A point upon which there is unanimous agreement is that he was born in the Year of the Elephant.

Al-Zubayr ibn Bakkār said: “Muḥammad ibn Ḥasan narrated to us, from ʿAbd al-Salām ibn ʿAbd Allāh, from Maʿrūf ibn Kharbūdh—and others among the scholars—who stated: ‘The Messenger of Allah ﷺ was born in the Year of the Elephant. On that account Quraysh were called ‘the People of Allah,’ and their standing rose among the Arabs. He was born twelve nights into Rabīʿ al-Awwal; some, however, say it was in Ramaḍān, on a Monday at day-break.’ ”

Abū Qatādah al-Anṣārī related that a Bedouin once asked the Messenger of Allah ﷺ: “What do you say about fasting on Mondays?” He replied, “That is the day on which I was born, and on it Revelation first came to me.” Muslim recorded this report.

ʿUthmān ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Waqāṣī transmitted—from al-Zuhrī, from Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyib and others—that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was born on the night preceding Monday in Rabīʿ al-Awwal, when the light of day had become bright.

Ibn Isḥāq reported: “Ṣāliḥ ibn Ibrāhīm ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf told me, from Yaḥyā ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Asʿad ibn Zurārah, who said: ‘Any one of the men of my clan that you wish may tell you, on the authority of Ḥassān ibn Thābit, that he said: ‘By Allah, I was a lad approaching adolescence when I heard a Jew standing upon a fortress in Yathrib crying out, “O assembly of Jews!” When they gathered around him they said, “Woe to you, what is the matter?” He answered, “The star of Aḥmad has risen tonight—the one by which he is to be sent.” ’ ”

Ibn Luhayʿah narrated—from Khālid ibn Abī ʿImrān, from Ḥanash, from Ibn ʿAbbās—that he said: “Your Prophet ﷺ was born on a Monday, was commissioned on a Monday, left Mecca on a Monday, arrived in Madinah on a Monday, conquered Mecca on a Monday, Sūrat al-Māʾidah was revealed on a Monday, and he passed away on a Monday.”

Aḥmad included this report in his Musnad, and al-Fasawī likewise transmitted it in