The Doubt Alleging an Error in the Timing of the Ramadan Fast, and the Response to it

 

All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and peace and blessings be upon our master Muḥammad, the Seal of the Prophets and Messengers, and upon all his family and Companions. 

Fasting the blessed month of Ramadan is among the greatest rites of Islam. Its rulings are bound to the lunar system affirmed by the Noble Qur'an and the Prophetic Sunnah, which the Lawgiver made the basis for determining the times of acts of worship and religious occasions.

The Muslims are unanimously agreed that the Islamic months, Ramadan among them, are lunar months that move through the seasons of the year according to the motion of the moon. They are therefore not fixed to any particular time of the solar year.

Even so, certain doubts have surfaced claiming that Ramadan must be fixed in the month of September, relying on a particular interpretation of some texts and reports, and ending in casting doubt on the lunar system that the Muslims have adopted for determining the times of fasting.

This doubt deserves attention because of what follows from it: it undermines the Sharia rulings on fasting and the practical consensus of the Ummah, handed down across the centuries. It must therefore be examined in light of the textual sources and historical facts, showing that adopting the lunar calendar to determine Ramadan is a firmly established principle, grounded in the texts of revelation and the consensus of the Muslims.

The Doubt

Those who raise this doubt say that the Arabs used a lunar calendar, and since the lunar year is about eleven days shorter than the solar year, the months drift through the seasons as the years pass.

Had the calendar remained purely lunar, they argue, Ḥajj and the agricultural seasons would have shifted through the seasons rather than staying fixed. The Arabs therefore addressed this problem through what was called nasīʾ, that is, occasionally adding a month to bring the lunar year closer to the solar year, so that the months stayed in roughly the same seasons.

When Islam came, a verse was revealed in the Qur'an prohibiting nasīʾ: "Indeed, the postponing [of sacred months] is an increase in disbelief…" The practice of adding months was thus abolished, and the year became purely lunar (twelve months only). As a result, the Islamic months now shift by about eleven days every year.

In sum, the doubt claims that the Muslims fast at the wrong time, and that the timing of Ramadan changed over history because nasīʾ was abolished.

The Response

Before answering, we should recognize that acts of worship are tawqīfī (fixed by revelation), and that they have been transmitted by mass-transmission (tawātur) across generations and cannot be altered. It is also among the established certainties that from the beginning of his mission until his death, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) never altered the days of the lunar months. Had he done so, it would not have been hidden from his Companions (may Allah be pleased with them), and they would have transmitted it to us just as they transmitted the rest of the acts of worship.

It is likewise known as a necessary part of the religion that this Ummah does not agree upon misguidance, and Allah would not leave the Ummah of Islam worshipping Him incorrectly for more than fourteen hundred years. Allah has taken it upon Himself to preserve His religion from distortion and alteration. Whoever wishes to change the times of worship will not be able to, for this is the religion of Allah, transmitted by tawātur from generation to generation.

This doubt contains clear errors of a Shar`i, scientific, and historical nature. The response follows in several points.

First: The error in understanding the meaning of nasīʾ

The proponents of the doubt misunderstood the meaning of nasīʾ in the words of Allah the Exalted (which mean): "Indeed, the postponing [of sacred months] is an increase in disbelief by which those who have disbelieved are led astray. They make it lawful one year and unlawful another year to correspond to the number made unlawful by Allah and [thus] make lawful what Allah has made unlawful" [al-Tawbah/37].

The doubt assumes that nasīʾ was a fixed system for adding a month every certain number of years in order to align the calendar with the seasons, like some lunisolar calendars. This is one of the two types of nasīʾ, called nasīʾ al-ziyādah (the nasīʾ of addition); the other is nasīʾ al-taʾkhīr (the nasīʾ of postponement). Although nasīʾ al-ziyādah appears in some linguistic and historical sources, its actual occurrence is disputed.

The type on which the authoritative Islamic sources are agreed that the Arabs practiced is nasīʾ al-taʾkhīr, which accords with the verse on nasīʾ. By this we mean postponing the sanctity of the sacred months or swapping them, not establishing a fixed astronomical calendar. Some tribes would declare that a sacred month had become lawful and defer its sanctity to another month, to serve their own interests, such as fighting and raiding.

