The Life of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, from Makkah to Madinah

For Muslims, Prophet Muhammad ﷺ is the last of the messengers sent by God: the Quran was revealed to him, and his way of life, the Sunnah, shows how to put that message into practice every day. Born in Makkah around 570 and buried in Madinah in 632, he lived forty years before the Revelation, thirteen years of difficult preaching in Makkah, then ten years in Madinah, where he founded the first Muslim community. This biography follows the main stages of his life as told by the classical sources, and points out where dates are approximate or debated.

The sources of his biography

What we know about the life of the Prophet ﷺ rests first on the Quran, which refers to many episodes of his mission, and then on the hadiths, the reports of his words and deeds handed down by his Companions and carefully scrutinised by scholars. The sira, or prophetic biography, was written down as early as the eighth century: the founding work is that of Ibn Ishaq (d. c. 767), known mainly through the edition of Ibn Hisham (d. c. 833). Other early sources include al-Waqidi’s account of the expeditions, Ibn Sa’d’s Tabaqat and the chronicle of al-Tabari. Among modern works in English are The Sealed Nectar (ar-Rahiq al-Makhtum) by Safiur-Rahman al-Mubarakpuri and Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources by Martin Lings.

The sources do not always agree on details, especially dates. Before the year 10 AH, the Arabs shifted certain months of their calendar (the nasi’, abolished by the Quran in 9:37), so conversions into our calendar are only approximate for the early years. The dates in the table below are those historians usually give.

Makkah and the Prophet’s lineage

In the sixth century, Makkah (Mecca) was a trading town in the Hijaz, built in a barren valley around the Kaaba. According to the Quran, the sanctuary was raised by Abraham (Ibrahim) and his son Ishmael (Isma’il) for the worship of the One God: “And [mention] when Abraham was raising the foundations of the House and [with him] Ishmael” (Quran 2:127). Over the centuries, however, idol worship had taken hold there. The tribe of Quraysh, guardians of the sanctuary, drew their prestige from the pilgrimage and from the caravans “of winter and summer” mentioned in Surah Quraysh. A few individuals, known as hanifs, rejected idolatry and sought the religion of Abraham.

Muhammad ibn Abdullah belonged to the clan of Banu Hashim, a respected branch of Quraysh: he was the son of Abdullah, son of Abd al-Muttalib, son of Hashim, son of Abd Manaf, son of Qusayy. Genealogists agree on his lineage up to Adnan, ancestor of the northern Arabs, whom tradition links to Ishmael; beyond that point the lists differ. His mother, Aminah bint Wahb, came from the clan of Banu Zuhrah of the same tribe. His grandfather Abd al-Muttalib, a notable of Makkah, was responsible for providing water to the pilgrims, and tradition credits him with rediscovering the well of Zamzam.

Birth and childhood (c. 570–583)

The Year of the Elephant

The Prophet ﷺ was born in Makkah in the year when Abraha, who ruled Yemen on behalf of the kingdom of Aksum (in Ethiopia), marched on the city with elephants to destroy the Kaaba; his army was wiped out, as Surah al-Fil (The Elephant) recounts. This “Year of the Elephant” traditionally corresponds to 570 or 571, although some historians place Abraha’s expedition a few years, or even two decades, earlier.

The day of his birth is known: asked about fasting on Mondays, the Prophet ﷺ replied, “That is the day on which I was born and the day on which I was entrusted with the prophetic mission” (Sahih Muslim 1162). The month was Rabi’ al-Awwal. The 12th, reported by Ibn Ishaq, is the most widely cited date; other scholars favoured the 2nd, 8th or 9th, and the question cannot be settled with certainty.

His father, Abdullah, died before his birth according to most accounts, in Yathrib (later Madinah), on his way back from a trading journey. The Quran alludes to his being an orphan: “Did He not find you an orphan and give [you] refuge?” (Quran 93:6).

With Halimah in the desert

Makkan families customarily entrusted their infants to Bedouin wet nurses: desert air was considered healthier, and children learned a particularly pure Arabic there. The newborn was given to Halimah al-Sa’diyyah of the tribe of Banu Sa’d ibn Bakr. According to her own account, preserved by Ibn Ishaq, the other nurses had turned down this orphan, whose family could hardly reward them; Halimah, who had found no other child, took him, and she related that her household was blessed with unexpected plenty from then on.

