The Last Companion Of Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ To Pass Away

The last companion of Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ to pass away

Question

Who was the last companion of the Prophet ﷺ to pass away?

بسم الله الرحمن الرحیم

Answer

The scholars are unanimous that the last companion to pass away is Abū al-Ṭufayl ʿĀmir ibn Wāthilah (may Allah be pleased with him). He was born in the year of the battle of Uḥud in 3 AH and was eight when the Prophet ﷺ passed away. Imam Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj (d. 261/875) narrates that al-Jurayrī said to Abū al-Ṭufayl: “Did you see Allah’s messenger ﷺ?” He said: “Yes, he had a white handsome face.” Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj said, “Abū al-Ṭufayl passed away in the year 100, and he was the last to pass away from the companions of the messenger of Allah ﷺ” (Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, 2340). He passed away in the blessed city of Makkah in 100 or 102 or 107 or 110 AH, according to the different opinions of scholars. The expert Ḥāfiẓ Shams al-Dīn al-Dhahabī (d. 748/1348) gives preference to the view that he passed away in 110 AH.

It is worth noting that the passing away of the last companion in 110 AH demonstrates the truth of the ḥadīth wherein the Prophet ﷺ said during the last days of his life, “Do you realise [the significance] of this night? For verily, after one hundred years from tonight, no one [currently living] on the surface of earth will be living (Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, 116).