Talk:Islamic calendar
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[edit] Reason for prohibition of intercalation of months
Does anyone have a good explanation as to why this was forbidden by Mohammed? Was it to reduce the importance of the Kalammas?
[edit] Conversions
What is the present year number in the Islamic calendar? 1379? A sentence in the text like the year 2000 in the Gregorian calendar was 1378 (or what?) in the Islamic might be good.
Of course, when does the Islamic calendar change years? Certainly this changes in respect to the Gregorian calendar as the Islamic months process in relation to the Gregorian. So maybe a page that said 2000 in the Gregorian was 1378 in the Islamic until Sept. (or whenever) and was 5709 (or whatever) in Hebrew until .... etc. with other calendars. Anyone know what these years are?
The present year (beginning in 2001 AD) is 1422. This is larger than 1378, because the year always has just 12 lunar months and so is about 11 days shorter than the Gregorian Calendar year.
[edit] 12 months
Is there an English word meaning "an interval of twelve lunar months"?
- It's called a lunar year.
MOnday January 9, 2006 coincides with the 9th day of Dhul-HIja (the 12th month) of 1426 of the Islamic calendar. www.moonsighting.com is a good website for islamic calendars and you may also find softwares that does conversion to Julian years.
[edit] Age in islamic years or solar years?
When a Mussulman states his age, does he use solar years, or dozens of lunar months?
- I'd say it depends on the location of the person, but most Muslims state their age in solar years. It really depends on whether the government and institutions of the country they live in require ages to be stated relative to an Islamic or Gregorian calendar.
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- Which countries or institutions ask for Islamic ages? Under what circumstances do people celebrate their own Islamic birthdays? --NealMcB 21:39, 3 January 2006 (UTC)
- I have never heard of anyone reporting their age in lunar years, but I may be wrong. The birthday of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), however, is usually noted by the Islamic calendar date. Although he was born (most likely) on 20 April 570 CE, but Muslims who decide to celebrate his birthday celebrate it as 12 Rabi' al-Awwal which does not actually correspond with 20 April 570 CE. joturner 22:17, 3 January 2006 (UTC)
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- The Islamic Calendar is used mainly for recording events, such as Imam Hussein's (as) martyrdom or the Prophet Muhammad's (as) Birthday. Only places like Saudi Arabia uses the Islamic Calendar as their main calendar. So Muslims living in America, or in Iran, or in Europe, etc. would use the Calendar that their resident country uses. Mainly. Armyrifle 00:07, 28 March 2007 (UTC)
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[edit] Islamic Calendar
Islamic Calendar is used only for Ramzan Fasting, Haj pilgrimage and Eid festivities. For all other purposes Gregorian calendar is used. Quran regards moon and the sun merely as sign for counting time and days as follows:
002.189 They ask thee concerning the New Moons. Say: They are but signs to mark fixed periods of time in (the affairs of) men, and for Pilgrimage....
010.005 It is He Who made the sun to be a shining glory and the moon to be a light (of beauty), and measured out stages for her; that ye might know the number of years and the count (of time). Nowise did Allah create this but in truth and righteousness. (Thus) doth He explain His Signs in detail, for those who understand.
At the dawn of Islam there were no printed calendars, no watches and the concept of hours and minutes developed in some 600 years later. The dates were counted by the year of elephants by watching moon and time by the movement of sun. According to old traditions the advice of Prophet Mohammed was as follows:
(1) Narrated Ibn 'Umar: The Prophet said, "We are an illiterate nation; we neither write, nor know accounts. The month is like this and this, i.e. sometimes of 29 days and sometimes of thirty days." (2) Narrated Abu Huraira: The Prophet or Abu-l-Qasim said, "Start fasting on seeing the crescent (of Ramadan), and give up fasting on seeing the crescent (of Shawwal), and if the sky is overcast (and you cannot see it), complete thirty days of Sha'ban."
