Muhammad a Prophet For all Humanity
7. The Revolution of the Prophet
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adversary of the Prophet and his followers.
Once the Prophet’s authority had been established,
there were certain social reforms, which had to be
undertaken. The Prophet was careful to proceed
gradually in introducing such reform; he never
hastened to impose measures when people were not
ready to accept them.
The people of Makkah were heirs to the religion of
Abraham, but they had distorted the true religion of
Abraham and taken up various kinds of innovatory
practices. For instance, in the time of Abraham, Hajj
(pilgrimage) used to be performed in the lunar
month of Dhu’l-Hijjah. Since a year, according to
the lunar calendar, is eleven days shorter than a
solar year, its months do not revolve with the
seasons. Hajj, then, sometimes fell in one season
and sometimes in another. This went against the
Quraysh’s commercial interests. They wanted Hajj
to fall in the summer each year, and for this purpose
they adopted a method known as
nasi’.
This
consisted of adding eleven days on to the lunar
calendar every year. After this intercalation they
maintained the names of the lunar months, but in
