Islamic Date Today

The Islamic (Hijri) date, explained

The Hijri calendar is a purely lunar calendar of twelve months and 354 or 355 days. Unlike the Gregorian calendar, which is tied to the sun and the seasons, the Islamic calendar follows the phases of the moon: each month begins with the appearance of the new crescent and lasts either 29 or 30 days, the time it takes the moon to complete one cycle. This is why the Hijri year is about eleven days shorter than the Gregorian year, and why the Islamic date today does not line up with a fixed Gregorian date from one year to the next.

A crucial difference from the Western calendar is when the day starts. In the Islamic reckoning a new date begins at Maghrib, the moment of sunset, not at midnight. This means the Hijri date shown on this page advances in the evening: the daylight hours you are living through belong to one Islamic date, and once the sun sets the date rolls over to the next. It is the reason the night is named before the day it precedes — for example, "the night of the 27th" of Ramadan falls on the evening that leads into the daytime of the 27th. If you are checking today's Islamic date for a fast, a night of worship, or an event, keep this sunset boundary in mind.

Umm al-Qura versus local moon-sighting

There are two broad ways the beginning of each Hijri month is decided, and they do not always agree. The first is calculation: astronomers work out in advance when the new moon is born and when the crescent should first become visible. Saudi Arabia's Umm al-Qura calendar — the system this page uses — is the best-known calculated calendar and is used for civil and administrative purposes across much of the world. The second method is physical moon-sighting, where trained observers or a national committee look for the crescent with the naked eye or through instruments and announce the new month only once it has actually been seen.

Because a crescent that is calculated to be technically "born" may still be too thin or too low on the horizon to be seen, sighting-based countries sometimes begin a month a day later than the calculated calendar, and occasionally two days later where weather or geography intervene. Communities in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and parts of the United Kingdom often rely on local or regional sighting, which is why their Ramadan and Eid can fall a day apart from Saudi Arabia's. The dates on this site are the calculated Umm al-Qura dates, offered as a reliable planning reference; for the precise start of Ramadan, the two Eids, and other religious observances, always confirm with your local mosque or national moon-sighting authority.

What "AH" means and where the calendar begins

Islamic years are counted in AH, short for the Latin Anno Hegirae — "in the year of the Hijra." The starting point is not a birth or a battle but a migration: in 622 CE the Prophet Muhammad and his companions left Mecca for the city of Medina, an event known as the Hijra that marked the founding of the first Muslim community. The second Caliph, Umar ibn al-Khattab, later established this migration as year one of the calendar. So when this page shows a year such as 1448 AH, it is counting the lunar years that have elapsed since that journey. Because lunar years are shorter, the AH count gains on the Gregorian count over time, and the two calendars will eventually converge many centuries from now.

How to read and convert an Islamic date

Reading a Hijri date works just like a Gregorian one — a day number, a month name and a year — but with the twelve lunar month names in place of January through December. To move between the two calendars, use the converter above: enter any Gregorian date to see its Hijri equivalent, or type a Hijri day, month and year to find the matching Gregorian date. A useful rule of thumb for rough mental conversion is that a Hijri year is about 3% shorter than a Gregorian one, so the gap between them widens by roughly one year every 33 years; but for anything that matters, use the exact converter rather than an estimate, because the ±1-day sighting variation and the uneven 29- or 30-day months make hand calculation unreliable.

Everyday uses of the Hijri date

Knowing today's Islamic date is not only for festivals. It anchors a rhythm of recommended acts throughout the month and week:

• The white days (Ayyam al-Beed): voluntary fasting on the 13th, 14th and 15th of every Hijri month, when the moon is full and bright — which you can only track if you know the lunar date.
• Mondays and Thursdays: days on which voluntary fasting is encouraged, independent of the lunar date but often planned alongside it.
• Ashura and Arafah: single recommended fast days on the 10th of Muharram and the 9th of Dhu al-Hijjah, both fixed by the Hijri date.
• Zakat and financial planning: the annual almsgiving is calculated on a lunar year, so many people track the Hijri date to know when their Zakat becomes due.
• Personal and family occasions: naming ceremonies (aqiqah), the recording of births and deaths, and religious anniversaries are frequently kept by the Hijri date.

The twelve Islamic months

The lunar year runs through the same twelve months in the same order every year. Four of them — Muharram, Rajab, Dhu al-Qadah and Dhu al-Hijjah — are designated sacred months in which conflict was traditionally forbidden. Here is each month with what it is known for:

All month notes describe well-established features of the Islamic calendar; specific dates for the current and coming years are listed on the Islamic calendar page. Dates use the calculated Umm al-Qura calendar. The Islamic month begins at the sighting of the new moon, so the actual date in your country may differ by a day (occasionally two). Confirm Eid and Ramadan with your local moon-sighting authority.