Ahmad ibn Ja‘far ibn Hamdān, who said: We were informed by Abū ‘Abd al-Rahmān ‘Abd Allāh ibn Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Hanbal, who said: My father informed us, saying: Muhammad ibn Ja‘far, Ghundar, narrated to us, saying: Shu‘bah narrated to us from al-Aswad ibn Qays, who said: I heard Sa‘īd ibn ‘Umar ibn Sa‘īd relate that he heard Ibn ‘Umar, may Allah be pleased with them both, narrate that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“We are an unlettered nation: we neither write nor calculate. The month is like this, this, and this”—and he folded his thumb on the third gesture—“and the month is like this, this, and this,” meaning a full thirty days.

Ahmad also said: ‘Abd al-Rahmān narrated to us from Sufyān; and Ishāq—that is, al-Azraq—narrated to us, saying: Sufyān informed us, from al-Aswad ibn Qays, from Sa‘īd ibn ‘Umar, from Ibn ‘Umar, that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:

“We are an unlettered nation: we neither write nor calculate. The month is like this, this, and this,” meaning that he indicated twenty-nine. Ishāq said: He brought his hands together three times, folding his thumb on the third occasion.

Al-Bukhārī recorded it from Ādam, from Shu‘bah, with the wording:

“We are an unlettered nation: we neither write nor calculate. The month is like this, this, and this,” meaning sometimes twenty-nine and sometimes thirty.

Abū Dāwūd likewise narrated it from Sulaymān ibn Harb, from Shu‘bah, with the wording:

“We are an unlettered nation: we neither write nor calculate. The month is like this, this, and this”—and Sulaymān folded his finger on the third gesture—meaning twenty-nine and thirty.

It was narrated by