ISLAM > Islamic Calendar

The Islamic calendar or Muslim calendar (also called 'Hijri calendar') is the calendar used to date events in predominantly Muslim countries, and used by Muslims everywhere to determine the proper day on which to celebrate Muslim holy days. It is a purely lunar calendar having 12 lunar months in a year of about 354 days. Because this lunar year is about 11 days shorter than the solar year, Muslim holy days, although celebrated on fixed dates in their own calendar, usually shift 11 days earlier each successive solar year, such as a year of the Gregorian calendar. Islamic years are also called Hijra years because the first year was the year during which the Hijra occurred—Muhammad's emigration from Mecca to Medina. Thus each numbered year is designated either H or AH, the latter being the initials of the Latin anno Hegirae (in the year of the Hijra).

Names of the Islamic months

Muharram ul Haram (or shortened to Muharram) محرّم
Safar صفر
Rabi`-ul-Awwal (Rabi' I) ربيع الأول
Rabi`-ul-Akhir (or Rabi` al-THaany) (Rabi' II) ربيع الآخر أو ربيع الثاني
Jumaada-ul-Awwal (Jumaada I) جمادى الأول
Jumaada-ul-Akhir (or Jumaada al-THaany) (Jumaada II) جمادى الآخر أو جمادى الثاني
Rajab رجب
Sha'aban شعبان
Ramadhan رمضان
Shawwal شوّال
Dhul Qadah ذو القعدة (or Thw al-Qi`dah)
Dhul Hijjah ذو الحجة (or Thw al-Hijjah)

Of all the months in the Islamic calendar, Ramadan is the most sacred, during the daytime of which no Muslim may eat food or drink liquid, except for those who are ill or traveling, who must make up the days missed later. Daytime begins at dawn, traditionally when a white thread can be distinguished from a black thread, but now often equated with astronomical dawn, which occurs when the center of the sun is 18° below the eastern geometric horizon. It ends at sunset, when the entire disk of the sun has gone below the actual western horizon, even if substantially elevated above the ideal horizon by mountains.

Names of the days of the week

The Islamic week is derived from the Jewish week, as was the medieval Christian week, all of which have numbered weekdays in common. All three coincide with the Sunday through Saturday planetary week. The Islamic and Jewish weekdays begin at sunset, whereas the medieval Christian and planetary weekdays begin at the following midnight. Muslims gather for worship at a Masjid or mosque at noon on "gathering day", which corresponds to the sixth day of the Jewish and medieval Christian weeks, and to Friday of the planetary week.

yaum al-ahad يوم الأحد (first day)
yaum al-ithnayn يوم الإثنين (second day)
yaum ath-thalatha' يوم الثُّلَاثاء (third day)
yaum al-arba`a' يوم الأَرْبعاء (fourth day)
yaum al-khamis يوم الخَمِيس (fifth day)
yaum al-jum`a يوم الجُمْعَة (gathering day)
yaum as-sabt يوم السَّبْت (sabbath day)

Sacred days

Important dates in the Islamic (Hijri) year are:

1 Muharram (Islamic new year)
10 Muharram (Day of Aashurah, a day of mourning for Shia Muslims)
27 Rajab (Isra and Miraj)
15 Shaban (Shab-e-Br'aat)
1 Ramadhan (first day of fasting)
17 Ramadhan (Nuzul Al-Qur'an) (Malaysia only; often 27 Ramadhan elsewhere)
Last 10 days of Ramadhan which include Laylatul-Qadr
1 Shawwal (Eid ul-Fitr)
8-10 Dhul-Hijjah (the Hajj to Makkah)
10 Dhul-Hijjah (Eid ul-Adha).

Current correlations
Portions of the Islamic calendar years 1424 and 1425 occur in the Gregorian calendar year 2004. January 1, 2004 is 8 Dhul-Qudah 1424 AH. 1 Muharram 1425 AH is February 22, 2004. For a very rough estimate, multiply the Islamic year number by 0.97, and then add 622 to get the Gregorian year number. The Islamic calendar year of 1429 occurs entirely within the Gregorian calendar year of 2008. Such years occur once every 33 or 34 Islamic years (32 or 33 Gregorian years).