the sermons of the Hajj.

During the Farewell Hajj, Ali RA came from Yemen to join the Prophet ﷺ in Makkah. He brought the zakat and charity of the people of Yemen, along with 100 camels for the Prophet ﷺ. Eager to see the Prophet ﷺ, Ali RA rushed ahead and left someone else in charge of his party. That man handed out new clothes to the whole party, paid for from the charity of the people of Yemen. This was not allowed. When Ali RA came back and found out, he was angry and made them return the clothes, which upset his party. As soon as the Hajj was over, they complained to the Prophet ﷺ about Ali RA. The next day, at a pond outside Makkah called Ghadir Khumm, the Prophet ﷺ stopped and addressed the people in Ali RA's defence.

Placed here because: On the road home, shortly after 13 Dhul Hijjah.

After Najran accepted Islam, the Prophet ﷺ appointed Amr ibn Hazm al-Ansari RA as governor and religious teacher over the province. About a month before his own death, the Prophet ﷺ dictated to Amr RA a letter over a page long, full of wasiyyat (instructions) on how to teach the people, among the very last things he ﷺ ever dictated. One clause of the letter states that no one should touch the Qur'an except one who is tahir (in a state of purity).

Placed here because: ~ About a month before the death; placed before Safar on that basis.

Toward the end of Safar in the 11th year after the Hijrah, a few weeks before his death, the Prophet ﷺ ordered an expedition into the lands of the Romans (the Byzantine Empire). Its target was al-Sham, the region of Greater Syria, and in particular Palestine. He told the Companions to gather their weapons, including Abu Bakr RA, Umar RA and many other senior Companions. He chose Usama ibn Zayd RA to lead them. Usama was only 17 or 18 years old. He was the son of Zayd ibn Harithah RA, the freed slave whom the Prophet ﷺ had once adopted. Usama had been born and raised in the Prophet ﷺ's household, and his father Zayd had been killed by the Romans at Mu'tah. Some people in Madinah murmured about the choice. They said Usama was too young, that he was not from the Quraysh, and that his father had been a freed slave. None of the senior Companions objected, but the talk spread in the city. The Prophet ﷺ gathered the people and answered the criticism. He said, "If you dislike his leadership, then remember that you also criticized the leadership of his father before him." He swore that Usama was worthy to lead, and said that he was the most beloved of people to him after his father. Usama set out from Madinah on the last day of Safar. When the army was one or two days away, a messenger came to tell him that the Prophet ﷺ had fallen ill. Usama camped outside the city for a few days. He came back into Madinah and visited the Prophet ﷺ on the day of his death, one of the last people to see him.

Placed here because: Ep. 101: "Toward the very end of Safar of the 11th year of the Hijrah ... Usama left on the very last day of Safar."

Toward the end of Safar in 11 AH, shortly before he fell ill, the Prophet ﷺ visited the site of the Battle of Uhud. There he made a special du'a (supplication) for the Muslims who had been killed in the battle. Foremost among those martyrs was his beloved uncle Hamzah ibn Abdul Muttalib RA. The Prophet ﷺ said to the martyrs, "Wait for me at the Hawd. I will be the one there before you come." The Hawd is the Prophet ﷺ's pool in the Hereafter.

Placed here because: ~ End of Safar 11 AH; whether before or after Usama's departure is not given.

Near the very end of his life, on the last day of Safar or perhaps the first day of Rabi' al-Awwal, 11 AH, the Prophet ﷺ woke in the middle of the night. He knocked on the door of Abu Muwayhiba RA, a freed slave of his. He told him that Jibril had commanded him to go to Baqi' al-Gharqad, the graveyard of Madinah. The two of them went there together in the night, and the Prophet ﷺ made a beautiful du'a (supplication) for the people buried there. It was the last time he ﷺ ever visited Baqi'.

Placed here because: Last day of Safar or 1 Rabi' al-Awwal; the illness began on the way back.

