Editing Islamic calendar

{{Today/AD/SH/AH}}
The '''Islamic calendar''' or '''Hijri calendar''' ({{lang-ar|التقويم الهجري}}) is a [[calendar]]. It is used to determine [[Islam]]ic holidays in most of [[Islam]]. It is a [[lunar calendar]]: it uses the [[phases of the Moon]] (rather the Earth's [[orbit]] of the Sun) to count the passing of time. Its year has 12 months of 29 or 30 days, and lasts a total of 354 or 355 days. This means that each year of the Hijri calendar is about 11 days shorter than a [[solar calendar]] such as the [[Gregorian calendar|Gregorian]]. Islamic years are often called ''hijra'' years, because the first year of the calendar when the ''[[Hijra (Islam)|hijra]]'' occurred, that is when [[Prophet Muhammad]] went from [[Mecca]] to [[Medina]].

The current Islamic Calendar year is 1443 AH (AH = {{lang-la|Anno Hegiræ}} = Year of the Hijra.){{update after|2022|07|28|reason=1444 starts 29 July}}

Two Islamic countries (Iran and Afghanistan) use a different calendar, the [[Solar Hijri Calendar]] ("SH").

==Months==
The [[wikt:timing|timing]] of the months in the Islamic calendar is [[wikt:determine|determine]]d by direct [[wikt:observation|observation]] of the [[Moon]]. A new month can only begin after a "[[Phases of the Moon#Phases|waxing crescent Moon]]" is observed shortly after sunset. The "waxing crescent Moon" is the [[Phases of the Moon|phase of the Moon]] which starts right after a New Moon. A [[lunar month]] (one new moon to the next) lasts a little over 29.5 days. For convenience, a month is the Islamic calendar is either 29 days or 30 days, one after the other. So a 29-day month is followed by a 30-day month (29+30 is the same as 29.5+29.5). In most years, that means that a year of 12 calendar months last 354 days. But that "a little over" is 44 minutes every month so, to keep the calendar in step with reality, an extra day is needed nearly every third year, so these years are 355 days long.<ref>Emile Biémont, Rythmes du temps, Astronomie et calendriers, De Borck, 2000, 393p.</ref> 

Whether or not the first crescent moon is actually visible differs by location. For [[desert]] communities, [[cloud]]-cover is rarely a problem but that is not true for people who live in the [[rain forest]]. One option is to use the [[tabular Islamic calendar]], which predicts the moment of waxing crescent moon assuming perfect visibility. This method is used routinely by some Islamic communities but regarded by others as just an aid to securing a successful observation.

{| class="wikitable"
! Months Number !! Month name<br>in English !! Meaning
|-
| align="center"| 1 || [[Muharram|Muḥarram]] || forbidden
|-
| align="center"| 2 || [[Ṣafar|Safar]] || [[:en:wikt:void|void]]
|-
| align="center"| 3 || [[Rabi al-Awwal|Rabīʿ al-Awwal]] || the first spring
|-
| align="center"| 4 || [[Rabi al-Thani|Rabīʿ al-Thānī]] or Rabī’ al-Ākhir || the second spring
|-
| align="center"| 5 || [[Jumada al-Ula|Jumādá al-Ūlá]] || the first of dry land
|-
| align="center"| 6 || [[Jumada al-Akhirah|Jumādá al-Ākhirah]] || the last of dry land
|-
| align="center"| 7 || [[Rajab]] || [[wikt:honour|honour]]
|-
| align="center"| 8 || [[Shaban|Sha‘bān]] || [[wikt:scattered|scattered]]
|-
| align="center"| 9 || [[Ramadan|Ramaḍān]] || burning heat
|-
| align="center"| 10 || [[Shawwal|Shawwāl]] || [[wikt:raised|raised]]
|-
| align="center"| 11 || [[Dhu al-Qadah|Dhū al-Qa‘dah]] || the one of sitting
|-
| align="center"| 12 || [[Dhu al-Hijjah|Dhū al-Ḥijjah]] || the one of [[wikt:pilgrimage|pilgrimage]] ([[Hajj]])
|}

== References ==
{{reflist}}

== Other websites ==
* [http://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/islamic-calendar.html Islamic Calendar]
* [http://www.staff.science.uu.nl/~gent0113/islam/islam_tabcal.htm Islamic-Western Calendar Converter (Based on the Arithmetical or Tabular Calendar)]

[[Category:Calendars]]
[[Category:Islamic calendar]]

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