Chapter: The Prophet’s Emigration in person—peace and blessings be upon him—from Mecca to Madinah, accompanied by Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq, may Allah be pleased with him.
This marks the beginning of the Islamic calendar, as the Companions agreed during ʿUmar’s caliphate, as we explained in his biography—may Allah be pleased with them all (1).
Al-Bukhārī said (2): “Matar ibn al-Faḍl narrated to us; Rūḥ narrated to us; Hishām narrated to us; ʿIkrimah narrated from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said:
‘The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, was commissioned at the age of forty. He then remained in Mecca for thirteen [years] receiving revelation. After that he was commanded to emigrate, so he emigrated and lived [in Madinah] for ten years, and he died at the age of sixty-three.’”
His emigration, peace and blessings be upon him, took place in Rabīʿ al-Awwal, in the thirteenth year after his commissioning, on a Monday—as Imām Aḥmad has related from Ibn ʿAbbās (4): “Your Prophet was born on a Monday, left Mecca on a Monday, was first granted Prophethood on a Monday, entered Madinah on a Monday, and died on a Monday” (5).
Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq said (6): When Abū Bakr asked the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, for permission to emigrate, the Prophet said to him, “Do not be hasty; perhaps Allah will grant you a companion.” Abū Bakr hoped that the Messenger of Allah was referring to him; so he bought two mounts and kept them in his house, feeding them in readiness for the journey.
Al-Wāqidī said (7): He purchased the two camels for eight hundred dirhams.
Ibn Isḥāq also said (8): A reliable person told me, on the authority of ʿUrwah ibn al-Zubayr, from ʿĀʾishah, Mother of the Believers, that she said: “The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, never failed to come to Abū Bakr’s house at one of the two ends of the day—either in the morning or in the late afternoon—until the day when Allah permitted His Messenger to emigrate and depart from Mecca amid his people. On that day the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, came to us.”