One day Abraham was stricken with an illness from which he was never to recover. Great sadness descended upon Medina when his condition was made known and the Prophet (sa) stayed by his side as often and as long as he could.

As Abraham grew weaker, the Prophet (sa) knew it would not be long until the angels took away his darling little soul and with tender, loving care he held him close to him in his arms and tear drops started to fall as Abraham drifted gently away.

The Prophet (sa) could not withhold his sadness and wept openly for his son, and as he did Abdur Rahman, Awf's son, who had misunderstood the extent to which one is permitted to weep, was concerned by the Prophet's weeping and gently asked, "O Messenger of Allah (sa), is this what you have forbidden. If the Muslims see you weeping, they too will weep." Tears continued to flow from the Prophet's eyes and when at last he could speak he said, "This kind is not forbidden, these are tears of tenderness and mercy, and he who is not merciful shall be shown no mercy."

Then, addressing his son he said, "O Abraham, if it were not for the certainty of reunion, and that this is a path we must all walk, and that the last of us shall overtake the first, indeed, we would grieve for you with even greater sorrow. We are deeply stricken with sorrow for you, the eye weeps and the heart grieves, nor yet are we doing anything which would be offensive before our Lord."

Lady Maryam was deeply saddened by the loss of her little son and the Prophet (sa) spoke gently to her with words of reassurance that comforted her as he told her that their son was in Paradise. After a while the Prophet (sa) left and returned with Abbas and Fadl. Fadl washed the tiny, delicate little body and shrouded it whilst the Prophet (sa) and his uncle gazed on in sadness. It was time to lay the little darling to rest and a tiny grave was dug for him in the cemetery.

After the funeral prayer had been said, his tiny bier was taken to the cemetery where the Prophet (sa) prayed for him again, and Osama and Fadl lowered him gently into his grave. The Prophet (sa) remained at his graveside after it had been covered with earth and asked for some water to be brought to him, which he then sprinkled over the grave.

The earth covering the grave was somewhat uneven whereupon the Prophet (sa) said, "When you do something, do it as perfectly as possible," and smoothed it over with his blessed hand saying, "It does neither harm nor good, but it relieves those whose soul is afflicted."

A few days later there was an eclipse of the sun, and people began to attribute it to the Prophet's loss. But the Prophet (sa) told them it was not so saying, "The sun and moon are two signs of Allah. Their light is not dimmed on account of anyone's death. When you see them eclipsed, you should pray until they return."

The Selling of Arms

To many it seemed that the time of hostilities was over and word spread among throughout the City that jihad had been suspended. Now that Mecca had been restored for the worship of Allah; the Romans no longer appeared to be a threat, and delegations journeyed to Medina in readiness to ally themselves to the Prophet (sa), they thought there was no need to retain their arms so they began to sell them.

When the Prophet (sa) learned of their actions he forbade them to disarm saying, "Until after the coming of the anti-Christ a band of my people will not cease to fight for the truth. If you knew what I knew you would laugh but a little and weep a lot." He continued to warn saying, "No time will come upon you that is not followed by one that is worse."

Then, referring to the Jews, Nazarenes and Christians, and the corruption of their adherence to the injunctions entrusted to them by their prophets he warned still further, “Some of you (Muslims) will follow those who went before, span by span, cubit by cubit, until if they went down the hole of a poisonous reptile you would follow after them."