It was among the Banu Sa’d that the opening of his chest took place: while the boy was playing with his companions, the angel Gabriel (Jibril) came to him, opened his chest, removed “the portion of Satan” and washed his heart with Zamzam water (Sahih Muslim 162). Worried, Halimah soon brought him back to his mother. He was about four or five years old, according to the reports.

Losing both parents

At about six, he travelled with his mother to Yathrib to visit relatives of his grandfather, the Banu al-Najjar. On the way back Aminah fell ill and died at al-Abwa’, between Madinah and Makkah. The boy was taken in by his grandfather Abd al-Muttalib, who surrounded him with great affection, and then, when Abd al-Muttalib died two years later, by his uncle Abu Talib, the father of Ali. Though not wealthy, Abu Talib raised him as his own son and protected him all his life.

As a youth he tended the sheep of the people of Makkah for a small wage; he later said, “Allah did not send any prophet but that he shepherded sheep” (Sahih al-Bukhari 2262). At around twelve, he went with Abu Talib on a trading journey to Syria. The sira links this journey to the meeting with the Christian monk Bahira, who is said to have recognised in him the signs of a future prophet; this famous story is reported by al-Tirmidhi (3620), but its authenticity and several of its details are debated by hadith specialists.

Youth: al-Amin and the marriage to Khadijah

As a young man, Muhammad ﷺ stood out for his integrity, so much so that he was nicknamed al-Amin, “the trustworthy”. According to tradition, he never took part in idol worship. Ibn Ishaq reports that in his youth he attended the Hilf al-Fudul, a pact in which clans of Quraysh pledged to defend any victim of injustice in Makkah, whether local or foreign; he later said that if he were called to such a pact in Islam, he would still answer.

He became a merchant. Khadijah bint Khuwaylid, a respected widow who traded by caravan, entrusted him with her goods for a journey to Syria, accompanied by her servant Maysarah. Impressed by his honesty and by the success of the venture, she proposed marriage to him through a friend, Nafisah. He was twenty-five; Khadijah was forty according to the most widespread report, given by Ibn Sa’d, and twenty-eight according to other sources. Their marriage, which lasted about twenty-five years, was a happy one, and he married no other woman during Khadijah’s lifetime.

Khadijah bore him six children: two sons, al-Qasim, from whom the Prophet took his kunya Abu al-Qasim, and Abdullah, both of whom died in infancy; and four daughters, Zaynab, Ruqayyah, Umm Kulthum and Fatimah. The household also took in Zayd ibn Harithah, a young slave whom Khadijah had given to her husband and whom he freed and then adopted, as well as his young cousin Ali ibn Abi Talib, whom he took in to ease Abu Talib’s burden.

At around thirty-five, he took part in rebuilding the damaged Kaaba. When the clans quarrelled over the honour of putting the Black Stone back in place, they agreed to let the first man to enter the sanctuary decide: it was Muhammad. He placed the stone on a cloak, asked a representative of each clan to hold one edge, and then set it in place himself, averting bloodshed.

The Revelation in the cave of Hira (610)

As he approached forty, he began to spend several nights at a time in the cave of Hira on Jabal al-Nur, near Makkah, worshipping God away from people. According to Aishah, the Revelation began with true dreams that came as clear as the light of dawn. Then, in the month of Ramadan around the year 610, the angel Gabriel appeared to him and commanded, “Read!” He answered, “I do not know how to read.” The angel pressed him tightly three times before reciting to him the first verses of the Quran (Sahih al-Bukhari 3):

“Recite in the name of your Lord who created – created man from a clinging substance. Recite, and your Lord is the most Generous – who taught by the pen – taught man that which he knew not.” (Quran 96:1–5)

These verses open Surah al-Alaq. For many scholars, that night was Laylat al-Qadr (the Night of Decree), of which the Quran says: “Indeed, We sent it down during the Night of Decree” (Quran 97:1).

Shaken, his heart pounding, he returned to Khadijah saying, “Cover me! Cover me!” When he told her his fear, she reassured him with words that have become famous: “Never! By Allah, Allah will never disgrace you. You keep good relations with your kin, help the poor and the destitute, honour your guests and assist those struck by calamity” (Sahih al-Bukhari 3). She took him to her cousin Waraqah ibn Nawfal, an elderly man who had become a Christian and knew the scriptures. Waraqah recognised in his account the angel God had sent to Moses (Musa) and warned Muhammad that his people would drive him out: “No man has ever brought what you have brought without being treated with hostility.” Khadijah was the first to believe in his message.

