Ibn ʿAsākir states—and what is soundly preserved is—that both the Battle of Badr and the revelation of the verse, “Today I have perfected your religion for you” (5:3), occurred on a Friday. In this Ibn ʿAsākir is correct.

ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿUmar narrated through Kurayb, from Ibn ʿAbbās, that “the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was born on a Monday and passed away on a Monday.”

This same report, affirming that he was born on a Monday, is transmitted through other chains from Ibn ʿAbbās, and there is unanimous agreement that the Prophet ﷺ was indeed born on a Monday.

Utterly remote from the truth—indeed mistaken—is the claim that he was born on a Friday, the seventeenth of Rabīʿ al-Awwal. Al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Diḥyah cites this view from what he read in the Shīʿī work “Iʿlām al-Warā bi-Aʿlām al-Hudā,” after which he himself proceeds to weaken it—and rightly so, for it contradicts clear textual evidence.

The majority nevertheless concur that the birth occurred in the month of Rabīʿ al-Awwal, though they differ over the exact day:

• It is said that it took place two nights into the month. This was stated by Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr in al-Istīʿāb and reported by al-Wāqidī from Abū Maʿshar Najīḥ ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Madani.

• It is said that eight nights had elapsed. Al-Ḥumaydī relates this from Ibn Ḥazm; it is also narrated by Mālik, ʿUqayl, Yūnus ibn Yazīd, and others from al-Zuhrī, from Muḥammad ibn Jubayr ibn Muṭʿim. Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr notes that the historians judged this view to be sound; the eminent ḥāfiẓ Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārazmī affirmed it decisively, and al-Ḥāfiẓ Abū al-Khiṭāb Ibn Diḥyah preferred it in his work “al-Tanwīr fī Mawlid al-Bashīr al-Nadhīr.”

• It is said that ten nights had passed. Ibn Diḥyah transmits this opinion in his book; it is also reported by Ibn ʿAsākir from Abū Jaʿfar al-Bāqir, and by Mujālid from al-Shaʿbī, as mentioned earlier.

• It is said that twelve nights had elapsed. This is the explicit statement of Ibn Isḥāq; Ibn Abī Shaybah likewise narrates it in his Muṣannaf from