YAUMU ʾT-TALĀQ (يوم التلاق). “Day of Meeting.” The Day of Judgment. [Sūrah xl. 15]: “He throws the Spirit by his bidding upon whom He will of His servants, to give warning of the Day of Meeting.”
YAUMU ʾT-TANĀD (يوم التناد). “A Day of Mutual Outcry.” A name given to the Day of Judgment in the Qurʾān, [Sūrah xl. 34]: “O my people! verily I fear for you the day of crying out to one another.”
YAʿŪQ (يعوق). An idol mentioned in the Qurʾān, [Sūrah lxxi. 23]. Professor Palmer says it was in the figure of a horse. Al-Baiẓāwī says it is the name of a certain hero who lived between the days of Adam and Noah, and was afterwards worshipped in an idol of the name.
YAWNING. Arabic tas̤āwub (تثاوب). From the Traditions it appears yawning is regarded as an evil; for Abū Hurairah relates that Muḥammad said, “God loves sneezing and hates yawning. As for yawning, it is of the devil. Therefore, if any of you yawn, let him suppress it as much as possible. If he cannot stop it, let him put the back of his left hand upon his mouth; for, verily, when anyone yawns and opens his mouth, the devil laughs.” (Mishkāt, book xxii. ch. vi.)
YAZĪD (يزيد). The son of Muʿāwiyah. The second K͟halīfah of the house of Umaiyah (Ommiyah), who reigned from A.D. 679 to A.D. 683 (A.H. 60–64). He is celebrated in Muslim history as the opponent of al-Ḥusain. (See Ockley’s Hist. Saracens, p. 393.)
YEAR. Arabic sanah (سنة), pl. sanūn, sanawāt; ʿām (عام), pl. aʿwām; ḥaul (حول), pl. aḥwāl; Persian sāl (سال), pl. sālhā.
The ancient Arabian year is supposed to have consisted of twelve lunar months, as now observed by the Muḥammadans; but about the year A.D. 412, the Arabians introduced a system of intercalation, whereby one month was intercalated into every three years. (See M. de Perceval, vol. i. p. 242). This system of intercalation existed in the time of Muḥammad; but it is related that, at the farewell pilgrimage, the Prophet recited the k͟hut̤bah on the Day of Sacrifice, and said: “A year is twelve months only, as at the time of the creation,” and thus again introduced the lunar year. (See Mishkāt, book xi. ch. xi.) The Muḥammadan year, therefore, consists of twelve lunar months, without any intercalation to make it correspond with the course of the sun, and amounts very nearly to 354 days and 9 hours. Hence the Muḥammadan New Year’s Day, Nau Roz, will happen every year about eleven days earlier than in the preceding year.
There also existed amongst the Arabians a system of commutation whereby the Muḥarram, the last of the three continuous sacred months [[MONTHS]], became secular, and Ṣafar sacred. Some traditions say that the power also existed of commuting the isolated sacred month Rajab, for the one succeeding it, Shaʿbān. When this was done, it became lawful to war in the sacred months of Muḥarram and Rajab; and Ṣafar and Shaʿbān acquired the sacredness of the months for which they had been substituted. It is with reference to this custom that Muḥammad says in the Qurʾān ([Sūrah ix. 36, 37]):—
“Verily, twelve months is the number of months with God, according to God’s Book, ever since the day when He created the Heavens and the Earth; of these, four are sacred: this is the right usage. Therefore, wrong not yourselves therein, and attack those who join gods with God, one and all, as they attack you one and all; and know that God is with those who fear Him. To carry over a sacred month to another is only an increase of unbelief. They who do not believe are led in error by it. They allow it one year and forbid it another, that they may make good the number of months which God hath hallowed, and they allow that which God hath prohibited.”
This system of commutation is said to have been introduced by Quṣaiy, who wished, by abridging the long three months’ cessation of hostilities, to humour the warlike Arabs, as well as to obtain the power of making a sacred month secular when it might best suit his purpose; but Sir William Muir is inclined to think that this system of commutation was an ancient one, and merely restored by Quṣaiy. (Muir’s Mahomet, vol. i. p. ccviii.)