This month is Unlucky

With regard to regarding the month of Safar as unlucky , that was well known among the people of the Jahiliyyah and continued among some followers of Islam.

It was narrated that Abu Hurayrah said:

The Messenger of Allah (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) said: “No ‘adwa [transmission of infectious disease without the permission of Allah], no tiyarah [superstitious belief in bird omens], no haamah [refers to a Jahili Arab tradition described variously as: a worm that infests the grave of a murder victim until he is avenged; an owl; or the bones of a dead person turned into a bird that could fly], and no Safar [the month of Safar was regarded as unlucky in the Jahiliyyah]. But flee from the leper as you would flee from a lion.”

(Narrated by al-Bukhari (5387) and Muslim (2220) 

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Shaykh Ibn ‘Uthaymeen (may Allah have mercy on him) said:

“Several explanations were given for the word “Safar” [in this hadith]:

1. that it was the well-known month of Safar, which the Arabs regarded as unlucky;

2. that it was an internal disease affecting camels, that may be transmitted from one camel to another, and it was mentioned after ‘adwa [contagion or transmission of infectious disease] by way of mentioning a specific type of contagion after mentioning something general;

3. that it referred to the month of Safar, but what was meant was postponing the sacred months, by which the disbelievers were led astray. Hence they would delay regarding the month of Muharram as sacred, and defer it until Safar, regarding it as not sacred one year, and regarding it as sacred the following year.

What is most likely to be the case is that what is meant here is the month of Safar, as they used to regard it as unlucky during the Jahiliyyah.

But time and months have no impact on people or on the decrees of Allah, may He be glorified and exalted. Therefore time in Safar is like time in any other month, when good or bad may be decreed.

Some people, if they finish some work on, say, the twenty fifth of Safar, will give the date by saying “It was completed on the twenty fifth of the good month of Safar.” This comes under the heading of fighting bid‘ah with bid‘ah. Safar is neither a good month nor a bad month. Therefore some of the early generation would denounce a person who said, upon hearing the call of the owl [which was regarded as inauspicious during the Jahiliyyah], “It is good, in sha Allah,” by stating that it should not be described as either good or bad; rather it calls like any other bird.

The fact that the Messenger of Allah (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) stated that these four things have no impact indicates that it is obligatory to put one’s trust in Allah alone and to be steadfast, and not to feel weak when faced with these things.

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If the Muslim pays attention to such superstitious matters, it must be one of two scenarios:

1. Either he responds to these superstitions by going ahead with his plans or refraining (according to superstition), in which case he has connected his deeds to something that has no reality or substance,

2. or he does not respond, by going ahead with his plans and not paying any attention (to the superstitious matter), but there remains in his mind some kind of worry and distress. Even though this is not as bad as the first case, he should not pay any attention at all to these matters, and he should put his truth solely in Allah, may He be glorified and exalted.

Denying that these four matters do not have any impact does not mean denying that they exist – because they do in fact exist; rather it is denying that they have any influence, because the only one with influence is Allah. Whatever is a real cause is a valid and sound cause, and whatever is an imaginary cause is a false cause, and we deny that it has any influence in and of itself.”

(Majmoo‘ Fatawa ash-Shaykh Ibn ‘Uthaymeen, 2/113-115)

This was referred to in the hadith of Abu Hurayrah in as-Saheehayn, where it says that the belief of the people of the Jaahiliyyah concerning Safar was blameworthy, because it is one of the months of Allah and has no will of its own: rather it is subject to the will of Allah.