There are certain quarters among our people who are perplexed as to why the celebration of new Islamic Year Calendar of Hijrah is to begin with the month of Muharram when the Prophet himself (may peace be upon him) was historically reported had not begun his emigration from Mecca to Madina in the month of Muharram. To begin with, there are two main issues that we need to address here. Firstly, on the creation of the “year” in the Islamic-Arab tradition and secondly on choosing which month is to be the first month of the new year. One of the simplest answer given by some scholars is that the year Hijrah or Hijriyyah was chosen out of the spirit of emigration of the Prophet and his companions from Mecca to Madina, while the month Muharram – though not the actual month of the Prophet’s emigration – yet, is the first month in the order of months according to calendar of the Arabs.
During the early days of Islam, there was no Islamic calendar as we have today since the Arabs then were not used to having a calendar which combined “years” as well. What they used to have was a calendar based merely on months with no corresponding year attached to the months. The months like Muharram, Safar, Rabiul Awwal and so on and so forth were already there during those days, but they were no year attached to the respective months. There was an incident when Saidina Abu Hurayrah RA wrote a letter to the Caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab and stated: “occurred in the month of Rajab”. Then it was replied to him: “in which Rajab, last year or the year before? Because of the confusion arose, it had incidentally sparked the idea that Muslims should by then come up with their own “year calendar” not just following the traditional Arabs’ “month calendar” which only counted months but not years. There was another incident reported that when the Prophet’s companion by the name of Abu Musa Al-Ash’ari replied a letter to the Caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab RA, he wrote: “the undated parcel which you sent has arrived”. The feeling for the need of a proper calendar which included year was further intensified.
Caliph Umar then gathered some of his companions to deliberate the idea further. Some companions proposed to adopt the Roman calendar, others said the Persian calendar. Some proposed to start with the Prophet’s birth year, but Umar disagreed saying that during the time the Prophet was born, the Jahiliyyah and idolatry practices were at their peak. Furthermore, there was nothing significant about Islam or Muslim yet at that time; and there was another proposal to begin the year with the year of Isra and Mikraj of the Prophet; others suggested it to begin with the year of first verse of al-Qur’an revealed to the Prophet (pbuh). But finally, the Caliph decided the Muslims’ calendar should begin with the year of the Prophet’s migration from Mecca to Madinah because that year had a significant impact on the Muslims and Islam. It was the year when the Muslim began to have their own nation, their own leader and government, with their own rules and system. Hijrah, according to Umar, “is the turning event that differentiates between truth and falsehood, and therefore our calendar should begin with the year of Hijrah of the Prophet (pbuh)”.
The second question was, which month should be chosen as the first month of the Islamic Calendar just created? It was known that the Prophet (pbuh) had not started his migration in the month of Muharram, nor had he arrived in Madinah in the month of Muharram. Historically, it was reported that his migration began some time in Safar with his visit to the house of his closest companion Saidina Abu Bakar RA for some discussions and preparation, and the climax was his arrival in Madinah which happened some time in Rabiul Awwal.
Though the true months of the Prophet migration were in months of Safar and Rabiul Awwal and nothing to do with the month of Muharram, yet Caliph Umar felt that Muharram was the best month to be the first month in the new Islamic Hijrah Calendar for several reasons: Firstly, he observed Muharram is the month that succeeded the month of Zulhijjah—the month of Hajj, where pilgrimages had just returned home after spending their time performing Hajj in Mecca. It was the month where the pilgrimages devoted their time with Allah, asked His forgiveness and repentance. It was the month where Allah categorically mentioned, as reported from the Prophet himself, who said: “Whoever performed hajj in House of Allah (Baitullah) for the sake of Allah, and does not utter any obscene speech nor any evil deed, he will go back (free of sin) as his mother bore him” (Narrated by al-Bukhari and Muslim). Then Umar thought that since the month of Zulhijjah was the month where if Hajj was accepted by Allah, Muslims would be in a state of pure from sins, it would wise if the month succeeded Zulhijjah (which is Muharram, coincidentally), be the first month to start a new life, or turn a new leaf, as it were, with new resolution and new aspiration which is, in order to be a good and better Muslim. Hence the month of Muharram was chosen.
One of the pious forefathers (Salafus Soleh) by the name of Abu Uthman al-Nahdi or popularly known as Abu Uthman al-Hindi (w.95AH/ 714CE) glorified and encouraged others to glorify the first 10 days of Muharram, and the first 10 days of Zulhijjah and of course, the last 10 days of Ramadan through various acts of obedience from dhikr, salawat, istighfar and others because these ten days are made special by Allah with immense rewards and benefits.
