Excellent Qualities and Description of the Prophet

`A'isha told that God's messenger used to say when he was well ta t a prophet is not taken before being shown his resting-place in paradise and being given his choice. `A'isha said that when death I approached him when his head was on her thigh he fainted, and when he came round, he stared at the ceiling and said, "O God, [put me among] the highest companions." She said, ``That means he is not choosing us;" and she recognised that this was what he had been talking to them about when he was well and said that a prophet is not taken before being shown his resting-place in paradise and being given his choice. `A'isha said the Prophet's last words were "0 God, [put me among] the highest companions." (Bukhari and Muslim.)

She told that in the illness from which he died God's messenger I was saying, ```A'isha, I still feel the pain from the food I ate at Khaibar, and this is the time when I feel my aorta being cut because of that 'poison." Bukhari transmitted it.

When God's messenger's death was near and some men among whom was `Umar b. al-Khattab were in the house the Prophet said, "Come, let me write for you a document after which you will never go astray." `Umar said, "The pain has got the mastery over him, and you have the Quran. God's Book is enough for you." But the people in the house disagreed and disputed, some saying, "Bring the materials and let God's messenger write for you," and other saying what `Umar had said. Then when they clamored and disagreed to a great extent God's messenger said, "Get up and leave me." `Ubaidallah[1] told that Ibn `Abbas used to say it was a terrible calamity which intervened to prevent God's messenger from writing that document for them owing to their disagreement and clamour. In the version of Sulaiman b. Abu Muslim al-Ahwal Ibn `Abbassaid, "Thursday, what a Thursday!'' and then wept till his tears wet the pebbles. Ibn `Abbas was asked what about Thursday and replied, "God's messenger's pain became severe and he said, 'If you bring me a shoulderblade I shall write you a document after which you will never go astray.' They quarrelled, a thing most unfitting in a prophet's presence, asked what was the matter with him, whether he was delirious, and said they should ask him for an explanation. They then kept at him, so he said, `Leave me alone and let me be, for what I am engaged in is better than what you are summoning me to.' He then gave them three commands. He told them to expel the polytheists from Arabia and to reward deputations as he had been accustomed to do, but he either did not mention the third, or he did so and I have forgotten it." Sufyan said this is from what Sulaiman said. 1. 'Ubaidallah b. 'Abdallah b. 'Utba b. Mas'ud (d. 96 A.H.), one of the seven famous jurisconsults of Medina. (Bukhari and Mislim.)

Anas told that Abu Bakr said to `Umar after the death of God's messenger, "Come and let us visit Umm Aiman as God's messenger used to do." When Anas and they came to her she wept and they[*] said, "What makes you weep? Do you not know that what is with God is better for God's messenger?" She replied, "I am not weeping because I do not know that what is with God most high is better for God's messenger, but I am weeping because the revelation from heaven has come to an end." She thus stirred them to weep and they began to weep along with her. *The verb is dual, referring to Abu Bakr and `UmarMuslim transmitted it.

During the illness of which he died God's messenger came out to us when we were in the mosque with a rag tied round his head and made for the pulpit. When he had sat on it he made us come near[*] and then said, "By Him in whose hands my soul is, I am looking at the Pond from this place where I am." He then said, "A man was offered the world and its adornment but chose the next." Abu Bakr was the only one who appreciated his meaning, so tears dropped from his eyes, he wept and said, "No; we shall ransom you with our fathers, our mothers, our persons and our property, messenger of God." He then came down from the pulpit and never mounted it again. *Literally, made us follow him.Darimi transmitted it.

On receiving the revelation, "When God's help and the victory come ..." 1 God's messenger called Fatima and said, "News of my death has been given me." She wept and he said, "Do not weep, for you will be the first of my family to join me." She then laughed, and some of the Prophet's wives who had seen her said, "We saw you weep and then laugh, Fatima." She replied, "He told me he had been given news of his death and I wept, then he told me not to weep for I would be the first member of his family to join him, so I laughed." And God's messenger said, "`When God's help and the victory come,' and the people of the Yemen come,[2] who are those with the tenderest hearts. Faith pertains to the Yemen and wisdom pertains to the Yemen." Quran; 110 This is taken as an interpretation of the meaning of the second verse of 110: "And you see the people entering God's religion in crowds."Darimi transmitted it.

