Islamic calendar

The Islamic calendar or Muslim calendar (also called 'Hijri calendar') is the calendar used to date events in predominantly Muslim countries, and used by Muslims everywhere to determine the proper day on which to celebrate Muslim holy days. It is a purely lunar calendar having 12 lunar months in a year of about 354 days. Because this lunar year is about 11 days shorter than the solar year, Muslim holy days, although celebrated on fixed dates in their own calendar, usually shift 11 days earlier each successive solar year, such as a year of the Gregorian calendar. Islamic years are also called Hijra years because the first year was the year during which the Hijra occurred—Muhammad's emigration from Mecca to Medina. Thus each numbered year is designated either H or AH, the latter being the initials of the Latin anno Hegirae (in the year of the Hijra).

Names of the Islamic months

The Islamic months are named as follows:

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• Muharram ul Haram (or shortened to Muharram) محرّم
• Safar صفر
• Rabi`-ul-Awwal (Rabi' I) ربيع الأول
• Rabi`-ul-Akhir (or Rabi` al-THaany) (Rabi' II) ربيع الآخر أو ربيع الثاني
• Jumaada-ul-Awwal (Jumaada I) جمادى الأول
• Jumaada-ul-Akhir (or Jumaada al-THaany) (Jumaada II) جمادى الآخر أو جمادى الثاني
• Rajab رجب
• Sha'aban شعبان
• Ramadhan رمضان
• Shawwal شوّال
• Dhul Qadah ذو القعدة (or Thw al-Qi`dah)
• Dhul Hijjah ذو الحجة (or Thw al-Hijjah)

Of all the months in the Islamic calendar, Ramadan is the most sacred, during the daytime of which no Muslim may eat food or drink liquid, except for those who are ill or traveling, who must make up the days missed later. Daytime begins at dawn, traditionally when a white thread can be distinguished from a black thread, but now often equated with astronomical dawn, which occurs when the center of the sun is 18° below the eastern geometric horizon. It ends at sunset, when the entire disk of the sun has gone below the actual western horizon, even if substantially elevated above the ideal horizon by mountains.

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