The Prophet's visit to the mosque turned out to be only an interlude of wakefulness which precedes death. After he returned home, every minute saw further deterioration of his health. There was no doubt that he had only a few hours to live. How did he spend these last few hours of his life? What was his last vision? Did he spend those precious moments reviewing the career he had lived since God had commissioned him to prophethood and appointed him a guide to mankind? Did he recall the hardships he suffered, the joys he experienced, and the spiritual and military victories he achieved? Or did he spend his last moments praying to God and asking for mercy with all his soul and all his mind as he used to do throughout his life? Or was he too weak to review anything and too unconscious even to pray? The reports vary widely. Most reports tell that on that day, i.e., June 8, 632 C.E., one of the hottest days in Arabia, Muhammad asked for a pitcher of cold water in which he dipped his hands and wiped his face. Most reports state that a man from the clan of Abu Bakr entered the quarters of `A'ishah carrying a toothbrush in his hand. Muhammad looked at him in a way expressive of his desire to obtain the toothbrush. `A'ishah took the toothbrush from her relative and worked it out until it became pliable and handed it over to Muhammad who used it to brush his teeth.
The same reports also tell that as the agonies of death became stronger, the Prophet turned to God in prayer saying: "0, God, help me overcome the agonies of death." `A'ishah reported that his head was in her lap during the last hour. She said, "The Prophet's head was getting heavier in my lap. I looked at his face and found that his eyes had become fixed. I heard him murmur, 'Rather, God on High and Paradise.' I said to him, 'By Him who sent you as a Prophet to teach the truth, you have been given the choice and you chose well.' The Prophet of God expired while his head was on my side between my lungs and my heart. It was my youth and inexperience that made me let him die in my lap. I then placed his head on the pillow and rose to bemoan my fate and to join the other women in our bereavement and sorrow."
Did Muhammad truly die? That is the question over which the Arabs differed greatly at the time, indeed so greatly that they almost came to blows. Thanks to God's will and care, the division was quickly stamped out and the religion of the Hanifs, God's true religion, emerged unscathed.
Upon hearing the news and hardly believing it, 'Umar returned quickly to the Prophet's quarters. Upon arrival, he went straight to Muhammad's bed, uncovered and looked at his face for a while. He perceived its motionlessness and deathlike appearance as a coma from which he believed Muhammad would soon emerge. A1 Mughirah tried in vain to convince `Umar of the painful fact. `Umar, however, continued to believe firmly that Muhammad did not die. When al Mughirah insisted, `Umar said to him in anger, "You lie." The two went to the mosque together while `Umar was proclaiming at the top of his voice, "Some hypocrites are pretending that the Prophet of God-may God's peace and blessing be upon him-has died. By God I swear that he did not die: that he has gone to join his Lord, just as Moses went before. Moses absented himself from his people fourteen consecutive nights and returned to them after they had declared him dead. By God, the Prophet of God will return just as Moses returned. Any man who dares to perpetrate a false rumor such as Muhammad's death shall have his arms and legs cut off by this hand."
At the mosque, the Muslims heard these proclamations from `Umar-they were shocked and stupefied. If Muhammad truly died, woe unto all those who saw him and heard him, who believed in him and in the God Who sent him a conveyor of true guidance and religion. Their bereavement would be so great that their hearts and minds would break asunder. If, on the other hand, it were true that Muhammad had not died but had gone to join his Lord, as `Umar claimed, that was reason for an even greater shock. The Muslims should then await his return which, like that of Moses, would be all the more reason for wonder. The Muslim crowds sat around `Umar and listened to him, inclined as they were to agree with him that the Prophet of God did not die. At any rate, they could not associate death with the man whom they had beheld in person only a few hours before and whose clear and resonant voice they had heard pray and invoke God's mercy and blessing. Moreover, they could not convince themselves that the friend whom God had chosen for the conveyance of His divine message, to whom all the Arabs had submitted, and to whom Chosroes and Heraclius were also soon to submit, could possibly die. They could not believe that a man could die who had shown such power as had shaken the world for twenty consecutive years and had produced the greatest spiritual storm of history. The women, however, were still beating their faces and crying at Muhammad's house, a sure sign that Muhammad had really died. Yet, here in the mosque, `Umar was still proclaiming that Muhammad had not died; and that he had gone to join his Lord as Moses had done; that those who spoke of Muhammad's death were hypocrites who would suffer the cutting of their arms and necks by Muhammad upon his return. What would the Muslims believe? As they recovered from their severe shock, hope began to stir within them in consequence of `Umar's claim that Muhammad was to return, and soon they almost believed their own wishes. Their wishful thinking had apparently painted for them the sky a beautiful blue.
As they wavered between believing `Umar or the indubitable meaning of the women's crying, Abu Bakr heard the news and returned from al Sunh. He looked through the door of the mosque and saw the Muslims being addressed by `Umar, but he did not tarry there. He went straight to the quarters of `A'ishah and asked for permission to enter. He was answered that there was no need that day for. permission. He entered and found the Prophet laid down in a corner and covered with a striped cloth. He approached, uncovered the face and kissed it, saying, "How wholesome you are, whether alive or dead!" He then held the Prophet's head in his hands and looked closely at the face which showed no sign whatever of death's attack. Laying it down again, he said, "What would I not have sacrificed for you! The one death which God has decreed for you, as for any other man, to taste, you have now tasted. Henceforth, no death shall ever befall you." He covered the head with the striped cloth and went straight to the mosque where `Umar was still proclaiming loudly that Muhammad had not died. The crowds made a way for him to the front, and as he came close to `Umar he said to him "Softly, O `Umar ! Keep silent!" But `Umar would not stop talking and continued repeating the same claim. Abu Bakr rose and made a sign to the people that he wished to address them. No one could have dared impose himself upon the congregation in such manner except Abu Bakr, for he was the ever trustworthy friend of the Prophet, whom Muhammad would have chosen from among all men. Hence, it was natural that the people hastened to respond to his call and move away from `Umar.
After praising and thanking God, Abu Bakr delivered the following brief address: "O Men, if you have been worshipping Muhammad, then know that Muhammad is dead. But if you have been worshipping God, then know that God is living and never dies."