[The Prophet, upon whom be peace, praised and glorified Allah, and then said:]1

O people! Listen to what I say, as I do not know if I shall ever meet you at this place after this year.

O people! Your blood and your property [and your honour]2 are sacrosanct, until you meet your Lord, even as this day and this month are sacrosanct. You shall meet your Lord and He shall ask you of your deeds. I have conveyed [the message]. He who has a trust with him, let him return it to the one who has entrusted him with it.

[Behold! Everything that is jāhiliyyah’s3 is trampled under my feet].4 All usury is abolished, but you retain your capital. Do no wrong and you shall not be wronged. Allah has ordered that there should be no usury. All the usury of Abbās ibn Abd al-Muttalib stands abolished. All the (unrevenged) blood claims of the jāhilliyyah  are abolished and the first claim I abolish is that of the son of Rabī‘ah ibn al-Hārith ibn ‘Abd al-Muttalib; he was fostered among Banū Layth, (where the tribe of) Hudhayl killed him. This is the first of the jāhiliyyah blood claim that I begin with.

[O people! Allah has assigned unto everyone his due. Bequest to an heir is illegal.5 The child belongs to the bed, and the adulterer is to be stoned. Whoever claims to be the son of one who is not his father and whoever claims to be the client of one who is not his master,6 on him rests the curse of Allah, the angels and all humanity. Allah shall not accept his repentance or redemption.]7

O people! Satan has despaired of ever being worshipped in this land of yours. But if he can be obeyed in anything less [than worship] he will be content with matters you may regard as of little importance. So beware of him in your religion.

O people! ‘Postponement of a sacred month is an excess in disbelief whereby those who disbelieve are misled; they permit it in one year and forbid it in another year, (deluding themselves) that they may make up the months which Allah has prescribed as sacrosanct; thus they permit what Allah has forbidden8 and forbid what Allah has permitted’. The cycle of time was shaped on the day that Allah created the heavens and the earth. ‘The number of the months with Allah is twelve’.9 Four of them are sacrosanct: three consecutive and the Rajab of Mudar, which is between Jamādā [al-Thāniyyah] and Sha‘bān.10

O people! You have rights over your wives and they have rights over you. You have the right that they do not permit into your homes anyone you dislike and they should not commit open indecent acts. If they do, Allah permits you to put them in secluded rooms and punish them without severity. If they refrain (from such things) they have a right to their food and clothing in kindness. Take good care of women, for they are in your trusts and have no control of their selves. You have only taken them as a trust from Allah, and you have been permitted by the words of Allah to have sexual relations with them.

O people! Understand my words. I have conveyed (the message), I have left you with the plain indication which if you hold fast to, you will never go astray: the Book of Allah and the practice of His Prophet (sws).

O People! Listen to what I say and understand it. Know that every Muslim is a brother to every Muslim and the Muslims form one brotherhood. It is not lawful for a person to take from his brother except what he gives him willingly. So never wrong yourselves. O Allah! Have I not conveyed (the message)?

You will be asked about me, so what will you say?

(They said: ‘We witness that you have conveyed (the message) and have performed your duty and that you have meant well with us.’)

[Pointing his index finger to the heaven and then to the people, the Prophet said: ‘O Allah! be witness; O Allah! be witness, O Allah! be witness.]11

[Let the present convey the message to the absent. Many a listener may comprehend better than those who may be (present) listening. Return not to disbelief after me, killing each other.]12

Courtesy ‘The Crescent International’

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1. This text is taken from Ibn Ishāq’s narrative as recorded by Ibn Hishām. Insertions (shown in square brackets) are from other narratives references to which are given below. This text, edited by Zafarul Islam Khan, was first published in Hajj in Focus (London: The Muslim Institute, 1986), in which fuller references were given.

2. Addition from the narrative of Ibn ‘Abbās.

3. Jāhiliyyah refers to the state of ignorance prevailing in Arabia before the advent of Islam.

4. Addition from the Hadīth of Jābir Ibn ‘Abdullāh.

5. It is not permitted for a person on the verge of death to deprive any heir of his due or to give more to any heir in excess to what they are entitled according to the Sharī‘ah.

6. A freed slave is referred to as the ‘client’ of his former master. This relationship acts in partial lieu of the ‘son of’ relationship used by others.

7. Addition from the narrative of ‘Amir Ibn Khārijah.

8. The Qur’ān, 9:37

9. The Qur’ān, 9:36

10. The three consecutive months in which war is forbidden are Dhu’l-Qa‘dah, Dhu’l-Hijjah and Muharram. The fourth month is Rajab, referred to here as ‘Rajab of Mudar’ to distinguish it from Ramadān, also known as Rajab by some tribes.

11. Addition from the narrative of ‘Abdullāh Ibn Jābir.

12. Addition from the narrative of Abī Bakrah.