The Sacred Months Between the Absent Text and a Transcended Reality

By Prof. Dr. Faid Mohammed Said

One of the greatest crises facing the contemporary world today is the crisis of recurring violence and the erosion of moral consciousness in the management of conflict. War has become an ordinary daily spectacle, and humanity has lost part of its sensitivity toward bloodshed, pain, and destruction. The problem no longer lies merely in the occurrence of conflicts, but in their normalisation, and in the transformation of violence into a natural component of the human scene.

Amid this global turbulence, there emerges an urgent need to revisit the ethical models presented by divine revelation. These models were never merely isolated ritual rulings, but rather part of an integrated civilisational project aimed at refining the human being and regulating humanity’s relationship with time, violence, and responsibility.

Among the most prominent of these models are the Sacred Months, which the Qur’an established as part of both the cosmic and legislative order, attaching to them profound ethical, spiritual, and human meanings.

Allah the Almighty says:

“Indeed, the number of months with Allah is twelve months in the Book of Allah from the day He created the heavens and the earth; of these, four are sacred. That is the upright religion, so do not wrong yourselves during them.”
[Surat al-Tawbah: 36]

This verse indicates that the sanctity of these months is not merely a historical arrangement or social custom, but part of the “upright religion”, meaning the sound ethical structure intended by Allah to regulate human life. Imam al-Tabari stated: “Allah singled out these months with greater sanctity, making sin within them graver, and righteous deeds and reward greater.”¹

Herein lies the civilisational function of the Sacred Months. Islam did not merely seek to reduce violence; rather, it sought to cultivate a conscience capable of monitoring itself even in times of power and conflict.

Firstly: The Sacred Months Between Temporal Sanctity and Ethical Function

The Sacred Months are four: Dhul-Qa‘dah, Dhul-Hijjah, Muharram, and Rajab. The Prophet ﷺ clarified this in his Farewell Pilgrimage sermon when he said:

“Time has returned to its original form as it was on the day Allah created the heavens and the earth. The year is twelve months, of which four are sacred…”²

This hadith reveals that the Sacred Months are not merely a chronological division, but part of a cosmic order in which Allah embedded ethical and educational meanings.

Scholars understood from this that time in Islam is not morally neutral, but carries educational and spiritual functions. Imam al-Qurtubi said: “Allah singled out these months for special veneration and prohibited ظلم within them as an honour to them, although ظلم is prohibited at all times.”³

From this perspective, “temporal ethics” may be defined as:

A value-based system that grants time an ethical function in refining individual and collective behaviour, transforming certain periods into stations of reflection, restraint, and self-examination.

This concept is almost absent in modern materialist philosophies, which view time merely as a neutral framework for production and consumption, rather than an ethical vessel for cultivating humanity.

Secondly: From Innate Reverence to Contemporary Civilisational Decline

One striking paradox is that pre-Islamic Arabs, despite the instability and cycles of vengeance within their society, retained some reverence for the Sacred Months. They would suspend warfare during them, secure the roads, and grant people a temporary sense of safety.

The Qur’an referred to the origin of this reverence while correcting the distortions related to manipulation of the calendar through al-Nasi’, stating:

“Indeed, postponing [the sacred months] is an increase in disbelief.”
[Surat al-Tawbah: 37]

Ibn Kathir commented: “They would delay a sacred month and advance another according to their desires, so Allah condemned them for this.”⁴

Yet the observer of contemporary reality notices that humanity, despite its technological and legal advancement, has lost even this minimal level of ethical reverence for time. There are no longer periods of restraint, nor seasons of reflection. Conflict has become open-ended, without moral or human boundaries.

In this context, a number of Western scholars have pointed to the unique ethical dimension of time regulation within Islamic civilisation. The British orientalist W. Montgomery Watt observed that Islam “did not regard time merely as the succession of days, but as an educational element influencing the formation of society and behaviour.”⁵

Likewise, the French scholar Louis Massignon argued that the seasonal rites and temporal rituals in Islam “historically contributed to creating periods of social and spiritual calm within Muslim societies.”⁶

Although these studies did not always discuss the Sacred Months independently, they reveal a growing recognition among some Western scholars of the unique relationship between time and ethics in the Islamic worldview.

Thirdly: “So Do Not Wrong Yourselves During Them”
From the Jurisprudence of Prohibition to the Jurisprudence of Moral Refinement

The statement:

“So do not wrong yourselves during them”

is among the greatest foundational verses concerning the ethical dimensions of the Sacred Months.

The verse does not merely prohibit fighting, but employs a general expression encompassing all forms of injustice and deviation.