The Revelation then paused for a period whose length is debated: a few days or weeks according to some scholars, up to two or three years according to others. The wait weighed heavily on him. Then the angel returned, and the verses commanding him to begin warning people were revealed: “O you who covers himself [with a garment], arise and warn, and your Lord glorify” (Quran 74:1–3; Sahih al-Bukhari 4). From then on, the Revelation continued regularly for about twenty-three years, in step with events. Every year in Ramadan, Gabriel reviewed with him the Quran revealed so far, and he did so twice in the year of his death (Sahih al-Bukhari 6 and 4998). To learn more about the revealed Book, see our page on the Quran and its recitation.

Preaching in Makkah (610–622)

The first believers

For roughly the first three years, the call remained discreet. After Khadijah, the first to embrace Islam were those closest to him: Ali, still a child, Zayd ibn Harithah and his friend Abu Bakr. Abu Bakr, a respected merchant, brought several men to the new faith who would go on to shape Islamic history, among them Uthman ibn Affan, al-Zubayr ibn al-Awwam, Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf, Sa’d ibn Abi Waqqas and Talhah ibn Ubaydullah. The believers met in particular in the house of al-Arqam, near the hill of Safa. The message rested on a few principles: the oneness of God, the mission of Muhammad ﷺ, resurrection and judgement, prayer, justice and generosity towards the poor, orphans and slaves.

The public call and the hostility of Quraysh

When the verse “And warn your closest kindred” (Quran 26:214) was revealed, the Prophet ﷺ climbed the hill of Safa and called out to the clans of Quraysh: “If I told you that an army of horsemen in the valley was about to attack you, would you believe me?” “Yes, we have never heard you say anything but the truth.” “Then I am a warner to you of a severe punishment.” His uncle Abu Lahab rebuked him with contempt, and Surah al-Masad was revealed about him (Sahih al-Bukhari 4770).

The leaders of Makkah saw this message as a threat to their religion, their authority and the trade tied to the pilgrimage. They first tried to discredit him by calling him a poet, a soothsayer or a sorcerer, then turned to persecution. Those most exposed were believers without tribal protection: the Abyssinian slave Bilal ibn Rabah, tortured under the scorching sun, Khabbab ibn al-Aratt, and the family of Yasir, whose wife Sumayyah died under the blows and became the first martyr of Islam. The Prophet ﷺ himself was insulted and mistreated, but his uncle Abu Talib always refused to hand him over, even though he never embraced Islam.

The migration to Abyssinia (615)

In 615, the fifth year of the mission, the Prophet ﷺ advised some of the believers to seek refuge in Abyssinia (present-day Ethiopia), whose Christian king, the Negus (al-Najashi), was known for his justice. A first group of about fifteen people, including Uthman ibn Affan and his wife Ruqayyah, the Prophet’s daughter, crossed the Red Sea. A second, larger wave followed: Ibn Ishaq counts eighty-three men, accompanied by women and children, led by Ja’far ibn Abi Talib.

Quraysh sent two envoys bearing gifts to the Negus, among them Amr ibn al-As, to have the refugees handed over. According to the account of Umm Salamah, who was among the emigrants, the king insisted on hearing the Muslims first. Ja’far explained how Islam had turned them away from idols and injustice, then recited the opening of Surah Maryam, which speaks of Mary and Jesus (Isa): the Negus wept and refused to hand over those who had come seeking his protection.

In Makkah, the conversion of two formidable men, the Prophet’s uncle Hamzah ibn Abd al-Muttalib and then Umar ibn al-Khattab, around 616, gave the believers new heart. Quraysh responded with a boycott: for about three years, the clans of Banu Hashim and Banu al-Muttalib, Muslim or not, were ostracised, barred from trade and marriage, and had to withdraw to a valley of Makkah, the Shi’b Abi Talib, where they suffered hunger.

The Year of Sorrow and Ta’if (619)

Shortly after the boycott was lifted, around 619, the tenth year of the mission, the Prophet ﷺ lost his two main supporters in quick succession: his uncle Abu Talib and his wife Khadijah. Tradition remembers this period as the Year of Sorrow (‘Am al-Huzn). Deprived of his clan’s protection, he went to Ta’if, about a hundred kilometres south-east of Makkah, with Zayd ibn Harithah, to call the tribe of Thaqif to Islam. He was rebuffed, and the townspeople set their slaves and young men on him, who drove him out with stones.

