Ismail Kamdar – Reflections on the Hijri Calendar

			In the Hamdulillah, the Buddha who was there in oneness the Pharaoh would look we knew we hit the
worker lolly. When only we left him in Cerulean fusina women see Dr. Marlena Miyagi healer who for
them with the love when they usually look for the hottie that my brother
		

			called Allahu taala, Guardian Majeed, Bardo to be lurking in a sheet on rajim Bismillahi Rahmani
Raheem in the shahada in the law is an ASHA Sharon peaky tabula Yamaha la casa to Mina Alba to home.
		

			Valley Kadena. Okay, yeah. What's your handle? The data tells us in cura Adobo verse number 36, that
the number of months in the sight of Allah 12
		

			are washable Hanna WADA decree, this the day he created the heavens and earth and out of these 12
months for a sacred, this is the correct religion.
		

			Hamdulillah we are at the beginning of year 1444 After hijab and we ask Allah to make this a
productive and beneficial and blessed do for the entire Ummah, we ask Allah to make this a year in
which this ummah returns to its glory, and where the oppression and the tyranny and the poverty
found in many parts of the Muslim world is overcome. We ask Allah to put Baraka in this year.
		

			But so many of us we don't really pay attention to the Hebrew calendar as much as we should, as we
should. Unfortunately, we live in a time where for many Muslims, unless it's Ramadan, or it will add
Ha, we may be completely oblivious to what the date is on the history calendar. So today, I want to
perhaps reviving us the interest in this calendar by discussing its history, and its significance,
and perhaps some ways in which we can revive the practice of using this calendar. And I want to
start with the history of the calendar because this is some information that many Muslims are
unaware of the history of how the Muslim calendar came to be and why it came to be. And the lessons
		

			we can draw from that.
		

			We begin with a misconception. There is a misconception amongst many Muslims, that our calendar as a
whole was divinely revealed. That it was Allah subhanaw taala, who gave us his calendar starting in
Muharram, on the first, the first of Muharram, on the year of the Hijra. And part of this is true,
and part of this is not true. What is true is that in the verse that I just mentioned, ALLAH SubhanA
wa Taala revealed that the calendar is 12 months, right? And the Hadith explains the named of these
months Muharram suffering, we know the rest, right, and that they are in that specific order. And
then out of those 12 months, four of them are sacred, those sacred months being so called hijab,
		

			Muharram and Rajab, that these are the four sacred months in which Jihad was, was not allowed in
certain circumstances, right. So they were, they were sacred months, because they have certain
virtues to them. And so in certain circumstances, Muslims weren't even allowed to fight during those
months, unless it was completely necessary. So ALLAH SubhanA, Allah did reveal a lunar calendar
based on 12 months system, and he put it in this specific order. And what we see is that the Arabs
before Islam, they were aware of these 12 months, and they follow these 12 months. But what they
will do sometimes is they will flip it around. So for example, if a holy month is coming up, like if
		

			Roger was coming up, and they wanted to fight someone, they will say, Oh, next month's not Rajam
next month, sure. Well, we'll do Raj up later in the year, right, they will actually do this. So
this verse is revealed to prohibit that, that the calendar is set, you can look the months around.
And this is what was done in the life of Rasulullah, sallAllahu, alayhi wasallam, that the calendar
was set to 12 months in a specific order. But the years and the starting date was not set. Rather,
what what what it was, was that people would just go through a cycle month after month without any
real awareness of when does the year beginning. When does the year end? They will calculate the
		

			like, you know, it's been 12 months since this event has been 15 months since that event. That's why
when we talk about the year in which Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi salam was born, we say the year of
the elephant, right, because that's how they calculated years. So to understand this point, you have
to understand that there were two ways of calculating calendars throughout history, there was the
way of the major civilizations and the way of smaller communities. And Makkah at that time where the
small community, major civilizations would have calendars with specific year numbers. Going back to
a major event in the history, like we have the Gregorian calendar, which is an offshoot of the
		

			Julian calendar, which is the opposite of the Roman calendar. And these calendars they follow a 12
month solar system and the Gregorian calendar goes back 2022 years to the time of Jesus peace be
upon him, right so they have a specific year of history.
		

