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:
“Who lives longer: the man who takes heroin for two years and dies, or the man who lives on roast beef, water and potatoes till ninety-five? One passes his twenty-four months in eternity. All the years of the beef-eater are lived only in time.”
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963)
“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)
“There’s one basic rule you should remember about development charts that will save you countless hours of worry.... The fact that a child passes through a particular developmental stage is always more important than the age of that child when he or she does it. In the long run, it really doesn’t matter whether you learn to walk at ten months or fifteen months—as long as you learn how to walk.”
—Lawrence Kutner (20th century)