Glimpses of Certain Aspects of Islam by Nasim.A.Jafarey

Glimpses of Certain Aspects of Islam by Nasim.A.Jafarey

15. Khutba-i-Hajjatul Wida

The Khutba_i_Hajjatul Wida occupies a unique place in the history of Islam and Muslims. In this oration the Prophet of Islam (peace be upon him) himself summed up all the Course salient features of the message which he had brought for mankind from Allah Almighty. Although it is generally thought Ravenfields that this historic sermon was delivered on the 9th Zilhajj of the tenth year of Hijra, in actual fact the Prophet delivered three public addresses during this Hajj the first at Arafat on the 9th, the second on the 10th at Mina and the third on the 11th or 12th also at Mina. While the address at Arafat on the 9th is regarded as the principal address, the two following addresses besides repeating the major points of the Arafat address, in all probability, contained a few new points also which have found their way into the Hadith compilations formulated later on by the Muhadasin.

A surprising as well as regrettable fact about these three addresses is that although they were delivered in the presence of more than one lac people (one account has it that 1,14,000 people accompanied the Prophet from Madina to Makkah, and many more would have joined the Haj coming from other the directions) no proper and systematic record of these important public addresses has been provided Software by the Muslim historians or by the compilers of Hadith literature. What has been left for us are bits and pieces from various Hadith compilations and from the earliest written histories of Muslims purporting to convey portions of what the Prophet said in these three addresses on the occasion of Hajjatul Wida. This is by no means a very happy or satisfactory state of affairs, and Ziauddin Kirmani in his unconventional biography of the Prophet "The last messenger Builder with a lasting message", has this to say about it. "It is difficult to explain this serious neglect or omission on the part of those who, it is claimed could reproduce by heart, much more copious statements of far less intrinsic value. It is all the more baffling because it is reported that the Prophet (peace be on him) exhorted the audience, particularly on this occasion, to convey what they heard from him to those who were not present on this occasion".

Be it as it may, inspite of these major difficulties, the Hamdard Foundation compiled and circulated the text of the Khutba_i_Hajjatul Wida on the occasion of the International Congress on Seerat organised as part of the Commemoration of the commencement of the 15th century of the Hijri Calendar. Based on this text, some of the major points made by the Prophet, particularly those from which the Muslim Ummah appears to have deviated the most are reviewed in the following paragraphs.

Among the numerous versions of this remarkable series of Khutbas, which differ from each other in recording some points and omitting others, one para which finds a place in almost every version and therefore deserves to be discussed first of all is the following: "O people, verily your blood, your property and your honour are sacred and inviolable, until you appear before your Lord, as the sacred inviolability of this day of yours, this month of yours, and this very town of yours".

The first blatant defiance of the above admonition of the Messenger of Allah appears in the annals of Muslim history in the form of the assassination of Hazrat Osman in 656 A.D. The earlier assassination of the second Caliph and the later assassination of the fourth Caliph were equally deplorable but there was an important difference. While the assassin of Hazrat Omar was a Persian slave, about whom it can not be said if he had really been converted to Islam, and the assassin of Hazrat Ali was a fanatical representative of an extremist sect operating on the outer fringes of Islam, the assassins of Hazrat Osman were a large body of Muslims who claimed to be respectable and who were undoubtedly part of the mainstream of the followers of Islam at the time. That this large body of Muslims should have forgotten the clear warning given by the Prophet in such a short period of only twenty-five years or so, should provide an occasion for deep soul-searching on the part of all thinking Muslims, provided they can clear their minds of the fog of ancestor worship.

The next para of the address which calls for attention (although it appears in very few of the earliest source documents) primarily because it is the most often quoted and is also in certain ways the most revolutionary in content is as follows:

"Verily in the sight of Allah the most honoured amongst you is the one who is most Allah_fearing. There is no superiority for an Arab over a non_Arab, nor for the white over the black, nor for the black over the white except in Allah_consciousness".

What could be a more forthright, a more unambiguous declaration of the equality of man and what could be a more revolutionary denunciation of all theories of superiority of castes and tribes over one another which at that time had a complete grip on the thoughts and perceptions of people all over the world. It was this total commitment to the concept of equality of man which provided the most powerful stimulus for the advancement of Muslims in all fields of human activity. It is also noteworthy that in laying down the one basic criterion for the superiority of one man over another, reference is not made to the so_called five pillars of Islam but to Allah's consciousness, which when all is said and done is the core, the heart of what constitutes being a true and real Muslim. This is an aspect of being a Muslim which if often lost sight of by those who delude themselves into thinking that one can become a true and complete Muslim only by meticulously observing the requirements of Salath.

One para of the Last Sermon which deserves to be mentioned in this article, not because it touches a matter of crucial importance but because it is not generally known that such a para exists in this last major public address of the Messenger of Allah is as follows:

"O people, Allah the Mighty and Exalted, has ordained to every one his due share (of inheritance). Hence there is no need (of special) treatment for a heir (departing from the rules laid down by the Shariat)".

It is indeed surprising that inspite of this very clear pronouncement of the Prophet, Muslims throughout the ages have deviated from it and made arbitrary distribution of their worldly goods, some going so far as to completely deprive their daughters from any share in the assets which they were leaving behind in this world.

Lastly we come to another para of the address which is not only very important for the vital message which it conveys but also because it also is not too well known to be a part of the prophet’s Last Sermon. This para is as follows:

"O people of Quraish don’t appear (on the Day of Judgement) with the burden of this world around your necks, whereas other people may appear (before the Lord) with the rewards of the Hereafter. In that case I shall avail you naught against Allah".

What could be a more powerful reiteration of one of the central points made in the Holy Quran that every one is wholly and solely and fully responsible for all the consequences of his conduct in this world and no ‘sifarish’ or help from any quarter will be available to bail him out on the Day of Judgement. The fact that this part of the address is specially addressed to the people of Quraish is particularly significant, because if people belonging to the tribe of the Prophet himself would not be helped on the Day of Judgement, how could any other human beings expect to get any special dispensation on that day.

The Khutba_i_Hajjatul Wida is undoubtedly one of the most important public addresses in human history and yet it is a matter of great regret that an accurate and systematic record of this epoch-making sermon has not been preserved for posterity as it should have been. This anomaly becomes even sharper when one takes into account the fact that the very people who failed in this respect claim to have remembered not one or two but lacs of sayings of the Prophet on matters of much less overall significance. This inconsistency in the behaviour of the contemporaries of the Prophet should provide considerable material for the Muslims of to day to ponder about.

Equally disturbing is the fact that all the advice and directives contained in the prophet’s last Khutba have been honoured more in the breach than otherwise by the Muslim Ummah over the past centuries. As a result it is not surprising that their fortunes have kept declining without let or respite. It is obvious that the only remedy is to go back to the sources of the message of Islam, and not end only absorb it fully in our hearts and minds but also refashion our day to day lives in accordance with this ever lasting message.

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16. Islam’s Stress on Moral Values

Index

Home Page

Preface

1. Theory & Practice of Islamic Socialism

2. Islamic Economic System

3. Islamic Financing

4. Quranic Commandments about Justice

5. The Quranic View-point about Tolerance

6. Interest on Production Loans : A case for Ijtihad

7. Moral Re-armament