Four Holy (Haram) Months

عن أبي بكرة نفيع بن الحارث رضي الله عنه عن النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم قال‏:‏   الزَّمَانُ قَدْ اسْتَدَارَ كَهَيْئَتِهِ يَوْمَ خَلَقَ اللَّهُ السَّمَوَاتِ وَالأَرْضَ، السَّنَةُ اثْنَا عَشَرَ شَهْرًا، مِنْهَا أَرْبَعَةٌ حُرُمٌ، ثَلاَثَةٌ مُتَوَالِيَاتٌ: ذُو القَعْدَةِ وَذُو الحِجَّةِ وَالمُحَرَّمُ، وَرَجَبُ مُضَرَ، الَّذِي بَيْنَ جُمَادَى وَشَعْبَانَ 

From Abi Bakrah Nafi' bin al Harith RA, from the Prophet SAW said: "Time rotates as it was when Allah SWT created the heavens and the earth.  A year consists of twelve months, of which there are four haram (holy) months, three of which are in sequence (Zulkaedah, Zulhijjah and Muharram) and the fourth is Rajab Mudhor located between Jamadi al-Akhir and Sha'ban."

(HR Bukhari No: 4054)

Status: Authentic Hadith 

Learnings:

1. The Holy (Haram) Months (Zulkaedah, Zulhijjah, Muharram and Rajab) means that in these months, it is forbidden to fight and also it is a holy month where Allah SWT forbids any tyranny and every tyranny committed is a greater sin than in other months. 

2. The month of Rajab Mudhor according to Sheikh Mustafa al-Bugho, the word Mudhor is attributed to a tribe called Bani Mudhor because this tribe is very careful about the authenticity of that month compared to other months. 

3. Imam al-Hafiz Ibn Kathir in his interpretation has quoted the opinion of Ibn Abbas RA which states that every injustice done in these Haram months, the sin is greater than in other months. Likewise, the good deeds done are also greater (reward) compared to other months. (See: Tafsir Ibn Kathir, 130/4) 

4. Imam Ibnu Rajab al-Hanbali explained, the meaning of Rajab is great (Lata'if al-ma'arif, p. 117). Therefore, the month of Rajab is a great and glorious month. Among the special features of the month of Rajab is the occurrence of Isra' and Mikraj events which according to the majority of scholars' occur on the 27th of Rajab. 

5. The month of Rajab is one of the four Haram months where we are encouraged to multiply every practice we do in those months. 

6. We have entered the month of Rajab, Abu Bakr Al-Balkhi said: 

شَهْرُ رَجَبٍ شَهْرُ الزَّرْعِ  وَشَهْرُ شَعْبَانَ شَهْرُ سَقْيِ الزَّرْعِ وَشَهْرُ رَمَضَانَ شَهْرُ حِصَادِ الزَّرْعِ 

The month of Rajab is the time to plant, the month of Shaaban is the time to water the plants and the month of Ramadhan is the time to harvest. 

For that, let's all improve our practices such as doing optional prayers, optional fasting, almsgiving and others as a preparation to meet Ramadan later.