Islamic Religious Year
ISLAMIC RELIGIOUS YEAR. The Islamic religious year is highlighted by two major events that are enjoined by the Qurʾān and that are celebrated all over the Muslim world. These are the pilgrimage, or ḥājj, which culminates in the ʿĪd al-Aḍḥā (Feast of Sacrifice), in the last lunar month, and Ramaḍān, the month of fasting, which ends with the celebration of the ʿĪd al-Fiṭr (Feast of Fast Breaking) on the first day of the next month, Shawwāl. Because the twelve-month calendar of Islam is based on a purely lunar year of 354 days, these events have no fixed relation to the seasons of the 365-day solar year. Over the course of years, they may occur in spring, summer, autumn, and winter. Thus, no connection with pre-Islamic solar feasts can be made, nor can any tradition of agricultural cults be traced. (Celebrations of the solar seasons do occur in various parts of the Muslim world, but they are not based on the Qurʾān or on ḥadīth.)
The beginning of each month of the Muslim calendar is reckoned from the appearance of the new moon, which must, according to tradition, be reported by at least two trustworthy witnesses. Because religious leaders in some Muslim countries do, in fact, rely on astronomical calculation of the first appearance of the crescent while others continue to follow the Qurʾanic prescription of actually seeing the moon, differences of one day in reckoning the beginning or end of a month are common.
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