The Prophet ﷺ's final illness began with a fever, around the 1st or 2nd of Rabi' al-Awwal, 11 AH. He was in the house of Maymunah RA when it started. For the first few days he kept to his usual practice of staying at each wife's house in turn. When he grew too weak for this, he asked his wives for permission to stay in the house of Aisha RA for the rest of his illness, and they agreed. In Aisha RA's house, she often recited ruqya over him and poured water on him to bring the fever down. Once Aisha RA complained that she had a headache. Even though he was in pain himself, the Prophet ﷺ gently teased her. He said that his own pain was worse, and that he would outlive her so that he could wash her body and pray over her. She teased him back, saying he would only enjoy that because it would leave him free for his other wives. As the illness got worse, he asked for buckets of cool water from a particular well to be poured over his head, to ease the throbbing pain, so that he could go out and advise the people. He came out with a cloth tied around his head. The Prophet ﷺ had never been this ill before. People heard that he was leading only shortened prayers and leaving quickly afterwards. Out of concern, Umar RA, Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf RA and other sahaba who had no houses nearby began camping in the Masjid. It grew crowded with people waiting for news. Al-Abbas RA and Ali ibn Abi Talib RA, the closest of his Ahl al-Bayt, carried the Prophet ﷺ to the Masjid on their shoulders. He spoke to the people from the minbar, probably on a Friday. He ordered that all the private doors opening from houses straight into the Masjid be closed. He made only one exception, the door of Abu Bakr RA. This honour was understood to mark Abu Bakr RA out above the rest of the sahaba. One night, traditionally dated to that same Thursday or Friday, the Prophet ﷺ was too weak to get up and lead Salat al-Isha. He fainted several times as he tried. He told Aisha RA to have Abu Bakr RA lead the prayer in his place. Aisha RA did not want her father to be linked with what she feared might be the Prophet ﷺ's death. Twice she tried to have Umar RA, the father of Hafsa RA, lead instead. The Prophet ﷺ saw through the plan. He compared the two women to the women around Yusuf AS, and insisted on Abu Bakr RA. From then until the Prophet ﷺ's death, Abu Bakr RA led the congregational prayers. In ten years in Madinah, this was the first time anyone other than the Prophet ﷺ had led them as a standing arrangement. A day or two before his death, the Prophet ﷺ found enough strength to be carried out to a Zuhr prayer that had already begun. He signalled to Abu Bakr RA to stay where he was. Out of respect, Abu Bakr RA insisted that the Prophet ﷺ take the imam's place instead. The Prophet ﷺ then led the prayer sitting down, while Abu Bakr RA stood beside him and repeated his takbirs aloud for the people. Sunni scholars read this moment as the clearest sign of whom the Prophet ﷺ wanted the ummah to follow after him. He gave that sign without ever naming a successor outright. After that Zuhr prayer, he stood on the minbar for the last time. He urged the people to take care of the Ansar, because they had fulfilled what they owed. In those last days he also gave orders from his sickbed. He ordered that the polytheists be expelled from the Arabian Peninsula. He ordered that delegations be honoured with gifts, as he had honoured them. Three days before his death, he told the people that none of them should die except while thinking well of Allah. Ali RA reports that among his very last words were "The prayer, the prayer, and fear Allah regarding those whom your right hands possess." On the Sunday before he died, the Prophet ﷺ asked Aisha RA how much money was left in the house. She brought him the seven silver coins (dirhams) that remained. He insisted that they be given away at once. He asked what he could expect from Allah if he met Him with those coins still in his possession. When he died he owned no gold or silver at all. He left only some barley in a small cup, his mule, and a plot of land he had already given to the poor. His armour was pledged to a Jewish creditor in Madinah for 30 sa' of barley. At Fajr on Monday, 12 Rabi' al-Awwal, he was too weak to lead the prayer himself, so Abu Bakr RA led it as usual. The Prophet ﷺ asked to be sat up so that he could lift the curtain between his room and the Masjid. When he saw his ummah praying in rows, his joy was plain to see. The sahaba were so happy that they nearly broke off their own prayer. It was the last time they ever saw his face. In those final days Fatimah RA, the last of his children still alive, came to see him. He told her privately that his time had come. He also told her that she would be the first of his family to join him, and that she would be the leader of the women of Jannah. She kept this news secret until after his death, and then she told Aisha RA. As the pangs of death grew stronger, he was heard repeating, "There is no god but Allah. Verily, death has its pangs." He also made du'a, asking Allah to help him bear it. Usama ibn Zayd RA had turned his expedition back when he heard of the illness, and he came to visit. The Prophet ﷺ could no longer speak. He could only make a weak gesture towards the sky, again and again, in silent blessing. Aisha RA held him against her chest. Later she gave him a miswak she had borrowed from her brother, Abd al-Rahman ibn Abi Bakr RA, and he used it with unusual vigour. At midday on Monday, 12 Rabi' al-Awwal, 11 AH, in the heat of the day, his gaze was lifted upward. Aisha RA leaned in to listen. She heard him ask to be joined with the prophets, the truthful, the martyrs and the righteous. Three times he repeated, "O Allah, forgive me, have mercy on me, and let me be with al-Rafiq al-A'la." These were his last words. He passed away in her house, on her day, in her lap. The news of his death threw Madinah into shock. Umar RA could not accept it. He threatened to strike anyone who repeated the claim. He insisted that the Prophet ﷺ had only gone to Allah, as Musa AS once had for forty days. That morning, Abu Bakr RA had seen the Prophet ﷺ smile and assumed he was recovering, so he had gone home to Awali. Now he rode back at once. He confirmed the death at Aisha RA's house and kissed the Prophet ﷺ's forehead. Then he spoke to the people in the Masjid from the lower step of the minbar. He did not stand on its top step, and every khalifa and khatib after him kept to the same restraint. Abu Bakr RA declared that whoever worshipped Muhammad ﷺ should know that Muhammad ﷺ had died. But whoever worshipped Allah should know that Allah is ever-living and does not die. Then he recited Qur'an 3:144. When Umar RA heard the verse, he collapsed. He said it was as if he had never heard it before. Several sahaba composed elegies (ritha') for the Prophet ﷺ. The most famous were by his poet, Hassan ibn Thabit RA. On Tuesday, his household gathered to wash his body. Ibn Ishaq names them as al-Abbas RA, al-Abbas RA's sons al-Fadl RA and Qutham RA, Ali ibn Abi Talib RA, Usama ibn Zayd RA, and the freed slave Shuqran. It is reported that an unseen voice guided them to wash him with his clothes still on. He was shrouded in three plain white cloths from Yemen, without a shirt or turban. The sahaba disagreed about where to bury him. Abu Bakr RA remembered that the Prophet ﷺ had said a prophet is buried wherever his soul is taken. So a grave was dug under the very spot in Aisha RA's room where he had died. No one led the funeral prayer. Instead, the people of Madinah came in and prayed over him in groups, first the men, then the women, then the children. He was buried in the middle of the night between Tuesday and Wednesday. Fatimah RA saw the fresh grave where his bed had been, and she could not hold back her grief. Anas ibn Malik RA had served the Prophet ﷺ for ten years. He remembered that on the day the Prophet ﷺ entered Madinah, everything in it was lit up. On the day he died, everything in it went dark. Anas RA said they had hardly dusted the earth off their hands from burying him before they felt their hearts had changed.

