The final illness and the passing ﷺ

In Ṣafar of 11 AH he ordered an expedition towards the Byzantine frontier where Zayd ibn Ḥārithah رضي الله عنه had been killed, and appointed Zayd's son Usāmah, about eighteen, over an army containing senior Muhājirūn and Anṣār. Some objected to his age, and the Prophet ﷺ came out with his head bound in illness and defended the appointment as he had defended the father's before it. He died before the army left; Abū Bakr رضي الله عنه sent it out as one of his first acts, refusing to undo an order the Messenger ﷺ had given.

• Competence outranked age and seniority, and he ﷺ said so publicly while dying.
• Abū Bakr's first instinct as khalīfah was to carry out an existing instruction, not to make his own mark.

Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 4469, 7187; ar-Raḥīq al-Makhtūm, al-Mubārakpūrī

His illness began with a headache; he asked permission of his wives to be nursed in ʿĀʾishah's room and ordered Abū Bakr رضي الله عنه to lead the prayer. On the last morning he drew back the curtain and saw them in rows, and smiled. He passed on a Monday in Rabīʿ al-Awwal, aged sixty-three. ʿUmar رضي الله عنه refused to believe it until Abū Bakr رضي الله عنه came out and said, 'Whoever worshipped Muḥammad — Muḥammad has died. Whoever worshipped Allah — Allah is living and never dies,' and recited: 'Muḥammad is but a messenger; messengers have passed away before him.'

• 3:144 — 'Muḥammad is but a messenger; messengers have passed away before him.'

• The dīn is attached to Allah, not to a person — Abū Bakr's words ended the crisis in a sentence.
• His last public instruction was about the prayer and about those your right hands possess.

Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 4452, 4453, 4462