Ibn Jarīr (1) said: “Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥakam related to us; Abū Zurʿah Wahb Allāh ibn Rāshid informed us; Ḥaywah ibn Shurayḥ told us; Abū Ṣakhr narrated that he heard Abū Muʿāwiyah al-Bajalī from Kūfah say:

‘I heard Abū al-Ṣahbāʾ al-Bakrī say: I asked ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib about the Day of the Major Pilgrimage. He replied: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ sent Abū Bakr ibn Abī Quḥāfah to conduct the ḥajj for the people, and he sent me with him carrying forty verses from Sūrat Barāʾah. When we came to ʿArafah he addressed the people on the Day of ʿArafah. When he finished his sermon he turned to me and said, “Rise, O ʿAlī, and convey the message of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.” I rose and recited to them forty verses from Sūrat Barāʾah. Then we moved on until we reached Minā; I stoned the Jamrah, sacrificed the camel, and shaved my head. Realizing that not everyone present at the Gathering had heard Abū Bakr’s sermon, may Allah be pleased with him, I began to go round the tents reciting it to them.’

ʿAlī added, ‘That is why, I think, you assumed it took place on the Day of Sacrifice, whereas it was, in fact, on the Day of ʿArafah.’

We have discussed this matter in detail in the Tafsīr (2), citing at length the chains of transmission for the relevant aḥādīth and reports, and that suffices—praise and bounty belong to Allah.

Al-Wāqidī (3) said: Three hundred Companions left Madinah with Abū Bakr, among them ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf. Abū Bakr took five sacrificial camels with him, and the Messenger of Allah ﷺ sent along twenty more. He then sent ʿAlī after him, and ʿAlī caught up with him at al-ʿArj and proclaimed Barāʾah before the start of the season.

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Among the events that occurred in this same year—the ninth year—was the expedition of Tabūk in the month of Rajab, as mentioned earlier.

Al-Wāqidī (4) said: In that Rajab the Negus, ruler of Abyssinia, died, and the Messenger of Allah ﷺ announced his death to the people.

In Shaʿbān of that year Umm Kulthūm, daughter of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ (5), passed away. She was washed by Asmāʾ bint ʿUmays and Ṣafiyyah bint ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib; it is also reported that women of the Anṣār, among them Umm ʿAṭiyyah, performed the washing.