Islamic Lunar Calendar

(1) Ummul-Qura Calendar (of Saudi Arabia)

This calendar is based on the criteria that the new month begins, if (1) Moon is born before Makkah sunset, and (2) moon sets in Makkah after sunset. This has been accepted by Fiqh Council of North America (FCNA), Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), and European Council for Fatwa & Research(ECFR). Read more about Ummul-Qura Calendar.

Click on any year to see this calendar 2007 2008 2009 2010

However, this Ummul-Qura Calendar has no consideration of sightability in Makkah or anywhere in the world. If we apply Ummul-Qura calendar as a Unified global calendar with sighatbility considerations, it will go against sighting of the moon somewhere on earth, when in some month the moon will be visible in some part of the world and month in this calendar does not start on the following day, e.g., Ramadan 1430 moon will be sightable on August 20, 2009 in Polynesian Islands, and 1st day of Ramadan should be August 21, 2009, but the Ummul-Qura Calendar shows it as August 22, 2009. Similar thing will happen in Dhul-Qi'dah 1430 when moon can be easily seen in Polynesiam Island on October 18, 2009, and Ummul-Qura Calendar shows 1st Dhul-Qi'dah on August 22, 2009. Click on the map on left. This happens because the moon sometimes is in the Southern hemisphere and not above the horizon of Makkah, but it can be seen in Southern hemisphere.
For this reason, Moonsighting.com is presenting a Suggested Global Lunar Calendar, which is based on Imkan-e-Ru'yah (sighting possibility) somewhere in the world, as follows:

(2) Suggested Global Lunar Calendar (If Ulamaa' want to consider)

A suggested Global Lunar Calendar based on Imkan-e-Ru'yah (sighting possibility) somewhere in the world is that if the moon is born before 12:00 UT [23:59 or less of the previous day at International Date Line (IDL)], then the month begins at sunset of that day everywhere in the world. If the moon is born after 12:00 UT, then the month begins on the next day's sunset everywhere. IDL has been universally accepted even by Muslims as the beginning of every day of the week. All Muslims pray Friday prayers on the same day starting at IDL. Global Lunar Calendar should also follow the same convention of the day, so that the whole world can start Ramadan or Eid on the same day.

The moon born before 12:00 UT has Imkaan-e-Ru'yah somewhere on earth, and the moon is born before the day begins at IDL, so the whole world can start the month on the same day. This suggested Global Lunar Calendar is so easy to calculate for any ordinary Muslsim that no expertise of astronomy or science is required. All that is needed is Conjunction time which is easily available from many sources on the Internet. This suggested Global Calendar was also discussed at Morocco Conference, November 2006 attended by representatives from various Islamic countries.

(3) No calendar can be prepared if we wait for sighting

For those who want to wait for actual sighting, no pre-calculated calendar can be accurate. The reason is:

No matter how accurate, we can calculate moonsighting, the actual dates sometimes are delayed by one day from the calculated dates, because of cloud covering a large area of the country where visibility would have been possible. On the other hand, in some cases, sighting by experienced observers can make the date earlier by one day than the calculated dates, which are calculated based on ordinary observers.

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