6. Human Rights in the Light of the Last Sermon (Khutbah Hajjatul Wida)

Book reference: p.91 — "Explain Human Rights granted in Islam in the light of the last sermon of the Holy Prophet (PBUH)?"; Q.5 (Question Bank, p.viii) — "'The Last Sermon of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) is the basic document for awakening of consciousness of mankind for human rights.' Discuss."

Context

• Delivered by the Prophet (PBUH) at Arafat during the Farewell Pilgrimage, 10 AH (632 CE), before roughly 100,000-140,000 pilgrims.
• Widely regarded by scholars as history's earliest universal human rights charter — predating the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) by over 1,300 years.

Key Declarations in the Sermon

• Sanctity of life, honour and property
  • Declared "as sacred as this day, in this month, in this city."
• Racial equality
  • "No superiority of an Arab over a non-Arab except by piety."
• End of pre-Islamic blood feuds
  • All blood claims and revenge killings from the pre-Islamic era formally abolished.
• End of Riba (interest/usury)
  • All interest-based debts of the pre-Islamic era declared void, starting with the Prophet's own family's claims.
• Rights of women
  • "Treat women well"; husbands' obligations toward wives explicitly stated.
• Accountability of rulers and preservation of the Qur'an and Sunnah
  • The famous closing instruction to hold fast to "the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of His Messenger."
• Unity and equality of the Ummah
  • Declared all Muslims brothers, with no superiority of one over another except piety.

Hadith Evidence (The Sermon Itself)

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إِنَّ دِمَاءَكُمْ وَأَمْوَالَكُم عَلَيْكُم حَرَامٌ كَحُرْمَةِ يَوْمِكُمْ هَذَا

اردو: بےشک تمہارے خون اور تمہارے مال ایک دوسرے پر ایسے حرام ہیں جیسے تمہارا یہ دن، اس مہینے میں، اس شہر میں حرام ہے۔

English: "Your blood and your property are sacred to one another until you meet your Lord, just as this day of yours is sacred, in this month of yours, in this city of yours."

— Sahih al-Bukhari 1739; Sahih Muslim 1679

لَا فَضْلَ لِعَرَبِيٍّ عَلَى عَجَمِيٍّ إِلَّا بِالتَّقْوَى

اردو: كسی عربی کو کسی عجمی پر کوئی فضیلت حاصل نہیں مگر تقویٰ کی بنا پر۔

English: "An Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab except by piety and good action."

— Musnad Ahmad 23489

تَرَكْتُ فِيكُمْ مَا إِن اعتَصَمْتُم بِهِ لَن تَضِلُّوا أَبَدًا: كِتَابَ اللَّهِ وَسُنَّةَ نَبِيِّهِ

اردو: میں تمہارے درمیان دو چیزیں چھوڑے جا رہا ہوں، جب تک انہیں مضبوطی سے تھامے رکھو گے، ہرگز گمراہ نہ ہو گے: اللہ کی کتاب اور اس کے نبی کی سنت۔

English: "I am leaving among you two things; as long as you hold fast to them, you will never go astray: the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of His Prophet."

— Al-Muwatta of Imam Malik 1594

Why It Is Called a "Human Rights Charter"

• Covers civil rights (life, property), economic rights (end of Riba), gender rights, racial equality, and rule-of-law/accountability — the full breadth of what modern human-rights instruments cover, in a single address.
• Universal in scope — addressed to "O people," not to Muslims exclusively in every clause.
• Legally and morally binding, not aspirational — immediately implemented as state policy upon the Prophet's (PBUH) return.

CSS Exam Tips

• Quote at least 3-4 distinct clauses of the sermon (sanctity of life, racial equality, end of Riba, rights of women) with Arabic where possible.
• Explicitly compare its historical priority to the 1948 UDHR for a strong concluding point.
• Cross-reference: Rights of Women in Islam, Human Respect & Dignity, Human Rights Granted in Islam.

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20-Mark Enrichment — Analytical Material

Core Argument

The Khuṭbah of Ḥajjat al-Widāʿ (9 Dhu'l-Ḥijjah 10 AH / March 632 CE, delivered at ʿArafah before an assembly conventionally numbered at over 100,000) is the earliest universal declaration of human rights in recorded history — universal in address ("O people," not "O believers"), comprehensive in scope (life, property, honour, women, race, economy, family, governance), and delivered with a built-in mechanism of transmission ("let the present convey to the absent"). The 20-mark thesis is that it is not a farewell speech but a constitutional charter: it abolishes the legal residues of jāhiliyyah, fixes the inviolables, and binds the community to a written and preserved source of authority.

