Lunar Hijri Calendar: Difference between revisions

A lunar hijri year has 354 or 355 days; it is ten or eleven days shorter than a solar hijri year. The first month in this calendar is [[Muharram]] and the last month is [[Dhu l-Hijja]]. According to some [[hadiths]], the [[month of Ramadan]] is the first month of the hijri lunar year, and thus religious practices and rituals begin, in some prayer books, with the rites of the month of Ramadan and end with the practices of the [[month of Shaʿban]]. [[Al-Sayyid b. Tawus]], a renowned [[Shia]] scholar in the seventh/thirteenth century, held that the month of Ramadan was probably the beginning of the religious calendar and the month of Muharram was the beginning of the ordinary calendar.  

The month in a lunar hijri year are in the following order: [[Muharram]], [[Safar]], [[Rabiʿ I]], [[Rabiʿ II]], [[Jumada I]], [[Jumada II]], [[Rajab]], [[Shaʿban]], [[Ramadan]], [[Shawwal]], [[Dhu l-Qaʿda]], and [[Dhu l-Hijja]].

The lunar hijri calendar is a calendar based on the cycles of the Moon’s phases. It was called hijri because the ''[[hijra]]'' (emigration) of the [[Prophet (s)]] in 622 CE marked its beginning. Muslims have used this calendar to organize their religious deeds and rites, and thus the calendar is also called the Islamic calendar as well.  

The lunar hijri calendar was the official calendar of the Muslim countries prior to the first world war (1914-1918 CE). In [[Iran]], the lunar hijri calendar was replaced by the solar hijri calendar in Farvardin 11th, 1304 SH/ [[March 31]], 1925, and the same change was made in [[Afghanistan]] in 1301 Sh/1922.  

The lunar hijri calendar begins its count from the year the Prophet (s) emigrated from Mecca to Medina. However, there is disagreement as to when this year was chosen as the beginning of the Muslim calendar. According to some reports, the decision was made during the caliphate of [['Umar]] in 17/638 or 18 AH/639. According to these reports [[Abu Musa Ash'ari]] wrote a letter to 'Umar complaining about the lack of fixed dates on the letters he received from Umar, which made him confused about the order of the letters. Thus, 'Umar established a council to set a starting point for the Muslim calendar. In this council, three dates in the Prophet’s (s) life were suggested: the beginning of his mission, his demise, and his emigration. The latter suggestion put forward by [[Imam Ali (a)]] was accepted and set as the starting point of the Muslim calendar.  

According to another view, it was the Prophet (s) himself who set the year of his emigration as the starting point of the Islamic calendar, because in some texts dating back to the time of the Prophet (s), such as the text of the pact between the Prophet (s) and the [[Christians]] of [[Najran]] and the Prophet’s written advice to [[Salman al-Farsi]], the Hijri dates are written.

The lunar hijri year starts with the month of Muharram and ends with Dhu l-Hijja. This is because the lunar year of the Arabs before Islam began with Muharram and thus the second caliph decided to choose the same month as the first month of the year in the Muslim calendar and rejected the suggestion of choosing Ramadan as the first month.  

[[Al-Shaykh al-Tusi]], the [[jurist]] and traditionist of the fifth/eleventh century, maintained that according to widely transmitted Shiite hadiths, the first month of the hijri year was the month of Ramadan. Accordingly, in his book ''[[Misbah al-mutahajjid]]'', he began writing about annual rites with the rites of the month of Ramadan and ended them with the rites of the month of Shaʿban. He also regarded the month of Rajab as the last of the ''sacred months''.  

* [[Rabiʿ I]]  

* [[Rabiʿ II]]  

* [[Shaʿban]]

* [[Dhu l-Qaʿda]]