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Safar (the second month and the Jahiliyya superstition about it)

شهر صفر

Safar is the second month of the lunar year, named, it is said, for Mecca emptying of its people as they travelled. The people of the Jahiliyya saw it as an ill-omened month, and Islam abolished that in the saying: there is no contagion, no Safar and no owl. 1 2

Depth

At a glance

Era
The Prophetic Era
Region
Global / Diaspora

Sacred time

Name and definition

Safar is the second month of the lunar year; it was named, it is said, because Mecca emptied of its people as they journeyed, or, by another account, for the yellowing of the season. 1

The Jahiliyya superstition

The Jahiliyya Arabs saw Safar as unlucky: they would not marry in it nor undertake affairs in it. The Prophet abolished this in the saying: there is no contagion, no Safar and no owl. 2

What happened in it

The seerah records expeditions and events in Safar, and the law assigns it no special worship and forbids no work in it. 3

People and things also explored

Adhan (the call to prayer: its ruling, wording, conditions, recommended features and the muezzin)· The sacred months· The last ten nights of Ramadan· The first ten days of Dhu al-Hijja· Dhu al-Hijja (the twelfth month: the pilgrimage, the first ten days and the day of 'Arafa)· Dhu al-Qa'da (the eleventh month and one of the four sacred months)· The Hijri calendar· Hilal (the crescent and the lunar month for the law)

Sources

  1. The Remaining Traces of Past Centuries (Maktabat al-Thaqafa al-Diniyya, Cairo, 1st ed. 2008, digital copy)
  2. al-Mawsu'a al-Fiqhiyya al-Kuwaitiyya, Noor-Book copy (file named v3)
  3. al-Raheeq al-Makhtum — Safi al-Rahman al-Mubarakpuri
Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “Safar (the second month and the Jahiliyya superstition about it)”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/concept/safar-month/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-11-12.

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Ideas

Beliefs, concepts, sciences and schools, explained in plain words. Related

Adhan (the call to prayer: its ruling, wording, conditions, recommended features and the muezzin)

In law, the adhan is announcing the time of an obligatory prayer in set, transmitted words. The jurists differ on its ruling, between a communal obligation and a strongly recommended practice, and on its wording, tarjia, tathwib, the conditions of order, continuity and raised voice, and the qualities of the muezzin: Islam, manhood, sanity and discernment.