Rabiʽ al-Thani (, also known as Rabi' al-Akhirah (), Rabi al-Akhir (), or Rabi' II is the fourth month of the

Islamic calendar The Hijri calendar (), also known in English as the Islamic calendar, is a lunar calendar consisting of 12 lunar months in a year of 354 or 355 days. It is used to determine the proper days of Islamic holidays and rituals, such as the Ramad ...

. The name ''Rabī' al-Thani'' means "the second spring" in

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

, referring to its position in the

pre-Islamic Arabia Pre-Islamic Arabia is the Arabian Peninsula and its northern extension in the Syrian Desert before the rise of Islam. This is consistent with how contemporaries used the term ''Arabia'' or where they said Arabs lived, which was not limited to the ...

n calendar.

Meaning

The word "Rabi" means " spring" and Al-thani means "the second" in the

Arabic language Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

, so "Rabi' al-Thani" means "the second spring" in

. As the Islamic calendar is a purely

lunar calendar A lunar calendar is a calendar based on the monthly cycles of the Moon's phases ( synodic months, lunations), in contrast to solar calendars, whose annual cycles are based on the solar year, and lunisolar calendars, whose lunar months are br ...

, the month naturally rotates over solar years, so Rabīʽ al-Thani can fall in spring or any other season. Therefore, the month cannot be related to the actual season of spring.

Timing

The

is a purely

, and months begin when the first crescent of a new moon is sighted. Since the Islamic lunar year is 11 to 12 days shorter than the

tropical year A tropical year or solar year (or tropical period) is the time that the Sun takes to return to the same position in the sky – as viewed from the Earth or another celestial body of the Solar System – thus completing a full cycle of astronom ...

, Rabī' al-Thānī migrates throughout the seasons. The estimated start and end dates for Rabī' al-Thānī are as follows (based on the Umm al-Qura calendar of Saudi Arabia):

Islamic events

* 08 or 10 Rabī' al-Thānī, the birth of the Eleventh Imam Hasan al-Askari * 10 or 12 Rabī' al-Thānī, death of Fatimah bint Musa * 11 of Rabī' al-Thānī, death of Abdul-Qadir Gilani, the Sufi sheikh who is believed to be the "saint of saints" *15 of Rabi' al-Thani, death of Habib Abu Bakr al-Haddad *27 of Rabi' al-Thani, death of Ahmad Sirhindi * 28 or 29 of Rabī' al-Thānī, death of

ibn Arabi Ibn Arabi (July 1165–November 1240) was an Andalusian Sunni Sunni Islam is the largest branch of Islam and the largest religious denomination in the world. It holds that Muhammad did not appoint any successor and that his closest com ...

, the great philosopher from Spain who died and rests in

Damascus Damascus ( , ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in the Levant region by population, largest city of Syria. It is the oldest capital in the world and, according to some, the fourth Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. Kno ...

, Syria.

References

External links

Islamic-Western Calendar Converter (Based on the Arithmetical or Tabular Calendar)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rabi' Al-Thani 4 Islamic terminology