Al-Tirmidhī, in his work “al-Shamāʾil,” as well as Abū Yaʿlā al-Mawṣilī and al-Bayhaqī,(1) relate—through the chain of Qatādah, from al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī, from Dagfal ibn Ḥanẓalah al-Shaybānī, the genealogist—that the Prophet (Allah bless him and grant him peace) was taken in death at the age of sixty-five.
Al-Tirmidhī then remarks: “Dagfal is not known to have heard directly (2) from the Prophet (Allah bless him and grant him peace), though he lived during his lifetime.”
Al-Bayhaqī comments: “This report (3) agrees with the narration of ʿAmmār and those who follow him from Ibn ʿAbbās. However, the narration of the majority from Ibn ʿAbbās—namely, that he passed away at sixty-three—is sounder, better authenticated, and more numerous. Their account corresponds to the rigorously authentic report of ʿUrwah from ʿĀʾishah, to one of the two reports from Anas, to the sound narration from Muʿāwiyah, and it is also the view of Saʿīd [ibn al-Musayyab] and ʿĀmir al-Shaʿbī,(4) as well as Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad(5) ibn ʿAlī.”
I add: the same opinion is held by ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿUtbah,(6) al-Qāsim ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī, ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn, and a number of others.
Among the unusual views is what Khalīfah ibn Khayyāṭ(7) transmits from Muʿādh ibn Hishām: “My father related to me from Qatādah that the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and grant him peace) died at sixty-two.” A like report is given by Yaʿqūb ibn Sufyān(8) from Muḥammad ibn al-Muthannā, from Muʿādh ibn Hāshim, from his father, from Qatādah; and Zayd al-ʿAmmī relates it from Yazīd, from Anas.
Similarly, Muḥammad ibn ʿĀʾid narrates—from al-Qāsim(9) ibn Ḥumayd, from al-Nuʿmān ibn al-Mundhir al-Ghassānī, from Makhūl—that “The Messenger of Allah died at the age of sixty-two years and some months.” Yaʿqūb ibn Sufyān(10) likewise reports—from ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd ibn Bakkār, from Muḥammad ibn Shuʿayb, from al-Nuʿmān ibn al-Mundhir, from Makhūl—that “The Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and grant him peace) was taken in death at sixty-two and a half.”
Stranger (11) than all of these is what Imām Aḥmad(12) records—through Rawḥ, from Saʿīd ibn Abī ʿArūbah, from Qatādah, from al-Ḥasan—who said: “The Qurʾān was revealed to the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and grant him peace) for eight years in Mecca and ten after he emigrated. If al-Ḥasan…"