The Qur'an's Original Calendar

The Core Verses on Time-Reckoning

The System Established

36:39-40 - About the moon:

"And the moon - We have determined for it phases/stations (manāzil) until it returns like the old/curved date stalk. The sun is not to overtake the moon, nor the night outstrip the day. Each in an orbit they swim/float."

The moon has manāzil (stations/phases) - a clear measurement system visible to all.

10:5 - The purpose of sun and moon:

"He is the one who made the sun a radiance (ḍiyā') and the moon a light (nūr), and determined for it phases/stations (manāzil) so that you may know the number of years and the reckoning (ḥisāb). Allah did not create this except in truth. He details the signs for people who know."

Key point: Both sun AND moon are for knowing:

• 'adad al-sinīn (number of years)

• al-ḥisāb (the reckoning/calculation)

Not just the moon alone. Both luminaries together.

2:189 - On the crescent/new moons:

"They ask you about the new moons (al-ahilla, plural of hilāl). Say: They are appointed times (mawāqīt) for people and the ḥajj."

The crescent moons are mawāqīt - appointed times, markers. They serve people generally and the specific observance called ḥajj.

The Count Structure

9:36 - The foundational statement:

"Indeed, the count of months with Allah is twelve months in the register/decree (kitāb) of Allah from the day He created the heavens and the earth. Of them, four are sacred. That is the upright/established Deen. So do not wrong yourselves during them..."

Twelve months. Four sacred. This is described as al-dīn al-qayyim (the upright/established system).

But notice what's NOT specified: Whether these are purely lunar, purely solar, or a coordinated system.

What the Evidence Shows

1. The Moon Provides Visible Markers

The phases are obvious to everyone. No calculation needed for basic observation. The crescents (ahilla) mark beginnings - they are mawāqīt (appointed times).

2. The Sun AND Moon Together Provide the Full System

10:5 is explicit: "so that you may know the number of years and the reckoning"

If only the moon were meant for the calendar, why mention the sun's role in this verse about time-reckoning?

Pure lunar months drift through the solar year. After ~33 lunar years, you've experienced only ~32 solar years. You cannot reliably know "the number of years" with lunar months alone if years are defined by solar cycles (seasons, agriculture, natural patterns).

3. Month Names Indicate Seasons

The Quran itself uses month names that reference seasonal phenomena:

Ramadan - From root r-m-ḍ. Let's see how the Quran uses this root:

• 5:89 uses "ramād" in context of intense heat/ashes

• The root consistently relates to intensity, scorching, burning

If Ramadan means "the scorching heat month" or "the intense heat," this is a seasonal designation.

The first Hijri calendar, established in 638CE used the month names corresponding with seasons in the year the Hijrah took place (622CE)

• Ar-Rabi' (The Spring): This corresponds to the months Rabi' al-Awwal and Rabi' al-Thani. In the 7th-century Arabian Peninsula, this was the time of grazing and mild weather. Rain during this period was essential for the growth of desert grasses.

• Ash-Shita' (The Winter): This corresponds to Jumada al-Awwal and Jumada al-Thani (the word Jumada relates to "freezing" or "parched/dry land"). While it rarely snowed, the desert nights in winter were—and still are—notoriously biting and cold.

But on a pure lunar calendar, Ramadan rotates through all seasons every 33 years. It would be in winter, spring, summer, fall cyclically. A month named "scorching heat" that occurs in winter is contradictory.

This strongly suggests the month names reference fixed seasonal positions.

4. The Quran Does NOT Prohibit Intercalation

9:36-37 - The controversial verses:

"Indeed, the count of months with Allah is twelve months in the register of Allah from the day He created the heavens and the earth. Of them, four are sacred. That is the upright Deen. So do not wrong yourselves during them...

Indeed, the nasī' is an increase in rejection/concealment (kufr). Those who reject are led astray by it - they make it permissible one year and make it forbidden another year, to match the count that Allah has made sacred, so they make permissible what Allah has forbidden..."

nasī' - from root n-s-'. Let's check Quranic usage:

• 2:106: "Whatever sign We nansakh or nunsi'hā..." (abrogate or cause to be forgotten)

• 87:6-7: "We will make you recite, so you will not forget, except what Allah wills. Indeed He knows what is declared and what is concealed."

The root relates to forgetting, postponing, deferring, causing to be absent/forgotten.