When Aishah later asked him about it, he described that day as the worst ordeal his people had inflicted on him. On the way back, the angel of the mountains offered to bring down the two mountains that enclose Makkah on those who had rejected him. He refused: “I hope that Allah will bring from their descendants people who will worship Allah alone and associate nothing with Him” (Sahih al-Bukhari 3231). According to Ibn Ishaq, it was also at Ta’if that a Christian slave from Nineveh, Addas, offered him grapes and believed in him. To re-enter Makkah, he had to place himself under the protection of a non-Muslim notable, al-Mut’im ibn Adi.

The Night Journey and the Ascension

During these difficult years came al-Isra’ wal-Mi’raj: in a single night the Prophet ﷺ was carried from Makkah to Jerusalem, where he prayed, and then raised up through the heavens. The Quran bears witness to it: “Exalted is He who took His Servant by night from al-Masjid al-Haram to al-Masjid al-Aqsa, whose surroundings We have blessed, to show him of Our signs” (Quran 17:1). It was during this ascension that the daily prayers were prescribed, first fifty, then reduced to five with the reward of fifty (Sahih al-Bukhari 349). The exact date of the journey is unknown: scholars place it between the tenth year of the mission and the year before the Hijra, and the night of 27 Rajab, often commemorated, does not rest on an established source. To learn how to perform these prayers, see our guide to prayer.

The pledges of al-Aqabah (620–622)

The Prophet ﷺ used the pilgrimage season to present Islam to the visiting tribes. Around 620, six men from Yathrib, of the Khazraj tribe, accepted Islam. The following year, twelve men from Yathrib pledged allegiance to him at al-Aqabah, near Mina: this was the first pledge of al-Aqabah. He sent Mus’ab ibn Umayr back with them to teach them the Quran. In 622, seventy-three men and two women, among them Nusaybah bint Ka’b, came secretly to make the second pledge, promising to protect him as they protected their own families. The way to emigration was open.

The Hijra from Makkah to Madinah (622)

The Muslims of Makkah then left quietly, in small groups, for Yathrib. The leaders of Quraysh, alarmed at the prospect of a community forming beyond their reach, resolved to do away with the Prophet ﷺ: “And [remember] when those who disbelieved plotted against you to restrain you or kill you or evict you” (Quran 8:30). According to the sira, Ali slept in his bed to deceive the conspirators while the Prophet ﷺ left the city with Abu Bakr.

The two companions hid for three nights in a cave on Mount Thawr, south of Makkah, supplied with food by Asma’, Abu Bakr’s daughter, and kept informed by his son Abdullah (Sahih al-Bukhari 3905). The Quran recalls the moment when their pursuers came close to the cave and the Prophet ﷺ said to his companion, “Do not grieve; indeed Allah is with us” (Quran 9:40). They then reached Yathrib by a roundabout route, led by a guide who was not a Muslim but whom they trusted, and escaped Suraqah ibn Malik, who had set out after them for the reward promised by Quraysh.

In September 622, in the month of Rabi’ al-Awwal, the Prophet ﷺ reached Quba’, on the edge of Yathrib. He founded a mosque there, regarded as the first in Islam, and stayed for several days (fourteen nights according to Anas, in Sahih al-Bukhari 3932) before entering the town to joyful crowds. His camel knelt on a plot belonging to two orphans of the Banu al-Najjar clan; he bought it to build his mosque and lodged for a while with Abu Ayyub al-Ansari. Yathrib took the name Madinat al-Nabi, “the city of the Prophet”, or simply al-Madinah: Madinah.

The Hijra (“emigration”) was such a turning point that the Companions made it the starting point of the Muslim calendar. During the caliphate of Umar ibn al-Khattab, around 17 AH (638), they chose to count the years not from the Prophet’s birth, mission or death, but from his arrival in Madinah (Sahih al-Bukhari 3934). Year 1 of the Hijri calendar begins on 1 Muharram, which by the usual conversion corresponds to 16 July 622.