For example, if Muḥarram arrived while they wished to fight, they would announce that Muḥarram had become lawful and make Ṣafar the sacred month in its place. In this way they kept the number of sacred months at four, but changed their timing.

This means that nasīʾ was not a precise astronomical system linking the months to the seasons, but a manipulation of time to serve social and political interests.

It is stated in Tafsīr al-Ṭabarī: "Nasīʾ is a verbal noun from the saying of the speaker, 'May Allah nasaʾa (extend) your term,' meaning that Allah has added to the days of your life and the length of your lifespan so that you remain alive in it. Every addition that occurs in something, the thing in which that addition occurs is called nasīʾ… So the meaning of the verse is: the postponement that the polytheists practice with respect to the four sacred months, making what is unlawful of them lawful and what is lawful unlawful, is an increase in their disbelief and in their denial of Allah's rulings and signs." [1]

Second: The Noble Qur'an states that the number of months has been twelve since the creation of the universe

The Qur'an established a fundamental principle regarding time. Allah the Exalted says (what means): "Indeed, the number of months with Allah is twelve 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" [al-Tawbah: 36]. The number of months is twelve only, not thirteen.

The very next verse then describes nasīʾ as a deviation from this system: "Indeed, the postponing [of sacred months] is an increase in disbelief by which those who have disbelieved are led astray. They make it lawful one year and unlawful another year to correspond to the number made unlawful by Allah and [thus] make lawful what Allah has made unlawful" [al-Tawbah/37]. That is, nasīʾ was not a scientific correction of the calendar but a distortion of the order of the months.

Imam al-Ṭabarī said: "As for His saying, 'They make it lawful one year,' its meaning is that those who disbelieved treat the nasīʾ as lawful… The meaning of the statement is: they make lawful for a year the month whose sanctity they had postponed from the four sacred months, 'and unlawful another year to correspond to the number made unlawful by Allah,' that is, so that, by making lawful what they make lawful of the months and making unlawful what they make unlawful of them, they match the number that Allah made unlawful, and thereby make lawful what Allah made unlawful. 'Made pleasing to them is the evil of their deeds,' that is, their evil and ugly deeds were made to seem good and beloved to them, 'and Allah does not guide the disbelieving people,' that is, Allah does not grant success in good deeds and in what pleases Allah to a people who deny His oneness." [2]

The claim that Islam abolished a sound calendrical system is therefore the opposite of what the texts say. Islam restored the calendar to its natural original state.

Third: The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) announced the calendar's return to its correct state

In the sermon of the Farewell Pilgrimage, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Time has completed its cycle and has returned to its original form as it was on the day Allah created the heavens and the earth. The year is twelve months, of which four are sacred: three consecutive, Dhū al-Qaʿdah, Dhū al-Ḥijjah, and Muḥarram, and Rajab of Muḍar, which falls between Jumādā and Shaʿbān." [Narrated by al-Bukhārī and Muslim]. The meaning of the ḥadīth is that the months that had been thrown into confusion by nasīʾ returned to their correct order. [3]

Islam, then, did not alter the correct calendar. It corrected the deviation the Arabs had introduced.

Fourth: The error of claiming that Ramadan was fixed in a particular season

The proponents of the doubt claimed that Ramadan was always in summer because its name is derived from al-ramaḍ, meaning intense heat.

This argument, however, is imprecise. When the Arabs originally assigned names to the months, they named them after the times and weather conditions that accompanied them at that time. In the year when the tribal leaders gathered to name the months, those months happened to fall in those seasons: Ramadan coincided with the days of scorching heat and was named for it, and Rabīʿ coincided with spring, and so on. The months were thus given these names [4], and then the seasons shifted over time because the calendar is lunar. This is evidence that the names are no proof of a fixed season.