			civic event that's important to them. And they've been following, you know, 12 month cycles from
there. So in the time of Rasulullah, sallAllahu, alayhi wasallam, there was the Julian calendar that
the Romans were following, and the Persians had their own calendar as well. And these calendars had
specific years and numbers, right. And that's why when we go back to our history, we can see in
which year of the Gregorian calendar Rasulullah slotum was born and passed away because those
numbers were already set. But the Arabs were smaller communities, they were not a civilization. They
were small towns and tribes. So they didn't have numbers to the years. They had events. They would
		

			say it's the year of the elephant. They say it's the year of the flood. It's the Year of the child,
whoever was like the main thing that happened that year, that will be their way of working things
out. And this remained the system throughout the life of Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wasallam and
the collaborative Abu Bakr RadiAllahu all the way into the falafel Umar, Radi Allahu Anhu. Now what
happens in the Philippines of Omar Abdullah onehope, the Beloved of Omar regular one who is the
fastest expansion of this ummah in history, the fastest expansion of this ummah in history takes
place in the life of Omar RadiAllahu. The next fastest comes almost like 90 years later, in the time
		

			of Waleed, the first, but in the time of Omar Muslims, destroyed the Persian Empire and take over
all the lands, and the Muslims take over Syria and Palestine and Egypt. So now it's gone from a
small community in Arabia to this massive Empire spanning many countries, right. And so what happens
now, they have to start changing the way they rule, they have to now develop a government system
that can work across many countries and cultures. And one of the things that becomes a problem very
early on is calendars. How do we figure out the date? So during the reign of Omar Abdel Fattah, two
people came to the judge with a dispute? The The split was that they had a contract, the contract
		

			said that one person was going to pay the other person in short while the dispute was one person is
saying you're supposed to pay me this partial while the other person say no, it's the upcoming
Shaohua. And so when this dispute happened, and he couldn't solve it, Ahmad Rajon who said, you know
if we had numbers in our calendar, if we had something like Shaohua, seven, eight and so on, ah,
then we wouldn't have disputes like this. So let's settle all the other civilizations and look at
this look at how the Sahaba thought because this is a way of thinking that's missing in the OMA
today. They said the other civilizations, they have calendars with specific numbers, going back to
		

			important events in the history, let us do the same. Let us do the same. So he gathered together a
committee and this committee was made up primarily of three people OMA revenue hardab or smart even
our van and Ali bin Abi Taalib. Three out of the four of the qualified Rushdi Abu Bakr had already
passed away, right three out of the four of the fallout five or she didn't they got together, they
got ideas from others as well. But they were the main which their heads working on this. And I
wanted to take a step back and understand a few things about 50. All right, understand that. Not
everything when it comes to how the Muslim world runs in a civilization was revealed in the Quran
		

			and Sunnah. The Quran and Sunnah gave us our Sharia, it gave us our Aqeedah it gave us our how to
practice our religion. But a lot of the civilizational aspects of Islam developed later on in
history, you know, the administration of the government, the taxations, the divisions of the Army,
the culture, the flag, the currencies, the calendars, all of this came later in history. And Islam
left a lot of flexibility in each the hardiness area. So this is what the Sahaba get together, and
they do that they decide we need a calendar. Now, they already knew from the Quran, that these are
the 12 months. They are the lunar months. Right? So this is the calendar, you're going to stick to a
		

			12 month calendar that is lunar, but they had to decide on two things. What year do we start the
calendar from? And we back project history from that year onwards? And what month do we start the
calendar from? And these are two separate decisions made on two different important issues, right.
One is which year do we start the calendar of them, and the other is which month because neither of
these things were revealed. So they had to do he had they had to figure it out. So when it comes to
which year to start the calendar, they didn't just automatically jump to the hitch, they actually
discussed a few different possibilities. The urinal pseudolus Awesome was born, the year he passed
		

			away the year of the conquest of Makkah. These are all major events. But eventually they settled in
our calendar begins on the year of the Hijra. Why? Because that was the year that the civilization
of Islam was born. Right. Islam was born 30 years before that. But for those 13 years, the Muslims
were a oppressed minority in Makkah, the year of the hijra, they moved to Medina, they establish
Medina as an Islamic society and he grows from debut civilization. So the civilization of Islam
begins with the atria. That was the turning point in political history for Islam. So that was the
most important event in political history for Islam. So said that's the year that
		

			Our history begins with the hatred. And so the year of the hijra, was declared one age and the year
after two h n. Our history is written like that. Then they have to decide. They have to decide which
month do we start the calendar word. And again, many opinions we started with Ramadan is the most
important month of the year. We started with Rob, you will Oh will you? Oh, that's the month of the
hijra, right this is actually the again this is another misconception. Many of us because our
calendar starts in mojarra. We think the prophets law is not made the Hadrian Mahara. He actually
made that he joined Rabelo. Right. And that's why some of the latest scholars, they have the
		

			opinion, the calendar should have started from probably lower, right, because the year of the hijab
should have started when the heat year happened. So why did the harbor choose Mahara? And by the
way, whatever decision the Sahaba major became, they became masters of Iijima of consensus, meaning
the entire Ummah agreed upon it and follow through until Until today, right? But why did they choose
Muharram?
		

