Burial of the Prophet

# Burial of the Prophet

The burial of the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) on 13 Rabi al-Awwal, 11 AH (approximately 9-10 June 632 CE) was carried out with careful deliberation by his family and closest companions, in circumstances made uniquely difficult by the grief of the community and the question of where and how a prophet should be interred.

The Delay in Burial

The Prophet's body lay in Aisha's chamber while the companions debated and the political crisis of succession was resolved at the Saqifah of Banu Sa'idah. By Arabian custom, the dead were buried quickly; but the prophetic burial required both resolution of the leadership question and careful preparation.

There was also a brief debate about where the burial should occur. Various opinions were raised: Mecca (the sacred city of his birth), the Baqee' cemetery in Medina where many companions had been buried, or even Jerusalem. Abu Bakr settled the question by citing a hadith he had heard from the Prophet: "No prophet is buried except in the place where he died." The burial would take place in Aisha's chamber.

Preparation of the Body

The Prophet's body was washed by members of his family and close male relatives. The primary participants were: Ali ibn Abi Talib (his cousin and son-in-law), al-Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib (his uncle), al-Fadl ibn Abbas, Qutham ibn Abbas, Usamah ibn Zayd, and Shaqran (a servant). They kept the Prophet's garments on during the washing, out of respect.

He was wrapped in three white cloths from Yemen — not the two-piece ihram garments and not a shirt with a collar, but three enveloping sheets. His body was then placed on a bed.

The Prayer Over the Prophet

The funeral prayer (salat al-janazah) over the Prophet was performed in a manner unlike any other funeral in Islamic history. The companions could not agree on who would lead the prayer — it was not fitting for any single person to stand in the Prophet's place as imam — and so the prayer was performed in groups without a single imam.

The men entered in groups: first the men of the Prophet's family, then the Muhajirun (Meccan emigrants), then the Ansar (Medinan supporters), then women, then children. Each group prayed the funeral prayer individually over the body. The prayer continued through the night and into the following day, with groups rotating to allow all Muslims access.

The Grave

A grave was dug in Aisha's chamber beneath the bed on which the Prophet had died. There was a brief question about the type of grave: Abu Ubayda ibn al-Jarrah, who had learned the Syrian style (shaq — a straight trench), and Abu Talha al-Ansari, who knew the Medinan style (lahd — a niche dug into the side of the trench at the bottom, in which the body is placed), were both mentioned. The companions sent for both, praying that Allah would determine who arrived first. Abu Talha arrived first, and the lahd-style grave was used — the style that became the Sunnah for burial.

The Burial

The Prophet was lowered into the grave by Ali ibn Abi Talib, al-Fadl ibn Abbas, and Qutham ibn Abbas. He was placed on his right side, facing the qiblah (Mecca). The grave was covered with seven unfired bricks and raised slightly above ground level — the Sunnah being to mark the grave without elevating it elaborately.

The Location and Later History

The Prophet was buried in Aisha's chamber, which was adjacent to the Masjid an-Nabawi. The graves of Abu Bakr and Umar ibn al-Khattab were later placed in the same chamber (both requested to be buried near the Prophet). Aisha lived in the chamber until her death in 58 AH, navigating her life around the graves with the screens that separated her living space from the burial site.

Over subsequent generations, the mosque expanded to incorporate the chamber. The current green dome — an Ottoman construction — marks the location of the graves. The site today is within the main prayer hall of the Masjid an-Nabawi in Medina, and the area around the Prophet's grave (the rawdah — the "garden" between the Prophet's grave and his minbar) is considered by the Prophet himself to have said it is "a garden from the gardens of Paradise."

The Prophet had warned against making graves into places of worship. Islamic scholars across the centuries have maintained a careful distinction between the permissibility of visiting the Prophet's grave and giving salutation (salam) upon him — which is encouraged — and any practice of directing prayer to or through the Prophet, which is rejected as shirk (associating partners with Allah).

The Companions' Grief

What the burial ceremony cannot fully capture is the state of the community during these days. The companions had known the Prophet ﷺ personally. They had prayed behind him, eaten with him, received the Quran from him directly, watched him weep and laugh and pray in the night. His death was not the abstract loss of a historical figure — it was the loss of the person whom they loved more than their own lives, who had transformed them from people of ignorance into bearers of the final revelation.

Umar ibn al-Khattab initially refused to accept the Prophet's death, threatening anyone who said he had died. It was Abu Bakr who brought the community back to clarity: he gave the famous address in which he said, "Whoever worshipped Muhammad, Muhammad has died. Whoever worshipped Allah, Allah is Living and will never die." Then he recited the verse: "Muhammad is not but a messenger. There have been messengers before him who passed away. If he should die or be killed, would you turn back on your heels?" (Surah Al-Imran, 3:144). When Umar heard Abu Bakr recite this verse, his legs gave way beneath him and he collapsed to the ground — the verse had reached him as if he were hearing it for the first time.

Anas ibn Malik (may Allah be pleased with him), who had served the Prophet ﷺ from childhood, said: "The day the Messenger of Allah arrived in Medina, everything in it was illuminated. The day he died, everything in it grew dark." The companions described Medina on the day of the Prophet's burial as plunged into a different quality of darkness from any they had known — a darkness of grief that had no precedent.

Abu Bakr went to the Prophet's ﷺ body, uncovered his face, kissed his forehead, and said: "You were pure in your life and pure in your death." This was his final farewell to the man who had been his companion for decades, his guide to Islam, and the Prophet of Allah ﷺ.

The Theological Significance of the Burial Location

The decision to bury the Prophet ﷺ in the place where he died was not merely customary — it established a principle of Islamic theology about the relationship between prophethood and place. The Prophet ﷺ was the final prophet; his resting place in Medina made that city second in sanctity only to Mecca in the hearts of Muslims.

The hadith that Abu Bakr cited — that every prophet is buried where he dies — also foreclosed the debates that might have arisen about returning the Prophet ﷺ to Mecca, where he had been born and where the Kaaba stood. Medina was where the Islamic community had been built, where the Quran had been completed, where the prophetic mission reached its culmination. That the Prophet ﷺ died and was buried there bound the city permanently to the history of the revelation.

Visiting the Prophet's grave ﷺ to give salutations (salam) upon him became one of the most beloved acts of piety in Islamic tradition. The Prophet ﷺ had said: "Whoever sends prayers upon me at my grave, I hear it. Whoever sends prayers upon me from afar, it is conveyed to me." The rawdah — the area between the Prophet's grave and his minbar — was described by the Prophet ﷺ as "a garden from the gardens of Paradise." Millions of Muslims who visit Masjid al-Nabawi stand in that space, give salutations upon the Prophet ﷺ, and feel the weight of the chain that connects them to the night when he was laid to rest while the entire community mourned.

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