Narration · On returning to Madinah from Tabuk (9 AH)
I was one of the children who ran outside to Thaniyat al-Wada' to welcome the Prophet ﷺ when he returned from the Ghazwa of Tabuk.
withMuhammad ﷺ
~9 AH, on returning from Tabuk · 9 AH
Details differ across the sources
Scholars differ over when Tala'al-badru alayna was sung. Al-Bayhaqi notes it is usually placed at the Hijrah arrival, while Ibn al-Qayyim, followed by Sheikh Yasir Qadhi, places it at this return because Thaniyat al-Wada' faces Syria; the report itself has a broken (mu'dal) chain.
After roughly fifty to sixty days away, some accounts say closer to three months, the Prophet ﷺ returned to Madinah from Tabuk. The companion al-Sa'ib RA, then a child, later narrated in Sahih al-Bukhari that he was among the children who ran out to Thaniyat al-Wada', the hill north of Madinah where families traditionally gathered to see travelers off and welcome them home, to greet the Prophet ﷺ on his return. A report from Ibn Aisha, which has a broken chain, adds that the women and children went out singing the poem Tala'al-badru alayna (The full moon rose over us, from Thaniyat al-Wada'). Al-Bayhaqi records it in his Dala'il al-Nubuwwah under this return as well as under the Hijrah, noting that the scholars usually mention it at the Hijrah; Ibn al-Qayyim holds that it belongs here, since Thaniyat al-Wada' lies on the Syrian side of Madinah. The Prophet ﷺ went to his masjid, prayed two rak'at, and almost immediately began receiving the delegations of those who had stayed behind, including Ka'b ibn Malik RA.
Ibn al-Qayyim, and Sheikh Yasir Qadhi after him, hold that this homecoming rather than the Hijrah was the occasion of the famous Tala'al-badru alayna poem: Thaniyat al-Wada' lies north of Madinah on the road to Syria, while the Prophet ﷺ arrived at the Hijrah from the south via Quba, and at the Hijrah most of Madinah was not yet Muslim, whereas by the return from Tabuk the whole city was. Al-Bayhaqi, by contrast, notes that the scholars usually mention the poem at the Hijrah, and Ibn Hajar allows Tabuk only as a possibility; whichever occasion it is given, the report of the poem rests on a weak chain.
Other events recorded in 9 AH. Their order within the year is not established; use the storyline above for the sequence.
I was one of the children who ran outside to Thaniyat al-Wada' to welcome the Prophet ﷺ when he returned from the Ghazwa of Tabuk.