Hijri Calendar
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Prophet Muhammad's hijra ("flight" or "migration") from Mecca to Medina in 622 AD marks the beginning of the Islamic lunar calendar (also known as the Hijri or Arabic Calendar). Thus, the Islamic calendar dates have the suffix AH (After Hijra). The Islamic lunar year (354 or 355 days) is between 10 and 12 days shorter than the "Western" or "Christian" Gregorian solar year (365 or 366 days)[1], and so cycles through the seasons.[2][3][4] The Islamic calendar is used in conjunction with the Gregorian calendar in some parts of the Muslim world, and is almost always referenced in relation to Islamic rituals (like the Hajj) and festivals (like Eid al-Adha), as it is with the Islamic calendar that these event correlate.
Islamic lunar months
| No. | Name | Arabic | Meaning | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Muḥarram | ٱلْمُحَرَّم | forbidden | This is the first "sacred" month in the Islamic lunar calendar |
| 2 | Ṣafar | صَفَر | void | |
| 3 | Rabī‘ al-awwal | رَبِيع ٱلْأَوَّل | the first spring | |
| 4 | Rabī‘ ath-ākhar | رَبِيع ٱلْآخَر | the second spring | |
| 5 | Jumādá al-ūlá | جُمَادَىٰ ٱلْأُولَىٰ | the first of parched land | |
| 6 | Jumādá al-ākhirah | جُمَادَىٰ ٱلْآخِرَة | the second of parched land | |
| 7 | Rajab | رَجَب | respect, honour | This is the second "sacred" month in the Islamic lunar calendar |
| 8 | Sha‘bān | شَعْبَان | scattered | |
| 9 | Ramaḍān | رَمَضَان | burning heat | This is the month in which the ritual of fasting, one of the five pillars of Islam, is carried out |
| 10 | Shawwāl | شَوَّال | raised | |
| 11 | Dhū al-Qa‘dah | ذُو ٱلْقَعْدَة | the one of truce/sitting | This is the third "sacred" month in the Islamic lunar calendar |
| 12 | Dhū al-Ḥijjah | ذُو ٱلْحِجَّة | the one of pilgrimage | This is the month in which the ritual of Hajj, one of the five pillars of Islam, is carried out
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Origins
The Islamic lunar calendar is the same calendar that was used by the pre-Islamic pagan Arabs, as it refers to the lunar months by the same names and sanctifies the very four of the twelve months that were considered sacred by Arabs in the pre-Islamic period.
However, there were some changes made: whereas the pre-Islamic Arabs allowed a practice Nasi' whereby they would either choose a different set of four months to deem sacred or move about holy festivals to a more appropriate seasons (since the lunar calendar cycles through the seasons), the Islamic calendar system prohibited this practice.[5][6] Some scholars suggest that Nasi' was in fact a practice where the pre-Islamic Arabs used to occasionally add an "intercalary" month in order to move religious festivals into more lucrative business seasons, rather than simply shifting the date of these festivals, though this is uncertain.[7][8] Whatever the case, this too was prohibited by the Islamic lunar calendar.
Relevant quotations
Quran
The Qur'an refers to the month of Ramadan:
The Qur'an states that there are twelve months, four of them are sacred:
The Qur'an describes the "sacred" months (shar al-haram, sometimes translated as the "holy" or "prohibited" - that is, sanctified - months):
Hadith
This hadith identifies the four months which are "sacred":
See Also
References
- ↑ Syed Khalid Shaukat - What is Islamic Calendar - MissionIslam
- ↑ Introduction to Calendars. United States Naval Observatory. Retrieved 15 January 2009.
- ↑ Calendars by L. E. Doggett. Section 2.
- ↑ The international standard for the representation of dates and times, ISO 8601, uses the Gregorian calendar. Section 3.2.1.
- ↑ The Encyclopedia of Islam, 2nd edition, Index, p. 441.
- ↑ Muḥammad al-Khuḍarī Bayk (1935). Muḥāḍarāt tārīkh al-Umam al-Islāmiyya. 2 (4th ed.). Al-maktaba al-tijāriyya. pp. 59–60.
- ↑ al-Biruni (tr. C. Edward Sachau (1879). "Intercalation of the Ancient Arabs", The Chronology of Ancient Nations. London: William H. Allen, 1000/1879. pp. 13–14, 73–74.
- ↑ Bonner 2011, page 21.