Will of the Prophet Muhammad pbuhap on the Night of his Death

In the name of Allah the Merciful, the Intensely Merciful
Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds.
May the peace and prayers of Allah be upon Muhammad and his family, the Imams and the Mahdis.


If we go back to the events that happened before the death of the Prophet Mohammad pbuhap, and specifically that event on the last Thursday that is known as The Calamity of Thursday, we find agreement among the entire nation that the Prophet pbuhap wanted to write a will and he said, “Bring me a pen and a paper so that I can write for you a statement after which you will never go astray.” And the companions present disagreed, so the Prophet pbuhap became angry and told them to leave. The incident of the night of calamity has been reported in tens of narrations in Sunni books as well as the Shia books.

This is the narration as mentioned in Sahih Al-Bukhari:

Narrated from Ibrahim bin Musa, from Hisham, from Muamar, from Abdullah bin Muhammad, from Abdulrazak, from Muamar, from Al-Zahri, from Ubaidullah bin Abdullah, from Ibn Abbas (May Allah be pleased with them), he said:

When Allah's Apostle was on his deathbed there were some people in the house and among was Umar bin Al-Khattab, so the Prophet said, "Come, let me write for you a statement after which you will never go astray .” Umar said, "The Prophet is seriously ill, we have the Book of Allah, it is enough for us." The people present in the house differed and quarrelled. Some said, "Go to him so that the Prophet may write for you a statement after which you will never go astray," where others said the same as what Umar said. When they caused a disagreement and a cry before the Prophet, Allah's Apostle said, "Go away!" Ubaidullah narrated that Ibn Abbas said,, "It was very unfortunate that Allah's Apostle was prevented from writing that statement for them because of their disagreement and noise."

—Al-Bukhari, Volume 7, Chapter 70, Narration No. 573.
Online References:

Arabic: http://www.islamweb.net/
English: http://www.sahih-bukhari.com/

Now the nation agrees upon the following:

1. The Prophet pbuhap wanted to write a will.
2. The description of the book or the testament that he was going to write is that it guarantees for the nation not to go astray.
3. The people disagreed and argued in front of the Prophet pbuhap.
4. The Prophet commanded them to leave his house.

And the nation disagreed upon the following,

1. Whether the will was written or not, although there is no specific narration which states that the will was not written down.
2. Whether the will was written but has not necessarily reached us.

We all realize that this calamity happened on Thursday, and he pbuhap died on Monday.

If a pious man possessed a book which guaranteed protection of the nation from misguidance, and a person such as Umar bin Al-Khattab tried to stop this book from reaching the people, would the most pious of the creation, Prophet Muhammad pbuhap, dismiss the book even though he had a three day long opportunity to write it?

Of course the Prophet pbuhap would not dismiss this book. How could we accuse the most merciful of mankind of doing so? And by this we would be saying that he pbuhap deprived us from that statement which prevents us from being misguided.

Moreover, writing the will has been made obligatory upon the dying believer by Allah swt in the Quran, in more than one verse.

And if he did write it, it is imperative that it reaches us by the Divine Mercy of Allah swt, as long as it is a book which guarantees protection of the nation from misguidance.

Therefore, we conclude the following:

The will was written.
It is a guarantee for protection of the nation from misguidance.
It has reached us through the books of narrations.
Now if we search all the books of the believers of all the different sects we will find that there is only one will of the Prophet Mohammad pbuhap written when death approached him. It is the will in which he mentioned the successors of the nation, the twelve Imams and the twelve Mahdis by their names.

Will of the Prophet Muhammad pbuhap on the night of his death:
The Prophet Muhammad pbuhap said to Ali bin Abi Talib on the night of his death,

“O Father of Al-Hassan, bring me a pen and a paper”, and he dictated his will until he came to a position where he said, “O Ali, there will be twelve Imams after me and after them there will be twelve Mahdis. You, O Ali, are the first of the twelve Imams, Allah has named you in his heavens Ali Al- Mortatha, The Prince of the Believers, the Grand Truthful, the Bright Differentiator between truth and falsehood, the trusted, and the Mahdi (the rightly guided). These names may not to be truly attributed to other than you. O Ali, you are my successor over my family, their living and their deceased, and over my women. Whomever you affirm shall find me tomorrow, and whomever you reject I am innocent of her. I will not see her and she will not see me on the Day of Resurrection. And you are the successor (Khalifa) upon my nation after me. If death approaches you, hand it over to my son Al-Hassan the very beneficial. Then if death approaches him, let him hand it over to my son Al- Hussein, the martyr, the pure, the assassinated. Then if death approaches him, let him hand it over to his son, the master of the worshippers, Ali. Then if death approaches him, let him hand it over to his son, Muhammed Al-Baqir. Then if death approaches him, let him hand it over to his son, Jafar Al-Sadiq. Then if death approaches him, let him hand it over to his son, Musa Al-Kathum. Then if death approaches him, let him hand it over to his son, Ali Al-Retha. Then if death approaches him, let him hand it over to his son Muhammad, the trustworthy, the pious. Then if death approaches him, let him hand it over to his son Ali, the advisor. Then if death approaches him, let him hand it over to his son Al-Hassan, the virtuous. Then if death approaches him, let him hand it over to his son, Muhammad the Entrusted of the Holy Family of Muhammad peace be upon them. So these are the twelve Imams. Then after him, there will be twelve Mahdis. So if death approaches him, let him hand it over to his son, the first of the close ones, he has three names, one like mine and my father’s: Abdullah (servant of Allah), Ahmad and the third name is The Mahdi (rightly guided). He is the first of the believers.”


—Sheikh Al-Toosi, Al-Ghayba p.150
—Sheikh Hor Al-Amili, Ithbat Al-Hodat Vol. 1 p.549
—Sheikh Hor Al-Amili, Al-Iqath Min Al-Haj’a p.393-3
—Sheikh Hassan bin Soulayman Al Hilli, Mokhtasar Al Bassair p.159
—Al-Allama Al-Majlisii, Bihar Al-Anwar Vol. 53 p.147
—Al-Allama Al-Majlisii, Bihar Al-Anwar Vol. 36 p.260
—Sheikh Abd Allah Al-Bahrani, Al’awalim Vol. 3 p.236
—Al-Sayyed Hashim Al-Bahrani, Ghayat Al-Maram Vol. 1 p.370
—Al-Sayyed Hashim Al-Bahrani, Al-Insaf p.222
—Al-Fayth Al-Kachani, Nawadir Al-Akhbar p.294-9
—Sheikh Mirza Annouri, Annajm Al-Thaqib Vol. 2 p.71
—Al-Sayyed Muhammad Muhammad Sadiq Al-Sadir , Tarikh Ma Ba’d Al-Thohoor p.641-11
—Sheikh Al Mayanji, Makatib Arrassoul Vol. 2 p.96
—Sheikh Al-Korani, Mokhtasar Mo’jam Ahadith Al-Imam Al-Mahdi p.301-13