The Months of the Islamic Calendar

By Brother Musa
http://muslimspeak.wordpress.com/2008/07/06/the-months-of-the-islamic-calendar/

The Islamic calendar is the calendar of Islam and is used by us Muslims. Its importance is that it is the calendar mandated for us by our Lord and even though it is used alongside the Gregorian calendar, we all use the Hijri calendar to mark events such as the 2 Eids, Ramadān and the other important dates in the Islamic year. The Islamic calendar is known also as the Hijri calendar. The reasoning for this is that the calendar begins at the date of the hijrah, when the Muslims who were being persecuted migrated to Madīnah under the command of God. This happened some 1,429 years ago, hence we are currently in the year 1429 Hijri, or 1429 AH (AH stands for anno hegiræ, the Latin term for ‘Year of the Hijrah’).

Allah commanded in the Qur’ān that the Islamic year be made up of 12 months, as we read in the following verse from Sūrat at-Tawbah (9:36):

Verily, the number of months with Allah is twelve months (in a year), so was it ordained by Allah on the Day when He created the heavens and the earth; of them four are Sacred, (i.e. the 1st, the 7th, the 11th and the 12th months of the Islamic calendar). That is the right religion, so wrong not yourselves therein, and fight against the Mushrikūn together, as they fight against you together. But know that Allah is with those who are Al-Muttaqūn.

The calendar that we use was also used by the Arabs before they embraced Islām. This is not something strange, for the Arabs even though they strayed from the true religion of God by worshipping idols alongside God, still kept many things intact of what Islam teaches. The Hajj (pilgrimage) for example, was mandated by God through the prophet Ibrāhīm (Abraham) and the Arab idolaters too would still perform the Hajj, however they would add to it that which God had not commanded them to do, invoking their idols alongside God. Similarly with the calendar the Arabs added to it that which God had not commanded them to. As Allāh says in the Qur’ān in the next ayah from the verse above (9:37) -

The postponing of a Sacred Month is indeed an addition to disbelief: thereby the disbelievers are led astray, for they make it lawful one year and forbid it another year in order to adjust the number of months forbidden by Allah, and make such forbidden ones lawful. The evil of their deeds seems pleasing to them. And Allah guides not the people, who disbelieve.
What the Arabs used to do was add an extra month in certain years in effect creating a leap year much like we have in the Gregorian calendar whereby we add an extra day in February every 4 years. This month is known as an intercalary month. Intercalation was completely forbidden by God in the above verse of the Qur’ān and therefore the month which the Arabs used was eradicated. The month still exists in name in the Coptic calendar, it was known as Nasī’ (نسيء).

The following is the list of the 12 Islamic months. Those highlighted in red are the sacred months.
1) Muharram
2) Safar
3) Rabī` al-’Awwal
4) Rabī` ath-Thānī
5) Jumāda al-’Awwal
6) Jumāda ath-Thānī
7) Rajab
8 ) Sha`bān
9) Ramadān
10) Shawwāl
11) Dhūl-Qa`dah
12) Dhūl-Hijjah