Explain any five issues mentioned in the sermon of Hajjul Wadac (Farewell Pilgrimage).

Answer Details

The Prophet (S.A.W.) delivered his famous sermon during the Farewell Pilgrimage (Hajjat al-Wada‘) in 10 A.H. at ‘Arafah. Five of the issues he addressed are:

1. Sanctity of life and property: he declared that the lives, property and honour of Muslims are sacred and inviolable, like the sanctity of that day, that month and that city.
2. Abolition of usury (Riba): he cancelled all usury of the age of ignorance, beginning with the interest owed to his own uncle ‘Abbas, declaring the principal alone was due.
3. Abolition of blood revenge of Jahiliyyah: he abolished the blood-feuds of the pre-Islamic era, beginning with the blood of his own kinsman.
4. Rights and good treatment of women: he enjoined the fair and kind treatment of wives, reminding men that they had taken them as a trust from Allah, and that women too have rights over men.
5. Equality and brotherhood: he proclaimed that all Muslims are brothers, that there is no superiority of an Arab over a non-Arab or of a white over a black except by piety (taqwa).
6. Holding fast to the Qur’an and Sunnah: he told them he was leaving with them the Book of Allah (and his Sunnah), and that they would never go astray if they held firm to them.
7. Fulfilment of trusts and the sanctity of the Muslim: he urged the return of trusts to their owners and stressed brotherhood and unity, warning them not to turn back to disbelief after him, killing one another.

He then asked the people to bear witness that he had delivered the message, and the verse was revealed: "This day I have perfected for you your religion..." (Q5:3).