ʿAwf: We still recognize among them the familiar features, as well as the place where that man eventually settled—namely ʿAwf ibn Luʾayy. (1)

Ibn Isḥāq said: A reliable informant told me that ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb once said to a man of theirs from Banū Murrah, “If you wish to return to your original lineage, then do so.” (2)

Ibn Isḥāq went on: The clan were nobles within Ghaṭafān—its leaders and chiefs—a people of renowned standing throughout all of Ghaṭafān and Qays, so they held fast to their lineage. (3)(4)

They used to say, whenever their ancestry was mentioned, “We do not deny it or repudiate it; in fact, it is the lineage dearest to us.” He then cited their poems in which they trace themselves back to Luʾayy. (5)(6)

Ibn Isḥāq continued: Among them was the institution of al-basl: they pronounced eight months of every year inviolable, unlike the rest of the Arabs. Other tribes acknowledged this, felt secure from them during those months, and granted them security as well. (7)

Rabīʿah and Muḍar, by contrast, recognized only four sacred months each year: Dhu al-Qaʿdah, Dhu al-Ḥijjah, and Muḥarram, and they disagreed over the fourth, Rajab. Muḍar maintained that Rajab is the month between Jumādā and Shaʿbān, whereas Rabīʿah held that it is the month between Shaʿbān and Shawwāl.

Both Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī and Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim record the ḥadīth of Abū Bakrah in which the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, proclaimed during the Farewell Pilgrimage: (8)
“Time has completed its cycle and returned to the state it was in the day Allah created the heavens and the earth. The year is twelve months, of which four are sacred: three consecutive—Dhu al-Qaʿdah, Dhu al-Ḥijjah, and Muḥarram—and the Rajab of Muḍar, which lies between Jumādā and Shaʿbān.” (9)

By this declaration he endorsed the view of Muḍar over that of Rabīʿah.

Allah, exalted is He, says:
“Indeed, the number of months with Allah is twelve months in the Book of Allah, on the day He created the heavens and the earth; of them, four are sacred.” (al-Tawbah 9:36)

This verse refutes the practice of Banū ʿAwf ibn Luʾayy, who made the sacred months eight, thereby adding to Allah’s ruling and introducing what does not belong to it.

His words in the ḥadīth, “three consecutive,” rebut the people of nasīʾ who used to postpone the sanctity of Muḥarram to Ṣafar, while his phrase “the Rajab of Muḍar” refutes the stance of Rabīʿah.