Why do you think Muslims follow the lunar calendar instead of the solar calendar?

Question

these questions are for promotion and clearing misconceptions so do not please answer politely

MAY ALLAH BESTOW HIS BEST BLESSINGS ON YOU AND YOUR FAMILY!

i do not know wich answer to choose as best they are such beautiful answer so i am putting it to be voted, and thanku and JAZAKALLAH, patrick, muhammed, sam and mars and evryone here, sorry i didnot take all the names

Answer 1

Except sun worshipping roman pagans all religions always followed Lunar clander. Jews also follows lunar calendar, Indian hindus follows lunar calendar. Christians adopted solar clanedar because of roman influence

Answer 2

Why not ask - why do we not follow the lunar calendar in the west - we do for events such as Easter?

You can read about our solar calendars here - starting with the Julian calendar:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Calendar

The Islamic calendar was, according to the Qur'an (9:36-37) decreed by Allah. The full history is here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_calendar

I don't think it is because the sun will go out because:
at the time these practices started, we did not know what would happen to the sun or even properly understand what the sun was. As well, without the sun we will not see the moon. And our little solar system will be destroyed, sun, earth, moon.

Other cultures use a lunisolar calendar ... a mixture of the two. The solar calendar provides the matching up of all the days with the tiniest addition - the extra day every leap year. Because this lunar year is about 11 days shorter than the solar year, Islamic holy days, although celebrated on fixed dates in their own calendar, usually shift 11 days earlier each successive solar year, such as a year of the Gregorian calendar.

Interesting from Wikipedia though:

In England, a calendar of thirteen months of 28 days each, plus one extra day, known as "a year and a day" was still in use up to Tudor times. This would be a hybrid calendar that had substituted regular weeks of seven days for actual quarter-lunations, so that one month had exactly four weeks, regardless of the actual moon phase. The "lunar year" is here considered to have 364 days, resulting in a solar year of "a year and a day".

As a religious tradition, the thirteen-month years survived among European peasants for more than a millennium after the adoption of the Julian Calendar.

The "Edwardian" (probably Edward II, late 13th or early 14th century) ballad of Robin Hood for example has "How many merry months be in the year? / There are thirteen, I say ...", amended by a Tudor editor to "...There are but twelve, I say....". Robert Graves in the introductions to Greek Myths comments on this with "Thirteen, the number of the sun's death-month, has never lost its evil reputation among the superstitious."

Fascinating stuff. Good question.

Peace.

Answer 3

Lunar calendars have been accompanied for longer than photograph voltaic ones. community American tribes additionally accompanied lunar calenders. the reason being is which you will particularly tell days aside in a month-to-month lunar cycle whilst in comparison with the solar which seems the same on a daily basis. you already know that if the isn't any moon the month has only all started, an entire moon the month is a million/2 excess of. How do you tell that via observing the solar. you could no longer until you have an precise and better device numbers and of protecting music of dates which maximum early cultures did no longer have. somewhat consumer-friendly answer, it grew to become into greater handy for until now cultures to apply lunar calendars, subsequently it somewhat is classic. Edit: experience whilst do Christians rejoice Passover? additionally As you declare that Muslims worship a pretend god do Hebrews worship a flase god too? I advise after are not they one interior the same, one is only the continuation of the subsequent maximum appropriate? Hmmm... so Hebrews worship a pretend god... wait then Jesus grew to become into the son of a pretend god. Oh shoot. there is going your Christian faith. don't be an fool and declare to appreciate approximately different peoples religions once you do no longer.

Answer 4

A lunar month is a more accurate period of time than a solar year.

A lunar month is twenty eight days long during which time the mooon passes through all of its phases from no moon, to full and then back to no moon to begin the cycle again.

The difficulty that has arisen is that those who employ a lunar month often count the same as a thirty day period, which is incorrect.

Also, when one uses a lunar calendar, 13 month (such as was employed by the Norse) is necesary so as to coincide with the solar year.

Using a lunar calendar, one can more accurately measure time, the advent of each season and other celestial events that occur in a cyclical nature to coincide with the seasons.

In Islam, a twelve month lunar year is used which causes the month to rotate in such a manner as to not regularly occur within the same seasons. An example of such is Ramadan and Eid al Fitr which may be celebratred in the season of winter in some years and then slowly move to summer and then back again.

A twleve month lunar calendar also makes it more difficult to correctly measure the number of years one has lived accoridng to the more usual solar manner of doing the same.

As to the why does Islam employ the lunar calendar rather than a solar one is that the Prophet Muhammad (sallaahu 'alaihi wasallaam) was instructed in the Holy Qur'an to do so.

Ma'a salaam

Answer 5

I clipped the lines from the internet indicating Muslims follow the lunar calendar of 366 or 365 days per year.What is Islamic Calendar
S. Khalid Shaukat

The Islamic calendar is based on lunar months, which begin when a thin new crescent Moon is actually sighted in the western sky after sunset within a day or so after the New Moon. Hence, the month is either 29 days or 30 days. There are 12 months in an Islamic year, which is either 354 days long or 355 days long, compared to (Gregorian) civil calendar of 365 or 366 days. Since 12 lunar months are, on an average, 11 days shorter than the (Gregorian) civil year, the Islamic year shifts earlier in each civil year by about this amount. The 12 months of the Islamic calendar are: Muharram, Safar, Rabi' al-Awwal, Rabi' al-Thaani, Jumada al-Ooola, Jumada al-Ukhra, Rajab, Sha'ban, Ramadan, Shawwal, Dhu al-Qa'dah, Dhu al-Hijjah. The Islamic (Hijri) calendar year is usually abbreviated A.H. in Western languages from the latinized "Anno Hegirae" or more commonly known as "after hijrah." Although, the Islamic calendar was introduced in the Christian Era of 632 AD by the Messenger Muhammad (peace be upon him), the beginning of Islamic era for the count of years in this calendar was decided, much later in the year 639 AD, to be the year 622 AD. For more detailed description, you can read the whole article.
http://www.ottawamuslim.net/Religious%20events/calendar.htm

