The Farewell Sermon ( ar, خطبة الوداع, ''Khuṭbatu l-Widāʿ'' ) also known as Muhammad's Final Sermon or the Last Sermon, is a religious speech, delivered by the Islamic prophet

Muhammad Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet divinely inspired to preach and confirm the mo ...

on Friday the 9th of Dhu al-Hijjah, 10 AH (6 March 632) in the Uranah valley of

Mount Arafat Mount Arafat ( ar, جَبَل عَرَفَات, translit=Jabal ʿArafāt), and by its other Arabic name, (), is a granodiorite hill about southeast of Mecca, in the province of the same name in Saudi Arabia. The mountain is approximately ...

, during the

Islamic pilgrimage A pilgrimage is a journey, often into an unknown or foreign place, where a person goes in search of new or expanded meaning about their self, others, nature, or a higher good, through the experience. It can lead to a personal transformation, aft ...

of Hajj.

Muhammad al-Bukhari Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet divinely inspired to preach and confirm the monoth ...

refers to the sermon and quotes part of it in his '' Sahih al-Bukhari''. Part of it is also present in ''

Sahih Muslim Sahih Muslim ( ar, صحيح مسلم, translit=Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim), group=note is a 9th-century ''hadith'' collection and a book of '' sunnah'' compiled by the Persian scholar Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj (815–875). It is one of the most valued b ...

'' and '' Sunan Abu Dawood''. Verse , "Today I have perfected for you your religion ...", is believed to have been recited during the address as the capstone verse of the

Quran The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , s ...

. Various versions of the sermon have been published, including several English translations. The sermon consists of a series of general exhortations for Muslims to follow the teachings that Muhammad had set forth in the

and '' sunnah''.

Narrations in hadith literature

In a lengthy

hadith Ḥadīth ( or ; ar, حديث, , , , , , , literally "talk" or "discourse") or Athar ( ar, أثر, , literally "remnant"/"effect") refers to what the majority of Muslims believe to be a record of the words, actions, and the silent approva ...

included in the ''

'', ''

Sunan Abi Dawood ''Sunan Abu Dawood'' ( ar-at, سنن أبي داود, Sunan Abī Dāwūd) is one of the '' Kutub al-Sittah'' (six major hadith collections), collected by Abu Dawud al-Sijistani (d.889). Introduction Abu Dawood compiled twenty-one books related ...

'', and '' Sunan Ibn Majah'', Jabir ibn Abd Allah narrated details of Muhammad's pilgrimage and reported the following words of his sermon:

Sahih Muslim Book 15, Hadith 159

Sunan al-Tirmidhi Vol. 1, Book 7, Hadith 1163

Sunan ibn Maja Vol. 3, Book 9, Hadith 1851

Report by historian Ibn Ishaq

An account of the sermon was collected by the early historian Ibn Ishaq, as quoted in Ibn Hisham's ''Sirah an-Nabawiyah'' and at-Tabari's ''

Tarikh ''Taʾrīkh'' is an Arabic word meaning "date, chronology, era", whence by extension "annals, history, historiography". It is also used in Persian, Urdu, Bengali and the Turkic languages. It is found in the title of many historical works. Prior to ...

'', with minor differences. The narration is translated by I. K. Poonawala in ''The History of al-Tabari, vol. IX: The Last Years of the Prophet'' (1990), as follows: The sermon is also translated by Alfred Guillaume in ''The Life of Muhammad: A Translation of Isḥāq's Sīrat Rasūl Allāh'' (1955), which is based on the work of Ibn Hisham. Poonawala does not differ much with Guillaume in regards to meaning, but notable differences are his translation of ''bi’l-ma‘rūf'' as "with custom" and ''‘awān'' as "domestic animals," whereas Guillaume translates the passage as, "If they refrain from these things they have the right to their food and clothing with kindness. Lay injunctions on women kindly, for they are prisoners with you having no control of their persons." Rizwi Faizer in her translation of

al-Waqidi Abu `Abdullah Muhammad Ibn ‘Omar Ibn Waqid al-Aslami (Arabic ) (c. 130 – 207 AH; c. 747 – 823 AD) was a historian commonly referred to as al-Waqidi (Arabic: ). His surname is derived from his grandfather's name Waqid and thus he became fa ...

's ''Life of Muhammad'' rendered the same passage as, "Treat women well for they are bound to you and are dependent on you." Ibn Ishaq also narrates the method in which the sermon was delivered:

Report by Al-Jahiz

Al-Jahiz Abū ʿUthman ʿAmr ibn Baḥr al-Kinānī al-Baṣrī ( ar, أبو عثمان عمرو بن بحر الكناني البصري), commonly known as al-Jāḥiẓ ( ar, links=no, الجاحظ, ''The Bug Eyed'', born 776 – died December 868/Jan ...

in the '' Kitāb al-Bayān wa-al-Tabyīn'' presents the following text of the Farewell Sermon, also mentioned in Musnad of Imam Ahmad (hadith no.19774) as translated and annotated by

Nuh Ha Mim Keller Nuh Ha Mim Keller (born 1954) is an American Islamic scholar, teacher and author who lives in Amman. He is a translator of a number of Islamic books. Life and scholarship Keller studied philosophy and Arabic at the University of Chicago and th ...

References

{{Muhammad footer Life of Muhammad Islamic sermons 7th-century speeches 632 Islamic terminology Farewell addresses si:අවසාන දේශනය