The Islamic New Year, 1 Muharram

A calendar that starts with a journey

Sooner or later you notice that the Islamic year carries a different number from the one on your phone, and that Ramadan never stays in the same season. Both come from the same place. The Hijri calendar is lunar, and it counts its years from the Hijra, the migration of the Prophet ﷺ and his Companions from Makkah to Madinah, where the first Muslim community took shape.

In the time of the caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab, the Companions chose the Hijra as the starting point of the Muslim calendar. They kept Muharram as the first month, as the Arabs already counted it. So the year begins on 1 Muharram, even though the Hijra itself took place in Rabi' al-Awwal.

A lunar year is about eleven days shorter than a solar one, so this date, like every Islamic date, comes a little earlier each year.

Muharram, a sacred month

Muharram is one of the four sacred months the verse speaks of, together with Dhul-Qa'dah, Dhul-Hijjah and Rajab (Bukhari and Muslim). Many commentators read “do not wrong yourselves during them” as a call to take more care in these months, because good deeds and wrongs both weigh more.

The Prophet ﷺ called Muharram the month of Allah, and said the best fasting after Ramadan is in Muharram (Muslim 1163). Its tenth day is Ashura.

The twelve months

Each month begins with the new crescent and lasts twenty-nine or thirty days. Here they are in order, with the blessed days that fall in them:

• Muharram: sacred. Ashura falls on the 10th.
• Safar: the Prophet ﷺ rejected the old belief that this month brings bad luck (Bukhari).
• Rabi' al-Awwal: the month of the Hijra and of the Prophet's birth. The Mawlid is marked on the 12th.
• Rabi' al-Akhir, also called Rabi' al-Thani.
• Jumada al-Ula and Jumada al-Akhirah, the fifth and sixth months.
• Rajab: sacred. The Isra and Mi'raj is commonly marked on the 27th.
• Sha'ban: the month the Prophet ﷺ fasted most, after Ramadan. Laylat al-Bara'at falls in its middle.
• Ramadan: the month of fasting, with Laylat al-Qadr in its last ten nights.
• Shawwal: Eid al-Fitr on the 1st, then six days of fasting for those who can.
• Dhul-Qa'dah: sacred.
• Dhul-Hijjah: sacred, and the month of Hajj. The Day of Arafah is the 9th and Eid al-Adha the 10th.

How to begin the year

The Sunnah has no special prayer, fast or dua for the first of Muharram, and scholars differ on whether to congratulate each other on the new year; many see a simple greeting as a harmless custom. What you can do is begin the month well:

• Say the dua for the new moon when you see the crescent of Muharram, as the Prophet ﷺ did at the start of every month. It is below.
• Fast some days of Muharram, and plan now for Ashura on the 10th, with the 9th alongside it.
• Make tawbah for the year that has passed, quietly and specifically.
• Choose one small thing to keep all year. Ten minutes of Quran after Fajr is easier to keep than a big resolution.
• Read the story of the Hijra. Every year it reads a little differently.