The Occasion
In the tenth year after the Hijrah the Prophet ﷺ announced that he would make the pilgrimage, and the announcement emptied Madīnah. Jābir ibn ʿAbdullāh, whose narration in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim is the fullest single account of the journey, said that so many came that “I could see nothing but people before me as far as my eye could reach, mounted and on foot, and to my right and left the same, and behind me the same.”1
On the ninth of Dhū al-Ḥijjah he rode his camel al-Qaṣwāʾ into the plain of ʿArafah, and in the middle of the valley he addressed the people. What follows is not one continuous text preserved in a single report but the sermon as the ṣaḥīḥ collections give it, most of it from Jābir's narration in Muslim and from al-Bukhārī, with additional passages from Musnad Aḥmad. He was dead within three months.12
The Sermon
All praise is due to God. We praise Him, seek His help and His forgiveness, and we turn to Him in repentance. We seek refuge in God from the evils of our souls and from our bad deeds. Whomever God guides, none can lead astray; and whomever He leads astray, none can guide.
O people, listen to my words, for I do not know whether I shall ever meet you again in this place after this year.
O people, your blood and your property are sacred to you, as sacred as this day of yours, in this month of yours, in this city of yours — until the day you meet your Lord. Have I conveyed the message? O God, bear witness.
Whoever has a trust with him, let him return it to the one who entrusted him with it.
Every claim of blood from the days of ignorance is abolished. The first claim of blood I abolish is the blood of Ibn Rabīʿah ibn al-Ḥārith, who was nursed among Banū Saʿd and killed by Hudhayl.
And the usury of the days of ignorance is abolished. The first usury I abolish is our usury — the usury of ʿAbbās ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib. It is abolished entirely.
Fear God concerning women, for you have taken them by the trust of God and made their persons lawful to you by the word of God. Treat them well — you have rights over them, and they have rights over you. It is their right upon you that you provide for them and clothe them in kindness.
Beware of Shayṭān for the safety of your religion. He has despaired of ever being worshipped in this land of yours, but he is content to be obeyed in what you regard as lesser than that — so beware of him.
Time has come round to its state on the day God created the heavens and the earth. The year is twelve months, four of them sacred — three consecutive: Dhū al-Qaʿdah, Dhū al-Ḥijjah, and Muḥarram; and Rajab of Muḍar, which lies between Jumādā and Shaʿbān.
I have left among you that by which, if you hold fast to it, you will never go astray after me: the Book of God.
Do not return after me as disbelievers, striking one another's necks.
You will be asked about me — what will you say?
[They said: We bear witness that you have conveyed the message, that you have fulfilled your charge, and that you have counselled us.] Then, raising his forefinger toward the sky and pointing it at the people, he said: O God, bear witness. O God, bear witness. O God, bear witness.
On the Days That Followed
He continued to address the people through the days of Minā, and the reports of those addresses preserve a passage widely quoted since: “O people, your Lord is one and your father is one. There is no superiority of an Arab over a non-Arab, nor of a non-Arab over an Arab; nor of a white person over a black, nor of a black over a white — except by God-consciousness.”3
The passage on lineage is transmitted through Musnad Aḥmad and other collections rather than through the two Ṣaḥīḥs, and the ḥadīth scholars grade its chains variously, though its meaning is corroborated by the Qur'an's own statement that “the most noble of you in the sight of God is the most righteous of you.”34
A textual note the classical scholars were careful about: Jābir's narration in Muslim records “the Book of God” alone; a version transmitted in Mālik's Muwaṭṭaʾ has “the Book of God and the sunnah of His Prophet,” but that chain is mursal — missing its Companion link — while a version in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim from Zayd ibn Arqam pairs the Book with “the people of my house.” All three are reported; only the first is in the two Ṣaḥīḥs in the sermon's own setting.15
According to Ibn ʿAbbās, it was on this day at ʿArafah that the verse was revealed: “This day I have perfected for you your religion and completed My favour upon you and have approved for you Islam as religion.” A Jewish man later told ʿUmar that had such a verse come to them, they would have taken that day as a festival; ʿUmar answered that he knew the day and the place it was revealed — a Friday, at ʿArafah.6