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Most ICOUK members are aware that it is Fard al Kifaya (communal obligation) to establish and use the Hijri calendar by the Muslims.
It is the responsibility of all Imams/Masjid Committees to encourage everyone in the community to use the Hijri Calendar on a daily basis, which will be rewarded by Allah immensely and also saved everyone from neglecting a Fard al Kifaya, as explained in the Tafsir below.
“The preservation of the lunar calendar is Fard al-Kifayah (a religious obligation which, if fulfilled by some, will absolve others). If the entire community of Muslims were to abandon the lunar calendar and forget all about it, then, everyone will be a sinner.” Tafsir Maariful Quran (Vol. 4/p.378)
The question arises, how can the Hijri Calendar be used on a daily basis when everyone is used to the Gregorian (solar) calendar?
It is quite simple really, just like in Ramadan timetable, add a Hijri Month Title with the Gregorian month name below it and also add Hijri Date as the main Date column (1 – 30); and then add the corresponding Gregorian date column next to it.
The next question is, many Masajid print their Prayer Timetable as a yearly calendar in advance, so how will we know the Hijri Dates in advance of moon sighting and what if it differs with Saudi Ummul Qura Calendar Dates?
That’s also very simple since ICOUK has done all the hard work of producing Hijri Calendars for the UK for many years with both the Predicted Crescent Visibility and Saudi Ummul Qura Dates, which you can download from our Moon Sighting UK website (under the Moon tab) free of charge.
However, adding two Hijri Dates side-by-side is very confusing, so if you have some people who follow the Saudi Ummul Qura dates, simply add one extra line above your Prayer Timetable with a U* in the date field as shown in the example table.
Please do think about this idea seriously, to establish the Hijri Calendar in our daily lives. You will be surprised how simple it is to adopt and Allah will reward you immensely for making it accessible to everyone, especially those who wish to keep the monthly Fast of Ayyam-e-Bid/ایّام البیض (White Fast) and other Shariah related injunctions (calculation of Zakat, Iddah Waiting period and other legal issues).
You may continue to use the Prayer Timetable data from your own sources, but please do mention Moon Sighting UK website for the source of your Hijri Dates, so that others may also be encouraged to use it and Allah will reward you for it, InshaAllah.
Technical Tip
If you have a monthly prayer timetable based on the 12 Gregorian Calendar months, then one easiest way to convert them to a Hijri Calendar with corresponding Gregorian Date is to join all the 12 months’ data into a single master file (e.g. a Spreadsheet) and add an extra Month Number column for each month’s data.
When you come to produce your Hijri Calendar based prayer timetable, all you have to do is add an extra column with the Hijri Date, as shown in the diagram.
Once you have the Hijri and Gregorian corresponding column dates correct, you can remove the Gregorian Month Number column on the final prayer time table and replace the Gregorian Date heading with the Month Name (e.g. for Safar 1438, November). It is possible that in future months one Hijri Month will over-lap with two Gregorian Months (e.g. Ramadan 1438, May – Jun).
So, with a little bit of planning, it is very easy to convert a Gregorian Calendar based prayer timetable to a Hijri prayer timetable, which will earn you the rewards of establishing the Hijri Calendar (without any confusion), InshaAllah.
Checked by: Mufti Amjad Mohammed (8/2016)
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