Is there Ill Fortune in the Month of Safar?

Q: Ilm-33: Women generally think that the month of Safar is a month of bad luck, especially the first thirteen days. They say that no marriage proposal or journey should take place during this time, otherwise it will result in untold harm. Is this belief correct?

Answer: Such beliefs contradict the teachings of Islaam. Such beliefs were held during the Period of Ignorance and Rasulullaah SAW. sternly refuted them. Ill fortune is not found in time, days, months or dates but in the actions of people. When a person engages in good deeds, the time is blessed for him, but as soon as he indulges in sin, the time contains only ill-fortune for him.

While the month of Safar holds no ill-fortune. it is the un-Islaamic beliefs of people and their sins that does. It is necessary to forsake them and to repent from them. To believe that the first thirteen days are days of ill-fortune and to refrain from marriages, proposals and journeys during these days is a serious sin. Nissabu I Ihtisaab states that is a person is leaving on a journey and then returns because he heard the sound of a crow, he will be regarded to be a Kaafir.

To dispel the beliefs people held during the Period of Ignorance. Rasulullaah SAW. said, "There is nothing like contagiousness (diseases do not spread from one to another without the will of Allaah), (there is nothing like) omens by the flight of birds (people believed that if a bird flew to the right, it was a good sign and a bad sign if it flew to the left. They also believed that it was a bad omen if a cat, a woman or a one-eyed person passed before them)." Rasulullaah SAW. then repeated, "Taking bad omens is Shirk. Taking bad omens is Shirk. Taking bad omens is Shirk." He then further stated that there was nothing true about the evil effects of owls. At the end, he emphasised that there was also no truth in the ill-fortune of the month of Safar."

Rasulullaah SAW. refuted the belief of the Mushrikeen who also believed in the ill-fortune of the first thirteen days of Safar. As Muslims, we should therefore never subscribe to the same beliefs.

Similarly, the belief in the ill-fortune of women, houses and horses is also unfounded and based on Shirk. It often happens that people pick up these beliefs from the non-Muslims they associate with and this is most common with women. Wise men have always said, "Evil habits spread and the disposition of people are the greatest of thieves" (because they so quickly pick up evil habits and thoughts). And Allaah knows best what is most correct.

Fatawa Rahimiyyah vol.1