Sacred time
Family: Belief and worship · 37 entries
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Event
The first Friday prayer in Yathrib
c. 622 CE · 1 AHThe first congregational Friday in Islam, on the account of 'Abd al-Rahman ibn Ka'b ibn Malik: As'ad ibn Zurara gathered it at Naqi' al-Khadimat in the harra of Banu Bayada with forty men, and his father Ka'b used to pray for As'ad's forgiveness whenever he heard the Friday call, for he was the first to gather them; al-Zuhri's version that Mus'ab ibn 'Umayr gathered twelve men is reconciled in that As'ad held the prayer with the twelve and Mus'ab led it.The Hijra
c. 12 September 622 CE · c. 29 Safar 1 AH†The migration of the Prophet Muhammad and his followers from Mecca to Medina in 622 CE, the event from which the Islamic calendar is counted.The sojourn at Quba
23 September 622 CE · 8 Rabi' I 1 AHThe Prophet's stay at Quba from Monday 8 Rabi' I 1 AH: hosted by Kulthum ibn al-Hidm, he founded the mosque of Quba — the first mosque 'upon taqwa' — before riding to Medina on Friday; the length of the stay is debated (four days per Ibn Ishaq, up to 24 nights in Bukhari).The first Friday prayer
24 September 622 CE · 12 Rabi' I 1 AHOn the Friday of his entry into Medina, prayer time overtook the Prophet among Banu Salim ibn Awf, and he led a congregation of a hundred men in the mosque in the valley bottom — counted in the sira as the first Jumu'a.Umar adopts the Hijra as the starting point of the calendar
between 634 and 644 CE · 13 AHUmar gathered the Companions to fix a settled date for administering the young state. Ali said the calendar should begin from the year the Prophet emigrated and left the land of polytheism, and Umar adopted it.Sekaten
The Javanese week-long Mawlid celebration in Yogyakarta — gamelan drums and a folk fair before the Great Mosque.
Concept
Adhan (the call to prayer: its ruling, wording, conditions, recommended features and the muezzin)
In law, the adhan is announcing the time of an obligatory prayer in set, transmitted words. The jurists differ on its ruling, between a communal obligation and a strongly recommended practice, and on its wording, tarjia, tathwib, the conditions of order, continuity and raised voice, and the qualities of the muezzin: Islam, manhood, sanity and discernment.The sacred months
The four months in which fighting was forbidden in pre-Islamic Arabia (Dhu al-Qa'da, Dhu al-Hijja, Muharram, Rajab), and the meanings of their names, as set out in Golius's note on the Arabic months.The last ten nights of Ramadan
In the usage of the jurists, the last ten nights of Ramadan begin on the night of the twenty-first and end when the month ends, whether it has thirty days or twenty-nine. The jurists agree that effort in acts of worship is recommended in them: night prayer, more charity, more recitation of the Qur'an and good works, following the Prophet's practice. Retreat (i'tikaf) is especially recommended in them, and one who intends it should enter the mosque before sunset on the twenty-first night. The majority hold that the Night of Power remains and has not been lifted, that it falls in Ramadan's last ten nights, and that the odd nights of these ten are the most likely.The first ten days of Dhu al-Hijja
The first ten days of Dhu al-Hijja are the period from the first of the month to its tenth day. The jurists hold that its days and nights are noble and that deeds done in them are multiplied; striving in worship and doing good are recommended, and the most scholars of Qur'anic commentary take the oath in the Surat al-Fajr to refer to these days. Fasting the first nine days is recommended; fasting on the tenth, the day of sacrifice, is not permitted by agreement. Fasting on the day of Arafat is recommended for those who are not pilgrims, and the majority hold that it expiates minor sins but not major ones.The Hijri calendar
The lunar calendar that counts its years from the Prophet's hijra from Mecca to Medina, and sets the dates of Ramadan, the Hajj and the feasts. Reports say Umar ibn al-Khattab adopted the hijra as the starting point of dating; the reports differ on the occasion and the date, and need a second source (needs_source).Hilal (the crescent and the lunar month for the law)
Hilal in the lexical sense is the moon in a particular state; technically it is the first sighting of the lit part of the moon on the first night. The law made the crescents times for people: the deferred dealings and the rites (the pilgrimage, fasting, the breaking of the fast) and the matters with legal effects, such as the waiting period, the period of nursing and the period of the oath of abstention. Jurists hold that only the lawgiver fixes the times of worship, while the times of transactions are agreed by the parties; an unqualified month is taken as a lunar month. The size of the crescent is no guide to the start of the month; what counts is the night of sighting.Delaying the noon prayer to the cool (ibrad)