Madinah, the first community (622–624)

Madinah was home to two large Arab tribes, the Aws and the Khazraj, long-standing rivals, as well as several Jewish tribes, including the Banu Qaynuqa’, the Banu al-Nadir and the Banu Qurayzah. The Prophet ﷺ organised a new society there. He established brotherhood (al-mu’akhat) between the emigrants from Makkah (the Muhajirun) and the Muslims of Madinah (the Ansar, “the helpers”): each of the Ansar took in one of the Muhajirun who had left everything behind. The mosque, a simple enclosure of mud-brick walls roofed with palm fronds, became at once a place of prayer, teaching, shelter for the poor and government. Bilal gave the call to prayer from it.

Ibn Ishaq preserved the text of a pact that historians call the “Constitution of Madinah” (Sahifat al-Madinah). It makes the believers of Makkah and Madinah a single community (ummah), sets rules on solidarity, blood money and common defence, recognises the religion of the allied Jewish tribes while associating them with the defence of the city, and names the Prophet ﷺ as arbiter of disputes. Researchers debate its exact date and unity – it may combine several successive agreements – but its general authenticity is widely accepted.

In the second year of the Hijra, several pillars of practice were established. After sixteen or seventeen months of praying towards Jerusalem, the direction of prayer (qiblah) was turned towards the Kaaba: “So turn your face toward al-Masjid al-Haram” (Quran 2:144; Sahih al-Bukhari 399). The fast of Ramadan was prescribed, along with zakat al-fitr, and zakat was gradually organised.

The major battles (624–627)

The Muslims had been driven out of Makkah and stripped of their property. In Madinah, permission to defend themselves was revealed: “Permission [to fight] has been given to those who are being fought, because they were wronged” (Quran 22:39). A period of conflict with Quraysh followed, marked by expeditions and three major battles.

Badr (624)

In Ramadan of 2 AH (March 624), the Prophet ﷺ set out with just over three hundred and ten men (Sahih al-Bukhari 3957) to intercept a large Makkan caravan led by Abu Sufyan. The caravan escaped, but Quraysh had sent an army of about a thousand men. The armies met on 17 Ramadan at the wells of Badr, south-west of Madinah. Despite being outnumbered, the Muslims prevailed: seventy Makkans were killed, including Abu Jahl, one of Islam’s fiercest opponents, and seventy taken prisoner (Sahih al-Bukhari 3986), while fourteen Muslims fell. “And already had Allah given you victory at Badr while you were weak,” the Quran recalls (3:123). Most of the prisoners were released for ransom.

Uhud (625)

A year later, in Shawwal of 3 AH (March 625), Quraysh returned with about three thousand men to avenge Badr. The Prophet ﷺ went out to meet them with a thousand fighters, but Abdullah ibn Ubayy, leader of the hypocrites of Madinah, withdrew with nearly a third of the force. At the foot of Mount Uhud, the Prophet ﷺ posted fifty archers on a hill under the command of Abdullah ibn Jubayr, ordering them not to leave their position whatever happened (Sahih al-Bukhari 3039). The Muslims gained the upper hand at first; believing the battle won, most of the archers came down to gather the spoils. The Makkan cavalry, led by Khalid ibn al-Walid, then rode round the hill and attacked the Muslims from behind. Around seventy Companions were killed, including Hamzah, and the Prophet ﷺ himself was wounded in the face and had a tooth broken (Sahih Muslim 1791). Surah Al Imran dwells at length on the lessons of this trial: obedience, steadfastness and resisting the lure of gain.

The Trench (627)

In 5 AH (627), Quraysh formed a vast coalition with Bedouin tribes and with the leaders of the Jewish tribe of Banu al-Nadir, expelled from Madinah the year before: some ten thousand men marched on the city, defended by about three thousand Muslims. On the advice, according to tradition, of Salman al-Farisi, a Companion of Persian origin, the Muslims dug a trench where the city lay open to cavalry, and the Prophet ﷺ carried earth alongside them (Sahih al-Bukhari 4106). The siege lasted from two weeks to almost a month, depending on the sources; then the cold, divisions among the confederates and a fierce wind made them break camp: “Remember the favour of Allah upon you when armies came to [attack] you and We sent upon them a wind and armies [of angels] you did not see” (Quran 33:9). Surah al-Ahzab (The Confederates) takes its name from this episode.

