The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 2) — Page 717
PT. 10 AT-TAUBAH has lawful what Allah forbidden. "The evil of their deeds is made to seem fair to them. And Allah guides not the disbelieving people. 1197 "6:44; 13:34; 16:64; 27:25; 29:49; 35:9. 1197. Important Words: the postponement) is the) النسىء نسی noun-substantive from meaning, he postponed or delayed a thing. They say all all i. e. God postponed the end of his life, viz. He prolonged his life. An Arab would say i. e. he sold it on credit, i. e. the payment was to be made at a future period. therefore means, postponement; or the postponement of a month, i. e. the transfer of the sanctity of one month to a later month, a custom of the Arabs in their days of ignorance; the month which the Arabs SO postponed; the postponement of the time of Pilgrimage, another custom of the Arabs; a postponement of the time of payment of a debt or of the price of a thing sold (Lane & Aqrab). (that they may agree in) is derived from 4b, which is again derived from b, meaning, he trod upon it; he trampled upon it. They say, bl, i. e. he agreed with him respecting the matter. means the people agreed with each other respecting the affair (Lane & Aqrab). Commentary: The reference in this verse, as shown under Important Words, is to a CH. 9 القَوْم الْكَفِرِينَ long-standing Arab custom. The three successive sacred months of Dhul- sometimes seemed to them too long a Qa'dah, Dhul-Hijjah, and Muharram time to refrain from their predatory expeditions. In order, therefore, to free themselves from the restrictions of the sacred months, they sometimes treated a sacred month as an ordinary month and an ordinary month as sacred. This practice is denounced here because it involved fraud and interfered with the security of life guaranteed in these months. The procedure adopted for postponing the observance of a sacred month was generally something like this. When in the month of Dhul-Hijjah, the pilgrims returned from Minā, after having performed the ceremonies of Hajj, an influential man would arise from among the assembly and, according to Arab custom, would say, "I am he whose decree is not to be rejected. " Thereupon, the assembly would request him to transfer the sanctity of the 1157 next month of Muharram to the following month (Safar). Thus, the sanctity of a month which God had made inviolable was violated with impunity. This artifice, however, was not resorted to every year, but only when it suited their interests or convenience, The Quran has condemned it as an impious