The Kuwaiti encyclopedia defines ibrad linguistically as entering the cool, or entering the late part of the day. For the jurists it is delaying the noon prayer until the time of cool, and the word is also used of leaving a slaughtered animal to cool before it is skinned. The Encyclopedia states that, in intense summer heat in hot countries, delaying the noon prayer is a permission that is recommended by agreement for one who attends the mosque in congregation, citing the hadith on the heat of Hell. If one of those conditions is missing, the recommendation is disputed and the Encyclopedia refers the detail to the entry on prayer times.The Kawsaj
The mule-rider of Adharmah's first day in Iraq and Fars — gorged for days on walnuts, garlic and fat meats, he is doused with cold water unfazed and cries 'garma garma' (warm, warm) in Persian; a Persian festival joy unknown in Syria, Egypt or Yemen.The Night of the Ghatās (Epiphany)
Egypt's Epiphany night — al-Mas'udi attended in 330 when the Ikhshid lit a thousand torches from his al-Mukhtara palace on the river island and hundreds of thousands, Muslims and Christians, thronged boats and banks; the streets never close and most plunge into the Nile believing it preserves from sickness.Mihragan
The sixteenth of Mihrmah — the Persian feast set a hundred and seventy-four days after Nowruz.Shahr (the month: the lunar month in law, the months of pilgrimage, the iddah in months, and the hire by the month)
When the word is used without qualification in law, the month means the lunar month, as the verse of the Repentance (36) says: the number of months with God is twelve, four of them sacred. The months of the pilgrimage are, for most jurists, Shawwal, Dhu al-Qa'da and the first ten days of Dhu al-Hijja; for the Malikis, all of Dhu al-Hijja. A woman who no longer menstruates observes her waiting period in months. Where a thing is hired month by month, the Hanafis and Malikis validate the contract, the Shafi'is void it beyond the first month, and the jurists differ on how a month that does not begin on the first day is counted.al-Nasīʾ (Intercalation)
Al-Nasīʾ: shifting the sacred months to fit seasonal interests until the Hajj realigned in 10 AH — the Qurʾan abolished it as ‘an excess of disbelief’.Nayruz
The first day of Farwardinmah, head of the Persian year — one hundred and seventy-four days from the Mihragan — a festival of joy for the Persians.Sanah (the year) and its legal uses
The sanah means a full year in language and in the technical sense; where the jurists use the word without qualification they mean the lunar year. A full year (haul) is a condition for zakat on grazing livestock, on gold and silver, and on trade goods; crops, fruit and minerals need no haul. Among its legal uses are the period for announcing found property, the year granted to an impotent husband, and the year of exile in the penalty for fornication.Shawwal (the month after Ramadan: fasting six days of it, the sighting of its new moon, and the rule when one sees it alone)
Shawwal is the lunar month after Ramadan; it is the month of the festival of breaking the fast and the first of the months of the pilgrimage. Some jurists hold that fasting six days of it is recommended, while others dislike it, lest it be taken for part of Ramadan. Its new moon is established by completing the thirty days of Ramadan, or, for most, by two just witnesses. One who sees it alone may not break the fast unless he has an excuse, following the saying 'the fast is the day you fast and the breaking the day you break', while the Shafi'is say he must break it quietly.Ta'jil (doing a thing early: repentance, burial, debt, breaking the fast, the pilgrim's early departure, prayer before its time, zakat and expiations)
Ta'jil is doing a thing before its set time, or at the very beginning of it. It is lawful in several cases: repentance, which is due at once; the burial, which is recommended once death is certain; payment of a debt when due, which is required; breaking the fast at sunset, which is a sunna; the pilgrim's early departure on the second day of the tashriq, which is a concession; prayer before its time, unlawful except in combining; zakat before the year, disputed; and expiations after their cause, disputed.Ta'rif (making known: the Arafat gathering in towns, the announcement of a found thing, identifying the parties in a claim)
Ta'rif is making known and clear; the usulis use it for a definition that includes and excludes. Among its applications for the jurists: the gathering in towns on the day of Arafat, which Ahmad allowed without recommending while Abu Hanifa and Malik disliked it; the announcement of a found thing, which the three imams hold obligatory and the Shafiis hold the sounder view; and identifying the claimed thing and the defendant, a condition of hearing a claim by agreement.Tarassul (measured pace in the call to prayer)
Tarassul is a measured, unhurried pace in the call to prayer, with a pause between each two sentences long enough for a listener to answer, without drawn-out or excessive elongation. It is a sunna in the call; hadr, speeding up, is a sunna in the iqama and disliked in the call.Tarjia (repeating the testimonies in the call to prayer)
