The Month of Ṣafar

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

The month of Ṣafar is the second month of the Islamic year. This month is called Ṣafar because during it, the cities would become empty and people would set out for battles.

Some people with weak beliefs take bad omens from this month. The meaning of taking a bad omen is to consider something devoid of goodness and blessings, for example: not initiating any work, not starting a business, refraining from getting married, not sending off the daughters (to their husbands’ homes). The belief of these people is that every work which is started in this month is unfortunate and devoid of goodness and blessing.

The first reason for taking ill omens is that these people held the belief that calamities and other evils and tribulations descend in this month, and concerning this, they take support from some fabricated narrations. See for example: Mawḍūʿāt al-Kubrā (886).

The second reason is that during the era of Jāhiliyyah (before Islam), war and fighting were considered forbidden in the month of Muḥarram, and this prohibition on fighting would remain throughout the month of Ṣafar. However, when the month of Ṣafar would arrive, war and fighting would commence again. Therefore, this month was considered unfortunate.

Sayyidunā Abū Hurayrah, may Allāh be pleased with him, narrated that he said: The Noble Prophet ﷺ said:

لا ‌عدوى ‌ولا ‌طيرة ولا هامة ولا صفر

“There is no ʿadwā (transfer of disease by itself), and no ṭiyarah (bad omen), and no hāmah (superstitious belief about owls), and no (bad omen in) Ṣafar.” [Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī: 5757 & Muslim 2220]

Sayyidunā ʿAbdullāh bin Masʿūd, may Allāh be pleased with him, narrated that he said the Noble Prophet ﷺ said:

الطيرة ‌شرك، ‌الطيرة ‌شرك ‌ثلاثا وما منا إلا، ولكن الله يذهبه ‌بالتوكل

“Ṭiyarah is Shirk, ṭiyarah is Shirk.” three times. “And there is none among us but (the thought occurs to him) except Allāh removes it with Tawakkul (reliance upon Him).” [Sunan Abī Dāwūd: 3910]

[Shaykh Ḥabīb al-Raḥmān Hazārvī حفظه الله taken from al-Ḥadīth magazine 112, p. 46-47]