that it was short, using the same wording so that their dating remains consistent. Thus, someone writing on the twenty-fifth may correctly say, “Written with five remaining,” even though the month has only twenty-nine days.

Moreover, there were undoubtedly five days remaining, including the day of departure. When both nights and days figure in a date, the Arabs give precedence to the wording for nights, because the month begins with a night, which precedes the day. They therefore mention nights while intending days. It is consequently correct to say “with five remaining” in reference to the days, while using the masculine form of the numeral in reference to the nights. His departure could thus have occurred with five remaining without having been on Friday.

As for the hadith of Ka‘b, it does not state that he never departed except on Thursday; it states only that most of his departures were on that day. There is no doubt that he did not restrict his departures for military expeditions to Thursdays.

As for his statement that, had he departed on Saturday, he would have departed with four remaining, it has already become clear that this does not necessarily follow, neither (1) when counting nights nor when counting days.

As for his statement that he spent the night at Dhū al-Hulayfah on the night following the day he left Medina, and so forth, and that departing on Saturday would necessarily mean that his journey lasted seven days—this is a surprising claim on his part. If he departed on Saturday with five days remaining in the month and entered Mecca when four days of Dhū al-Hijjah had elapsed, then nine days lay between his departure from Medina and his entry into Mecca. This presents no difficulty whatsoever, for the route he took from Medina to Mecca requires that length of time, and the Arabs travel faster than