Months
Four of the twelve Hijri months are considered sacred, although there is disagreement over the designated months, such as between proponents for the sequences {7,11,12,1} vs. {12,1,2,3}. The twelve Hijri months are named as follows in Arabic:
- Muḥarram — المحرّم, "forbidden" — so called because it was unlawful (haram) to fight during this month. Muharram is the second most sacred Muslim month and includes the Day of Ashura.
- Ṣafar — صفر, "void" — supposedly named because pagan Arabs looted during this month and left the houses empty.
- Rabīʿ I (Rabīʿ al-Awwal) — ربيع الأوّل, "the first spring".
- Rabīʿ II (Rabīʿ ath-Thānī or Rabīʿ al-Ākhir) — ربيع الثاني or ربيع الآخر, "the second (or last) spring".
- Jumādā I (Jumādā al-Ūlā) — جمادى الأولى, "the first month of parched land". Often considered the pre-Islamic "summer".
- Jumādā II (Jumādā ath-Thāniya or Jumādā al-Ākhira) — جمادى الثانية or جمادى الآخرة, "the second (or last) month of parched land".
- Rajab — رجب, "respect" or "honor". This is another sacred month in which fighting was traditionally forbidden.
- Shaʿbān — شعبان, "scattered", marking the time of year when Arab tribes dispersed to find water.
- Ramaḍān — رمضان, "scorched". Ramadan is the most venerated month of the Hijri calendar during which Muslims must fast between dawn and sunset.
- Shawwāl — شوّال, "raised", as she-camels begin to raise their tails during this time of the year, after giving birth.
- Dhū al-Qaʿda — ذو القعدة, "the one of truce". Dhu al-Qa'da was another month during which war was banned.
- Dhū al-Ḥijja — ذو الحجّة, "the one of pilgrimage", referring to the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, the Hajj.
Read more about this topic: Islamic Calendar
Famous quotes containing the word months:
“When the hounds of spring are on winter’s traces,
The mother of months in meadow or plain
Fills the shadows and windy places
With lisp of leaves and ripple of rain;”
—A.C. (Algernon Charles)
“When I think of him, and his six sons, and his son-in-law, not to enumerate the others, enlisted for this fight, proceeding coolly, reverently, humanely to work, for months if not years, sleeping and waking upon it, summering and wintering the thought, without expecting any reward but a good conscience, while almost all America stood ranked on the other side,—I say again that it affects me as a sublime spectacle.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The things men come to eat when they are alone are, I suppose, not much stranger than the men themselves.... A writer years ago told me of living for five months on hen mash.”
—M.F.K. Fisher (1908–1992)