Answer 6

To get straight to the point, I would say that Allah and His prophet PBUH accepted this calendar for us and gave us our sharia (the rules) according to this lunar calendar. It's the correct one, otherwise Allah SWT won't take it, because Allah only accepts truth and what's right. We follow Islam's teachings and Allah gave us this calendar to follow in our life and practices of worship, such as Hajj, Ramadan, the forbidden months (no war in these four months), etc).

Answer 7

one of the reasons that i can see is because of the month of ramazan. lets just suppose and say we were not following the lunar calendar and lets suppose the month of fasting is june. in some countries, it is always winter in june and days are shorter so, for them fasting would be easy while in the other countries, it would be a time of summer, when days are longer so fasting so both the climate and the long day makes the fasting difficult. but when we follow the lunar calendar, it is not so as the position of the earth relative to the sun is different every ramazan, so people will have the ramazan in different seasons after every 5 or 6 years and so people cant complain that ramazan is tough for us because it always comes during summer.

i am sure there must be other reasons as well.. looking forward for other replies. nice question!

Answer 8

Well, I cannot know exactly, but here is some possible guess:

1, Moon is easier to observe. It only takes a month to watch it going a cycle. Say you got a job from ancient king to workout a calendar, after couple of months, you would get some idea. But for the sun, it takes a year to do go through the cycle. So you took that royal job, you could have any idea after 5 or 6 months by watching the sun and your eyes nearly blind by watch that bloody fireball too often, king not gonna be happy.

2, Moon is effective. See last month when moon is full, your gf just yelling at you and broke couple of cups coz she was in period (not good mood), and now, the moon is full again, then what, she start yelling again. Then you would think, moon must be the real god!

The above is my guess. But there are some deeper meanings i believe, lets see couple of truth:

1, Moon does control women's period so that, moon control rythm of mankind reproduction.

2, Moon's origin is still a myth. Someone thinks it is alien's spaceship.

3, The moon is hollow inside.

4, Chinese tradition calendar is lunar too. I believe lots of other culture use it too.

All kind of races today came from one place which is in africa, do you think this is somewhat mysterious? coinciding with so many religions and myths around the world? I believe, moon, played some myth part during that stage.

:)

Answer 9

The question is why Christianity adopted the solar calendar, instead of the lunar?

Islam does not teache nor does it expounds moon worship. It in fact repudiates it, as the following verse confirms:

“Among His Signs are the Night and the Day and the Sun and Moon. Prostrate (adore) not to the Sun and the Moon but prostrate to God, Who created them, if it is Him ye wish to serve.” (Qur’an, 41: 37)

So what is the function of the moon in Islam? The only function it plays in Islam is that it determines the Islamic lunar calendar. The Qur’an confirms this when it speaks of the moon being subject to God’s Law. This is confirmed when we read the following verse

“Seest thou not that God merges Night into Day and He merges Day into Night; that he has subjected the sun and the moon (to His Law), each running its course for a term appointed: and that God is well acquainted with all that ye do?” (Qur’an, 31:29)

It is interesting to note that the Jews also adopt the lunar calendar to mark their holy festivals. The Jewish religious calendar, of Babylonian origin, consists of 12 lunar months, amounting to about 354 days. Six times in a 19-year cycle a 13th month is added to adjust the calendar to the solar year. The day is reckoned from sunset to sunset.1

We have seen that both Judaism and Islam, as in the tradition of Semitic culture, use the lunar calendar to mark their months. The question now is why Christianity adopted the solar calendar, instead of the lunar?

As surprising as it is to the missionary, the adoption of the sun as the official calendar of ‘Christianity’ occurs as late as 325 C.E. and was due to the prevailing pagan influences of sun worship. The cult of the sun-god was the most popular creed at the advent of Jesus, and was prevalent in all the countries into which the religion called “Christianity” is later introduced in. Pagan gods such as Appolo or Dionysus among the Greeks, Hercules among the Romans, Mithra among the Persians, and Osiris, Isis and Horus in Egypt et. al., are all sun-gods3. In the face of the evidence, one cannot help but conclude that the adoption of the solar calender is certainly due to the strong Hellenistic influences of the sun-god cult during its adoption.

It is clear that the creation of a calendar is for the purpose of keeping time in perspective. Time is measured in relative terms, from sunrise to sunset; from the time the sun casts the shortest shadow to the same time the next day; from one harvest time to another. In ancient times, the phases of the moon were an easy means of measuring the passage of time. The first calendars were lunar calendars. Ancient civilizations such as the Assyrians, Babylonians, Egyptians and the Chinese used the lunar calendar. The Semitic culture also adopts this calendar, with the exception of Christianity, which uses the solar calendar due to pagan Hellenistic influences by Greco-Roman culture.

Answer 10

muslim people follow both the normal and lunar calender ,, in schools or governmental institutions we use both calnder ,,, but the reason we use the lunar is to determine some religious issues ( for example RAMADAN ).
and offcorse there is a culture issues for example chinese people use their own system same goes for muslims