Placed here because: Ep. 100: "he ﷺ is going to pass away on the 12th of Rabi' al-Awwal in the 11th year of the Hijrah."

When news of the Prophet ﷺ's death reached Makkah, many people there began to think about leaving Islam. Almost everyone then living in Makkah had become Muslim only after the Conquest of Makkah. Mobs gathered, and the governor whom the Prophet ﷺ had appointed over Makkah feared for his life and went into hiding. Suhayl ibn Amr had become one of the most devout of these new Muslims. He stood in front of the Ka'bah and gave the crowd a fiery warning. He told them not to be the last people to accept Islam and the first to abandon it. His words calmed the mobs and brought the governor out of hiding.

Placed here because: Shortly after the news reached Makkah.

Musaylimah, whose real name was Maslamah ibn Habib, was a leader of the Banu Hanifa. He was an old man who had studied Christianity in Jerusalem in his youth, and he was respected across the whole region of al-Yamama. In the Year of Delegations he came to Madinah. His followers carried him into the mosque shielded by fine cloth, as if he were a king. He offered to follow the Prophet ﷺ on two conditions: that he be made the Prophet ﷺ's successor, and that he be given a share in prophethood. The Prophet ﷺ was holding a palm branch at the time. He told Musaylimah that he would not give him even that stick, and that Allah would deal with him. He added that he was certain Musaylimah was what Allah had shown him in a dream. In that dream the Prophet ﷺ saw two gold bracelets on his arms, blew on them, and they flew away. He understood them to be two liars who would appear after him, al-Aswad al-Ansi and Musaylimah of al-Yamama. When Musaylimah returned home, he wrote a letter to the Prophet ﷺ. He wrote it as one messenger of Allah to another, and claimed that the matter was shared between them, half for the Quraysh and half for him. The Prophet ﷺ asked the two men who brought the letter what they themselves believed, and they said they agreed with it. He told them that, were it not for the rule that envoys are never harmed, he would have had them executed. Musaylimah also made up verses in imitation of the Qur'an, including one about a frog and another about an elephant. One passing Arab told him to his face that they both knew he was a liar. After the Prophet ﷺ died, many tribes abandoned Islam, and the Muslims fought them in what are called the Ridda (apostasy) wars. The Banu Hanifa were the largest and the worst of these tribes, and they rose behind Musaylimah. In 12 AH the caliph Abu Bakr sent Khalid ibn al-Walid against them. The battle at Yamama was the bloodiest of the Ridda wars. Among the Muslims who marched was Wahshi, the man who had killed Hamzah at Uhud before he became Muslim. When he heard of the false prophet, he asked Allah to let him take Musaylimah's life in exchange for Hamzah's. He carried the same javelin and threw it at Musaylimah as he had once thrown it at Hamzah. At the same moment, a man of the Ansar struck Musaylimah with a sword from the other side. Wahshi said that only Allah knew which of them had killed Musaylimah. Many Companions died in the battle. One was Abu Hudhayfah ibn Utbah, who had spoken a sentence at Badr that he regretted for the rest of his life. He used to say he would never feel safe from it unless Allah accepted him as a martyr. Another was Ukasha ibn Mihsan. His sword had broken at Badr, and a stick the Prophet ﷺ handed him became a sword in his hand. He fought with it in every battle until he fell at Yamama.

Placed here because: Ep. 96: "Musaylimah was eventually killed in the Wars of Ridda [12 AH] by none other than Wahshi." The one battle after the Prophet ﷺ's death whose threads the lectures follow.