1. Context and Status of the Sermon

• Delivered in the tenth year of Hijrah at ʿArafah during the Prophet's only Ḥajj, three months before his death.
• Preserved in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim (the long ḥadīth of Jābir on the Ḥajj), Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, Musnad Aḥmad, Sunan Abī Dāwūd, Tirmidhī and the Sīrah literature — an unusually well-attested text.
• Accompanied by the revelation of al-Māʾidah 5:3 — الْيَوْمَ أَكْمَلْتُ لَكُمْ دِينَكُمْ وَأَتْمَمْتُ عَلَيْكُمْ نِعْمَتِي — "This day I have perfected for you your religion and completed My favour upon you" — (al-yawma akmaltu lakum dīnakum wa atmamtu ʿalaykum niʿmatī) — which frames the sermon as the summation of a completed religion.
• The repeated device — "have I conveyed?" the crowd answering "yes," and his response, اللَّهُمَّ اشْهَدْ ("O Allah, bear witness") — makes it a formally attested public act, closer to a promulgation than a homily.

2. Sanctity of Life, Property and Honour

• إِنَّ دِمَاءَكُمْ وَأَمْوَالَكُمْ وَأَعْرَاضَكُمْ عَلَيْكُمْ حَرَامٌ كَحُرْمَةِ يَوْمِكُمْ هَذَا فِي شَهْرِكُمْ هَذَا فِي بَلَدِكُمْ هَذَا — blood, property and honour declared as sacred as this day, this month, this city.
• The analogy is legally precise: it borrows the strictest known category of sanctity (the sacred day, month and precinct) and transfers it to the human person.
• ʿIrḍ (honour/reputation) is listed alongside life and property — a right that most modern declarations reached only through later defamation and privacy law.

3. Abolition of the Structures of Jāhiliyyah

• Blood vengeance abolished: "all claims to blood from the days of ignorance are under my feet" — and he began with his own family, waiving the blood of Rabīʿah ibn al-Ḥārith's son. Reform begins with the reformer's own household; this detail is worth naming, as it demonstrates good faith rather than mere proclamation.
• Ribā abolished: "all interest of the age of ignorance is annulled" — again beginning with his own uncle's: "the first interest I annul is that of ʿAbbās ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib."
• Tribal pride and lineage claims abolished: no superiority of Arab over non-Arab, red over black, except by taqwā.
• Analytical point: the sermon does not merely proclaim principles; it cancels existing legal claims retrospectively, which is what distinguishes a constitutional act from an exhortation.

4. Racial and Human Equality

• لَا فَضْلَ لِعَرَبِيٍّ عَلَىٰ عَجَمِيٍّ وَلَا لِعَجَمِيٍّ عَلَىٰ عَرَبِيٍّ، وَلَا لِأَحْمَرَ عَلَىٰ أَسْوَدَ وَلَا لِأَسْوَدَ عَلَىٰ أَحْمَرَ إِلَّا بِالتَّقْوَىٰ — with the added foundation, "you are all from Adam, and Adam is from dust."
• The Qur'anic parallel is 49:13; the sermon is its public promulgation.
• Comparative force: this was declared in 632 CE — over twelve centuries before the abolition of slavery in the Americas and Europe, and three centuries before feudal Europe developed any notion of equality before law.

5. Rights of Women

• اسْتَوْصُوا بِالنِّسَاءِ خَيْرًا — "treat women well," delivered as a charge to the entire assembly.
• "You have rights over your wives and they have rights over you" — explicit reciprocity, echoing 2:228.
• Provision for maintenance and kind treatment; prohibition of ill-treatment; recognition that women are "a trust of Allah" placed in men's care.
• Analytical framing: this is the only recorded instance in the ancient world of a head of state and religious founder using his final public address to legislate on the treatment of women.

6. Rights of Workers and the Weak

• Instructions regarding servants and slaves: feed them from what you eat, clothe them from what you wear; do not burden them beyond capacity.
• The sermon's insistence that the property of others is inviolable "except by their willing consent" is the classical basis for the requirement of free consent in all transactions — usable against bonded labour, land grabbing and coerced waivers of inheritance.

7. Sources of Authority and Community Cohesion

• تَرَكْتُ فِيكُمْ مَا إِنْ تَمَسَّكْتُمْ بِهِ لَنْ تَضِلُّوا بَعْدِي: كِتَابَ اللَّهِ — "I have left among you that which, if you hold to it, you will never go astray: the Book of Allah" (with the Sunnah in other transmissions, and the Ahl al-Bayt in the ḥadīth of Ghadīr in Shīʿī and some Sunni transmissions).
• Warning against reverting to disbelief "striking one another's necks" — an explicit prohibition of intra-Muslim violence.
• Finality of prophethood affirmed: no prophet after him.
• Transmission clause: fa'l-yuballighi al-shāhidu al-ghāʾib — "let the one present convey to the one absent," with the observation that a later recipient may understand better than the immediate hearer. This is a built-in mechanism of preservation and reinterpretation across time.