			Two reasons. Number one, to make sure the year ended with something special. And number two to make
sure the year begins to something special. Because what month comes before Mahara will hija so what
was happening remember Jean Medina was Muslims were going for Hajj and in those days it will take
two to three weeks to get back to Medina for Hajj. So by the time people came back to Medina from
Hajj, it was the first of Mahara, so the hajis were returning with their sins wiped out with a clean
slate a clean slate to the deeds. Clean Slate New Year is like we start out here with a clean slate.
So the Hajj would mark the end of the Muslim calendar. This was the idea of the Sahaba that the Hajj
		

			would mark the end of the Muslim calendar for the year and we start a new with Mahara. The other
reason why they went in Muharram for starting the year, it because Muharram itself is blessing.
Remember we said Allah says in the Quran, they are for holy months, right? And the books of the FSI
list ml zu cada Zul Hijjah, Muharram, and Raja, many of us make the mistake of thinking of Ramadan.
Ramadan is separate in its virtues. Right Ramadan, the most blessed month of the year is separate in
its virtues from the four holy months mentioned in this verse. But in this verse Muharram is one of
those verses one of those months Allah is talking about what makes Muharram virtuous. Before I get
		

			into that, just to conclude that part of the discussion, the Sahaba settled on Muharram they settled
on the of the hijra, and that's how the calendar was formed. From that point onwards from the time
of Omar revenue hottub. Until today, Muslims use this calendar of going back without being 1444
years to the year of the hijab, and starting with Mahara but why Mahara? And I want to end this with
just a brief reminder to us about the importance of Muharram and some of the good deeds we need to
do next week. Muharram is one of the four holy months and the tent of Muharram is specifically
significant and virtuous in our Sharia. It is known as the day of Ashura. It is the day that Allah
		

			save Musa alayhis salam from the Pharaoh. And it is a day in which there are many, many virtues.
There are two good deeds specifically that we should be doing on the 10th of Muharram. One of them
is agreed upon, right? It comes from a hadith and everyone says the hadith is authentic, everyone
agrees upon it. The other one is disputed. The other one comes from a hadith, but some people say
the hadith is authentic, or they say the hadith is not authentic, and they fight over that, right. I
believe the hadith is authentic, nobody mentioned it. So what are these two good deeds you should do
on the 10th of Muharram? Number one is fast, that we should fast the 10th of Muharram. And if we can
		

			fast today's the ninth and the 10th or the 10th and 11th Why Rasulullah sallallahu alayhi wa sallam
used to pass the 10th of Muharram. In fact, before Ramadan was revealed, fasting the 10th of
Muharram was compulsory, right in the year before, before Ramadan was revealed the fasting of
Ramadan, the original compulsory fast was once a year on the 10th of Muharram. And then that was
replaced with one month of the year, which is Ramadan, but the tender Muharram remained a sunnah. It
may emphasize sunnah, so emphasize that the Sahaba say we don't know of any month in which the
prophets loathsome was more eager to fast outside of Ramadan than Mahara. And the Prophet sallallahu
		

			alayhi wa sallam said who ever faster tend to have more haram, a preview date higher previous year's
minus sins are forgiven.
		

			So a lot of incentive to foster tanto, Mahara. And we know in the final year of the Prophet's life,
he said, If I live to see next year, I'll fast the ninth and the 10th or the 10th and 11. So he
never actually did it. But he had intention to do it. So that's where we get the idea of fasting
today's fifth you fast only the 10th the prophets was him did that Hamdulillah he finds the ninth
and the 10th or the 10th and 11th. The Prophet saw some encouragement as well as nothing wrong with
it. Right. So these are recommended fast for the 10th of Muharram. The other good deed related to
the 10th of Muharram is one of the spiritual authenticity but nonetheless
		

