*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*
{ Sila lawat Laman Hizbi-Net - http://www.hizbi.net }
{ Hantarkan mesej anda ke: [EMAIL PROTECTED] }
{ Iklan barangan? Hantarkan ke [EMAIL PROTECTED] }
*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*
Undilah PAS : MENENTANG KEZALIMAN & MENEGAKKAN KEADILAN
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Assalaamu'alaikum
Understanding The Islamic Calendar and Others
The Islamic Calendar, is as old as Islam. It dates back to the oldest known
civilization. God in the Quran tells us that , our religion, Islam, is the
oldest and same religion known to mankind. All God's prophets and messengers
came with the same message of Islam, to submit to the One and only God.
"The only religion approved by God is Islam, those who received the
scripture are the ones who dispute this fact, despite the knowledge they
have received, due to jealousy. For such rejectors of God's revelation, God
is most strict in reckoning." [3:19 ]
Adam, has to be the first submitter, being the first human being, was
ordered to submit to the One and only God, and when he sinned, the Most
Merciful gave him the key for repentance. Reviewing the history of calendars
show that , when God created the universe, He created the Lunar and Solar
calendar. In the Quran in 9:36, we read;
"The count of months, as far as God is concerned, is twelve. This has been
God's law since the day He created the heavens and the earth. Four of them
are sacred....." [9:36]
It might be interesting to know that God used the word MONTH 12 times
throughout the whole Quran and the word DAY 365 times throughout the whole
Quran. No-coincidence, is the relationship here to the solar year. In Surah
Al-Kahfi, in the story of the people of the cave, God told us that they
stayed in their cave three hundred years, increased by nine (18:25). It
turns to be that three hundred solar years are equal to 309 lunar years.
Another no-coincidence where God is using the solar system and the lunar
system combined, in the Quran.
HISTORICAL REVIEW :
Historians have been talking about the calendars as a creation of man,
completely ignoring the reasons behind the perfect system in the sky that
enabled man to mark his days, weeks, months and years. They missed the fact
that the calendars are a deliberate design of the One and ONLY Creator, God
Almighty, the Most Gracious the Omniscient the Cognizant.
Throughout the existence of mankind, people have been aware of the special
rhythms of the sun and the moon. The rudiments of a calendric system may
have been constructed as long ago as 2000 BC, when stone alignments were
used, it is believed, to determine the length of the solar year by marking
the progress of the Sun along the horizon.
Centuries after the Quran came with the notion that the sun and the moon are
moving in a measurable orbit, did the astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus
(1473-1543) came up with the idea that, the sun stood still, and the earth
was one of a group of heavenly bodies moving around it, and that as the
earth moved in a measurable orbit around the sun, the moon traveled around
the earth in its own measurable path. See Quran, 55:5, 36:38-39, 10:5, 31:29
and 39:5
ANCIENT CALENDARS
The ancient Sumerians devised the first known lunar calendar about 5,000
years ago. The Moon's phases occur over an easily observed interval, the
month; religious authorities declared a month to have begun when they first
saw the new crescent Moon. During cloudy weather, when it was impossible to
see the Moon, the beginning of the month was determined by calculation. The
interval from new moon to new moon, called a synodic month, is about 29.53
days. Hence, calendar months contained either 29 or 30 days. Twelve lunar
months, which total 354.36 days, form a lunar year, almost 11 days shorter
than a tropical (solar) year. Later Babylonians divided months into weeks
and a week into 7 days. The Jews, once captive in Babylonia, used the
Babylonian 7-day week, as did the sun-worshipping Egyptians, who developed a
52 week solar calendar based on the 7-day week.
A lunar year is not suitable for agricultural purposes. To keep in step with
the Sun, lunar-solar calendars were formed by adding an additional (leap)
month when the observation of crops made it seem necessary. Hundreds of such
calendars, with variations, were formed at various times in such different
areas as Mesopotamia, Greece, Rome, India, and China.
Romans, during the late republic, used various lunar-solar calendars. These
calendars were supposedly based only on observation, but in fact they were
influenced by political considerations. The Roman calendar was in error by
several months during the reign of Julius Caesar, who recognized the need
for a stable, predictable calendar and formed one with the help of an
astronomer, Sosigenes. The year 46 BC was given 445 days, to compensate for
past errors, and every common year thereafter was to have 365 days. Every
fourth year, starting with 45 BC, was to be designated a leap year of 366
days, during which February, which commonly had 28 days, was extended by one
day. The rule was not correctly applied, but the calendar was corrected by
Augustus Caesar by AD 8.
