Part 8

Last Illness

According to Aisha, 'I had a headache and complained “My head! My head!” And he (Muhammad) replied, “No, Aisha. My head!” Then he said, “Wouldst thou be distressed to die before me, that I might stand over thee and bury thee?” But I exclaimed, “If that were to happen, I can see thee no sooner bury me than return to my house, to celebrate thy wedding with some other woman!”

With eleven wives the apostle consummated his mar¬riages. Two died before him, namely Khadija and Zaynab, but nine survived him. With two others he did not consummate marriage: with Asma, who had the white spots of leprosy and whom he sent back to her family; and with Amra, who had lately been an unbeliever and who fled.

While the apostle was sick the people delayed the expedition he had commanded, but he said, 'Carry out the expedition to the Syrian border', and the people hastened their preparations.

Now Umar rose before the people and said, 'Some Hypocrites say that the apostle of Allah is dead! He has not died, but has departed to his Lord, just as Moses left his people for forty days, and returned to them when it was rumoured he was dead. By Allah! The apostle will return just as Moses did, and the hands and feet of the men who have said that the apostle is dead will be cut off!'

Aisha, who survived the apostle forty seven years, recorded, 'When the apostle of Allah died many Arabs relapsed into idolatry; Judaism and Christianity, and Hypocrisy became common, so that the Muslims seemed like a flock of sheep on a wintry night, because of the loss of their prophet. Then Allah roused them again under Abu Bakr.'

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