Sixtieth Category
Chronologies and Death-Dates

This is an important discipline, for through it one verifies whether a chain of transmission is continuous or broken. More than once people have claimed to transmit from someone, but a look at the dates showed that they alleged the narration years after that person had already died.

Branches
First — The sound view regarding the ages of our Master Muhammad, the master of all humanity and Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and of his two Companions Abu Bakr and ʿUmar (may Allah be pleased with them both), is sixty-three years. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ passed away mid-morning on Monday, the twelfth of Rabiʿ al-Awwal, in the year 11 AH— the year from which the calendar is reckoned— while Abu Bakr died in Jumada al-Ula, 13 AH, and ʿUmar in Dhu al-Hijja, 23 AH. ʿUthman (may Allah be pleased with him) was killed in 35 AH at the age of eighty-two, though some say ninety and other opinions exist. ʿAli (may Allah be pleased with him) died in Ramadan, 40 AH, aged sixty-three—some say sixty-four, others sixty-five. Talha and al-Zubayr (may Allah be pleased with them) were killed in Jumada al-Ula, 36 AH; al-Hakim states they were each sixty-four years old, though others differ. Saʿd ibn Abi Waqqas (may Allah be pleased with him) died in 55 AH, the soundest opinion placing his age at seventy-three. Saʿid (may Allah be pleased with him) died in 51 AH, aged seventy-three or seventy-four. ʿAbd al-Rahman ibn ʿAwf (may Allah be pleased with him) died in 32 AH at seventy-five years of age, whereas Abu ʿUbayda (may Allah be pleased with him) died in 18 AH at the age of fifty-eight. Concerning some of these figures, other opinions have been reported.