Tarjia in the call to prayer is the muezzin lowering his voice on the two testimonies while letting those present hear, then raising it again on them. The Hanafis and Hanbalis hold there is no tarjia in the call, the Malikis and Shafi'is recommend it, and some Shafi'is hold it a pillar.Wadi Muhassir (the valley between Mina and Muzdalifa on the pilgrimage)
Wadi Muhassir is the valley that lies between Mina and Muzdalifa and belongs to neither; it is named for Abraha's elephant, which stumbled there. Pilgrims are recommended to hasten for about a stone's throw when they reach it after leaving Muzdalifa, since the Prophet moved his camel gently at the valley's bed, and the jurists note that it is a place where punishment fell. Passing it, the prayer of Umar ibn al-Khattab is recommended. Most jurists hold that Wadi Muhassir is neither Mina nor Muzdalifa and that standing there does not suffice, on the Prophet's words that the whole of Muzdalifa is a place of standing and that one should leave the bed of Muhassir. Some Shafi'is say it is part of Mina, citing the report of al-Fadl ibn Abbas.Yawm al-Jumu'a (Friday, fiqh)
Yawm al-jumu'a is the last day of the week; before Islam it was called the day of al-'Aruba, and some say Ka'b ibn Lu'ayy first named it al-jumu'a, while others say it was named in Islam for the gathering in the mosque. In fiqh it carries rules of its own: the Friday prayer is an individual duty on adult Muslim males; the washing for it is sunna on the majority view, with disputes over its time and whether it is for the day or the prayer; fasting it alone is disliked on the majority view; it holds an hour of answered prayer; adornment is recommended; and sale is forbidden at the call to the prayer.Yawm al-nahr (the day of sacrifice, fiqh)
Yawm al-nahr is the tenth of Dhu al-Hijja, so named for the abundance of sacrifices and offerings slaughtered in it; the days of sacrifice are three on the Hanafi, Maliki, Hanbali and Thawri view and four on the Shafi'i. Many jurists call it the day of the greater hajj on Ibn Umar's hadith in Abu Dawud, and they dispute whether it, the day of Arafa, or Friday is the best of days. In it the stoning of the Aqaba pillar is obligatory on the majority view; fasting it is forbidden on the majority view and disliked to the degree of prohibition on the Hanafi; it is sunna for the sacrificer to hold back from food until he breaks his fast on his sacrifice's liver; and for the non-pilgrim the eid prayer, takbir, the udhiya and congratulation are prescribed, while they dispute its sermon at Mina.Yawm al-Shakk (the day of doubt, fiqh)
Yawm al-shakk is a juristic term for the thirtieth of Sha'ban when the sighting of Ramadan's crescent is not legally established; it is so named because it may be the first of Ramadan. The schools differ on its definition and on the ruling of fasting it: the Hanafis allow only supererogatory fasting with a distinction between the select and the common people, the Malikis bar a precautionary fast for Ramadan, the Shafi'is on the sound view do not permit it without a reason, and the Hanbalis dislike a fast intended precautionarily as Ramadan.Yawm (the day, fiqh)
Yawm is lexically a stretch of time from sunrise to sunset, and in the jurists' usage the span from the rising of the second dawn to sunset, so it is longer than the day-light nahr. Legal rules attach to it in vows, retreat and conditional divorce: one who vows a retreat of an unspecified day must, on the majority view, enter the mosque before dawn and leave after sunset, and a divorce suspended on a named day falls at that day's dawn according to most jurists.
Practice
Ashura
The tenth of Muharram; Quraysh fasted it in the Jahiliyya and the Prophet fasted it and ordered its fast until Ramadan made it voluntary; in 61 AH Husayn ibn Ali was killed at Karbala on this day, and the Shi'a adopted it as a day of mourning.Eid al-Adha
The festival of sacrifice on 10 Dhu al-Hijjah at the close of the Hajj — the udhiyah, its distribution, and the Eid prayer.Eid al-Fitr
The festival closing Ramadan on 1 Shawwal — the Eid prayer, zakat al-fitr, feasts and visits; the Muslim world's widest celebration.I'tikaf (retreat)
Staying in the mosque for worship, especially in the last ten nights of Ramadan; the Prophet kept it until his death, and his wives after him.Mawlid al-Nabi (birthday celebrations)
Public celebrations of the Prophet's birth on 12 Rabi al-Awwal across most of the Muslim world — processions, praise-chants and fairs; customary to many, disputed by some.Taraweeh night prayers
Ramadan night prayer in congregation after 'isha'; a confirmed sunna in Sunni practice, most intense in the last ten nights.Urs (saints' anniversaries)
The annual death-anniversary festival at a saint's shrine in South Asian and Maghrebi tradition — qawwali, pilgrimage, food; 'urs' as union with God.
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