Safar — Rawzat

The Name and Nature of Safar

The name Safar (صَفَر) comes from an Arabic root meaning “empty” or “yellow” — one interpretation holds it is named for the yellowing of trees as Arabs left their homes in this season; another connects it to the Arabic word for travelling (safar also means journey). In pre-Islamic Arabia, Safar was a time of particular conflict and uncertainty.

The Prophet (SAW) corrected the pre-Islamic belief that Safar was an inherently unlucky month — Islam does not recognise bad omens in months or days: “There is no ‘adwa [contagion], no tiyara [omen from birds], no hama [superstition], no safar [unluckiness of the month Safar].” (Hadith, Bukhari)

Yet for the Shia and Bohra community, Safar carries its own weight — not from pre-Islamic superstition but from the sacred history that unfolded in it: the Karbala martyrs’ heads were carried to Kufa and Damascus in Safar, and the 40th day of Karbala (Arba’een) falls in it.

20 Safar — Arba’een: The Fortieth Day of Karbala

Arba’een (arba’oon — forty) is observed on 20 Safar, forty days after the 10th of Muharram (Ashura). In Arab and broader Islamic culture, the fortieth day of a death is a traditional occasion for mourning and remembrance — it marks the end of the initial period of intense grief and the beginning of continuing remembrance.

The Sacred Status of Arba’een

A Hadith attributed to Imam Hasan al-‘Askari (AS) identifies five signs of the believing Shia, one of which is observing ziyarat Arba’een — the visitation of Imam Husain’s shrine on the fortieth day. The Arba’een pilgrimage to Karbala has become one of the largest human gatherings in the world in recent decades, with millions of pilgrims walking to the shrine.

Bohra Observance of Arba’een

The Bohra community observes Arba’een with a waaz — the Aamil narrates the events of the forty days between Ashura and Arba’een: the Ahl al-Bayt’s captivity in Kufa and Damascus, Sayyida Zainab’s famous speech in the court of Yazid, and the eventual return of the survivors to Medina. The Arba’een program closes the formal mourning season of Muharram-Safar.

28 Safar — Wafat of Imam Hasan al-Mujtaba (AS)

The most authoritative tradition in the Bohra calendar places the wafat of Imam Hasan al-Mujtaba (AS) — the 2nd Imam — on 28 Safar. He was poisoned in Medina at approximately 47 years of age, and his death was itself a profound injustice:

Imam Hasan (AS) had agreed to a peace treaty in order to prevent bloodshed among Muslims. He spent the following years in Medina in a life of piety, scholarship, and generosity. His death by poisoning cut short a life that had maintained the Prophet’s way in an era of political corruption.

The Bohra community observes 28 Safar with:

A waaz narrating Imam Hasan’s life, his virtues, and his wafat
Collective bukaa (weeping) and Fatiha
Understanding that Imam Hasan and Imam Husain are the “twin lights” — their struggles are inseparable, their grief is shared

The Prophet (SAW) said: “Hasan and Husain are the two masters of the youth of paradise.”

See also: Imam Hasan Al Mujtaba

The Ongoing Mourning of Safar

After the ten days of Ashara Mubaraka (Muharram 1-10), the grief does not simply end — it continues in a lower key through Safar. The entire month of Safar is understood in the Bohra tradition as an extension of the mourning season:

Dark clothing continues in many families and communities through Safar
Social celebrations (weddings, engagements) are avoided in Safar by tradition-observing Bohras
Additional fatiha programs are held for the Karbala martyrs
The Arba’een program (20 Safar) provides a structure for the month’s culminating grief

This extended mourning is not sadness for its own sake — the Dawat teaches that it is a form of walayah in action: by maintaining the grief of Karbala across forty days, the community demonstrates that the martyrs are not merely historical figures but living spiritual realities whose loss is perpetually felt.

Safar Practices: Caution and du’a

Despite the Prophet’s rejection of the pre-Islamic belief in Safar’s unluckiness, some cultural traditions of caution have persisted among some Muslim communities — avoiding travel at the beginning or end of the month, for instance. The Dawat’s position on these is clear: such pre-Islamic superstitions have no Islamic basis. The proper response to difficulty in any month is:

Increasing du’a and istighfar
Maintaining regular salah and dhikr
Giving sadaqah
Trusting in Allah’s protection

The specific du’as and salawat of the mourning season — recited during Muharram and Safar — are the believer’s spiritual armour, not the avoidance of particular days.

Ta’wil of Safar

The zahir of Safar is the second month — with its dates of grief, its continuation of the mourning season, its preparation for the Arba’een commemoration.

The batin of Safar is the soul’s journey through the forty days that follow any profound spiritual experience. Just as Arba’een is the fortieth day of Karbala’s grief, the mumin’s spiritual life has its own rhythms of intensity and continuation: the intense period of Ashara is followed by forty days of integrating its lessons. Safar asks: has the grief of Karbala changed anything in my daily life? Has the walayah renewed in Ashara become permanent, or is it fading? The fortieth-day remembrance (arba’een) is the individual mumin’s check-in: the lessons of Karbala must not dissolve.

Safar — The Second Month of the Islamic Calendar