743 – Ibn ʿUmar (may Allah be pleased with them both) said: “I was presented to the Prophet ﷺ on the Day of Uhud when I was fourteen years old, and he did not allow me to fight. I was then presented to him on the Day of the Trench when I was fifteen, and he approved me.” Agreed upon.

In another report narrated by al-Bayhaqi: “He did not approve me, for he did not consider me to have reached puberty,” and Ibn Khuzayma authenticated it. (1)

Vocabulary of the ḥadīth
• ʿUriḍtu: passive form; a military review in which select units march before the head of state. The Prophet ﷺ would review the men who wished to join an expedition: he turned Ibn ʿUmar back on the first occasion because he was still young, but accepted him on the second when he had come of age.
• Uhud: a mountain that flanks Madinah from the north and lies within the Sacred Precinct of the city. The Battle of Uhud took place in the third year after the Hijrah.
• “When I was fourteen”: al-Ḥāfiẓ explained in al-Talkhīṣ that the phrase means “I had just entered my fourteenth year.”
• “When I was fifteen”: meaning “I had completed fifteen years.”
• The Trench: a deep, elongated ditch dug in the field of battle on the enemy’s side to ward off sudden assaults. The Prophet ﷺ ordered it to be dug to the north-west of Madinah when Quraysh and the tribes of Asad and Ghaṭafān laid siege to the city; hence the expedition was named after this trench. The Battle of the Trench occurred in the fifth year after the Hijrah.