In the name of Allah, The Most Gracious, The Most Merciful.
I am a day late but anyway, Happy New Year! I am not very keen on wishing Happy National Day to the point that I completely overlooked it when creating a social media post for one of the businesses I support.
Social embarrassment for the start of the Islamic New Year — how about that?
The evening of 9 August marked the first day of Muharram of 1443 Hijrah until the late afternoon of 10 August. It might be a bit confusing for non-Muslims when it comes to counting the days on the Islamic calendar. The easiest way to understand it is by knowing that it follows the lunar month, beginning with the sighting of a new moon. Lunar is derived from the word ‘luna’, which means moon, so the start of the day on the Islamic calendar is actually in the evening after sunset and ends the next sunset.
I watched a video online, stating that we feel as though time is faster when actually, time has always been constant due to us following the Gregorian calendar instead of the lunar months. That was a pretty interesting take on the system of time. For example, my birthday falls on 25 August 1989 on the Gregorian calendar but on the Islamic calendar, my birthday is 23 Muharram 1410 Hijrah. (Speaking of which, it’s going to be my birthday on both calendars soon!) So that will make me 33 years old on my birthday following the Islamic calendar but on my birthday following the Gregorian calendar, I will only be 32 years old. Technically, yeah, time feels faster to me because by right I am living a whole year ahead of what the Gregorian calendar stipulated.
Interesting, yeah?
And I have just googled the Gregorian date for my Islamic birthday. Looks like I am turning 32 years old on 25 August and 33 years old on 31 August (technically, the evening of 30 August).
I guess this round’s birthday will be more meaningful then.
Managed to find the video I spoke of:
And Allah Knows Best. – MM
Metropolitan Muslimah 