70 Alfred von Kramer's edition of Wakidy. [No. 1. 



denied. "When they came to Madynah, he said to them, I did not 

 order you to fight in the sacred month, and he refused to accept the 

 portion of the booty which 'Abd Allah had set aside for him, nor 

 would he divide the booty and dispose of the prisoners. His 

 orders were probably worded in such a manner, that complicity could 

 not be distinctly proved against him. To share responsibility with 

 a man in power is always dangerous. In case of failure he makes 

 his tool the scape-goat. 



Those men who professed to restore the religion of the Ka'bah 

 to its purity, and who pretended to live for a higher object had 

 violated one of the most sacred institutions. They had shed blood 

 in one of the four months during which the Arabs sheathed their 

 swords, and during which the merchant and traveller might without 

 fear or molestation travel through the desert. Sohayly, vol. 3, f. 

 68, observes anent the sacred months: — 



" The observance of the sacred months was a commandment of 

 God which had been acted up to ever since the time of Abraham and 

 Ishmael. It was one of the prohibitions which God ordained to 

 promote the interests of the inhabitants of Makkah. He says in 

 the Koran 5, 98. ' God has established the Ka'bah, that it be a 

 stand-by for mankind [where they find safety and as a centre of the 

 observances of the true religion"]. With the same view he has ordain- 

 ed the holy months, sacrifices and offerings.' This is due to the 

 prayer of Abraham who, when he caused some of his offspring to 

 settle in an unfruitful valley, prayed to God that he might make 

 the hearts of some men affected with kindness towards them. (Kor. 

 14, 40). The commandment of God, that all men should perform the 

 pilgrimage to Makkah, greatly promotes the interests of its inha- 

 bitants and furnishes them with a livelihood. Besides establishing 

 the Ka'bah, God ordained the four holy months. Three of them 

 Dzii-l/ca'dah, Dzii-Uajj and Mo^arram are continuous and one of 

 them the Eajab is isolated. The object of the three continuous 



was so cautious in planning his expedition the next year : It started before the sacred 

 month but could not reach its destination before new moon and from the equivo- 

 cations of a written order, no reference could be made to him. It farther explains 

 why the same Ibn Aby Waqqac who had witnessed this indignation of the Johaynah 

 tribe remained behind, and whv 'Abd Allah b. Ja//,sh was chosen as the leader. 



