Islamic Date Today

What is the Islamic calendar?

The Islamic calendar, also called the Hijri calendar, is a lunar calendar consisting of 12 months in a year of 354 or 355 days. It is the calendar used by the global Muslim community to determine the dates of religious observances: Ramadan, the two Eids, Hajj, and the Islamic New Year.

Because 12 lunar months are about 11 days shorter than the solar year, the Islamic months drift backward through the seasons. Ramadan, for example, moves forward on the Gregorian calendar by roughly 11 days each year.

The 12 Hijri months

Why do countries sometimes disagree by a day?

The Islamic calendar relies on the physical sighting of the new crescent moon. Because atmospheric conditions vary between locations, one country may sight the moon on a different evening than another. This is why the Hijri date in Pakistan can differ by a day from the date in Saudi Arabia, and why Ramadan sometimes appears to start on different days across the world.

Our calculator uses the tabular Islamic calendar — a purely arithmetic version that averages out to the true lunar calendar over a 30-year cycle. For most dates it matches the observational calendar within a day; for civil planning purposes it is reliable and unambiguous.

How the Hijri year began

The Hijri era begins with the Hijra, the migration of the Prophet Muhammad from Mecca to Medina in 622 CE. The first day of the first Islamic year (1 Muharram 1 AH) corresponds to 16 July 622 CE in the Julian calendar, or 19 July 622 CE in the Gregorian calendar.

Because of the steady 11-day drift, a Hijri year is shorter than a solar year. That is why the current Hijri year (1447 AH) is higher than the CE difference alone would suggest — the lunar years accumulate faster.

How the Islamic calendar works in practice

Because the Islamic calendar is lunar, religious observances rotate through the Gregorian year. A Muslim who fasted Ramadan during the long summer days of 2015 will fast the short winter days of 2028. This is not a bug — it is a deliberate feature that ensures the burden of fasting is shared equally across seasons and climates across a Muslim's lifetime.

Key observances in the Hijri calendar

• 1 Muharram — Islamic New Year. The beginning of a new Hijri year, marked quietly in most countries as a day of reflection.
• 10 Muharram — Day of Ashura. Voluntary fast commemorating Moses and the Israelites' deliverance; for Shia Muslims, a day of mourning for the martyrdom of Husayn ibn Ali at Karbala.
• 12 Rabi al-Awwal — Mawlid al-Nabi, traditional observance of the Prophet Muhammad's birth.
• 27 Rajab — Laylat al-Miraj, the Night of Ascension.
• 15 Shaban — Laylat al-Baraat, the Night of Forgiveness.
• 1 Ramadan to 29/30 Ramadan — The month of fasting, sunrise to sunset.
• 27 Ramadan (approximate) — Laylat al-Qadr, the Night of Power, considered more meritorious than a thousand months.
• 1 Shawwal — Eid al-Fitr, the festival ending Ramadan.
• 8–13 Dhu al-Hijjah — Hajj pilgrimage dates for those able to perform it.
• 10 Dhu al-Hijjah — Eid al-Adha, the festival of sacrifice.

Tabular vs observational Hijri calendars

Two variants of the Hijri calendar are in use:

• Tabular (arithmetic) calendar — uses a fixed 30-year cycle with 11 leap years (day 30 in Dhu al-Hijjah). Years containing the number-patterns 2, 5, 7, 10, 13, 16, 18, 21, 24, 26, 29 within a 30-year cycle are leap. This is what our calculator uses. It's consistent, predictable, and off from true lunar observations by at most one day.
• Observational calendar — each month begins only when the new crescent moon is visibly sighted. This gives religious authority but introduces regional variation and uncertainty. Saudi Arabia's Umm al-Qura calendar is a hybrid, using calculation plus observation from Mecca.

For civil planning — invoices, contracts, academic calendars — the tabular version is always preferred.