			I believe it's authentic. And that is the Hadith where the Prophet sallallahu alayhi wa sallam said,
Whoever increases in spending on their family on the 10th of Muharram, that Allah will increase
their sustenance for the rest of the year, whoever increases in spending on their family on the 10th
of Muharram, Allah will increase their sustenance for the rest of the year. Now, over the
generations, the whole amount of Hadees have been split on whether this hadith is authentic or not.
One group of Allah Ma said the hadith is weak. Or they said no, which authentic. And what's
interesting is those Allah who said it's oTENTik. They said that when they practice this Hadees, not
		

			a single year, were they disappointed that every single time they spent extra on their family on the
10th of Muharram, they found that to be a year in which their risk increased. So for them, that
became the testimony that the Hadees must be authentic. And I believe that the hadith is authentic
as well. So again, to summarize, the tender Muharram is coming up. If you following the South
African calendar, it's a Tuesday. If you following the Saudi candidates on Monday, I don't know
everyone's which calendar you're following, but just giving both dates out, right. Either way,
whichever calendar you're following, make sure the tender Muharram make intention to fast. This is
		

			the fact that the Prophet Salam considered most important and significant outside of Ramadan. And it
is something that is very good for all of us because they can industry one of the good deeds is to
do with the past year, I wanted him to do it the next year, we start our new year with a good deed
that erases all the sins of the past year. So we start off fresh, and then we start our new year
with another good deed that blesses the next year. So erase the sins of the past year and bless your
provisions for the next year and see how Allah subhanaw taala has made it for us. So we get started
our year with something powerful. So to summarize today's
		

			we said that the calendar, the Hijri calendar, was decided upon in the time of Omar Domingo, Hatha
Raja and who in a committee with him or Ceman, and ally, that they got together. And they decided
that we need to have an official calendar because we are now in civilization. And they chose the
year of the hijra, because that was the turning point in political history for Islam. That's when
the civilization of Islam was born. And they chose Muharram because it is a blessed month, and it
comes after the Hajj. So you can end the year with the Hajj and you start the year up with Ashura.
So it's a blessing man to end the year and begin the year with and eventually this became a matter
		

			of each bar, a matter of consensus became something that high OMA follow until our times and we also
reminded ourselves that to do the good deeds that are associated with a 10th of Muharram, which is
to fasten the canto mojado and to increase your spending on your family on the 10th of Muharram. We
ask Allah to accept from us, probably not enough in dunya Hasina will will offer you the Hudson are
working super hard aerobic aerobic is a boon for Salam Salim Al Hamdulillah.
		

			Al Hamdulillah muda who understood he understood Pharaoh and meno be hit our Kali when all the villa
Himanshu Rudy and fusina who may see Dr. Molina Miyagi Hilah who further mandala on May you dilute
for the Hadith and Baba inner circle honeystick a tabula for Haider, have you had the Muhammad
sallallahu alayhi wa sallam was shuddered more than what he said to her Kula modesetting bid for
COVID. Attend Allah Allah, Allah tempted now
		

			over the past 100 years, we've seen a decline in the usage of the history calendar. Right ever since
the fall of the Ottoman Empire in World War One, the EG calendar kind of fell out of usage amongst
Muslims. Most Muslims around the world adopted the Gregorian calendar. And this became the norm and
this became the culture. Now technically this is not haram there's nothing haram about it right?
There's nothing wrong with using the Christian calendar to decide on weekdays or weekends or
holidays or things that it's not haram. I know some people think it is, but there's no evidence for
it being haram. Right? So it is permissible. But nonetheless, as Muslims, we should strive to revive
		

			the country calendar. in whatever capacity we have, we can because this is the calendar Allah chose
for us. But Allah said these 12 months are the months Allah chose for us. And He has blessed four of
them. And because we don't follow the big calendar anymore, we don't even know the blessing months
are upon us. Think about it. Two blessed months have just passed us by Jakarta, Indonesia, and the
third one is upon us. But many Muslims are oblivious, oblivious to the fact that these are blessing
months. And you know, for them, it's just August.
		

