Jan Feb 2010 - Ahmadiyya Gazette Canada

variable number of months in a year.
The reason for this is that a year is not
evenly divisible by an exact number
of lunations, so without the addition
of intercalary months the seasons
would drift each year. This results in a
thirteen-month year every two or three
years.
The length of a month orbit/cycle
is difficult to predict and varies
from its average value. Because
observations are subject to
uncertainty and weather
conditions, and astronomical
methods are highly complex, there
have been attempts to create fixed
arithmetical rules.
According to Encyclopedia
Britannica:
Lunar calendar is any dating
system based on a year consisting
of synodic months—i.e., complete
cycles of phases of the Moon. In
every solar year (or year of the
seasons), there are about 12.37
synodic months. Therefore, if a
lunar-year calendar is to be kept
in step with the seasonal year, a
periodic intercalation (addition) of
days is necessary.
The Sumerians were probably
the first to develop a calendar
based entirely on the recurrence
of lunar phases. Each Sumero-
Babylonian month began on the first
day of visibility of the new Moon.
Although an intercalary month was
used periodically, intercalations were
haphazard, inserted when the royal
astrologers realized that the calendar
had fallen severely out of step with
the seasons. Starting about 380 BC,
however, fixed rules regarding
intercalations were established,
providing for the distribution of seven
intercalary months at designated
intervals over 19-year periods. Greek
Hijri Shamsi Calendar
astronomers also devised rules for
intercalations to coordinate the lunar
and solar years. It is likely that the
Roman republican calendar was based
on the lunar calendar of the Greeks.
Lunar calendars remain in use among
certain religious groups today. The
Jewish calendar, which supposedly
dates from 3,760 years and three
months before the Christian era, BC, is
one example. The Jewish religious year
begins in autumn and consists of 12
months alternating between 30 and 29
days. It allows for a periodic leap year
and an intercalary month. Another
lunar calendar, the Muslim, dates from
the Hegira—July 15, ad 622, the day on
which the Prophet Muhammad sa began
his migration from Mecca to Medina. It
makes no effort to keep calendar and
seasonal years together. 2
HIJRI CALENDAR
During the caliphate of Hadhrat
Umarra, he received a draft for some
money from Yemen, in 638 AD, which
was to be cashed in Shaban. He felt that
the practice of merely mentioning the
month in such cases was defective as it
did not clarify whether it pertained to
the current year or the following year.
According to Allama Shibli Numani, in
his book Al Farooq:
Shura was invited by Hadhrat
Umar ra, all the notable
companions of the Holy Prophet
Muhammad sa participated and
this issue was discussed. Most
were of the opinion that in regards
to the calendar, the Persians should
be followed. … Then the question
arose as to when the Islamic
calendar should start? Hadhrat
Alira gave advice that it should
start from the migration of the
Holy Prophet Muhammadsa, and
companions had a consensus on
this opinion. The Prophetsa had
migrated in the month of Rabiul
Awal. Two months and 8 days of
the year had passed by then. …
So the Hijri Calendar was started
two months and 8 days before the
migration to Medina. 3
Again quoting from Encyclopedia
Britannica, as regards the Hijri
calendar:
Hijrī calendar or Islamic calendar is
a dating system used in the Muslim
world (except Turkey, which adopted
the Gregorian calendar in 1925) and
based on a year of 12 months, each
month beginning approximately at the
time of the New Moon. … The months
are alternately 30 and 29 days long
except for the 12th, Dhū al-Hijjah, the
length of which is varied in a 30-year
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