When does Awal Muharram fall?
Muslims celebrate Awal Muharram, also known as the Hijri New Year (Islamic New Year), as the day symbolizes two significant occasions in the Islamic calendar.
Muharram, which translates to “beginning” in English, is the name of the first month in the Muslim calendar. The Hijra, the legendary journey from Mecca to Medina, started on this day, making the first of Muharram the Islamic New Year’s Day.
Islamic Calendar
Islam uses a calendar that is based on the moon’s cycles rather than the sun’s. It only lasts 354 days as a result. On the first day of Muharram, the first Islamic month, the Islamic New Year is observed.
The Islamic year advances backward by around 11 days annually as opposed to Western calendars.
Islamic New Year
The majority of Islamic nations observe this day as a public holiday. Muharram is to befall on 29-30 July worldwide marking the Islamic new year 1444.
The Hijrah, the Prophet’s travel from Mecca to Medina on the first of Muharram in 622 CE, marks the beginning of the Islamic calendar year, marking the beginning of the Muslim era.
Our Prophet Mohammed had to leave because someone wanted to kill him. As a result, the Prophet made the decision to travel to Yathrib, a village located 320 kilometers north of Mecca. In modern Saudi Arabia, Yathrib is referred to as Medina, which is Arabic for “the city.”
The Hijrah provided the Muslims at Mecca with relief from misery. Muslims in Medina were inadvertently protected from further persecution by the Meccan pagans when the Prophet moved there.
The Prophet then proclaimed in the Constitution of Medina that Muslims are a universal brotherhood with a distinct identity in faith and philosophy after the Hijrah.
Afterward, Hijrah was chosen as the starting point for the Islamic calendar by Umar ibn Al-Khattab, a close friend of the Prophet Muhammad and the second caliph, perhaps in 638 or 639 CE.
While Awal Muharram’s practices differ from place to country, they typically involve participating in a variety of religious events, spiritual singing, and religious gatherings. Shia and Sunni Muslims have different Muharram traditions and rituals.
How Islamic New Year is Determined?
The majority of Islamic institutions and nations, including Saudi Arabia[3], use astronomical calculations to predict future dates for the Islamic calendar, besides the preference of some Islamic organizations to identify the new month (and consequently the new year) by local moon sightings. There are numerous methods for computing the tabular Islamic calendar (i.e., one that is not based on observation), and as a result, countries that follow one method and others that rely on real lunar sightings have discrepancies of typically one to two days. For instance, Saudi Arabia’s Umm al-Qura calendar has undergone numerous revisions recently.
How Islamic New Year is Celebrated?
Contrary to the New Year’s celebrations associated with other calendars, the beginning of the new year is typically marked by both in a calm manner. Muslims should use this opportunity to consider their own mortality and the passage of time.
Muslims will recite verses from the Quran and hold special prayers and talks in mosques and other spaces to commemorate Muharram.
Muslims refer to the New Year as Maal Hijra.
After Ramadan, Muharram is the second-holiest month in the Islamic calendar.
For Muslims, particularly Shia Muslims, who grieve the loss of Husayn Ibn Ali al-Hussein, the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson who perished at the Battle of Karbala in 680 AD, the first 10 days of Muharram are of great significance.
Hazrat Imam Hussein passed away on the tenth day of Muharram, popularly referred to as Ashoura. Shia Muslims commemorate it in a variety of ways, including by participating in a memorial parade known as “Matam” and expressing their sorrow in public. and going to the shrine of Hazrat Hussein in Karbala, Iraq.
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