Relations with the Jewish tribes of Madinah, bound to the Muslims by pacts, deteriorated during these years. According to the Muslim sources, the Banu Qaynuqa’ (2 AH) and then the Banu al-Nadir (4 AH) were expelled after breaking their commitments. After the siege of the Trench, the Banu Qurayzah, accused of negotiating with the confederates in the middle of the war, were besieged in turn; their fate was referred to the arbitration of Sa’d ibn Mu’adh, chief of the Aws, their former allies, who sentenced their fighting men to death and the women and children to captivity. These events, reported in detail by Ibn Ishaq, are discussed by historians, particularly regarding the number of victims.

The truce of al-Hudaybiyyah (628)

In Dhul Qa’dah of 6 AH (March 628), following a dream, the Prophet ﷺ set out to perform Umrah with about fourteen hundred Companions (Sahih al-Bukhari 4154), in the state of ihram and bringing animals for sacrifice. Quraysh blocked their way. Camped at al-Hudaybiyyah, on the edge of the sacred territory, the Muslims sent Uthman ibn Affan to negotiate; a rumour spread that he had been killed, and the Companions pledged their loyalty to the Prophet ﷺ beneath a tree, a pledge known as Bay’at al-Ridwan: “Certainly was Allah pleased with the believers when they pledged allegiance to you under the tree” (Quran 48:18).

A treaty was eventually concluded with the Makkan envoy Suhayl ibn Amr: a ten-year truce, the Muslims to return to Madinah that year and to come back the following year for Umrah. Some clauses seemed so unfavourable that many Companions were dismayed, to the point of delaying the order to sacrifice their animals. On the advice of his wife Umm Salamah, the Prophet ﷺ sacrificed his own animal and had his head shaved without saying a word, and everyone immediately followed his example (Sahih al-Bukhari 2731). On the way back Surah al-Fath was revealed: “Indeed, We have given you a clear conquest” (Quran 48:1). Peace did indeed allow Islam to spread rapidly across the peninsula.

In the following months, the Prophet ﷺ sent letters to neighbouring rulers inviting them to Islam, including the Byzantine emperor Heraclius (Sahih al-Bukhari 7), the king of Persia, the governor of Egypt and the Negus. In 7 AH (628), the oasis of Khaybar, where the Banu al-Nadir had settled and whose leaders had helped form the coalition, came under Muslim authority; the following year the Muslims performed the Umrah provided for by the treaty.

The return to Makkah (630)

In 8 AH, the Banu Bakr, allies of Quraysh, attacked the Khuza’ah, allies of the Muslims, by night with the help of some Makkans: the truce was broken. In Ramadan of 8 AH (late 629 or January 630, depending on the conversion), the Prophet ﷺ marched on Makkah with ten thousand men (Sahih al-Bukhari 4276). Abu Sufyan, the leader of Quraysh, came out to meet him and embraced Islam. The Prophet ﷺ had it proclaimed: “Whoever enters the house of Abu Sufyan is safe” (Sahih Muslim 1780), and the townspeople shut themselves in their homes.

The city was taken almost without a fight. The Prophet ﷺ struck down the three hundred and sixty idols around the Kaaba, reciting: “Truth has come, and falsehood has departed” (Quran 17:81; Sahih al-Bukhari 4287). Those who had persecuted him for years expected the worst: he granted a general pardon, except for a few people guilty of serious crimes, several of whom were later pardoned too. Bilal climbed onto the Kaaba to give the call to prayer.

In the months that followed, the Muslims faced the Hawazin confederation at Hunayn (8 AH), and the Prophet ﷺ then led a major expedition to Tabuk, on the borders of the Byzantine Empire (9 AH, 630). The year 9 AH became known as “the Year of Delegations”: tribes came to Madinah from all over Arabia to pledge allegiance and learn about Islam.

The Farewell Pilgrimage (632)

In Dhul Hijjah of 10 AH (March 632), the Prophet ﷺ performed the only Hajj he made after the Hijra, surrounded by an immense crowd that traditional sources put at more than a hundred thousand people. This pilgrimage set the rites that Muslims still follow today, described in detail by the Companion Jabir ibn Abdullah (Sahih Muslim 1218) and explained on our page about Hajj and Umrah. On 9 Dhul Hijjah, at Arafah, he delivered a famous sermon:

“Your blood and your property are as sacred as this day of yours, in this month of yours, in this town of yours. […] The usury of the pre-Islamic period is abolished. […] Fear Allah concerning women […]. I have left among you that which, if you hold fast to it, you will never go astray: the Book of Allah.” (Sahih Muslim 1218)

On that same day, a Friday, the verse was revealed: “This day I have perfected for you your religion and completed My favour upon you and have approved for you Islam as religion” (Quran 5:3; Sahih al-Bukhari 45).

