Abu Bishr related—from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, from Ibn ʿAbbās—that he said:
“The Prophet ﷺ passed away when I was ten years old.” (1)
Shuʿbah and others also transmitted this report from him.
Hushaym said: Abu Bishr informed us, from Saʿīd, from Ibn ʿAbbās:
“I had already gathered the muḥkam (definitive verses of the Qur’an) during the lifetime of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and he was taken while I was ten years old.” (2)
Shuʿbah likewise reported—from Abū Isḥāq, from Saʿīd ibn Jubayr, from Ibn ʿAbbās—that he said:
“The Messenger of Allah ﷺ passed away when I was fifteen years old, and I was already circumcised.” (3)
Al-Wāqidī said: There is no disagreement that he was born in the Shiʿb while the Banū Hāshim were under siege; he was born shortly before they emerged, three years before the Hijrah.
Do you not see that he himself says, “We had nearly reached puberty”?
This report is more reliably established than what Abu Bishr transmitted concerning his age.
He was leading the prayer at Mina. I rode past the front of one of the rows, dismounted, turned the she-donkey loose to graze, then joined the row, and no one objected.
His words “wa nahaztu al-ihtilam” mean that he was close to reaching puberty.
I add: this took place during the Farewell Pilgrimage.
(1) The chain is sound. Reported by Ahmad, al-Musnad, 1:253, 287, 337, 357, through Abu Bishr – Said b. Jubayr – Ibn Abbas.
(2) Reported by al-Tayalisi, Musnad, 2:148, through Shuba – Abu Bishr – Said b. Jubayr – Ibn Abbas, who said: “The Messenger of Allah died when I was ten years old, circumcised, and had already read the decisive verses of the Quran.” Al-Tabarani (no. 10577) transmits the same chain but omits the phrase “I was ten years old, circumcised.”
(3) Reported by al-Tayalisi, Musnad, 2:149; al-Hakim, al-Mustadrak, 3:533; and al-Tabarani (no. 10578). Al-Hakim authenticated it according to the criteria of al-Bukhari and Muslim, and al-Dhahabi agreed. Al-Haythami cites it in Majmaʽ al-Zawaʽid, 9:285, says its transmitters are those of the Sahih collections, and attributes it to al-Tabarani. Al-Bukhari records it in his Sahih, 11:75 (Book of Asking Permission, chapter “Circumcision after Adulthood”) through Ismail b. Jaʽfar – Israʽil – Abu Ishaq – Said b. Jubayr, who said: Ibn Abbas was asked, “How old were you when the Prophet was taken?” He replied, “At that time I was already circumcised,” adding that in their practice a male was not circumcised until he approached maturity.