Around 9th centuries Muslim astronomers mapped movement of stars, sun and moon and found that the moon is about one fourth of the size of the earth and moves around Earth at an average distance of 238,857 miles, and completes one revolution around Earth in a little more than 27 days. And deep in West of Mecca the moon tends to appear a day earlier and deep in East a day or two later. As Islam had spread in different continents and the means of communications were not swift, it was difficult to determine as to when the new moon was sighted at Mecca. Therefore, Fatmid Caliphs and Imam prescribed a calendar in 10th century developed by the great astronomer Albairooni that dispensed with the need for actual moon sighting in order to maintain uniformity in Islamic world.
That calendar is still used in Egypt, Syria and most Arab world as also Bohra community in India and Pakistan and they do not see any need for sighting moon even for Ramzan. But Saudi bigots insist that the calendar should be adjusted every month based on moon sighting in Mecca. And orthodox Ulemas in India and Pakistan and North America insist that fasting and Eid must be based on moon sighting in their own country.
Bigoted Ulemas fail to realize that nowhere in Holy Quran the actual sighting of moon has been made mandatory and the Traditions (Hadiths) do not prescribe a categorical practice for all times to come and that advice was meant for Meccans of that time who used to count time and dates by movement of moon and sun and the calendars and wathces were not available to them. That is why in many Muslim communities the calendar is adjusted every month and at least two to three different sets are followed in different countries. The Muslims who do not believe in the monthly adjustment are in minority.
Shah N. Khan http://www.magway.net/paklink
[edit] Observances during the Islamic year
An outsider sees that the section was written by a Sunni partisan, from the way the Asherah is set apart as the observance of a "sect." The days of the month need to be given whatever convention of transliteration has been agreed on at Wikipedia, and linked to their entries. Not for an infidel, eh! Wetman 09:27, 4 Mar 2004 (UTC)
[edit] Seasons and farming
Question: IF the Islamic calander can not be used to determine season then how do farmers sow the seeds in different Islamic countries.
Today I can understand that they can use the Gregorian calendar because both are available, but how was the situation a centuries back?
- They used the Julian calendar, or in Egypt the Coptic calendar. Whatever their religion, a farmer needs a solar calendar to work with as well. - Mustafaa 19:55, 9 January 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Define AH
Somehow "AH" needs to be defined before it is used, perhaps with a reference to the section of the article where it is explained fully. I was confused when I first saw AH. I'm not sure how to do this best. Bruce 20:11, Jul 16, 2004 (UTC)
[edit] Extent of Use
The article can also include info like: Do governments of Muslim countries use it? School? Daily life? Newspaper? etc. --Menchi 22:43, 9 May 2005 (UTC)
[edit] Question
What's the Gregorian equivalent of "4 Shawal 1422 H"? I worked it out to be the 4th of October, 2001 AD. Is that correct? I was expecting a different answer. Khoda Hafez -- Tompsci 00:53, 12 January 2006 (UTC)
- Using my own personal calculations... 4 Shawwal 1426 was November 6, 2005. Four Gregorian years earlier would put it at November 6, 2001. Fourty-two days later (four times 10.5) to help with the Islamic-Gregorian offset would mean December 18, 2001. Of course, that's my personal estimate.
- To go along with that, the December 2001 new moon occured late on December 14 GMT, putting 1 Shawwal on December 15 and 4 Shawwal on December 18, in agreement with my estimate. Locations in the Americas and locations where the moon was not visible would have put 1 Shawwal on December 16, meaning 4 Shawwal would be on December 19. Therefore, I'd put 4 Shawaal on December 18, 2001 or December 19, 2001, depending on location. joturner 01:07, 12 January 2006 (UTC)
- According to the external weblinks given at the end of the main page, it was Wednesday, December 19, 2001, in the Umm al-Qura calendar. If one of the tabular Islamic calendars was used it was either the same date or the next day, Thursday, December 20, 2001.
[edit] Imamat Day
What and when is Imamat Day ? 16th or 25th of Muharram ? It's on Template: Muslimholidays, but I can't find much info in Wikipedia. -- PFHLai 17:57, 10 February 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Date Formats
Question: How do you write an Islamic Date? For example, some of the traditional Gregorian calendar notations would be MM-DD-CCYY or DD-MM-CCYY.
I believe I undersand the DAY MONTHNAME AH format (long form. e.g "1 Muharram 1427"). What is a shorthand format? Is it Right to Left or Left to Right? I'm currently under the assumption that the format would be (for example) 9 XII 1427 (for the start of Hajj). Is that correct?
