God Arises
Review
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This interpretation of the expression has a direct
bearing on the ordering of the Islamic calendar,
with special reference to the four months out of the
twelve designated as sacred by the Prophet
Abraham (blessings on him). These months were
known as Zu’l-Qa’dah, Zu’l-Hijjah, Muharram and
Rajab, during which fighting and bloodshed were
totally prohibited. People could then travel about
freely, knowing that they could carry on their
trading in complete safety. They could also go on
the Hajj pilgrimage without fear of brigandage.
However, at a later period, when rebellious
tendencies were beginning to make themselves felt,
among the Arab tribes, the latter devised the
custom of postponement in order to evade this law.
Whenever any powerful Arab tribe was determined
to do battle during the month of Muharram – which
was a sacred month – the tribal chief would declare
that they had deleted Muharram from the list of
sacred months and had replaced it with the month
of Safar, which was now to be regarded as sacred.
This practice of tampering with the sacred months
was called
nasa’
and it is this practice which the
Quran has called ‘an act more ignoble than
