ISLAMIC NEW YEAR 1443 / AL-HIJRA/RA’S UL ‘AM (Muharram 1)

26th June 2025

Muslim

Al Hijra marks the celebration of the Islamic New Year’s Day. It is a low-key event in the Muslim world, celebrated less than the two major celebrations, Eid ul-Fitr and Eid ul-Adha. The day commemorates the Hijra or migration of the Prophet Muhammad from Makkah to Medina in 622 CE, which led to the establishment of the Muslim community there. It is not universally celebrated amongst Sunni Muslims but is notable since Muslim years are dated from this time and are marked AH (Anno Hegirae – the year of the Hijrah) or After the Hijrah. In 2021 CE the Muslim year 1443 AH begins.

In the year 622 CE the Prophet Muhammad and a number of his followers moved from Makkah/Mecca to the city of Medina and set up the first Islamic state there. Their arrival marked the beginning of Islam as a community in which spiritual and earthly life were completely integrated. They were a group inspired by and totally obedient to God, bound together by religious faith. By breaking the link with his own tribe the Prophet demonstrated that tribal and family loyalties were insignificant compared to the bonds of Islam.

For some Muslim communities this is a day of celebration at the mosque, where stories are told of the Prophet and his Companions. There are no special religious rituals required at this time but a special prayer service is normally held in the mosque and afterwards people wish one another a happy New Year. On this day Muslims think about the meaning of the Hijra and regard this as a good time for new year resolutions, relating to their following of the example of the Prophet.

For the Shi‘a community the more important significance of the New year is that this is the first day of a period of fasting, mourning and remembrance, leading up to the commemoration of the martyrdom of Imam Husayn and his companions on the Day of Ashura.

Muslims who migrated to Medina in support of the Prophet were called muhajirun (emigrants). Many of them became known as the ‘Companions of the Prophet’. Muhammad praised them highly for having forsaken their native city to follow him and promised that God would favour them. They remained a separate and greatly esteemed group in the Muslim community, honoured both in Makkah and in Medina, and assumed leadership of the Muslim state, through the caliphate, after Muhammad’s death.

As a result of the Hijrah, Muhammad paired many of the muhajirun with members of another distinct body of Muslims who had come into being, the ansar (helpers); they were people of Medinah who welcomed and aided Muhammad and the muhajirun. The ansar were members of the two major feuding tribes of Medinah whom Muhammad had been invited to Medinah to reconcile while he was still a rising figure in Makkah. In time they came to be some of his most devoted supporters.

The significance of Al Hijra for Sunni Muslims relates to their committing themselves to a spiritual form of migration – journeying out of a way of life mired in the worldly affairs of this existence – and disciplining themselves to ensure their fitness for their journey to the next life (akhira). To achieve this result they seek to emulate the mindset the Companions of the Prophet possessed when they performed their original migration (the hijra from Makkah to Medina), a journey undertaken in obedience to Allah’s wishes.