HEGIRAH 2022 – MUHARRAM 1444. The beginning of the month of Muharram coincides with the Hijri New Year, in the Islamic calendar. Here is what we know about the date of Hegira 2022.
[Mis à jour le 25 juillet 2022 à 18h06] It follows the month of the great pilgrimage (hajj) and is considered sacred. The month of Muharram has great importance in the Muslim calendar: it corresponds to the very first month of the new Hijri year. According to the Muslim Theological Council of France (CTMF), in 2022 (in our Gregorian calendar), the new Year Islamic starts in theory Saturday July 30. Astronomical calculations, a method that cohabits with the traditional “Night of Doubt” of lunar observation”, indeed designate according to the authority this date as the first day of the Hegira, alias Raas Assana.
In a statement to Muslims on July 22, the CTMF explains, based on scientific data, that “the conjunction (new moon) will take place on Thursday, July 28, 2022 at 5:55 p.m. GMT (6:55 p.m. Paris time)” and that “The vision of the new crescent moon will be possible, inchaAllah, the next day, Friday July 29, from 7:32 GMT (8:32 Paris time)”. The first day of the month of Muharram 1444 would therefore be fixed for the following day, Saturday, July 30; the day of Achoura, traditionally fasted by Muslims, would correspond to Monday, August 8. Conversely to the CTMF, Muslim federations are waiting for them to be a few days away from the new year to announce the dates, depending on the decisions taken by the countries and partisan bodies for eye observation, recalls the site. specialist Saphir News.
The date of the Muslim New Year commemorates a specific event in the Koran: the episode of immigration (Hijra) from Prophet Muhammad and his companions from Mecca to Medina. For believers in Islam, this event took place in the year 622 of the Christian era.
Two distinct views exist as to the date of “Raas Assana”. The reason ? To know when a month of this lunar calendar ends and we enter another, we must see the crescent of the new Moon appear in the sky. However, there are two methods to ensure this:
- the first method is to scan the sky. If we see the Moon with the naked eye, it means that the new month – and in this case, for Raas Assana, the new year – begins the next day. It’s the Ggrand mosque in paris who decides on the detectable aspect or not of the nocturnal star. For this body, whose decisions are generally followed by the Muslim community of France, the date of the 1st Muharram [nom du premier mois du calendrier musulman] 1444 [prochaine année dans le calendrier musulman] should correspond to Saturday July 30, 2022. It is only a few days or on the eve of that day that this information should be confirmed, via the traditional lunar observation organized in the evening.
- the second method, called “astronomical”, makes use of scientific calculations. These allow the identification of a precise date of entry into the new year. According to the supporters of this method, including the CTMF (Muslim Theological Council of France), “the conjunction (new Moon)” is predictable and we can already say that the new year will begin on Saturday July 30 in 2022.
What does the Muslim New Year of the Hegira, which took place on Sunday, September 1 last year, cover? Already, it is the first day of the lunar year and the month of Muharam, a sacred month which corresponds to the first month of the Islamic calendar. The first Islamic year began in 622, with what Muslim believers consider to be the emigration of the Prophet Muhammad (or Muhammad) from Mecca to Medina, then called Hijra. For Muslims, the Muslim New Year therefore represents nothing less than the foundation of their religion, Islam.
The date of the Muslim New Year changes every year in our Gregorian calendar, since the lunar calendar used by Muslims, the “Hijri” calendar, is about 10 days less. In 2022, the Hegira is not celebrated in the same period as the Jewish New Year (5781), Rosh Hashana, which must take place on the days of September 26 and 27, 2022. If the Muslim New Year does not traditionally represent a feast day, unlike theEid al-Fitr for example, marking the end of Ramadan, or Eid el-Kébir, alias the feast of the sacrifice, it precedes Achoura by 10 days, provisionally fixed this year for Monday August 8, 2022. Finally, the date of the Hegira corresponds to a day holiday in several Muslim countries.
The Hegira or Muslim New Year, or “new year of the Hegira”, is also referred to by the term “Raas Assana” in the Muslim religion, but it can also be called Al-Hijra. It is a reminder of a Muslim holiday which requires the observation of the crescent moon during the night of observation / doubt to be validated, as for the Ramadan.
Hegira 2022, or the Muslim New Year celebration, brings the Hijri calendar into its 1444th year. A count that starts in the year 622 of the Christian era, the supposed year of the exile of the Prophet Muhammad from Mecca to Medina, and therefore the year of the foundation of Islam.