He seated him among the veterans of Badr and said, “He is, as you all know, of high standing.” ʿUmar then asked the elders—while Ibn ʿAbbās was present—about the meaning of the sūrah:
“When the help of Allah comes and victory, (1) and you see people entering Allah’s religion in droves, (2) then glorify your Lord with His praise and seek His forgiveness; indeed, He is ever Accepting of repentance.” (Al-Naṣr 1–3)
They answered, “We have been commanded that, when victory is granted to us, we remember Allah, praise Him, and seek His forgiveness.” ʿUmar said, “What do you say, Ibn ʿAbbās?” He replied, “It announces to him the appointed term of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.” ʿUmar observed, “I know of it nothing but what you know.” (1)
We have already noted in the commentary on this sūrah several proofs supporting Ibn ʿAbbās’s view, though this in no way contradicts the interpretation offered by the other Companions as well. (2)
Likewise Imām Aḥmad relates (3)—through Wakīʿ, from Ibn Abī Dhīb, from Ṣāliḥ the client of al-Tawʾamah, from Abū Hurayrah—that when the Messenger of Allah ﷺ performed Ḥajj with his wives he said:
“This is your only Ḥajj; afterward remain upon the backs of your carpets.”
Aḥmad alone transmitted it through this chain, and Abū Dāwūd (4) recorded it in his Sunan through another sound route.
The point is that hearts sensed his approaching death ﷺ in this very year. We shall relate that and set forth the reports and traditions connected with it—Allah’s help is sought. Before doing so, however, we will summarize what the scholars Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq ibn Yasār, Abū Jaʿfar ibn Jarīr, and Abū Bakr al-Bayhaqī have listed here prior to the account of his passing: a tally of his pilgrimages, campaigns, military detachments, letters, and envoys to rulers. We shall present this in concise form and then follow it with the narrative of his death.
In the Two Ṣaḥīḥs (5), on the authority of Abū Isḥāq al-Sabīʿī from Zayd ibn Arqam, it is reported that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ undertook nineteen expeditions and, after emigrating, performed the Farewell Pilgrimage—having undertaken no other pilgrimage thereafter. Abū Isḥāq added, “And one (campaign) was at Mecca.” Thus spoke Abū Isḥāq al-Sabīʿī.
Zayd ibn Ḥubbāb (8) relates—from Sufyān al-Thawrī, from Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad, from his father, on the authority of Jābir—that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ performed three pilgrimages: two before the Hijrah and one after it, together with an ʿumrah. He drove thirty-six sacrificial camels, and ʿAlī brought the rest of them from Yemen to complete the number.
We have already cited from more than one Companion—among them Anas ibn Mālik in the Two Ṣaḥīḥs—that he ﷺ: