Decline of the Islamic calendar

Bismillah, alhamdulillah.

The two Islamic Eids usually witness a great deal of controversy over their precise dates. Proponents mainly in the West argue for the use astronomical calculations to determine the probability of visibility of the new crescent, which marks the beginning of the new month. The method chosen by the Saudi authorities is more simple and relies on the presence of witnesses whose testimony is accepted on oath by a judge. The process by which the Saudi authorities decide which sightings to accept or not is obscure. The lack of public scrutiny of this process only fuels the general suspicion that the process is subject to other factors.

 

Regardless of the rights and wrongs of this debate Saudi Arabia stands as perhaps the only nation to maintain the Islamic lunar or Hijri calendar as an official calendar upon which dates for daily activities, official and unofficial are based. The local Saudi people are in general highly familiar with this calendar calendar and refer to it frequently and plan their lives around it. Employers pay their staff in accordance to it, utility companies issue bills by it and contracts are drawn and dated by it.

The official Saudi calendar is in accordance to the official Um al-Qura Calendar. This can be viewed via this link at its official home where it is maintained by the King Abdulaziz City for Science and technology website. The site also provides the official prayer times for Saudi Arabia, these are printed as tables towards the end of the Islamic year and can be found at most good bookstores such as Jarir and Tihama. 

This calendar has it roots in the early history of Islam. It was started by the second caliph of Islam Umar, may God be pleased with him. The decision to be begin it from the year in which the Prophet Muhammad (S) migrated or made Hijrah from Makkah to Madeenah is important. The hijrah marked a significant moment in the early history of Islam and the birth of the first Islamic state. The calendar marks this momentous occasion and underlines the political and personal nature of Islam. The word Hijri literally means related to the hijrah or migration [of the Prophet(S)].

Though these are the roots of the calendar in general people in Saudi Arabia no longer overtly regard it as an Islamic calendar. In fact in common everyday discourse it is rarely referred to by its Hijri name. Instead it is referred to as the عربي 'arabee or 'Arabic' calendar. Similarly the terms used for the Gregorian solar calendar as ميلادي milady (lit. related to the birth [of Christ]) or sometimes as فرنجي faranjee. The latter term is a reference to the Franks of the crusades, but this connection is buried somewhere in the annals of history and not in the current consciousness.

It is ironic while there is much passion about the two dates in the year when the Eids fall there is little said especially of practical import about the other 352 days of the Hijri calendar. It will not escape the attention of any interested party that if there was ever to be a time when the Hijri calendar became important again it would need to be standardised across the Islamic world, and the natural point of centralisation would be Saudi Arabia.

Sadly, even in Saudi Arabia the winds of change are beginning to blow. Newer companies such as Mobily (a mobile phone company) have switched to using the Gregorian calendar for billing. The Hijri calendar lies slowly melting into the sands of the Arabian desert in danger of turning into an archaeological item of curiosity to be resurrected for two dates every year.

del.icio.us Tags: Hijri calendar,Islamic calendar,faranji,miladee,Saudi Arabic calendar system,Um Al-Quran calendar,Umar and Islamic calendar