Why did the Prophet bathe during his final illness?

Continuing in the book of purification of al-Wajeez regarding the preferred instances or occasions it it is in which it is preferred for a person to bathe. Some of these are specific to women, some of them are specific to men, some of them are unisex, both men and women. And so far we have mentioned two. The first is at each at each each time a person wishes to have relations with his or her spouse. And the second is bathing for al-mustahadah. Al-mustahadah, as we've mentioned many times before, is a woman who her menstrual cycle has ended, but the bleeding has continued. The third instance bathing after a person experiences unconsciousness. Now, when a person faints or experiences some kind of unconsciousness. So, basically, anything outside of sleep, then it is the sunnah to bathe upon waking.

[Silence]

You call the holy man film.

[Arabic recitation]

Authority of Aisha and her she says the messenger of Allah S.A.W fell unconscious when he was in his final days. So, let us set the scene here to understand what it actually happened. He was ill and he had fallen ill after coming back from a funeral in Al-Baqi which is the cemetery that is right next and closest to the prophet S.A.W masjid. It's the place where most of the companions are buried and when he came back, he was starting to experience a very bad headache. Now, the prophet Alayhi Wasallam was known to have extreme headaches constantly, migraines. And these headaches were severe. They were very severe. And sometimes he would spend days on end not be not coming out of his home from these headaches Alayhi Wasallam. So, it wasn't really a cause for alarm at the time. And so, he remained ill for roughly 14 days, about 2 weeks. And this would later develop into the illness that claimed his life Alayhi Wasallam. Now, as he was in the final days, he was told that everyone is ready to make salah. So, he tried to get up and he lost consciousness. And then, when he woke up and this loss of consciousness was probably very brief, a matter of moments or minutes. And then, he would wake up and say, "Did the people pray yet?" And they responded, "No, they are waiting for you." So, he said, "Bring me a mikhdab." A mikhdab is a big basin of water. Right? A basin. Usually, you would wash clothes in them. When I was a kid, basins were used the same basin This basin that we had was orange. It was very bright orange. cannot erase it from my mind no matter how hard I try. That's the basin that we took our baths in and that's the basin that we washed our clothes in. And so in my mind I see an orange basin, but of course it wasn't orange. It was a basin that would be made out of metal, usually a thin kind of metal. And so they put water in this basin for him and he took it and he bathed with it. But as he finished bathing and tried to get up again, he lost consciousness again. And then he woke up and said, "Did the people pray yet?" And the same thing they repeated, "No, they're waiting for you, oh messenger of Allah." And he said, "Bring me a basin of water." And so they bring him a basin of water and he would bathe and as he goes to get up to go and lead salah or you know, to get dressed to go and lead salah, he'd lose consciousness again. And this occurred a number of times until he finally gave up on being able to go and lead salah himself. And so he sent word to Abu Bakr to lead salah. Now, notice how serious they are taking salah. Very seriously. This is a huge major event. We can't just have any old person lead salah, right? No, this is a major event leading salah. And so they are waiting for him and he chooses Abu Bakr to lead salah. Radiyallahu anhu. So the point taken here from this particular narration and this context is that one of the instances in which it is preferred for a person to bathe is after loss of consciousness. Now, that is taken from this narration. Do we know why that is? Most likely to help wake a person up, to help fully come back from the unconsciousness that they were in. But, regardless of what it is for, we know that it is the Sunnah because the Prophet did it. It may have a physical purpose to it, but being that he did it, if we do it in the way that he did it, it is considered worship in our in our as as applied to us, it is considered worship. And the scholars have taken these things that he uses or that he does that are otherwise mundane things and listed them in detail, considering it an act of worship to emulate the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wasallam in these things. To the point that we have very close detail as to which side he would wear his sword on, how he would wear his armor, how he would sit on his horse, Sallallahu alayhi wasallam, which side of the horse he would get on first. Why do these things matter? Well, these things are not acts of worship per se in themselves, but when a person does it out of love of the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wasallam and in copying him and emulating him, it becomes a kind of and a sort of act of worship to do so.

[Arabic recitation]