Note: This is original study material in plain English. For exact miqaat dates each year, follow the official community calendar (taqwim) and your local jamaat announcements.
A lunar calendar
The Islamic calendar is lunar: a year is twelve months, each tied to the cycle of the moon, so a Hijri year is about eleven days shorter than the Gregorian year. This is why miqaats appear to “move earlier” each year against the English calendar. The era counts from the Hijra, the migration of Rasulullah (SAW) from Makkah to Madina.
The twelve Hijri months
In order, the months are:
- Moharram al-Haram
- Safar al-Muzaffar
- Rabi al-Awwal
- Rabi al-Akhar
- Jumada al-Ula
- Jumada al-Ukhra
- Rajab al-Asab
- Shabaan al-Karim
- Ramadan al-Moazzam
- Shawwal al-Mukarram
- Zilqadah al-Haram
- Zilhaj al-Haram
Each month carries its own significance and its own miqaats.
What a miqaat is
A miqaat is a marked occasion in the community calendar — a day of religious significance gathered around in jamaat. Miqaats fall into a few broad kinds:
- Eids — the two great festivals, Eid ul-Fitr (1st of Shawwal, marking the end of Ramadan’s fasting) and Eid ul-Adha / Eid ul-Zuha (10th of Zilhaj, the day of qurbani during the Hajj season). There is also Eid-e-Ghadeer.
- Milad — a day of birth, most notably Milad un-Nabi (the birth of Rasulullah SAW) and the Milad of the Dai of the time.
- Shahadat — a day of martyrdom, above all the shahadat of Imam Husain (AS) on the 10th of Moharram.
- Urs — the anniversary of the passing (wafat) of a Dai, an Imam, or a great figure of the dawat. An Urs is observed with majlis, recitation, and remembrance of that person’s life and teachings.
Ashara Mubaraka and Ramadan
Two stretches of the calendar dominate the devotional year. Ashara Mubaraka is the first ten days of Moharram, given to the remembrance of Imam Husain (AS) and the events of Karbala (see the separate article). Shahrullah al-Moazzam, the month of Ramadan, is the month of fasting from sehri to iftar, of increased ibadat, and of the nights of Laylat al-Qadr.
Moon-sighting versus a fixed calendar
Many Muslim communities begin each month only when the new crescent (hilal) is physically sighted, which means a month’s start can shift by a day depending on weather and location. The Dawoodi Bohra community follows a fixed, pre-calculated calendar based on astronomical computation rather than waiting for a local sighting.
The practical advantages are large: every Bohra worldwide begins Ramadan, celebrates Eid, and observes each miqaat on the same day, and the dates are known years in advance. A Bohra can look up next year’s Ashara, or the date of an Urs a decade away, with certainty. This shared, calculated taqwim is one of the things that keeps the global community moving in step.
Upcoming miqaats and a full month-by-month calendar are available in the Miqaat section of the app.