The Passing Away of Our Prophet Muhammad (sallallaahu alayhi wasallam)
The calamity of his death (sallallaahu alayhi wasallam) is amongst the first of the signs of the nearness of the Hour. Awf bin Malik had said: I came to the Prophet (sallallaahu alayhi wasallam) in the expedition of Tabuk and he was in a leather tent. He said:
Count six (matters) prior to the Hour: My death, then the conquering of the Bayt al-Maqdis (Jerusalem), then two deaths (plagues) in which you will be taken like disease-stricken animals, then the abundance of wealth such that a man will become angry when he receives a hundred dinars - [meaning that wealth will increase so much and people will be wealthy such that a man will not be pleased except with thousands of dinars] - then a tribulation that will not leave a single house amongst the Arabs except that it will enter it, then a truce between you and the Romans (Europeans) who will then prove treacherous and will march upon you with eighty ranks, each rank containing twelve-thousand (men).[1]
The death of our Prophet (sallallaahu alayhi wasallam) is from the greatest of the calamities which befell the Muslims, and in the eyes of the Companions (radiallaahu anhum) Madinah became gloomy when he died (sallallaahu alayhi wasallam). For by his death (sallallaahu alayhi wasallam), revelation from the heaven stopped and it was the beginning of the emergence of tribulations and the apostacy of some of the Arabs from Islam.
Notes
- Reported by al-Bukhari.
Source: (نهاية العالم) of Muhammad al-Areefee (1430H).