`A'isha told that she said, "O my head!'' and that God's messenger said, "If you were to die[*] while I am alive I would ask forgiveness for you and make supplication on your behalf." `A'isha then said, "Alas! I swear by God that I think you want me to die; and if that happened you would spend that night with one of your wives." The Prophet replied, "Stop worrying about your head and think of me. I purposed (or, wished) to send to Abu Bakr and his son and make him my successor lest people should talk, or people who hoped for the succession should have their hopes raised; then I thought that God wants nothing else and that the believers will prevent anything else," or, "that God will prevent anything else and that the believers want nothing else." *Literally, if that happened.Bukhari transmitted it.

One day God's messenger came back from al-Baqi from a funeral when I was suffering from a headache and saying, "0 my head!" He said, "Stop worrying about your head, `A'isha, and think of me. It would not harm you if you were to die before me and I were to wash, shroud, pray over you and bury you." I replied, "I swear by God it seems to me that if you were to do that you would come back to my house and spend the night in it with one of your wives." God's messenger smiled, and after that the pain of which he died began. Darimi transmitted it.

When God's messenger became ill Gabriel came to him and said, "God has sent me to you, Muhammad, to show honour and regard specially for yourself and ask you about something He knows better than you, viz. how you are." He replied, "I find myself, Gabriel, worried, and I find myself, Gabriel, full of care." Then he came to him next day and said that to him and the Prophet gave him the same reply as he had given the previous day. He came again on the third day and said the same as he had said on the first day, and he gave him the same reply. Along with him came an angel called Isma'il who was in command of a hundred thousand angels each of whom was in command of a hundred1, Ja'far as-Sadiq quotes his father Muhammad al-Baqir, who tells about his father 'Ali Zain al-'Abidin. thousand angels. He asked permission to enter, and when the Prophet asked about him Gabriel replied, "This is the angel of death who is asking permission to come in to you, a thing he has never done to any human being before you and will never do to any human being after you." He told him to let him come in, and when that was done, he gave him a salutation and said, "God has sent me to you, Muhammad, and if you order me to take your spirit I shall do so, but if you order me to leave it alone I shall do so." He asked, "Will you do that, angel of death?" and he replied, "Yes, that is what I have been commanded, and I have been commanded to obey you." God's messenger then looked at Gabriel and Gabriel said, "God has longed to meet you, Muhammad," so the Prophet said to the angel-of death, "Go on with what you have been commanded," and he took his spirit. When God's messenger died and condolence came, they heard a voice from the corner of the house saying, "Peace, God's mercy and blessings be upon you, members of the family. In God there is comfort for every calamity, a successor for everyone who perishes, and a recompense for everything which passes away, so by God's help guard yourselves and in Him place your hopes for the one who is smitten is he who is deprived of reward." `Ali then asked if they knew who this was and said it was al-Khidr. *Jafar as Sadiq quotes his father Muhammad al Baqir, who tells about his father, Ali Zain al Abidin.Baihaqi transmitted it in Dala'il an-nubuwa.

`A'isha said God's messenger did not leave a dinar or a dirham, or a sheep or a camel, and did not make a will about anything. Muslim transmitted it.

`Amr b. al-Harith, the brother of Juwairiya, said that when God's messenger died, he did not leave a dinar or a dirham, a slave or a slave-woman, or anything but his white she-mule, his weapons and some land which he appointed as sadaqa. Bukhari transmitted it.

Abu Huraira reported God's messenger as saying, "My heirs will not share a dinar. What I leave after providing maintenance for my wives and provision for the one who succeed me is sadaqa." (Bukhari and Muslim.)

Abu Bakr reported God's messenger as saying, "We[*] do not leave an inheritance; what we leave is sadaqa." i.e., the prophet.(Bukhari and Muslim.)

Abu Musa reported the Prophet as saying, "When God purposes mercy to a people among His servants He takes their prophet and makes him a forerunner who goes before them; but when He purposes to destroy a people, He punishes them while their prophet is alive, destroys them while he is there to see, and comforts him by their destruction when they disbelieved him and disobeyed his command." Muslim transmitted it.

Abu Huraira reported God's messenger as saying, "By Him in whose hand my soul is, a day will come to one of you when he will not see me; and then a sight of me will be dearer to him than his family and his property along with them." Muslim transmitted it.