ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb said, “O Messenger of Allah, during the Days of Ignorance I had vowed to observe a day of spiritual retreat (iʿtikāf).” The Prophet ﷺ instructed him to fulfill that vow.
He continued: ʿUmar had obtained two slave-girls from the captives of Ḥunayn and lodged them in one of the houses of Mecca. Later, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ granted amnesty to the captives of Ḥunayn, and they began to roam through the streets. ʿUmar exclaimed, “Servant of Allah, find out what is happening!” He was told, “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ has freed the captives.” ʿUmar then said, “Go and release those two slave-girls.”
Nāfiʿ added, “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ did not perform an ʿumrah from al-Jiʿrānah; had he done so, it would not have been unknown to ʿAbd Allah [ibn ʿUmar].”
Muslim relates this report (1) through Ayyūb al-Sakhtiyānī, from Nāfiʿ, from Ibn ʿUmar—may Allah be pleased with him. He also records it (2) via Aḥmad ibn ʿAbdah al-Ḍabbī, from Ḥammād ibn Zayd, from Ayyūb, from Nāfiʿ, who said: “The ʿumrah of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ from al-Jiʿrānah was mentioned in Ibn ʿUmar’s presence, and he declared, ‘He did not perform an ʿumrah from there.’”
Such a denial from Ibn ʿUmar and his freedman Nāfiʿ is extremely uncommon, for every other transmitter—the compilers of the Ṣaḥīḥs, the Sunan, the Musnads, and the authors of the Maghāzī and Sīrah—affirmed that ʿumrah.
A parallel case is found in the two Ṣaḥīḥs (3): ʿAṭāʾ ibn Abī Rabāḥ narrates from ʿUrwah, from ʿĀʾishah that she objected to Ibn ʿUmar’s claim that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ performed an ʿumrah in Rajab. She said, “May Allah forgive Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ never performed an ʿumrah except while he [Ibn ʿUmar] was present, and he never performed one in Rajab at all.”
Imām Aḥmad (4) reports: Ibn Numayr told us; al-Aʿmash told us, from Mujāhid, who said: ʿUrwah ibn al-Zubayr asked Ibn ʿUmar, “In which month did the Messenger of Allah ﷺ perform the ʿumrah?” He replied, “In Rajab.” ʿĀʾishah overheard and, when informed of Ibn ʿUmar’s answer, said, “May Allah have mercy on Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān. The Prophet never performed an ʿumrah without him being present, and he never performed any ʿumrah except in Dhū al-Qaʿdah.”
Al-Bukhārī and Muslim (5) transmit the same report through Jarīr, from Manṣūr, from Mujāhid. Abū Dāwūd and al-Nasaʾī (6) also record it through Zuhayr, from Abū Isḥāq, from Mujāhid: Ibn ʿUmar was asked, “How many ʿumrahs did the Messenger of Allah ﷺ perform?” He answered, “Two.” ʿĀʾishah then remarked, “Ibn ʿUmar surely knows that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ performed three ʿumrahs besides the one he combined with the Farewell Pilgrimage.”