The Islamic Year, concept and history 

On the 31^st of last January 1.4 billion Muslims across the world celebrated the beginning of the new Islamic year 1427; Muslims across the world follow the Islamic Hijri calendar alone in some areas or along with the western calendar in other areas.

The Islamic calendar follows the lunar calendar as ordered in the Quran ‘the Muslims holy book, which was widely used before Islam across the world because of the ease to keep track of the month and the year through the moon shapes.

The whole year consists of 12 month or 354 days, and each month in the Lunar year is either 29 or 30 days. The months drift backward over the seasons, beginning again on the same day every 32¹/2 years. Since the Islamic calendar is purely lunar, as opposed to solar or luni-solar, the Muslim (Hijri) year is shorter than the Gregorian year by about 11 days, and the months in the Islamic (Hijri) year are not related to seasons, which are fundamentally determined by the solar cycle. This means that important Muslim festivals, which always fall in the same Hijri month, may occur in different seasons.

This makes us especially hard for the Muslims in the west to plan their holidays.

So when will the Islamic calendar overtake the Gregorian calendar? on The 1st day of the 5th month of C.E. 20874!

Each month starts when the lunar crescent is first seen, some Muslims depend on a local sighting of the moon, some on astronomical calculations, whereas others depend on a sighting by authorities somewhere in the Muslim world, all three ways are valid.

The names of the 12 months that comprise the Islamic year are:

This calendar did not exist in the days of the prophet Muhammad or right after his death, every area was using the calendar most common in their area.

Omar ‘The second Muslim leader after the prophet’ in an attempt to rationalize the various, dating systems used during his time, consulted with his advisors on the starting date of the new Muslim chronology, and its first year, that was 17 years after the prophet passed away.

The choices were three:

1.      To follow The Persian calendar, this was rejected due to its complexity and inaccuracy.

2.      The Christian calendar (currently used in most countries) which was rejected due to the disagreements among the eastern and western churches on its start and end, as we still see till today that Christians in the east celebrate Christmas 13 days after the western Christians.

3.      Establish a new starting point in history that will be unique to Muslims.

The next question was what is the start point?

The options were:

1.      The birth of the prophet: which was rejected in fear Muslims in the future will place the prophet at a higher position than just a prophet.

2.      The beginning of the message (first revelation), which was also rejected.

3.      The Migration of the prophet from Mecca to Madina which was adapted because It led to the foundation of the first Muslim city-state, a turning point in Islamic and world history.

Since then all Muslims keep track of this calendar, and it is the calendar on which all Islamic holidays and events are based on.

Muslims follow the Islamic calendar but Muslims do not consider the beginning of a new year a holiday, some Muslims do celebrate it through worship, fasting and extra prayers.

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Last updated: 05/26/08