The Prophet’s illness and death (632)

Back in Madinah, the Prophet ﷺ fell ill at the end of Safar or the beginning of Rabi’ al-Awwal of 11 AH. Feverish and suffering from severe headaches, he asked his wives’ permission to be nursed in Aishah’s room and instructed Abu Bakr to lead the prayer in his place. He passed away on a Monday in Rabi’ al-Awwal of 11 AH (the 12th according to the most widespread tradition), a date usually given as 8 June 632, at the age of sixty-three (Sahih al-Bukhari 3536). He was resting against Aishah’s chest; his last words were: “O Allah, [with] the highest companion!” (Sahih al-Bukhari 4463).

The news stunned Madinah. Umar ibn al-Khattab, unable to accept it, insisted that the Prophet ﷺ had not died. Abu Bakr arrived, uncovered the Prophet’s face, kissed him, then went out to address the crowd: “Whoever worshipped Muhammad, Muhammad is dead; and whoever worships Allah, Allah is alive and will never die.” Then he recited this verse (Sahih al-Bukhari 3667–3668):

“Muhammad is not but a messenger. [Other] messengers have passed on before him. So if he was to die or be killed, would you turn back on your heels? And he who turns back on his heels will never harm Allah at all; but Allah will reward the grateful.” (Quran 3:144)

Umar later said that on hearing it his legs gave way beneath him (Sahih al-Bukhari 4454). The Prophet ﷺ was buried where he had died, in Aishah’s room, which now lies within the Prophet’s Mosque in Madinah. Abu Bakr was chosen as the first caliph, that is, successor at the head of the community.

His family

After Khadijah’s death, the Prophet ﷺ married Sawdah bint Zam’ah, a widow, and then, over his years in Madinah, several other women. Tradition counts eleven wives in all: Khadijah, Sawdah, Aishah, Hafsah, Zaynab bint Khuzaymah, Umm Salamah, Zaynab bint Jahsh, Juwayriyah, Umm Habibah, Safiyyah and Maymunah; nine of them outlived him. All of them except Aishah had been married before, and several of these unions also had a social or political dimension, sealing alliances or giving a home to widows in hardship. The Quran calls them the “mothers of the believers” (Quran 33:6). Maria the Copt, sent by the governor of Egypt, bore him a son, Ibrahim, who died in infancy.

All his other children were born to Khadijah, and only Fatimah outlived him, by about six months (Sahih al-Bukhari 4240–4241). The wife of Ali ibn Abi Talib, she was the mother of al-Hasan and al-Husayn, through whom the Prophet’s line continues. On the place of Khadijah, Aishah, Fatimah and other great women of Islam, see our article on women in Islam.

A model for believers

The Quran describes the Prophet ﷺ as sent “as a mercy to the worlds” (Quran 21:107) and tells him: “And indeed, you are of a great moral character” (Quran 68:4). Asked about his character, Aishah replied: “The character of the Messenger of Allah was the Quran” (Sahih Muslim 746). Those who knew him describe a simple, approachable man: at home he busied himself serving his family (Sahih al-Bukhari 676); he never struck a woman or a servant (Sahih Muslim 2328); he consulted his Companions and forgave readily: “So by mercy from Allah, you were lenient with them. And if you had been rude [in speech] and harsh in heart, they would have disbanded from about you” (Quran 3:159).

For Muslims, he is neither a divine being nor an intermediary to be worshipped: he is a man chosen by God, “the Messenger of Allah and seal of the prophets” (Quran 33:40), whose example shows how to live the faith. “There has certainly been for you in the Messenger of Allah an excellent pattern for anyone whose hope is in Allah and the Last Day and [who] remembers Allah often” (Quran 33:21). The testimony of faith, the shahada, joins the affirmation of God’s oneness to that of his mission.

Loving the Prophet ﷺ means first of all following his example: “Say, ‘If you should love Allah, then follow me, [so] Allah will love you and forgive you your sins’” (Quran 3:31). His Sunnah invites everyone to draw closer to God through prayer, kindness and justice; in a saying he related from his Lord (hadith qudsi), Allah says: “My servant keeps drawing nearer to Me with voluntary deeds until I love him” (Sahih al-Bukhari 6502). To continue, explore our selection of authentic sayings of the Prophet.