They used to consider performing Amra during the months of Hajj to be among the gravest sins on earth, and they would treat Muharram as Safar, saying, "Once the camels' backs have healed, the tracks have faded, and Safar has ended, Amra becomes lawful for whoever wishes to perform it."The Prophet ﷺ and his companions arrived on the morning of the fourth, having entered the state of ihram for Hajj. He commanded them to convert it into Amra, and this seemed enormous to them.They asked, "Messenger of Allah, what kind of release is this?"He replied, "A complete release."
كانوا يرون أن العمرة في أشهر الحج من أفجر الفجور في الأرض، ويجعلون المحرم صفرا، ويقولون: إذا برا الدبر وعفا الأثر وانسلخ صفر حلت العمرة لمن اعتمر. قدم النبي ﷺ وأصحابه صبيحة رابعة مهلين بالحج فأمرهم أن يجعلوها عمرة فتعاظم ذلك عندهم فقالوا: يا رسول الله، أي الحل؟ قال: حل كله.
Bukhari narrated it in the Book of Hajj (1564), and Muslim in the Book of Hajj (1240:198), both through Wahib, who said, "Abdullah bin Tawus told us, from his father, from Ibn Abbas," and he related it. In another version with Muslim (199), through Abu Aliyah Bara, from Ibn Abbas, with the same wording, it states, "He arrived when four days of Dhul-Hijjah had passed."His saying, "the sores on the backs healed," means the sores that used to result on the backs of the camels from carrying loads and the hardship of travel, for these would heal after the people returned from Hajj. His saying, "the tracks were erased," means they faded, referring to the tracks of the camels and others left by their passage, which were erased due to the long passage of days. His saying, "they used to consider performing Umrah during the months of Hajj to be among the greatest of transgressions," this was one of their entrenched innovations, based on their belief that the months of Hajj were for Hajj alone, while Umrah, they held, must be performed outside the months of Hajj, because they did not recognize the release from the state of consecration through Umrah during the months of Hajj. This is because release from consecration, in their view, could only come through a sacrificial offering, and there was no sacrificial offering prescribed for Umrah, so they held that one could not be released without a sacrificial offering. Islam abolished this, so all of the Prophet's ﷺ Umrahs were performed within the months of Hajj.His saying, "and they would turn Muharram into Safar," Qurtubi said in al-Mufhim (3/363), meaning, "They would call it by that name and attribute its sanctity to it instead, so that three sacred months would not follow one another consecutively, which would have placed constraints on their affairs. The upshot of this is that they used to permit, from among the sacred months, whatever they needed to permit, and in its place they would forbid some other month instead. Those who did this were called the Nasaah, and they were among their nobility. Concerning this, one of their poets said,Are we not the ones who postpone for Maadd, making the months of permission into months of prohibition?Allah, Most High, refuted all of this by His saying, "Indeed, the postponement is an increase in disbelief" [Tawbah 9:37]."