The Cow

Surah: 2

Ayat: 189

Verse:

They ask thee, (O Muhammad), of new moons, say: They are fixed seasons for mankind and for the pilgrimage. It is not righteousness that ye go to houses by the backs thereof (as do the idolaters at certain seasons), but the righteous man is he who wardeth off (evil). So go to houses by the gates thereof, and observe your duty to Allah, that ye may be successful.

Tafseer:

They will ask you O Muhammad (s) about the new moons ahilla plural of hilāl ‘Why do they seem very thin and then wax until they are full of light and then wane again as at the first and are not always the same in the way that the sun is?’ Say to them ‘They are appointed times mawāqīt is the plural of mīqāt for the people for them to know the times for sowing the land for business for their women’s waiting periods their fast and their breaking it and the Pilgrimage’ wa’l-hajji and the Pilgrimage’ is a supplement to li’l-nāsi ‘for the people’ that is to say appointed times by which its season is known for if they the new moons always looked the same none of these things could be known. It is not piety to come to the houses from their backs in your state of pilgrimage inviolability ihrām when you would bore holes in them to enter them and then exit disregarding their doors; they used to do this and claim that it was out of piety; but piety is to fear God by not contravening His commands; so come to the houses by their doors when in a state of pilgrimage inviolability and fear God that you may prosper that you may triumph.