What the verse is condemning:

• Making sacred months profane and profane months sacred

• Manipulating which specific months are sacred to suit themselves

• "They make it permissible one year and forbidden another year"

This is about manipulating the sacred month designation, not about the mathematical correction needed to keep a lunar calendar aligned with solar seasons.

Intercalation (adding a 13th month periodically) is a mathematical necessity for a lunisolar calendar - it keeps month names in their seasons. The Arabs were using intercalation before Islam, but they were also manipulating WHICH months were sacred to avoid economic disruption.

The Quran condemns the manipulation (the nasī' - the making absent of sanctity), not the mathematical correction (intercalation itself).

The Pattern That Emerges

A Lunisolar System

The evidence points to:

1. Lunar months - visible, marked by crescents (hilāl), obvious to all (2:189)

2. Solar year - the agricultural/seasonal cycle, necessary for "knowing the number of years" (10:5)

3. Twelve months normally - the established count (9:36)

4. Periodic adjustment - to keep the lunar months aligned with the solar year (not condemned in 9:36-37)

5. Four sacred months - fixed in the seasonal calendar, not rotating (9:36)

6. Month names referencing seasons - like Ramadan (scorching heat)

This is precisely what a lunisolar calendar is: lunar months kept in sync with the solar year through periodic intercalation.

What Happened Historically?

After the Messenger died, the community adopted a purely lunar calendar with no intercalation. This was a human decision, attributed to the second caliph's interpretation of 9:36-37.

The result:

• Ramadan (scorching heat month) now occurs in winter

• The four sacred months rotate through all seasons

• Month names became disconnected from their seasonal meanings

• The calendar system became uniquely lunar, unlike any other sustained civilization's calendar

But the Quran itself:

• Never prohibits intercalation

• Describes both sun and moon as necessary for reckoning

• Uses seasonal month names

• Only condemns manipulation of sacred month designations

Summary

The Quran does not explicitly prescribe "solar," "lunar," or "lunisolar."

But the evidence strongly indicates a lunisolar system:

• Moon for visible monthly markers (all verses about hilāl, ahilla, manāzil)

• Sun AND moon together for knowing years and reckoning (10:5)

• Twelve months as the standard (9:36)

• Seasonal month names (Ramadan = scorching heat)

• No prohibition of mathematical correction to maintain seasonal alignment

• Only the prohibition of manipulating which months are sacred

The purely lunar calendar practised today is a post-Quranic human decision, not a Quranic mandate.

The Quran's calendar system appears designed to be:

• Observable (lunar phases visible to all)

• Predictable (solar year regularity)

• Universal (applicable anywhere with seasons)

• Practical (aligned with natural cycles for agriculture, trade, life planning)

This is guidance for living in conscious alignment with natural reality (Deen), not establishing a unique religious calendar identity that separates one community from others (religion).

Conclusion

The Quran establishes a calendar system using both sun and moon for time-reckoning (10:5), with twelve months including four sacred ones (9:36), and month names indicating seasonal positions like Ramadan (scorching heat). The verses in 9:36-37 condemn manipulating which months are sacred, not the mathematical intercalation needed to keep lunar months aligned with solar seasons.

However, after the Messenger's death, the community adopted a purely lunar calendar with no intercalation - a human interpretation that makes Ramadan rotate through all seasons, disconnects month names from their meanings, and creates a uniquely "Islamic" religious identity marker separate from natural cycles.

This decision transformed what the Quran describes as universal time-reckoning aligned with reality (Deen) into a religious calendar system that separates one community from others (religion), requiring parallel solar calendars for actual agricultural and civil life while the religious calendar serves primarily as an identity marker.

The "Hijri calendar" as practised today - purely lunar, rotating through seasons - is:

• A post-Quranic human decision

• Not mandated by the Quran itself

• Based on one interpretation of 9:36-37

• Creates religious identity separation

• Disconnects from natural reality

• Requires a parallel solar calendar for practical life

The Quran's own evidence points to:

• A lunisolar system

• Observable and calculable by all

• Aligned with natural seasons

• Practical for daily life

• Universal rather than separatist

This is another example of religion (identity system with unique markers) being built on top of the Quran's Deen (guidance for living in alignment with reality).

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Appendices

Appendix I: The Prophet's Calendar

The scholarly consensus:

Medieval Muslim scholars like Abu Ma'shar al-Balkhi, al-Biruni, and al-Mas'udi documented that the pre-Islamic Arabs used a lunisolar calendar with intercalation borrowed from Jewish practices approximately 200 years before Islam. Some scholars argue the Quraysh had adopted the Jewish calendar structure, giving Arabian names to Hebrew months.

