In every clan there were now sizable groups who had entered Islam, and the Emigrants and the Helpers marched out with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ to a man—none of them stayed behind.

Al-Bukhārī (1) has transmitted—through Maḥmūd, ʿAbd al-Razzāq, Maʿmar, and al-Zuhrī—a report to this same effect.

Al-Bayhaqī (2) likewise narrated, through ʿĀṣim ibn ʿAlī, al-Layth ibn Saʿd, ʿAqīl, and al-Zuhrī, who said: ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿAbd Allāh related to me from Ibn ʿAbbās that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ set out on the Campaign of the Conquest during Ramaḍān. He added, “I also heard Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab say the same, though I do not know whether he departed a few nights before the end of Shaʿbān and then entered Ramaḍān on the road, or whether he left after Ramaḍān had already begun. What I do know is that ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿAbd Allāh informed me that Ibn ʿAbbās said: ‘The Messenger of Allah ﷺ fasted until he reached al-Kadīd—the spring that lies between Qudayd and ʿUsfān—where he broke his fast; thereafter he continued not fasting until the month was over.’ ”

Al-Bukhārī also recorded the report through ʿAbd Allāh ibn Yūsuf from al-Layth, but without mentioning the question about Shaʿbān and Ramaḍān.

Al-Bukhārī (3) further said: “ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd Allāh narrated to us; Jarīr narrated to us, from Manṣūr, from Mujāhid, from Ṭāwūs, from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: ‘The Messenger of Allah ﷺ travelled during Ramaḍān. He fasted until he reached ʿUsfān; then he called for a vessel of water, drank from it in broad daylight so the people could see him, and did not fast again until he entered Mecca.’ Ibn ʿAbbās used to say, ‘The Messenger of Allah ﷺ both fasted while travelling and refrained from fasting; whoever wishes may fast, and whoever wishes may break the fast.’ ”

Yūnus narrated, from Ibn Isḥāq, from al-Zuhrī, from ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿAbd Allāh, from Ibn ʿAbbās: “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ set out for the expedition of the Conquest, appointing Abū Ruhm Kulthūm ibn al-Ḥuṣayn al-Ghifārī over Madinah. He left after ten nights of Ramaḍān had passed; he fasted, and the people fasted with him, until he reached al-Kadīd—a watering place between ʿUsfān and Amaj—where he broke his fast. He entered Mecca not fasting, and the people came to regard the last of the Prophet’s two practices as the abandonment of fasting, holding that it abrogated the earlier practice.”

Al-Bayhaqī (4) remarked, “The statement ‘He left after ten nights of Ramaḍān had passed’ is an interpolation in the report.” ʿAbd Allāh ibn Idrīs relayed it from Ibn Isḥāq the same way. Bayhaqī then transmitted—through Yaʿqūb ibn Sufyān, Ḥāmid ibn Yaḥyā, Ṣadaqah, and Ibn Isḥāq—that he said, “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ departed after ten nights of Ramaḍān in the eighth year.”

Al-Bayhaqī (5) also narrated, through Abū Isḥāq al-Fazārī, Muḥammad ibn Abī Ḥafṣah, al-Zuhrī, and ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿAbd Allāh, from Ibn ʿAbbās: “The Conquest occurred on the thirteenth of Ramaḍān.” Bayhaqī commented, “That insertion is mistaken; it is actually from al-Zuhrī’s own words.”

He then related, through Ibn Wahb, from Yūnus, from al-Zuhrī, who said: “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ set out on the expedition of the Conquest—”