Imam Ibn ‘Ashur stated: “Allah singled out these months with special care so that they become periods during which people increasingly remember the sanctity of wrongdoing.”⁷

This reveals that the objective is not merely legal prohibition, but the construction of a moral and emotional state that enables the human being to restrain impulses of aggression, anger, and brutality.

Thus, the Sacred Months represent an educational school for training humanity in:

1. Self-restraint.
2. Reverence for human life.
3. Withholding harm.
4. Reviewing one’s conduct.
5. Reviving the conscience.

The Prophet ﷺ linked the sanctity of time with the sanctity of human beings when he said in the Farewell Sermon:

“Indeed, your blood, your wealth, and your honour are sacred to one another, just as this day of yours is sacred, in this month of yours, in this land of yours.”⁸

This Prophetic connection reveals a comprehensive ethical vision in which violating sacred time gradually leads to violating human values themselves.

Fourthly: The Sacred Months and the Crisis of Ethics in Contemporary Warfare

The contemporary world lives in a state of “moral disconnection” in the management of conflict. Wars are often conducted according to the logic of power, interest, and domination, rather than the logic of values and conscience.

In many modern conflicts, there are no genuine moments of pause, nor seasons of restraint and reflection. Humanity now exists in a permanent state of mobilisation against the other.

Contemporary wars, including conflicts that have continued during sacred religious seasons among various peoples, have exposed a profound crisis within the human conscience. Temporal sanctity is no longer capable of halting, or even softening, the machinery of violence.

Here the significance of the Sacred Months emerges as an ethical model capable of contributing to the reshaping of conflict ethics through:

1. Introducing the temporal dimension into the regulation of violence.
2. Providing stations of ethical reflection during conflict.
3. Promoting the concept of voluntary restraint, not merely enforced restraint.
4. Restoring the role of inner conscience against the logic of power.
5. Transforming time into a partner in the making of peace.

The most dangerous challenge facing the world today is not merely the expansion of war, but the disappearance of the moments in which humanity pauses to remember that it is still human.

Fifthly: The Practical and Realistic Dimension of Reviving the Concept of the Sacred Months

Reviving the concept of the Sacred Months should not remain confined to sermonising discourse or theoretical studies. Rather, it should become an ethical and humanitarian project capable of practical activation.

This concept may be revived on several levels:

1. At the individual level:
   Transforming the Sacred Months into seasons for self-accountability, reducing injustice, restraining anger, and reviving inner peace.
2. At the family and community level:
   Launching initiatives for family reconciliation, social forgiveness, ending disputes, and spreading a culture of mercy and dialogue.
3. At the religious and media level:
   Reviving discourse related to the sanctity of bloodshed and the gravity of injustice, and connecting the Sacred Months to values of peace rather than reducing them to historical information alone.
4. At the international level:
   Drawing inspiration from this model in advocating for “humanitarian seasons of calm”, periodic ceasefires, or peace initiatives grounded in ethical and spiritual dimensions.

Perhaps the contemporary world, after witnessing repeated wars and humanitarian collapses, has become more in need of rediscovering models that connect peace with conscience, not merely with temporary interests.

Conclusion

This analysis demonstrates that the Sacred Months are not merely ritual rulings tied to a specific time, but rather a profound ethical and legislative model aimed at reorganising humanity’s relationship with violence, time, and conscience.

Yet this model suffers today from a state of civilisational paralysis. The text remains present within revelation, while its practical impact has largely disappeared from the lives of individuals, societies, and political systems.

Reviving the concept of the Sacred Months, therefore, is not merely a retrieval of religious heritage, but an ethical and humanitarian necessity in a world where wars intensify and values decline.

Modern civilisation has succeeded in organising the tools of war, but it has not succeeded to the same extent in creating ethical moments capable of restraining humanity’s rush toward violence.

Perhaps the deepest message that the Sacred Months offer the world today is this:

True peace does not begin only when war stops, but when the human being learns how to stop himself.

References

1. Jāmi‘ al-Bayān, commentary on Surat al-Tawbah, verse 36.
2. Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith no. 4662; Sahih Muslim, Hadith no. 1679.
3. Al-Jāmi‘ li Ahkām al-Qur’ān, commentary on Surat al-Tawbah, verse 36.
4. Tafsīr al-Qur’ān al-‘Azīm, commentary on Surat al-Tawbah, verse 37.
5. Muhammad at Medina, within his analysis of social structure and temporal organisation in early Islamic society.
6. La Passion de Husayn Ibn Mansûr Hallâj, in his references to the spiritual and social dimensions of temporal rituals in Islam.
7. Al-Tahrīr wa al-Tanwīr, commentary on Surat al-Tawbah, verse 36.
8. Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith no. 67; Sahih Muslim, Hadith no. 1218.