The key evidence:

1. Until year 10 AH (631-632 CE), the Arabian lunar year in Mecca was kept aligned with seasons by adding an intercalary month every two or three years

2. The intercalary month (al-Adhil) was typically added after Dhu al-Hijjah, managed by the nasa' of the Kinanah tribe

3. During the Farewell Pilgrimage (9 Dhu al-Hijjah 10 AH), the Prophet stated "time has completed its cycle as it was on the day Allah created the heavens and the earth," which scholars interpret as referring to calendrical alignment between the Jewish and Islamic calendars at that moment

4. Historical reports indicate extreme heat during the Ghadir Khumm event, consistent with summer timing in the lunisolar calendar but not with its later date conversion in the purely lunar calendar

   
   

The transition:

The prohibition of nasi' (intercalation) came at the very end of the Prophet's life during the Farewell Pilgrimage in year 10 AH. The shift to a purely lunar calendar was implemented by Caliph Umar around 638 CE, years after the Prophet's death.

Appendix II: Development of the Hijri Calendar

What the Quran Establishes

As we just investigated:

• The calendar system uses both sun and moon for reckoning (10:5)

• Twelve months is the standard (9:36)

• Month names indicate seasonal positions (Ramadan = scorching heat)

• The condemnation in 9:36-37 is about manipulating sacred month designations, not about intercalation itself

• The system should keep months aligned with their seasonal meanings

The Question

So how did the Muslim community end up with a purely lunar calendar where:

• Months rotate through all seasons

• Ramadan occurs in winter, spring, summer, and fall on a 33-year cycle

• Month names have no connection to their apparent seasonal meanings

• The calendar is disconnected from solar/agricultural cycles

The Logical Reconstruction

Before the Purely Lunar Decision

The Arabic-speaking peoples of the peninsula were already using a lunisolar calendar before the Quranic revelation:

• They observed lunar months (visible crescents)

• They intercalated periodically to keep months seasonal

• This is why month names reference seasons

• This is the system the Quran's verses naturally describe

The problem the Quran addresses (9:36-37) was:

• Manipulation of which months were sacred

• Moving the sacred status around to avoid economic inconvenience

• "They make it permissible one year and forbidden another"

This is nasī' - making the sacred designation "absent" from its proper month and placing it elsewhere.

Historical Records

The Hijri calendar's development occurred in stages:

During the Prophet's lifetime (610-632 CE):

• Arabs used a lunisolar calendar with intercalation (adding periodic months to realign with seasons)

• Month names reflected seasonal meanings (Ramadan = hot period, Rabi' = spring)

• The community continued existing timekeeping practices

The pivotal decision (circa 638 CE under Caliph Umar): When the need arose to standardize dating for administrative purposes, Umar convened a council. They decided:

• Starting point: Year of the Hijra (migration to Medina, 622 CE) rather than the Prophet's birth or death

• Calendar type: Pure lunar with NO intercalation - 12 months of 29-30 days (354-355 days/year)

• Rationale: Based on interpreting 9:36-37 as prohibiting any calendar adjustment, not just manipulation of which months were sacred

The practical result:

• A 354-day year that's 11 days shorter than the solar year

• Ramadan and other months rotate backward through all seasons (completing a full cycle every 33 years)

• Month names became disconnected from their original seasonal meanings

• Muslims needed to maintain parallel solar calendars for agriculture, trade, and seasons

This interpretation was a human administrative choice, not explicitly commanded in the Quran - a standardization decision that prioritized religious distinctiveness over the astronomical alignment the Quran itself describes as the purpose of celestial time-reckoning.

What This Reveals

The Irony

The community adopted a calendar system that:

• Makes Ramadan (scorching heat) occur in winter

• Disconnects the calendar from the natural world

• Creates a uniquely religious identity marker - no other major civilization uses purely lunar civil calendar

• Makes the calendar less practical for daily life (agriculture, trade, planning)

• Requires a parallel solar calendar for actual agricultural and civil purposes

This is precisely what creates "religion" (a separate identity system) rather than Deen (living in alignment with reality).

