There is no doubt that what Imām Mālik—may Allah have mercy on him—proposed is apt; yet actual practice came to differ from it. The Arabs count Muḥarram as the first of their months, so they fixed the first year as the year of the Hijrah and began it with Muḥarram, as is well known, in order to keep the calendar consistent. Allah knows best.

We therefore say—and in Allah we place our reliance:

The blessed year of the Hijrah began while the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was still residing in Mecca. The Anṣār had already pledged to him the second pledge of ʿAqabah, as mentioned earlier, in the middle of the Days of Tashrīq—the night of the twelfth of Dhū al-Ḥijjah, one year before the Hijrah. After the pledge the Anṣār returned home, and the Messenger of Allah ﷺ granted the Muslims permission to emigrate to Madinah. Those of his Companions who were able set out until no one remained in Mecca who could depart except the Messenger of Allah ﷺ himself. Abū Bakr kept himself back for the Prophet ﷺ so that he might accompany him on the road, as we have related. The two of them then departed by the route already described. At the Prophet’s ﷺ instruction, ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib—may Allah be pleased with him—stayed behind to return the trusts that were in his keeping, then rejoined them at Qubāʾ (1).

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ arrived on a Monday shortly before the sun reached its zenith, when the forenoon heat had grown intense (2).

Al-Wāqidī and others say that this was two nights into Rabīʿ al-Awwal. Ibn Isḥāq reports the same but does not dwell on it, favoring instead the view that it occurred twelve nights into the month, and this is the view most widely held.

According to the soundest reports, the Prophet ﷺ remained in Mecca after his commissioning for thirteen years. This is the narration of Ḥammād b. Salamah from Abū Jamrah al-Ḍubāʿī (3) on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās, who said, “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ was commissioned at the age of forty and stayed in Mecca for thirteen years.”

Ibn Jarīr likewise transmits—from Muḥammad b. Maʿmar, from Rūḥ b. ʿUbādah, from Zakarīyā b. Isḥāq, from ʿAmr b. Dīnār—on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās that he said, “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ remained in Mecca thirteen years.”

We have already noted that Ibn ʿAbbās recorded the lines of Ṣirmah b. Abī Anas b. Qays (5):

from the Ṭawīl metre:
“He dwelt among Quraysh a score less seven Hajj seasons,
ever calling—if only he might find a friend receptive.”