Guillaume--Life of Muhammad.pdf - Radical Truth

31
22 The Life of Muhammad
would make one of the holy months profane, and make one of the profane
30 months holy to balance the calendar. It was about this that God sent
down: 'Postponement (of a sacred month) is but added infidelity by which
those who disbelieve are misled. They make it (the month) profahe one
year and make it sacred the next year, that they may make up the number of
the months which God has made sacred (33)."
The first to iqlpose this system of intercalation on the Arabs was
al-Qalkmmaswh~ was l;ludhayfa b. 'Abd b. Fuqaym b. 'Adiy b. 'Amir
b. Tha'laba b. al-l;liirith b. Malik b. Kiniina b. Kbuzayma; his son 'Abbiid
followed him; then his descendants Qala', Umayya, 'Auf, and Abu
Thumiirna Juniida b. 'Auf who was the last of them, for he was overtaken
by Islam. When the Arabs had finished pilgrimage, it used to be their
practice to gather round him and he would declare the four sacred months
Rajab, Dhu'I-Qa'da, Dhu'I-l;lijja, and al-Mu\larram. If he wanted to free
a period he would free al-Mu\larram and they would declare it free and ban
l?afar in its place so as to make up the number of the four sacred months.
When they wanted to return from Mecca,' he got up and said: '0 God,
I hsve made one of the l?afars free for them, the first $afar,'and I have
postponed the other till next year.' '
About this 'Umayr b. Qays Jadhlu'I-Ti'iin, one of the B. Fir.. b.
Ghsnm b. Tha'laba b. Malik b. Kiniina, boasting of this determining of
the months, improvised: .
Ma'add knows that my people are the most honourable of men and
hsve noble ancestors.
Who has escaped us when we seek vengeance and whom have we not
made to champ the bitI
Are we not Ma'add's calendar-makers, making profane months sacred?
(34)·
The Kiniinite went forth until he came to the cathedral and defiled
it(35). Then he returned to his own country. Hearing ofthe matter Abraha
made inquiries and learned that the outrage had been committed by an
Arab who came from the temple in Mecca where the Arabs went on
pilgrimage, and that he had done this in anger at his threat to divert the
Arabs' pilgrimage to the cathedral, showing thereby that it was unworthy
of reverence.
Abraha was enraged and swore that he would go to this templ~ and
destroy it. (T. With Abraha there were some Arabs who had come to seek
his bounty, among them Muhammad b. Khuza'r b. Kbuziiba al-Dh~.
wiini, al-Sulami, with a number of his tribesmen including a brother of hIS
called Qays. While they were with him a feast of Abraha occurred and
he sent to invite them to the feast. Now he used to eat an animal's testicles,
1 sUra 9.~7.
S If. by tIiia time II. sacred month was due, raiding Ilnd blood-revenge would be taboo;
hence the need to declare the month profane.
The Life of Muhammad 23
so when the in~itation Was brought they said, 'By God, if we eat this the
Arabs wl1l hold It agamst us aslo~g as we live." !hereupon Muhammad got
up and went to Abraha and Said, 0 Kmg, thIS IS a festival of ours in which
we eat only the loins and shoulders.' Abraha replied that he would send
them what they liked, because his sole purpose in inviting them was to
s~ow that he honoured them. Then he crowned Muhammad and made
him amir, of ,Mu