The Sacred Year in Islam

James W. Morris, Chair of Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter (UK), has lectured and written widely on Islamic philosophy, mysticism, and popular religious life, the Islamic humanities (poetry, art, and music), and comparative philosophy and spirituality in the Abrahamic traditions.

The Islamic religious or hijra calendar followed by Muslims of all branches of Islam, throughout the world, is a pure lunar calendar of 12 months, based on the actual sighting of each new moon. The lunar year (of slightly over 354 days) and each of the key religious holy days mentioned below thus advances by about 10 days each year, gradually rotating through the seasons of the solar calendar; the new religious "day," as in Judaism, actually begins at each sunset. The traditional names of the lunar months were taken over from pre-Islamic Arabian custom, while the customary dating of the Islamic calendar from the month of the Prophet Muhammad's crucial "exodus" from Mecca to Medina (hijra; in September 622 C.E.) was itself established by his second successor, the caliph Umar, soon after Muhammad's death. Thus we are now (until April 6, 2000) in the year 1420 of the hijra- era (often abbreviated A.H. or anno hegirae).

On the eve of the millenium, it is worth noting that many of the same types of eschatological expectations and messianic movements and figures familiar in Christian sacred history have likewise been associated with centennial years in the Islamic calendar. For example, the year 1400 (1979 C.E.) witnessed worldwide agitation surrounding Ayatollah Khomeini and his revolution, the violent rebellion and occupation of the holy sites of Mecca by a claimant to the messianic role of Mahdi and other less prominent claims in the Sudan.

In addition to the religious lunar calendar, Muslims everywhere have also had their local solar, zodiacal calendars as required for agricultural and other purposes; most today use the familiar Julian calendar, but Iranians, for example, still regularly use a "solar hijr-" calendar (now 1378 a.h.s.). At the local or regional level, almost all Muslim communities also celebrate certain important holidays according to the solar, agricultural calendar-for example, the festivals and pilgrimages associated with the death days of Muslim saints; the multiple popular celebrations connected with the beginning of Spring, throughout the Kurdish and Persian-speaking world; and various modern national holidays. Finally, any full discussion of religious sacred occasions would of course have to include those recurrent rituals connected with each individual's and family's key life-cycle events: birth, namegiving, circumcision, engagement and marriage, and death and mourning, almost all of which involve distinctive forms of prayer, sacrifice, and feasting (or fasting).

By far the most prominent religious holiday in the Islamic religious calendar is the entire sacred month of Ramadan (Dec. 8, 1999 to Jan. 6, 2000), during which all adult and healthy Muslims are normally expected to fast from all food and drink (and to abstain from smoking and certain other pleasures) from dawn until after sunset. Commemorating, in particular, the revelation of the Qur'an-the source and central focus of Islamic religious life-the period of Ramadan is also widely consecrated to acts of devotion, charity, and spiritual retreat, especially to reading of the Qur'an and to collective gatherings for nightly readings of the Qur'an, prayers, and praises of the Prophet. The fast is performed to learn discipline, self-restraint and generosity, while obeying God's commandments. Fasting (along with the declaration of faith, daily prayers, charity, and pilgrimage to Mecca) is one of the "five pillars" of Islam. In much of the Islamic world, the nights of Ramadan are also a time for feasting, family gatherings, and collective public celebration. Several nights at the end of the month are particularly venerated as the "Night of Destiny" ????(laylat al-Qadr), dates which commemorate the initial revelation of the Qur'an as well as-at least in popular belief-the notion that our fates for the coming year are finally determined at that time.

The ending of the Ramadan fast (ca. Jan. 7, 2000) is marked by the Eid al-Fitr, the "Feast of Breaking the Fast," which generally includes collective prayers observed by the whole local Muslim community, and special acts of charity, as well as a great feast following the ritual sacrifice of a chosen animal. Today it is also often marked by special gifts or new clothing for children.

The other great feast day of the Muslim religious calendar-often simply called "the Great Feast"-is the "Feast of the Sacrifice"(Eid al-Adh,) which specifically commemorates Abraham's sacrifice and God's response. It falls on the 10th day of the Pilgrimage month, Dhul-Hijjah (March 17 in 2000), and the sacrifice of an animal offering-just as at the time of Abraham-is celebrated simultaneously by the pilgrims at Mecca and by Muslim families throughout the world, again accompanied by great feasting, public prayers, and offerings of charity. It comes at the culmination of the various rituals of the Hajj on the two preceding days, many of which are commemorations of key events involving Abraham, Hagar, Ishmael and other sacred figures at the beginning of Islam. Like the customs of Ramadan, the "Feast of the Sacrifice" was instituted by Muhammad during the last, Medinan period of his mission.

Other key religious holidays celebrated widely in the Islamic world are those which have grown up in association with key events in the life and mission of the Prophet Muhammad. The most common of these are the celebration of his birth day, the Mawlid, traditionally on the 12th of the month of Rabi al-Awwal; and the celebration of his heavenly Ascension on the 7th of Rajab.

In addition to the above holidays observed by virtually all Muslims, followers of the Imami Shiite branch of Islam-who are most numerous in Iran, Iraq, the Gulf and parts of Pakistan and the Subcontinent-also follow a number of highly distinctive rituals commemorating the martyrdom days of their Imams, which include public reenactments of those events (ta'ziyeh or "passion plays"), songs and chants of mourning, and vivid public processions. The most visible and passionate of these commemorations falls on the tenth of the month of Muharram, commemorating the martyrdom of Imam Husayn (the grandson of the Prophet) and many of his followers and family members at the battle of Kerbala.(Only coincidentally, the same date is also a happy, festive holiday in many Sunni Muslim countries, based on a custom of the Prophet which had its roots in earlier Jewish Arabian observances.)