Islamic Calendar

by Siddique Katiya  Montreal Canada  11 Shawwal 1432

The Islamic calendar, also know as Hijri calendar (A.H.) based on moon cycle and has 12 lunar months either 29 or 30  days without any leap year, total of 354 or 355 days annually.   Being a purely lunar calendar, with an annual drift of 11 or 12 days, each Islamic month appears in every season once in about every 33 years .

 The First year of Muslim calendar was, when the Prophet Muhammad migrated from Makkah to Medina about (637 also known as Hijra AH, the current (2011-2012 AD)  Islamic year is 1432    

Until few decades ago, the Muslims used the Islamic calendar for both the religious and commercial purposes, but now it is only use for determining the important religious dates, months and festivals.  Except for Saudi Arabia most Muslims now use the Gregorian calendar for their commercial and administrative purpose.

Traditionally, the Muslims mark their 1^st day of each Islamic month upon first sighting of  Crescent (new moon)  with naked eye shortly after a sunset on the 29^th of each month, if the new moon is not sighted Muslims suppose to complete the 30^th days.   

The first sighting has to be made by one/two or more trustworthy Muslims testifying before a Moon sighting committee (Ruet-e-Hilal) generally established for this purpose. Such committees could be formed anywhere such as  a city, town, country or region depending of governance and consensus among community.  The Islamic laws do not give any preference to sighting to any specific location such as holy city of Makkah nor forbids starting of a month on two different dates.

In the first two days after conjunction (New Moon), the young crescent (moon) appears very low in the western sky after sunset. The sighting of the lunar crescent within first 24 hours of conjunction is usually difficult as the crescent at this time is quite thin and has a low surface brightness, and can easily be lost in the twilight.  Generally the crescent appearance occurs in westerly southern hemisphere first when with good sky conditions, high elongation and altitude of the moon  become visible to experienced observers about one day after the conjunction.   However, the time that the crescent actually becomes visible varies quite a bit from one month to another. The record for an early sighting of a lunar crescent with a telescope is 12.1 hours after conjunction,  for naked-eye sightings, the record is 15.5 hours which is extremely rare.

The decision to declare beginning of new month on the 29^th day or to complete the 30^th days has been challenging tasks for Muslims since the earlier period of Islam. In the past, small area such cities and town or territories were responsible for such announcements unconcern of the decisions of others.  For example the city of Makkah and Madina two sacred cities for the Muslims, about 330 km apart, did not harmonize their dates until the advancement of modern day’s telecommunication. 

Moon sighting controversy further complicated in later part of 20^th century as decisions of different countries was readily available through rapid communication.  From early 70’s onward, It is common and unexpected occurrence that the Saudi Arabia was the first country to declare, early start, the beginning of the new month where neighboring countries such as Pakistan and countries west of  Saudi Arabia  such as Morocco or America did not sight  the crescent until next day of some cases two days later.

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