Al-Ṭabarānī likewise narrated the report through Aḥmad b. Khulayd al-Ḥalabī, from al-Ḥumaydī, from al-Darāwardī, from the nephew of al-Zuhrī, from al-Zuhrī, from Muḥammad b. Jubayr b. Muṭʿim, from ʿAbd Allāh b. ʿAdiyy b. al-Ḥamrāʾ with the same wording. These are the various chains for this ḥadīth, and the soundest of them is the one cited earlier. Allah knows best.

An account of the major events and momentous occurrences that took place in the first year after the Prophetic Hijrah

In the sixteenth year—some say the seventeenth, others the eighteenth—of the caliphate of ʿUmar, may Allah be pleased with him, the Companions agreed that the starting point of the Muslim calendar should be the year of the Hijrah. The occasion was that the Commander of the Believers received a document—a deed of debt—from one man against another in which it was written that payment would fall due “in Shaʿbān.”

ʿUmar asked, “Which Shaʿbān? The Shaʿbān of this year, the past one, or the coming one?” He therefore convened the Companions and sought their counsel on establishing a calendar by which the maturity of debts and similar matters could be recognized.

One proposed, “Date it as the Persians date theirs,” but he disliked that, for the Persians reckoned by the successive reigns of their kings. Another suggested, “Date it according to the Romans,” who reckoned by the reign of Alexander son of Philip the Macedonian; this too he disliked.

Others said, “Date it from the birth of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him.” Some said, “Rather, from the beginning of his mission.” Others said, “From his Hijrah,” while some said, “From his passing.” ʿUmar inclined to dating from the Hijrah because of its clarity and widespread recognition, and they all concurred with him.

Al-Bukhārī states in his Ṣaḥīḥ, in the chapter “The Calendar and when they began to date events”: “ʿAbd Allāh b. Maslama narrated to us; ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz narrated to us from his father, from Sahl b. Saʿd, who said, ‘They did not date from the Prophet’s commissioning, nor from his death; they dated only from his arrival in Madinah.’”

Al-Wāqidī said: “Ibn Abī Zinād narrated to us from his father that ʿUmar consulted the people concerning the calendar, and they unanimously adopted the Hijrah.”

Abū Dāwūd al-Ṭayālisī likewise reported, through Qurrah b. Khālid al-Sadūsī, from Muḥammad b. Sīrīn, that a man once stood before ʿUmar and said, “Institute a calendar.” ʿUmar asked, “What is a calendar?” He replied, “Something the non-Arabs do: they write, ‘in such-and-such a month of such-and-such a year.’”