Hanbal stated: “Imām Aḥmad related to us; he said: Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd narrated to us, from Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab who said, ‘Revelation began to descend upon the Prophet (Allah bless him and grant him peace) when he was forty-three years old. He then remained in Mecca for ten years and in Madinah for ten years.’ This report is unusual coming from him, yet its chain to him is sound.

Aḥmad also said: ‘Hushaym narrated to us; he said: Dāwūd ibn Abī Hind narrated to us, from al-Shaʿbī, who said, “The Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and grant him peace) was informed of his prophethood at the age of forty. He stayed three years, after which Gabriel brought him the public mission; he then remained a further ten years. Thereafter he migrated to Madinah and was taken in death at the age of sixty-three.”’

Imām Abū ʿAbd Allāh Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal (1) said: “The figure that is firmly established (2) with us is sixty-three years (3).”

I say: Mujāhid transmitted the same from al-Shaʿbī, and it is likewise reported through Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Khālid from him.

In the two Ṣaḥīḥs (4) there is also the narration of Rūḥ ibn ʿUbādah, from Zakariyyā ibn Isḥāq, from ʿAmr ibn Dīnār, from Ibn ʿAbbās, stating that the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and grant him peace) stayed in Mecca for thirteen years and passed away at the age of sixty-three.

Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī (5) likewise records—through Rūḥ ibn ʿUbādah (6), from Hishām, from ʿIkrimah, from Ibn ʿAbbās—who said: “The Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and grant him peace) was commissioned at the age of forty; he remained in Mecca for thirteen years, was then commanded to migrate, spent ten years after the Hijrah, and died at sixty-three.” Imām Aḥmad transmitted the same report through Rūḥ ibn ʿUbādah, Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd, and Yazīd ibn Hārūn, all from Hishām ibn Ḥassān, from ʿIkrimah, from Ibn ʿAbbās (7). Abū Yaʿlā al-Mawṣilī also related it—from al-Ḥasan ibn ʿUmar ibn Shaqīq, from Jaʿfar ibn Sulaymān, from Hishām ibn Ḥassān, from Muḥammad ibn Sīrīn, from Ibn ʿAbbās—and produced further chains from Ibn ʿAbbās with the same wording.

Muslim (8) transmitted—through Ḥammād ibn Salamah, from Abū Jamrah (9), from Ibn ʿAbbās—that the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and grant him peace) resided in Mecca for thirteen years receiving revelation, then ten years in Madinah, and died at the age of sixty-three.

The ḥāfiẓ Ibn ʿAsākir likewise reported, with an isnād through Salm (10) ibn Junādah, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar, from Kurayb, from