How we give Islamic (Hijri) dates
An Islamic month begins when the new crescent is sighted, so no table can know its dates for certain in advance. We show each date as either announced, once a named authority has declared the month, or expected, our prediction until then.
The base: the Umm al-Qura calendar
Saudi Arabia's Umm al-Qura calendar is computed in advance. We store its month starts in a fixed table generated once and committed with the site, rather than asking the browser or server at run time, because different versions of the same software disagree by a day on some months.
India, Pakistan and Bangladesh
In South Asia the crescent is usually first seen a day later than in Saudi Arabia. Until a month is announced, we expect it to begin one day after the Umm al-Qura start, keeping every month to 29 or 30 days. For India the authority we follow is the Markazi Ruet-e-Hilal Committee, Jama Masjid, New Delhi; when it announces a month, we record the date with a link to the announcement, and the date changes from expected to announced everywhere on the site.
Pages for India show the Saudi date beside the Indian one, because the two often differ, and both matter: the Hajj and the Day of Arafah follow Saudi Arabia.
Other countries
Countries without their own table use the Umm al-Qura dates. Local communities may begin a month a day earlier or later; your local announcement always takes precedence.
Nights and days
The Islamic day begins at sunset. A night such as Shab-e-Barat (15 Shaban) therefore falls on the evening before the day of the same date, and our pages name both: "the night of Tuesday, with Wednesday the day".
Last updated 2026-10-07.