GREGORIAN CALENDAR
The Julian leap-year rule created 3 leap years too many in every period of
385 years. As a result, the actual occurrence of the equinoxes and solstices
drifted away from their assigned calendar dates. As the date of the spring
equinox determines that of Easter, the church was concerned, and Pope
Gregory XIII introduced what is now called the Gregorian calendar.
Wednesday, Oct. 4, 1582 (Julian), was followed by Thursday, Oct. 15, 1582
(Gregorian); leap years occur in years exactly divisible by four, except
that years ending in 00 must be divisible by 400 to be leap years. Thus,
1600, 1984, and 2000 are leap years, but 1800 and 1900 are not.
The Gregorian civil calendar is a solar calendar, calculated without
reference to the Moon. However, the Gregorian calendar also includes rules
for determining the date of Easter and other religious holidays, which are
based on both the Sun and the Moon. The Gregorian calendar was quickly
adopted by Roman Catholic countries. Other countries adopted it later,
sometimes choosing only the civil part. It was not adopted by the Soviet
Union until 1918; Turkey did not adopt it until 1927.
YEAR BEGINNING
The year used to begin at different times in different localities. The Roman
year began in March. December, whose name is derived from the Latin word for
"ten," was the tenth month of the year. In 153 BC, Roman consuls began
taking office on January 1, which became the beginning of the year. This
practice was retained in the Julian and Gregorian calendars, although other
starting dates continued to be used; England and its colonies, for example,
used March 25 and the Julian reckoning until 1752. Thus, George Washington
was officially born on Feb. 11, 1731, Old Style (O.S.); this is Feb. 22,
1732, Gregorian, or New Style (N.S.).
WEEK
The Babylonians used a nonastronomical, 7-day interval, the week, which was
adopted by the Jews. The seventh day, the Sabbath, was given a religious
significance. Independently, the Romans associated a cycle of 7 days with
the Sun, the Moon, and the five known planets. Their names became attached
to the days of the week: Sunday (dies solis, "Sun's day"), Monday (dies
lunae, "Moon's day"), and Saturday (dies Saturni, "Saturn's day") retain
their names derived directly from the Roman culture, and Tuesday ("Tiw's
day"), Wednesday ("Woden's day"), Thursday ("Thor's day"), and Friday
("Frigg's day") are derived from the Germanic equivalents of Mars, Mercury,
Jupiter, and Venus, respectively.
YEAR
In ancient calendars, years were generally numbered according to the year of
a ruler's reign. About AD 525, a monk named Dionysius Exiguus suggested that
years be counted from the birth of Christ, which was designated AD (anno
Domini, "the year of the Lord") 1. This proposal came to be adopted
throughout Christendom during the next 500 years.
The year before AD 1 is designated 1 BC (before Christ). Dionysius had
referred the year of Christ's birth to other eras. Modern chronology,
however, places the event at about 4 BC. The 1st century of the Christian
Era began in AD 1, the 2d in AD 101; the 21st will begin in 2001.
THE HEBREW CALENDAR
The Hebrew calendar in use today begins at the Creation, which the Jewish
scholars calculated to have occurred 3,760 years before the Christian era.
The week consists of 7 days, beginning with Saturday, the Sabbath; the year
consists of 12 lunar months--Tishri, Heshvan, Kislav, Tebet, Shebat, Adar,
Nisan, Iyar, Sivan, Tammuz, Ab, and Elul--which are alternately 29 and 30
days long. Because a year is some 11 days longer than 12 lunar months, a
13th month ve-Adar, is added seven times during every 19-year cycle
THE ISLAMIC CALENDAR (HIJRA CALENDAR)
The Islamic Calendar began at the day and year (July 16, 622, by the
Gregorian calendar) when the Prophet Muhammed emigrated from Mecca to
Medina. There are 12 lunar months of alternate 30 and 29 days, making the
year 354 days long. The months are Muharram, Safar, Rabi'ul-Awal,
Rabi'ul-Akhir, Jamadil-Awal, Jamadil-Akhir, Rajab, Sha'ban, Ramadhan,
Shawwal, Zulkaedah, and Zulhijjah.