			So we have to make some kind of effort to revive the usage of this calendar in our homes and in our
lives. I want to share some tips on how we can do this on a very practical level. Number one, have
the Islamic date displayed somewhere in your home every day. Just have the date available just like
how when you look at your phone and look at your calendar, you can see that today is like you know,
the fifth of August to the sixth of August. Likewise, you should have something in your home where
you look at it and he shows you today's you know the seventh of Muharram or the eighth of Muharram
or whatever it is you should have this
		

			to display some student awareness. So every member of your family is aware of what is the demand and
the date and the year in the Islamic calendar. Many Muslims don't even know what is the year. They
don't even know it's 1444 years since the hijra, right? Many of them don't even know this. So have
the daily usage of this calendar in that way. It's a very small thing, but it makes a huge
difference to how we
		

			how we interact with our religion. Because if you are aware of what the Islamic date is, you will be
more aware of any important dates coming up. So for many people, you know, many of these fasts come
and go, because you don't even know that the Islamic what the Islamic candidate has to say about
this month, right? For many people, holy months will come and go and they won't even know because
you don't look at the Islamic calendar. The only time we look at it is when it's time for for Eid,
or it's time for Ramadan. But if you have it somewhere in your home, then you are aware and you can
at least keep track. So number one, increase your daily awareness and usage of the date, try to be
		

			aware of at least what the date is today. Islamically. And try to make this something that you're
aware of all the time, just like with the recording calendar. Number two, mark this significant
dates, be aware of significant dates on the calendar, things like the 10th of Muharram things like
your The Day of Arafah things like
		

			you know, the 15th of Shabbat and you know, if you follow that opinion, whatever it is, but
significant dates on the calendar, mark them in the Islamic and then even though your own personal
dates, Chai using the Islamic calendar, right, try having this, that you use the Islamic calendar,
and not just the recording date. So when you marking a date of an event, put the Islamic date as
well. So people are aware, you get more people aware like this. So just say for example, you send
out a poster for an event, and you have the mark day that is on the seventh of March, but you also
have marked it and it's on the you know, the night of of, of Ramadan, or whatever it is, it keeps
		

			people aware of the Islamic State, and it creates a broader awareness. So we need to start using
these dates in our daily usage in that way as well as marking the significant dates, number three,
on to the secret months, three these months as secret months dextrocardia to Asia Muharram three
different special because Allah has declared him to be special. Number four, start planning your
life around the Islamic calendar. Many people are so unaware of the Islamic calendar that your book
or holiday and indeed it is oh I booked a holiday in Ramadan. Right or the book or the daily meal
they decide to go on a sea cruise and they realize in the middle of the Kuwait, tomorrow's Elijah, I
		

			know that right and didn't do anything because you're not working with the calendar. So start
working your life around the Islamic calendar. Be aware how many months left until Ramadan, when
exactly is Ramadan going to be when exactly it's going to be when exactly is Mahara and work your
life around that calendar, let that be the calendar that you work with. So when you when you're
working on your Sokka, you use the Islamic calendar binary for zakah, you're supposed to be using
the Islamic calendar, not the Western calendar, because its annual payments based on the EEG
calendar. So if you're not using it, you don't use the camera. Right? It's the same with working on
		

			puberty for children. By the way, if a if a if a Muslim boy reaches 15, on the Hijri calendar,
without showing any of the signs of puberty, he's considered an adult in Islam.
		

			15 on the big calendar, that's like three or four months before 15 on the Gregorian calendar, which
means for those three or four months, he might be considered an adult in Islam, but he doesn't
realize it because you're not even aware of what the month is, you're not even aware of how the
Hijri calendar works. So these are this is important if we start building our life around the
Islamic dates. And one last thing, I'm just going to mention it, it's something we'll probably only
think about doing in five or 10 or 20 years time and people are ready. But at least to put the idea
in the younger generations mind, we need to start working towards a global history calendar. as it
		

			existed in a time of the field effort, right in the time of the Ottoman Empire, they would work on
one calendar. But now you know, we all split up and everyone's citing the moons on different days
and everyone's fighting about it. And so one person is the 10 other persons are dying, the other
person is the 11th. But we really need to consider working with the calculations and working with
astronomy just like we do with our solar times. So we can have a unified global Islamic calendar. I
think it will be much more acceptable for Muslims around the world to work with the Hindu calendar
if we know when the data right so just an idea, maybe one day in the future inshallah. Allah will
		

			revive this practice of having a actual Islamic calendar that the entire Muslim world follows. But
of course, we first need to sort out our fake differences before that. So these are some of the
things we can do and we ask Allah to bless this year we ask Allah to make it a year of Baraka, a
year of peace, a year of revival of Islam, a year in which all of our personal problems are resolved
and all the problems of the Ummah resolved a year of revival of Islam in a political man way and in
every other way. A year in which the injustice is that Muslims around the world are experiencing
come to an end and the poverty that the Muslim world experiencing comes to an end and the year in
		

			which we returned to the golden ages of Islam, Robin Artina Fijian Johanna Coppola