Islamic Date Today (Hijri Date)

Last checked: 23 October 2026. How this page calculates: your browser's built-in Umm al-Qura calendar (the Unicode ICU library, which ships with Chrome, Safari, Firefox and Edge) converts today's date in your time zone. We cross-checked it against moment-hijri, the library inside the Niyyara app, for every single day from June 2026 to May 2028: 722 days, zero differences.

How to read the Islamic date today

The date above has three parts: the day of the Islamic month, the month name, and the year AH (Anno Hegirae, "in the year of the Hijra"). For example, 23 October 2026 is 12 Jumada al-Ula 1448 AH: the twelfth day of the fifth month of the year 1448.

Two details trip people up:

• The Islamic day begins at sunset. In Islamic law, the night belongs to the day that follows it. So after Maghrib on a Thursday, it is already the night of Friday, and after Maghrib on 29 Shaʿban it may already be the first night of Ramadan. Calendars like this one, and the dates printed on documents, show the daytime date. If you need to know "which night is it", count the evening as the next Islamic day.
• Months have 29 or 30 days. A lunar month is about 29.5 days long, so Islamic months alternate unpredictably between 29 and 30 days. A Hijri year is 354 or 355 days, about 11 days shorter than the Gregorian year, which is why Ramadan and Eid move earlier every year.

Why your mosque's date may differ by a day

The Umm al-Qura calendar is calculated: a new month begins when, at Makkah, the conjunction of the sun and moon happens before sunset and the moon sets after the sun. It is a precise, published rule, which is why Saudi Arabia uses it for civil and administrative dates.

But many Muslims begin months by sighting the new crescent, following the hadith "Start fasting on seeing it and stop fasting on seeing it, and if the sky is overcast, complete thirty days" (Sahih al-Bukhari 1909). A crescent that the Umm al-Qura rule counts may be too young to see, so sighting-based calendars often start a month a day later. In some places, local sightings or local calculations can also put the date a day earlier.

So the honest answer to "what is the Islamic date today?" is: the date above, give or take one day where you live. For daily life that rarely matters. For the start of Ramadan, Eid and the day of ʿArafah, follow your mosque or national authority.

The 12 Islamic months

The meanings of the month names are the explanations commonly given by Arabic lexicographers; they describe pre-Islamic Arabia and are not religious rulings. The four sacred months are fixed by the Quran, "the number of months with Allah is twelve ... of these, four are sacred" (Quran 9:36), and named by the Prophet ﷺ: "three in succession, Dhul Qaʿdah, Dhul Hijjah and Muharram, and Rajab of Mudar, which comes between Jumada and Shaʿban" (Sahih al-Bukhari 3197). The Prophet ﷺ said "there is no ... Safar" (Sahih al-Bukhari 5717), which many scholars explain as rejecting the pre-Islamic belief that the month of Safar brings misfortune.

Key Islamic dates in 1448 AH (2026 to 2027)

Umm al-Qura dates. Days of worship tied to sighting, especially Ramadan, Eid and ʿArafah, may fall a day later where you live.

For Ramadan and Eid in 2027 the newspapers and astronomers we checked expect the same dates, with Eid al-Fitr on 9 or 10 March depending on the sighting; see our full Ramadan 2027 guide. Fasting the day of ʿArafah "expiates the sins of the previous year and the coming year", and fasting ʿAshura "expiates the sins of the previous year" (Sahih Muslim 1162).

Where the Hijri calendar comes from

The Islamic era counts from the Hijra, the Prophet's ﷺ migration from Makkah to Madinah. The calendar as a numbered era was adopted around the year 17 AH (about 638 CE) in the caliphate of ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, when official letters needed dates. The companions chose the Hijra as year one, and Muharram as the first month. In the fixed tabular calendar, 1 Muharram 1 AH corresponds to Friday 16 July 622 CE.

The months themselves are much older: they are the lunar months the Arabs already used. What Islam changed was to forbid intercalation (adding a month to keep the calendar in step with the seasons), which is why Islamic months travel through all the seasons over a cycle of about 33 years. The Quran calls the practice of postponing sacred months "an increase in disbelief" (Quran 9:37).

Umm al-Qura, tabular or sighting: which calendar is "correct"?

There are three kinds of Hijri calendar in common use, and it helps to know which one you are looking at:

For worship that depends on the month, such as starting Ramadan, scholars generally tie the date to sighting, following the hadith, while some institutions accept calculation; both positions have scholarly backing, as we explain in why Ramadan dates differ. For everyday dating, Umm al-Qura is the most widely used published calendar, which is why we use it here.

Using the converter

The converter under today's date turns any Gregorian date into its Umm al-Qura Hijri date. A few practical uses:

• Your birthday in the Hijri calendar. Enter your date of birth to find your Hijri birth date. Remember the Islamic day starts at sunset, so if you were born after Maghrib, the Islamic date was already the next day.
• Planning around Ramadan and Hajj. Enter a date in early 2027 to see where it falls relative to Ramadan, or a date in May 2027 for Dhul Hijjah.
• Old documents. Saudi and Gulf documents often carry Umm al-Qura dates. For dates far in the past, remember that historical documents may have used sighting or the tabular calendar, so a one or two day difference is normal.

Put the Islamic date on your own website

If you run a mosque or community website, our free prayer times widget shows the day's prayer times for your location with one line of code, without ads or tracking. It is the same calculation engine as the app.