The Revolution of the Prophet

Once the Prophet’s authority had been established, specific social reforms had to be undertaken. However, the Prophet was careful to proceed gradually in introducing such reform; he never hastened to impose measures when people were not ready to accept them. The people of Makkah were heirs to the religion of Abraham, but they had distorted the true faith of Abraham and taken up various kinds of innovatory practices. For instance, in the time of Abraham, Hajj (pilgrimage) used to be performed in the lunar month of Dhu’l-Hijjah. Since a year according to the lunar calendar is eleven days shorter than a solar year, so its months do not revolve around the seasons. Hajj, then, sometimes fell in one season and sometimes in another. This went against the Quraysh’s commercial interests. They wanted Hajj to fall in the summer each year, and for this purpose, they adopted a method known as nasi’. This consisted of adding eleven days to the lunar calendar every year. After this intercalation, they maintained the names of the lunar months, but in effect, their calendar was a solar one. This meant that for thirty-three years, all dates were removed from their actual place in the lunar calendar; every thirty-three years, when their annual addition of eleven days to the calendar had run the course of an entire year, Hajj would be performed on its proper date according to the lunar calendar. One of the tasks entrusted to the Prophet was to end all the Quraysh’s innovations and have Hajj performed according to Abraham’s original system. The conquest of Makkah