In another report the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “Perhaps Allah will brighten our faces with a boy,” whereupon she gave birth to ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAbbas (1).

ʿAmr ibn Dīnār stated: Ibn ʿAbbas was born in the year of the Hijrah (2).

Al-Waqidi narrated, through Shuʿbah, from Ibn ʿAbbas that he said: “I was born three years before the Hijrah while we were still confined to the mountain pass, and the Messenger of Allah ﷺ died when I was thirteen.” Al-Waqidi then commented: “There is no difference of opinion on this among the scholars,” arguing that Ibn ʿAbbas had nearly reached puberty in the year of the Farewell Pilgrimage.

In Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhari (3) Ibn ʿAbbas said: “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ died when I had already been circumcised, and they would not circumcise a boy until he had reached puberty.”

Shuʿbah, Hushaym, and Abu ʿAwanah (4) transmitted—from Abu Bishr, from Saʿid ibn Jubayr, from Ibn ʿAbbas—that he said: “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ died when I was ten years old and had been circumcised” (5).

Hushaym added (6): “By that time I had already gathered the muḥkam.” I asked, “What is the muḥkam?” He replied, “The mufaṣṣal (the short, distinct surahs).”

Abu Dawud al-Ṭayālisi (7) related—from Shuʿbah, from Abu Ishaq, from Saʿid ibn Jubayr, from Ibn ʿAbbas—that he said: “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ passed away when I was fifteen years old and circumcised.” This version is the most authentic, supported by sound reports in the two Ṣaḥīḥs. Mālik likewise narrated—from al-Zuhri, from ʿUbayd Allah, from Ibn ʿAbbas—that he said: “I arrived riding a she-ass while I had almost reached puberty, and the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was leading the people in prayer at Mina without a wall before him. I passed in front of part of the row, dismounted, let the she-ass graze, and joined the row, and no one objected to me for that” (8).

It is also authentically reported from him in the Ṣaḥīḥ (9) that he said: “My mother and I were among the weak: my mother among the women and I among the children.”

He emigrated with his father in the Year of the Conquest, and it so happened that they met the Prophet ﷺ at al-Juḥfah while he was on his way to open Mecca; thus they witnessed the Conquest and the Battle of Hunayn.