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From Issue: 609 [Read full issue]

Islamic Calendar

  • Umar ibn al-Khattab established the Islamic Calendar uniting the different dating methods of his time by counting back to the year of the Hijrah (migration to Madina) to determine when to start.
  • 16 July, 622 CE = 1 Muharram, 1 AH
  • Islamic Calendar begins with sacrifice (hijrah of the Prophet and the Muslims to Madina) and ends with sacrifice (hajj, hijrah of Hajira).
  • Not from someone’s birthday, or some king or ruler’s orders, but from the foundation of the Islamic community - on brotherhood and unity we begin and end.
  • Lunar: Based upon the moon - accurate, close, visible, reminder of the beauty, order, submission of Allah’s creation but also its imperfection, its rise and fall, it needs the sun to shine. We interact with the signs of Allah when we look for the new moon every month, it is not passive time-keeping and time-passing, it’s natural. Animals, sea-creatures, oceans, plants, even human cycles are lunar timed.
  • We rotate through the seasons - dynamic, perpetual. Summer is not just in June. Eid is not just in winter. A nation of all times and all seasons, we remain steadfast no matter what the season.
  • Note the meaning of the names of the months:
    1. Muharram ["Forbidden" - it is one of the four months during which time it is forbidden to wage war or fight]
    2. Safar ["Empty" or "Yellow"]
    3. Rabi al-Awwal ["First spring"]
    4. Rabi al-Thani ["Second spring"]
    5. Jumada al-Awwal ["First freezing"]
    6. Jumada al-Thani ["Second freezing"]
    7. Rajab ["To respect" - this is another holy month when
      fighting is prohibited]
    8. Shaban ["To spread and distribute"]
    9. Ramadan ["Parched thirst" - this is the month of Islamic daytime fasting]
    10. Shawwal ["To be light and vigorous"]
    11. Dhul-Qida ["The month of rest" - another month when no warfare or fighting is allowed]
    12. Dhul-Hijja ["The month of Hajj" - this is the month of the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, again when no warfare or fighting is allowed]
  • Nadwi: "The Islamic Era did not start with the victories of Islamic wars, nor with the birth or death of the Prophet (peace be upon him), nor with the Revelation itself. It starts with Hijrah, or the sacrifice for the cause of Truth and for the preservation of the Revelation. It was a divinely inspired selection. God wanted to teach man that struggle between Truth and Evil is eternal. The Islamic year reminds Muslims every year not of the pomp and glory of Islam but of its sacrifice and prepares them to do the same."
  • We look at history through the life of the Prophet, peace be upon him, the greatest life ever lived, everything is either before or after Hijrah. “Allah has renewed time”, it’s a universal new beginning in the history of man and civilization with the Hijrah of the Prophet and our forerunners at its centre piece.

Compiled From:
"Making Resolutions That Matter" - YoungMuslims.ca

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