Imām Aḥmad (1) relates: “Yahyā ibn Ādam told us; al-Mufaḍḍal told us, from Manṣūr, from Mujāhid, who said: I entered the mosque with ʿUrwah ibn al-Zubayr and found Ibn ʿUmar leaning against the apartment of ʿĀʾishah while some people were performing the Duḥā (forenoon) prayer. ʿUrwah asked, ‘Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, what is this prayer?’ He replied, ‘A religious innovation.’ ʿUrwah then said, ‘Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, how many ʿumrahs did the Messenger of Allah perform?’ He answered, ‘Four—one of them in Rajab.’ Mujāhid adds: We then heard the sound of ʿĀʾishah using her tooth-stick inside the apartment. ʿUrwah called to her, ‘Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān claims that the Messenger of Allah performed four ʿumrahs, one of them in Rajab.’ She responded, ‘May Allah have mercy on Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān! The Prophet ﷺ never performed an ʿumrah without him being present, and he never performed an ʿumrah in Rajab at all.’

Al-Tirmidhī (2) transmits the same report through Aḥmad ibn Manīʿ, al-Ḥasan ibn Mūsā, and Shaybān from Manṣūr, and remarks: ‘It is ḥasan, ṣaḥīḥ, and uncommon.’

Imām Aḥmad (3) also says: ‘Rūḥ related to us; Ibn Jurayj related to us; Muzāḥim ibn Abī Muzāḥim informed me, from ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn ʿAbd Allāh, from Mukharriš al-Kaʿbī (4), that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ left al-Jiʿrānah at night, after nightfall, intending ʿumrah. He entered Mecca by night, completed his ʿumrah, then departed before dawn and was back at al-Jiʿrānah by morning as though he had spent the night there. When the sun had passed its zenith, he set out from al-Jiʿrānah through the valley of Sarif until he joined the main road to Madinah at Sarif. Mukharriš said, ‘For this reason his ʿumrah was unknown to many people.’

Imām Aḥmad (5) records the same report through Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd, from Ibn Jurayj, and it is unique to his Musnad.

The upshot is that the ʿumrah performed from al-Jiʿrānah is established by sound, incontrovertible transmission; whoever denies it has no proof to oppose those who affirm it. Allah knows best. Indeed, the scholars are virtually agreed that it took place in Dhū al-Qaʿdah, after the expedition to Ṭāʾif and the division of the spoils of Ḥunayn.

As for what al-Ḥāfiẓ Abū al-Qāsim al-Ṭabarānī cites in al-Muʿjam al-Kabīr (6): ‘Al-Ḥusayn ibn Isḥāq al-Tustarī told us; ʿUthmān ibn Abī Shaybah told us; Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan al-Asadī told us; Ibrāhīm ibn Ṭahmān told us, from Abū al-Zubayr, from ʿUmayr—the freedman of ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbbās—from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ returned from Ṭāʾif…’