Fifth: The claim that the Arabs introduced nasīʾ al-ziyādah so that the sacred months would fall at the time of animal breeding

The supposed link between the sacred months and the breeding season of animals is a claim without evidence. Indeed, the scholars have stated the opposite. Imam Ibn Kathīr said: "The sacred months were four only for the sake of performing the rites of Ḥajj and ʿUmrah. A month before the month of Ḥajj, Dhū al-Qaʿdah, was made sacred, because they would 'sit out' (yaqʿudūn) from fighting during it. Dhū al-Ḥijjah was made sacred because they would perform Ḥajj and occupy themselves with the rites in it. After it, another month was made sacred, Muḥarram, so that they could return in it to their distant lands in safety. And Rajab was made sacred in the middle of the year, for the sake of visiting the House and performing ʿUmrah, for whoever came to it from the farthest reaches of the Arabian Peninsula, so that he could visit it and then return to his homeland in safety." [5]

Sixth: The Hijri calendar did not begin with ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb

The proponents of this doubt attribute the distortion of the calendar to ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb (may Allah be pleased with him), because he was the one who adopted the Hijri dating. They claim that people had been following the correct calendar and adding days to the year until ʿUmar abolished that. This is incorrect, for several reasons:

1. ʿUmar (may Allah be pleased with him) changed nothing in the Arabian months. All he did, with the agreement of the Companions, was determine the starting point of the calendar, namely the year of the Prophet's Hijrah (peace and blessings be upon him), which is the Hijri dating. The months remained as they were; it was simply said that something occurred in Shaʿbān of the first year of the Hijrah, or of the tenth year of the Hijrah, and so on. They also made Muḥarram the first of the months.

2. This was not the act of ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb alone, but the choice of the noble Companions. Imam Ibn Kathīr said: "A man stood before ʿUmar and said, 'Date your records.' He said, 'What do you mean, date them?' The man said, 'Something the non-Arabs do: they write, "in such-and-such month of such-and-such year."' ʿUmar said, 'That is good, so date them.' They said, 'From which year shall we begin?' Some said, 'From his being sent as a Prophet,' and others said, 'From his death.' Then they agreed upon the Hijrah. Then they said, 'With which month shall we begin?' Some said, 'Ramadan.' Then they said, 'Muḥarram, for it is when people return from their Ḥajj, and it is a sacred month.' So they agreed upon Muḥarram." [6]

Conclusion

The idea put forward by this doubt rests on a series of errors, among them:

1. A misunderstanding of nasīʾ, which was not a system for adding a fixed month but a manipulation of the sacred months.

2. Ignoring the Qur'anic texts establishing that the number of months has been twelve since the creation of the universe.

3. Overlooking the ḥadīth of the Farewell Pilgrimage, which proves that Islam restored the months to their correct order.

4. Incorrect reasoning from the names of the months, such as Ramadan and Rabīʿ.

5. Assuming that Ramadan must fall in a particular season, something the Sharīʿah never said.

Therefore, there is no Shar`i, scientific, or historical evidence that Muslims today fast Ramadan at a time other than its proper time. The evidence points to the opposite: the current Islamic calendar is the very lunar calendar that Islam affirmed, and by which it corrected the manipulations of the Jāhiliyyah.

We also caution those not specialized in the Islamic sciences that it is not permissible to speak about the religion of Allah the Exalted or to interpret His Book by personal opinion. This should be left to the trustworthy scholars who spent their lives in study, research, and verification, not to those who chase fame and money and work to fragment the Ummah and demolish its established principles and what its scholars have agreed upon.

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[1] See: Tafsīr al-Ṭabarī (11/449).

[2] Ibid. (11/451), with slight adaptation.

[3] See: Sharḥ al-Nawawī ʿalā Muslim (11/168).

[4] See: Lisān al-ʿArab (7/161).

[5] Tafsīr Ibn Kathīr (4/148).

[6] al-Bidāyah wa'l-Nihāyah (4/511).

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Translator's notes:

• I rendered tawqīfī as "fixed by revelation" and kept the term in transliteration, since it is a standard technical term in Islamic scholarship.

• In the Ibn Kathīr passage on Dhū al-Qaʿdah, I kept the wordplay between al-Qaʿdah and yaqʿudūn ("sit out") so that the etymological point remains visible.

• Qur'anic verses follow the sense of widely used English renderings, adapted slightly to match the author's reading of the verse. I trimmed the second verse in the opening summary of the doubt to match the original's use of an ellipsis.