The Islamic calendar divides times into cycles 30 years long. During each
cycle, 19 years have the regular 354 days, and 11 years have an extra day
each. Notice that number 19 is mentioned in verse 30 in the Quran in Sura 74
(7+4=11), so 19, 30, 74 (7+4=11) are all there in the solar system designed
by the same God who put number 19 in verse 30 of sura 74. It is also
interesting to know that the sun, the moon and the earth all align in the
same relative position once every 19 years.
The Islamic day as we can now appreciate is the same day used by the oldest
civilization, the same as the Hebrew day. It begins at sunset and ends at
the next sunset. Evening marked the beginning of the new day. In the Quran,
God always mentions the night before the day. "And He is the One who created
the night and the day, and the sun and the moon; each floating in its own
orbit. " 21:33
HOW TO CALCULATE THE NEW ISLAMIC MONTH
To calculate when a new lunar month begins we need to know two facts, the
first is the exact time of the birth of the new moon, and the second fact is
the exact time of the sunset of the same day. The new lunar month begins
theoretically at the birth of the new moon, but begins practically at the
first sunset to follow the birth of the new moon. God already gave us enough
knowledge to calculate the beginning of the first day of Ramadan for the
next hundreds of years. Sighting of the moon, to determine the new Islamic
month, is an invention by the scholars that they took after the Jewish
Rabbis who insist on sighting of the moon for their Jewish Lunar months.
Sighting of the moon is not in the Quran, but was a way of recognizing the
beginning of the lunar month for those who lived in the desert and have no
other means to recognize the beginning of the new month. God in the Quran
reminds us that the phases of the moon are only a tool to calculate the
calendar and the time for Hajj, see 2:189. God never said in the Quran that
sighting of the crescent moon is a requirement to determine the beginning of
the new lunar month.
God is all Omniscient, Knower of everything, He knows that different
generations will have different means of calculating the time of the birth
of the new moon. God left it open, not because He forgot, God does not
forget, (19:64), but He left it open, out of His mercy so we do it our way
in our time. Now, with all the knowledge we have, we cannot sit still
knowing that the month has already started and wait for someone to go look
for the crescent moon that may or may not be visible because of many
factors, the most common of them is the weather condition. It is time to
believe God in His own Book and realize that God meant it when He said that
His Book, the Quran, is complete, perfect and fully detailed. And that it
has the details and explanations of everything we need for our salvation.
"The day will come when we will raise from every community a witness from
among them, and bring you as the witness of these people. We have revealed
to you this book to provide EXPLANATIONS FOR EVERYTHING, and guidance, and
mercy and good news for the submitters." [16:89]
"In their history, there is a lesson for those who possess intelligence.
This is not fabricated word; this (Quran) confirms all previous scriptures,
provides the DETAILS of EVERYTHING, and is a beacon and mercy for those who
BELIEVE." [12:111]
>From: "snash" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Reply-To: "snash" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>To: "Nuar" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: Re: H-Net* (Fwd) Febuary 2000 !
>Date: Wed, 13 Oct 1999 11:22:14 +0800
>
~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>Tiada sesiapa terfikirkah bagaimana kalau jadinya Januari itu ada 32 hari,
>March 31 atau 32 hari. Bagaimana hari-hari ini boleh ditentukan dengan
>mengukur matahari - jawapannya hanya dapat ditentukan apabila satu tahun
>itu
>tamat.
>
>Cuba dikira semula dengan menggunakan taqwim Islam - jawapan akan ditemui
>dalam satu bulan sebab kitaran yang digunakan untuk satu bulan adalah
>pusingan bulan mengelilingi bumi.
>
>Bagaimana pula cuba kita kira apakah satu hari itu sama dengan 24 jam?
>Kadang-kadang spring dalam jam kita sendiri tercepat satu dua saat.
>
>Ahli fizik/astronomi tentu tahu tentang hal ini. Saya dah tinggal subject
>ni
>dekat 15 tahun.
>
>Hanya fikir-fikir.
>
______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
( Melanggan ? To : [EMAIL PROTECTED] pada body : SUBSCRIBE HIZB)
( Berhenti ? To : [EMAIL PROTECTED] pada body: UNSUBSCRIBE HIZB)
( Segala pendapat yang dikemukakan tidak menggambarkan )
( pandangan rasmi & bukan tanggungjawab HIZBI-Net )
( Bermasalah? Sila hubungi [EMAIL PROTECTED] )
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Pengirim: "Abu Alifa" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
