Chief of the Prophets

Chief of the Prophets — Page 227

Chapter Ten 227 To the blessed Companion on High. 1 and left this transitory world to meet his Lord on the afternoon of Monday, 12 th Rabī‘ul-Awwal, 11 A. H. 2 Surely, to Allah we belong and to Him shall we return. 1 Bukhārī, Kitābul-Manāqibil-Anṣār (Virtues of the Companions). 2 There is consensus regarding the death of Muḥammad sa as far as the day of the week, the month, and the year are concerned, that it was a Monday, Rabī‘ul-Awwal, 11 A. H. ; however, there is disagreement regarding the date. Most historians are of the opinion that the date was the 12 th and a few say that it was the 2 nd Rabī‘ul- Awwal. They base their view on a tradition in Bukhārī narrated by ‘Umar ra , that the Ḥajjatul-Wadā‘ was on Friday, 9 th Dhul-Ḥajjah, 10 A. H. In that case, 12 th Rabī‘ul- Awwal, 11 A. H. was not a Monday. However, this reasoning is not strong enough to ignore the aforementioned dates which are found in most of the traditions. Also it is mentioned in Bukhārī about this tradition that it cannot be said with full certainty that the 9 th Dhul-Ḥajjah, 11 A. H. was really a Friday. And on the other hand, the day of Sunday, or Monday, Rabī‘ul-Awwal is mathematically proven, because the average number of days in a lunar month are 29. 53058815. And when we work backwards from any current lunar month to Rabī‘ul-Awwal 11 A. H. based on the average number of days per month, and break down the days of the week, we find out that 1 st Rabī‘ul-Awwal, 11 A. H. was either a Wednesday or a Thursday, and 12 th Rabī‘ul-Awwal, 11 A. H. was either a Sunday or a Monday. When we look at the research done by geographers and astronomers that 1 st Dhul-Ḥajjah, 10 A. H. was a Friday, and 1 st Rabī‘ul-Awwal, 11 A. H. was a Wednesday, then the comparison of the aforementioned tradition of Bukhārī, and the date of 12 th Rabī‘ul-Awwal, 11 A. H. , becomes easy, because a difference of a day between the mathematical counting and the lunar calendar is not beyond the realm of possibility. Further, if we assume that 9 th Dhul-Ḥajjah was a Friday, it is impossible from the mathematics perspective for 2 nd Rabī‘ul-Awwal to be a Monday unless there were 3 consecutive months of 29 days each, and from mathematics, it is impossible to have 3 consecutive months of 29 days each, and also it is not easy to find its precendence from the lunar calendar perspective. Only God knows the real truth!