al-Tawba 9:36

Inna ʿiddata'l-shuhūri ʿinda'llāhi'thnā ʿashara shahran fī kitābi'llāhi yawma khalaqa'l-samāwāti wa'l-arḍa minhā arbaʿatun ḥurum; dhālika'l-dīnu'l-qayyim; fa-lā taẓlimū fīhinna anfusakum; wa qātilu'l-mushrikīna kāffatan kamā yuqātilūnakum kāffa; wa'ʿlamū anna'llāha maʿa'l-muttaqīn

"The number of the months with God is twelve, in the book of God, from the day He created the heavens and the earth; four of them are sacred. That is the upright religion. So do not wrong yourselves in them. And fight the mushrikūn all together, as they fight you all together. And know that God is with those who guard themselves."

The sense of the root: to count. The root was treated in detail in al-Humaza at 104/2 (ʿaddadah), and three senses (to count / to make ready / to diversify) were tabulated there. I rely on that treatment.

ʿIdda here: number, count.

The note of time must be recorded, and I give it as an observation: the verse ties the number of the months not to a custom or an agreement but to the creation. The source of the number, that is, is not counted as a human arrangement.

And there is a concrete counterpart to this: the lunar calendar rests on the phases of the moon, and twelve cycles come close to a solar year. This is an observation; it is not a scientific claim drawn from the verse. Per the method (Method): no hunting for scientific miracles is done. What the verse states is the source of the number; not an astronomical detail.

The verse does not say which the four months are.

In the classical sources it is widely reported that they are Dhu'l-Qaʿda, Dhu'l-Ḥijja, Muḥarram and Rajab; it is also related that three are consecutive and one stands apart. This is information from transmitted report and is not in the Qurʾān; I do not present it as certain knowledge.

The root ح-ر-م: to make inviolable, to draw a boundary. Ḥaram — an inviolable area; iḥrām — entering the state of inviolability; maḥram — one it is forbidden to approach. The root was treated in al-Baqara and al-Ḥajj.

At the centre of the root there is a single idea: a boundary drawn around something. And the sacred months are a boundary drawn around time — not around space.

To what the pronoun refers has been debated in the classical commentaries:

I convey the disagreement and impose no preference.

And the object of the verb must be recorded: anfusakum — "yourselves." The prohibition is framed not as wronging another but as wronging oneself. This pattern recurs in the Qurʾān and was treated in Fāṭir at 35/32 (ẓālimun li-nafsih).

In the last sentence of the verse there is a note of reciprocity, and it must be recorded.

Kamā — "as…". The command, that is, is framed as equal to the act of the other side.

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the particle kamā: the sentence carries a measure. And this comes from the same place as the principle of equivalence treated in al-Baqara at 2/194 (fa-mani'ʿtadā ʿalaykum fa'ʿtadū ʿalayhi bi-mithli mā'ʿtadā ʿalaykum).

The root ك-ف-ف: the palm of the hand; and to gather a thing and enclose it. Kāffa — all together, all at once. The word will occur again in verse 122 of the sūra, and there it will carry the exact opposite ruling: wa mā kāna'l-muʾminūna li-yanfirū kāffa — "the believers were not to go out all together."

This repetition is verifiable from the text and will be compared at verse 122.