Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Ramadan 17, 1445 H
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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

Hijri year commemorates Prophet’s migration

Abdulaziz-Al-Jahdhami
Abdulaziz-Al-Jahdhami
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There are people who wonder what the new Hijri (Islamic) year stands for. Why do Muslims all over the world observe the start of the Islamic calendar? How important is it for Muslims? For those living in Islamic countries, it’s their right to understand what is the story behind the occasion, which is commemorated every first day of Muharram as an annual celebration.


The new Islamic or the Hijri year records the migration of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) from Mecca to Madina. This was the central historical event in the early days of Islam and it declared the onset of the Islamic calendar.


In fact, the Prophet’s journey between both cities marked a turning point in the Islamic history as it led to the foundation of the first Muslim state at that time during the Prophet’s era.


The Gregorian and Islamic calendars are totally different in terms of names of the months and dates as well.


Months in the Islamic calendar consist of 29 or 30 days based on the moon sighting, while the Gregorian calendar consists of either 30 or 31 days and they are fixed in rotation.


As the Quran verse clarifies: “They ask thee the New Moons. Say: They are but signs to mark fixed periods of time in the affairs of men and for Pilgrimage.”


The number of months are also stated in the verse: “The number of months in the sight of Allah is twelve in a year. So ordained by Him the day He created the heavens and the earth; Of them four are sacred; that is the straight usage so wrong not yourselves. therein, and fight the Pagans”.


Therefore, the Islamic calendar consists of 12 months that are (1) Muharram, forbidden, (2) Safar, void, (3) Rabee Al Awwal, the first spring, (4) Rabee Al Thani, the second spring, (5) Jumada Al Ula, the first of parched land, (6) Jumada A Thani, the second of parched land, (7) Rajab, respect or honour, (8) Shaaban, scattered, (9) Ramadhan, burning, (10) Shawwal, raised, (11) Dhul Qaada, the one of truce, and (12) Dhul Hijjah, the one of pilgrimage.


For religious reasons, every Hijri month is marked not by the start of a new moon, but by a physical sighting of the curved moon at a given setting. To Muslims, the Hijri calendar is not just an old system of time calculation and dating important religious events such as Fasting and Haj, the pilgrimage to Mecca. It has a much deeper religious and historical significance.


As another year of the Islamic calendar has passed, a new one has just begun to remind us of the glorious memories of the significant day in which the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) migrated to Madina.


The blessed migration mirrored an honourable challenge for human excellence and presented several lessons of patience, control, knowledge and wisdom. It stands as an improvement for the future generations to take advantage of, so they will be able to clear up all the difficulties and overcome the hardships they come across.


The Almighty Allah has sent the Prophet Muhammad with guidance to renew the call for Islam; the religion of all the Prophets and Messengers who came before him. All of them in succession conveyed the religion which Allah accepts to their respective audiences until the religion was fully completed by revealing the Quran to the last of the Prophets Muhammad. As the verse confirms: “Say you we believe in Allah, and the revelation given to us, and to Abraham, Isma’il, Isaac, Jacob, and the Tribes of Al Asbat, and that given to Moses and Jesus, and that given to (all) prophets from their Lord: We make no difference between one and another of them: And we submit to Allah in Islam.”


Abdulaziz Al Jahdhami


aljahdhami22@gmail.com


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