- The Fifth
Abu Umamah Suday ibn ʿAjlan al-Bahili (may Allah be pleased with him) said, “I heard the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) delivering a sermon during the Farewell Pilgrimage in which he declared:
“Fear Allah, perform your five daily prayers, fast your month, pay the zakat due on your wealth, and obey your leaders; you will enter the Garden of your Lord.”
Al-Tirmidhi recorded this narration at the end of the Book of Prayer and said, “It is a good, sound hadith.”
Commentary
The Prophet’s sermons, peace be upon him, fall into two categories: regular and occasional. The regular sermons are those delivered on Fridays and the two festival days, for he, peace be upon him, would address the people every Friday and on every ʿEid.
The scholars—may Allah have mercy on them—differed about the sermon of the eclipse prayer: is it regular or occasional? Their disagreement stems from the fact that an eclipse occurred only once in the lifetime of the Prophet, peace be upon him. After completing the prayer he rose and addressed the people. Some scholars maintained that this counts as one of the regular sermons, arguing that whatever the Prophet, peace be upon him, instituted is by default fixed and enduring; since no second eclipse occurred for him to omit the sermon, we have no basis to classify it as merely occasional.
Other scholars held that it is an occasional sermon which, when it has a cause