The Hijri New Year by Hjh Rukiye Sultan

Bismi Llāhi r-Raḥmāni r-Raḥīm

Sohbah on 7th August 2021 by Hjh Rukiye Sultan

Bismillahi Ar-Rahman Ar-Rahim
Tariqatuna as-sohba wal khayru fil jam’iyya
Madad Ya Sayyidi Ya Rasul Allah ﷺ, wa Mashayikhina Sheikh Nazim Adil Al-Haqqaniق, Sheikh Muhammad Ar-Rabbaniق

Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatuLlahi wa barakatuhu

Happy Hijri New Year!

In Prophet’s ﷺ time the mushrik, unbelievers, were so much against the Sahaba, torturing and fighting them mentally, spiritually and physically, so Allah ﷻ ordered Prophet ﷺ and the Sahaba to make hijrah/migration from Mecca to Madina.

Before this order came, a few Sahaba, companions, were coming from Madina to Mecca. They believed in Prophet ﷺ and gave him ﷺ bay’ah/pledge of alliance. They made an oath to Prophet ﷺ — first, to believe in the Unity of Allah ﷻ; second, to pray; third, to fast; fourth, not to commit big sins; and fifth, not to kill their children, a very bad practice that they used to have.

Then, they came back the next year in a much bigger number and they all gave bay’ah to Prophet ﷺ and asked him ﷺ to come to Madina and promised to protect him ﷺ with their money, bodies and their souls. This was the second bay’ah and after one year all the Sahaba started to go to Madina.

Prophet ﷺ was the last one who left Mecca with Hz. Abu Bakr as-Siddiqر. It is a long story, most of you know it. I will only mention when Prophet ﷺ and Hz. Abu Bakr as-Siddiqر were hiding in the cave for 3 days. These 3 days were believed to be a seclusion for them both. This was a meeting place for the souls of all the Naqshbandi sheikhs. Each sheikh came with his murids, and whoever belonged to him, and all took bay’ah from the Prophet ﷺ.

Alhamdulillah, we are on this way and this is very good tidings and great luck from Allah ﷻ that He granted us this. From this point, the Hijri year, as the Islamic calendar, started.

The Arabs always had a 12-month lunar year but they never had an overall calendar. They would count from big events, like a war, or a big event like the year Abraha tried to attack the Ka’aba with the elephants, or the flood when half of the Ka’aba was destroyed. Their history was not consistent.

So after Prophet ﷺ passed away, Hz. Abu Bakrر became khalifa/caliph for 2 years. Then he passed away and Hz. Omar ibn-il Khattabر, with the title of Amir al-Mumineen, became khalifa. This is when they started to register the historical calendar.

The Sahaba who were registering the historical calendar wanted to have dates for it. With the permission of Hazreti Omarر, they made a shura/consultation amongst the Sahaba. They considered starting the calendar from the birth of Prophet ﷺ or from when he ﷺ received prophethood. Finally, they agreed to start the Hijri calendar from when Prophet ﷺ emigrated from Mecca to Madina.

The word Hijri is from hijrah, meaning migration. The Qur’an Karim mentions these 12 months, the Arab/Muslim lunar year.

SubhanAllah, our Islamic calendar is from that day, the migration from Mecca to Madina. We have many holy days in the different months of our calendar, and the 10 days of Muharram are one of them. They are praised days.

Every day that you fast in Muharram it counts as 30 days. To fast for 2 days, the last day of Dhu l-Hijjah tomorrow and the first day of Muharram, day after tomorrow, has a big reward and counts for the forgiveness of sins of 50 years.

It is a Sunnah of Prophet ﷺ.

The Arabs used to fast the first 10 days of Muharram and Prophet ﷺ was also fasting these 10 days until the order came to fast Ramadan. Then he ﷺ left these 10 days of fasting, but if you can, you may fast these 10 days until ‘Ashura, the 10th day of Muharram. If not, you can fast the 9th and 10th of Muharram, it is next, on Tuesday and Wednesday. This has many thawabs.

On the day of ‘Ashura, the Prophet ﷺ saw some of the Sahaba fasting and some not. One of the Sahaba wanted to know what to do, so Prophet ﷺ said to wash the mouth and keep fasting like this until Maghrib time. The Jews too were fasting the day of ‘Ashura because Allah ﷻ split the sea for Hazreti Musa (AS) and saved them from Fir’awn.

Prophet ﷺ said that, “We are closer to Musa (AS) than them, we will fast that day but we don’t like to resemble them so we will fast one more day.” He said if he was to live till the next year he would fast the 9th and the 10th of Muharram. The next year he was not anymore with us.

On the day of ‘Ashura, if you can, fast. If you cannot, at least celebrate the day because Allah ﷻ rewarded so many prophets on the day of ‘Ashura. On this day Allah ﷻ forgave Hazreti Adam (AS). On this day Hazreti Nuh’s (AS) Ark was made to land on the Judi and the flood was stopped. On Ashura Day, Allah ﷻ saved Hazreti Ibrahim (AS) from the fire and chose him as khalil, His close friend. Hazreti Isa (AS) was raised to heaven and Prophet ﷺ was granted many things. One of them was his marriage to Hazreti Khadija ر, his first wife, the mother of his ﷺ children.

We celebrate these days in many ways. We make some sweets in honour of Hazreti Nuh (AS). When he landed, he had so many small, small things left over from the provisions he kept on the Ark to feed people and the animals, so he put them together and made a feast and thanked Allah ﷻ that they were saved.

InshaAllah, Allah ﷻ make us safe from this bad illness and keep it away from us. We have to make du’a that Hazreti Mahdi (AS) comes, and InshaAllah the situation of the world is much better in his time.

Wa min Allahi at-taufiq.

Al-Fatiha.

• Hjh Rukiye Sultan

07 August 2021/ 28 Dhuʻl-Hijjah 1442 AH

To learn more about the month of Muharram and the day of Ashura, please click here.