person to do this was a man from the tribe of Kinanah named Nu'aym ibn Tha'labah. He would serve as the leader of the people during the pilgrimage season. When the people were about to depart, he would rise and address them, saying: “There is no reversing what I have decreed. I am one who cannot be reproached or challenged.” The idolaters would reply, “At your service!” Then they would ask him to postpone for them a month in which they could raid. He would say, “Safar is sacred this year.” When he said this, they would unstring their bows and remove their spearheads and metal points. But if he declared it lawful, they would string their bows, fasten their weapons, and launch raids.

After Nu'aym ibn Tha'labah came a man called Junadah ibn Awf. It was he whom the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, lived to see.

Abd al-Rahman ibn Zayd ibn Aslam said: He was a man from the tribe of Kinanah called al-Qalammas. Their poet said:

“Among us is al-Qalammas, the one who postpones the month.”

They would do this only in Dhu al-Hijjah, when the Arabs gathered for the pilgrimage season.

Juwaybir related from al-Dahhak, from Ibn Abbas, may Allah be pleased with him: The first to institute the postponement of the sacred months was Amr ibn Luhayy ibn Qam'ah ibn Khindif.

Isma'il ibn Abd al-Qahir informed us; Abd al-Ghafir ibn Muhammad informed us; Muhammad ibn Isa al-Juludi informed us; Ibrahim ibn Muhammad ibn Sufyan narrated to us; Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj narrated to us; Zuhayr ibn Harb narrated to me; Jarir narrated to us, from Suhayl, from his father, from Abu Hurayrah, may Allah be pleased with him, who said: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, said: “I saw Amr ibn Luhayy ibn Qam'ah ibn Khindif, the forefather of the descendants of Ka'b, dragging his entrails in the Fire.” (1)

This, then, is the postponement of the sacred months, or nasīʾ, which Allah, Exalted is He, mentioned when He said:

“Indeed, postponement is an increase in disbelief.”

That is, it was an addition of disbelief to their disbelief.

“By it, those who disbelieve are led astray.”

Hamzah, al-Kisa'i, and Hafs recited it as yuḍallu, with the yāʾ vowelled u and the ḍād vowelled a, like His saying: “The evil of their deeds was made pleasing to them.” Ya'qub recited it as yuḍillu, with the yāʾ vowelled u and the ḍād vowelled i; this is also the recitation of al-Hasan and Mujahid, meaning that through it those who disbelieved led people astray. The other reciters recited it as yaḍillu, with the yāʾ vowelled a and the ḍād vowelled i, because they themselves were astray, as indicated by His saying:

“They make it lawful one year and forbid it another year, so as to correspond to the number of months Allah has made sacred.”

That is, they would not make one of the sacred months lawful without making a non-sacred month sacred in its place; nor would they make a non-sacred month sacred without making a sacred month lawful in its place. Thus, the sacred months would not exceed four months, as Allah had decreed, and the number would remain the same.

“Thus they make lawful what Allah has made sacred. The evil of their deeds was made pleasing to them.”

Ibn Abbas said: Satan made it pleasing to them.

“And Allah does not guide the disbelieving people.”