The Demise of the Holy Prophet (a.s)

Aly continued to attend Mohammed night and day, never leaving him, except from the most imperative necessity. On one of these occasions when Aly was absent, the prophet said, Call my friend and brother. Auyeshah and Hafsah sent for their fathers, Abubekr and Omar, but he turned from them and covered his face, on which they remarked, lie does not want us, he wants Aly, whom Fâtimah called and Mohammed pressed him to his bosom, and they mingled their perspiration together, and the prophet communicated to him a thousand chapters of knowledge, each opening to a thousand more. One tradition declares that Mohammed kept Aly in his bed till his pure spirit left his body, his arm meanwhile embracing Aly.

Before his departure, Jibrâeel came to Mohammed and asked him if he wished to continue on earth. He replied that he did not, but having accomplished his apostleship, he wished to join his friends the prophets in heaven. He said, After me there will be no prophet, and if any one comes claiming to be a prophet, put him to death. Mohammed said, Rend not your garments nor hair, nor weep for me.

Most of the ulemâs, both sheeàh and sunnee, believe that the departure of the sayyid of the prophet occurred on Monday, the twenty- eighth of the month of Sefer, according to most of the sheeahs, and on the twelfth of the month of Rabeea-ul-evvel, agreeably to a majority of the sunnees, with whom, on this point, Mohammed-bin-Yakoob-Kulaynee agrees. But the former date is the correct one. The sunnees indeed mention several dates, but there is no disagreement as to the fact that the prophet died at the age of sixty-three, and in the tenth year of the Hijret.

In the book entitled Kashf-ul Ghamah, it is related, on the authority of the imâm Mohammed Baker, that the prophet departed to the eternal world in the tenth year of the Hijret, and when he was sixty- three years old. He had lived at Mekkah to the age of forty years before divine communications were given him, after which event he remained in that city thirteen years longer; and when he removed to Medeenah, fifty-three years of his life had passed. He remained in Medeenah ten years after his Hijret, and died on Monday, the second of the month of Rabeea-uI-evve1. The compiler observes that none of the sbeeah ulemâs adhere to this date, which perhaps may be ascribed to religious dissimulation on the part of the imâm. In the same book it is said that he was two years and four months old when his father died, and eight years of age at the death of Abdulmutalib, when Abutâhib became his guardian. Others say that he was not born when his father died, while some again maintain that he was then seven months old, and that his mother died when he was six years of age. His uncle Abutâlib died when he, the prophet, was forty-six years, eight months and twenty-four days old. Three days after the death of Abutâlib, Khadeejah died, for which reasons that was called the year of grief.

 Source - The Life and Religion of Muhammad -Hiyat al-Qulub, by Allamah Muhammad Baqir al-Majlisi. Translated by Rev. James L. Merrick.