Hijri Date Converter

The Hijri calendar: the history of the Ummah and the timekeeper of its worship

The Hijri calendar is the lunar calendar that Muslims rely on to regulate their acts of worship and religious occasions. Through it the start of Ramadan is known, as well as the time of Hajj, the time for paying zakat when a full year (hawl) has passed, and the waiting period ('iddah) of a divorced woman and a widow in some of their circumstances. It is a calendar based on the cycle of the moon around the earth, with each month beginning with the appearance of the new crescent after sunset. Allah the Exalted made the crescent moons signs by which people know their times, as He, glorified be He, said:

﴿يَسْأَلُونَكَ عَنِ الْأَهِلَّةِ ۖ قُلْ هِيَ مَوَاقِيتُ لِلنَّاسِ وَالْحَجِّ﴾“They ask you about the new moons. Say: They are measurements of time for the people and for Hajj.”Surah Al-Baqarah: 189

This tool aims to enable you to convert between Hijri and Gregorian dates quickly and accurately, while understanding the principles on which this conversion is based and its limits, so that you know when to rely on the result and when to refer to the official authorities in your country.

The origin of the Hijri calendar in the time of 'Umar ibn al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him)

Before Islam, the Arabs knew the lunar months by their names, but they did not adopt a unified starting point for counting years; instead, they dated by major events such as the Year of the Elephant. When the Islamic state expanded during the caliphate of 'Umar ibn al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him), and correspondence, contracts and government registers multiplied, the need arose for a fixed calendar by which documents could be dated. 'Umar consulted the Companions about this, and opinions varied between dating from the birth of the Prophet ﷺ, his mission, his death or his emigration. The decision settled on making the Prophetic Hijrah from Makkah to Madinah the beginning of the calendar, because it was the event by which Allah separated truth from falsehood and after which the Islamic state was established. According to the well-known view, this took place in the seventeenth or eighteenth year after the Hijrah.

They then chose the month of Muharram as the beginning of the year, even though the Hijrah took place in Rabi' al-Awwal, because Muharram is the month in which people return from their Hajj, and the resolve to emigrate had begun after the Pledge of 'Aqabah in Dhul-Hijjah. Thus the first of Muharram of the first year of the Hijrah corresponds approximately to mid-July of the year 622 CE.

The twelve Hijri months

The number of months in the Hijri calendar is twelve, the number established by the Holy Quran, four of which are sacred months whose status Allah has made great:

﴿إِنَّ عِدَّةَ الشُّهُورِ عِندَ اللَّهِ اثْنَا عَشَرَ شَهْرًا فِي كِتَابِ اللَّهِ يَوْمَ خَلَقَ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضَ مِنْهَا أَرْبَعَةٌ حُرُمٌ ۚ ذَٰلِكَ الدِّينُ الْقَيِّمُ ۚ فَلَا تَظْلِمُوا فِيهِنَّ أَنفُسَكُمْ﴾“Indeed, the number of months with Allah is twelve [lunar] months in the register of Allah [from] the day He created the heavens and the earth; of these, four are sacred. That is the correct religion, so do not wrong yourselves during them.”Surah At-Tawbah: 36

The sacred months are: Dhul-Qa'dah, Dhul-Hijjah, Muharram and Rajab. Below is a table of the months in order, with the most notable points relating to each:

Umm al-Qura, religious sighting and astronomical calculation

Three concepts are often confused when talking about the beginning of the Hijri month, and each has its own use:

Religious sighting

This is sighting the crescent with the naked eye after sunset on the twenty-ninth day of the month; if it is seen, the new month begins, otherwise the month is completed as thirty days. This is the basic method for establishing the start of Ramadan, Shawwal and Dhul-Hijjah according to the majority of scholars, as the Prophet ﷺ said:

"Fast when you see it and break your fast when you see it, and if it is hidden from you, then complete the count of Sha'ban as thirty."Narrated by al-Bukhari

Astronomical calculation

This is calculating the times of the conjunction of the moon with the sun (new moon) and the possibility of sighting the crescent based on equations of celestial motion. This calculation has reached a high degree of precision in determining the moment of conjunction, but determining the possibility of sighting depends on criteria about which astronomers differ. Some countries and bodies rely on astronomical calculation to establish the months, while others use it only for negation, that is, rejecting the testimony of anyone who claims to have seen the crescent if the calculation definitively shows that sighting was impossible.

The Umm al-Qura calendar

It is the official calendar adopted in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for civil and administrative purposes. It is based on predetermined astronomical rules which, in their current form, stipulate that the month begins if the conjunction occurs before sunset in Makkah and the moon sets after the sun. Its dates can therefore be known for years to come, which makes it suitable for automatic conversion. However, Saudi Arabia itself relies on religious sighting to establish the start of Ramadan, the two Eids and Dhul-Hijjah, so the official announcement of an occasion may differ from the Umm al-Qura calendar by a day.

Why might the date differ by a day between countries?

It is natural to find the Hijri date in one country a day ahead of or behind another, and there are several reasons for this, including:

• Differences in the horizons of sighting (matali'): the crescent may be seen in a western country but not in an eastern one, because the moon is farther from the sun and higher on the horizon the later sunset occurs.
• Differences in the method of establishment: between those who rely on naked-eye sighting, those who rely on calculation, and those who combine the two.
• Unity or difference of horizons: some countries follow the sighting of another country such as Makkah, while others rely only on their local sighting, which is a well-known point of disagreement among the jurists.
• Weather conditions: clouds and dust may prevent the sighting of a crescent that is actually present, so the month is completed as thirty days.

The difference between the Hijri year and the Gregorian year

The Hijri year is a lunar year, in which each month is 29 or 30 days long, because the average lunar cycle is about 29.53 days. The Hijri year is therefore 354 or 355 days long, while the Gregorian year is a solar year of 365 days, or 366 in a leap year. The difference between them is about 11 days each year.

One effect of this difference is that Hijri occasions move about 11 days earlier each year in the Gregorian calendar, so Ramadan sometimes comes in winter and at other times in summer, cycling through all the seasons of the year in about 33 years. There is clear wisdom in this, as the Muslim fasts during his lifetime on long and short days, hot and cold, and countries are equal in this regardless of their location. It is useful to know that every 33 Hijri years are approximately equal to 32 Gregorian years, which explains why age in Hijri years is greater than in Gregorian years; you can check this with the age calculator.

How to use the Hijri date converter

1. Choose the direction of conversion: from Gregorian to Hijri, or from Hijri to Gregorian.
2. Enter the day, month and year in the designated fields.
3. Press the convert button to see the result along with the name of the day of the week.
4. When you need today's date, the tool automatically shows the current Hijri and Gregorian dates.

The tool covers the range supported by the Umm al-Qura calendar, and slight differences may appear for dates very far in the past, because the arithmetical calendar was not in use at the time. To find the exact dates of upcoming occasions, see the Islamic Events page, and to calculate the zakat year, use the zakat calculator.