There are total twelve months in Islamic calendar which is lunar based and Safar month is the second one. Like other Islamic months, it is important to know about this month too. Thus, in this blog, we will talk about the second Islamic month of Safar. Safar is actually an Arabic word which means empty, vacate or good. Also, safar means hiss, whistle or whistling of the wind.
As per some, it was called Safar because during this month, the people of Makkah would leave Makkah and vacate it in order to travel. It was also a view that in this month, people fought with other tribes and left them without any goods. Some people also consider this month unfortunate and refrain from doing weddings in this month. However, it is a wrong belief as there is no such mention in Quran and Hadith about this month being unlucky. Thus, believing that this month of Safar is unfavourable is innovation in Islam that is not permissible.
Following are the events which took place in the Safar month;
On the first day of Safar, the prisoners of Karbala entered in the palace of Yazid in Syria, 13th day of Safar, youngest daughter of Hazrat Hussain (RA), Sakina bint Hussain who was also a prisoner of Karbala stopped breathing. 16th Safar, 609, Almohads faced a defeat by the Christian Spain. 17th Safar, 202 AH, Ali al-Ridha received martyrdom. 20th or 21st Safar, Chehlum takes place which is the 40th day after Ashura.
On the date of 27th Safar, Holy Prophet Muhammad (SAWW) migrated from Makkah to Medina. 28th Safar, Prophet Muhammad (SAWW) got deathly ill. Furthermore, the battles of Abwa and Khyber also took place in the month of Safar. Hazrat Khubaib Ibn Adey (RA) and Hazrat Zaid Ibn Dathina (RA) also received martyrdom in this month. In the second month of the Islamic calendar, Hazrat Khalid (RA) and Hazrat Amr bin al-Aas (RA) also entered the fold of Islam by accepting this religion. Also, the beloved daughter of Hazrat Muhammad (SAWW) got married to Hazrat Ali (RA) in this month.
It was narrated by Abu Huraira (RA) that Allah’s Messenger (SAWW) said, “(There is) no ‘Adwa (no contagious disease is conveyed without Allah’s permission), nor is there any bad omen (from birds), nor is there any Hamah, nor is there any bad omen in the month of Safar, and one should run away from the leper as one runs away from a lion.” (Sahih Al-Bukhari)
It was believed in the days before the advent of Islam that Safar is the month of trails and it has evil omens. However, with the advent of Islam, Holy Prophet Muhammad (SAWW) made it clear that there is no truth in such baseless views and superstitions; all days and months are of Allah and there is no harm in them. Thus, we shouldn’t believe any such superstition and make our minds clear about the Safar month.
