Farewell pilgrimage
As a farewell pilgrimage ( Arabic حجة الوداع Hijat al-wadāʿ , DMG Ḥiǧǧat al-wadāʿ ) is the name ofthe Hajj pilgrimagein Islamic literature, which the Prophet Mohammed undertookin March 632 from Medina together with his wives and with the great participation of his followers. It is called the farewell pilgrimage because Mohammed died a few months later, on June 8th, 632. Mohammed is said to have stayed in Mecca for a total of ten days during this pilgrimage.
The farewell pilgrimage was especially important because the originally pagan pilgrimage was celebrated for the first time exclusively by Muslim pilgrims, because the year before (631) Muhammad had a proclamation read out by Alī ibn Abī Tālib during the pilgrimage by ʿAlī ibn Abī Tālib Arabs forbade approaching the Holy City again at the end of the year (cf. Sura 9:28). Because of this purely Islamic character for the first time, the farewell pilgrimage was also called Hijat al-Islam (حجة الاسلام, DMG Ḥiǧǧat al-islām ). While Mohammed had commissioned his companion Abū Bakr to lead the Hajj in 631 , he took the lead during the entire ceremony during the farewell pilgrimage and slaughtered several camels himself in Minā . After this sacrifice, he had his hair shaved, and the Muslims are said to have stood around him to snatch some of his hair.
In order to separate the Muslim pilgrimage rites from the pagan customs, Mohammed carried out various cultic reforms during the farewell pilgrimage. He shifted the outflow from the ʿArafāt plane to Muzdalifa to the time after sunset and the course from Muzdalifa to Minā to the time before sunrise, in order to remove the Muslim community "from the polytheists and idol worshipers" ( ahl aš-širk wa -l-awṯān ) who had performed these rituals for sun worship during sunset and sunrise. Mohammed is also said to have pronounced the prohibition of the Old Arabic leap month (sura 9:37) in the Koran during the farewell pilgrimage. With him, the pure lunar calendar was introduced, which still characterizes the Islamic calendar . On the second or third day of the farewell pilgrimage, he is said to have given a sermon in which he imposed various Islamic rules on Muslims, such as the prohibition of interest .
There are meticulously detailed reports of Muhammad's actions during the farewell pilgrimage, because the Muslims saw them as the ultimate example for the correct execution of the pilgrimage rites. For example, Ibn Ishāq , citing various authorities, reports that Muhammad's wife Aisha bint Abi Bakr burst into tears before the pilgrimage because she had menstruated and was afraid that she would not be allowed to attend the rites. Mohammed is said to have reassured her, however, that she could perform all rites, but not take part in the tawāf around the Kaaba .
The Andalusian scholar Ibn Hazm wrote a monographic work on the farewell pilgrimage in the 11th century, in which he brought together all the hadiths known to him about this historical event and tried to dispel contradictions. The work follows Muhammad's pilgrimage from his departure in Medina to his arrival in Mecca and the individual rituals performed there to his return to Medina. Ibn Hazm justifies his extensive study of the subject with the fact that Mohammed himself emphasized the role model character of this pilgrimage by saying: "Take your pilgrimage rites from me. Because I don't know whether I will undertake another pilgrimage after this pilgrimage."
literature
- swell
- Ibn Hazm : Ḥiǧǧat al-wadāʿ . Ed. ʿAbd-al-Ḥaqq Ibn-Mulāḥiqī al-Turkmānī. Beirut 2008.
- Ibn Ishāq : The life of the Prophet of the Prophet . Translated from Arabic and edited by Gernot Rotter. Stuttgart 1982. pp. 244-246.
- Al-Wāqidī : Kitāb al-Maġāzī . German shortened translation by Julius Wellhausen . Berlin 1882. pp. 421-433.
- Studies
- Camilla Adang: "The Prophet's Farewell Pilgrimage ( Ḥijjat al-wadāʿ ): The True Story, according to Ibn Ḥazm" in Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 30 (2005) 112-153.
- ME McMillan: The meaning of Mecca: the politics of pilgrimage in early Islam . London 2011. pp. 19-28.
- Rudi Paret: Mohammed and the Koran. History and proclamation of the Arab prophet . 6th edition Stuttgart u. a .: Kohlhammer 1985. pp. 147-150.
- Brannon Wheeler: "Gift of the Body in Islam: The Prophet Muhammad's Camel Sacrifice and Distribution of Hair and Nails at his Farewell Pilgrimage" in Numen 57 (2010) 341-388.