Dhū al-Qa’dah – The Sacred Month We Forgot?
One of the Four Holy Months
͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
Forwarded this email? Subscribe here for more
One of the Four Holy Months
May 13
[
﷽
“Indeed, the number of months with Allāh is twelve [lunar] months in the register of Allah [from] the day He created the heavens and the earth; of these, four are sacred. That is the correct religion, so do not wrong yourselves during them. And fight against the disbelievers collectively as they fight against you collectively. And know that Allah is with the righteous [who fear Him].” al-Tawbah v. 36
There are four sacred months in Islām: Dhū al-Qa’idah, Dhū al-Ḥijjah, Muḥarram, and Rajab. Dhū al-Ḥijjah stands out because it is the month in which Ḥajj is performed (though many seem to forget it contains the best ten days of the year!). Muḥarram also stands out because it contains ‘Āshūrā’ or the Tenth of Muḥarram, a day in which we fast and remember Allāh saving Bānī Isrā’īl from the tyrrant Pharaoh. Rajab even seems to remain in our minds as important due to its proximity to Ramaḍān. But Dhū al-Qa’idah is a month that all-too-often seems to slip by unnoticed and unobserved.
Though Dhū al-Qa’idah was selected by Allāh as being one of the four sacred months, even at the time of the desert Arabs before the revelation of the Qur’ān, Dhū al-Qa’idah had come to mean something associated with “abstaining” or “ceasing hostilities”. Indeed, pre-modern Arabs were engaged in constant strife but knew this month as one of the inviolable months. It is also said that it was so-named amongst them because:
وقيل لقعودهم فيه عن رحّالهم وأوطانهم
“It has also been said that ‘their abstaining’ meant abstaining from their wanderings and resting in their homelands.”
So now that we know why Dhū al-Qa’idah is important, how can we appreciate it more? Here are some reflection points on the sacred month.
ٱلْقَيِّمُ ۚ فَلَا تَظْلِمُوا۟ فِيهِنَّ أَنفُسَكُمْ ۚ
“Do not wrong yourselves in them!”
In the verse from Sūrah al-Tawbah, Allāh gives a command which is to be observed throughout all of the sacred months and that is to avoid ṭhulm/wrong doing. What’s important to note here is that (a) the command applies to all four months, not just any special days within them, and (b) it applies to neither wronging oneself by the committing of sins nor of wronging others and abusing them or taking their rights.
Ibn al-’Arabiyy al-Mālikī, the Andalusian scholar and author of Aḥkām al-Qur’ān, stated,
اختلف في المراد بالظلم على قولين أيضا: أحدهما: لا تظلموا فيهنّ أنفسكم بتحليلهن
“The scholars differed over what Allāh intended by ‘ṭhulm/wrong doing’. One opinion was that one should not wrong oneself or others in the sacred months based on one’s understanding of their significance.”
In other. words, one of the means and ways in which we can become more obedient to Allāh and closer to Him is by analyzing, appreciating, and prioritizing what is important to Him or what has been made significant by Him. If we rely on our own measuring stick to create and reinforce value it will inevitably be insufficient. Only by appreciating and prioritizing what is important to Allāh, and making that our yard stick to live and measure by, can we be successful and insure that we do not wrong ourselves. Ibn al-’Arabiyy continues,
فإن الله إذا عظّم شيئا من جهة صارت له حرمة واحدة
“For if God elevates something from one aspect, it becomes sacred all together.”
adding to that:
وإذا عظّمه من جهتين أو جهات صارت حرمته متعددة بعددِ جهات التحريم
“And if it is elevated from two aspects or from several aspects, its sanctity becomes multiple according to the number of aspects of prohibition.”
As it relates to those who would do wrong therein, Ibn al-’Arabiyy states:
ويتضاعف العقاب بالعمل السوء فيها, كما ضاعف الثواب بالعمل الصالح فيها
“And the punishment for wrongdoing in it is multiplied, just as the reward for righteous deeds in it is multiplied.”
The takeaway here is that Dhū al-Qa’idah – as are all of the sacred months, in their entirety, enormous opportunities to do good but, if we are heedless, can also become opportunities for great misfortune.
It is my opinion that one of the reasons why the sacred months in general and Dhū al-Qa’idah in particular often go unobserved in the western world is due to the influence of Christian, post-Christian and secular forces. By this I mean that Ramaḍān is often perceived by the dominant non-Muslim culture as “Muslim Christmas” or its equivalent in Islām. Married with the decline of Christianity in the western world as a whole, Christians are largely allotted this one holiday which has largely been coopted and taken over by non-religious, secularizing forces. As a result, Muslim in the west seem to be suffering from a kind of Children of a Lesser God syndrome, with Ramaḍān being the only significant religious observance mainly because it’s all that non-Muslims can observe about Islām. Muslims themselves increasingly have abandoned making their religion significant for themselves and have settled for being a lesser facsimile of Christianity. The result is the four sacred months which the Creator of the Heavens and the Earth deemed to be inviolable, to be great opportunities for spiritual growth, sadly pass with little to no fanfare.
May Allāh the Exalted make us ofthose who observe His months and revere them. Āmīn.
إِنَّ عِدَّةَ ٱلشُّهُورِ عِندَ ٱللَّهِ ٱثْنَا عَشَرَ شَهْرًۭا فِى كِتَـٰبِ ٱللَّهِ يَوْمَ خَلَقَ ٱلسَّمَـٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضَ مِنْهَآ أَرْبَعَةٌ حُرُمٌۭ ۚ ذَٰلِكَ ٱلدِّينُ ٱلْقَيِّمُ ۚ فَلَا تَظْلِمُوا۟ فِيهِنَّ أَنفُسَكُمْ ۚ وَقَـٰتِلُوا۟ ٱلْمُشْرِكِينَ كَآفَّةًۭ كَمَا يُقَـٰتِلُونَكُمْ كَآفَّةًۭ ۚ وَٱعْلَمُوٓا۟ أَنَّ ٱللَّهَ مَعَ ٱلْمُتَّقِينَ
Imam’s Corner is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
You're currently a free subscriber to Imam’s Corner. For the full experience, upgrade your subscription.