Death of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ

# The Death of the Prophet ﷺ

The Twelfth of Rabi al-Awwal

The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ died on the twelfth of Rabi' al-Awwal, 11 AH — a Monday, the same day of the week on which he had been born, and the same month. He was sixty-three years old. He died in the chamber of Aisha bint Abi Bakr, with his head resting on her chest, in the forenoon of the day. The moment of his death was, in its physical details, among the most intimate and human of any event in the seerah: a man in his wife's arms, lips moving in prayer, hand going still.

The illness had lasted thirteen days. In the final hours, Aisha had softened his siwak with her saliva and given it to him. He had brushed his teeth — his last physical act of cleanliness and Sunnah — and then laid back. His lips were moving and Aisha leaned in to hear. He was saying: "With the highest companions. O Allah, with the highest companions. O Allah, with the highest companions." The phrase referred to the company of prophets and the righteous in the highest realm of paradise. He was, in his last conscious moments, asking for that company rather than for continued life in the world. Then his hand grew heavy in hers, and he was gone.

The Moment of Death

The narrations describe the moment with precision that reflects the companions' awareness that they were witnessing something of absolute historical weight. Aisha reports feeling his weight increase in her arms. Abdur-Rahman ibn Abi Bakr, her brother, came into the room with a fresh siwak. Aisha reports watching the Prophet ﷺ look at it with longing. She softened it for him and gave it to him. He used it — the narrations describe him using it "as well as he could" — and then put it down.

Then the Prophet ﷺ raised his gaze upward and his lips moved: "With the highest companions." His hand fell. Aisha later said: "Allah honored him by letting him choose, and he chose the highest companions. I knew when he said those words that he had chosen what is with Allah over what is with us."

The Companions' Response

The news spread rapidly through Medina. The response of the community was immediate and total crisis. The Prophet ﷺ had been, for the Muslim community, not only a prophet and political leader but the living center of their world — the source of revelation, the arbiter of all disputes, the voice of Allah's word, the model of Islamic life. The community had no framework for his absence.

Umar ibn al-Khattab — the second most powerful man in the Muslim community and among the strongest personalities in Medina — drew his sword and declared that anyone who said the Prophet ﷺ had died would have his head cut off. He was not speaking metaphorically: he refused to accept the death and threatened physical violence against those who announced it. The companions who heard him were paralyzed.

Abu Bakr came and went directly to Aisha's chamber. He uncovered the face of the Prophet ﷺ, kissed his forehead, and wept. He said: "O my Prophet. O my dear friend." Then he covered the Prophet's ﷺ face and went out to address the community. He said: "Whoever worshipped Muhammad — Muhammad has died. And whoever worshipped Allah — Allah is alive and does not die." He recited Surah Al Imran 3:144: "And Muhammad is no more than a messenger; the messengers have already passed away before him. If he dies or is killed, will you turn back on your heels? And whoever turns back on his heels will not harm Allah at all. And Allah will reward those who are grateful."

Umar said: "By Allah, it was as if I had never heard this verse before. My legs went out from under me and I fell to the ground. I knew the Prophet ﷺ had died." Abu Bakr's recitation of the verse — the Quranic answer to the community's paralysis — was the first pastoral act of what would become his caliphate.

The Burial

The question of where to bury the Prophet ﷺ arose immediately. A narration preserved in the sources records Abu Bakr saying that he had heard the Prophet ﷺ say: "No prophet has been buried except in the place where he died." The companions therefore buried the Prophet ﷺ beneath the bed in Aisha's chamber — the spot where he had died. Aisha lived in the room with the grave for the rest of her life. When the mosque was later expanded by Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz during the Umayyad period, the chamber of Aisha was incorporated into the mosque, and the grave of the Prophet ﷺ was enclosed within the expanded structure. The green dome that marks the site today was constructed later, over the tomb that contains the Prophet ﷺ, Abu Bakr, and Umar ibn al-Khattab.

The Legacy

The death of the Prophet ﷺ closed a chapter of human history that had lasted twenty-three years — from the first revelation in the Cave of Hira to the final breath in Aisha's arms. In those twenty-three years, a community had been built from nothing: from a single man who could tell no one but his wife, to a governing community of Arabia that was receiving the delegations of every tribe on the peninsula. The revelation that had come word by word across those years was complete — the Quran preserved by thousands of memorizers and in written form. The Sunnah had been observed by thousands of companions who narrated what they had seen, heard, and understood. The community the Prophet ﷺ left behind was prepared, in ways that no human could have designed, to carry the message he had been sent to deliver.

Sources: Sahih al-Bukhari (Kitab al-Maghazi, Kitab al-Jana'iz); Sahih Muslim; Ibn Hisham, al-Sira al-Nabawiyya; Ibn Kathir, al-Bidayah wan-Nihayah; Ibn Sa'd, al-Tabaqat al-Kubra; Surah Al Imran (3:144)