Saturday, March 30, 2024 | Ramadan 19, 1445 H
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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

Prophet’s migration journey marked Islamic Calendar

Abdulaziz-Al-Jahdhami
Abdulaziz-Al-Jahdhami
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As we commemorate the anniversary of New Hijri year, lot of questions that some people might ask! For those living in Muslim countries would definitely like to understand the story behind the New Hijri year, which is commemorated on the first day of Muharram. Some might possibly inquire about its significance to Muslims?! Likewise, others are wondering about how different is the Islamic Calendar?


The New Islamic or so called Hijri year records the migration journey of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) from the city of Mecca to Madina. This was the central historical incident in the early days of Islam and it declared the start of the Islamic calendar. In fact, the Prophet’s (PBUH) journey between the 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 (PBUH) era.


The Almighty Allah assigned the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) as a Messenger for humanity and bestowed on him 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 Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).


As the verse confirms: “Say you we believe in Allah, and the revelation given to us, and to Abraham, Ismail, 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’’.


With reference to the difference between the Gregorian and Islamic calendars, they are totally different in terms of the names of months and dates. In the Islamic Calendar, months consist of 29 or 30 days based on the moon sighting, while in the Gregorian calendar consist of either 30 or 31 days and they are fixed in rotation.


There was a highlight of the Islamic Calendar and its months in the Holy Quran as clarified in the verse: “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 12 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”.


In view of that, the Islamic calendar consists of 12 months which are Muharram (forbidden), Safar (void), Rabee Al Awwal (the first spring), Rabee Al Thani (the second spring), Jumada Al Ula (the first of parched land), Jumada Al Thani (the second of parched land), Rajab (respect or honour), Shaaban (scattered), Ramadhan (burning), Shawwal (raised), Dhul Qaada (the one of truce) and Dhul Hijjah (the one of pilgrimage).


A real important fact of Hijri months is that each one of them 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 occasions such as fasting and Haj, pilgrimage to Mecca. It has a much deeper religious and historical significance.


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


The blessed migration mirrored an honourable challenge for human excellence and presented several lessons of sacrifice, patience, persistence, 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.


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