The Pattern

This follows the same pattern we see elsewhere:

1. Quran gives guidance aligned with natural reality

2. Community interprets it as ritual requirement or religious identity marker

3. Result creates division and separation from others

4. Practical problems arise requiring workarounds

Just like:

• Salat (connection/consciousness) → ritual prayer positions

• Siyam (restraint during intensity) → ritual fasting in a rotating month

• Hajj (purposeful pursuit) → once-in-lifetime pilgrimage to specific location

• Riba (prohibition of oppressive usury) → interest in borrowing

• Calendar (natural time-reckoning) → religious identity calendar

What Was Gained

A calendar that:

• Marks the community as distinctly "Islamic"

• Requires religious knowledge to navigate

• Creates dependency on authorities for dates

• Separates religious time from practical time

• Makes the religion appear separate from natural living

What Was Lost

A calendar system that:

• Everyone could observe (lunar phases)

• Everyone could calculate (solar year)

• Kept months in their natural seasons

• Worked for agriculture, trade, and civil life

• Didn't separate one community from humanity

• Reflected reality (natural cycles) not identity (religious distinction)

The Core Issue

The Quran never mandates abandoning intercalation.

The decision to adopt a purely lunar calendar was:

• A human interpretation of 9:36-37

• Made after the Messenger's death

• A choice about how to implement the guidance

• Based on reading prohibition into verses that prohibit manipulation of sacred months

But this choice:

• Contradicts the month names' seasonal meanings

• Makes "both sun and moon for reckoning" (10:5) harder to apply

• Creates practical problems requiring parallel solar calendars

• Establishes religious separation rather than natural alignment

What the Quran Actually Points To

If we read 9:36-37 carefully:

• Don't manipulate which months are sacred

• Keep the four sacred months in their proper positions

• Maintain the twelve-month system

• Use both sun and moon for time-reckoning (10:5)

This describes a lunisolar system with fixed sacred months in fixed seasons.

The purely lunar calendar makes the sacred months rotate through all seasons, which seems to contradict the very point of having designated sacred months at fixed times in the natural cycle.

Appendix III: A Damning Clue

When the Hijrah calendar was established in 638 CE, the concept of seasons was deeply rooted in the Arabic language and culture, even though the calendar itself was being detached from them.

Here is what the seasons were like in the Hejaz region (Mecca and Medina) during that time:

1. The Four Traditional Seasons

The names of the months in the Hijri calendar actually serve as a "fossilized" record of the seasons as they existed when the names were first coined:

• Ar-Rabi' (The Spring): This corresponds to the months Rabi' al-Awwal and Rabi' al-Thani. In the 7th-century Arabian Peninsula, this was the time of grazing and mild weather. Rain during this period was essential for the growth of desert grasses.

• Al-Qayz (The Scorching Summer): This corresponds to Ramadan (which literally means "parched thirst" or "scorching heat") and Shawwal. In Medina, temperatures would soar, and the community relied on the deep wells and oases to sustain their date palm groves.

• Al-Kharif (The Autumn/Harvest): The time when dates were harvested. This was a critical economic period for the people of Medina, who lived in a fertile oasis.

• Ash-Shita' (The Winter): This corresponds to Jumada al-Awwal and Jumada al-Thani (the word Jumada relates to "freezing" or "parched/dry land"). While it rarely snowed, the desert nights in winter were—and still are—notoriously biting and cold.

Appendix IV: Calendar used by Muslim Astronomers

Muslim astronomers worked with multiple calendar systems simultaneously:

For astronomical calculations and scientific work: Islamic astronomers like al-Khwarizmi and al-Biruni used lunisolar calendars and solar calendars in their work, including Persian, Greek (Seleucid), and other systems. Al-Biruni even invented a mechanical device called the "Box of the Moon" that functioned as a lunisolar calendar using gears.

For civil and practical purposes: Omar Khayyam and collaborators created the Persian Solar Calendar (Jalali calendar) at the Isfahan observatory, which is still used today in Iran and Afghanistan. Al-Biruni's comprehensive work "The Chronology of Ancient Nations" studied and compared calendars of Persians, Greeks, Jews, Arabs, and other, and he developed methods to convert between Hindu, Greek, Arab/Muslim, and Persian calendars.

The paradox: While religious observance shifted to a purely lunar calendar after 638 CE, Muslim astronomers continued to work extensively with solar and lunisolar systems because:

1. Astronomical phenomena follow solar-lunar relationships

2. Agricultural planning required solar alignment

3. International trade and communication needed calendar conversion

4. Scientific accuracy demanded recognition of both cycles

The scholars who advanced the science of timekeeping were simultaneously maintaining the purely lunar religious calendar while conducting their actual scientific work with the more astronomically accurate lunisolar and solar systems their predecessors had used.

