The Hijri Month Names, Their Meanings and Order

The names of the Hijri months are not arbitrary. Each one is a record of the climate and customs of the Arabian Peninsula — the names held fast while the conditions that produced them moved on.

The order and the meanings

1. Muharram: from tahrim, forbidding. The first of the sacred months in order, so called because fighting is forbidden in it.

2. Safar: from emptiness, or yellowness. Said to be named because the houses of Mecca emptied as people left for travel or war once the sacred month had passed.

3. Rabi' al-Awwal and 4. Rabi' al-Thani: named in an era when they fell in spring — rabi'.

5. Jumada al-Ula and 6. Jumada al-Akhira: from jumud, freezing. Named during a winter cold enough to freeze water.

7. Rajab: from tarjib, to revere. A sacred month standing alone among the others, which is why it is called "Rajab the solitary".

8. Sha'ban: from tasha'ub, dispersal. The tribes scattered in search of water once sacred Rajab had ended.

9. Ramadan: from ramad, intense heat — heat fierce enough to scorch the stones underfoot.

10. Shawwal: from shala, to raise. Said to refer to camels raising their tails at that time of year.

11. Dhu al-Qa'da: from qu'ud, sitting. A sacred month in which people sat out both fighting and travel.

12. Dhu al-Hijja: the month of the Hajj, containing the Day of Arafah, Eid al-Adha and the days of Tashriq.

The four sacred months

The Qur'an states: "Indeed, the number of months with God is twelve, in the register of God, from the day He created the heavens and the earth — of these, four are sacred" (al-Tawbah 36). They are Dhu al-Qa'da, Dhu al-Hijja and Muharram — three consecutive — with Rajab standing alone.

The arrangement is geographically shrewd. The three consecutive months bracket the pilgrimage season, so a pilgrim is protected travelling out, staying, and returning. Rajab, at mid-year, opens a second safe season for the lesser pilgrimage and for trade.

Why the names never changed

Here is the elegant contradiction: Ramadan is named for scorching heat, yet today it sometimes falls in winter. Jumada is named for freezing, and may land at the peak of summer.

The reason is that the Hijri calendar is purely lunar and never fixed to the seasons, so the months advance eleven days each year until they have circled through all of them. The names survive as linguistic fossils of the moment they were coined, not as descriptions of the present.

English does the same thing. September means "the seventh" though it is the ninth; October means "the eighth" though it is the tenth — leftovers from a Roman calendar that began in March.

When the calendar began

The Hijri calendar was not established in the Prophet's lifetime but during the caliphate of Umar ibn al-Khattab, around 17 AH. The well-known account has Abu Musa al-Ash'ari writing to Umar: "letters reach us from you bearing no date." Umar gathered the Companions to decide.

Options were weighed: the Prophet's birth, his first revelation, his death. Ali ibn Abi Talib proposed the Hijrah — the migration — because it was the event that separated truth from falsehood and on which the community was founded. The Companions agreed, and Muharram was set as the first month.

The Hijri month names are a preserved climate dictionary: you can read the heat and cold of Arabia in them, even though the names no longer match their seasons.

Sources: Qur'an, al-Tawbah 36; Ibn Kathir, "The Beginning and the End"; Ibn Manzur, "Lisan al-Arab", entries ramad, safar, jumud; al-Tabari, "History of the Prophets and Kings" on Umar's dating