The Prophet's Final Khutbah and the Martyrs of Uhud

Shaykh Yasir Qadhi explains:

A hadith preserved by ʿUqbah ibn ʿĀmir in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī shows how present the memory of Uḥud remained for the Prophet (ﷺ) even at the very end of his life. Eight years after the battle, in the final week before his death, the Prophet (ﷺ) made a special duʿāʾ for the martyrs of Uḥud, described by those present as strikingly emotional, as though he were bidding farewell to people still standing before him.

He then ascended the minbar and delivered what would be his last public khuṭbah, recorded in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī. Among what he said: "Ana faraṭukum ʿalā-l-ḥawḍ", I will be waiting for you at the Ḥawḍ (the Basin); "wa ana shahīdun ʿalaykum", and I will testify concerning you before Allah; "wa inna mawʿidanā ʿalā-l-ḥawḍ", our meeting place is at the Ḥawḍ. He added: "Kaʾannī anẓuru ilayhi min maqāmī al-ān", it is as though I can see it now from where I stand, though death was days away, something the Ṣaḥābah listening did not yet know.

ʿUqbah ibn ʿĀmir records that this was the last time he ever saw the Prophet's (ﷺ) face in that public setting. The final words of that khuṭbah, spoken immediately after remembering Uḥud's martyrs, were: "I am not worried that you will fall into shirk after I am gone. I am worried that this world will open up before you, and you will compete with one another over it (tanāfasūhā)." Dr. Qadhi draws the throughline: the last public teaching of the Prophet's (ﷺ) life links directly back to Uḥud's central lesson, that love of this world over the Hereafter, not idolatry, was and remains the Ummah's deepest and most enduring vulnerability.