The Sacred Months!
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Salaam;
The deviation of the "Submitters" from the "traditional" sacred months to "four consecutive" months is a sore point eliminating any hope of their improving the "other" Islam. By "deviation" I simply mean transformation, because if I am wrong here then I hope that someone can address it (I do not speak Arabic, after all). Altering the sacred months is a gross sin (937).
The following is from an article
Let us look for the ?sacred months?. These months were well known (937) just as the months of the Hajj were well known (2197)
Zul-Hijjah and Muharram (?pilgrimage? and ?forbidden?) are obvious choices. The month preceding Zul-Hijjah (Zul-Qa?da) carries a name conveying ?sitting? (i.e. not fighting). We know from the Qur?an that fighting was and still is forbidden in the sacred months, and furthermore people had to prepare for the Pilgrimage. Therefore this month is included. Finally, the isolated sacred month (Rajab) carries a name conveying ?respect?. These sacred months are confirmed by history (and) the most ?authentic? hadith, the Final Sermon (though it had three endings, I am not aware of a variation in the sacred months). No other months carry names suggestive of their being sacred.
Other ?Qur?an-alone? Muslims differ. They say
?The four sacred months are Zul-Hijjah, Muharram, Safar and Rabi? I (the 12th, 1st, 2nd and 3rd months). The name of the first is self-explanatory whilst Rabi? is derived from the root word Araba (conveying ?four?). Now there are two months in the lunar calendar with the name Rabi?; the third month Rabi?I and the fourth month Rabi?II. Use of the word in the fourth month is understandable, whilst its use in the third suggests that it is the fourth sacred month.
The Qur?an implies in ayat 91-5 that the sacred months are consecutive.?
Firstly, the reason that there are two months sharing the names of ?Rabi?? is the same reason why there are two months sharing the name ?Jumada? (summer). ?Rabi?? in these instances means ?spring? and it simply refers to the time of the year when these lunar months were named. It has nothing to do with sacred months. Secondly, the relevant Qur?anic ayat are these
?So go about in the land four months and know that you cannot weaken Allah and that Allah will bring disgrace to the unbelievers.?
Qur?an 92
?So when the sacred months have passed away, then slay the idolaters wherever you find them, and take them captives and besiege them and lie in wait for them in every ambush, then if they repent and keep up prayer and pay the poor-rate, leave their way free to them; surely Allah is Forgiving, Merciful.?
Qur?an 95
Ayah 92 does not provide details to support or refute the idea of consecutive sacred months (until we look at the names of the months), since it will depend on the reader?s interpretation. What is to suggest that ?going about in the land four months? does not refer to going about in the land for four months of the year? Ayah 95 can be interpreted to mean ?when the sacred months are not ensuing (this is applicable because Muharram is the first lunar month and it is sacred). Rajab will come, but when it has passed, it has passed.
To support this view, the policy/punishment to the guilty idolaters in 91-5 is applicable not just to one year, but to every year in which they are around
?O you who believe! the idolaters are nothing but unclean, so they shall not approach the Sacred Mosque AFTER THIS YEAR of theirs; and if you fear poverty then Allah will enrich you out of His grace if He please; surely Allah is Knowing Wise.?
Qur?an 928
Allah (SWT) specifies in 936 that the number of months is twelve, and if I tell someone to ?travel two weeks? say during a three week holiday, it just means to spend any two weeks of the three travelling. In English, if Allah (SWT) intended to say ?for four consecutive months? then firstly He should include the word ?for? (absent in the Arabic) and secondly He would still have to indicate that they were consecutive (again absent in the Arabic). The absence of ?for? in English renders the interpretation of Rashad Khalifa inconsistent with the grammar of what is actually written. In English, ?travel in the land four months? CANNOT mean ?for four months?, but it MUST mean DURING four months (i.e. within the time periods of any four months of the twelve which are specified in 95 as the sacred months).
Thus it is appropriate to say that the four months referred to in 92 and 95 means four months of the year (i.e. each year), and not one specific set of four months.
What is your opinion?
Peace.