Introduction
When did Hijrah started? Was it on 1st of Muḥarram as
already known by most of Muslim all over the world nowadays? Why does the Islāmic
calendar even start from Hijrah? It is a good habit to ask and to have inquiry about matters that
related to our religion as it is one of the way to preserve the truthness of
Islām.
Everything that is related to Islām, must
come with proofs and evidences from Qur’ān and Ḥadīth. Specifically on the
matter of ʿibādat (worship).[1]
Allāḥ says,
قُلْ هَاتُوا
بُرْهَانَكُمْ إِنْ كُنْتُمْ صَادِقِينَ
“Say: "Produce
your proof if ye are truthful”[2]
In
other verses Allāh says,
قُلْ أَرَأَيْتُمْ مَا تَدْعُونَ مِنْ دُونِ اللَّهِ أَرُونِي مَاذَا
خَلَقُوا مِنَ الْأَرْضِ أَمْ لَهُمْ شِرْكٌ فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ ائْتُونِي
بِكِتَابٍ مِنْ قَبْلِ هَذَا أَوْ أَثَارَةٍ مِنْ عِلْمٍ إِنْ كُنْتُمْ صَادِقِينَ
“Say:
"Do ye see what it is ye invoke besides Allah? Show me what it is they
have created on earth, or have they a share in the heavens bring me a book
(revealed) before this, or any remnant of knowledge (ye may have), if ye are
telling the truth!”[3]
In the above verse, Allāh challenge to
unbelievers to come with evidences from acquired knowledge (al-ʿaql) and
revealed knowledge (al-naql) to proof their truthness.
Based on the Qur’ānic verses given, the Muslim
scholars of the art of debate come out with a good principle (al-qāʿidah);
إن كنت ناقلاً فالصحة، أو
مدعياً فالدليل
“If
you claim something, prove it; and if you relate something show its
authenticity.”[4]
In this short article, I will try to focus on giving some proofs
and evidences on the exact time of the beginning of Hijrī calendar.
The Calendar Before Islām
The Arabs before Islām[5]
has used different kind of calendar on that time. Some of them especially in
Arabian Peninsula use the solar calendar of Sassanid dynasty of Persia.[6] In
addition, it is narrated in al-Kāmil fī al-Tārīkh by Ibn Athīr,
People before
Islam used different significant incidents as references and counted the number
of years from it. It is reported that the sons of Ibrāhīm used to count from
the year Ibrāhīm was thrown in the fire. It remained until Ibrāhīm and Ismāʿīl built
the Kaʿbah. Then the sons of Ismāʿīl started counting from the year the Kaʿbah
was built. After years, the tribe decending from Ismāʿīl started to disperse.
Whenever one leaves they use that year as a reference, and that kept going on.
When Ka'b ibn Luay (the 7th grandfather of the Messenger of Allah) died, and he
was greatly respected among the Arabs, they started used the year of his death
as a reference, until the incident of the Elephant brought to destroy the
Ka'bah. That year of the elephant was used as a reference until Umar established
the Hijri calender system…”[7]
The Time of ʿUmar
There are different yet quite similar
stories from many transmissions (riwāyāt) on the history of the calendar
on the time of ʿUmar al-Khaṭṭāb.
It is written in al-Kāmil fī al-Tārīkh – quoted from
al-Shaʿbī- the idea of having a systematic calendar sparked when Abū Mūsā
al-Ashʿarī report to ʿUmar al-Khaṭṭāb that he
received a letter from ʿUmar al-Khaṭṭāb with no date. ʿUmar
al-Khaṭṭāb
then call his people for a meeting. Some of them suggest the year of the
appointment to Prophethood. While others suggest the year of the Prophet’s
pilgrimage. Thus, ʿUmar al-Khaṭṭāb choose the
year of the Prophet’s pilgrimage to become the year of Hijrah.[8]
When it comes to the discussion of the suitable month to be the
first month of Hijrah, the companions have different point of view. Some of the
suggestions are to follow the Persian calendar, Rome calendar, and choosing the
month of Ramaḍān to be the first month. ʿUmar al-Khaṭṭāb and
the companions agree to choose Muḥarram as the starting month based on the
suggestion by ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as narrated by Saʿid bin al-Musayyib.[9]
Ibn Kathīr has recorded the history of the Hijrah calendar in his
book, al-Bidāyah wa al-Nihāyah.
