In the tenth year of the Hegira, the prophet made his last pilgrimage to Mecca at the head
of forty thousand Moslems, instructed them in all important ordinances, and exhorted them to
protect the weak, the poor, and the women, and to abstain from usury. He planned a large campaign
against the Greeks.
But soon after his return to Medina, he died of a violent fever in the house and the arms of
Ayesha, June 8, 632, in the sixty-third year of his age, and was buried on the spot where he died,
which is now enclosed by a mosque. He suffered great pain, cried and wailed, turned on his couch
in despair, and said to his wives when they expressed their surprise at his conduct: "Do ye not know
that prophets have to suffer more than all others? One was eaten up by vermin; another died so
poor that he had nothing but rags to cover his shame; but their reward will be all the greater in the
life beyond." Among his last utterances were: "The Lord destroy the Jews and Christians! Let his
anger be kindled against those that turn the tombs of their prophets into places of worship! O Lord,
let not my tomb be an object of worship! Let there not remain any faith but that of Islâm throughout
the whole of Arabia .... Gabriel, come close to me! Lord, grant me pardon and join me to thy
companionship on high! Eternity in paradise! Pardon! Yes, the blessed companionship on high!"^157
Omar would not believe that Mohammed was dead, and proclaimed in the mosque of
Medina: "The prophet has only swooned away; he shall not die until he have rooted out every
hypocrite and unbeliever." But Abu Bakr silenced him and said: "Whosoever worships Mohammed,
let him know that Mohammed is dead; but whosoever worships God, let him know that the Lord
liveth, and will never die." Abu Bakr, whom he had loved most, was chosen Calif, or Successor of
Mohammed.
Later tradition, and even the earliest biography, ascribe to the prophet of Mecca strange
miracles, and surround his name with a mythical halo of glory. He was saluted by walking trees
and stones; he often made by a simple touch the udders of dry goats distend with milk; be caused
floods of water to well up from the parched ground, or gush forth from empty vessels, or issue from
betwixt the fingers; he raised the dead; he made a night journey on his steed Borak through the air
from Mecca to Jerusalem, from Jerusalem to paradise and the mansions of the prophets and angels,
and back again to Mecca.^158 But he himself, in several passages of the Koran, expressly disclaims
the power of miracles; he appeals to the internal proofs of his doctrine, and shields himself behind
the providence of God, who refuses those signs which might diminish the merit of faith and aggravate
the guilt of unbelief.^159
Character of Mohammed.
The Koran, if chronologically arranged, must be regarded as the best commentary on his
character. While his followers regard him to this day as the greatest prophet of God, he was long
abhorred in Christendom as a wicked impostor, as the antichrist, or the false prophet, predicted in
the Bible, and inspired by the father of lies.
(^157) See Sprenger, III. 552 sqq., Muir, IV. 270 sqq.
(^158) This absurd story, circumstantially described by Abulfeda, is probably based on a dream which Mohammed himself
relates in the Koran, Sura 17, entitled The Night Journey: "Glory be to Him who carried his servant by night from the sacred
temple of Mecca to the temple that is remote" [i.e. in Jerusalem]. In the Dome of the Rock on Mount Moriah, the hand-prints
of the angel Gabriel are shown in the mysterious rock which attempted to follow Mohammed to its native quarry in Paradise,
but was kept back by the angel!
(^159) See an interesting essay on the "Miracles of Mohammed" in Tholuck’s Miscellaneous Essays (1839), Vol. I., pp.
1-27. Also Muir, I., pp. 65 sqq.; Sprenger, II. 413 sqq.