The hour and the date of his death

There is no disagreement that he died on a Monday. Ibn Abbas said: "Your prophet was born on a Monday, given prophethood on a Monday, left Mecca emigrating on a Monday, entered Medina on a Monday, and died on a Monday." Ahmad and the Bayhaqi reported it. And Aïcha relates that Abou Bakr asked her: on what day did the Messenger of Allah die? She said: on a Monday. He said: then I hope to die on a Monday! And he died on one. In the Sahih, Anas says: "The last glance I cast on the Messenger of Allah that day: he lifted the curtain while the people stood behind Abou Bakr, and I saw his face like a page of a Mushaf. The people meant to disperse, and he signalled them to stay, then let the curtain fall: and he died shortly after." That hadith indicates the death came after midday. Al-Awza’i said: he died on a Monday before the day reached its half. And Urwa, Moussa ibn Oqba and az-Zouhri relate that he died in the lap of Aïcha, on her day, Monday, as the sun declined, at the crescent of Rabi’ al-Awwal.

As for the length of his illness, at-Taymi relates that he was ill twenty-two nights from Safar, that his ailment began with a freedwoman of his called Rayhana, of the captives of the Jews, on a Saturday, and that his death came on a Monday, two nights after the entry of Rabi’ al-Awwal: thus completing ten full years since his arrival in Medina. The Waqidi relates that he fell ill eleven nights before the end of Safar in the house of Zaynab bint Jahch, with violent suffering, that all his wives gathered to him, that he was ill thirteen days, and died on the Monday two nights after the entry of Rabi’ al-Awwal of the year eleven; in one version, twelve nights after the entry of Rabi’ al-Awwal, and he was buried Tuesday night. Ibn Ishaq says: he died twelve nights after the entry of Rabi’ al-Awwal, on the very day he had entered Medina as an emigrant, completing ten full years of his emigration.

As-Souhayli objects that Monday the twelfth of Rabi’ al-Awwal cannot be reconciled with his standing at Arafat on a Friday: the answer lies in the differing sighting of the crescent between Mecca and Medina, supported by the word of Aïcha that he set out for the farewell pilgrimage with five days remaining of Dhoul-Qi’da, the correct being that he left on Saturday, as shown by his praying the dhouhr at Medina four rak’a and the asr at Dhoul-Hulayfa two rak’a.