![]() ![]() It acted as a divine system of checks and balances, as the moon cannot be hidden from the masses, it is observed by all, and it prevents those in power from exploiting and monopolizing the calendar. With Banū Kinānah holding a tight grasp over the calendar, the Islamic ruling of moon sighting redistributed the responsibility to the masses. While there is certainly merit in discussing the juristic details of moon sighting and its proper implementation, this can at times overshadow the greater wisdom of establishing justice. In the wake of this unstable political scene, Islam institutionalized systems of justice. One of these institutions involved computing the months through the sighting of the moon. The emphasis in today’s Muslim communities over the method of moon sighting versus calculation has been debated ad nauseam and to some degree reduced certain months such as Ramaḍān to a cause célèbre. ʿUmar asked: Is this the Shaʿbān of last year or this coming year? Then he said to the companions: Let us determine an epoch for the people to use. 117 AH) narrates: A legal document for a deed was delivered to ʿUmar which had the month of Shaʿbān written on it. In his historical chronicle, Tārīkh al-Rusūl wa-al-Mulūk, Ṭabarī (d. While the months and days of the calendar were well established, the companions still faced challenges in chronicling events on a yearly basis as it was unknown which year they were referring to when deeds and documents arrived with no complete date. As the Islamic empire grew, legal rulings, deeds, and other important documents depended heavily on dates as a means of communication and preserving order. ![]() The importance of the Islamic calendar was inculcated in the Prophet’s companions, who strongly adhered to the order and number of months, and would implement it in a more formal manner after the passing of the Prophet ﷺ. The third important characteristic of the Islamic calendar is that it marks the establishment of the Islamic era. ![]()
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