As the new Hijri year begins, let us, as we congratulate one another on its arrival, reflect and ask ourselves: How much interest do our youth and children have in this occasion? Are we engaging them in this congratulations and teaching them about calendars? Are we making sure to memorize the months of the lunar year and tell them stories of our ancestors associated with them?
We know that the Hijri year with its lunar months is the identity of Muslims, so teaching it to their children is a duty that can never be neglected, due to its connection to worship, seasons of obedience, and Muslim holidays. Someone might say that the whole world today follows the Gregorian calendar and we cannot do without it. Yes, we cannot do without both of them. God Almighty said, "It is He who made the sun a radiance and the moon a light and determined for it phases - that you may know the number of years and account. God did not create this except in truth. He details the signs for a people who know." When we contemplate this noble verse, we find that God has subjected the sun and the moon to us so that we may know the number of years and account, and so that we may calculate our days, months, and seasons, and so that the tools with which we measure time are precise and accurate. The sun and the moon move in this universe in their constellations and phases with precise and accurate calculations and predetermined estimations, out of mercy and care for His servants. Without any disturbance or disorder in their course, if we look up the meaning of the calendar in the dictionary, we will find that it means technically: an organization for measuring time and depends on recurring natural phenomena such as the cycles of the sun and the moon and the four seasons. So, there are two calendars for time: the solar calendar and the lunar calendar. Since the solar calendar is relatively stable, the seasons of study and agriculture depend on it. As for the lunar calendar, we follow religious occasions such as the arrival of the month of Ramadan, the Hajj season and holidays, and we also know the sacred months. Thus, people know the years, months, days and seasons, and they know the months of Hajj, fasting and other aspects of life.
Surat Al-Kahf mentions the two calendars to accurately inform us of the period of time that the People of the Cave stayed. God Almighty says: “And they remained in their cave for three hundred years and added nine” (verse 25, Surat Al-Kahf).
Ibn Kathir’s interpretation states that these numbers indicate the difference between the lunar and solar calendars. The amount of time they stayed was three hundred solar years and nine lunar years, and this is one of the miracles of the Qur’an.
In this day and age, it is essential for our children to master more than one language. Therefore, we must ensure that they deal with both the lunar and solar calendars and call them by their original names, so that one calendar does not disappear at the expense of the other.
O Allah, teach us what is beneficial for us, benefit us with what You have taught us, and increase our knowledge.