Any input would be appreciated.
--Mkamensek 20:45, 23 March 2006 (UTC)
[edit] The Week: Saturday to Friday or Sunday to Saturday?
Which weekday is considered to begin a new week in the Islamic calendar? This text gives Saturday (so that the Friday of gathering is then the last day), others give Sunday (as in Judaism and Christianity) -- 145.254.131.197 18:12, 16 April 2006 (UTC)
- as the weekday names suggest it, the week start on Sunday (al-ahad means "the first") : Monday is "ithnayn" (the second), Tuesday is "thulatha'" (the third), Wednesday is "arbi`a'" (the fourth) and Thursday is "khamis" (the fifth)
HC 10:41, 28 June 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Interesting note
After playing with an Islamic/Gregorian calendar converter, I thought people might be interested in the fact that "1 January 20875 AD" is "9 Muharram 20875 AH." --Saforrest 17:35, 21 June 2006 (UTC)
can you give us the URL for this calendar converter?
thanks Aamir Ali
So, January 5th would be Muharam 5th, day/month/year 5/1/20875 AD = 5/1/20875 AH I find that a little hard to belive, because the Islamic calender is around 11 days shorter then the Gregorian. In fact, you becaome 32 years old in the Gregorian calender around the same day you bacome 33 years old in the Islamic calendar! -- KMF
No! 1/1/20875 AD = 9/1/20875 AH does NOT imply 5/1/20875 AD = 5/1/20875 AH . However some Islamic years would start with the same day as a Gregorian year just by chance. They would occur on average once every three or four centuries. Karl 11:45, 31 Oct 2006 UT
[edit] Holy Months
"The three successive holy months are Dhu al-Qada, Dhu al-Hijja, and Muharram, thus excluding an intercalary month before Muharram. The single holy month is Rajab."
"Of all the months in the Islamic calendar, Ramadan is the most sacred."
I'm confused. Is Ramadan not one of the holy months then?
I know nothing about this topic, so forgive my ignorance. However, I found this confusing. I'm sure there is a simple explanation, which is obvious to someone familiar with the topic, but it doesn't make sense to me that the most sacred month isn't one of the four holy months. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 206.45.72.49 (talk • contribs).
- Very good question! The four holy months mentioned by Muhammad were holy before he established Islam, while the Kaaba still had idols before it. During those four months, Muslims could not fight Pagans. Ramadan is now the most sacred because of the fast held during its daylight hours, and because the first verses of the Qur'an were revealed to Muhammad near the end of that month (the Night of Power or Laylat al-Qadr). — Joe Kress 19:06, 9 August 2006 (UTC)
I think smoking during Ramadan daylight is also not done, at least around the Gulf. I'm not sure it's worth mentioning. Nice article. 154.5.18.29 06:02, 3 October 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Move external links
I suggest to move the recently added external links
to the Ramadan page where they properly belong.
I am not so happy with one of these links which finds it necessary to predict hellfire to those who do not follow its injunctions - perhaps this one should be deleted. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Vgent (talk • contribs).
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- O.k. - have done so — Vgent 8:39, 26 September 2006 (UTC)
[edit] arithmetic
"There exists a variation of the Islamic calendar known as the Tabular Islamic calendar in which months are worked out by arithmetic rules rather than by observation or astronomical calculation. It has a 30-year cycle with 11 leap years of 355 days and 19 years of 354 days. In the long term, it is accurate to one day in about 2500 years. It also deviates up to about 1 or 2 days in the short term."
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- When you say that it deviates 1 day in 2500 yrs, do I have it right that this is respect to the ordinary Moslem calendar, not to the common one, of 365¼ days?DGG 03:01, 5 October 2006 (UTC)
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- Of course. There is also a short term deviation from the ordinary Islamic Calendar. Karl 10:50, 1 November 2006.
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[edit] Iranian calendar
I've corrected the Persian in the lead paragraph, & added a link in the "See also" section. You might also want to mention somewhere in the text that Iran currently uses a solar calendar dating from the Hegira. --NigelG (or Ndsg) | Talk 10:54, 1 February 2007 (UTC)