8. Comparison with Modern Declarations and Contemporary Relevance

• Contemporary application in Pakistan: honour crimes are refuted by the sanctity of ʿirḍ and of life together; ethnic and biradari politics by the equality clause; bonded labour by the servants clause; interest-based finance by the ribā annulment; sectarian violence by the prohibition of Muslims striking one another's necks.
• Rhetorical advantage: the sermon dates to 632 CE and the UDHR to 1948. State the dates. It is the single most effective comparative point in Theme III.

Qur'anic Evidence Bank

• al-Māʾidah 5:3 — perfection of the religion, revealed on the day of the sermon.
• al-Ḥujurāt 49:13 — nations and tribes; nobility by taqwā.
• al-Isrāʾ 17:70 — honour of the children of Adam.
• al-Baqarah 2:228 — reciprocal rights between spouses.
• al-Baqarah 2:275, 2:278–279 — prohibition of ribā.
• al-Māʾidah 5:32 — sanctity of life.
• al-Nisāʾ 4:29 — property transferred only by mutual consent.

Hadith / Seerah Application

• The full sermon in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim (ḥadīth of Jābir ibn ʿAbdillāh, Kitāb al-Ḥajj) — the primary text; cite it by name.
• اللَّهُمَّ اشْهَدْ — the thrice-repeated attestation formula.
• فَلْيُبَلِّغِ الشَّاهِدُ الْغَائِبَ — the transmission clause.
• The waiver of his own family's blood claim and his uncle's interest — reform beginning at home.

Critical / Analytical Angle

Three moves lift this answer into the top band. First, treat the sermon as a legal instrument, not a sermon: it annuls existing claims, fixes inviolables, names a source of authority, and provides for its own transmission — the structure of a constitution. Second, emphasise self-application: the first blood claim cancelled was his family's, the first interest annulled was his uncle's. A ruler who applies a reform to his own kin before others removes the standard objection that elites legislate for everyone but themselves. Third, handle the comparison with the UDHR carefully — do not claim the sermon is identical to a modern rights instrument. Argue instead that it establishes the same inviolables thirteen centuries earlier, and adds what the UDHR cannot: a source of obligation that no state can repeal and an accountability that no jurisdiction can escape.

Model 20-Mark Answer Skeleton

1. Introduction (2) — date, place, audience, and 5:3; the sermon as promulgation.
2. Sanctity of life, property, honour (3).
3. Abolition of jāhiliyyah structures (4) — blood feuds, ribā, lineage pride; self-application.
4. Racial equality (3) — the text with 49:13; comparative dating.
5. Rights of women and workers (3).
6. Sources of authority and unity (2) — Book of Allah, prohibition of internal violence, transmission clause.
7. Comparison with UDHR, Pakistan relevance, conclusion (3).

✍️ Full Model Answer — Exam-Ready Prose

Introduction (2 marks): The Khuṭbah of Ḥajjat al-Widāʿ, delivered by the Prophet ﷺ at ʿArafah on 9 Dhu'l-Ḥijjah, 10 AH (March 632 CE), before an assembly conventionally numbered at over one hundred thousand, is the earliest universal declaration of human rights in recorded history. It was delivered alongside the revelation of الْيَوْمَ أَكْمَلْتُ لَكُمْ دِينَكُمْ — "this day I have perfected for you your religion" (al-Māʿidah 5:3) — which frames the sermon as the summation of a completed message rather than a farewell speech; its universal address, "O people," not "O believers," and its comprehensive scope across life, property, race, women, economy and governance justify treating it as a constitutional charter.

Sanctity of life, property, honour (3 marks): The Prophet ﷺ declared, إِنَّ دِمَاءَكُمْ وَأَمْوَالَكُمْ وَأَعْرَاضَكُمْ عَلَيْكُمْ حَرَامٌ كَحُرْمَةِ يَوْمِكُمْ هَذَا — "your blood, your property and your honour are as sacred to you as this day of yours, in this month of yours, in this city of yours" (Bukhārī 1739, Muslim 1679). The analogy is legally precise, borrowing the strictest known category of sanctity in Arabian custom — the sacred month and precinct — and transferring it to the human person; and honour (ʿirḍ) is listed alongside life and property, a right most modern declarations reached only through later defamation and privacy law.