He writes,
قَامَ رَجُلٌ إِلَى عُمَرَ فَقَالَ أرخوا .فقال ما أرخوا؟ فقال شئ تفعله الاعاجمم يَكْتُبُونَ فِي
شَهْرِ كَذَا مِنْ سَنَةِ كَذَا .فَقَالَ عُمَرُ: حَسَنٌ فَأَرِّخُوا، فَقَالُوا مِنْ
أَيِّ السِّنِينَ نَبْدَأُ. فَقَالُوا
مِنْ مَبْعَثِهِ، وَقَالُوا مِنْ وَفَاتِهِ، ثُمَّ أَجْمَعُوا عَلَى الْهِجْرَةِ،
ثُمَّ قَالُوا وأي الشهور نبدأ؟ قالوا رمضان، ثم قالوا المحرم فهو مصرف[10]
النَّاسِ مِنْ حَجِّهِمْ وَهُوَ شَهْرٌ حَرَامٌ فَاجْتَمَعُوا على المحرم
“A man come to ʿUmar and said: ‘Set up a calendar!’.
ʿUmar replied to him: ‘What calendar do you mean?’. He said: ‘The thing that
has been done by the non Arabs which they write certain month and certain
year.’. Umar said: ‘Good idea.’. They asked: ‘From which year shall we begin?’
Some of them suggest from the birth of the Prophet while others suggest from
the death of the Prophet. Then, they agree together to choose the year of the
pilgrimage of the Prophet. After that, they asked: ‘Which months shall we
begin?’ Some of them suggest Ramaḍān. Afterwards, they agree to choose Muḥarram
because it is the time when people end their hajj and it is also month
of harām. Thus, all of them agree on choosing the month of Muḥarram.[11]
From the evidences stated by Ibn Atḥīr and Ibn Kathīr, it shows that
ʿUmar al-Khaṭṭāb and the companions choose Muḥarram as the starting not because
of the month of Hijrat al-Rasūl (pilgrimage of the Prophet). It is just
because they agree to choose it as the first month of the Hijrī calendar.
When Did Hijrah Begin?
According to most of the historian such as Ibn Hishām, Ibn Saʿd and Ibn
Kathīr, the Hijra occurs on month of Rabīʿ al-Awwal, not Muḥarram. The
most prominent Muslim contemporary scholar on sīrah, Shaykh Ṣafī al-Raḥmān
al-Mubarakfūrī concludes that the Prophet go to Abū Bakr’s house on the night[12]
of 28th Ṣafar in the 14th year of prophethood and ask Abū
Bakr to accompany him to migrate to Madīnah. They arrive on 12th of
Rabīʿ al-Awwal.[13]
Conclusion
In a nut shell, we know that Hijrah was not occured on Muḥarram
but Rabīʿ al-Awwal. Muḥarram is just a month choosen by ʿUmar al-Khaṭṭāb and
the companions to be the first month of Hijrī calendar because of some events
(the end of ḥajj and the month of ḥarām). Wa ‘Llāhu aʿlamu bi
al-ṣawāb.
Mahallah Zubayr al-ʿAwwam
4 November 2015 / 22 Muḥarram
1437
3.25 AM
[1] There is an
Islāmic Legal Maxim (al-qāʿidah al-fiqhiyyah) says that al-aṣl fī
al-ʿibādah al-tawaqquf (the basis in
worship is abstention only to the Qur’ān and Ḥadīth)
[2] Qur’ān, al-Baqarah:
111
[3] Qur’ān, al-Aḥqāf:
4
[4] Al-Maydānī,
ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Habannakah, Ḍawābiṭ al-Maʿrifah wa Uṣūl al-Istidlāl wa
al-Munāẓarah, (Bayrūt: Dār al-Qalam, 1975),
p. 368.
[5] To know more
about the history of Arabs, refer to History of The Arabs by P.K. Hitti,
The Venture of Islam by Marshall G. S. Hodgson, Tārīkh al-ʿArab Qabla
al-Islām by Muḥammad Suhayl Taqqūsh, Tārīkh al-ʿArab al-Qadīm wa
al-Biʿthah al-Nubuwwah by Ṣāliḥ Aḥmad al-ʿAlī and al-Mufaṣṣal fī Tārīkh
al-ʿArab Qabla al-Islām by Jawad ʿAlī.
[6] Hideyuki Ioh,
The Calendar in Pre-Islamic Mecca, Arabica, vol. 61, no.5, (2014) : 472.
[7] Ibn Atḥīr, al-Kāmil
fī al-Tārīkh, (Bayrūt: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿArabī, 1997), vol. 1, p. 13.
[8] Ibid. p. 12.
[9] Ibid. p. 13.
[12] However after
reading on some other reliable sources, I found that the exact time is on the
noon, not at night. It is stated in a long hadīth narrated by Aʿīshah
in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī no. 3905. This is also mentioned by Ṣāḥib
al-Samāḥaḥ al-Ustādh Dr. Zulkifli Mohamad al-Bakri, The Muftī of Federal
Territories in his book, Fiqh Hijrah.
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