Translation of the meanings Ayah 37 Surah At-Tawbah - English Translation - Dr. Waleed Bleyhesh Omary - The Noble Qur'an Encyclopedia

Ayah: 37

إِنَّمَا ٱلنَّسِيٓءُ زِيَادَةٞ فِي ٱلۡكُفۡرِۖ يُضَلُّ بِهِ ٱلَّذِينَ كَفَرُواْ يُحِلُّونَهُۥ عَامٗا وَيُحَرِّمُونَهُۥ عَامٗا لِّيُوَاطِـُٔواْ عِدَّةَ مَا حَرَّمَ ٱللَّهُ فَيُحِلُّواْ مَا حَرَّمَ ٱللَّهُۚ زُيِّنَ لَهُمۡ سُوٓءُ أَعۡمَٰلِهِمۡۗ وَٱللَّهُ لَا يَهۡدِي ٱلۡقَوۡمَ ٱلۡكَٰفِرِينَ

(37) ^[2088]Indeed ˹practicing˺ the nasī’ ˹deferral˺^[2089] is nothing but an increase in Denial with which those who Deny are mislead; they deem it lawful one year and unlawful another year so that they match the number of what Allah made sacrosanct. Prettified for them was made the wickedness of their deeds; Allah guides not the ˹ardently˺ Denying people.

[2088] The previous aya introduces this one (cf. Ibn ʿĀshūr).
[2089] al-Nasī’ (lit. deferral) was a practice common among the pagan Arabs in which they would declare the number of four months sacrosanct, not necessarily exactly the God-ordained ones. They would accordingly defer and/or replace some of the sacrosanct months with other ones as it suited their fighting agenda. So, to just match the number four, they would declare one of these months that suited them most one year lawful and unlawful during the next year (cf. al-Muyassar, al-Muḥarrar).