Abolition of jāhiliyyah structures (4 marks): The sermon does not merely proclaim principles; it retrospectively cancels existing legal claims, which is what distinguishes a constitutional act from an exhortation. All pre-Islamic blood vengeance was abolished, and the Prophet ﷺ began with his own family, waiving the blood claim of Rabīʿah ibn al-Ḥārith's son; all ribā of the Age of Ignorance was annulled, beginning again with his own household — "the first interest I annul is that of ʿAbbās ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib." This self-application matters analytically: a reformer who cancels his own family's claims before anyone else's removes the standard objection that elites legislate for everyone but themselves.

Racial equality (3 marks): He declared, لَا فَضْلَ لِعَرَبِيٍّ عَلَىٰ عَجَمِيٍّ وَلَا لِعَجَمِيٍّ عَلَىٰ عَرَبِيٍّ، وَلَا لِأَحْمَرَ عَلَىٰ أَسْوَدَ وَلَا لأَسْوَدَ عَلَىٰ أَحْمَرَ إِلَّا بِالتَّقْوَى — "no Arab has superiority over a non-Arab, nor a non-Arab over an Arab, nor a red one over a black one, nor a black one over a red one, except by piety" — with the added foundation, "you are all from Adam, and Adam is from dust," a direct public promulgation of the Qur'anic principle in 49:13. The comparative force of the date cannot be overstated: this was declared in 632 CE, over twelve centuries before the abolition of slavery in the Americas and Europe.

Rights of women and workers (3 marks): He charged the entire assembly, اسْتَوْصُوا بِالنِّسَاءِ خَيْرًا — "treat women well" (Bukhārī & Muslim) — and stated explicitly, "you have rights over your wives, and they have rights over you," a public declaration of marital reciprocity echoing 2:228. He extended the same principle of care downward to servants and the enslaved, instructing that they be fed from what their masters eat and clothed from what they wear, and grounded all transfers of property in free consent — a clause with direct application against bonded labour and coerced inheritance waivers today.

Sources of authority and unity (2 marks): He named a permanent anchor for the community — تَرَكْتُ فِيكُمْ مَا إِنِ اعتَصَمْتُم بِهِ لَن تَضِلُّوا أَبَدًا: كِتَابَ اللَّهِ وَسُنَّةَ نَبِيِّهِ — "I am leaving among you two things; as long as you hold fast to them you will never go astray: the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of His Prophet" (Muwaṭṭaʾ 1594) — forbade Muslims from reverting to disbelief by "striking one another's necks," and closed with the transmission clause, fa'l-yuballighi al-shāhidu al-ghāʾib, "let the one present convey to the one absent," a built-in mechanism for the sermon's own preservation across time.

Comparison with UDHR, Pakistan relevance and conclusion (3 marks): Set beside the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the sermon's inviolability of life, property and honour, its racial equality clause, and its provisions for women anticipate UDHR Articles 1–3 and 17 and instruments such as CEDAW by thirteen centuries, while resting on revelation rather than negotiated state consent. In Pakistan, the sermon's clauses answer honour crimes through the joint sanctity of ʿirḍ and life, ethnic and biradari politics through the equality clause, and bonded labour through the servants clause. Standing at ʿArafah in 632 CE, the Prophet ﷺ abolished blood feud, usury and racial hierarchy, declared life, property and honour inviolable, and asked the world to bear witness — thirteen centuries before the nations of the earth assembled to say the same thing in 1948.

One-Line Conclusion for a 20-Mark Answer

Standing at ʿArafah in 632 CE, the Prophet ﷺ abolished blood feud, usury and racial hierarchy, declared life, property and honour inviolable, and asked the world to bear witness — thirteen centuries before the nations of the earth assembled to say the same thing in 1948.

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📌 Past Paper Questions — CSS 2017–2026

Every FPSC question on this topic, linked to its solved model answer. Open the year page and jump to the Q number.

Asked directly (2 times):

• 2020 · Q4 — "The last Sermon of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) is the basic document for awakening of conscious of mankind for human rights." Discuss. → 2020 — Islamic Studies (CSS)
• 2023 · Q8(i) — Human rights in the light of the Sermon of Farewell Pilgrimage (10 marks). → 2023 — Islamic Studies (CSS)

🎯 Exam pattern: List the rights point by point (life, property, honour, equality, women, abolition of riba and blood feuds, rule of law) with the sermon line for each. 2026 MCQ: equality emphasised in the Farewell Sermon = human equality.

📝 CSS Past-Paper MCQs — 2024–2026

Actual FPSC MCQs placed under this relevant syllabus subtopic. Answers follow the existing solved papers, with corrections or cautions stated where needed. The provided 2017–2023 papers lack Part-I questions.

• 2026 · MCQ 12 (1 mark). What form of equality did the Prophet ﷺ emphasize in his final major address?
  • Options: A. Human · B. Economic · C. Legal · D. None of these
  • Correct answer: A. Human equality. The Farewell Sermon highlights equality of human dignity. Year-wise solved paper.