Dhul Hijjah 💎

Credits: @HijriDateIndia

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Dhu al-Hijjah (also Dhu al-Hijja Arabic: ذُو ٱلْحِجَّة, is the twelfth and final month in the Islamic calendar. It is one of the four sacred months during which war is forbidden, it is the month in which the Ḥajj  pilgrimage takes place as well as Eid al-Adha  'The Festival of the Sacrifice').

The Arabic name of the month, Dhu al-Hijjah, means "Possessor of the Pilgrimage" or "The Month of the Pilgrimage". During this month, Muslim pilgrims from all around the world congregate at Mecca to visit the Kaaba. The Hajj rites begin on the eighth day and continue for five or six days. The Day of Arafah takes place on the ninth of the month. Eid al-Adha, the "Festival of the Sacrifice", begins on the tenth day and ends on the thirteenth day.

Praise be to Allah Who has created time and has made some times better than others, some months and days and nights better than others, when rewards are multiplied many times, as a mercy towards His slaves. This encourages them to do more righteous deeds and makes them more eager to worship Him, so that the Muslim renews his efforts to gain a greater share of reward, prepare himself for death and supply himself in readiness for the Day of Judgement.

This season of worship brings many benefits, such as the opportunity to correct one’s faults and make up for any shortcomings or anything that one might have missed. Every one of these special occasions involves some kind of worship through which the slaves may draw closer to Allah, and some kind of blessing through which Allah bestows His favour and mercy upon whomsoever He will. The happy person is the one who makes the most of these special months, days and hours and draws nearer to his Lord during these times through acts of worship; he will most likely be touched by the blessing of Allah and will feel the joy of knowing that he is safe from the flames of Hell.

(Ibn Rajab, al-Lataif, p.8)

The Muslim must understand the value of his life, increase his worship of Allah and persist in doing good deeds until the moment of death. Allah says (interpretation of the meaning):

وَٱعْبُدْ رَبَّكَ حَتَّىٰ يَأْتِيَكَ ٱلْيَقِينُ

"And worship your Lord until there comes unto you the certainty."

[al-Hijr 15:99] 

The commentators said: "‘The certainty’ means death."