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 about fifty to sixty days away, and perhaps as long as three months, the Prophet ﷺ returned to Madinah from Tabuk. A companion named al-Sa'ib RA was a child at the time. He later recalled, in a report in Sahih al-Bukhari, that he was among the children who ran out to Thaniyat al-Wada' to welcome the Prophet ﷺ home. The name means "the hill of farewell." The hill lay to the north of Madinah, and families walked travelers there to say goodbye.
Other reports add that the women and children came out singing a famous poem, Tala'a al-badru alayna ("The full moon has risen over us, from Thaniyat al-Wada'"). Al-Bayhaqi records it in his Dala'il al-Nubuwwah. He places it under this return from Tabuk and also under the Hijrah, noting that scholars usually mention it at the Hijrah. A report from Ibn Aisha that mentions the poem has a broken chain. Ibn al-Qayyim held that the poem belongs to this return, because Thaniyat al-Wada' lies on the road to Syria.
On arriving, the Prophet ﷺ went to his masjid and prayed two rak'at (units of prayer). Almost immediately he began receiving the people who had stayed behind from the expedition. Among them was Ka'b ibn Malik RA.
Ibn al-Qayyim, and Sheikh Yasir Qadhi after him, hold that the famous poem Tala'a al-badru alayna was sung at this homecoming rather than at the Hijrah. They give two reasons. First, the poem says the full moon rose from Thaniyat al-Wada', which lies north of Madinah on the road to Syria, while at the Hijrah the Prophet ﷺ arrived from Quba, to the south. Second, at the Hijrah most of Madinah was not yet Muslim, while by the return from Tabuk the whole city was. Al-Bayhaqi, on the other hand, notes that scholars usually mention the poem at the Hijrah, and Ibn Hajar allows Tabuk only as a possibility. Whichever occasion is meant, 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.