The Messenger of Allah ﷺ passed away in Rabīʿ al-Awwal of the year 11 AH, and there is likewise no dispute about this.

Similarly, the ḥadīth recorded by al-Ḥāfiẓ Abū al-Qāsim al-Ṭabarānī (1) —may Allah have mercy on him—runs as follows: “Ibrāhīm ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿUmar al-Wakīʿī narrated to us; my father narrated to us; Jaʿfar ibn ʿAwn narrated to us; from Abū al-ʿUmays; from Abū Bakr ibn Abī al-Jahm; from ʿUbayd Allah ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿUtbah; from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: ‘The last sūrah to be revealed in its entirety was: “When the help of Allah comes and the victory.”’” This report is also objectionable, and its chain of transmission is open to criticism. It remains conceivable, however, that it was indeed the final sūrah to be revealed as a single unit, and Allah knows best.

We have already provided, with Allah’s praise and favor, a sufficiently detailed commentary on this noble sūrah (2).

Al-Bukhārī (3) further reports: “Sulaymān ibn Ḥarb narrated to us; Ḥammād ibn Zayd narrated to us; from Ayyūb; from Abū Qilābah; from ʿAmr ibn Salimah.” Abū Qilābah said to me: “Will you not go to him and ask him?”—so I went to him and asked, and he related:

“We lived at a watering-place along the route people traveled. Riders would pass by and we would ask them, ‘What news is there among the people? What of this man?’ They would reply, ‘He claims that Allah has sent him and revealed such-and-such to him.’ I would memorize those words as though they were etched into my chest.

“The Arabs were delaying their acceptance of Islam until the Conquest, saying, ‘Leave him and his people; if he prevails over them, then he is a true prophet.’ When the Conquest took place, every tribe hastened to enter Islam, and my father’s tribe was among the first. On his return he said, ‘By Allah, I have come to you from the Prophet in all truth. He said: “Pray such-and-such a prayer at such-and-such a time, and such-and-such a prayer at such-and-such a time. When the time for prayer arrives, let one of you give the call, and let the one who knows the most Qur’an lead you.”’

“They looked around and found no one who knew more Qur’an than I, for I had been learning from the passing travelers; so they put me forward to lead them while I was only six or seven years old. I was wearing a cloak, and whenever I prostrated it would draw up away from me. A woman of the tribe said, ‘Will you not cover for us the backside of your reciter?’ So they bought a piece of cloth, cut it into a shirt for me, and nothing has ever delighted me more than that shirt.”

Al-Bukhārī alone recorded this ḥadīth; Muslim did not.

The Expedition against Hawāzin on the Day of Ḥunayn

Allah the Exalted says:

“Allah has already granted you victory on many battlefields—and on the Day of Ḥunayn, when your great numbers pleased you but they availed you nothing, and the earth, vast as it is, closed in upon you; then you turned in retreat. Then Allah sent down His tranquility upon His Messenger and upon …” (Qur’an 9:25–26)