and he extended his hand and proclaimed: “Have I delivered the message? Have I delivered it? Have I delivered it?”

He then said, “Let those who are present convey it to those who are absent, for it may well be that someone to whom it is conveyed will grasp it more fully than the one who heard it directly.”

Ḥumayd related that when al-Ḥasan reached this statement he remarked, “By Allah, they did indeed convey it to people who were all the happier for it.”

Abū Dāwūd also transmitted part of this sermon in the Book of Marriage of his Sunan, through Mūsā ibn Ismāʿīl, Ḥammād ibn Salamah, ʿAlī ibn Zayd ibn Judʿān, and Abū Ḥurra al-Raqāshī—whose given name was Ḥanīfah—from his uncle, in connection with the subject of recalcitrance (nushūz).

Ibn Ḥazm said: “It has been reported that the Prophet delivered this address on Yawm al-Ruʾūs—the second day of Sacrifice, according to the Meccans without dispute—and it has also been reported that it was on the middle day of the Days of Tashrīq. The latter may be understood by taking ‘middle’ (awsat) to mean ‘most excellent,’ just as the Exalted says, ‘Thus We have made you a middle nation’ (Qur’an 2:143). Yet the line of reasoning Ibn Ḥazm adopts here is remote, and Allah knows best.”

The ḥāfiẓ Abū Bakr al-Bazzār said: “Al-Walīd ibn ʿAmr ibn al-Sukkīn narrated to us; Abū Hammām Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Zibirqān narrated to us; Mūsā ibn ʿUbaydah narrated to us, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Dīnār and Ṣadaqah ibn Yasār, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar, who said:

‘This sūrah—“When the Help of Allah comes and the Victory” (Qur’an 110:1)—was revealed to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ at Minā while he was in the middle of the Days of Tashrīq during the Farewell Pilgrimage. He understood that it signified leave-taking. He therefore ordered that his she-camel al-Qaṣwāʾ be prepared; once she was saddled he mounted her and halted for the people at al-ʿAqabah. As many Muslims as Allah willed gathered around him, whereupon he praised and glorified Allah as He deserves and said:

“To proceed: O people! Every claim to blood from the pre-Islamic period is now nullified, and the first blood I set aside is that of Rabīʿah ibn al-Ḥārith—who was being suckled among Banū Layth when Hudhayl killed him. Likewise, every form of usury from the pre-Islamic era is abolished; the first usury I abolish is that of al-ʿAbbās ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib.

O people! Time has completed its cycle and returned to the state it was in on the day Allah created the heavens and the earth. Truly, the number of months with Allah is twelve months, of which four are sacred: Rajab Muḍar, which lies between Jumādā and Shaʿbān, together with Dhū al-Qaʿdah, Dhū al-Ḥijjah, and Muḥarram. ‘That is the upright religion, so do not wrong yourselves therein’ (Qur’an 9:36).

‘Postponement is but an increase in disbelief; by it the unbelievers are led astray—they declare it lawful one year and unlawful the next, in order to conform to the number of months Allah has made unlawful’ (Qur’an 9:37). They would deem Ṣafar lawful one year and Muḥarram sacred, then the next year make Ṣafar sacred and Muḥarram lawful; that is postponement.

O people! Whoever…"