Appendix V: Is associating a man-made calendar with God shirk?

What Happened

1. The Quran describes a calendar using sun and moon, with seasonal month names

2. The Quran condemns manipulating which months are sacred (9:36-37)

3. Humans interpreted this as prohibiting intercalation entirely

4. A purely lunar calendar was adopted as community practice

5. This calendar is now presented as "the Islamic calendar" - implying divine mandate

6. People are told this is what Allah commanded

7. Alternative calendar systems are seen as rejecting Islamic practice

The Critical Questions

Is the purely lunar calendar attributed to Allah's command?

• If people claim "Allah commanded us to use a purely lunar calendar"

• But the Quran does not actually command this

• Then they are attributing to Allah what He did not say

Has this human decision become legislation in the Deen?

• If the calendar choice is treated as binding religious law

• If questioning it is seen as religious deviation

• If it's enforced as part of submission to Allah

• But it's actually a human interpretation

• Then humans have legislated in the Deen what Allah did not permit (42:21)

Are religious authorities made into lords in this matter?

• If scholars' interpretation becomes unchallengeable

• If their decision is treated as equivalent to divine command

• If people follow them without referring back to what Allah actually said

• Then they are functioning as arbāb (lords) besides Allah (9:31)

The Distinction

There's a difference between:

Not shirk:

• "We interpret 9:36-37 as prohibiting intercalation, so we choose a lunar calendar"

• "This is our community's practice based on our understanding"

• "Others may interpret differently; let's examine the Quran together"

Potentially shirk:

• "Allah commanded the purely lunar calendar" (when the Quran doesn't)

• "Questioning this calendar is questioning Islam itself"

• "The scholars decided this, so it's divine law now"

• "This is THE Islamic calendar that Allah mandated"

The Broader Pattern

This is the pattern the Quran repeatedly warns against:

5:87:

"O you who believe, do not make forbidden the good things Allah has made permissible for you, and do not transgress. Indeed, Allah does not love transgressors."

Making things forbidden that Allah didn't forbid = transgression.

6:148:

"Those who associated will say: 'If Allah had willed, we would not have associated, nor our fathers, nor would we have forbidden anything.' Likewise those before them denied until they tasted Our punishment..."

Attributing prohibitions to Allah that He didn't make = association/shirk.

7:28:

"And when they commit an immorality, they say: 'We found our fathers doing it, and Allah has commanded us to do it.' Say: 'Indeed, Allah does not command immorality. Do you say about Allah what you do not know?'"

Claiming "Allah commanded this" based on tradition, not revelation = speaking about Allah without knowledge.

Conclusion

Yes, if:

• The purely lunar calendar is attributed to Allah's command

• When the Quran does not actually command it

• And this human interpretation becomes binding religious law

• And questioning it is treated as rejecting divine guidance

• And people follow scholarly authority on this without examining the Quran

Then this fits the Quranic definition of shirk because:

1. It attributes to Allah legislation He didn't make (42:21)

2. It makes human interpretation into divine command (9:31)

3. It creates religious law from what Allah did not permit in the Deen (42:21)

4. It follows authorities as lords whose word becomes equivalent to revelation (9:31)

The Core Issue

The Quran is being overruled by human interpretation.

When someone says "the Islamic calendar is lunar because that's what Islam requires," they are:

• Claiming divine mandate for a human decision

• Contradicting the Quran's own evidence (sun AND moon for reckoning, seasonal month names)

• Making their interpretation equal to revelation

• Creating religious identity (what makes us "Islamic") from human choice

This is precisely what shirk is: making partners with Allah in guidance and legislation.

The Solution

Return to what the Quran actually says:

• Use both sun and moon for time-reckoning (10:5)

• Maintain twelve months with four sacred (9:36)

• Don't manipulate which months are sacred (9:37)

• Keep month names meaningful (Ramadan in scorching heat season)

• Let people choose calendar systems that work practically

• Don't claim divine mandate for human interpretations

Acknowledge openly:

• "The purely lunar calendar is our historical community choice"

• "It's based on one interpretation of 9:36-37"

• "The Quran's text itself suggests a lunisolar system"

• "This is a matter where humans decided, not where Allah clearly commanded"

That would be honest and avoid shirk.

But claiming "Allah commanded the lunar calendar" when He didn't = shirk.

So yes - associating a man-made calendar system with God's command, when God did not command it, amounts to shirk according to the Quran's own definition: making partners with Allah in legislation and guidance.